A female jogger in New York City was raped Thursday by a homeless man wanted for two sex crimes with at least 25 prior arrests.
The shocking attack on the West Side occurred just hours before former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at a Manhattan rally for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, accused Republicans of trying to scare voters about a crime wave.
Carl Phanor, 29, was arrested at the Port Authority bus station hours after the assault, which took place around 5:30 a.m. at Pier 45, the New York Post reported.
According to law enforcement officials, he grabbed the 43-year-old woman from behind and choked her until she passed out, then sexually assaulted her and robbed her.
New York City officials charged Mr. Phanor with rape, grand larceny, predatory sexual assault and invalid credit card use.
The assault was another of the daily violent crimes plaguing New York and other cities across the country — part of a crime wave that Republicans have highlighted in the 2022 midterm campaigns. The GOP is accusing Democratic leaders, including Mrs. Hochul, of supporting soft-on-crime policies that they say fuel lawlessness.
Mrs. Clinton disputed the GOP narrative when she joined Vice President Kamala Harris at the event for Mrs. Hochul, whose campaign has been scrambling to gain traction in a tightening race against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin.
“They don’t care about keeping you safe,” Mrs. Clinton said about Republicans at the rally at Barnard College. “They want to keep you scared.”
She went on to say, “I see … ads about crime every 30 seconds,” Mrs. Clinton said. “No solutions, but just a lot of really fearful, scary pictures and scary music.”
Mrs. Clinton also reminded Mrs. Hochul’s supporters of the attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband last week, leaving him with a skull fracture. She said it showed that Republicans are uncaring toward crime victims.
“Then a terrible crime happens in San Francisco; an intruder hits an 82-year-old man in the head with a hammer — who happens to be married to the speaker of the House — and the Republicans joke about it,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Mrs. Hochul made a similar remark when she appeared on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” on Sunday and told the host, the Rev. Al Sharpton, that Republicans were “data deniers.”
“These are master manipulators. They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people 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.
All three Democratic female leaders focused mainly on issues related to abortion rights and how Mrs. Hochul has the opportunity to become the first woman to be elected New York governor. She became the first woman to serve as governor after Andrew Cuomo resigned from office following a sexual harassment scandal.
Fighting rising crime in New York has been central to Mr. Zeldin’s campaign platform, and it has helped move the race remarkably close in the deep-blue state.
Mr. Zeldin inched ahead of Mrs. Hochul with 48.4% to 47.6% in a recent survey by the Trafalgar Group.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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