Larry Krasner in a Surge Philly video.
I’ve watched videos of Frank Scales, a 22-year-old firebrand political conservative activist confronting Larry Krasner, who is running for reelection as Philadelphia’s District Attorney.
I reached out to Frank Scales and asked him about his opposition to Krasner and his confrontations with the Philly DA.
You can read my Q&A with him below:
Davis: I watched your videos of you confronting Philly DA Krasner and his supporters at public meetings. Would you please explain what happened?
Scales: We went to the first Town Hall. We went with the intention of hearing him out and asking questions about his policies that we disagree with. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by someone who said Larry wouldn’t be answering our questions directly, and that we had to write down our questions on a flash card and a moderator would take and read to a panel. We were disappointed. We wrote our questions down and we sat down.
But as soon as Larry started talking, he immediately started demonizing President Trump and Republicans, and at one point, I said enough is enough and I got up and said, stop doing this. This is what leads to political violence. This is why Charlie Kirk was assassinated. He responded by calling me a fascist.
At another Town Hall meeting two days later, we were met on the steps by Larry’s LBGTQ advisor, Asa Khalif, who physically stopped us from entering. He hurled insults at us and threatened us for an hour straight. Later one morning, I saw Krasner at the park, and I confronted him and asked him why I wasn’t allowed into his Town Hall. He immediately started attacking me. He wouldn’t answer my questions. His hands started shaking, and he was verbally and physically aggressive. His comebacks were weird.
Davis: I watched your video on your Facebook page where Krasner is on a bicycle in the park and he tells you to read a book about fascism and World War II, and when you ask for a book title, he either wouldn’t or couldn’t give you one. And then he said that Trump was trying to stop women from voting. Well, I can give you a book title about the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, Herman Wouk’s historical novel, “The Winds of War,” and his WWII novel, “War and Remembrance.”
Scales: I would be still open to having a conversation with him, but I don’t think he is open to having a conversation with me. He has the wit of a demented old man and a temperament of a teenager. I’m not trying to insult the man, but that is what I saw. I wanted to know why he thought Trump’s a fascist. Why does he think that Trump is looking to take away women's vote? I don’t think he has ever been challenged, so he's gotten away with this rhetoric that he can’t back up. Quite frankly, I don't think he was prepared to actually give me a book title. I would read a book he recommended.
Frank Scales
Davis: Have you read Ralph Cipriano’s pieces at BigTrial on his confrontations with Krasner?
Scales: Yes. Krasner has a habit of insulting the people who disagree with him, kicking them out of meetings and silencing them.
Davis: Why do you call Krasner “Lawless Larry?”
Scales: I call him “lawless” because he puts his ideology above the law that he was elected by the public to enforce. I’ll give you an example. When it comes to illegal firearms, he has stated that he doesn't believe that illegal firearms lead to shootings. As a result, he has declined to prosecute a lot of cases in which people were carrying illegal firearms. People are breaking the law, and he doesn’t want to prosecute because of his personal beliefs and ideology.
He does not prosecute people with illegal firearms, but at the same time he’s playing the blame game and blaming Republicans for shootings by people who were protecting themselves under the Second Amendment. So he wants to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens to have firearms to protect themselves, while at the same time allowing criminals to possess illegal firearms to carry.
Davis: And some say he is on a one-man crusade to prosecute cops.
Scales: Yes, absolutely. I've never seen anything like it.
Davis: I was taken aback to hear Krasner say that DA now stands for “democracy advocate” and not district attorney.
Scales: It is a dereliction of duty. He has been elected and paid to by a district attorney, not an advocate for the Democratic Party or for his ideology. For him to be allowed to say that goes to show you that in Philadelphia over the past 50 years has been an echo chamber. I think we need to change that. We need to hold these people accountable. I hope that I can inspire people to speak up and hold them accountable and challenge their rhetoric.
Davis: I don’t care for one party rule of either political party.
Scales: They call Republicans and President Trump authoritarians and fascists and all this, but who is silencing their political opponents? Who is ruling a county with one-party rule? Who won’t allow Republicans into town hall meetings? These are all things that fascists and authoritarians would do, and Democrats are the ones doing it.
Davis: You’re kind of young to be involved in politics. How old are you?
Scales: I’m 22 years old.
Davis: Would you please tell us about your background and how you became a political activist?
Scales: I would say that I was passionate about politics from a very young age, and I thought that I had to go through other things before I could actually get involved in politics. I went to Community College for Biology. There was a student government election coming up, and I figured I would throw my name in the hat, and I ran for president. I made posters and I walked around for three days straight getting people to vote, and I won by the largest margin in history. That's because I was the first one who actually make it extremely serious.
I went into student government, and I worked every day. It was a full-time job for me. But that energy wasn't welcomed by the school's administration. They cited me for hate speech for expressing support for the Founding Fathers of the country. So, I ended up getting fired. A free speech advocacy group advocated on my behalf and the administration dropped the charges. I continued as president of the student government. I endorsed President Trump on my Instagram account because my eyes were open to how corrupt the Democratic Party is. A month or two later, the school’s administration impeached me and removed me from office. They stated that it was partially because of my support of President Trump.
I took a few months off to gather myself and I wrote about the incident, and then I wanted to get involved again. What happened at Community College of Philadelphia was a microcosm of what happens in the city of Philadelphia and broadly on a national scale. So, I and my cofounder of Surge Philly, Ian McInnis, began making videos, talking about all of this stuff with the goal of getting the conservative viewpoint out there, and to let people know that they aren't alone. It's OK to speak up, zero to one. If one person speaks up, it’s a whole different ball game. That was our goal. I loved what we're doing. That’s my passion – it's not even work for me.
Davis: How would you describe your political group Surge Philly?
Scales: We are a group that is trying to energize conservatives in Philadelphia to take back our city.
Davis: Who were your influences?
Scales: When I was really young, Nigel Farage caught my attention. I would say Jordan Peterson was instrumental in me developing my beliefs around Christianity and my basic ideology about the world, and I would say Charlie Kirk was a huge influence.
Davis: What are you and your group doing to advocate your views?
Scales: We are having an open debate every Saturday at Logan’s Square from 4pm to 6pm. We want people who disagree with us to come up and debate us. This is the most powerful thing you can do. Surge Philly is going to be available to the public. We are going to convince people through our words. We have a GoFundMe page to help raise money for the group.
Davis: Do you support Judge Dugan for DA?
Scales: I do. I think we need to vote out Larry Krasner. I think Judge Dugan will do a good job.
