New York City Mayor Eric Adams responded firmly on Monday to comments made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggesting that federal cutbacks to the U.S. Coast Guard may have contributed to a ship accident on the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend.
Schumer had taken to X on Sunday to raise concerns about the impact of actions by President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on maritime safety. “We know they’ve been meddling with U.S. Coast Guard staffing,” Schumer wrote. “Trump relieved Admiral Linda Fagan as Commandant of the USCG, and that position is still vacant. And the hiring freeze has limited the ability for the USCG to staff up the Vehicle Traffic Service, that’s their traffic control operation that acts like Air Traffic Control but on water.” He continued, “We need action for our national security, infrastructure protection, and public safety.”
Appearing the next morning on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” Adams addressed the notion that federal staffing reductions played a role in the incident involving the Mexican navy’s tall ship, the Cuauhtémoc, which struck the bridge. Adams emphasized that New York was well-prepared for the emergency and insisted the Coast Guard had delivered a “full response” to the situation.
He applauded the work of local first responders, citing the contributions of “our harbor unit, NYPD unit, FDNY, our police response [and] EMS,” and expressed uncertainty about the source of Schumer’s claims. “So cutbacks were not an issue?” the host asked. Adams replied, “Unless the senator knows something that I don’t know; but I don’t know what other role the Coast Guard would have played,” adding, “We have the boats that were needed, we have the manpower that was needed, and we responded accordingly to get those 19 injured off the ship.”
Authorities believe that a mechanical malfunction that affected the ship’s steering capabilities led to the crash. The tragic incident resulted in the deaths of two cadets from the Mexican navy: 20-year-old América Yamilet Sánchez and 22-year-old Adal Jair Marcos.
Soon after Schumer’s post, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement rejecting his assertions, defending the Coast Guard’s readiness and correcting the record. “Minority Leader Schumer’s accusations that a hiring freeze led to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Services not being adequately staffed are FALSE,” DHS stated. “The U.S. Coast Guard has been fully supported and been exempt from hiring freezes. Additionally, this incident had nothing to do with Vessel Traffic Services — when a ship loses propulsion in a high current area, the vessel needs to engage all capabilities to stop, and ideally, tugs are nearby to support.”
DHS concluded by saying, “We encourage Minority Leader Schumer to get his facts straight before he misleads the American people.”
{Matzav.com}