The Democratic party had a chance to fight against a Trump white house, according to Mayor Marty Walsh, but that window has long since closed.
“I think if there was a concern about the presidential election, the Democrats should have made that concern the next day after the election,” Walsh said during an interview with Boston Public Radio on Friday. “If we switched the roles here, if Hillary Clinton had won with less than three million votes, and Donald Trump came in second, the Republican party … would have us in every district court across America. The Democratic party rolled over.”
Electors will cast their final votes at an electoral college meeting on Monday, before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in next month. While Trump won the electoral vote, Hillary Clinton’s lead has popular vote lead of more than two million votes. In the lead up to the formal Electoral College vote on Monday, electors have been inundated with emails, letters, and phone calls from Clinton supporters desperately hoping to block Trump from the White House. If 37 electors changed their votes, it could theoretically take Trump below theTo 270-vote threshold necessary for victory.
“We can see what happens,” Walsh said of that possibility, “but Donald Trump won the election.”
Walsh supported Hillary Clinton in the election and said he has not yet reached out to the Trump administration, though he plans to.
“As the mayor of an urban city, I have to do that. Whether it’s infrastructure, housing money, education money, public safety money … whatever it is, we need to have a relationship with the federal government,” Walsh said. “We can’t say, ‘Well, we’re going to not talk to them for the next four years [and] live in our little bubble over here.’ If we could do that, we would. But we can’t.”
Walsh anticipates a close relationship between the Trump administration and city officials across the country, he said.
“President Obama really wasn’t able to get his agenda carried out through the Senate or the Congress, and he turned to the mayors because we were on the ground,” the mayor explained. “I think the same is going to be said for President Trump ... even the Republicans are questioning some of his choices ... so at some point, he needs to have allies, and I think cities and towns across America are going to be some of those places.”
While promising to work with the incoming administration, Walsh did express concern about Trump’s cabinet picks.
“I’m concerned about the environment, I’m concerned about money that’s come down for infrastructure on the environment,” he said. “I get concerned about HUD ... I’m concerned about the secretary of state. To be quite honest with you, I think putting someone in charge who might have relations with foreign leaders is fine, but that job is not about selling a product, that job is about trying to resist conflict, and resist confrontation and solve peace. I get concerned about that stuff.”
To hear Mayor Marty Walsh’s full interview with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio link above.
