Appearing on the John Catsimatidis radio show on AM 970 in New York on Sunday, former police commissioner Ray Kelly accused the White House of slashing anti-terrorism funding for the city to punish Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for opposing the Iran nuclear deal, BREITBART reports.
Kelly was referring to the Obama administration’s proposed $270 million cut from the budget of the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI). New York City would lose about half of the $180 million it receives from the program, according to ABC News.
The following is a partial transcript of his remarks:
“It appears to me that there’s a certain amount of vindictiveness on the part of Washington aimed at Sen. Chuck Schumer.
“Sen. Schumer’s always been a staunch supporter of appropriate funding for New York City’s counter-terror efforts, and the fact that they did it, they cut it fifty percent, I think was aimed at getting a reaction from Sen. Schumer,” Kelly continued. “Apparently they remember very well the fact that Sen. Schumer did not support their Iranian deal.
On February 14, the New York Post reported that Schumer said: “UASI is the lifeblood of New York’s anti-terror programs and funds the massive terror prevention program for downtown Manhattan and its expansion into Times Square and Midtown. The president in general has been very good on security, but this is a serious mistake.
“Long and short, these are dollars the NYPD and others in law enforcement use to keep us a step ahead of the bad guys. New York City – always a top terror target – needs all the funding it can get to help make sure we are kept safe,” he added. Read more at BREITBART.
{Matzav.com}
Senator Schumer, while disagreeing with President Obama, has carefully parsed his words as respectfully as possible, i.e. “The president in general has been very good on security, but this is a serious mistake.” and a similar statement regarding the Iran deal.
Contrast Schumer’s words with the nasty and sneering tone Obama’s spokesman took towards Schumer. This is a petty, petulant President who has been that way from day one of his presidency.
Nonsense. This has nothing to do with Schumer. If anything, its to send a message to Cuomo, who Obama has an ax to grind with.
This should be treated no differently than the whole purported BridgeGate affair that Governor Christie has been forced to contend with. Except, that President Obama’s actions are far worse and will place the safety of the entire region under greater threat from actual terrorist activity!