DA Krasner tells conservative social media activist to ‘put down Mein Kampf,’ calls Trump a ‘fascist’
The back-and-forth between Krasner and 22-year-old Frank Scales is the second time the pair have quarreled in recent weeks.
A conservative social media provocateur confronted District Attorney Larry Krasner in a Philadelphia park Friday, prompting an early-morning spat between the two that included the prosecutor calling President Donald Trump a “fascist” and telling the social media activist to “put down Mein Kampf.”
The back-and-forth between Krasner and Frank Scales, 22, who runs the account SurgePhilly on TikTok, is the second time the pair have quarreled in recent weeks. Scales shouted at the district attorney during a recent town hall and organized a protest against Krasner earlier this month.
But the videos that Scales posted to social media on Friday and Saturday were not from a public event. Instead, Krasner appears to have been bicycling near Dickinson Square Park in South Philadelphia along with his wife, former Court of Common Pleas Judge Lisa Rau, and the pair were drinking coffee in the park.
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In the video, which appears to stitch together several clips, Scales argued with Krasner after the district attorney said, “Donald Trump is a fascist.” Krasner, a Democrat who is running for a third term in office and has made opposing Trump a cornerstone of his campaign, has long referred to the Republican president as an authoritarian and previously said his administration has engaged in “Nazi stuff.”
“You’re un-American, Frank. You’re un-American, you’re anti-American,” Krasner says in the video. “You support people who support hate. You don’t understand what it means to be a fascist, what people like Adolf Hitler do, how spreading hate — which is something that frankly the people you admire do — gets us closer to that.”
At another point in the interaction, Krasner referred to Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, telling Scales, “put down Mein Kampf and get up a real book on World War II.”
Scales told him: “You’re a public official. Somebody should hold you accountable, which I’m doing — and that’s American.”
Wearing a T-shirt with The Clash, Krasner rode away on his bicycle and said, “You have a wonderful day.”
Krasner declined to comment Sunday.
Scales said in an interview that a friend texted him Friday morning that Krasner was in the park, so he went there to ask about why he had not been allowed into a recent district attorney’s office event.
He said he asked Krasner “why he demonizes Republicans,” and the interaction devolved from there.
“Larry Krasner plays a social justice warrior. He plays a guy who loves to have conversations. He acts like somebody fighting authoritarianism,” Scales said. “But the minute he loses control of the narrative, he freaks out and he becomes very, very authoritarian.”
Scales heckled Krasner earlier this month, as the district attorney’s office hosted town halls about how to respond if the Trump administration were to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Trump on Saturday said he would send troops to Portland, Ore., and the National Guard had a presence in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., this summer, but the president has not publicly mentioned Philadelphia.)
At a Sept. 16 town hall, Krasner told a Kingsessing crowd “fascists are going to be fascists,” and, “these are people who agree with Adolf Hitler.”
“Lies!” shouted Scales, who was met with boos. “That is a disgrace. The radical left — people like you — are responsible for the death of Charlie Kirk. Stop calling him a fascist.”
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Days later, activists and Krasner supporters blocked Scales from attending another town hall at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Society Hill. In a SurgePhilly video, Scales called Krasner a “crumb bum coward who has weaponized the DA’s office against the working-class, law-abiding people of this city. After all this, I only got one more thing to say: President Trump, send in the National Guard.”
During the confrontation in the park, Krasner suggested that Scales had broken the law when he disrupted the West Philadelphia town hall. He said Scales was not allowed to record audio of him without his permission, saying, “this is the second time I’m not going to do anything about it, because I figure there’s hope for even you.”
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Krasner continued: “People deserve a second chance, no matter how un-American you are, anti-American you are, I figure you deserve a second chance.”
Disrupting a “lawful meeting, procession or gathering” can be prosecuted as a low-level misdemeanor under state law.
SurgePhilly has been active on social media since early July, posting about the city’s “Democratic machine,” “leftist spending projects,” and “wokeism.” SurgePhilly has about 8,700 followers on TikTok and Instagram, combined.
Scales was raised in South Philadelphia, attending Roman Catholic High School and later Community College of Philadelphia, according to SurgePhilly’s website. In March, he was ousted as CCP’s Student Government Association president after allegations of racism, hate speech, and threatening behavior, conservative outlet The College Fix reported.