50 MINS OF KATHY HOCHUL: Gov. Kathy Hochul sat down this morning in front of a live audience for a wide-ranging interview in Midtown Manhattan with the Times Union’s Dan Clark. Hochul touched on everything from her love of diners to her nightmare-inducing fears of Project 2025 — and, of course, President Joe Biden. Here are five things we learned from the interview: 1. She now acknowledges Biden could drop out of the presidential race
Hochul, who has been one of Biden’s fiercest public defenders, said for the first time on Thursday that he could change his mind about running for reelection. But don’t expect her to be the one to push him out. “If there’s a change, there’s a change — we’re adaptable, we figure anything out,” she told Clark, while insisting she had no special insight into the president’s thinking. “But Joe Biden’s our nominee, he’s our candidate … as long as Joe Biden’s in it to win it, I’m there with him.” The comments come after news that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed privately to the president that they’re worried about the party’s chances in November. Biden’s reelection bid appeared to be falling apart on Thursday. 2. Hotel kitchen workers gave her a standing ovation for canceling congestion pricing Hochul continued to defend her decision to cancel congestion pricing and vowed to fund the MTA capital budget, which was predicated on $16.5 billion in revenue from the tolling scheme. She cited a group of seemingly unlikely supporters of her move to halt the program: the wait staff at an unspecified Sheraton hotel. “I walked into a kitchen at the Sheraton,” she said. “I walked into a room of people that were all dressed up, the hotel wait staff, who were gonna go sell breakfast to 500 people. I got a standing ovation, and I didn’t understand why. They said, ‘Thank you, because we don’t have to pay this.’” 3. The state will “probably” miss its climate goals, she admits
Hochul said for the first time that the state probably won’t meet its landmark climate goals, which include cutting emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels and relying on 70 percent renewable electricity, all by 2030. “If we miss it by a couple of years, which is probably what will happen, the goals are still worthy,” Hochul said. The governor has continued to prioritize affordability over environmental concerns when evaluating climate solutions. Today, she said the pandemic and supply chain disruptions unexpectedly hampered those goals, and that she needed to consider the “collateral damage of all of our major decisions.” “The cost has both gone up so much I now have to step back and say, ‘What is the cost on the typical New York family?’” Hochul said. “Just like I did with congestion pricing.” 4. She’s serious about banning phones in school
Hochul plans to charge ahead with a plan to ban cellphones in schools and patted herself on the back for her work to bar social media companies from targeting kids with “addictive” algorithms. She also admitted that the mechanics of how to ban cellphones in schools statewide hasn’t been worked out yet, but insisted most parents and teachers will be happy with the end result. Any parent upset with the proposal, she said, can just blame her. “I said, ‘that's my job, let me take the heat,’” Hochul said. “This has gone too far without anyone standing up and saying, ‘enough is enough.’ And I’m that person.” 5. She wears a secret disguise to ride the subway and walk New York City streets
Don’t doubt her Big Apple bonafides. The Buffalo-born and Western New York-raised Hochul doesn’t want to hear claims she’s not New York enough for the job. “For those who think, ‘She's from Buffalo, what does she know about New York?’ I became lieutenant governor in 2014. I basically moved to the city,” she said. “I’ve lived in this city. I walk the streets. I take the subway,” she said during the event at Hearst Tower. “I put on a baseball cap, ponytail and a pair of glasses. Nobody knows who I am.” Her short stature, Hochul said, allows her to blend in and “zip in and out of crowds” in a way that allows her to experience the city like anyone else. “I really embrace the incredible energy of this city and this region.” — Jason Beeferman and Rich Mendez
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