Sparring over crime, abortion and the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection took center stage Tuesday as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul faced her Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin in the campaign’s only televised gubernatorial debate.
Hochul blasted Zeldin’s past support for abortion restrictions and for former President Donald Trump, while Zeldin vowed to repeal liberal criminal justice reforms and criticized
Trump’s false claims of 2020 presidential election fraud fueled anger among supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to violently block Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. And when asked if he would accept the results of the election if he lost, Zeldin said: “Well, first off, losing is not an option. Secondly, playing along with your hypothetical question, of course.”Hochul, the state’s former lieutenant governor who took office after her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, resigned to avoid a likely impeachment, has enjoyed a strong lead over Zeldin in much of the polling this year.
Zeldin on Tuesday charged Hochul with failing to take seriously the concerns of New Yorkers about crimes on subways and hate crimes against Jewish and Asian-American communities.