In a moment ripped straight from the sidelines at Talladega, Governor Kathy Hochul claimed on Monday that when a crowd of New Yorkers began chanting “Tax the rich!” at a rally for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, all she’d heard was, “Let’s go Bills!”
Hochul gave the implausible explanation when she was asked about the chanting and whether she would stand firm on not raising taxes despite Mamdani’s repeated calls for higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers — and on corporations that do business in the city, whether they are located within the city limits or not.
WATCH:
Kathy Hochul oddly drags Buffalo Bills into ‘tax the rich’ chant that overwhelmed her appearance at Zohran Mamdani rally https://t.co/tTLLtrO6Nv pic.twitter.com/1vBIiNrzL6
— New York Post (@nypost) October 27, 2025
“Given the reception that you received last night at Zohran’s rally where people were chanting, ‘Tax the rich, Tax the rich,’ are you going to hold the line on raising taxes even if it means losing an endorsement or getting a primary challenge?” the New York Post’s Stephen Vago asked.
“I couldn’t hear what they were chanting,” Hochul claimed, before adding, “I thought they were saying, ‘Let’s go [Buffalo] Bills.’ I wasn’t sure. When you’re up there, I heard some noise. I heard a lot of cheers. But later on it became clear to me that there’s a — I know there’s a passion for that.”
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Hochul left out the fact that she was in New York City at the time — where they have two NFL teams — and therefore a little over six hours away from Buffalo, New York, by car. She went on to say that she really hoped Democrats could harness the “energy” behind those cheers in order to win back control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) shot back, “The #BillsMafia won’t forget. What a trainwreck @KathyHochul is every single day.”
The #BillsMafia won’t forget
What a trainwreck @KathyHochul is every single day. https://t.co/dBgS5giRI2
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) October 27, 2025
Others pointed out how similar that moment was to the time the “Let’s go, Brandon” chant was born — when NBC reporter Kelli Stavast heard a crowd of NASCAR fans at Talladega chanting “F*** Joe Biden” and claimed she believed they’d been chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer on winning driver Brandon Brown.
