With a challenger sizzling on her heels, Michelle Wu can be strolling right into a political minefield if she agrees to testify earlier than a Republican congressional committee investigating sanctuary cities.
However she ought to go anyway.
Present the braveness of your convictions, mayor, and defend your place. Make your case for sanctuary cities. Don’t simply take pot pictures at Republicans and Fox Information from the protected areas of maternity depart and Metropolis Corridor and public radio.
If Wu declines to go, it’ll make her seem afraid and weak.
If she does seem solely earlier than the specter of a subpoena, it’ll make it appear as if she’s being dragged in.
Wu is considered one of 4 mayors referred to as to defend their cities’ legal guidelines welcoming unlawful migrants – and she or he is already questioning the motives of the Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform.
The primary-term Boston mayor, up for reelection this 12 months, has not stated whether or not she’ll honor the committee’s request to testify, however she’ll most likely attempt to keep away from the showdown.
Requested if she would adjust to a subpoena, Wu declined to reply. The mayor – dealing with opponent Josh Kraft in her reelection race – shouldn’t be snug in hostile settings and is extra comfortable dealing with pleasant questions from public radio hosts.
She can be taking flak if she avoids the committee however that may very well be a greater different to her political advisers than being held up for nationwide ridicule by Republicans in Congress.
U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Tenn., chair of the GOP-controlled committee, is main an investigation into “sanctuary jurisdictions throughout the USA and their impression on public security and the effectiveness of federal efforts to implement the immigration legal guidelines.”
Comer requested “paperwork and data associated to the sanctuary insurance policies of” all 4 cities and invited every mayor to testify at a public listening to on the matter earlier than the committee on Feb. 11, at 10 a.m.
Wu was focused as a result of Boston is considered one of a handful of huge cities to have sanctuary legal guidelines defending unlawful migrants, and she or he is among the nation’s main progressive voices.
She is now resorting to typical lefty speaking factors to defend the town’s legal guidelines, criticizing Republicans for taking part in video games and the Trump administration for permitting Fox Information and “celebrities” like Dr. Phil to tag alongside on federal unlawful immigrant raids.
“They’re now together with Fox Information being embedded…on these actions,” she stated, “or bringing different celebrities to doc what’s taking place to create a way of higher impression with that concern and destabilization.”
Wu, one of many least clear mayors in Boston historical past, has an abysmal report with regards to public information requests. So little question she’ll stick together with her plan and keep away from this one, too.
However it’ll present braveness if she decides to go and confront her accusers head on. She would possibly even generate sympathy for being a working mom who’s not too busy to journey to Washington to testify earlier than Congress.
Avoiding the spectacle in Washington additionally might depart a gap for her opponent, Josh Kraft, to criticize Wu for not being attentive to Congress.
Kraft, son of Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft, is because of formally announce his marketing campaign inside days. It may very well be good timing for him to weigh in on the congressional dispute involving Wu and the town’s sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines.
