Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at MeidasTouch Network’s Inaugural Democratic Governor’s Virtual Town Hall

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a panelist on MeidasTouch’s inaugural Democratic Governor Virtual Town Hall. The Governor addressed President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and how the Trump administration has affected New Yorkers so far.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

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

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

 Good to see my friends once again. And Ben, thanks for hosting this important conversation. The first 100 days — is that all its been? It feels like every passing day we're finding another way that Donald Trump is turning the American dream into a nightmare. And I can't — the stream of broken promises that many people in our country believed in him; it's just extraordinary.

And I've never seen in all my life — and I've been involved in elective office for 31 years — the way that he is weaponizing the American government against its own people. And let's just dissect some of these things that he's done. I mean, you talk about the tariffs. Who are they helping? Who are the winners in this? Seems to me we're all going to be losers because the only ones getting jobs in this era are bankruptcy lawyers.

We're starting to hear even toy manufacturers are cutting back production — stores that normally do their holiday purchasing. This time of year, my mom had a small flower and gift shop. We were buying our things in the spring for the next Christmas. I'm not sure Santa Claus is coming this year at the rate we're going because the cost is so high. We're going to be driving businesses out of work and out of business, and the cost in New York is estimated to be about $7 billion, a loss of 280,000 jobs. Now, this is also going to cost families in New York over $6,000 a person if these Trump tariffs — which I call the Trump tax — stay in effect.

So, at the same time, what are we doing? I'm fighting back. We're going to court. It's also a growth industry for all lawyers. My Attorney General Tish James has been teaming up with the attorney generals from all across the country. Today, I think we're filing a lawsuit to stop what they're trying to do, destroying our offshore wind industry — I know it's important to my New England friends as well — trying to stop the tariffs in litigation, trying to stop everything they're doing: the cutbacks, the $300 million we lost that's supposed to help build back communities after natural disasters.

Our people are hurting, not to mention the farmers. It's not just Wall Street that's hurting in my state, it's also the main streets, and the small towns, and the farmers who cannot believe that their costs went up $10,000 a month to get more fertilizer and their feed that they normally get from Canada. So I have a whole litany of parade of horribles, but my concern is that the people of my state are hurting — they're hurting all over America — and we're going to keep going to court and standing up.

But the next thing we can do best is to organize — take this anxiety and this anger, and turn it into action. Action means we're mobilizing already for 2026, and I'm proud to be leading that effort in the State of New York to help take back the Congress because if we can finally get a firewall and stop at least the power of this insanity, at least we get hope again, and that's what I'm focused on these days as well.