Elected officers from Boston and throughout the state bantered and exchanged jokes Sunday morning on the annual Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast in South Boston, doing their finest to lighten the temper in what looks like a politically darkish second for a lot of Democrats in Massachusetts.
The lengthy custom of the Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast offers native politicians an opportunity to have a good time Boston’s Irish roots and tease one another with cringe-worthy jokes that usually immediate awkward silences greater than laughs. Sunday was no exception, although a number of moments stood out. The host of the breakfast, State Senator Nick Collins of South Boston, ribbed Mayor Michelle Wu in regards to the $650-thousand of metropolis funds she spent preparing for her Congressional testimony the week earlier than final.
“I heard the Mayor was so nervous about this breakfast she spent one other 650 grand making ready,” Collins mentioned.
Collins, one in all Wu’s political antagonists, who blocked her tax-cut proposal, additionally sang a tune to the Mayor, to the tune of Take Me Dwelling, Nation Roads:
“Repair the roads, Mayor Wu.
It ain’t the state, it is on you.
Ditch the bike lanes and the blame video games.
Repair the roads, Mayor Wu,” goes the refrain
For her half, Wu took it in stride, telling the viewers, “I want I might say I used to be glad to be right here.”
When the Mayor took the rostrum, she seemed to be holding her new child daughter, and requested Collins if he remembered methods to maintain a child, earlier than flinging the swaddled baby at him. It was a startling second.
“I introduced the prop child,” Wu mentioned to laughter. “It is dangerous sufficient that grown-ups have to take a seat by means of two and a half hours of dangerous jokes. I am not going to make a child do this.”
However the banter could not obscure what are difficult occasions for political leaders on this deep blue state. So, Wu pivoted from the jokes to difficult President Trump’s hard-line in opposition to pro-immigrant insurance policies in cities like Boston.
“We’ll struggle anybody who tries to threaten, to intimidate our neighbors, as a result of Boston is the town that for 400 years has been a protected harbor for waves of immigrants,” Wu mentioned.
Governor Maura Healey adopted an analogous script as Wu. First, she poked enjoyable at herself, making gentle of what many see as her apparent and rising nationwide ambitions, reciting a listing of her current high-profile media appearances.
“I imply, one little look on Seth Meyers, a New York Instances interview, a photo-shoot, a few extra podcasts like Quick Politics with Molly Jong-Quick — now out there on Apple, Spotify and I-Coronary heart,” mentioned Healey, including with mock indignation, “Why are you laughing?”
However like Wu, Healey ended her remarks on a critical notice with the story of Michael Slater, a veteran from western Mass., fired from the V.A. Slater was a casualty of the Trump administration’s authorities effectivity initiative led by Elon Musk.
“We can’t have our veterans handled that manner on this nation,” Healey mentioned.
Due to the destiny of Slater and plenty of others, Healey mentioned she hasn’t been in a really “jokey temper these days.” However like others at Sunday’s breakfast, she tried her finest.
This section airs on March 17, 2025.
