Kathy Hochul Asked If She Has 'Confidence' In NYC Mayor Adams Amid Trump Administration Job Offers

During a press briefing on Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY)

Transcript

00:00Governor, in February, you took credit for cleaning house at City Hall when the mayor's

00:11indictment was dismissed. I think you remember that time. Fast forward to today, the mayor

00:20is allegedly being offered a job in the Trump administration. How can you reassure New Yorkers

00:25that the mayor of New York City is not corrupted, is not playing into Trump's hand at this point?

00:33Current or future, mayor? I don't know. How do I know he's not? There's very disturbing signs

00:45about Donald Trump trying to influence our democratic institutions and indeed an election

00:52in the city of New York. I find that abhorrent to even contemplate that there could be deals made

00:58that would subvert the will of the people or to try to foster a different outcome.

01:05And no one should be allowed to play into that dynamic. That is deeply disturbing on many fronts.

01:12And I've called it out before. I'll continue to call it out. But beneficiaries of arrangements

01:19like this are also tainted because they must also see that there's an effort for by the president

01:27to exert influence even beyond the election, which is something I will always stand up and

01:32fight like hell against. The president will have no influence on what we do in our city or state

01:38government. Full stop.

01:40With that said, how do you still have confidence in Mayor Adams to remain in office?

01:43My job is to focus on what people are talking about, ways that I can continue on public safety,

01:49working together to drive down crime on our streets and our subway. That's what people are

01:53worried about. They're also worried about affordability. And I point to the fact that

01:56the numbers just came out today, that groceries are up dramatically. Inflation is soaring and people

02:02are hurting. So I will continue working with this mayor or any future mayors to focus on what

02:08people care about, which is they want government fighting back and saying, we don't want cuts in

02:12health care. We don't want cuts in nutrition programs. We don't want to have cuts in public

02:16safety programs. And what can you do to stop these insane tariffs that are jacking up the price of

02:22everything from milk to coffee? Coffee's up 20 percent. I'm a tea drinker, but a lot of friends

02:33in my world are coffee drinkers. They have to drink a lot of coffee to keep up with me. So this is a

02:37concern to me. So no, I don't mean to be facetious about it, but real lives are being affected every

02:43day by what's happening in Washington. I will not let that permeate how we do business here in the

02:49state. And I'm going to be watching very closely to make sure it does not happen in the city of New

02:53York either. Thanks, everybody.