Former Gov. George Pataki (R- NY) sat down for a live interview during CBS 6 News at 5 p.m. Wednesday to talk about the resignation of Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin (D-NY) and more.
George Pataki was a three-term governor of the State of New York from 1995 to 2006 and the last Republican to be elected to statewide office.
Benjamin, the now former lieutenant governor, resigned Tuesday after federal authorities issued an indictment against him leveling allegations of campaign finance fraud. The concerns over Benjamin’s past were not a secret. The indictment says the concerns were known as soon as Jan. 2021.
CBS 6 News Anchors Anne McCloy and Greg Floyd asked Pataki to weigh in on the latest scandal rocking Albany. Pataki appointed plenty of high-ranking staffers who had to be vetted during his time as governor.
It's inconceivable that someone with that level of baggage could go through a vetting process and be appointed to the most important position, apart from Governor in the State of New York,” Pataki said.
Pataki says that when he would vet people, the New York State Police would do extensive background checks.
It’s just really sad, from Spitzer, to Cuomo and now Benjamin, New York is becoming the laughing stock of the country, and that’s not what we want to be,” he said.
When questioned on WNYC Radio Wednesday about why she made Benjamin her pick, Gov. Kathy Hochul said “I made the best decision I could with the information I had at the time. But clearly we need to have a different process, a more strengthened, streamlined process.”
She added that she's "disappointed" in how things turned out with Benjamin.
CBS 6: The political ramifications of this are wide ranging, how do you think this affects Gov. Hochul and her electability? Does this open the door for a Republican to win in November or for someone to defeat Hochul in a primary?
Pataki: "I've felt for some time that the Republicans can win in New York State. This is just the latest issue, but it's the fact that crime is out of control, it’s the face that the school system is not performing, it's the fact that in the suburbs you can afford to pay your school taxes, there are so many issues."
Pataki also spoke to CBS 6 about his work in Ukraine on a humanitarian mission. He has been to Ukraine twice since the war first began and has seen firsthand what the Ukrainian people are going through. He says that there are seven to eight million refugees internally displaced that have nothing and are being left without homes, family and food.
What we decided to do was to bring in relief ourselves. Over the last month or so, the Pataki Center has sent in about 70 tons of food, we’ve sent in medicine, supplies and now we're building houses, temporary homes. We’ve built 40 and were gonna build more and were working with the Ukrainian government. Let me tell you it's so sad because you hear about these billions of aid and billion of relief that the west is providing, we've haven’t seen one nickel of that in Ukraine itself, which is why we’re trying to fill this void."
CBS 6 will continue to update you on all things regarding Benjamin's resignation and what is next for New York State.