Nancy Pelosi says NY Democrats whiffed on crime: 'The governor didn’t realize soon enough'

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Nancy Pelosi delivers final news conference as House Speaker

Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram takes a look at the GOP's response to the January 6 committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's departing news conference on 'Special Report.'

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told the New York Times that the Democrats wouldn't have lost the House if New York politicians recognized that crime was a top issue in the state. 

Pelosi also said in an interview with New York Times opinion columnist Maureen Dowd that Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., did not realize the crime issue "soon enough."  

"That is an issue that had to be dealt with early on, not 10 days before the election," Pelosi told the New York Times. "The governor didn’t realize soon enough where the trouble was."

Hochul defeated Republican Lee Zeldin in the state's gubernatorial race in November after Zeldin gained some ground and made crime in New York a key issue for his campaign. 

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivers remarks from the House Chambers of the U.S. Capitol Building on November 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Hochul claimed Zeldin was trying to scare people on crime ahead of the November midterm elections and said it was part of the Republican playbook. 

She also called Republicans "master manipulators" on crime and claimed the GOP was pushing a "conspiracy" with the crime issue. 

"These are master manipulators. They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people that in Democratic states that they’re not as safe. Well guess what? They’re also not only election deniers, they’re data deniers," she said in November.  

Hochul acknowledged a crime problem days later and said she had been working on crime throughout her time as governor. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul talks to reporters after visiting the Hamilton Housing Development on West 73rd Street and Broadway in the Upper West side of Manhattan, New York. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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Dowd also asked Pelosi if she believed the president, who would be 86 at the end of his term, should make way for new leadership as well. 

The former House speaker said that President Biden had done a great job but added that age was not a "positive thing" for him.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, holds her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 29, 2022.  (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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"I think Jill is ready to go, for him to run," she said. 

Pelosi told Dowd that Biden was not the only Democrat that could beat former president Donald Trump in 2024. 

"I think we have other great candidates when the time comes," she said.