Mayor Wu Talks With Hillary Clinton About Vaccine Mandate Protests Outside Home: 'I Sleep Well At Night'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu opened up to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a new podcast about the backlash to her COVID vaccine mandate for city employees.
As a guest on Clinton's podcast, Wu was asked how she's handling the noisy early morning protests outside her Roslindale house. She has proposed an ordinance that would limit when protesters can picket outside private homes.
"It's a very difficult moment in our history, and I see that almost every day outside my house when we are faced with 7 a.m. protests, banging and yelling," Wu said. "It's seeded in vast waves of misinformation and conspiracy theories."
The protesters have not changed her mind about the city's vaccine policy.
"I sleep well at night," she said. "I am lucky that Boston is home to such expertise and the way that I like to lead and make decisions is to ensure that the people who are closest to the issue with the greatest expertise on this are informing the decision-making. So we are solid in how we've been leading on public health and how we've been taking action."
"I love hearing that because that's exactly the right approach," Clinton replied.
Wu also said that she felt the protests "are not about vaccines to a lot of these people."
"This is about a changing country and power structures that see women advancing in leadership and women of color," she said.
.@wutrain is the first woman, first Asian American, and first mother to be elected mayor of Boston. I loved this story she told me about how her kids are adapting. You can listen to our full conversation on this week's You And Me Both. https://t.co/c2OAoNunwi pic.twitter.com/bb36mAD7U0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 16, 2022
Wu went on to explain how she sometimes feels "deep anxiety" about bringing up her young children in such a contentious environment.
"My boys are 4 and 7 and it's been such a test of parenthood, raising kids at this time," she said. "It's such a jarring experience. . . it's been very hard. But there are moments in some ways that I'm grateful for the age that they are now because they are full of joy and everything's an adventure."
Clinton also asked Wu, the first Asian American mayor of Boston, about recent vicious attacks on Asian Americans in the country.
"It is heart-breaking and infuriating to continue to see incidents of violence and, even recently in New York, of loss of life related to a grieving Asian American community that's still very much dealing with the impacts of the former federal administration's obsession with demonizing and using racist rhetoric against Asian Americans," Wu said.
At the end of the episode, Wu extended an invitation to Clinton to visit Boston.
"We can go hiking in Franklin Park when you're next in town," Wu said.
"Let's do it, I'm signing up for that!" Clinton said.
Click here to listen to the full podcast.