Gov. Hochul is a Guest on ‘Power to the People Show'

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on “Power to the People Show with Darius Pridgen.”

AUDIO: The Governor’s interview is available here.

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

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Got to give the people, give the people what they want. Thank you for tuning into another edition of “Power to the People.” Listen, I know that you have tuned in and it's not for me because all last night we pushed out information that we have a special guest today.

I want you to call a friend, I want you to do whatever you have got to do. Click, tag, like because I, in just a few minutes, have one of our — an esteemed guest in the studio. And I'll be honest, I thought we were doing a Zoom call, and I got to work this morning and I'm just so glad that I got here on time and that the streets were shoveled — thank you City of Buffalo — so that I could get here and that I could get here in time to interview one of the most powerful people in the United States of America because she is the Governor of the state, the great state. And those of you who are in Atlanta, Georgia, our Atlanta audience, you need to hear this woman, this Governor, the Honorable Kathy Hochul.

Thank you so much for being in studio today as we are doing massive construction here, so there's dust all around. And you took the time to come in and be with us. Thank you for being with us.

Governor Hochul: Oh, Bishop Pridgen, we've been friends for decades and —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yes.

Governor Hochul: This is my home. Every once in a while I get a chance to come home, and sleep in my own bed and come over to a place that—when I'm in town, I worship with you here —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yes, you do.

Governor Hochul: At True Bethel. And it's a place where I feel that my soul is recharged. That I can go out into the battles fortified with God behind me. So I thank you for being my spiritual leader for so many years.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Well, I appreciate you and I appreciate what you're doing in the State of New York. And you're not just talking about it. Your office is one of the first offices that I know of — and I'm not saying it wasn't before — that created you actually have an Office of Faith-Based and Not-For-Profit in which you are listening to what the faith-based community needs and not-for-profits. What inspired you to want to open that office? Because I think it's very important.

Governor Hochul: No, because I knew the importance of faith in people's lives. I grew up as a social justice Catholic, not far from here in Lackawanna and Hamburg. And my parents started out very humbly, but we always listened to the teachings of Jesus Christ as our guideposts and why I’m really in politics today is to help other people who are less fortunate. That's what we're called to do every single day.

I knew that I would be better if I could really have a vehicle to bring in the voices of those who are the trusted leaders in communities. And that is my clergy all over the State of New York. And so I call upon them, I rely on them to tell me what is going on. But also, they can also share programs that the communities may not otherwise know about — money they can take advantage of, child tax credits, or money for nutrition programs or all the ways we can nourish not just the soul, but also the body.

So I think it's been phenomenal. And also encouraging these faith leaders to continue what they do, but even to build senior housing and supportive housing, how we can help them get the resources they need, or when we need to get shots out or flu shots out, or COVID shots to people. I mean, this is where we go.

So it was a natural place for me to lean into, and I'm very happy with it because these are people that I trust and rely on just like millions of New Yorkers do as well.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Well, and I've been pastoring 31 years, so I've seen people go in the state and seen them come, seen them go, and at times they talk that talk. This is a real office. I have sat at the table. But what I am very impressed about is it's not just the Christian ministers. There are Muslims there. There are Jewish brothers and sisters there. And I can remember in some conversations that were tough conversations because this is not a rubber stamp board — we actually sit down and discuss the issues. And that sensitivity — especially when it's worldwide conflict — of us being at the table together has impressed me. Has that helped you in your decision making? That that team is together?

Governor Hochul: Yes, it has. I mean, we've been through a lot and particularly, throughout the state, but in New York City, there's been a rise in antisemitism. Well, that has been condemned by all faith leaders, as you mentioned. You mentioned Muslim and Christian. I mean, for them to stand behind the Jewish brothers and sisters who are often being threatened because of who they worship and how they worship. And that's wrong because my view as an attack on one is an attack on all.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yes.

Governor Hochul: And that is the strength of this coalition of clergy throughout the State of New York. They all feel that support from each other in these meetings as well. And they take that back to their congregations and say, “We are not alone.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Exactly.

Governor Hochul: We don't tolerate hate in the State of New York. And every faith needs to know that.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Well, I think it was encouraging to be in some of those rooms and to come back and make sure that my language and the language of my colleagues really helped to keep the peace and not encourage more infighting. Let's go to education. Because I know you made some huge decisions in education, sometimes controversial. How are the decisions and what are some of the some of the decisions you're proud of making in education lately that has affected our school children?

Governor Hochul: Well, this comes to me easily because I'm New York State's first Mom Governor.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yeah, exactly.

Governor Hochul: And I even have two little grandkids too on top of it. So I've been around a long time. And I see the struggles of families and I know how hard it is. Even something like nutrition programs in schools. I mean, I know that there are kids who skip lunch because their parents can't afford to pay for it. And they have a meal card that shows that they're getting subsidized meals, but the stigma associated with that, that singles them out and sets them apart from the other kids in the school line — that is something carried with them for the rest of their lives.

So I said, you know what? I want to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to every school child in the state of New York, not single out those “the haves and have nots.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: So that's every school.

Governor Hochul: Every school, every child. And what is happening is whether or not it's something that you're saving now fifteen, $1,600 dollars a year in the cost of per child food, or the time it gives parents. And I remember being a harried mom. Am I out of milk for the Cheerios? Do I still have peanut butter? I have got to pack the lunch.

And one father came up to me on the street, he says, “Governor, you just gave me an hour back in my day when I don't have to worry about the breakfast and lunches of my kids here.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Wow.

Governor Hochul: And also they're getting nutrition. I don't want any little kids' tummy growling while they're supposed to be learning because it's a distraction, even for adults.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Absolutely.

Governor Hochul: So that's one thing I'm really proud of. I'm here in Western New York to showcase that and talk about how we've now, since September, we've given out 150 million free meals to school children in the State of New York, just in the last few months. But something else that started in September — and this will hopefully be part of my legacy because I'm proud that I was one of the very first governors in this country who stood up and said, “No more cell phones in school.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Wow. Now this, now here we go.

Governor Hochul: No more cell phones in school.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Okay. This was — yeah.

Governor Hochul: Oh yeah. I took on a lot of interest.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: And I am — we've talked about it on this show even before this came up on the state because I taught school. I taught Spanish in Buffalo public schools, and we didn't have — back then, there were no cell phones, but there were other distractions. And so as a parent who would not allow — my children always when they got of age took a cell phone to school, but they weren't allowed to take it in class. And that was for emergencies, if they're on the bus.

And I heard parents who are upset about it. And, oddly enough, when we kind of did an unscientific survey on this show, the majority of people who either called in or wrote in were saying that they felt it was a distraction.

How has it worked? What are you hearing?

Governor Hochul: Well, again, nobody wanted to do this, including our state education department.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Wow.

Governor Hochul: And people wanted to be — the school district wanted to do it, you can. But don't tell us. But I realized they didn't have the ability, they didn't have the political courage because they'd have to go up against the parents, and the school boards and all these other conflicts. So I understand that.

I went around the state for a year and a half. I convened round tables with very troubled teenagers who were suffering from bullying and abuse throughout the day. They're not focused on learning. Or if they're playing and watching TikTok dance videos instead of paying attention to math teachers. So they weren't learning. Also with stress on them, anxiety inducing.

And I said to one girl, I said, “Why don't you just put it down?” And she says, “Governor, you have to save us from ourselves. We cannot be used to doing this.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Wow.

Governor Hochul: And when some child tells me —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: This was a student?

Governor Hochul: A student. A student in high school. And I said, I looked at her and I said, “I'm going to take care of you, sweetheart. I'm going to have a statewide ban on this.” And, overcoming opposition, we launched it in September. We had a lot of information over the last year talking about getting people ready for this and every school has to have a disciplinary process. No kid should be expelled because of this. Take away the phone.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Amen. That's right.

Governor Hochul: But we’re not going to keep the kids out of school. Help the parents understand. A lot of parents — they're the ones who wanted to keep this long, umbilical cord attached to the kids. Right? It's like, seriously. One kindergarten teacher, first grade teacher, she said every child in her class had a smartwatch on so we got rid of all distractions, the smart watches.

The parents were sending messages all day. “I miss you sweetie. How are you doing today?” And it takes that kid back to wanting to be back with their mommy again. And they're not focused and they're not becoming independent, which is really the job of parents is to not raise kids, but to raise adults. They're going to leave at some point. And so —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: So this wasn't a decision made in a vacuum?

Governor Hochul: No.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Because you talk about going around the state before you did it, hearing from students, hearing from parents. And so there's all this opinion and was the majority of opinion that you were hearing is we need to ban the cell phones?

Governor Hochul: Yes. Teachers in particular — because there had been a national survey of teachers where 75 percent said they would not be able to teach anymore, they were not making connections with their kids. I sat with teachers, they said, “We used to get joy out of our jobs. We'd make eye contact with the kids.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Absolutely.

Governor Hochul: “We had a personal relationship. By the end of the year, we felt they were our friends. We love these children.” And here, they're not even looking at the teacher the whole year. They're staring at their cell phone. And even during lunches, and breaks and gym class, that's when the kids should be laughing and making friendships.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Absolutely.

Governor Hochul: Those places were silent. I walked into a cafeteria and it was silent. That was not natural because kids are sitting across from each other, not talking, they're talking to someone else, watching some video or something. So I'm telling you this, the survey results came out last week. We polled, got results back from 350 schools in the State of New York that all had to start this in September — 93 percent said the transition was not as bad as they thought it would be.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Wow.

Governor Hochul: Okay, there we go. 83 percent said there's been a more positive learning environment. That the whole atmosphere is more positive. And 76 percent of the teachers said more learning is occurring.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: That's terrific.

Governor Hochul: So that's just in a few months and a lot of parents, people come to me all the time and talk about this. And young people are kind of begrudgingly saying, “Yeah, it's kind of cool to have friends in person now.” Like some people have never had a friend in person. And, you know what? It's funny.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: This is unbelievable.

Governor Hochul: The kids are — you know what they’re doing? They're bringing board games to recess now.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: I haven’t seen a board game in — I don't know when

Governor Hochul: They're playing cards. They're playing cards. They're bringing like — some schools are — they're kind of in this old school technology. They're bringing Polaroid cameras. If you want to take a picture, a snapshot during recess or gym with your friends because the kids miss taking a picture of their friends on their cell phone, right? So we're going back to like old school fun letting them be kids again. And I’m telling you their mental health is going to be so much healthier. They're going to be healthier kids. And when they get into the workplace, they're going to know how to have eye contact and talk to people.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Because these are the skills that — schools you still have to teach without putting it in the classroom as far as on the board, a lot of the social skills are learned at that age. I always talk about some of my closest friends. We grew up in church or we were in school together, but there was that contact. One of the things we said on this show, Governor, even as this legislation rolled out when parents — some parents were saying, I'm going to send my child to school with it anyway. And I said, on this show, if you send your child to school and have them break a rule, you ought to be the one that has to suffer the consequences and not the child. So I'm glad to hear that that part is working out.

Governor Hochul: One last thing. And I'm a parent and I was — my kids were middle school when Columbine occurred. The worst fear you could ever have is if something happens to your baby, your child, when they're in a school setting, a mass shooting, for example. What I learned, and I had to tell parents, this law enforcement told me, the worst thing that your child could have in their possession, if there is a shooter in the building or in the classroom is a cell phone.

If it goes off, they will know exactly where your child is, if they're hiding in a closet. If your child is videoing or they're sending out wrong information about the location of something, or they're texting their mom and not paying attention, the one person their eyes should be on in that crisis, is the highly trained teacher in the front of that classroom. And I had sheriffs and district attorneys and police chiefs go around the state with me and tell the parents, “This is why it's safer for kids not to have a cell phone. If this is your worst case — your nightmare. If that unfolds, you don't want your kid to be texting you.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: That's powerful.

Governor Hochul: So when I learned that it helped me feel better as a mom, and then I knew I could tell other parents the same story.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: I'll say this, we'll go to our last topic — I saw a law enforcement officer on social media the other day who works in the schools. They said, “I told you this was going to work.” And he was referring to that because he was — he in the past talked about how many fights began in the school on cell phones, while children need to be instructed. So education is one of the most important things that we can give our children. So hats off to those who made that decision and to you and going against even some people who are around you to say, “This is the right thing to do.”

We can't close the show without talking about the Grieving Families Act. And I know that this is dear to your heart, and from what I have read in your veto message and in editorials, is that this is something that you want to happen yet vetoed, can you explain and if you just talk a little bit about the Grieving Families Act? And then why the veto?

Governor Hochul: This basically opens up a whole new class of people who can recover damages in a courtroom if something happens to them. If there's — the way it's written right now, if there's, want to, someone dies in surgery in a hospital and it's a child or an older person, usually they base the recovery on how much income that person earns or their values. So, there'll still be court cases, there'll still be litigation, but there's an effort by the trial lawyers, basically, to expand this and it gives them more opportunities to represent more people. And I understand that.

This is their livelihood, but also it does have an effect on every single person in our state because they'll raise insurance premiums. The insurance companies are looking at this closely and their costs of coverage for hospitals like ECMC — critical place here in the City of Buffalo — their insurance premiums will go up dramatically to cover the additional costs of these malpractice lawsuits. Every business, every family, every government will have to pay more in insurance premiums. My concern is the systemwide statewide impact of increasing those costs when insurance is one of the big drivers of costs in the state right now.

Now that being said, when you take a case — like what happened to the families, the victims of the 10 people massacred at Tops here in 2022. This is something that still rips my heart apart when I think about what happened that day. We were together. I came immediately and I stayed and I stayed and I stayed and I tried to do whatever I can to comfort families, hug them, love them, tell them they're not alone. I cannot imagine the searing pain that they're going through.

So I kept coming back. I said, “So what do you need?” I put $50 million out there to help support families and help them recover and rebuild the community and give them faith that the story of their lives will not be lost. We have a memorial being built with state support. So I care deeply about these families.

What I wanted was the trial lawyers over the last few years to come back to me and say, “We'll accept the compromise.” I would've supported a plan that would recover damages for these families. When there is a mass shooting, I believe that the family should be able to recover — from the manufacturer, whoever they want to go after.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Absolutely.

Governor Hochul: Even if it's an older person who may not have a job or you can say, “Well, they're worth a hundred thousand dollars a year.” That should not be the judge of someone's life. And I believe that's not —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: I'm really glad to hear you say that because so many people have not — maybe haven't heard you say it — but to say this is something you support. But you want some changes to protect people in the long haul. That's so important. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Governor Hochul: It is, and it's frustrating to me that my values and my beliefs are being mischaracterized as not caring about these people. That is not who I am, Bishop. You know me.

And I've asked for compromises, send over other languages, and work with us. Every single year we initiate this. And they keep passing the same very broad language that'll hurt my safety-net hospitals, hurt my doctor's practices and hurt our nursing homes with escalating insurance costs. I want to carve out an area that would help people that are truly the victims of accidents. If a child drowns in a backyard pool — that child's life, they don't earn income yet, but that is a value to that family. It's an emotional attachment to that child, and they should have been there.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: So, so under that, if you — go ahead.

Governor Hochul: I would, let's start off without the medical malpractice cases, because there already are recoveries for those.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Okay. Okay, so when we look at Tops, and for those in our Atlanta audience, it was a mass shooting by a white supremacist who came in specifically to kill Black people. You're not talking about incidents like that, you're talking about malpractice, pulling out the malpractice portion first, and I'll be honest, probably the average listener doesn't understand it, and I didn't totally understand it. I've talked to my colleagues, I've talked to people here in the city who want to see this pass. I'm hearing from you and, and I don't want to mischaracterize, what you're saying is you're still willing to work on this — you just need some parts carved out to protect people.

Governor Hochul: To protect —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Or the economics of this.

Governor Hochul: Protect the economics of the whole state, but also the health care industry is struggling. And if doctors start leaving here, because they already have the highest malpractice premiums and additional costs of doing business in New York, why won't they go to another State then? They'll just say, I can't afford it anymore. I cannot have babies on the East Side of Buffalo not being delivered because the OBGYN, which have the highest rates, would leave the state.

And they've told me they will. I've listened to doctors and hospitals and nursing homeowners as well as the businesses. I have to look out for the entire State's health as well. So, why won't they come and meet me halfway? Why won't they offer a compromise? Why won't they be rational instead of an all or nothing approach, which I've had to deal with for four years. We asked for some accommodation. Can you please get it started?

Bishop, I'm frustrated because I would've liked nothing more than to help these families. And the trial lawyers are the barriers right now. And they should come to the table. And meet me as the Governor and get this right for the next session.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: So, the next session is coming up in a few, few weeks, right?

Governor Hochul: Yes, it is.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Everybody will be back in Albany. Is it possible to work together in this session, or is that too late for this session?

Governor Hochul: No. I have to decide on bills that are passed by June, by the end of this year.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Got it.

Governor Hochul: And we already sent out the— I asked for them to compromise. They sent over one word text and made a slight change. Like, you're not being serious. We've tried to negotiate for four years,

Bishop Darius Pridgen: But if there was a compromise, it would happen, it could happen as soon as June?

Governor Hochul: It could be introduced in January.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Go through the process.

Governor Hochul: Go through the process. It lands on my desk, you know, in June usually by then. And then we can look at it again.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: You're educating a lot of people right now and I'm grateful for you being transparent. And I want to say this because a lot of people don't understand in the media that there are some people who I interview and that I don't interview because they go, “I'm not going to talk about this and I'm not going to talk about that.” You have no restrictions and you said, “ask whatever,” and that you would be transparent and you have been.

I want to talk about the doctors and I know our time is up. I know people who work in health care here and right now with Washington D.C. and what they're doing. There are doctors stuck right now in Canada who cannot, who either cannot or have decided not to come back over because of some of the laws. Are you hearing that or is that just from the hospitals talking?

Governor Hochul: No, it's been an enormous disruption. You know what Donald Trump has done in Washington crippling the health care industry, by first of all, people's health care premiums, the ones who got ObamaCare support to help cover the cost of premiums starting in January, they can go up a thousand dollars, $2,000, $3,000 a year for a family that's already struggling. If you are on Medicaid, they're eliminating huge categories of people who rely on Medicaid for themselves and their families. There's a depth of cruelty behind that, which I never thought I'd see, this in my lifetime, that people are so callous about other people's lives. And I was in Congress and I lost my seat in Congress because I supported the Affordable Care Act because even in my Republican district—

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Sure, did.

Governor Hochul: And you know it well.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yep. Yep.

Governor Hochul: I came here when I lost that.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: You did.

Governor Hochul: You gave me comfort and helped me work through that. But I did what I had to do for the people who were poor, who needed this, and they voted against me because they were convinced they didn't. So this is personal to me.

But the doctors are from Canada, feeling this is a hostile country to them now. I mean Donald Trump literally declared war on Canada. And it's not just a high —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: On Canada.

Governor Hochul: They're like our, they're our best friends.

You know, they come and go to the Bills games, the Sabers games, the baseball games —

Bishop Darius Pridgen: I have them in my church. I have people who come over the bridge every single Sunday. And one bible study from Canada.

Governor Hochul: And they are our neighbors and our friends, and this has been an act of hostility that was so unnecessary.

So, I think there are doctors and others — students are not coming here. We're losing a lot of students. And so I hope we can reset this country. I love this country deeply and I'm going to keep staying in the fight. I mean, I'm in the arena. I'm a fighter in the arena and I tell everybody in New York City in particular. I said this yesterday, I said, “I'm a fighter because I'm from the streets of Buffalo. Don't mess with me.”

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Don't mess with Rough Buff.

Governor, any final words that you want to share with our audience in this holiday season?

Governor Hochul: Keep the faith, everyone. Keep the faith. God is looking out for all of us. And during this time, remember that God calls us to do something else: Think about others. Take care of those who need extra help. And you do this here, Bishop Pridgen.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: You know, I don't care about any title. I'm just D from the projects, you know?

Governor Hochul: And I remember hearing a sermon that you have, you know, even people that are struggling, if you have two coats, somebody else could use the other one.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: You know, and that hit me hard. I mean, that's how I was raised. And I will carry that with me the rest of my life. Those lessons you know, deep in morality and, and the Bible and what Jesus Christ calls us to do. I try to live that every day. So, during this holiday season, I want people to rekindle their relationship with their family members. Hug your kids and your loved ones and because you never know what happens.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: You never know.

Governor Hochul: This life is very uncertain. It's a gift, but it can be taken away.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Listen folks, I want to thank the Governor of the great State of New York for being with us, answering all of the questions and for really leading what I feel besides you in Georgia, Buffalo and New York State and Georgia and all you have done the job that many people asked you to do even in the tough things. Governor Kathy Hochul, thank you for being with us.

Governor Hochul: Thank you. Go Bills.

Bishop Darius Pridgen: Go Bills.