“Sometimes the louder you get, the less people listen to you,” Whitmire said of his Democrat counterparts in a recent interview with the New York Times’ J. David Goodman.
“I don’t respond to Trump—that could be counterproductive,” the Houston mayor added. “Do I have personal views? Sure, and they’re strong, but why do you want to challenge him?”
Whitmire appeared to laud his keep-your-head-down approach as the reason why most other major cities are in “turmoil,” while Houston isn’t.
The mayor, whose focus on public safety and more bread-and-butter issues has won him disapproval from Houston’s more progressive voters, took his criticism of other Democratic mayors one step further.
In his interview with the New York Times, Whitmire called out Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their vocal challenges to Trump’s immigration crackdown, among other measures, arguing they were only further sowing division between parties.
Whitmire said Mamdani had “a horrible record of bringing people together.”
“He’s saying he’s going to arrest the prime minister of Israel? You think that’s how you bring people together? He and me are in different universes,” Whitmire told the Times.
Chron contacted Whitmire for comment, but did not receive a response by publication. Notably, Whitmire’s office has not responded to Chron’s requests for comment since Aug. 22.
The mayor told the Times he thinks the description “progressive Democrat” applies to him, referencing his support of the LGBTQ community (despite his recent absence at a press conference to fight the removal of a rainbow crosswalk), labor unions and civil rights.
Whitmire notably won office in Houston’s majority-Democrat city without winning a majority of Democratic voters, instead raking in support from Republicans, Independents and more centrist Democrats.
