Against the backdrop of the lavish visit of President Joe Biden to New York to promote the Hudson River Gateway Tunnel Project, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer exposed the crude political purpose of the trip.
“Get on the Joe Biden express now, because we’re not stopping,” Schumer said, using just one of many tired train clichés that peppered remarks at Tuesday’s event at a Manhattan train station.
The taxpayer-funded visit came very close to becoming Biden’s 2024 presidential rally, as a slate of New Jersey and New York Democrats converged to support the project — and their party’s likely nominee.
The Biden Express? It was more of a plea to jump on the Biden bandwagon.
It was a visit filled with 2024 lines of messages and attacks. Schumer, who served as host — and campaign blowhard — accused former President Donald Trump of being a transactional thug who sabotaged the project during his lone term. Schumer also reached back at Trump’s former Republican sponsor, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whom he attacked for killing a previous Gateway project, Access to the Region’s Core, in 2010.
This project might well have been completed by now; instead, the century-old rail tunnel was left to rot in Superstorm Sandy’s salty brine, delaying commuters for years.
Schumer called Christie’s “one of the worst decisions made by any governor on either side of the Hudson. We had to start over.”
Biden, who sounded scathing and terrifying at times, also sent a meta-message to Trump and the likes of Rep. Matt Gaetz and other Liberty nihilists who have taken over the House. To far-right Republicans seeking to undermine Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden offered the following:
Do you want to use your new power to rehabilitate the legally persecuted Trump? Go for it.
Do you want to get into my son Hunter’s laptop? Have at it.
Do you want to go down the rabbit hole of government “weaponization”? We can’t stop you.
Want to hold the government hostage with a bunch of vague and unpopular demands for spending cuts? Probably not, but that’s your prerogative.
On Tuesday in Manhattan, Biden appeared to say: We are going to show you that good governance can create thousands of good-paying, sustainable jobs that can build modern infrastructure to support the economy of the Northeast and the nation.
Do you want to wrap yourself in the tired “Make America Great Again” slogan?
How about trying this poll-tested bipartisanship theme on for size: “America is great when we come together.”
Coverage from Manhattan:Joe Biden announces a grant for the Gateway Tunnel project during a visit to New York
“We can move this nation forward”
“We can really do great things,” the president said. “We can do anything. We really can. We can move this nation forward. We can send another message, a message of pride, pride for our country, for what we can do together.”
The event followed a similar show-and-tell infrastructure visit the day before in Baltimore and just two days after Trump, who has declared himself the 2024 candidate, tried out some of his campaign themes in South Carolina.
While Trump wallowed in resentment and Archie Bunker-esque lashing out at the culture war — “We’re going to stop the left-wing radicals, the racists and the perverts trying to indoctrinate our youth” — Biden boasted about the skilled union workers who would soon be wallowing in the dirt of the Hudson River, laying the foundation for “one of the most successful projects in the country.”
“But it will take time. It’s a multibillion-dollar effort by the states and the federal government,” the president said. “But we finally have the money, and we’re going to do it. I promise you, we will.”
That promise — and the hint of a billion-dollar investment — also stands in stark contrast to Christie’s ARC decision. At the time, Christie was a rising star in the Republican Party who shocked the nation by killing the nation’s largest infrastructure project. He made it clear that he would be a thrifty conservative who would not be afraid to ruffle the feathers of powerful unions and the political establishment. It branded him as a brash, smaller-government conservative willing to tell the nation that we can do with less.
Leading his successor, Biden made the opposite argument. America needs to spend more to do more. American exceptionalism comes at a price.
“We talked about reaffirming American leadership, building the best economy in the world,” he said. “But to have the best economy in the world, you have to have the best infrastructure in the world. People don’t build factories if there are no train stations or ports, no highway access.”
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Looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election
The visit also served as a reminder to Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker that they will likely have to put their presidential dreams on hold indefinitely, if not permanently. Biden has made it clear that he has no desire to quietly fade into history and withdraw from next year’s presidential election at the age of 81.
On Tuesday, Murphy and Booker appeared as party supporters and role players on Biden’s express show, and are likely to retain those roles for the foreseeable future.
Some Democrats worry that if Republicans rally around 44-year-old Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as their nominee, the party will need a younger candidate for 2024. DeSantis will see himself as a new generational choice for the nation, while Biden will be cast as a fossil whose time has passed. But as a beaming Biden strode to the podium (leaving him slightly winded), he made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I give you my word as Biden: I have never been more optimistic about America’s prospects in my entire life,” he said.
Not his own.
Charlie Steele is a veteran political columnist. For his understanding of New Jersey politics and its powerful watch work please sign up or activate your digital account today.
email: stile@northjersey.com
Twitter: @politicalstyle
