House Dem Throws Down with Trump’s Transportation Secretary Over NYC Subway Safety: ‘Don’t Call Me a Liar!’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) got into a heated exchange over the safety of public transit in New York City.

On Tuesday, Duffy testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The purpose of the hearing was to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the Department of Transportation. When Nadler was given the floor to question Duffy, he cited recent crime statistics to argue that Duffy has been mischaracterizing the state of the New York subway system.

“Secretary Duffy, as recently as last week, you again attacked the MTA, claiming that there’s a surge in subway assaults and accusing the agency of withholding information,” Nadler said, adding, “but many of your statements misrepresent the facts and ignore documentation already provided to your department. I want to address some of those claims directly. First, are you aware that major crime in the transit system, including assaults, is down 3% since last year and down 8% since 2019?”

Duffy told Nadler those figures were wrong, claiming assaults within Metro Transit Authority services were actually up 60%. From there, the two repeatedly accused each other of lying:

NADLER: Why do you continue to ignore this and lie about this in your public comments?

DUFFY: My question: why do you continue to lie about people being lit on fire in subways or pushed in front of trains? You should be fighting to make sure your subways are safe.

NADLER: Our subways are safe.

DUFFY: You want people to ride subways. Let’s make subways safe–

NADLER: Reclaiming my time! Our subways are safe, and I gave you these statistics.

DUFFY: They’re wrong.

The two then went at it over congestion pricing. Again, it quickly spiraled into name-calling:

NADLER: Can you identify a single precedent, under any Republican or Democratic administration, for unilaterally rescinding approval of a program like this after it completed the full environmental review process?

DUFFY: So, the example is that you have never had a cordon pricing situation like this where only the elites–

NADLER. Yes, there have been! What do you call the New Jersey Turnpike?

DUFFY: There’s a road right next to it. Every road we have, you can take an additional road to access your point of destination.

NADLER: Secretary Duffy, why do you continue to lie about New York City?

DUFFY: You’re lying! Don’t call me a liar here!

NADLER: I’m calling you a liar because you’ve lied continually.

DUFFY: This is the one area where you have to pay $9 every single day to access Manhattan. That doesn’t exist anywhere else.

NADLER: Every single program where you have tolls, highways, is under the same program.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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