NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton on Thursday accused the Obama administration of cutting the Big Apple’s anti-terror funding as “political payback” for Sen. Charles Schumer’s vote against the Iranian nuke deal.
“What the hell does the Iran deal have to do with this issue? That’s politics,” the top cop fumed.
“What the White House has done is tip their hand, this might be political payback against Senator Schumer for a vote he made a while back,” he said.
Playing politics with homeland-security funding for the nation’s top terror target is wrong, he added.
“That should have nothing to do with the issue at hand, which is terrorism and the threat to this city. So by bringing that into the discussion — well, politics,” Bratton said.
The broadside came a day after Schumer appeared with Bratton and Mayor de Blasio to decry the cuts.
Later Wednesday, administration spokesman Josh Earnest called Schumer wrong and questioned his credibility on the issue of homeland security because of his vote against the widely criticized deal with Iran that President Obama said makes the US safer.
On Thursday, Earnest did an about-face and backed off that charge.
“There’s no relationship at all,” Earnest insisted about the funding cut and Schumer’s vote.
“This administration has made a substantial investment in homeland security, not just for New York City that obviously has some unique challenges, but for the whole country,” he said.
But then he charged New York hadn’t even spent the federal anti-terror money it had already received.
“There’s about $600 million in funds that have been provided by the federal government that are still in the accounts maintained by the city and state of New York,” he said.
Bratton accused the White House of playing games.
“I don’t know anything about the state numbers. I know about my numbers. The City of New York spends every penny it gets on time. They are, to my mind, purposefully confusing their numbers,” he said.