Tom Suozzi slams Gov. Kathy Hochul for past NRA endorsement in new ad

New York gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi is hitting Gov. Kathy Hochul where it hurts in a new campaign ad targeting her past stance on guns in the wake of two horrific mass shootings in Texas that have rocked the nation. 

The ad featured two New York Post devastating cover stories – the May 23 report about the Q-train subway killing that took the life of  Kyhara Tay, the 11-year-old shot and killed in The Bronx. 

“Subway shootings, guns flooding our streets, losing children, losing parents, and a governor who voted with the NRA in Congress and has done nothing on crime,” seethes Suozzi during a 30-second, half-million-dollar ad buy released this weekend that will play statewide on broadcast and cable television.

Suozzi then slams Hochul through her own words – by including a clip of her boasting that she was “one of the two Democrats who received the NRA endorsement” during her failed 2012 congressional bid.

Hochul was one of two Democrats endorsed that year by the National Rifle Association. She won a special election in 2011 making her the congresswoman for Western New York’s 27th district, which is right-leaning. 

“We need to stop the bleeding – now. I’ll fix bail reform so families can feel safe here and I’ll cut taxes so families can afford to live here. I’ve got the record and the resolve. This has got to stop. When I’m Governor. I’ll stop it,” Suozzi says, ending the ad by walking down into a subway station entrance. 

The Big Apple has been rocked by a series of violent incidents on the subway. 

Since January, the NYPD has recorded four homicides on trains or in subway stations.

Hochul has batted off criticism of her NRA endorsement, arguing she should now be judged for how she acts as governor rather than in previous positions.

She did unveil several executive orders and a legislative package aimed at strengthening New York’s gun laws in the wake of the horrific, racially charged massacre that left ten people dead in Buffalo earlier this month. 

The governor also wants to create a new unit within the Empire State’s Office of Counterterrorism to prevent domestic terrorism and wants the state police to start tracking extremism through social media. 

Another measure would create a new state police requirement on the books that says officers must file for an extreme risk protection order under New York’s red flag law whenever they have probable cause that a person is a threat to themselves or others. 

Hochul also directed state Attorney General Letitia James to launch an investigation into how Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron used social media to spread “replacement theory,’ which argues Democrats are trying to replace white Americans with non-white immigrants.

Taking measures a step further after last week’s tragic killing of 19 Texas schoolchildren and two teachers, Hochul announced that she wants to ban those under age 21 from purchasing AR-15 rifles in New York.

“The horrific shooting of 19 children and two teachers in Texas, not even two weeks after the mass murder of ten New Yorkers in Buffalo, is yet another infuriating reminder of the plague of gun violence facing our nation,” Hochul said on May 25, according to a press release from her office.

“These are steps we shouldn’t have to take, but I am convening an emergency meeting of the state’s School Safety Improvement Team and directing State Police to increase visibility at schools to make sure we are doing everything in our power to prevent the next tragedy.”

A representative for Hochul’s campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.