Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said during an interview this weekend that he will declare a state of emergency to combat crime on his first day in office should be win next month’s race for New York governor.
The news comes as polling from last week shows that Zeldin has closed the gap on Governor Kathy Hochul (D) in recent weeks with the race now being deemed by RealClearPolitics as a “toss-up.”
Zeldin made the remarks during a Fox News interview on Sunday with Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I want to do everything I possibly can in the first 100 minutes,” Zeldin said. “I mean, I want to have a very active day one. I just announced a couple days ago that as soon as I am sworn into office, I’m going to be declaring a crime emergency here in the state of New York. I’m going to suspend New York’s cashless bail laws and some other pro-criminal laws that have been passed, force the legislature to come to the table to negotiate an improvement because we have to take back our streets. We need law abiding New Yorkers back in control of New York streets instead of criminals.”
“I’ve previously announced that my first action, my first day that I’m in office, is telling them the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that he’s being removed for his refusal to enforce the law,” he later added. “But it doesn’t stop there. We need to support our men and women in law enforcement, we need to make sure whether it’s cashless bail, less is more, raise the age, hall tax, some of these other names of laws that have passed, which don’t get as much attention are resulting in people getting hurt, law abiding New Yorkers getting hurt.”
WATCH:
NY gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin: "As soon as I am sworn into office, I am going to be declaring a crime emergency here in the State of New York." pic.twitter.com/3PvLpmPDdl
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 16, 2022
TRANSCRIPT:
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEW HOST: Let me ask you, Congressman, what your plans are should you win, in your first 100 days? What are you going to do?
REP. LEE ZELDIN (R-NY), NY GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: You know, listen, I want to do everything I possibly can in the first 100 minutes. I mean, I want to have a very active day one. I just announced a couple days ago that as soon as I am sworn into office, I’m going to be declaring a crime emergency here in the state of New York. I’m going to suspend New York’s cashless bail laws and some other pro-criminal laws that have been passed, force the legislature to come to the table to negotiate an improvement because we have to take back our streets. We need law abiding New Yorkers back in control of New York streets instead of criminals. And there are people who are in charge right now from Kathy Hogle to these Democrats controlling the state legislature who feel like they haven’t passed enough pro-criminal laws. So this is an action on day one. I’ve previously announced that my first action, my first day that I’m in office, is telling them the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that he’s being removed for his refusal to enforce the law. But it doesn’t stop there. We need to support our men and women in law enforcement, we need to make sure whether it’s cashless bail, less is more, raise the age, hall tax, some of these other names of laws that have passed, which don’t get as much attention are resulting in people getting hurt, law abiding New Yorkers getting hurt. So I’m pretty motivated to do everything in my power in the first one 100 minutes to take back the state. And listen, there’s gonna be opportunities beyond that, but we’re gonna have a very aggressive day one so the New Yorkers know that we’re wasting no time to restore the state to glory.