Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on MSNBC’s ‘All In With Chris Hayes’

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.” The Governor discussed Washington's targeted attack on New York and the devastating federal cuts to vital projects and programs.

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

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

Chris Hayes, MSNBC:  Governor Kathy Hochul, Democrat of New York, joins me now. Good to have you here, Governor.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, Chris. Good to be back.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: I guess the line from Elise Stefanik is “these are bad, they're condemned.” The line from JD Vance is “locker room talk” and that these were “young boys.” “Young boys make offensive statements. It's part of what they do.” What do you think about that?

Governor Hochul: I don't know how two leaders of the Republican party can be so dismissive of people who work on their campaigns, who work in government, lawyers, people who have positions of influence on their campaigns and act like it's something you just sweep under the rug.

This was an opportunity to show character and leadership, and both of them — JD Vance and Elise Stefanik — failed miserably. And I'm saying they both have young kids. A lot of these people have kids. Do they want them to grow up in a Republican Party that is defined by young Republicans, future Republicans who have no qualms about—

[...]

Governor Hochul: But, they're celebrating rape, and gas chambers, and anti-Semitic slurs and racism. These are abhorrent to our core, not just as Democrats and Republicans. It should be abhorrent to all Americans, and those two individuals failed the leadership test, failed the character test for properly calling it out. Elise Stefanik saying, “Those who condemn this are hyperventilating.” JD Vance says, “We're clutching our pearls.”

Why are you so dismissive? Why don't you say, “That's not who we are as a party, and these people do not belong in our party.”

But no, they just try to act like it's ordinary behavior in the Republican Party. Maybe it is. Maybe that's what's very telling, but it should not be and that's the message here.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: I should note that Elise Stefanik referred to some private text messages unearthed of Jay Jones who's running for Attorney General of Virginia, in which he appeared to wish harm on some of his political opponents — including something that was pretty gross about an opponent's child — and that there's been lots of Democrats who've said that's really, utterly unacceptable. I don't want to—

Governor Hochul: No, no. It's abhorrent as well. I agree with that.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Yeah. See, that doesn't seem so hard.

Governor Hochul: I've — yes, it is wrong.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Jay Jones is a “young boy,” though.

Governor Hochul: But listen.

[...]

Governor Hochul: Yeah. Yeah. Come on. But I'm focused on what is happening in my own State of New York.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Right.

Governor Hochul: Okay? I've got people, elected officials, who accept awards and celebrate them as the leaders of the party, and endorse them and want them to be more involved in their own elections. This is what's so wrong about the Republican Party in New York, and Elise Stefanik is the leader of that party in New York. She has to own this experience. She has to take responsibility and vowed a clean House, and not just let them — one of them says, “Well, I'm sorry for those who are offended.” Okay? That's that fake apology. “I'm sorry for those—”

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: You should be sorry that you even entertain these horrible thoughts. This is disgusting.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Also, I will just point out — sometimes private messages can leak and there's a context or someone's really mad. But, if I wanted to go, for instance, a statement like “if I wanted to see a monkey play with the ball, I would go to the zoo,” about an NBA game seems like there's no context defense for that.

Governor Hochul: None. None. And it's not just something random. It was 28,000 pages. Almost 3,000 actual messages. This is sickening at every level. It is vile, and I'm just shocked that people don't have the courage to just say, “It's wrong and it should never happen again.” But, they failed the test.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: You are the Governor of a state that has had a target painted on it by a former resident here, the President of the United States, including one of the things that's happened is during the shutdown, they've started just canceling projects. Now, it's not clear to me that they have legal authority to do that. One of them is a huge infrastructure project here in the metro area. It was one of the first things that they said, “Hey, congratulations, Democrats. We're mad at you for the shutdown. This project has gone.” Can they do that? Is it your position that it is lawful?

Governor Hochul: We'll always win in court. I can't tell you — this administration has been a real growth industry for lawyers — litigation every single day. And the cases are being decided in our favor. So for them, this is just a way to just stick it to New York, right?

But this is a project — let's talk about this, the Gateway Tunnel. This and the Second Avenue Subway have been talked about for decades. We finally get them over the finish line — $18 billion worth of projects and 15,000 union jobs, good paying union jobs — and they don't give a damn about them. And I bet a lot of them voted for Donald Trump and he just wiped out their jobs.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: I bet you a lot of them did.

Governor Hochul: Yeah, I bet they did. I don't think they would again. I don't think they would again. And they're going to think twice about it. Well, they won't have a chance unless something extreme happens, and we're preparing for that as well. But listen, this is the point. This is not sticking it to New York. This is the Northeastern corridor. To make sure that our tunnels are safe, they were damaged by Superstorm Sandy. They're over 100 years old. We need to replace them because if this system of transportation collapses, the Northeastern economy and the economy of the country collapses. So, why be so shortsighted?

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: But the other thing about this that is so crazy to me is like it's not, “I'm going to get back at Chuck Schumer. I'm going to get back at Governor Hochul,” it's just Americans who are represented by the President who are going to use this infrastructure. The money was appropriated by both Houses of Congress, passed under good law, signed by a President — like you, it's, this; if you can cancel that, then what can't you do?

Governor Hochul: And their appetite for revenge is insatiable. Just as I was coming over here, Chris, I get a message that they're stopping Medicare reimbursement payments to doctors. Okay?

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: What?

Governor Hochul: That's senior citizens on Medicare.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: In New York?

Governor Hochul: Across the country. CMS just announced that they're no longer going to be paying doctors to treat people on Medicare. You know what? The majority of people over 65 are on Medicare. So these are not Democrats, Republicans — they're screwing with everybody, and that's just so cruel, and depraved that they think they can punish Democrats and blame us.

You cannot blame us for this because you have Republicans in the White House, the House and the Senate. This is your town right now. You own what happens, and to mess with seniors and their ability to get health care. It is about as low as it gets.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: Quickly here. The President is threatening that if Zohran Mamdani — who you've endorsed and appeared with — is elected mayor, he's going to target the city even more. You've seen what they've done in Chicago. Again, very punitive, right? Explicitly promising retribution. Are you prepared for that?

Governor Hochul: Yes, I'll just have to fight like hell to get that money restored. I've been doing this. We've had some success. They literally took away almost $200 million of Homeland Security money that's used for NYPD and our fire department to protect us.

I said to the President, I said, “So, you're basically saying you're going to defund the police, right? Is that what you do now, Republicans? You defund the police?”

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: You said that to him on the phone?

Governor Hochul: Oh yeah, I did. I did. And basically what they're saying is, “We know New York is the number one terror target in this country, and we don't want to fund you for counterterrorism measures.”

So this is the fight we have, but I think we're going to win this one.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC: New York Governor, Kathy Hochul. Great to have you here. Come back anytime.

Governor Hochul: Will do. Thanks.