Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Monday slammed the leadership of the New York City Fire Department for a J6-style manhunt for firefighters who booed anti-Trump Attorney General Letitia James last week.
“What’s crazy about this is they’re doing more to identify the FDNY members who booed Tish James than they are to identify the illegal aliens who are engaged in a crime wave in New York City, raping and beating and killing people,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity during an interview.
Gaetz was reacting to news that New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh has launched an investigation “to track down the offending firefighters,” as the New York Post reported over the weekend.
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The controversy erupted last Thursday when James was the keynote speaker at an FDNY promotion ceremony at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn.
Many in the crowd jeered James as she approached the podium. During her speech, numerous crowd members showed support for former President Donald Trump by chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!” according to the Post.
James, a Democrat, led a politically motivated prosecution of Trump in a civil proceeding that claimed he defrauded banks on real estate loans. Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million judgment, which came after a Democratic judge declared Trump guilty even before the trial began.
Yet the case had no victims, as banks never filed a complaint about the loans. Trump, in fact, repaid every nickel he borrowed.
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Gaetz defended the pro-Trump firefighters.
“When you get to New York’s finest and New York’s bravest, if you don’t stand with them, they’ll let you know it. They let [former Mayor] Bill deBlasio know it, they’re letting Tish James know it,” said Gaetz.
Gaetz added that many of those firefighters believe in the “majesty” of New York City, but the Big Apple has been “totally tarnished by this lawless pursuit of President Trump for things that I didn’t even know were crimes.”
The Post reported on Monday that Kavanagh returned to the church on Sunday to apologize for the firefighters’ behavior.
“On behalf of the New York City Fire Department, I’m sorry,” Kavanagh told the worshipers. “Not only is the fire department the greatest department in the world, it’s also the most professional fire department in the world and we let down that reputation on Thursday.”
The Post also noted that James’ appearance was out of the norm since the elected official who was historically invited to such ceremonies was the mayor.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long told the Post that the internal probe of the booing wasn’t political but about “professionalism.”
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“Nobody is hunting anyone down,” Long said.
Yet the Post reported, “The FDNY Bureau of Investigation and Trials (BITS) has since been reviewing video footage from the ceremony to identify the culprits but has not said what potential punishment the firefighters could face.”
An internal memo sent Sunday by the FDNY brass to its ranks noted that firefighters “should understand that BITS is gathering video and identifying members that brought discredit … to the department. We want the members to come forward. They will come to HQ to be educated [on] why their behavior is unacceptable.”
The firefighters’ union has advised members to lawyer up if they get called into the investigation.
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