Governor Hochul Was a Guest on 570 WSYR

Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on 570 WSYR with Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick who was featured as a guest host.

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

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

District Attorney Fitzpatrick:  I'm very, very honored to be joined by the 57th Governor of the State of New York — and despite our rich, progressive history, the first female governor of the State of New York — my friend, Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor, thank you so much for getting the show off.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, Mr. District Attorney. It is great to be invited to a show I've been on before. But, you said something that I had to respond to. It is Jim Boeheim. He started at SU when I started as a freshman. He — it was his first year coaching. So, our careers at Syracuse really paralleled each other. And certainly he did extraordinary things. So I'm with you. The greatest coach in living history, but also probably in our nation's history. So there you have it. We agree on that right off the bat.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: You know, Governor, he was my golf coach. Back then — I was a few years ahead of you, and back then the liberal arts education means you had to take a sport, so I took golf. I certainly wasn't going to take football or basketball. And Jimmy was my golf coach. He said I had a great swing. Last time he's ever said that.

Governor Hochul: Oh, that's great. That's great.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: Governor, let me start off on a positive note — and it's only going to be positive in talking to you, but last year we had what's known as discovery reform. We didn't gut the bill, but we made some common sense reforms.

And I just want to thank you again — I've done it before, but I'll thank you again to a larger audience for your steadfast support of that to make it so that, for example, if I have 15 body-worn camera footage on a case, and I turn over 14 and by accident I don't turn over the 15th, it doesn't result in the automatic dismissal of the case. It's more of a common sense approach. Did it affect the outcome? Did it affect justice? So thank you for that, Governor. We really — myself and my colleagues really appreciate that.

Governor Hochul: That was a statewide initiative. Every district attorney in the state asked us to do something with that and I just would say that, as you mentioned, common sense reform — that's what I'm all about. I'm from Upstate New York — common sense is how we live our lives. And you go in and say, “Why is the law making it so difficult to have a trial for people who committed a crime against — whether it's domestic violence or retail theft, or a more serious shooting — why should people get out just on some technicality?”

And that's exactly what was happening. And I was proud to do that. Obviously it was a fight with the Legislature, but I fought on bail reform. I fought on discovery reform. But I appreciate you and the other district attorneys really championing that. I think we're going to see a dramatic difference in the number of repeat offenders. I think people are going to be held more. They're going to have their day in court and we'll have more justice in this state. So, thank you.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: I agree with you, Governor. Thanks. I think we had a good ally too, with a fellow by the name of Bill Hochul, who was my former colleague as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York. And please give him my very, very best.

Governor Hochul: Bob used to have him on his show a few times. He and Bill hit it off in studio. So Bob — I think Bill signed his constitution. We talked about that. Bill and I were watching Ken Burns' American Revolution last night. Extraordinary show that I'm sure Bob just adored because he's a real constitutional scholar. So yeah, Bill said to say hello to everyone as well, including yourself.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: Thank you. Thank you. We, you and I, stood together along with a real potpourri of law enforcement throughout the state to talk about ICE. And as you predicted, Governor, people misquoted us and misinterpreted what we said. So here, unfiltered, tell our listeners your position regarding local police authorities cooperating with the federal agency of ICE.

Governor Hochul: I will first say this: My number one priority is to keep people in the state safe, public safety — number one, two and three, in fact. And I will work hard with any federal agency, including ICE, to remove people who've committed crimes in their own country or committing crimes in this country. And we have to make sure we're protecting people. And so that's how you've dedicated your life. Your entire career, my career has been focused on protecting people — my husband's career, my family members’ career. And so I'm not walking back for that one step.

But what was promised to us by the President when he said he was going to have this effort to remove people? It was only the ones that were committing serious crimes. Remember, the “worst of the worst?” The ones who came out of prisons and came to this country, and I think everybody agreed with that.

I've said this to the President, we all agreed with that approach. Thank you for doing that. And we don't want open borders either. But what has happened is, because they have quotas, they're going after people who have been here for decades, who are running the local pizzerias, or have a little business, or are an accountant in a county that I just heard about.

And they're even now taking children. And so this happened in Sacketts Harbor. They took a third grader on a Saturday morning when her father was out milking the cows from a farm. It was incredible. It happened in Cayuga County at a nutrition bar factory that I went and visited. It's happening everywhere.

And so, I don't want local police distracted from their job, which is — taxpayer dollars are spent on their local police force to keep them safe, to be there if there's accidents, or emergencies, or a fire, or someone gets hurt, someone gets shot.

We need our local police focused on local crimes, and that's the name of the initiative I have, which says, ICE has enough resources. They have enough people. They went from a $6 billion agency to about $85 billion. I need local police laser focused on keeping their communities safe and building trust — building trust with the communities, because that's the key to successful law enforcement. So we're simply saying, we don't want to have these agreements.

And most counties do not have them. I just want to say that most counties in the state do not have these agreements, but there's something called 287(g) agreements, which say that you're basically deputizing local police to do ICE's job for them on civil enforcement, not criminal — criminal we’ll help; civil, I don't think it's appropriate.

So that's what we're talking — we're talking about keeping the police focused on local crimes and also protecting places like hospitals, and child care centers, and schools and places of worship from warrantless raids. We all respect the Fourth Amendment as well, but ICE has not been respecting the Fourth Amendment when they think they can go into someone's home.

I mean, your home is your castle. And they can go in there, in violation of our Constitution and remove people as well without a warrant. It's un-American. So that's what I'm talking about. And I thank you for standing with me. This is a very bipartisan initiative. We had sheriffs and police chiefs and district attorneys from all over the state who all agree with me that our focus at the state and local level must be protecting our residents and not having our police distracted going out there taking children out of a high school like what happened in Nassau County or people being taken out of daycare centers.

So I think we can — I think we're better than that. And I — again, it's not easy, especially when there's a lot of people who want to misrepresent what we're doing. But it is the right thing to do, as you've said, and it's just common sense.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: Well, I agree with you, Governor. It was an honor to stand with you and I hope people listen to what you just said and they're not going to send the usual panoply of emails. “The Governor wants open borders. The Governor wants — she's okay with Laken Riley being killed.” You know, silliness like that.

I've only got 30 seconds, Governor. I want to commend you on your efforts back in the 80s. I remember this, you were spearheading trying to get the Carrier Dome named the Ernie Davis Dome. But here we are today playing on the Ernie Davis field. So, you kind of got your wish, maybe 30 years too late, but good for you.

Thanks for being on, Governor.

Governor Hochul: Alright, we’ll do it again.

District Attorney Fitzpatrick: See you soon, you’re the best.