Marty Walsh Blasts Donald Trump’s ‘Absurd’ Attack on Roe v. Wade

Photo via Mayor’s Office/Don Harney

Mayor Marty Walsh rekindled his feud with Donald Trump in a Herald Radio interview Wednesday, blasting the Republican president-elect for his rhetoric on abortion rights and immigration.

Walsh, who endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and campaigned for her in swing states through the final weeks of the calamitous 2016 campaign, touted Boston’s relationship with the immigrant and LGBTQ communities, and called Trump’s plan to overturn Roe v. Wade “absurd.”

“I’ve never really had a feeling in the streets like I do today,” Walsh said. “The pro-Trump people are all excited about him being elected, but the damage that potentially could happen, if he followed though on half of his campaign promises, the damage in this country would take decades to overturn, generations to overturn.”

The Dorchester Democrat dismissed the feasibility Trump’s plans to curb illegal immigration and remove those living in the country illegally.

“He’s talking about deporting 3 million undocumented people from the United States of America,” Walsh said of the mass deportations Trump mentioned in his 60 Minutes interview Sunday. “I mean, I don’t know if anyone understands—that’s a daunting task, and something that the entire federal government, if it was focused on, couldn’t get done in the next 10 years.”

After Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug-dealers while announcing his candidacy last year, Walsh said that he would have to make a few apologies before he would be allowed to build in Boston. In response, Trump needled Walsh over his role in Boston’s failed 2024 Olympic bid. Walsh later tried taking the high road, issuing the former reality TV star an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

“He’s a clown, Marty Walsh,” Trump told reporters before a New Hampshire rally. “I don’t even know who he is. This guy, he spends all this time and effort and money on an Olympic Bid, and then he goes out and he’s talking about ice bucket challenges. Get a real mayor.”

“It’s a long [enemies] list before he gets down to my name,” Walsh laughed when asked how he plans to deal with President Trump. “It’s important to have a relationship with the White House, but it’s also very important for the White House to have a relationship with a city like Boston.”