Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, above, bizarrely ripped Metropolis Councilman Robert Holden throughout a back-and-forth about congestion pricing.
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Queens Borough President Donovan Richards bizarrely ripped Metropolis Councilman Robert Holden, a fellow Democrat, and his supporters as “white supremacy” in a Twitter spat about congestion pricing.
The ugly struggle between the 2 pols, who are on totally different ends of the spectrum in the identical occasion, started after Holden tweeted Thursday that the MTA’s controversial congestion pricing plan — which might cost motorists to drive into Manhattan under sixtieth Road — was “one other tax on hardworking New Yorkers.”
Holden joined a bi-partisan press convention with different elected officers together with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) calling for Gov. Hochul, who helps congestion pricing, to place the difficulty to a referendum.
In a letter to Hochul, the officers famous points with congestion pricing together with “the disproportionate hurt this plan could have on working- and middle-class New Yorkers.”
Richards retweeted Holden’s message and snarked, “After he loses this election let’s elect an precise Democrat.”
A Holden supporter named Secret Squirrel responded to Richards, tweeting, “He’s one of many few that represents us.”
That led Donovan to tweet, “Yeah white supremacy.”
Holden is backing Hochul’s Republican opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin, in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election. Richards, a progressive, known as for defunding the NYPD when he was a Metropolis Council member.
Richards instantly took warmth from Andrew Advantageous, a Manhattan group activist, who tweeted, “I feel that is actually inappropriate. Why are you injecting race into this? Congestion Pricing divides New Yorkers by financial standing.”
Zeldin opposes congestion pricing saying it’s a money seize on those that can least afford it and would additionally result in elevated site visitors within the outer boroughs. The plan is predicted to estimated to price drivers between $9 and $23 throughout peak hours.
One other Twitter person named Angry_Mom_NYC responded to Richards saying, “To listen to you dismiss a differing opinion so glibly makes me surprise if you happen to actually have the chops to steer our various boro.”
Of the two.3 million residents of Queens, roughly 28% are Hispanic, 27% are Asian, 24% are white, 21% are black, and 1% are Native American.
“Elected officers have an obligation to advocate for his or her constituents — not in opposition to them,” Holden advised The Put up. “For a borough president to assault constituents on social media and name them racist due to a coverage disagreement is past the pale. However that is what we’ve come to anticipate from ‘Race Card Richards’. ”
Metropolis Councilman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) known as Richards’ feedback “divisive and pointless – and fairly frankly disgusting.”
“We should always have the ability to debate on public coverage with out the Queens borough president saying disgusting and untruthful issues about council members,” Yeger mentioned.
Yeger was additionally concerned within the heated Twitter exchanges with Richards. Richards known as him a “Republican” and Yeger fired again, “Drunk tweeting once more in the midst of the day, Donovan?”
Richards’ workplace issued a press release that included no apology.
“Utilizing his private Twitter account, the borough president was replying on to the unknown particular person or Twitter bot who had tweeted to him.”
The assertion went on to say Richards was “additionally calling consideration to the troubling assist of the council member, a self-identified Democrat, for a far-right member of Congress.”
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