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Read the news of the day in less than 10 minutes — not that we’re counting.
Donald Trump has, at one point or another, insulted nearly every group of people. It’s part of his appeal. Supporters say they like he that says whatever he’s thinking — political correctness be damned.
Philadelphia did not escape this campaign season unscathed. The Donald’s bad-mouthed our city like he has many others. Here are the most unforgettable examples:
1. It’s worse than Afghanistan here
Trump made a trip to Philly in September and pushed his plans to improve life in inner cities. In an interview with The Inquirer, Trump offered a thinly veiled comparison of Philadelphia and cities like it to Afghanistan. During a conversation about the city, he said it’s “sad to see what’s going on inside Philadelphia.”
“You look at what’s going on in Afghanistan — it’s safer than some of our inner cities,” Trump said. “And I tell people: What do you have to lose? I’ll fix it. And African Americans are smart, and it’s really resonating.”
He went on to say it’s African Americans who are hurting in America’s cities, and that they “have no money.”
“It’s very unfair to the African Americans; they’re the ones that are suffering with it,” Trump said, adding: “They get bad education, they have no money, the jobs are a disaster, most of them don’t have jobs, inner-city people… They can’t walk their child down the street — and people have heard my message.”
2. Nutter is a ‘low-life’ and a ‘crude dope’
OK, so Michael Nutter sort of brought this one on himself. The former mayor was hosting a press conference at City Hall after a severed pig’s head was found outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque here in Philly, which happened shortly after Trump’s call to ban Muslims from immigrating into the United States. Naturally, the GOP candidate came up during the press conference.
“He’s an asshole,” Nutter said. “How can I take seriously foreign policy from someone like that?” Trump responded as such:
3. ‘Your mayor is doing a terrible job’
Philadelphia’s first-year mayor Jim Kenney wasn’t called a crude dope, but Trump — who likes to tout that he went to Wharton here in Philly — does apparently think Kenney is a terrible mayor.
“I know the city so well, because I went to college here, but it’s very sad to see what’s going on inside Philadelphia,” Trump told The Inquirer during that September interview. “It’s gotten so much worse than when I was going. It’s dangerous; the crime numbers are up. Your mayor is doing a terrible job.”
4. All those voting conspiracy theories
Trump insults toward our mayors are fairly inconsequently. Something tells us Nutter and Kenney can shake it off. What’s been more significant has been Trump’s claims about voting in Philadelphia that he’s pushed in the waning months of the presidential campaign.
Trump and surrogates have on many occasions implied Election Day in Philadelphia could be rigged. Some of his most famous supporters have peddled debunked claims about the 2012 election in Philly when Mitt Romney won exactly zero votes in 59 voting divisions. We’ve written over and over again about why that’s not only possible, but makes sense.
So Trump’s encouraged his supporters across Pennsylvania to travel to the city and watch the polls to ensure voter fraud isn’t happening.
“I hope you people can… not just vote on the 8th, [but] go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100-percent fine,” Trump said at an August rally in Altoona. “We’re going to watch Pennsylvania — go down to certain areas and watch… The only way we can lose, in my opinion — and I really mean this, Pennsylvania — is if cheating goes on.”
Nevermind that official poll-watchers must be watching in the county where they’re registered.
Bonus: When Philly bad-mouths back
We’re glad Kenney is candidly tweeting again. Especially when he says things like this about a presidential candidate:
But our favorite has to be this tweet, which Kenney sent after that 2005 Access Hollywood video was released:
