Democrat-led cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, that don’t protect citizens on public transit systems should not receive federal funding, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Newsmax on Tuesday night.
Duffy appeared on “Finnerty” to discuss the recent fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska by a career criminal on a Charlotte train, and his department’s investigation into transportation systems that receive taxpayer dollars.
“It’s not just Charlotte, it’s New York, it’s Chicago, it’s Boston. It’s others who failed to keep their riders safe,” Duffy told host Rob Finnerty. “Again, they have these priorities where again, if you ride a train, it’s for the homeless or it’s for the criminals, not for the good people of your community. And so in this investigation, we’re going to look and see how much their money is actually spent on law enforcement, keeping people safe.
“In this community, they have an honor system to get on their transit system. You’re not forced to even pay. Those are the things that we look at.
“But I think every single American watching this show would say, you know what? My tax dollars shouldn’t go to fund a transportation system like this or others that a 23-year-old girl who’s coming home from work late at night can’t get on safely and ride. If that’s what they want to have, they can fund it themselves. But my tax dollars shouldn’t go to a system that is [such a debacle]. That they won’t keep these young people safe.”
Duffy added that “the only equity we have is money at DOT with transit systems.”
“We’ll pull that,” he said. “And by the way, we give a lot of money to local transportation systems. And again they rely on our cash. We’re going to pull it if we find what we think we’re going to find in this investigation”
The secretary said Zarutska’s murder affected him greatly because he has “daughters the same age as this young woman who died in the train.”
“We got here because we have liberal politicians, whether it’s a DA, it’s a city council, it’s mayors, it’s governors who don’t stand up and fight for the people they’re supposed to fight for, which is the people who probably, Rob, can’t afford an Uber or a driver service like these liberals, or they don’t have a car,” Duffy told Finnerty.
“They have to take public transportation like this young girl did, and they don’t seem to care about putting their safety and security first. They want to put the rights and the priorities of criminals and the homeless ahead of the good people of their community. This is shameful. This is evil. This is wrong.
“Thank God we have Donald Trump in office who says, you know what, you might live in a liberal city, but you live in America and every American deserves to be safe and secure on all transportation, including places like Charlotte.”
