New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday responded to President Trump’s potential targeting of the state as part of his cashless bail crackdown.
Mr. Trump, however, didn’t appear ready to let up.
“The president is wrong. He is flat-out wrong”
Hochul put on her sunglasses and strode to a podium in Harlem, ready to defend New York against threats of a possible incursion from the White House, ordered by a president who even at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday said, “In New York, it’s out of control.”
“The president is wrong. He is flat-out wrong,” Hochul said.
The governor said she told Mr. Trump on Saturday that crime is down and New York City is one of the safest cities in country.
“I was very gracious. I just said, ‘I’ll tell you what, Mr. President, if I think I need help from the National Guard beyond what I’m already doing, I know where to find you,'” Hochul said.
CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer asked the governor why she thinks the president keeps citing New York as an example.
“Oh, I think he’s going after blue states, Democratic states, states with Democratic governors, states of Democratic mayors. It’s just part of a larger strategy to create chaos,” Hochul said.
“I’ll tell you what, he wants to do something useful. Let’s look at the crime rates in Houston, in Dallas, in Miami,” Hochul added. “Let’s start with your friends, the red state governors and red state mayors who seem to be failing at their jobs because their crime rate is higher. This is still the safest big city in America today.”
NYC is a cashless bail “disaster,” Mr. Trump says
Nonetheless, the back and forth, which began when the president put New York on a list of cities that could lose federal funds because of its cashless bail laws, continued unabated.
“Cashless bail was a disaster when they did that and I believe it was instituted first in New York, but when they did cashless bail, that was a tragedy,” Mr. Trump said. “Cashless bail has been, you know, it’s just a woke thing. It’s got to stop.”
At his cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president said Chicago will be the next city up to get the National Guard, joining Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“We will stop that problem in Chicago in two months, maybe less. Two months, we’ll stop it. These are tough cookies we have working for us,” Mr. Trump said.
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