U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand railed against a $10 billion freeze to federal child care funding for five Democratic-led states, including New York, in a Thursday press conference.

Gillibrand repeatedly bashed President Donald Trump and his administration. “This brazen political attack will hurt families and child care providers already struggling to get by,” she said.

“The Trump administration claims they are halting these grants due to rampant fraud but they have not provided any evidence of this fraud in New York,” Gillibrand said. She alleged the administration has “shown time and time again they are not serious about combatting fraud,” citing Trump’s pardon of people convicted of fraud and firing of staff at government agencies that prevent fraud.

“The truth is, it’s a political attack,” Gillibrand declared. “Donald Trump is punishing children for political gain, and New York children are paying the price.”

She predicted that child care providers will close and parents will have to quit jobs to be with children, if the funding freeze is allowed. “The bottom line is, these are vital programs New Yorkers rely on.”

Gillibrand stated that New York pays into the grant programs getting frozen, and accused the federal government of “stealing our money.”

On Wednesday, the New York State Association of Counties also criticized the freeze on funding for needy New Yorkers.

“If this funding is not restored, it will cause massive disruption to programs that help hundreds of thousands of working families,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. “Losing child care subsidies will hit working families hard and exacerbate New York’s affordability crisis. Most forms of federal public assistance will disappear and when that happens, costs will get shifted to county-taxpayer-funded Safety Net programs.”

While taking questions from the media, Gillibrand exhorted “New Yorkers to help me convince President Trump to overturn this decision.”

Asked if this is retaliation for New York’s statewide tendency to support Democrats, Gillibrand replied: “it’s all retaliation, I don’t have any evidence of fraud in child care providers in New York.”

She added that there is no evidence that there will be any investigation of fraud — and Trump cut many fraud investigators, anyway.

“I think it’s all B.S.,” the senator said.

Gillibrand was asked if New York state will sue over the decision. “I wouldn’t be surprised if our (state) Attorney General sued the Trump administration over this,” she replied.

“We need a massive outcry from New York leaders, businesses and families…that this isn’t fair and children shouldn’t pay the price of political retribution,” Gillibrand said.