One of the top issues for the people in New York is crime.

But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn’t seem to think so. She’s in a tight race for governor of the state with Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). But during their debate, she stepped in it big time when she said that she didn’t know why Zeldin was so concerned about crime. As I said at the time, it looked like that was the moment that Zeldin may have just become governor. When someone is that clueless about such an important issue to the people of the state, it’s not good.

Hochul made it even worse during an interview she did with Al Sharpton. She claimed fears of crime were a national “conspiracy” manufactured by “master manipulators.”

.@leezeldin: "She still hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes.”

Democrat Kathy Hochul: "I don’t know why that’s so important to you.” pic.twitter.com/Cz6VTMSQzk

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2022

“These are master manipulators. They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people in Democratic states that they’re not as safe. Well guess what? They’re also not only election deniers, they’re data deniers,” she told the show’s host, the Rev. Al Sharpton. “Safer places are the Democratic states,” she claimed.

This is not going over well in New York, as the NY Post shows with their cover.

Today's cover: State of ‘denial’: Hochul calls crime woes GOP ‘conspiracy,’ NYers say it’s real https://t.co/IWldzXnxGA pic.twitter.com/VUQjgXPTNF

— New York Post (@nypost) November 1, 2022

First, what she’s saying about crime is just not true.

But Rafael Mangual, of the Manhattan Institute, has noted that trope ignores the fact that in many of those GOP-led states, the crime stats are driven by large, Democrat-led cities, citing New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport in Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi among his examples.

And while murders were down by 14% in New York City over the summer compared with last year, all other major crimes surged — including a 33% rise in robberies, police statistics show.

NRO’s Dan McLaughlin noted another data point that put paid to her claim.

Not buying Hochul's claim that rising crime in the state is all just Jedi mind tricks by Republicans. https://t.co/FpPFTdIhVo

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 1, 2022

Here’s some of what those New Yorkers are thinking about crime.

New Yorkers fear for their lives as subway crime soars a whopping 41%. This is Kathy Hochul’s New York.

Save New York. Vote for Lee Zeldin. #NYGov pic.twitter.com/3mMY4jfUHb

— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) October 31, 2022

Hochul is once again spitting in the faces of the voters on one of their chief concerns, not only lying about the facts, but telling them they don’t understand those facts, that the crime they are concerned about isn’t real, that they’re just being manipulated about one of their most important concerns. Denying reality to people’s faces doesn’t exactly encourage them to vote for you.

Hochul’s interview with Al Sharpton is also a bad look for people in New York who have long memories of all the bad things that Sharpton did before he was on MSNBC, including his anti-semitic takes and involvement in inciting violence in New York.

Weren’t Democrats just decrying “conspiracy theories”? They need to talk with Hochul. Because if it was possible to sink her campaign anymore with her horrible hot takes, she just did it with this one. That may explain why Zeldin has charged into the lead.