The family of Saheed Vassell, a man who was shot dead by the New York police, asked the ultraconservative Lee Zeldin, congressman in Washington and Republican candidate for governor of the state of New York, to remove from one of his promotional videos the final moments of Vassell. The relatives maintain that this image causes them "terrible pain and suffering." Zeldin has invested millions of dollars in a campaign on television, on Facebook, on Twitter or on YouTube in which he describes the Big Apple as hell, following the script of his admired Donald Trump.
In 30 seconds, the production endorsed by the Republican candidate shows a dozen scenes of violent acts in the streets (shots, knife attacks, attacks with fists, looting...) while screams are heard in the background. There is such an amount of violence that on YouTube they put one of those warnings in which it is required to confirm the age before seeing the video.
This is the strategy of Zeldin, 42, to attack the current governor and Democratic candidate, Kathy Hochul, 64. But his imagery is not only an exaggeration – it is true that there is more crime in the city, but the terraces and restaurants deny that fear every day–, but it is also false, manipulated. The sequence is so fast that it gives the impression that Vassell is carrying a gun. The narrator says that "we're looking at real crimes caught on camera in Kathy Hochul's New York," and then advises the vote for Zeldin as if "your life depended on it." Vassell, who was 34 years old, was not carrying a gun; the agents fired five shots at him after mistaking a piece of pipe for a weapon. And it happened in 2018, three years before Hochul reached the state government and did it on the rebound (she was number two). This is the first time that she has appeared at the polls for that position, due to the resignation of Andrew Cuomo due to the alleged sexual harassment of several collaborators.
That dark portrait of New York served Zeldin to appeal to the audience during the only debate between the two candidates. "You are poorer and less secure because of Kathy Hochul," he proclaimed. The message of rising prices and crime has resonated to the point that a rapprochement between the two candidates was unimaginable a few weeks ago. "It is really extraordinary that the Democrats have to be defending New York," commented a political strategist before Zeldin's cut in the polls to the party's candidate, which doubles in affiliates to the Republican. There are polls that give Hochul only four points above the rival.
The most unthinkable of all is that Zeldin, a representative for Long Island in the Lower House of Congress, is one of the most faithful servants of Trump, who is a true pariah in this state. In the city, where he always enjoyed little love, he suffered a crushing defeat in 2020. In the state total, the former president lost by 23 points to Joe Biden.
Zeldin, without being one of the most extreme Trumpists, exonerated the former president for the coup assault on January 6, 2021 and then voted against Biden's victory. The relationship with Trump goes back a long way. In 2014, the then-reality showman and real estate mogul endorsed Zeldin in his campaign for Congress. Zeldin reciprocated, being one of the first who in 2015 endorsed his career to the White House. "America wants brutally honest and sometimes politically incorrect leadership," the congressman said.
Entrenched in his anti-abortion stance – another factor very much against New York – Zeldin stressed that he will win the elections “because of the obsession of Hochul and the Democrats against the former president.” The bottom line is that his rivals have focused on linking Zeldin to Trump. Only by certifying the permanent trickle of the narrative of fear promoted by the Republican, well supported by the Fox network and the reactionary tabloid The New York Post (both owned by Rupert Murdoch), has it led Hochul and the Democrats to counter that narrative with a greater police deployment, especially in the subway.
Zeldin insists that if he wins, he will declare a temporary state of emergency to curb crime, and throws balls out for Trump. Although he could give him votes, he never criticizes the former president. Perhaps because she knows that the image of his friendship with him is so well known that denying it would make no sense.
