A Fox News Sunday interview on redistricting turned uncomfortable for New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Faced with the possibility of common ground with socialist candidate for Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani, Hochul accused his interview of “whitewashing” the differences between them.
Watch as Hochul closes out the interview by running away from Mamdani like Forrest Gump in that meme:
LOL: Kathy Hochul chafes at being asked whether she'd endorse Zohran Mamdani after being praised by him for hosting the Texas fleebaggers pic.twitter.com/LSdPq7pbFz
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 10, 2025
SHANNON BREAM: So, you’ve gotten a lot of praise within your party for hosting the folks from Texas and fighting back. Here is what some of that praise entitled. It says, “Battling Donald Trump requires a politics of courage and fight. Governor Hochul is once again meeting that moment.” That is from Zohran Mamdani, he’s now a fan of yours. I know you've had differences in the past but is the feeling mutual? Do you think he’s a good choice for New York City?
KATHY HOCHUL: We still- we still have many differences. I don't know how you whitewash that away. He can agree with me and many will agree with me, I think it's not just Democrats who say New Yorkers stand up for our rights. We do that. It's what we are hardwired to do. We’re fighters. I'm a mom from Buffalo, I guess they are not used to taking on a mom from Buffalo perhaps. But let me tell you this. There’s many areas of disagreement but also there’s areas of alignment including affordability. His election touched a nerve and people said you know what? We are just not getting ahead. And the Trump policies that were promised to lift people up and reduce costs and not touch Medicaid, make sure the tariffs create jobs, none of that happened so there's this sense of we need some change now. So my job as governor of the state of New York, I’ve worked with two- already two different mayors and I will continue to work with whomever the voters want me to and I will make it work. I will make it work out because I'm not going to go to war with the 8 million residents of New York that I also represent so my job is to calm things down, let's see what the election results are. But people have to recognize what that candidate for mayor has also touched a nerve and we need to be responsive to that. So I’m aligned with him that we need to start finding ways to make life more affordable for New Yorkers.
BREAM: Having lived there, Governor, I agree with you. We wish you the best on that effort. We will continue to watch on the redistricting efforts and the possible amendment as well. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Governor.
HOCHUL: Thanks, Shannon. Bye, bye.
The interview was about Texas redistricting, and about the retaliatory redistricting that Democrats might do in response. This, despite the fact that Democrat states are either already gerrymandered to the gills or bound by constitutionally-mandated redistricting commissions that the governors have no power to override without permission from the voters in a ballot referendum.
Host Shannon Bream put that point to Hochul repeatedly, and she was unable to respond:
BREAM: So your state's highest court at the time, all the judges appointed by Democratic governors, they threw the maps out. So- fair to say that Democrats have done what they are now accusing Republicans of doing?
HOCHUL: You know, we follow the rules. We do it every ten years. We base it on census.
BREAM: But the court said you didn't follow the rules.
HOCHUL: Well, we did follow the rules.
BREAM: So the court was wrong?
HOCHUL: We follow the rules and I want to call out the hypocrisy of the Republicans who are now whining about the fact that we're doing something in New York.
This stands in contrast to Kristen Welker’s earlier interview with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, where he was allowed to go on and on without being challenged.
After a brief exchange on immigration, Bream closed out by circling back to redistricting and elicited Hochul’s hilarious backpedaling. The effort with which she sought to distance herself and simultaneously embrace Mamdani are demonstrative of the disarray within the Democratic Party.
Furthermore, it underscores the lengths to which legacy media go in order to avoid covering this internal division.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on Fox News Sunday on August 10th, 2025:
SHANNON BREAM: Joining us now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Welcome to Fox News Sunday. Great to have you.
KATHY HOCHUL: Thank you, Shannon.
BREAM: OK, so let's start here. The governor (Abbott) referred to this. Your state constitution was amended by the people back in 2014. It sets restrictions on when and how you can redistrict. This is what Congressman Mike Lawler, who obviously could be a danger of losing his seat, here's what he says about that.
MIKE LAWLER: The voters certified this at the ballot box. They wanted an independent redistricting commission. They do not want partisan gerrymandering and they don't want it done in a mid decade redistricting. The Democrats who oftentimes lecture everybody about upholding democracy should abide by the state constitution.
BREAM: Even the head of your Democratic state party there in New York says “the constitution seems pretty clear”. I don't know where someone could reinterpret this as something you could do every two years. What's the plan? To go around the constitution and get a new amendment? How do you do it?
HOCHUL: You know what, Shannon: these times call for fighting fire with fire. We didn't ask for this fight. I am busy governing the state of New York and focusing on public safety and affordability. Why are we here today? Because Donald Trump looked at the polls for next year and they realized, based on their failed policies which are hurting New Yorkers and people all across this country, that tariffs did not create jobs, we have now 2 million people more in unemployment. We have Medicaid costs are being taken away from people. Leaving millions of people without health care. The cost of everything is going up. I went to Target yesterday. Parents are worried about back-to-school shopping. So what they saw was, they said, wait a minute. We’re going to lose power because they don't actually like our policies even in purple and red districts because I know what I'm talking about. I used to represent the most Republican district in Congress just a few years ago. I know how they feel. They know they’re going to lose next year so now they are desperate. OK, so let's look around the country, let's demand, not ask but demand Greg Abbott follow like a lapdog Donald Trump's orders and give him five seats. That’s why we’re here today. You want to have a Texas stand down, we’ll have a stand down as well.
BREAM: You know that Texas, though, can legally do it right now. You can’t in New York. So, what is the plan? To ignore the state constitution, to amend it?
HOCHUL: No. We will put it to the people. We amend constitutions, we just did it a few years ago. We can put into the people but I think the people of the state, after what they are seeing when there is one party domination in Washington and how our costs are going up and we're losing jobs and people are suffering, they’re going to want us to use every tool in the arsenal to fight back. And that's what I intend to do.
BREAM: You know obviously that those maps that came about the last time for redistricting were caught up in a lot of battles in New York. Here's how National Review summarized it. They said that “it was only three years ago that New York’s Democratic legislature drew up a map so brazenly contemptuous of basic rules that govern a district's contiguousness that the state’s Democrat-dominated Court of Appeals threw it out”. The New York Times at the time called those maps “comically contorted”. That's their quote. So your state's highest court at the time, all the judges appointed by Democratic governors, they threw the maps out. So- fair to say that Democrats have done what they are now accusing Republicans of doing?
HOCHUL: You know, we follow the rules. We do it every ten years. We base it on census.
BREAM: But the court said you didn't follow the rules.
HOCHUL: Well, we did follow the rules.
BREAM: So the court was wrong?
HOCHUL: We follow the rules and I want to call out the hypocrisy of the Republicans who are now whining about the fact that we're doing something in New York. Where was the outrage when Donald Trump told Texas to just go find- just go find five seats for him? Come on. People aren’t going to buy this.
BREAM: Well, it is legal there in Texas, at least the way that they’re doing it. For now. And there will be court challenges, I’m sure, when they get done with their map if it ever gets voted on but here's a little bit more of what New York's highest court said in ruling against those maps. They said “the legislature created maps in a nontransparent manner controlled exclusively by the dominant political party doing exactly what they would have done had the 2014 constitutional reforms never been passed.” They said the maps were no good.
HOCHUL: Well, we went back- we went back and we drew the maps, we filed the process and here we are. We didn't intend to do this again until the 2032 elections. But because we are in a different situation altogether that demands a leader stand up and say I'm not going to let our democracy be eroded away because there is a blatant power grab to maintain power in our nation's capital. This is what I call a legal insurrection. Legal insurrection. Just let the rules stay the way they are, we’ll do it the way we always have but here we have Texas. And now going to other states, J.D. Vance: why aren't you looking out for how to lower costs like you promised? Instead he’s going like a lapdog around the country to different states saying “oh, can we pick up some here?” Because they know they’re going to lose next year. That's the only reason they are engaging this. And also might be a nice distraction from people asking: all of a sudden this happens when? When they refused to release the Epstein files. So I, along with a lot of other people in New York are saying, what’s that all about? Is this just another red herring? No one is buying this. Just, Texas, knock it off, we’ll knock it off and let's get back to governing. You want to play these games? We’re not going to sit on the sidelines. We are New Yorkers, we fight back.
BREAM: Okay. You mentioned JD Vance, the vice president, so I will play a little bit of what he had to say about what he argues that a number of states like yours have done in being more welcoming to people who are in the U.S. illegally and how that translates into, then, congressional seats. Here's what he said.
JD VANCE: So they get rewarded for welcoming illegal aliens into their state and giving them federal benefits- actually asking the taxpayers in states like Ohio to subsidize them and then those same taxpayers in Ohio, and Indiana and elsewhere, they have fewer congressional representatives. That's ridiculously unfair, and the only real way to fight back against it is for us to redistrict in some ways as aggressively as these hard blue states have done.
BREAM: So, there was a point when you served as a county clerk in which there was talk from the governor, Spitzer at the time, about having driver's licenses issued tor people who were in the country illegally. Said you’d comply with the law but called the sheriff on getting those folks arrested. You clearly had an evolution on that issue. So what about the vice president's point that the more people you have who are counted in your state who may or may not be here legally, it helps you with congressional apportionment- not fair to the other states.
HOCHUL: Boy, they are really stretching hard to justify this power grab, aren’t they? My gosh. We don't support open borders, number 1. We will help I.C.E. remove the criminals. The worst of the worst, which is what we were told was going to happen- so why is it that the pizza guy working for 20 years, hard work every day to feed people in his neighborhood, why is it the home health care aide who’s being rounded up? Why is it the people walking into federal courthouses with a ticket that says show up here for your next appointment and they are being captured as if they are hardened criminals? Give me a break. Give me a break. Stop finding all these other excuses to do all you want to do keeping control of power in Washington because you know it is slipping away and slipping away quickly.
BREAM: So, you’ve gotten a lot of praise within your party for hosting the folks from Texas and fighting back. Here is what some of that praise entitled. It says, “Battling Donald Trump requires a politics of courage and fight. Governor Hochul is once again meeting that moment.” That is from Zohran Mamdani, he’s now a fan of yours. I know you've had differences in the past but is the feeling mutual? Do you think he’s a good choice for New York City?
HOCHUL: We still- we still have many differences. I don't know how you whitewash that away. He can agree with me and many will agree with me, I think it's not just Democrats who say New Yorkers stand up for our rights. We do that. It's what we are hardwired to do. We’re fighters. I'm a mom from Buffalo, I guess they are not used to taking on a mom from Buffalo perhaps. But let me tell you this. There’s many areas of disagreement but also there’s areas of alignment including affordability. His election touched a nerve and people said you know what? We are just not getting ahead. And the Trump policies that were promised to lift people up and reduce costs and not touch Medicaid, make sure the tariffs create jobs, none of that happened so there's this sense of we need some change now. So my job as governor of the state of New York, I’ve worked with two- already two different mayors and I will continue to work with whomever the voters want me to and I will make it work. I will make it work out because I'm not going to go to war with the 8 million residents of New York that I also represent so my job is to calm things down, let's see what the election results are. But people have to recognize what that candidate for mayor has also touched a nerve and we need to be responsive to that. So I’m aligned with him that we need to start finding ways to make life more affordable for New Yorkers.
BREAM: Having lived there, Governor, I agree with you. We wish you the best on that effort. We will continue to watch on the redistricting efforts and the possible amendment as well. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Governor.
HOCHUL: Thanks, Shannon. Bye, bye.
