The Cuomo-de Blasio feud is heading underground for New Year’s.
In what NYPD cops are seeing as a blatant dig at Mayor de Blasio, Gov. Cuomo is putting his own teams of MTA and State Police front and center at Saturday night’s grand-opening party for the new Second Avenue Subway.
Sidelined will be the city’s own cops, who actually have to police the subway day-to-day.
The mayor and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill are invited VIPs to the gathering and have RSVP’d yes. But just eight cops from NYPD Transit Bureau’s anti-terrorism unit will be underground helping with security, sources told The Post.
Cops from the 19th Precinct on East 67th Street also have been relegated to above-ground duties, helping attendees park their cars.
“They’re turning over the keys to the MTA Police for this event, then they’ll unglamorously toss us the keys the next morning,” groused one police source.
Cuomo is bringing scores of state-paid cops down the shiny new escalators with him for the “formal attire suggested” celebration, at which invited guests will take the inaugural ride on the new East Side tracks.
His entourage will include the contingent of troopers who comprise his personal security detail.
The MTA police on hand will include officers from the department’s Emergency Service Unit and the four-legged members of its K-9 crew, which are trained to sniff out explosives underground.
There will be more feds there than local cops as well.
Secret Service agents will be around to protect the head of Homeland Security, who is one of the VIP attendees.
And Homeland Security is itself sending a team of Transportation Security Administration specialists to help with screening those attending.
“It’s all good,” shrugged an NYPD source. “We could care less. It’s his event, his MTA, his state troopers, and he could do with them what he pleases.”
Cuomo has touted the $4 billion, state-built subway extension over the past few weeks, with at least a half-dozen press conferences, events and announcements.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said Friday, “We are thrilled the NYPD and Commissioner O’Neill are taking part in tomorrow’s event and have no idea where any of this fiction is coming from. It’s clear whoever is feeding you this garbage doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano, Kirstan Conley and Abigail Gepner