On Monday's Morning Joe on MSNBC, the show provided Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) a forum to bash ICE arrests in her home state and to peddle a misleading claim that children were taken by ICE for little reason even though agents were in pursuit of an alleged child predator when the children were removed.
Jonathan Lemire introduced the segment promoting the Democrat talking point that the Republican budget will make "steep" cuts to Medicaid and Hochul's recent joint appearance with the House's top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, also of New York. When show regular and columnist Mike Barnicle offered the first question to her, he promoted the unproven narrative that ICE agents are approaching random people on the streets just because they look like immigrants and detaining them:
What happens when the federal government tries to intervene with people's rights to walk along a sidewalk because they assume that they may be Middle Eastern -- they may be not from this country -- they may not have visa rights. So masked people jump out of these huge SUVs and apprehend people who are here legally. Is there any role for New York state or any role for the governor of the state of New York to intervene here -- to do anything about that?
After taking a moment to complain about how the Donald Trump administration is handling COVID vaccinations, Governor Hochul recalled a case from a couple months ago of three children being taken into custody on a farm in Upstate New York:
But now you're going after individuals not just on the streets of New York City, Mike -- they took a third-grader out of her bed at 6 a.m. in Sackets Harbor -- which is Tom Homan's home town -- her dad was already milking cows at 6 a.m. They took her, her mother, and her teenage twin brothers, scoop them up, and dump them in a detention center for 11 days. I raised hell. How dare you do this? And this is the most Republican part of our state. It's Elise Stefanik's district, and the Republican farm -- it's literally called Old McDonald's Farm -- it's been there for five generations. They were shocked. This community rallied behind this hard-working immigrant family, so that's what's happening not just here in New York but on farms all over New York.
No one involved in the discussion mentioned that, according to The New York Times, ICE was trying to arrest a man from South Africa on the same premises who was accused of sexually exploiting children.
She soon added:
And I think it's so reprehensible that this is the exact opposite of what Republicans and Donald Trump said they were going to do. "We're going after the worst of the worst," you know, "the bad guys," and they are not doing that. They're going after students -- they're going after high school students. So this has reached a scale where there's not a lot we can do personally. I can't stand in front of them and stop them, but I can use my voice -- my platform and call them out and continue to call on the seven Republicans who occupy seats in the state of New York and say, "Where are you? Use your voice -- you're in the majority. Stop abdicating your responsibility when it comes to stopping the decimating Medicaid -- Medicare." So I'm very frustrated with this. I'm fighting all the time. I'm on the frontline with Hakeem Jeffries as we were yesterday, but this is a level of attack that is -- that was unforeseeable, but it has to be stopped. And we have to raise our voices louder and louder.
Scarborough followed up by prodding her to continue bashing Republicans over Medicaid spending.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Morning Joe
June 2, 2025
7:43 a.m. Eastern
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Switching gears now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied against Republicans' steep federal health care cuts in Brooklyn yesterday. The pair say that the GOP's, quote "one big, ugly bill," will have major consequences for patients and health care providers. The governor's office estimates the bill will leave 1.5 million New Yorkers uninsured and devastate hospitals and clinics statewide. And let's now indeed bring in New York's Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. Mike Barnicle, always happy to have the governor here.
MIKE BARNICLE: Always, always enjoyed to see you.
GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Thank you, Mike.
BARNICLE: Dealing with the federal government, as you do nearly every single day, the role of the federal government in New York state is obviously enormous. What -- what happens when the federal government tries to intervene with people's rights to walk along a sidewalk because they assume that they may be Middle Eastern -- they may be not from this country -- they may not have visa rights. So masked people jump out of these huge SUVs and apprehend people who are here legally. Is there any role for New York state or any role for the governor of the state of New York to intervene here -- to do anything about that?
GOVERNOR HOCHUL: Let me just get back to what Jonathan says. I feel like we're under attack every single day by the federal government. You know, you just mentioned the fact that we can't develop vaccinations. I mean, we are always the place where the vaccinations spread the quickest. We're a very dense city. And I want to make sure they're developing vaccinations. And I want my three-year-old granddaughter to be able to get a COVID shot and my pregnant daughter to get a COVID shot. So my number one job as governor is to protect people. So now you're undermining our ability to make sure they're healthy, which is preventative care, and now you attack people walking down the streets of New York City.
I have said this before, and I repeat it ever -- forever. The state of New York will assist ICE in the deportation and apprehension of people who are serious criminals -- violent offenders. None of us want them on our streets. But now you're going after individuals not just on the streets of New York City, Mike -- they took a third-grader out of her bed at 6 a.m. in Sackets Harbor -- which is Tom Homan's home town -- her dad was already milking cows at 6 a.m. They took her, her mother, and her teenage twin brothers, scoop them up, and dump them in a detention center for 11 days. I raised hell. How dare you do this? And this is the most Republican part of our state. It's Elise Stefanik's district, and the Republican farm -- it's literally called Old McDonald's Farm -- it's been there for five generations. They were shocked. This community rallied behind this hard-working immigrant family, so that's what's happening not just here in New York but on farms all over New York. And it is debilitating for our farm community and people who just want to live their lives.
They run our bodegas, they work in our restaurants, they provide health care -- home health care aides to our seniors -- the hospitals I was in yesterday. This is a place where so many of them work, and I think it's so reprehensible that this is the exact opposite of what Republicans and Donald Trump said they were going to do. "We're going after the worst of the worst," you know, "the bad guys," and they are not doing that. They're going after students -- they're going after high school students. So this has reached a scale where there's not a lot we can do personally. I can't stand in front of them and stop them, but I can use my voice -- my platform and call them out and continue to call on the seven Republicans who occupy seats in the state of New York and say, "Where are you? Use your voice -- you're in the majority. Stop abdicating your responsibility when it comes to stopping the decimating Medicaid -- Medicare." So I'm very frustrated with this. I'm fighting all the time. I'm on the frontline with Hakeem Jeffries as we were yesterday, but this is a level of attack that is -- that was unforeseeable, but it has to be stopped. And we have to raise our voices louder and louder.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Why don't we, Governor? Why don't we talk about what's happening right now? And I'm so glad you talked about a farm in Upstate New York because it shows you have people that are constantly trying to divide New York from Iowa, from, you know, Arizona, from California, acting like there's a "red state America" and a "blue state America" -- when you're talking about health care, and you're talking about slashing Medicaid -- as Joni Ernst found out in her town hall meeting which she responded terribly -- and as many of these Republicans in Upstate New York are going to find out, Medicaid is not just for people in urban centers in America -- for big-city hospitals. In fact, it's rural hospitals who are getting damaged disproportionately. Talk about the dangers whether you're talking about Joni Ernst's constituents in Iowa or your constituents in Upstate New York. Talk about the impact of these Medicaid cuts.