No, fascists, not even being nominated by the Republican Party to lead the fifth largest city in the country can keep this from happening to you!

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Although Billy Ciancaglini won the Republican nomination to run for mayor in Philadelphia, PA, last week, he won’t be winning any face-to-face debates against against the incumbent.

Mayor Jim Kenney announced he would not debate Ciancaglini during the campaign due to his associating with the neo-Fascist Identity Evropa as reported by Unicorn Riot. Their article points to a chat on the office messenger app Slack where members of Identity Evropa’s Philadelphia chapter note that they met with Billy Ciancaglini, the GOP candidate in Philly’s 2019 Mayoral race, on March 4, 2019. When Unicorn Riot asked Ciancaglini about that meeting, he reportedly responded by saying “Go away. You are sad and pathetic. Get a life.” Kenney cited the article, noting that he appeared with his two opponents in the Democratic primary a few times, but says the GOP nominee is different. “It’s hard when the person associates themselves with white supremacists and neo-Nazis to give that person a platform, so probably not,” Mayor Kenney said.

Ciancaglini –although challenged in a rather convoluted party nominating process — won the municipal party nomination and ran unopposed in the primary election.

The mayor issued the announcement the day after the election and Ciancaglini replied on his Facebook mayoral page that it was wrong to believe that Unicorn Riot was a legitimate information source — even though the news medium supplied original source materials.
“Make no mistake about it, Jim Kenney is a gutless coward and the worst mayor this city has ever had,” he posted. “He won’t debate me because he’s a crooked liar. I will debate him any time, anywhere.” He reiterated this to WHYY as well, saying, “Jim Kenney is making pretend to rely on this unreliable publication to avoid a debate because he is a gutless coward and he doesn’t want to come out of his office to do anything campaign-related unless he has to.” 

Ciancaglini did not readily address the Identity Evropa interaction issue on Facebook, but instead pivoted to a facially pro-police, “Back the Blue” rallying cry. According to some, this meant marching with Proud Boys and others in Philadelphia in August. Raising “Back The Blue” and declaring his support for police was also curious, given how several years ago while a candidate for a judgeship, he spoke to Phawker, a Philadelphia-focused website, and observed that the police he encountered as a lawyer conducting criminal defense work were habitual serial liars. “I think there’s a lot of good officers, but, it’s almost the culture to come into court and flat out lie,” he said. “It’s how the game works.”

Despite the “deplatforming” announcement, Ciancaglini will be campaigning through November.