In the wake of yet another horrific incident on the New York City public transportation system, Trump Administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy trolled woke New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) over her continued failure to do what she claimed she would, noting that this was another signal failure for her attempts to succeed without Trump’s help.
For reference, the spat between Secretary Duffy and Gov. Hochul began back in March of this year when, after violence across the nation’s public transit systems, such as a shooting in Chicago and chaos in New York City, Secretary Duffy appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” and explained that the Trump Administration would yank funding away from cities that don’t keep their systems safe.
He first explained that one of the requirements made of cities and states that take federal money for public transporation is that they keep it usable by keeping it safe and free of crime, telling FNC, “We give millions of dollars a year to the New York subway, and part of the requirement is they keep it safe.”
He added that if they can’t keep it safe, they’re going to lose their funding, saying, “And so, what we’re going to do is say, ‘Listen, if you can’t keep your subways safe. If people can’t go to the subway and not be afraid of being stabbed or thrown in front of tracks or burnt, and we can’t consider the subway a subway and not a homeless shelter, we’re going to pull your money.’”
He then further noted that while New York was first in his sights, every city faces such cuts if they don’t fix the crime issue immediately. “And it’s not just to New York; it’ll be Chicago, it’ll be Washington, D.C. The American people expect their subways to be places where they can come in and out of cities and do it safely. If they don’t get on board to change their ways, we’re pulling cash,” he declared.
Gov. Hochul angrily responded to the secretary’s threats by saying that her state was perfectly fine and could manage its own safety, saying, somewhat later, “Tell Sean Duffy, we’ve got this.” She further emphasized her plan, which had been announced in January, to keep things safe by sticking NYPD agents on every overnight train.
Specifically, at the time, she said, “I want to see uniformed police on the platforms, but more importantly, we will put an officer on every single train, overnight – 9 p.m. to 5 a.m – over the next six months and the state will support these efforts financially.”
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But then, this September, as she gloated that her investments in keeping the subways safe were paying off and that Duffy could be told that New York has “got this,” or solved the crime problem, a horrific stabbing took place on a subway in Queens. Duffy took the opportunity to troll the New York governor, posting a screeshot of her claim that New York could manage by itself and commenting, “I don’t think you do, Kathy.”
Watch Duffy comment on revoking New York’s subway funding here: