Governor Hochul is a Guest on CNN’s State of the Union

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on CNN’s State of the Union.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

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

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Welcome back to State of the Union with President Biden also focused on debate prep at Camp David. His party is calling attention to a key election issue, the two-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

Joining me now, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul. And Governor, it's great to have you. We were just talking about the debate and the Trump aspect of it with Governor Burgum. For President Biden, how much do you believe is at stake for him on Thursday night? What do you want to see him do on that stage Thursday?

Governor Hochul: I want to see him recreate the magic that we all saw unfold during this State of the Union address. I was there. I could not believe the electricity, way over performing expectations because he has such a clear vision for this country where he wants to take us in the next term. Building on what he's done already, investing in families and infrastructure and standing up for women's rights.

As we mentioned the anniversary, he should lean hard into the fact that now, one out of three American women live with an abortion ban. That is directly correlated to Donald Trump's promise. One of the few promises he kept was to overturn Roe v. Wade. And as a result, we have women that are suffering, that are driving hundreds of miles for an abortion, emergency rooms, being denied health care when their own lives are on the line. That's what we have now. So, President Biden should remind everybody who did this to American women.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Yeah, we just talked to Kate Cox last week, obviously, the woman who had to flee Texas to get an abortion. But when you talk about how women voters are looking at this race overall, there's a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll that shows six in 10 women are not satisfied with their choices for president.

Roughly three and 10 independent women and Black women say that they are less motivated to vote than usual. If those women don't turn out in November, are you worried that it's going to hurt President Biden?

Governor Hochul: They're going to turn out and here's why. There is still a long way before that voting takes place in November. This is when the Biden campaign has a chance to build the campaign have constant reminders, mostly in the fall. Let's admit this. People are focused right now on heat waves and the Olympics are coming, and there's a lot of other things, but the American people and women in particular will be really focused after the kids get back to school.

They'll be focused on this, and who's going to take care of the future for their children. What kind of future do they want for their little children today and their young adult children? What are we leaving them? Chaos? Or are we going to have a stable democracy? Are we going to descend into a dictatorship? Or uphold the values that have always defined us for over 250 years? So, that's the choice that women will be coming to, and they'll be siding with Joe Biden in the end.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Do you think he's being explicit enough on abortion, though? He often doesn't even say the word abortion. He's a lifelong devout Catholic whose own views on the issue have changed. Should he be saying the word abortion? Should he be speaking about it more explicitly, in your view?

Governor Hochul: I think the con – Donald Trump, all he can say about his abortions is I took away the woman's right to choose. That is his talking point. He can't go anywhere else. I stacked the Supreme court with people I knew were hostile to women's rights that my mother's generation fought for that are not there for my daughter's generation. And I want them back for my granddaughter's generation.

So, he doesn't have to say a lot about it because everybody knows who stole that right from American women. But that's part of his agenda, talking about how we protect women's rights, but there's a lot of other family issues as well.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Yeah, and obviously this all goes back to the Supreme Court, and we've seen a raft of decisions coming from them in recent days. Just on Friday, they upheld a federal law that bans domestic abusers from owning firearms. And it came after right after, and I know that's a very personal issue for you. Your mom worked a lot when it came to domestic abuse and awareness and fighting that. But it came after, then we saw them strike down a ruling on banning bump stocks.

And after that, President Biden said the Supreme Court was out of kilter. When you look at those two different rulings, I wonder how you view it. Is the Supreme Court out of kilter?

Governor Hochul: Absolutely. They are so out of touch. They're literally living in the 1700s. They go back to what our founding fathers said about guns. At a time when we had muskets, we didn't have bump stocks. We didn't have machine guns. We didn't have the capacity to have a mass shooting that steals the lives of people in my hometown of Buffalo, or that killed so many at a gathering of young people out west at a concert. So, the world has changed since the 1700s.

I know the Supreme Court doesn't want to believe that. They're trapped in the past, but this is what Donald Trump gave us, but American people, the fever is going to break. I really feel this. We're going to realize what's at stake when they realize Donald Trump is cozying up to dictators. He is envious of them. He wants that ability to amass power. And we have fought so hard to preserve our democracy. You think about what Benjamin Franklin said back in the 1787. He was asked, “Is this a monarchy? Or a republic going forward as we build this young nation.” He said, “It's a republic if you can keep it.”

This November election will determine whether we're able to keep this republic and not have it descend into a dictatorship as has befallen so many other countries. That's what's on the line. It's everything. It's everything we stand for as Americans. So, people will understand. Women will understand it. They'll be reminded of rights that their moms had that they don't have anymore.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Those are quite grave stakes, but I want to ask you about something you've done here in New York that is notable because it's the first-in-the-nation kind of a law that we've seen regulating social media algorithms. And essentially, you want to make social media platforms less addictive and to expand privacy protections, display content chronologically to children who are under 18.

And when you look at that, some opponents of that have said that it violates the First Amendment. What's your response to that?

Governor Hochul: Our children come first. I'm sorry, you can be a parent or a grandparent or an aunt or uncle, you cannot turn a blind eye to the trauma that is being inflicted on our children, especially young teenagers today – a seminal point in their lives. And it's they're being bombarded with intentionally addictive algorithms to pull them into a dark space and hold them captive.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: And you think it'll hold up in court?

Governor Hochul: Absolutely. We're defining this in a way that we know it will be upheld. That our children – we're not saying children can't go to social media sites. They can. This simply says that parents have a right to say, “Number one, you cannot be collecting personal data about my child and selling it to other people so they can then develop these algorithms that hit them with something they're interested in.”

But it is – I have to tell you; I've had so many forums with young people. Sitting with them, a young woman once said to me, “You have to save us from ourselves, we can't stop.” And I thought, it's not her fault. These companies are monetizing our children's mental health. They're taking it away from them. And if we don't stand up as a government and as parents – the first mom Governor of New York, I'm going to make sure that we fight for our kids.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: And it's interesting to hear you say you do believe it will stand up in court. The other thing happening here in New York on Tuesday, one of the most hotly contested Democratic primaries in the nation that I think we've seen it pits the squad member Jamaal Bowman, a progressive against his opponent, Latimer, who is seen as a much more middle of the road, and obviously AIPAC has been super funding this campaign. It's been so much money poured into it. And I want you to listen to Jamal Bowman lashing out at AIPAC yesterday and all of those millions of dollars that they have spent against him.

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Kaitlan Collins, CNN: He also accused his opponent of supporting genocide. Do you support that kind of language? Are you okay with that?

Governor Hochul: Let me say this. As the leader of the Democratic Party in the State of New York, I am not weighing in on primaries intentionally. But what I'm very focused on is number one, I stand strongly with Israel. I went to Israel after October 7th. It is traumatizing still to see the images of women who were raped and just the – what that country endured.

We can move forward after this election and fight to save the House of Representatives, take it from the hands of Republicans this November. So, I'll be focusing all my energy on our six battleground seats here in the State of New York – Long Island, Hudson Valley, over to Syracuse. This is for all the stakes. We need that count. Number one, we need them to support Joe Biden. We need them to support the comprehensive immigration plan that funds more resources at the border. We need that and we need a Democratic Congress with Hakeem Jeffries, a speaker to get that done.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Without endorsing anyone – the language itself – he's saying that he's supporting a genocide in Gaza. It's quite strong language.

Governor Hochul: We have heard this all over. I think the tone of discourse in many elections has been far exceeds what I think is appropriate on all sides, so I'll just put that out there.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: So, you think that's inappropriate?

Governor Hochul: I think that we should stop calling names. I think we should talk about the issues that people here in the State of New York care about. They want us to stand strong and have a sensible common sense immigration bill. They want us to pass a ban on bump stocks. They want to make sure that we can do whatever we can to protect women's rights. They want us to do what we can on affordability. Those are the issues that in all the districts where congressional races are being held – that's what people care about. We should not be tone deaf to what's actually happening at people's kitchen tables at their social gatherings. Stop being tone deaf as a party overall to those issues. And that's what Joe Biden has as a strength.

He understands innately. He comes from working class people, as do I. Donald Trump is so out of touch – siding with billionaires over the working men and women who put their faith in him. They thought he was one of them, that he understood them, and my gosh, they understand now that they were fooled at the time, and they will not be fooled again.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Governor Hochul, thank you for joining us this morning.

Governor Hochul: Thank you.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN: Great to have you.