ALBANY—David Paterson stood by his displeasure with the Obama administration’s decision to hold the trial of 9/11 terrorists in lower Manhattan, and alluded to the federal government’s miscalculation about the air quality in the neighborhood.
“What I said was that if I were making the decision, it’s not the decision I would have made,” Paterson told Errol Louis on WWRL. “New York has been through a lot. Not only were 2,700 people killed on September 11, but remember the federal government and the Environmental Protection Agency told us it was safe to work and live near ground zero and it turned out it wasn’t.”
“That was considered to be un-American,” Paterson continued. “Look, being vigilant against the terrorists doesn’t mean we sacrifice the public health of people who are forced in the same area, and many of them got sick later on, and now it’s kind of embarrassing. So it was a very difficult time for New Yorkers. There was post-traumatic stress syndrome.”
The Obama administration has signaled it does not want Paterson to seek election in 2010. Paterson nonetheless promised to support the decision for the trial.
“They have more data than me,” Paterson said. “Why they’re having a civilian trial instead of a military one is something I have not had the opportunity to research, but that’s our president, and if that’s the way he wants to do it I will comply 100 percent with him.”
