Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says he doesn't know what to expect from President-elect Donald Trump, but is sure of one thing: "I'd take George W. back in a minute."
"There's no template for him, so I don't know what he is going to do, how extreme he is going to be or not, or whether the Congress is going to cooperate with the extremity," the Democratic mayor said of Trump, Philly.com reported.
He also told Politico, "I’d take George W. back in a minute," referring to the 43rd president, who won just 19 percent of the vote in Philadelphia in his 2004 re-election.
"If it was [George] Bush, [Ronald] Reagan, [Mitt] Romney, [John] McCain, you’d kind of know what to get ready for. I don’t know what to get ready for," he told the political news outlet.
Kenney, in the nation's capital for the annual Conference of Mayor, is also uncertain about Trump's nominee for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, whose aggressive law-and-order approach contrasts with Philadelphia's attempt to use alternatives to jail, to decriminalize some drug offenses and to soften the relationship between police and communities, Philly.com reported.
"I watched that confirmation hearing - it didn't give me much hope" for national criminal justice reform, Kenney said of Sessions' confirmation hearings, Philly.com reported, adding, however, the city would continue its progressive approach.
"I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission."
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