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Boston Mayor Mocks White Firefighters

BUCK: Here’s the Boston mayor, Michelle Wu, making a joke, haha, listen.

BUCK: She’s saying firefighters are white, and she’s dealing with white people problems.

CLAY: Ha. Ha. Ha.

BUCK: You would never hear a politician say this about any other group. That I’m gonna fill in the blank problems with this group, in a way that’s mocking them, ever.

CLAY: Imagine if a politician said — expens… What are the three things she said? Expensive — and it ended it in black, and was like, “Oh, haha, that’s just a joke.” (laughs) That person would never be able to be involved in politics again, and their kids would probably get kicked out of school. It would be unbelievable, the outrage. It’s an attempt at a joke. It’s bad humor. The funniest thing I’ve seen the Boston mayor — Buck, we talked about this — do you remember when she was trying to do the Instagram live and the comments were going.

BUCK: Oh, my gosh.

CLAY: And it was all crushing her for having the mask mandate and everything else. She was like, we’re running a little late. I guess her guest didn’t show up. She was, like, “I’ll take a few questions now,” and there was just, “Why do you suck so much? Why do still have a mask mandate?”

BUCK: Bostonians can have a pretty fantastic and salty sense of humor when they hit it right. Bostonians can be a really funny bunch, and they were lighting up that stream.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: So, look, I think that it’s fascinating, we’re in a country now, where if you were to decide whether you were accused of…? Let’s say you’re a 30-year-old, Clay, trying to make yourself a career in media, and you have a choice between someone saying that you said — when you were 16 — The Word That We Can Never Say, or —

CLAY: Let’s just say it this way.

BUCK: Wait. (laughs)

CLAY: Yeah, yeah.

BUCK: Wait.

CLAY: First of all, like, you just sang along to a rap song.

BUCK: Okay, yeah, whatever, fine.

CLAY: You sang along to a rap song, yeah.

BUCK: Fine. You say the words along to a rap song, but you said it, and they know you said it at 16, or committed vehicular homicide at 18. Which would be more damaging to your career?

CLAY: Ummm…

BUCK: Involuntary manslaughter because you were a drunk driver, which would be more damaging to your career? I think the first one means you don’t work again. The second one is, “Hey, no one’s perfect.”

CLAY: It’s ridiculous that we could even have this discussion, right? I think DUI, I think you could argue you’re probably better off to get three or four DUIs than to have sang along with a rap song with the N-word in it when you were 16 and have that video circulating, and that is crazy.

BUCK: To my analogy, professionally it would be more damaging.

CLAY: Killing someone is…

BUCK: Okay, DUI you say, vehicular manslaughter is too far.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Involuntary. I’m talking about someone gets drunk, obviously, hits another car; they kill a person by accident.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: You think that that is more damaging to your career 12 years on than saying The Word That You’re Not Allowed to Say?

CLAY: It is… I think the depth might make it, but I’m not even sure. I’m not even. The fact that you’re not even sure which you would prefer —

BUCK: A couple of famous people killed people in car accidents. I’m not sure if everybody knows this, but they continued being famous after that. That’s the thing.

CLAY: It’s insane. The drunk part, the vehicular manslaughter, whatever —

BUCK: All right.

CLAY: — if you were speeding or something —

BUCK: Clay is re-lawyering this up, like, “My client, we’ve got to look at the…”

CLAY: Well, I’m just thinking three or four. The fact that you can get three or four DUIs and would be better off —

BUCK: A hundred percent.

CLAY: — professionally without a shadow of a doubt —

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: — than having sung along to a rap song when you were 16 and having that video circulated is evidence how bonkers the world has gone right now.

BUCK: Agreed!

CLAY: Completely.

BUCK: Agreed.