New York City mayor punches back at Biden

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) defended LaGuardia Airport on Friday after a high-profile swipe from Vice President Biden.

Biden this week compared LaGuardia Airport to a “third-world” facility while he was speaking at event touting Amtrak service in the Northeast.

{mosads}De Blasio said Biden was wrong about his city’s oldest airport.

“I respect the vice president, but I think his comments were inappropriate,” the mayor said during a press conference.

“As a proud New Yorker, I didn’t like that comment, and I think it was not the right way to talk about it,” de Blasio continued.

Biden made the remark in a speech on Thursday in which he warned the U.S. is falling behind other countries in airport and other infrastructure developments.

“If I blindfolded someone and took them at 2:00 in the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and said, where do you think you are, they’d say, this must be America; it’s a modern airport,” Biden said. “If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you must think, I must be in some third-world country.”

Biden was speaking at Philadelphia’s 30th Street train station, where he touted an announcement by Amtrak that it was unveiling new electric locomotives for trains on its popular Northeastern U.S. routes that will run up to 125 miles per hour.