Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign criticized President Donald Trump and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman on Sunday, accusing them of dismissing the burden of gasoline and other household costs on New Yorkers.
Campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki linked remarks the campaign attributed to Trump on Saturday night with Blakeman’s earlier comments about gas prices. The release framed the two Republicans’ statements as evidence that they were out of touch with residents’ financial concerns.
The campaign quoted Trump as anticipating a headline that would say he was discussing money being made while people were suffering at the pump. In that passage, Trump said: “But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it.’ We’re making a freaking fortune.”
The quoted passage presents Trump’s remark as a decision to speak despite the headline he expected. Hochul’s campaign characterized it as indifference to high gas prices.
The campaign also cited an April interview in which it said Blakeman described higher gasoline costs as “short-term pain.” It also cited a Sept. 23 post by New York Democrats rapid response director Addison Dick. The post quoted an interviewer asking Blakeman how Republicans could tell voters they were not to blame for gas prices. Blakeman replied: “Those are Washington issues. They’re not New York issues.”
Radulovacki accused Trump and Blakeman of disregarding grocery bills and other rising expenses as well as gasoline prices, blaming the Trump administration for higher costs.
File photo of Bruce Blakeman.
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