Boston city councilmember cries racism after video proves she didn't say a word during oath of office: Report

A Boston city councilmember who has a troubled history with rules and regulations has blamed racism after a viral video proved she never uttered a word of the oath of office during the inaugural ceremony held last week.

On New Year's Day, the 13 members of the Boston City Council, including the four newly elected members, arrived at Faneuil Hall to take the oath of office, as required by the city charter. Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu led the group in the recitation of the oath, and most members stood smiling with their right hands raised proudly in the air.

However, video of the ceremony showed that Democrat Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who represents District 7, neither raised her hand nor uttered the words along with her colleagues. Boston Accountability Network first shared the video on Wednesday, but the video went viral after Libs of TikTok shared it about six hours later.

After the video spread across social media, several Boston leaders indicated that Anderson had not properly taken the oath, thereby negating the votes she cast later that day. Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and others ordered Anderson to retake the oath the following Thursday, four days after the initial ceremony.

"The city charter is clear that anyone elected to serve at the city level — the mayor, the city council — must take an oath verbally and sign the oath book in order to begin their service to the city and their official actions in that office," Mayor Wu said last Friday.

Wu added that she had been "informed" that Anderson had taken the verbal oath on Thursday as directed. "So that issue is resolved now," she stated.

For her part, Councilor Anderson did not take kindly to the criticism leveled by LOTT and others. She initially blocked LOTT on X then, according to an apparent screenshot, issued a statement dismissing the criticism as "anti-immigrant racist vitriol."

"You're okay with someone mindlessly mouthing an oath only to betray every promise they've ever made, but me internalizing my oath, committing a prayer between myself and God in honor of that very oath is a problem for you?" she ostensibly asked LOTT and those of like mind.

Anderson's X account has since gone private, so Blaze News was not able to verify the statement or its provenance.

The description Libs of TikTok offered of Anderson is brutal. LOTT called her "a radical activist" who "hates this country and constitution." LOTT also alleged that Anderson has engaged in pro-Muslim and pro-Palestinian activism, including proposing a "Hijab Day" in the city and downplaying the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent Israelis on October 7. Anderson's X account, though private, publicly features a picture of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a strongly pro-Palestinian congresswoman, wearing a keffiyeh, which the AP described as a scarf denoting "Palestinian solidarity."

LOTT even claimed that Anderson is married to Tanzerious Anderson, a murderer serving a life sentence for the brutal slaying of 35-year-old Iman Yazbek in 2000. Reports indicate that they married in 2008 or 2009, when Tanzerious had already been behind bars for years. Neither Anderson's campaign website nor the bio of her on the city's official website make any mention of her marital status, let alone the name of her alleged spouse.

Anderson, a West African native, has been surrounded by controversy since she was sworn into office for the first time in January 2022. Screenshots of previous tweets shared by the TB Daily News, an independent outlet, indicate a history of anti-white bigotry. Using emojis, she even appeared to criticize the superintendent of Boston schools and the new fire chief just because they are white.

On her website, Anderson describes herself as a "strong Black woman" who is eager to "hold police accountable."

Anderson also got herself in hot water when she not only hired her sister and son to work on her staff, a violation of council rules, but she then increased each of their annual salaries to $70,000. According to a disposition agreement that Anderson signed, the two left her staff in August 2022, just eight months into Anderson's tenure, and Anderson paid a $5,000 fine.

Anderson did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment, though an automatic reply email from her office requested a response time of 48 hours. Should she provide any comments at a later time, Blaze News will happily update this article to include them in full.

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