Michelle Wu follows familiar playbook in blaming others for problems

Mayor Michelle Wu speaks with the media at the door to the Parkman House on Beacon Street last week. (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

First, ignore. Then deny and dismiss. Then blame others.

This is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s playbook for responding to a crisis or controversy.

After taking an international drubbing over her holiday party excluding white elected officials, Wu is now blaming her political enemies for leaking the exclusive party invitation – ignoring the real issues the party brought up.

“I’ve now been part of several news cycles where those with a particular motive will sort of cast the facts as they see them, sometimes that is a little further from the truth than it actually is,” she said in an interview on WBUR’s Radio Boston.

The mayor’s defense rings as hollow as Hunter Biden blaming MAGA Republicans for his legal problems.

She’s been down this road before, like in the car accident involving her police driver.

But none of those issues went global to the point of TMZ picking it up.

Wu was clearly floored by the reaction and condemnation she received.

“I think the email situation (where the email invitation was mistakenly sent to white city councilors) is what got it on the national radar when it was leaked by someone who wasn’t invited because they weren’t part of this group,” she said. “But this (electeds of color) is a well-established group that’s been in place for a long time…and there’s a little bit of a political motive in terms of leaking it and then following through on a national scale.”

The story could even damage Wu’s statewide prospects should she decide to run for higher office.

The question is can she extricate herself from the controversy by smiling through it and insisting it’s a non-story?

But even Wu and the journalists in her cheering squad can’t paper over the damage she’s suffered for hosting the party at the taxpayer-owned Parkman House.

And blaming her political enemies will only make it worse and will fuel more reaction.

It doesn’t matter who leaked the errant emails. The real issue is should a mayor who is supposed to unite the city be hosting a party that excludes people along racial lines?