Newsmax host Greg Kelly faced growing criticism Thursday over a remark he made about Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul while trying to boost the candidacy of her Republican rival Rep. Lee Zeldin ahead of the November election.

“Kathy Hochul has not really done much of anything, other than, I’m sorry but, be somebody’s wife,” Kelly said while interviewing Zeldin, who pivoted to a recurring campaign talking point.

“She’s in over her head. She’s been a walking identity crisis,” Zeldin responded.

The Long Island congressman is running against Hochul in an election that Republicans hope will be their first statewide victory in two decades, with Hochul’s changing positions on gun rights and immigration becoming key focal points.

“No surprise here, another misogynistic attack from Lee Zeldin and his fellow right-wing propagandists on Newsmax,” Hochul campaign spokeswoman Jen Goodman said in a statement that blamed Zeldin for the host’s remark.

Bill Hochul currently works as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Delaware North, a global hospitality and entertainment company. That role has drawn criticism from her political rivals since his wife became governor, especially after she struck a deal with the NFL and Erie County to fund a $1.4 billion stadium for the Buffalo Bills with $850 million in public money.

The company claims Bill Hochul has recused himself from matters involving his wife’s administration.

Financial disclosures with the state show he earns between $450,000 and $550,000 in salary from the company.

A clip of the Kelly-Zeldin exchange quickly got thousands of views online as Democratic elected officials and others took advantage of its momentum — blasting Kelly while also leveraging his comment against Zeldin. 

“Listen to the misogyny spewing from Greg Kelly’s mouth. Equally reprehensible is Lee Zeldin’s failure to correct him. @GovKathyHochul is the highest-ranking official in NY and she’s attacked for being a wife, for being a woman. That sums up Zeldin’s views on women,” Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) tweeted alongside a pig emoji. 

“Lee, you’re in over your head. You’ll have lots of time in 2023 to be somebody’s husband,” added Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) in a post. 

Some viewers expressed befuddlement that Kelly would say that Hochul, a sitting governor of one of the nation’s most populous states, would somehow be overshadowed by her husband Bill, a relatively obscure former federal prosecutor. 

“Attorney. Town Board. County Clerk. Congresswoman. Lieutenant Governor. Governor. THAT’S a resume,” Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Nassau) tweeted about Hochul, who has not been elected governor, taking over when disgraced Andrew Cuomo resigned last August.

Hochul, for her part, kept it simple in her own social media response:

“If you’re looking for a label to give me, you can just call me ‘Governor.’” she said on her personal account.

“‘Governor’ Kathy Hochul has been elevated multiple times to higher positions of power capitalizing on scandal around her & taking positions she found advantageous at the time, only to flip flop to the opposite position in the future,” Zeldin tweeted in response.

Kelly, a former “Good Day New York” host, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The son of former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly has a track record of making controversial, and sometimes strange, comments on a wide range of topics like race. 

Prosecutors dropped a high-profile rape case against him a decade ago.