Former Philly Mayor Jim Kenney made his return to politics — to stump for Harris and take a shot at Trump

Jim Kenney is back on the political scene, just 282 days after he left.

The former Philadelphia mayor made a foray back into politics Wednesday, serving as a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris about 10 months after he left office. Kenney joined Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti on a Zoom call alongside union members to denounce former President Donald Trump, who is set to campaign in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

In some ways, it was vintage Kenney.

“I can’t imagine having [Trump] in the White House again, especially with an attitude he can do anything he wants. … We would be in line for an absolute disaster,” the former Philadelphia mayor said. “I still don’t understand how he’s conned as many people as he has.”

Kenney, a lifelong Democrat, has lain low since his successor, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, took office on Jan. 1. The former mayor — who weathered a tumultuous second term that included a pandemic and a historic gun violence surge — had said he planned to travel and spend time with loved ones following the end of his tenure.

Asked why he’s jumping back into the political arena now, Kenney responded with classic candor: “They asked me,” he said of the Harris campaign. “And I’m happy to do it.”

“After January, I traveled a bit. I was out of the city for a few months, and so I really wasn’t in circulation,” Kenney said. “But if they need me between now and Election Day, [I’ll] go anywhere, do anything, or do events like this.”

In some ways, it is not surprising that Kenney’s brief return to public life was an opportunity to slam Trump. The former mayor took office in 2016, the year Trump was elected to the White House, and Kenney made no secret of his at-times visceral disdain for the Republican president.

» READ MORE: Mayor Jim Kenney wants to be remembered as ‘someone who cared’ — even if he didn’t always seem like it

Some of his most memorable and animated moments in office came when he was opposing Trump. In 2018, the Kenney administration won a court case that allowed the city to maintain its “sanctuary” status, meaning local officials don’t comply with warrantless detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

After the legal win, a video of Kenney dancing and celebrating went viral. A spokesperson for Trump called it “disgusting.”

Kenney jabbed at Trump often while he was in office, once calling him a “weirdo perv” and describing the former president’s divisive rhetoric as racist and bigoted. In 2018, he called Trump “sad and pathetic.” The following year, Kenney posted on social media that the country was in a “national emergency” since Trump took office.

A few months later, he called Trump an “idiot” after the then-president told four women of color in Congress to “go back” to the “crime-infested places from which they came.”

“If Donald Trump ever has to go back where he came from,” Kenney said, “he’s going to have to go to hell.”

On Wednesday, Kenney directed his message to union members who are considering voting for Trump, saying the former president doesn’t understand the working class, a historically Democratic bloc that has drifted right in Philadelphia in recent years.

“A guy like Donald Trump never had a summer job. He never worked after school. He never struggled,” said Kenney, the son of a firefighter who grew up in South Philadelphia. “In order to really get an idea of what people struggle with, you have to have walked in their shoes.”

Kenney added: “I don’t know why anybody at this point would be on the fence, to tell you the truth.”