Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was savagely booed Thursday during a news conference on California’s high-speed rail project at the Union Station in Los Angeles. The Donald Trump appointee blasted state authorities for mismanaging the once “exciting” project and claimed it had amounted to a waste of funds. He additionally disclosed that he would be subjecting the project to a “compliance review of funding” to determine whether or not “billions of dollars of taxpayer money” should still go toward it. Duffy’s comments, however, were drowned out by boos from a roaring crowd who chanted slogans like “Build the rail!” and “We pay taxes, we want trains!” In one moment while discussing layoffs at the Federal Aviation Administration, the crowd got particularly rowdy, almost distracting from Duffy’s words entirely. The secretary acknowledged the protesters in the crowd at one point and said, “These protesters should all be at the steps of Gavin Newsom’s mansion.” He continued: “They should all talk to him about what happened here.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the hundreds of FAA employees fired last week, some aviation safety assistants and air traffic control maintenance mechanics, were "not the highest skilled members of the FAA." pic.twitter.com/8tnhWRL8zT
