Former Republican New York Gov. George Pataki said the state he once ran has “just been horribly misgoverned” during a Monday morning appearance on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.”
Before introducing his guest, guest-host David Asman referred to the ongoing mass-exodus of more than 100,000 people who have so far left the state in 2020 because of “higher taxes, rising crime, and the lockdowns.”
“What is necessary to turn around all those hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers leaving the state because of how bad things are right now?” Asman asked.
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“I hear that pessimism every day and I understand it because New York has just been horribly misgoverned, and the decisions have really hurt the city, the state, and the people enormously,” Pataki said. “It has got to start to change right now.”
Pataki went on to describe three steps he would take if he were governor again, including reopening indoor dining at 25%, opening schools, and not raising taxes, before criticizing the state’s current leadership for reversing “the criminal justice policies that I put in place that made New York the safest big state in America.”
“You have to put violent criminals behind bars,” he continued. “You have to stand behind the police. You cannot allow mentally ill homeless to run the streets. These are policies that we had in place, which is why some people come to New York, particularly young people. They reversed them all with tragic consequences. It hasn’t taken long for them to lose the ground that we made, but we can gain it back.” (RELATED: Gretchen Whitmer Takes A Shot At Other Governors Who ‘Haven’t Done Enough’ To Fight COVID-19)
“I can see what needs to be done,” the former three-term governor said. “I can see how we turn this around quickly. It has to happen. If it doesn’t happen, the pessimism, the leaving, the discouragement about the future of New York is just going to continue with tragic consequences.”