Gov. Kathy Hochul looked like a "deer in headlights" and appeared defensive and dismissive while Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman repeatedly attacked her over New York's high energy costs, taxes and rising antisemitism during Tuesday's gubernatorial debate, according to a human behavior and body language expert cited by the New York Post.
Dr. Lillian Glass, who holds doctorates in counseling psychology and communication disorders and has testified in court as an expert witness in the field, told the Post that the incumbent's performance did not come off well for someone holding the state's highest office, and that it signaled a lack of preparation. Blakeman, she said, gave an aggressive showing and at points visibly displayed anger as he pressed his case against the governor.
"It did not come off well, especially for somebody who is an incumbent governor," Glass said, according to the Post account.
According to Glass, Hochul's defensive posture showed up in long pauses before she answered questions, frequent smiling and looking down at the podium, and smiling while Blakeman spoke. Glass contrasted that with the Republican challenger, who she said went straight to his answers and returned accusations that were straightforward and direct.
"There was also a lot of pause time where she had to take her time to manufacture an answer. Whereas Blakeman just went right to it and had answers right back to her and had accusations that were very, very straightforward towards her," Glass told the Post.
"What's happening is you're seeing Kathy Hochul really embarrassed. She's blinking a lot and she's looking down, smiling. She's not handling this well," Glass added. She also described what she called a closing off of Hochul's throat and a nasality that she said was difficult to listen to.
The debate itself covered territory that has defined the contest: immigration enforcement, affordability, energy costs and the state's response to high-profile campus violence. Blakeman, according to the Post's account, pounced during an exchange about changing state laws in response to 2024 Cornell University gang rape accusations. He accused the governor of failing to use either her emeritus board seat at the Ivy League university or the state's leverage over the institution to demand a more immediate investigation.
"As a trustee and as governor, you didn't call for an independent investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case. Shame on you," Blakeman charged, according to the Post.
In the same exchange, the Post reported Hochul replied that the university failed the young woman involved. Coverage from Spectrum News described the event as the first and only debate of New York's gubernatorial race, with the two candidates clashing on ICE and affordability. The New York Times reported the contenders sparred over issues including data centers and immigration in a debate that reflected the contentious nature of the contest. RedState, in its account, said Blakeman left Hochul "short circuiting" during the contentious night, while another report said Blakeman repeatedly pounded the governor over what he called soft policies on undocumented immigrants, whom he accused of being responsible for numerous violent crimes.
The body language assessment drew attention across conservative and mainstream outlets alike, with the Post's story circulating through aggregators and social feeds that carried the "deer in headlights" characterization to a wider audience. The claims about how the candidates presented themselves come from an expert cited in that reporting and are being described here as what is being alleged about the candidates' on-stage demeanor, not as an independently established account of the debate.
Next News Network could not independently verify the body language expert's characterizations of either candidate's performance.
Our Take
The verdict from the body language expert is damning for an incumbent governor, and it matches what viewers saw play out over the course of the debate: Kathy Hochul on her heels, Bruce Blakeman on the attack, and a Republican challenger who came prepared to prosecute the case against one-party rule in Albany. The issues Blakeman hammered, energy costs, taxes, antisemitism and the state's handling of campus violence, are the issues New Yorkers are living with every day. When an incumbent looks like a deer in headlights defending her own record, that is not a stylistic problem, it is a political one. The debate was the only chance New Yorkers will get to see the two candidates side by side, and by the account of a professional observer, one of them was manufacturing answers while the other was delivering them. That contrast is the story of this race.
