Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke with President Trump about his threat to send the National Guard to New York, she revealed Tuesday.
The phone conversation unfolded “a couple of days ago,” but left Hochul with little clue whether the Big Apple will see the military on the streets like in Washington, DC, the governor said during an unrelated event in Harlem.
“I don’t know what he’ll do,” she said as she shrugged.
Trump deployed the National Guard in the nation’s capital to crackdown on rampant crime, although many critics have argued his claims are overblown.
Hochul, who herself has deployed the state’s National Guard in the Big Apple’s subway system, said she gently tried to dissuade Trump from pulling a similar military move.
“I was very gracious,” she said. “I just said, ‘I’ll tell you what, Mr. President, if I think I need help from the National Guard on the stuff I’m already doing I know where to find them.’
“I had that conversation, I said, ‘Mr. President, I can give you all the data to show that crime is down. It’s working. Our policies are working. NYPD is doing their job.’”
The governor also ripped Trump’s executive order aiming to stop cashless bail – a directive seemingly targeting New York.
She contended the order wouldn’t apply to the Empire State – which has largely eliminated cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies.
Murder, rape and robbery, along with a slew of other violent, sexual and grievous felonies are bail eligible, despite the state’s controversial 2019 bail reforms signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The president is wrong. He’s flat out wrong,” Hochul argued. “We don’t have cashless bail in. New York.”
“He has no concept of how our laws work here… He’s just trying to throw gasoline on a fire,” she said. “I think he’s going after blue states, Democratic states, states with Democratic governors, states with Democratic mayors. It’s just part of a larger strategy to create chaos.”
