(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Released text messages between New York Attorney General Letitia James and FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, both Democrats, reveal their true feelings about the pro-Donald Trump firefighters who booed James during a graduation ceremony earlier this year.
“I can’t fix them,” wrote Kavanagh, a controversial figure appointed in 2022 to head the fire department, in a text message to James about the recent graduates who protested James’s appearance.
In March 2024, James faced the ire of fed-up firefighters who chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” during her speech. This incident took place just days after James had secured a $454 million civil judgment against the former president.
The messages, first reported by the New York Post after a public records request, depict an apologetic Kavanagh attempting to stay on James’s good side after the humiliating event.
“I should have called you last night, but I’ve been trying to find a way to say I’m sorry that doesn’t involve me apologizing for men who don’t deserve such grace,” Kavanagh wrote to James, according to screenshots.
In the same text, the fire department chief lamented not being able to halt the heckling, writing: “I haven’t succeeded. I am sorry that we didn’t stop them and that I can’t fix them.”
As reported by the Post, Kavanagh began her career working for the political campaigns of former President Barack Obama. She told James, a radical Democrat, that she “wouldn’t be here with you.”
In response, James—seemingly upset by the heckling—thanked Kavanagh for the text and conceded that she needed to regain the firefighters’ trust.
“Thank you, the guys who were there are new to the dept and don’t know my history as it relates to fdny. We have work to do and I am willing to put in the time. BTW – this is my first time that I have been booed,” James wrote.
In another text to an unnamed official, the attorney general regretted attending the ceremony.
“I am so sorry [the] episode took away from people being promoted and their families …” she wrote. “I should have taken temperature, checked with [the] department and stayed away. I have to repair relationships with members.”
After the heckling incident, Kavanagh initiated an investigation into the firefighters involved in the protest, leading to widespread condemnation from both New Yorkers and the fire department union.
James, who was first elected attorney general in 2019, had campaigned on a promise to use the justice system against Trump, who was then the U.S. president.
