Gov. Kathy Hochul was defensive and dismissive while drawing fiery attacks from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman during Tuesday\u2019s New York gubernatorial debate, a human behavior and body language expert said. <\/p>\n
While the incumbent looked like \u201ca deer in headlights,\u201d her GOP opponent gave an aggressive showing \u2014 repeatedly attacking Hochul over New York\u2019s high energy costs, taxes, and rising antisemitism, Dr. Lillian Glass told The Post. <\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman faced off in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in New York. Anna Connors\/Pool The New York Times via AP<\/p>\n
Blakeman at points even visibly displayed his \u201canger,\u201d according to Glass, who holds doctorates in counseling psychology and communication disorders and has testified in court as an expert witness in the field.<\/p>\n
Glass provided her expert insight on some key moments during the debate: <\/p>\n
Hochul stumbles out of the gate<\/p>\n
Hochul stumbled in her opening statement as she shot off her first of nearly 20 mentions of President Trump through the hour-long program.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019re going to hear a lot of\u2026 lot of\u2026 different opinions here this evening,\u201d Hochul said, struggling to find her words \u2014 something Glass said she thinks exudes Hochul\u2019s \u201cdefensiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did not come off well, especially for somebody who is an incumbent governor,\u201d Glass said, noting it showed a lack of preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot good. Not a good look,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hochul on her back foot<\/p>\n
Hochul\u2019s defensive posture extended to taking long pauses before answering questions, frequently smiling and looking down at the podium, and smiling as Blakeman talked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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,\u201d Glass said, praising the Long Island pol\u2019s swipes.<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul debates with Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman during the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Anna Connors\/Pool The New York Times via AP<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening is you\u2019re seeing Kathy Hochul really embarrassed. She\u2019s blinking a lot and she\u2019s looking down, smiling. She\u2019s not handling this well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Overall, Blakeman just presented better, according to the expert. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a closing off of her throat, there\u2019s a nasality that\u2019s very difficult to listen to,\u201d Glass said of Hochul.<\/p>\n
The Cornell Moment<\/p>\n
Blakeman pounced on the Democratic governor during an exchange about changing state laws in response to the 2024 Cornell University gang rape accusations. Blakeman accused the governor of not using her emeritus board seat at the Ivy League University or the state\u2019s leverage over the institution to demand a more immediate investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a trustee and as governor, you didn\u2019t call for an independent investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case. Shame on you,\u201d Blakeman charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe university failed that young woman,\u201d Hochul replied, staring straight ahead into the camera with a blank look on her face.<\/p>\n
Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman speaks during a debate with Gov. Kathy Hochul in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Anna Connors\/Pool The New York Times via AP<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was like a deer in the headlights,\u201d Glass said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a person losing a lot of points and a lot of people having respect for her,\u201d the body language expert added.<\/p>\n
Getting the Bruce juiced<\/p>\n
Blakeman could be seen rapidly blinking throughout the debate, something Glass chalked up to \u201canger\u201d instead of nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat you\u2019re seeing the jaw movement and the eye blinking is not insecurity. It\u2019s anger at what she\u2019s saying,\u201d Glass said.<\/p>\n
This was especially noticeable as Hochul was peppering Blakeman with accusations of being politically joined at the hip with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s angry, and he wants to tell the truth, and wants to fight back,\u201d Glass said.<\/p>\n
Blakeman needs a spark to close the 9-to-11-point gap in recent polls as Democrats hold a marked registration advantage in deeply blue New York.<\/p>\n
Hochul remains highly unpopular in polls, but Blakeman still faces an uphill battle to unseat the incumbent, who first took office in 2021 when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace.<\/p>\n
Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Nicholas Perrone contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul was defensive and dismissive while drawing fiery attacks from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1626,5200,426,57,9,11,10,13895,58],"class_list":["post-372798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-debate","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-ny-governor-election-2026","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}