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Trump tells New York to fire Hochul and Letitia James on Election Day

Photo: Daniel Torok / Public domain (source)

Trump in Syracuse: Tell Hochul and ‘That Disgusting Letitia Dog’ They’re Fired

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanOctober 10, 2026 · 4 min read
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President Trump went to Syracuse on Friday night, October 9, and told New York voters exactly what he wants them to do on November 3: fire Gov. Kathy Hochul and fire Attorney General Letitia James. Speaking at the Oncenter to a crowd that syracuse.com put at 2,500, he did it in some of the bluntest language of the campaign.

“And on Election Day, New Yorkers should tell both Hochul and that disgusting Letitia dog,” Trump said. “You see that dog? You’re fired. Get the hell out of here. You’re fired. They’re corrupt.”

The line will be replayed for days. But underneath the insult is a real political argument, and a real race that is tighter than New York Democrats are used to.

A rally for Blakeman, aimed at the whole ticket

The rally was billed as a boost for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor. Trump spoke for more than an hour and 20 minutes, according to syracuse.com, hitting Hochul on immigration and energy, complaining about the state’s economy, and claiming credit for Micron Technology’s plan to invest $100 billion in semiconductor factories in nearby Clay.

He also used the stage to go after the attorney general, who is on the same ballot. James is seeking re-election against Republican Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor and Harvard Law graduate who clerked for Brett Kavanaugh when he was a judge on the D.C. Circuit. Trump gave her a shout-out from the stage, according to NBC News. The two met in a heated NY1 debate on October 8, where Komatireddy told viewers, “New Yorkers, you do not have an attorney general right now,” and called James “a political hack sitting in the chair using our taxpayer money.”

The numbers behind the noise

On paper, both Democrats are favored. But the trend lines are not what Albany expected.

In the September Siena College poll, reported by Fox News, James led Komatireddy 52 percent to 39 percent. That is still a comfortable margin, but her lead shrank by five points from August, and two-thirds of likely voters said they did not know enough about Komatireddy to have an opinion of her. In other words, a challenger most voters have never heard of is already within 13 points of the sitting attorney general. The poll’s margin of error was about four points, so the shift should be read with some caution.

The same poll had Hochul ahead of Blakeman 50 percent to 41 percent, up from 49 to 39 in August. Nine points in deep-blue New York is not a landslide.

That is the context for Friday’s rally. Trump was not just venting. He was telling a Republican crowd that both races are worth fighting for, and naming the two people at the top of the state’s Democratic ticket in a single breath.

Why it is personal

The feud between Trump and James is older than this campaign. James built her national profile on the civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business, accusing him of overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. She won a staggering judgment at trial, but a higher court later threw out the fine, and both sides are appealing, according to the Associated Press.

Then the tables turned, briefly. In October 2025, James was indicted on federal mortgage fraud charges in Virginia, accused of buying a Norfolk house under a second-home rider and renting it out. In November 2025, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the case without prejudice, ruling that the U.S. attorney who brought it, Lindsey Halligan, had been illegally appointed. In December 2025, a Virginia grand jury declined to return a new indictment. James has denied wrongdoing throughout and accused the administration of using the justice system for revenge.

She is also back in the headlines for a different reason. Hochul recently appointed James special prosecutor in the investigation of an alleged gang rape at Cornell University, and Komatireddy has accused her of prejudging the case. “She’s already screwed this one up by prejudging it,” Komatireddy said at the debate. James defended her earlier remarks: “Those comments demonstrate empathy.”

The response

James’s campaign did not take the bait on the insult itself. A spokesperson told NBC News, “The contrast is crystal clear and we welcome it,” and pointed to Komatireddy’s clerkship for Kavanaugh as if that were a disqualification.

Plenty of people, including some who will vote Republican, will wince at the word Trump used. He has never been a candidate who tones it down, and his supporters do not expect him to start in a state that spent years trying to put him out of business. What matters more on November 3 is whether voters who are tired of high costs, rising crime worries and an attorney general they see as more interested in Trump than in New York decide the incumbents have earned another term.

Trump’s answer to that question was not subtle. The voters get the final word.

New York votes in 24 days, and Trump just told a Syracuse arena precisely which two Democrats he wants it to fire.

Sources

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