Campaign gaffes and goofs

                                                                             

Lee Zeldin and Kathy Hochul at Spectrum News debate

       
Everybody makes mistakes. But the campaign season amplifies them. 

Here's some recent candidate gaffes and goofs.

The latest -- and likely most politically harmful --came from Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul during Tuesday night's debate with Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

Hochul is a Buffalo Democrat who served as the nearly unknown New York lieutenant governor until  Andrew Cuomo resigned in August of last year and she automatically took his job. Like most Democrats,  Hochul has campaigned to win the office on her own by focusing mostly on abortion rights and gun control.

Zeldin, a U.S. Congressman from Shirley,  has, like most Republicans,  focused on rising crime, contending it is the result of Democratic-approved criminal justice reforms that have eliminated bail for most crimes and led prosecutors to drop some charges because of a shortened time period to collect evidence.

So it was no surprise that Zeldin essentially accused Hochul of being soft on crime. "Halfway through the debate, she still hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes," Zeldin said. 

Hochul responded, "Anyone who commits a crime under our laws, especially with the change we made to bail, has consequences."

Then she said, almost as a throwaway, " I don't know why that's so important to you." 

That was a eye-brow raising moment for many debate viewers: "What did she say? Did I hear that right?"

Nobody in the mainstream media picked up on it the next day. But Republicans, including Zeldin,  and conservative outlets immediately tweeted the comment and replayed the video. Over and over again.

It was "a mistake," a Democratic strategist anonymously acknowledged afterwards.

What about a Zeldin gaffe? 

Perhaps its is a Gothamist.com story yesterday that said the family of a man shot by police in 2018 wants a video of the fatal shooting removed from a Zeldin anti-crime campaign commercial. But the chances of that moving undecided voters seem dim because the man was brandishing what looked like a gun when he was shot.

https://gothamist.com/news/lee-zeldins-ad-shows-a-mans-final-moments-his-family-wants-it-removed

The posting of  another videotaped death is seen as a much more serious gaffe by Democrat Congressional candidate Anthony D'Esposito. He posted on his twitter account the horrifying video of a beloved New York City paramedic from Long Island being stabbed to death in Queens. Newsday reported the video was posted for 29 minutes before D'Esposito replaced it with a link to a New York Post story about the crime.

Newsday wrote about the gaffe twice. But if the video is so gruesome, why did the writer say he watched  five times? Wasn't once enough?

D'Esposito, a Hempstead Town Councilman and retired New York City police detective, is running for the District 4 Congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City).

The Democratic challenger is former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, who clashed with D'Esposito during her two years as supervisor of the country's largest town from 2018 through 2019.

Throughout her campaign, Gillen has stressed her experience as Hempstead supervisor.

Her mistake?

Misspelling Hempstead  in a recent mailer.

Gillen has concentrated on defending abortion rights. So why did she attack D'Esposito by posting a photo and story involving Liz Cheney, a lameduck Republican Congresswoman who is an avowed anti-abortionist.

                                                                                   

Does anyone think Putin even knows where Hempstead Town is? Or ever heard of  D'Esposito?

Then there is the interview D'Esposito, gave to the left-leaning semafor.com.. His goof was not preparing for the interview with the former Buzzfeed reporter. The result was a stuttering response when asked if he would support a 15-week ban on abortion. 

"Probaby," he said initially. Then, after an unnamed spokesman intervened, D'Esposito said, " I rescind what I say when I say ‘probably.’

 

Samafor.com photo

Some dismayed Republicans say D'Esposiito never should have given an interview to the liberal outlet.

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/24/2022/new-yorks-long-island-becomes-a-battleground 

Gillen pounced and posted the interview on her twitter feed.

Finally, for now, there is waffling by Republican George Santos, who is running against Democrat Robert Zimmerman for the 3rd District Congressional seat being vacating by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove.).

Understand that Democrats in general have tried to gain advantage by referencing Republican President Donald Trump and his claim that the 2020 election was fixed for Democrat Joe Biden. They also contend that a Jan. 6 protest of the election was an attempt to overthrow the government. Others deem it a three-hour riot that caused far less destruction and injury than BLM protests  in the summer of 2020.

In an joint interview,  Marcia Kramer of CBS-TV asked Santos what he thinks of deliberations by the Democrat-dominated J6 committee: "I think its the prerogative of the committee, if they have enough corroborating evidence and they want to put that blame Donald Trump, that's on them."

Zimmerman said, "George, you defended Donald Trump." 

He said Santos claimed in a tv interview that the president's Jan. 6 speech "was Donald Trump at his most awesomeness."

Santos responded, ""He was energized. It was a great speech."

Zimmerman and Santos