Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was met with boos on Thursday as dozens of protesters sounded off towards potential cuts to a high-speed rail challenge in California.
“It’s been 17 years and $16 billion and no rail has been built. So if you want to go protest somewhere, if you want to shout at someone, go to the governor’s mansion, go talk to Democrats in the legislature that have brought us this crappy project,” stated Duffy, whose final line ignited a wave of boos from the group exterior a press convention in Los Angeles’ Union Station.
The transportation secretary pressed on as he touted what the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency “has exposed” by way of “fraud, waste and abuse.”
“We’re done with it. And you know what? You’re going to have people that love fraud, who love waste, who love trains to nowhere. But all of us up here? We do not love fraud, waste and abuse,” stated Duffy, who was flanked by California Republicans.
The protesters — who have been blocked by a curtain that hid them from officers on the presser —hurled boos at officers, appeared to throw a tomato at one lawmaker, chanted “build the rail” and held indicators like “CA Has No King” in addition to “don’t delay our train #buildHSR.”
Duffy instructed reporters that the challenge — which, partly, would hyperlink LA and San Francisco by rail — was as soon as “worthy of investment” solely to be “mismanaged” by state officers, including that President Donald Trump has known as for an investigation.
Duffy then introduced a compliance assessment of over $4 billion in federal funding for the challenge, which has confronted numerous setbacks because it was initially licensed by voters again in 2008.
The determine stems from virtually $1 billion in funding that the Trump administration initially blocked in 2019. President Joe Biden’s administration would later restore that funding in 2021 and, two years later, award $3.3 billion to the challenge.
Funding cuts might pose a “major blow” to the challenge, The Associated Press reported, because the California High-Speed Rail Authority seeks $8 billion from the federal authorities to shut a funding hole.
The Los Angeles-San Francisco rail line alone is estimated to value $106 billion, LA’s ABC 7 famous.
Check out extra clips from the presser under:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-transportation-secretary-sean-duffy-booed-california-rail-project_n_67b84b70e4b08e8417fba75c