White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the Biden administration will be “charting our own path” in response to a question about whether New York City, Portland and Seattle will lose their federal “anarchist jurisdiction” labels.
Psaki did not directly say whether the designation bestowed upon the Big Apple by the Trump administration’s Justice Department and White House budget office would remain — but hinted it would not.
“We are in a new administration and of course are reviewing a range of policies and charting our own path. But I don’t think I’m going to have any comment on policies from a year ago from the prior administration,” Psaki said at a press briefing in response to a question from The Post.
The Trump administration designation put the three cities at a disadvantage in federal grant decision-making because they allegedly tolerated rising violent crime or allowed long-running violent protests following the death of George Floyd.
Russ Vought, who was Trump’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and a leading advocate of the “anarchist” designation, told The Post that President Biden should keep the policy to promote public safety.
“My hope would be that the Biden administration would refuse to subsidize with taxpayer dollars failed leadership at the state and local levels that has caused unrest and destruction in many communities. It’s my hope, not my expectation,” said Vought, who is now president of the Center for American Restoration.
The impact of the designation was potentially severe. New York, for example, gets about $7 billion in annual federal aid.
New York made the list for cutting $1 billion from the NYPD budget amid a near-tripling of shootings in July and August.
