Kathy Hochul is a red-hot hypocrite.
Our governor has chosen to pander to the far-left flank of her party and throw her support behind Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
On Sunday night, Hochul took to X to share her New York Times op-ed endorsing him, writing, “New York City deserves a mayor who will stand up to Donald Trump and make life more affordable for New Yorkers.”
She couldn’t have framed it in a more grotesque way — local elections have turned into all Trump, all the time.
But this great city deserves a mayor who promises to fight for New Yorkers, not someone sitting in City Hall so they can jostle with other Dem influencers to become the resistance darling du jour.
I’m looking for a mayor who will fix the MTA, make the streets safe, help solve housing shortages and keep jobs here.
In fact, with the exception of her and Mamdani’s shared fantasy of landing a few punches on Trump’s chin, the guv offered no specifics on why she suddenly thinks socialism will make our bastion of capitalism a better place.
She’s right that we deserve someone who will make the city affordable. But by that notion, Mamdani’s policies — free buses, city-run grocery stores, rent freezes and replacing the NYPD with pricey mental-health teams — disqualify him outright.
Maybe if you say the word “affordability” enough, a fairy will emerge with her magic price-slasher to roll back the cost of living to 2007?
Over the last two months, Hochul, along with Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, have resisted supporting their party’s candidate over clear differences on Israel and Mamdani’s open embrace of out-there economic and social policies.
And I saw in the governor, for once, a semblance of a spine in progress.
But what little backbone she showed then has collapsed under the weight of her very foolish endorsement.
Not that Hochul has ever been burdened by conviction. She is an empty vessel whose North Star has always been the approval of her party overlords.
“Some will say Mr. Mamdani and I are unlikely allies: a mom governor from Buffalo and a 33-year-old assemblyman from Queens,” she wrote in the Times. “To me, that’s the beauty of this moment. What New Yorkers deserve right now is not grievances or grudges, but steely resolve to fight like hell.”
In his very short political career as an absentee State Assemblyman, Mamdani has fought to decriminalize prostitution — something that should be at the top of every mom’s list.
He’s fought to defund the police, calling the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” in a 2020 tweet. (He’s since backtracked on that.)
He’s fighting to empty prisons and, until recently, fought very hard against condemning the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.”
That’s hardly a comfort for a city that has the largest population of Jews outside of Israel. Speaking of Israel, Mamdani said he’d arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he arrived here.
Can you guys smell the affordability in the air?
Instead of hiring more cops, he wants to outsource mental health emergencies to a street team of civilians.
As even the New York Times pointed out, using mental health teams instead of cops hasn’t worked here — and his plan would cost $1.1 billion.
All of this would be paid for by raising taxes on the highest earners, whose money keeps the city running. Who surely won’t leave for more hospitable financial conditions, right?
Never mind that Hochul, who is apparently a master of irony, has said tax increases are a non-starter. Oops.
Hochul has said she “emphasized to [Mamdani] my belief in keeping and attracting businesses so that New York remains the center of the global economy and we create even more good-paying jobs for our residents.”
In fact, she emphasized all the things she believes in — and next to nothing about his beliefs.
Mamdani is a talented communicator who has put a cheerful spin on dangerous socialist policies.
But he is a radical with absolutely zero experience running anything.
By wrapping her arms around him, Hochul has rubber-stamped the lefty progressive takeover of her party. And the destruction of a healthy Big Apple.
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