On Friday evening, Fox News contributor Joe Concha blasted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) for referring to supporters of former President Donald Trump in her state as “clowns,” labeling the Democratic Party as the “party of elites.”
While appearing on “Hannity,” Concha was discussing Trump’s Thursday rally in the Bronx, where thousands of supporters came out to meet him in one of the bluest areas in the state. Guest host Jason Chaffetz noted the comment that Hochul had made about the supporters in attendance, asking Concha what he thought about the remark.
“It’s as if they don’t understand the phenomenon of Donald Trump and they talk down and belittle these people. And they have a very, very negative and dark message for the people of New York and the other blue states and the entire United States, Joe.” Chaffetz said.
“And Jason, they don’t understand history — recent history — where 2016 Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump supporters a ‘basket of deplorables’ and I will say, you may agree, that was the turning point in that election where you had the elitist Hillary Clinton talking down to supporters of Donald Trump in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin,” Concha replied.
“All states that [Trump] won because he understood the struggles that they were going through under the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton says, ‘Oh no, they’re just deplorables, they’re racists, they’re xenophobic.’ So why would Kathy Hochul possibly go down that road and call all the people that attended that rally in the south Bronx ‘clowns’? It will backfire because, again, the Democrats used to be the party of the working man and woman and now they’re the party of elites and it shows. I mean, it’s very obvious at this point.”
Media coverage of the rally showed that there was no small amount of support for the former president in the state.
“Turnout is certainly much larger than the Biden campaign would like, given that this is one of the bluest counties in the entire country,” CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes said in the wake of the rally.
In response to the rally, Hochul appeared on CNN on Friday, pushing back on possible implications of the rally’s success, boasting about her state’s loyalty to President Joe Biden, and bashing supporters of Trump at the event.
“Well, I’ll tell you what won’t make a difference at all, Jake, and that is for Donald Trump to be a ringleader and invite all his clowns to a place like the Bronx. New York will never, ever support Donald Trump for president. We know him better than anyone. And that means we understand what he’s all about is just for himself,” Hochul stated. “So, this state will go solidly behind Joe Biden for president as it has in the past. So he wants to spend his time doing these made-up, fake rallies and pretending there’s support here? Be my guest because, while you’re doing that, Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s out there on the other side, making sure he’s delivering for all Americans.”
Recent polls indicate that Biden holds a lead on Trump within the state 47% to 38%, but Biden is down by 20 points in some areas of the city, while Trump has gained seven points in the deep blue area, per Forbes.
“Now the other part of this has been really interesting is Donald Trump himself saying that he believes New York is in play,” said Holmes after the rally. “Now I will obviously tell you that in 2016, he said the same thing, 2020 he said the same thing. Both times he lost the state by roughly 20 points or more. But Donald Trump is here for two reasons. One, we know that he’s courting minority voters, two, he had to be here or at least his team thought he had to be here. He was supposed to be in court today.”
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