Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Participates in a Fireside Chat at Politico Summit in Albany

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Participates in a Fireside Chat at Politico Summit in Albany

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul sat down with Politico's Albany Bureau Chief Nick Reisman for a fireside Q&A at the Politico New York Agenda: Albany Summit to discuss the work that is being done in Albany, how the 2026 agenda is taking shape and what's to come for New York.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Nick Reisman, Politico: Just to reintroduce myself, I'm Nick Reisman. I'm the Albany Bureau Chief here for Politico, and I'm really, really pleased to be joined by Governor Kathy Hochul now. So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I do want to start with probably the issue that a lot of New Yorkers are really thinking about and talking about right now - and did the Bills give up too much for DJ Moore?

Governor Hochul: Yeah. I'd rather go to the more positive story - I think the Sabres are doing very well.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Yes.

Governor Hochul: I like the streak they're on and I'm going to stick with what the prophet who tweeted back in 2018 said, which was, the Sabres will win the Stanley Cup in '26 and the Bills will win the Super Bowl in '27. So that has kept me going for years.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Buffalo's going to need a Canyon of Heroes.

Governor Hochul: Yeah.

Nick Reisman, Politico: So yeah, it would have to be a ticker-tape parade in Buffalo. I do want to actually stick with sports because this is a preoccupation of mine, I'm fascinated by this more and more. Are you excited about the World Cup?

Governor Hochul: Yes. Yes. I just had another briefing on it this morning. Our security briefing, which is really important given the heightened security that's going to be required with bringing the world to New York. But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are going to make sure that our fans feel like they're part of it. We have - I've just authorized - these fan fests, these free viewing opportunities in the Hudson Valley and Long Island. We have half a million dollars to support local communities who want to do this.

But also just to keep the magic going…I'm a soccer mom. My kids played soccer. They were on the same team. And we are putting $5 million toward building more soccer fields around the state and we'll probably enhance that some more.

So we are just thrilled to be - I know it's the Meadowlands, which maybe someday I'll annex and make that part of New York so we can have our football teams play back home.

Nick Reisman, Politico: That's right. Tell that to the Jets and the Giants.

Governor Hochul: No, I think they would like to come home.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Right.

Governor Hochul: They'll be New Yorkers. They don't like to share that with - they don't like the whole Buffalo Bills New York team thing that bothers them. So I think I've got a long term strategy.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Are we - you talked about the security briefing and all that - are we prepared though, is New York prepared for just the sheer number of tourism that is going to be generated as a result of this and the hotel space, the event space, and also the transportation?

Governor Hochul: The transportation, yes. We have teams who have been working for a long time to sort out all the challenges and to look at what has happened in other cities and how you find out what went wrong, what you need to do right. And so, we're taking it very seriously. This is not something we're thinking about on March of '26. It has been talked about ever since we knew that we were going to be the place for the world to be watching when we have the final game. So I'm excited about the final.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Yeah, and in some respects, I mean, do you think it's a dry run for getting an Olympics in New York? I know you probably have seen Assemblymember Bobby Carroll and his push to get like a New York City - Lake Placid Winter Olympics. This is I think based on the kind of model that Italy was able to do this past Olympics. He's been passing out these pins that very hopefully say "Coming soon".

Governor Hochul: I got one two days ago. Anybody here not have one of Bobby Carroll's pins?

Nick Reisman, Politico: I was going through my laundry and I found it nearly destroyed in my pants.

Governor Hochul: No, it was in my pocket two days ago. No listen, Bobby's not the only one who's excited about this because I share his passion. If not us, then who? We are ready for this and I think we were reminded of the magic of hosting the Olympic Games when we saw so many replays of the Miracle on Ice from 1980 during the Olympics of this year, when we were so proud of our men and women, our teams. But I think - yeah give that a round applause. The women don't get enough applause. Donald Trump, we have a women's team that won too, okay? But I digress.

We are ready for it. This is not just a dry run, we've done it before. And I have made significant investments in the Olympic facilities. We were actually being positioned to be the place for the sledding events if Milan was not ready. So we invested money in anticipation -

Nick Reisman, Politico: They would've done some of the bobsled stuff?

Governor Hochul: Yeah. Yeah. We were ready for that. I was up there - I didn't test it out, but I was watching everything we need to do to be ready. So we are a world class facility. We've invested in it. And if you create the connection like they did in Italy, between, yes our venues in the Olympics, but also New York City. I mean, who does not want to come to New York City? I think the other choices might be Calgary. Nice place, I'm sure, but there's only one New York City, right? So I'm making a big pitch for this. I'll work with Bobby and anybody who wants to do this. Maybe if it's 2038, I guess I'll have to stick around longer than you guys want me, but I'll have to stick around and make sure that happens. But no, I think it's going to be great. We're an Olympic state. We are.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Okay, so sticking with the legislature, this is a rough transition, but we're going to stick with the legislature -

Governor Hochul: It is very rough.

Nick Reisman, Politico: To go from Olympics to One House Budget resolutions, which came out this week and I think are going to get voted on tomorrow. No huge surprise, but the State Assembly and the Senate included these revenue-raisers, tax increases, on some of the higher tax brackets and also corporations in their plans. Has your thinking changed at all on these tax proposals?

Governor Hochul: Let me frame it this way: I know New Yorkers are exasperated. They feel that everything's stacked against them. They're not getting ahead, their rents are too damn high, their childcare costs are high, their utility bills - and, thank you to Washington, we're going to have higher prices at the pump, we already do. Everything just seems so hard for people, so I understand that frustration. You should've joined me in the North Country yesterday, in Ogdensburg and Watertown, and people are so upset about the tariffs raising the cost of everything. So there is this anxiety which is real, and we're continuing to address the affordability crisis, which I believe should be the number one priority of this legislative session. What can we do to take off some of that pain that New Yorkers are feeling that I hear about literally every day? What I want to make sure we are smart about is having a system in place where it's not just taxing for the sake of taxing. And being conscious of the fact that I need people who are high-net-worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Right?

Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. If you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded. So I philosophically don't have a problem, I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything. There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan or work in New York State and they were captives to our state. They were going to stay. We saw that that's not the case. Wall Street, businesses looking at Texas? They're not going there because they have a nicer governor, I know that for sure, but they're going there because of the tax rate. We have to be smart about this. But we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in.

Nick Reisman, Politico: To hear Mayor Mamdani talk about it though, he says it's not about taxing for the sake of taxes - he's got a $5.3, $5.4 billion city budget gap that he has to address. I know you kicked in some money to pay that gap down, but he says that he really needs this tax increase, or at least the flexibility to get a tax increase in the City in order to address some of the fiscal challenges he's facing in the first 10 weeks or so of his administration. Just, what do you make of the Mayor's posture on that?

Governor Hochul: No, listen, I understand, and I'm working very hard to have a constructive relationship with the Mayor. You saw that when he was Mayor for eight days and we helped him get a win that he had hoped for, something that I had been wanting to do for a long time, and we put significant resources from the state into a multi-year program to expand child care across the state, not just New York City, but have the rest of the state catch up. We've done that, and it was not an insignificant amount of money for us to say right off the get-go, "$1.5 billion here you go, this will help." But now it's up to the City Council - and I've had conversations with Councilmembers. They're doing their job too, looking at exactly is the Budget portrayed the way it needs to be? Are there areas of savings? Are there areas where we can just be making adjustments? And so I'm going to let them do their work and that's how it's supposed to play out.

We have been very supportive of the City. You cannot argue with how much we have supported the City and I can show you a list of all the investments. The previous Mayor calls up and says, I can't get 'City of Yes' accomplished without a billion dollars. We got a late night call. Don't call me late at night because I just said, "Sure, let me go back to sleep." But we gave him a million dollars without extracting a pound of flesh and his firstborn child, like it would've been in the past.

So I've been so supportive of the City and I know we have more work to do. It is not over. It is not over, but I am very vested in their success.

Nick Reisman, Politico: So everyone taking notes, the Governor is susceptible to saying yes after nine o'clock or so.

No, but seriously, March 31st rolls around, April-ish, there's a budget deal. What's your prediction? Will it include any sort of tax increase broad-based on income, on corporations, anything like that?

Governor Hochul: Let's focus on getting the Budget done. I would love to get it done on time. I always strive for that, but I also have priorities because a budget is a statement of our priorities, but also has to be a document of discipline and make sure that I do have the rainy day money that is there when we're now in for some real headwinds. And we have been fortunate. We had unanticipated revenues from Wall Street this past year that allowed us to do things we may not have been able to do otherwise. So I'm going to be smart about this Budget and continue to focus on affordability.

Nick Reisman, Politico: So on the affordability front, we're hearing these - there's no other word for - really just horror stories when it comes to people's utility bills. They're getting jacked up repeatedly this winter, and not just because it was cold out. NYSERDA put out this memo outlining some of the costs associated with the climate law and some of the future costs associated with that climate law and the energy costs there. I know you have identified some of those problems and some of your concerns. Do you think there needs to be a change to the climate law, a narrowing, a rolling back, an amendment, whatever you want to call it, and does it need to be in the Budget?

Governor Hochul: Let's look at how we got here. Back when the law was passed in 2019, it was a very different world. It was a world that had not seen a global pandemic, that disrupted supply chains for all the component parts, for the nacelles and the wind turbines and everything you need to be able to build offshore wind the path that we are on. Could not have foreseen that. Followed by some of the highest inflation we had seen in years jacking up the cost once again. And then let's throw on a hostile, very hostile administration in Washington that basically eliminates the tax incentives that businesses count on when they're going to make investments in renewable energy - solar and wind being the top of the list.

My first conversations with Donald Trump in the White House were all about how he hates offshore wind - worried about the birds and the whales, and it was like, really? All of a sudden you're a nature lover? This is new to me. So I had some real fights just to get offshore wind turned back on in New York State.

So what we didn't have was a pandemic, inflation, lack of support from the federal government, which had been there before when this was all enacted, and tariffs. So I'm trying to create an environment that'll adhere to those goals. Who does not want to protect our environment and our climate? Absolutely. I just can't undo what has happened since those were put in place.

And now we are taken to court. Everybody can sue us. Everybody does. A judge in October said you have to have the new regulations in place by February, and we got a little breather, but the environmental groups wanted to have an expedited appeal. I have to get this settled with the judge to show that we've met those goals - literally met them - which is the NYSERDA memo. Remember the memo that scared the crap out of everybody when they saw those numbers? I've been pushing that memo around for a couple of years. Nobody was paying attention to it, okay. That'll go into effect under the judge's rule if something is not done during this budget time. That's the reality I'm facing. I have an April deadline to meet what a judge has told us we have to do. So do we want to give ourselves some breathing room or do we want to impose those costs on you? Because that's not hypothetical, that's me following the law, if a judge tells me I have to do that. So that's the world I'm in.

Nick Reisman, Politico: So the answer is yes? You are going to try and get some of these changes? You want to get them done this month? Would you like them in the Budget?

Governor Hochul: I think that's probably the best vehicle, given that's where all the focus is. And again, this is not the world I wanted. I would've loved to have been the Governor who said, "Hey, I met all those goals. We did it. We did it. We did it." We just need some breathing room. And there's also a metric where we're judged by a different standard on our emissions that no one else in the entire world does. No one does. It's a process that I raised a couple years ago. It says, "why are we the only state - other than Maryland that followed our leave - no other state, no other country measures their emissions and how they control them in what they'd been able to accomplish in 20 years - it's 100 years." That's why no matter what we do, this is sad, I mean no matter what we do, we're always going to fail because we jacked up the standards so high on ourselves. And great if everybody else follows along and all participate. This is the role we're looking for, but my job is dealing in reality. This is the reality I have.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Is there anything specific you want at this point?

Governor Hochuls: I need time. I need more time. I don't -

Nick Reisman, Politico: So extending those goals? You mentioned the NYSERDA memo and how it scared folks. I know some of your fellow Democrats in the Legislature cast doubt on the information that was in that memo, outlining those future costs. What did you make of that?

Governor Hochul: I would've loved to have never had a memo that said the cost would go up that high. You think I want that? I mean New Yorkers are already scared enough of their bills. I was with a farmer yesterday from Sackets Harbor who told me his utility bill went from $10,000 in January to $22,000 this month. How does that - you know what's going to happen? That cost gets passed on to the consumer. All these have an effect.

I want utility prices to go down. We have a Ratepayer Protection Plan in my Budget. We are promoting an all-of-the-above approach, which, yes, we want it to be all renewables, but let's change the Administration in Washington. Let's get the Republicans who supposedly represent this state - I'm told there's seven. I don't hear much from them in fighting for us. Let's get them to say, "You know what, can we just get offshore, wind turned back on without any hassle? Can we get more support for solar arrays?" And by the way, solar arrays and battery storage, we've got a problem with localities who are saying no, so let me just point that out as well. We have plans. I wish we had this local support and we don't.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Massive land use issues, rural areas?

Governor Hochul: Yes. Yes. This is not Texas, which has - you can go a hundred miles before you see another human being and they can do whatever they want. I have density issues. I have other challenges. I have very strong home rule, and if the locals don't want it, I can't jam it down their throats. And so again, asking people for an understanding of what we're looking at and also understanding that New Yorkers cannot pay anymore. We have to cut their costs of living. Job number one in this Budget.

Nick Reisman, Politico: I don't want to belabor the point, but you are going to get a lot of opposition from the Legislature on something like this. We're already hearing it. Just what's your plan for alleviating the concerns from Democratic lawmakers who say that we would be rolling back all of these climate goals, which are necessary to prevent global warming?

Governor Hochul: I'm on their side. I'm on their side. I have been on their side. I just have to be the person who is able to assess the landscape of where I am. I cannot deal in hypotheticals and aspirations when I have to govern a state where my people are suffering and I have to alleviate that pain. That is my job. And so, I'm asking them for understanding and come along with me and know that yes, we will get there, but I have - thank you very much, but I now have a judge who's telling me, "You have to do this."

We lost in court. We lost in court - we're appealing. If I lose the appeal, I can't stop those NYSERDA numbers from becoming a reality - I can't. That someone with home heating oil in Upstate New York with a brutal winter and two cars in the driveway - because there's no public transportation in most of New York State - I'm going to tell them their utility costs are going to go up thousands of dollars on top of the fact that the Trump War has now increased the cost of gasoline and diesel and the trucking costs.

We are going to take it on the chin because of what this Administration has done with the war, with the tariffs - in addition to everything else that's going on. And as a leader of this state, I have to take care of this problem. I can't just kick it down the road. I can't say, "I'm going to pass a law. I don't know if it's ever going to happen or not." I have to be responsible in managing this state.

Nick Reisman, Politico: On the Republican side of things, I've heard from GOP lawmakers, the state and federal level, who say, "Well, this is going to be just like congestion pricing. It's delayed for a couple of months and then you're going to bring it back." Is that going to be the case?

Governor Hochul: What I want to do, and again, by the way, congestion pricing -

Nick Reisman, Politico: These are apples and oranges. I'm aware, yes.

Governor Hochul: Yes, that was a major -

Nick Reisman, Politico: Sure.

Governor Hochul: - goal of the environmentalists to protect our planet as well as invest in infrastructure.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Right.

Governor Hochul: I'm the one who got it done. So when someone wants to question my credentials as an environmental leader, I've got a list, a whole list of things we've done that other states have not done, and I'm proud of that. I'm going to continue to lead. But I have leaned hard into the all-of-the-above approach. I was just up at Fort Drum yesterday talking about nuclear capabilities that they're bidding for and how we can have that spread out to Upstate New York by getting some of that power on the grid.

I'm trying to be as expansive as I can be to take the burden off of our ratepayers and our residents. So everybody's going to say what they want to say. And again, everyone knows by now, there's always pressure on me - always. There was a lot of hostility toward the housing package. One year later, we're called by a major publication that we just enacted the most significant housing legislation in 50 years.

I don't back down when I know that I'm fighting for New Yorkers, and that's what this is all about.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Just one last question on prices and energy in particular. Right now with everything that's going on with Iran and the airstrikes, gas now is really getting jacked up. I think it's - I think the average is $3.49 or something along those lines. It was not cheap when I filled up my tiny little Toyota Corolla the other day. But I am curious if you think there should be, say, like another suspension of the gasoline tax as they're being called on the federal level.

Governor Hochul: You know what happened? We did it last time.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Three years ago, right? I think four?

Governor Hochul: We did it. We did it. Does anybody remember that? I don't think even people felt it because you know what happened? The price just went even higher. So I would - I'm going to look at all the plans we have to possibly reduce it, but what we could use is a federal excise. I mean why don't the federal government that created this dynamic, created this scenario, right? Do they not know the price would go up if you can't bring 20 percent of the world's oil through the Strait of Hormuz when you're at war with Iran? Do they not know that? I mean, a seventh-grader would know that, okay? You go to war, you're not going to be able to bring the oil that the rest of the world needs.

So we're in a dynamic that was - again, the regime had to go. They were bad, but at the timing right now, we've known they've had to go for 46 years, right? Why now? What happened now? What triggered this? I don't think we or our European allies or anybody have an answer to that. So how about suspending the federal gasoline taxes?

Nick Reisman, Politico: That's being talked about.

Governor Hochul: Then they should do it.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: It'd be nice if they did something that was good for the country. Would be a change, wouldn't it?

Nick Reisman, Politico: So I do want to ask you about what was clearly a really just awful, crazy incident that occurred at Gracie Mansion.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Over the weekend, this apparent ISIS-inspired attempted attack, and that was followed or proceeded by a anti-Muslim protest that had also occurred in the vicinity. And I'm just curious, you talk a lot about turning temperature down and talking to folks. And you have good relationships with Republicans. What do you kind of make of the political climate right now that the country and New York, in particular, finds itself in?

Governor Hochul: I think we should all be united in calling out the hate that was festering in that protest, but also the fact that there are people who would travel distance with serious planning involved, as the facts are becoming known to all, to literally create a situation to exceed the devastation and death of the Boston Marathon.

This is going on - this should unite Americans in the common belief that we should realize that our country's under attack. They've issued a fatwa, okay? That is a global phenomenon that could be operationalized at any time, at any time. And so we've had to be on heightened alert. I think New Yorkers should just be a little more compassionate with each other.

They all - everyone's stressed out by this. There's enormous stress across our state, but particularly in the city, which has been a target of terrorist attacks. I get constant briefings. I have over a thousand individuals down there from our Operation Shield and continue to be there to work.

NYPD, I mean NYPD are some of the most extraordinary people in the world when I look at the courage that was displayed by all of them involved in -

Nick Reisman, Politico: You've seen that photo -

Governor Hochul: Oh my God.

Nick Reisman, Politico: - of the Manhattan North Chief jumping over the barricade there?

Governor Hochul: I want to shake his hand. I mean, unbelievable, unbelievable courage. And I laughed when I saw his wife's comment, "He should have gone the other way." But -

Nick Reisman, Politico: I think most of us would have, so that's the differentiator.

Governor Hochul: That's the thing too. I think I'm always searching for something that can unify us. I'm still basking in the memories of what it was like to be a young, maybe idealistic staffer for Senator Moynihan back in the 80s. And there was a time of great statesmanship. It's a time when we worked on an immigration bill, and I worked on it - one of the first things I did as a young staffer, as a new attorney on their staff.

I worked on an immigration bill that was a grand bargain. It was the compromise that gave amnesty and a path to citizenship to the millions who had already come, but also had stricter controls at the border and employer sanctions and fortified this. But it was Democrats and Republicans staffers, first of all. We had to come up with a deal and we had a lot of late night pizzas with more Republicans than I ever had in one room my entire life, and that's what we did. And then our bosses by day would work it out.

And Tip O'Neill, the very liberal speaker, and Ronald Reagan, who might even be considered a Democrat today given the contrast of the party but who knows? Listen, they got it together and they solved a major problem. I don't want to give up on the belief that that could still be the country we live in today. It takes people with that commitment, people dialing back the rhetoric and the hatred, and finding more common ground.

It's not just the Olympics every four years. It has to be, maybe around the Buffalo Bills, that's another topic. But there's so much more that unites us and divides us, and I will stand up strongly and condemn when I feel like the people in my state are under attack, or our values are under attack, and it's happened a lot. I have had to use my voice and my platform to call out Donald Trump and Republicans about what they're doing, but that doesn't mean I won't work on redoing Penn Station or that I won't work on making sure that I have money for infrastructure and bringing back projects that are important.

So I have the ability to say, "I'm going to hit you over here, but over here, I want something positive done."

Nick Reisman, Politico: I do want to pick up that thread, but very quickly on just some of the operational stuff after what happened. First of all, have you talked to the Mayor since then? Have you talked to him about it?

Governor Hochul: Yeah. I've been - I reached out within a very short time of it happening and communicated with him again last night or after Gracie, yeah. I [was] just expressing concern for his safety - deeply concerned about his safety. Can you imagine all this swirling around your home?

Nick Reisman, Politico: Right.

Governor Hochul: And these are tough jobs, but that is beyond the pale - what has happened to him.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Just to pick up on what you were saying earlier about the Tip O'Neill, Ronald Reagan relationship. You've had conversations with Donald Trump, you've been to the Oval Office, you've talked to him about a number of, kind of, energy-related things. I know the President has been charmed, it would seem, by the Mayor as well. Perhaps the Mayor has maybe cracked a bit of a code here, but what is your - how would you characterize your relationship with the President at this point? And do you think he is willing to work with you? Do you think he is a good faith partner in government?

Governor Hochul: Good faith? Probably not words I would associate with Donald Trump. It's a necessary partner. It's a necessary partner. When I can call him up and he'll pick up the phone when I say, "Mr. President, I'm heading down to the site of the Gateway Tunnel tomorrow morning. There's about 1,000 now unemployed construction workers, blue collar guys wearing the hard hats, who maybe a lot of them even voted for you."

And he says, "Oh, they all love me. Every one of them voted for me."

"Okay. Okay, I'm sure they did, but what do you want me to tell them? Because you just shut down and killed their jobs. You shut down this, so what would you like me to tell them?"

Two days later, the money came back, right? So I called up and said, "You just cut off almost $200 million of money for Homeland Security dollars for NYPD and FDNY. I'm going to have to say you just defunded the police - not a good look."

Nick Reisman, Politico: What'd he say to that?

Governor Hochul: The money was back in two days.

Nick Reisman, Politico: So he gave you, essentially, an affirmative, "I'll get the money back," in so many words.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. Oh yeah. But there's other times when - yeah, we're just, it's not always that cordial, I'll just say that. A lot of time it's like this and I'm just, I'm standing my ground - that's what I do.

Nick Reisman, Politico: You met last week with Tom Homan, his Border Czar.

Governor Hochul: Yeah.

Nick Reisman, Politico: And I know you didn't want to get into that side of the conversation that he had, but have you gotten the impression that he's almost like a blue state ambassador diplomat, if you will? Because it certainly seemed like it came after he had gone out to Minnesota after everything that went on in Minneapolis. He met with Tim Walz. He met with you after Kristi Noem, it was announced, was going to get replaced at Homeland Security. Did you get the sense at all that the Trump administration is at least trying to smooth over some of the concerns that Democrats have raised about their deportation campaign?

Governor Hochul: It's not just Democrats who have raised, they know they're going to get shellacked in the midterm elections over this. They're starting to see the writing on the wall, that this is a policy that is abhorrent to the majority of Americans.

It tramples on our American values and how we treat people. You don't shoot people who are protesting you in the back and you don't shoot them in the face. And you don't raid a Columbia student's apartment in violation of the Fourth Amendment. You don't take high school kids out of a school in Nassau County and dump them in a jail - still sitting there months later.

So the stories are horrific and everybody knows the story. Again, I'm spending a lot of time across the state, which means in the Republican areas, right? Watertown, Ogdensburg yesterday. And there is this sense of betrayal that the farmers did not expect that their best workers - I heard from this farmer have not been returned, and it's affecting his ability to produce what he needs to produce. The people who are in hospitality who had workers.

Now, again, these are people who are given legal status when they walked across, and under the last administration were handed a step toward receiving asylum. They didn't sneak in, they came with legal status. And then they go into a courtroom and a judge takes it away. And now they have undocumented status as they walk out. Americans have a strong sense of what's fair and they know that this system is not fair.

Yes, we'll secure the borders. Yes, we want to make sure we get rid of the criminals and the violent felons who are going to be hurting their own community or others. Yes, of course. Of course we can all agree on that, but to treat people like they're disposable pieces of garbage - I mean, this has gone too far.

So the conversation I had in the White House that preceded my conversation with Tom Homan was this: the President is speaking, he got asked, "What is the lesson you took from Minneapolis?" And he said, "We'll only go where we're welcome." I'm sitting there like, "Oh, that sounds really good."

And he looked over at me. He said, "For example, if Kathy wants me to come, I will. If she doesn't, I won't." Thank you. So what I wanted to do, I contacted Tom Homan because I wanted to meet with him and reinforce that, okay? "Do you remember what the President just said?" And I've asked this President for months, especially after Chicago, to leave New York alone, kind of appealing. "You understand how this is the economic engine for the country. We cannot have this chaos."

So I've worked very hard with conversations to get us to the place where we feel more secure on this. So with Tom Homan, he likes to remind me he's a New Yorker.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Okay.

Governor Hochul: He's a New Yorker.

Nick Reisman, Politico: And so he felt it was conciliatory, or you felt it was conciliatory, or at least - yeah.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. I'm saying I need -

Nick Reisman, Politico: Diplomatic.

Governor Hochul: Here's a handful of high school kids that are in detention. Can I see them again? Can they get back to school? Can we - assure me that there won't be large scale detention. And I can't say his side of the conversation. I will tell you I've made our case strongly to him on how we do not want these actions to continue. That's full stop.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Okay. Let's close with this. Speaking of the President, we've got a 2028 presidential election coming up. Do you have a favorite so far of the folks who have been named California Governor Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear in Kentucky, anybody who you would like to see be the Democratic nominee?

Governor Hochul: We are so damn lucky. We have the deepest bench I've seen in years of highly qualified individuals who've been battle tested, and maybe I have a bias toward governors, but they're all my friends. I have relationships with every single one of them. We can communicate regularly, and we're working on - I'm working with Wes Moore right now on an immigration strategy and working with, actually, the Republican Kevin Stitt from Oklahoma. We're hoping to do something soon on this - work for individuals who already have work permits.

So I have deep relationships with all of them, and I know that they have the experience, and many of them have sort of purpley states like New York is now, and they understand that it's just about getting results, not about introducing bills in Congress and having hearings. That's - and I was there. It's very important what they do, very important.

But when it comes - where the rubber meets the road, are you delivering for your state? Are you guiding them into a better future? Do you have a long range plan of where you want to take it? And that's what a governor and a president will do. And that's why I think I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale for all of them, but they're all very close to me

Nick Reisman, Politico: Overtime question: Does former Vice President Harris deserve another shot?

Governor Hochul: She can do whatever she wants.

Nick Reisman, Politico: Okay. Well, we'll have to leave it at that. Governor Kathy Hochul, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you.

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