No doubt Washington Post political reporter Philip Bump was trying to be funny Monday night when he went on Twitter and tried to be a combination engineer and public official.
What the fuck does Bump know about snow and how a blizzard might affect the New York subway system?
Short answer: Absolutely nothing.
Longer answer? We’ll let him explain since he was in New York “covering” the storm.
To set the scene, Gov. Cuomo announced in a press conference that the subway would shut down by 11 p.m.
With apparent sarcasm, Bump weighed in: “Seeing a lot of people on Twitter who don’t understand the danger snow poses to vehicles traveling underground far from snow.”
When a female stranger,”Hudsonette,” challenged him, saying, “It’s the power — if shut off you got ppl stuck in tunnels,” Bump wanted nothing to do with her facts. He replied, “Don’t ruin my fun with #facts.”
It’s not like a woman died last week in the Washington, D.C. Metro when smoke filled a train. God forbid a public official takes precautions to prevent a disaster. But please, just don’t mess with Bump’s fun.
The Weekly Standard‘s assistant editor Jim Swift soon began questioning Bump’s logic.
“So people can walk down the tunnels?” he asked.
Bump was perplexed. “I don’t understand this question,” he said.
Swift explained, “Train dies = people stay on trains for hours?”
A lightbulb turned on.
“Oh. Got it. Yeah, I’m not saying I think it was the right call, just that at least there’s some rationality.”
Huh?
Swift reasoned, “Certainly liability is a factor.”
On Tuesday morning, Bump continued with sarcasm as trains reopened at 9 a.m.
“Can’t believe we’re reopening trains,” he wrote. “What if a passenger gets sick? Better safe than sorry.”
Honestly, WaPo may want to keep him on the politics beat because he filmed a cab ride through New York’s Upper West Side in the so-called blizzard and this is the drivel he came up with.
The two-minute edited video isn’t half bad.
The story?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.