An exasperated Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said early Tuesday morning after two police officers were shot that he was so concerned about safety at public events that he would be “happy” when he was no longer mayor, drawing national attention and calls for his resignation his.
Standing alongside police officers outside Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Kenney made the comments shortly after midnight, about two hours after the chaos that broke out during the city’s annual Independence Day celebration on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
“There isn’t an event or a day where I don’t lie on my back at night, staring at the ceiling and worrying about things,” he said. “So I worry about everything we’ve had in the city for the last seven years. I don’t like the Fourth of July. I did not like it [2016] National Democratic Convention. I didn’t like the NFL draft. I’m always waiting for something bad to happen.
“So I’ll be happy when I’m not here – when I’m not mayor and I can enjoy some things.”
A reporter followed by asking, “Do you expect not to be mayor?”
“Yeah,” Kenny said with a smile, “as a matter of fact.”
Police Commissioner Daniel Outlaw began speaking and returned attention to the response to the shooting that left two officers with lacerations. Both were treated and released Monday night. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning.
Kenney retracted his comments in a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying he was “disappointed” in the way he expressed his feelings at a “time of tremendous frustration.”
“I made Philadelphians feel like I didn’t care, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. “I’ve said it many times before, I’ve laid awake at night thinking about the challenges our city residents are facing and what more we can do or do differently to solve them. Being mayor comes with a lot of restless nights, so I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep.”
Kenney’s moment of candor quickly drew national attention and criticism Tuesday from colleagues at City Hall. A handful of Philadelphia Democrats who are considering running to replace him have been particularly scathing, or have called on Kenney — who leaves office in January 2024 — to step down now.
One of them, Councilman Derek Green, said Tuesday morning that Kenney should resign, saying that while he sympathizes with the mayor, CEOs cannot express defeat.
“It’s a position that people choose to run for and people look to for leadership in times of crisis,” Green said. “[Kenney] said in his statement that he wants to be happy. That’s what he said. This is his chance to be happy again.”
Councilman Alan Domb, who is also considering a run for mayor, said Kenney should resign because his comments constituted an abdication of his oath of office.
“His remarks indicate to some extent that he has given up on the city and the people he is supposed to serve every day,” Domb said. “Public leaders take an oath to serve those they represent. … You can’t have a leader who coaches the team and throws in the towel.”
And Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, also called on the mayor to step down, saying Kenney’s comments were “further indication that he has given up on Philadelphia.”
But City Council leaders said Tuesday during a news conference that calls for the mayor’s resignation will come to nothing. Council President Darrell L. Clark — who by law would replace the mayor if Kenney leaves office before the end of his term — said it was counterproductive to call for the mayor’s resignation. He said he spoke with Kenney on Tuesday and “the mayor said he’s not going anywhere.”
Councilman Mark Scylla, who represents the city’s 1st Ward, said the resignation would lead to chaos and not solve the problem of ongoing gun violence.
“You want to tell people to resign? what will happen This is not helping us,” he said. “We now as Council leaders are working together with the administration … to try to resolve this public safety issue.”
Other potential mayoral candidates have stopped short of calling for Kenney’s resignation, but have criticized his administration’s response to gun violence. Council Majority Leader Cheryl Parker said Kenney’s comments were “stupid” and that she called him afterward to express her dismay.
“I told him if you can feel that way, imagine how the people of Philadelphia feel who don’t get to check every day,” she said.
And Common Council member Helen Gimme, a progressive stalwart also considered a potential mayoral candidate, said in a statement that “Jim Kenney can be defeated, but this city will not be.” She added in a tweet: “Put on your big boy pants and get to work!”
Kenney’s admission that he was looking forward to being out of the job was in some ways not surprising, coming from a term-limited mayor who has seemed increasingly isolated and disengaged in his second term.
It was also illustrative of how fed up he is with the spate of shootings in Philadelphia that began in 2020 and led to last year being the city’s deadliest on record.
» READ MORE: Disappearing mayor: The strange final chapter of the Jim Kenney administration
He said his administration is doing what it can to stem the tide. The police department is making arrests for illegal gun possession at a record pace, and the city will spend millions of dollars in the next fiscal year on various programs to combat non-law enforcement violence.
But Kenney also frequently blames the GOP-led state legislature, the national political environment and society at large. After a mass shooting last month that left three people dead and 11 injured on South Street, he made his first public appearance two days later after flying home from a conference in Reno, Nevada. He said without stricter gun regulations at the state and federal levels, the proliferation of firearms in the city will continue.
“I’m not putting the onus on the legislature or the U.S. Congress, but it does make it more difficult,” he said last month.
After the police shooting late Monday night, Kenney also blamed a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down a New York law designed to limit the public carrying of guns.
“We live in America and we have the Second Amendment and we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want,” he said. “We have to deal with what this country is right now. We had a great day today except for one idiot…who has a gun and probably shouldn’t have.
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