Lee Zeldin is running for governor of New York on a platform that leans heavily into criticism of rising crime in the state. A few months ago Zeldin was attacked on stage and predicted his attacker would be immediately released. He turned out to be correct about that which Chris Hayes and other progressives immediately spun into a conspiracy theory about the attacker being released in order to help Zeldin’s campaign. That wasn’t true of course but they had a hard time believing this kind of object lesson on crime could have happened to Zeldin by chance.

Jump forward to yesterday and another object lesson on crime seems to have visited Zeldin’s Long Island home. There was an apparently drive-by shooting and two teenagers were found shot in Zeldin’s front yard.

A Bloods gang beef may have prompted the shooting outside the Long Island home of gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, police sources said Monday — as the brother of one of the targets admitted he first thought his sibling was joking about the gunplay…

A neighbor recounted the terrifying moment when the shots rang out.

“I heard the gunshots, seven to nine of them, and I went into my daughter’s room,” Tonya Vasquez, who lives across the street, told The Post.

“I heard the screaming, a young man’s voice screaming, ‘Call 911! Call 911!’ Just crying and screaming, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!,’” she said…

Suffolk County police said three teenagers were walking on Saint George Drive West around 2:19 p.m. Sunday when “a dark-colored vehicle” drove by “and an occupant fired multiple gunshots through the vehicle’s window.”

Zeldin and his wife weren’t home at the time of the shooting. They had attended a parade in the Bronx and were in the car on the way home when it happened. Zeldin issued a statement last night saying his daughters were inside the house and immediately ran upstairs and called 911 when they heard the shots. He said one of the bullets had landed about 30 feet from his daughters. “The two individuals who were shot were laying under my front porch and the bushes in front of our porch,” he said. He added, “Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door.”

Thank you to all who reached out regarding the 2 people shot this afternoon outside my home. Mikayla and Arianna were at the kitchen table doing homework. One of the bullets landed just 30 ft away. They acted very swiftly and smartly and Diana and I are extremely proud of them. pic.twitter.com/7oo6IwhTf5

— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) October 9, 2022

Last night, Zeldin was asked by local media to come out and speak to them about what happened. He agreed but apparently the first question put to him was why he was politicizing the shooting so soon after it happened. You can hear him talk about it in this Fox News interview from this morning.

I wasn’t able to find video of Zeldin’s complete statement but the NY Times did include that in their story on the shooting.

When asked by a reporter whether this was an appropriate time to talk about politics, Mr. Zeldin became animated. “At what point are we supposed to talk about the crime on our own streets?” he said. “I’m standing in front of crime scene tape in front of my own house.”

This CBS New York report shows Zeldin’s response to the question about why he’s talking about politics: