Mayor Michelle Wu defended Boston as an increasingly diverse, inclusive city where there is “a home for everyone” in an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” Tuesday night.
Wu joined host and stand-up comedian Ronny Chieng on the program, who largely focused on pressing Wu about how she accumulated broad political support in a city that many consider to have a long history of racism. Chieng also brought up Wu’s recent testimony before a Republican-led congressional committee, in which she defended the city’s policies related to public safety and immigration enforcement.
It was a relatively lighthearted interview for Wu and didn’t touch on the many challenges she is currently facing. Among them: Wu is running for a second term this year and is up against at least one well-funded challenger — longtime nonprofit leader Josh Kraft, who is also the son of billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft. She’s also fending off direct attacks from the White House and federal officials, who have zeroed in on Boston as a target for immigration enforcement efforts.
The appearance on national television came at an opportune time for Wu, who is soon formally launching her reelection campaign and riding a groundswell of support after her performance in D.C. put her in the national spotlight.
Wu was greeted by enthusiastic cheers, applause, and a standing ovation from the studio audience when she walked on stage to join Chieng for the interview Tuesday night.
“Standing ovation, in New York, for the mayor of Boston, that’s very hard to get,” Chieng remarked, before diving into Wu’s career and political background. “I don’t usually make demographics such a big deal, but like, how did you become mayor?”
Wu laughed, joking, “I ask myself that question too,” before going on to reference her experience growing up in an immigrant family and moving to Boston to attend Harvard University. When her mother began to struggle with mental illness, she assumed responsibility for her mom and two younger sisters.
“I’ve been through a lot with my family, and in those hardest moments, it often felt like government was the place we had to fight against instead of something to help us through,” Wu said. “There are so many families out there who are working their hardest, trying to do their best, and in many ways, we just have to make sure that the supports that are needed are not only there, funded, but also connected to every community. That’s what I’ve been fighting for.”
Chieng, who lived in New Hampshire for several years, reiterated his question as to how she convinced 64 percent of Boston voters to support her in the 2021 mayoral election. In response, Wu doubled down in her defense of the city.
“You might be surprised by Boston — next time you come, we’ll have to take you around a little more,” Wu said. “We’re an incredibly diverse, welcoming, beautiful city. We are majority people of color, we’re 28 percent people born from another country, and Boston is a place where people have always come for almost 400 years to make good in the world.”
Chieng also addressed Wu’s performance in a congressional hearing earlier in March, in which she testified alongside three other liberal city mayors as part of a Republican-led investigation into the cities’ policies on how and when local officials assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Local and state law only allow Boston officials to comply with federal authorities’ requests to detain people suspected of not having legal status if they also have a criminal warrant out for their arrest.
In the hearing, Wu countered attacks from Republicans while also landing blows of her own. She pointed to Boston’s record-low violent crime rates and argued that cities are safer when everyone, regardless of immigration status, feels safe engaging with their community.
“If people are afraid to drop their kids off at school or call 911 when they need help or [to] share information when they actually have information to report about a crime that happened, that makes everyone less safe, whether or not you are an immigrant,” she said. “All of the buzz around whether these kinds of cities that are more welcoming for immigrants are more dangerous, it’s about a false narrative that immigrants are somehow more likely to commit crimes or cause harm, and that is just simply not true.”
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.