Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was met with boos on Thursday as dozens of protesters sounded off against possible cuts to a high-speed rail project in California.
“It’s been 17 years and $16 billion and no rail has been built. So if you want to go protest somewhere, if you want to shout at someone, go to the governor’s mansion, go talk to Democrats in the legislature that have brought us this crappy project,” said Duffy, whose last line ignited a wave of boos from the crowd outside a press conference in Los Angeles’ Union Station.
The transportation secretary pressed on as he touted what the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency “has exposed” in terms of “fraud, waste and abuse.”
“We’re done with it. And you know what? You’re going to have people that love fraud, who love waste, who love trains to nowhere. But all of us up here? We do not love fraud, waste and abuse,” said Duffy, who was flanked by California Republicans.
The protesters — who were blocked by a curtain that hid them from officials at the presser —hurled boos at officials, appeared to throw a tomato at one lawmaker, chanted “build the rail” and held signs like “CA Has No King” as well as “don’t delay our train #buildHSR.”
Duffy told reporters that the project — which, in part, would link LA and San Francisco by rail — was once “worthy of investment” only to be “mismanaged” by state officials, adding that President Donald Trump has called for an investigation.
Duffy then announced a compliance review of over $4 billion in federal funding for the project, which has faced a number of setbacks since it was initially authorized by voters back in 2008.
The figure stems from almost $1 billion in funding that the Trump administration initially blocked in 2019. President Joe Biden’s administration would later restore that funding in 2021 and, two years later, award $3.3 billion to the project.
Funding cuts could pose a “major blow” to the project, The Associated Press reported, as the California High-Speed Rail Authority seeks $8 billion from the federal government to close a funding gap.
The Los Angeles-San Francisco rail line alone is estimated to cost $106 billion, LA’s ABC 7 noted.
Check out more clips from the presser below:
