MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said the tunnel under construction that will eventually provide additional rail links between Manhattan and New Jersey should be called the “Biden Tunnel” — claiming that President-elect Donald Trump “will take credit” for it.
O’Donnell, who made the comments during an interview with outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his prime-time Last Word show Tuesday, hailed the Gateway Program as “the most complex infrastructure project funded by Joe Biden”.
“It should be called the Biden Tunnel,” O’Donnell said Tuesday.
His comments were reported by news site Mediaite.
The MSNBC opinion host noted that funding for the Gateway Program, which has an estimated total cost of $16.1 billion, was made possible by Biden’s infrastructure bill, which was signed into law in 2021.
“It’s the most complex infrastructure project funded by Joe Biden,” O’Donnell said, adding that “it will provide a third tunnel across the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, one of the most important interstate connections in the country .
The project will include a new double tunnel between Bergen Palisades in New Jersey and Manhattan, as well as the rehabilitation of the North River Tunnel that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
The federal government has also allocated funding for the concrete liner to be installed at Hudson Yards that would allow the new tunnel to connect to Penn Station in Manhattan.
O’Donnell noted that “no additional lanes have been added” to the Hudson River crossings that connect New York City to New Jersey, including the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge — despite increased vehicle traffic on The last 50 years.
The MSNBC host ran down a list of New York politicians who have called for a new tunnel to be built, including the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan as well as several governors and mayors.
“Then along came Joe Biden,” O’Donnell said. “For the next 100 years, people will walk through that tunnel and they will have no idea who did it.”
O’Donnell then predicted that Trump “will take credit for that tunnel.”
Buttigieg agreed, saying, “Absolutely.”
“I mean, look, we’ve built a pipeline of good projects that will be developed over the next few years,” Buttigieg said.
“When I called projects like the Hudson River Tunnel the Cathedral of our infrastructure, I didn’t just say that because it’s a poetic word for something big.
The Post has sought comment from Trump’s transition team and the White House.
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