Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's anti-congestion pricing spiel may have met its match in Curt Menefee, the longtime host of "Fox NFL Sunday" and co-host of FOX 5 New York's daily "Good Day New York" program.
Duffy, a former "Real World" and Fox News star, was on his old network and its local affiliate on Tuesday to celebrate Trump's 100th day in office, which was Tuesday, continuing to tout his legally dubious bid to stop congestion pricing.
"People are being priced out of driving into New York City," Duffy said in front of a live "Fox & Friends" audience. "I like freedom. Let me drive my car in if I want."
That pitch went over fine at "Fox & Friends," but fell flat on local TV, where Menefee bluntly told Duffy that most New Yorkers take mass transit.
"The majority of New Yorkers use public transportation," Menefee said. "You can argue that people from New Jersey or Connecticut or whatever have to pay when they come in, but the people who live in the city and use public transportation on a day-to-day basis already have a system for going below 60th Street."
The two then went back forth on Duffy's claim that New York planned congestion pricing entirely as a "fundraiser for the MTA," rather than to reduce congestion. Another odd moment came when Duffy mockingly asked Menefee, "Do you talk to average New Yorkers?"
"Yes, we do," the host hit back, before stumping Duffy with a geography question — if New York must legally provide a "free path" to drivers into the central business district, as Duffy's U.S. DOT argues, why are there longstanding tolls on the bridges and tunnels between New Jersey and New York?
Menefee didn't get into the details, but there isn't a single toll-free Hudson River vehicle crossing south of Albany. Pressed on how New Jersey drivers could possibly travel into the city" "for free," Duffy, himself a Garden State resident, bizarrely insisted that "there's a roundabout way you can go."
Watch the full clip here. You can read about how Duffy views his "first 100 days" as Secretary of Transportation in a recent tribute to Trump that someone wrote for him in The Hill.
In other news:
- Also on Duffy's TV agenda: Newark Airport, which has been in chaos for days thanks in part to an air traffic controller shortage. (ABC 7 NY)
- Albany will fund the MTA capital plan over five years in part with higher taxes on businesses with payrolls over $10 million. (NY Times, City & State)
- True to its convictions, the NY Post responds by planting itself firmly on the side of not funding the MTA, ever.
- Amtrak wants to shut down its East River tunnels one-by-one and Gov. Hochul isn't happy. (NY Post)
- Cops charged the ambulance driver who struck and killed 69-year-old Miriam Reinharth in November. The driver drove Reinharth, a journalist, to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries. He got a “failure to yield” charge. (Daily News)
- MTA construction work on the elevated tracks in Bushwick is a nightmare for nearby businesses. (Brooklyn Paper)
- And finally, who says you have to choose between brunch and a protest?
