A Philly Democrat went to a Mehmet Oz event in ‘protest.’ It didn’t go quite as planned.
Chris Rabb, who represents one of the most Democratic parts of a very Democratic city, was out the door before reporters could ask him why he was there.
State Rep. Chris Rabb says he attended a campaign event for Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz on Monday “in protest.”
It was a very silent protest.
Rabb, a Northwest Philly Democrat, went to Oz’s “safer streets” discussion in Germantown, near his district. It was billed by Oz’s campaign as an event to discuss gun violence. Rabb sat two seats away from Oz and listened quietly the whole time — save for one instance when someone misstated the federal minimum wage.
“It’s $7.25 an hour,” Rabb said.
As soon as the event wrapped, Rabb, who represents one of the most Democratic parts of a very Democratic city, was out the door before reporters could ask him why he was there.
But minutes later, he was calling Clout after tweets about his attendance stirred confusion online — and seemingly within Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman’s campaign.
Rabb, a progressive lawmaker who has often run independent of the city’s Democratic establishment, told Clout he came to the event at a neighborhood church “in protest,” and to hear what was being said to voters in his community. He also said he didn’t want to speak out and appear insensitive after Sheila Armstrong, who helped plan the event, talked about the loss of her brother and nephew to gun violence. (Armstrong ran against City Council President Darrell L. Clarke in the 2019 Democratic primary).
“I did not feel comfortable saying what I wanted to say in a house of God, next to a grieving mother,” Rabb said. “It was not the right venue for me to speak up.”
But Rabb told a different story in the statement Fetterman’s campaign blasted out later in the day to clarify why he was there.
“I repeatedly tried to speak during the program and make my voice heard, but was never allowed to,” Rabb said.
Clout saw no evidence of this at the roundtable discussion, where people raised their hand for the mic when they wanted to speak.
Randy Robinson, a Republican strategist who moderated, called Rabb’s characterization “an outright lie” on Twitter.
Asked Wednesday about the discrepancy, Rabb said he didn’t want to overshadow people sharing their often traumatic experiences.
“When I felt compelled to say something, I didn’t have a mic,” Rabb said. He said Robinson, who was calling on people to talk, also never made eye contact with him.
At the end of the event, Rabb left without shaking Oz’s hand, and he ripped Oz’s campaign flier in half on his way out. “I Pelosi-fied the pamphlet,” he said.
Rabb said he wished more cameras had caught that moment.
It would have likely saved him a few phone calls.
Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.