Manny Morales’ Press Conference Denying Facebook Posts and Staying in Race is Amazing

By Kenneth Lipp

The Declaration’s last election update with the Spirit featured some drama from the 7th District. The Democratic ward leaders had picked Manny Morales over incumbent Councilmember Maria Quinones-Sanchez, and it turns out that Morales is probably a bigot (though it is not absolutely impossible for ‘hacking’ and ‘photoshop’ to have a role in the fiasco, as is the line out of the Morales camp). Mr. Morales gave a press conference yesterday stating that he was voluntarily asking the Philly Dems to rescind their endorsement, and also to deny his responsibility for objectionable social media posts and to affirm that his candidacy was still live.

In the series of videos below we see Morales and campaign spokesman Michael Blackie spend 20 minutes trying not to discuss the Facebook posts, mostly without success. Caution: it’s painful to view at times, and eventually finds Mr. Blackie admonishing the press repeatedly that the last time he checked this was America. The Jehovah’s Witnesses get a mention. You can still hear the spokesman and reporters’ colloquy in the background in the last video, as the candidate delivers a summary of his press conference in Spanish.

The Morales campaign has also alleged fraud against Maria Quinones-Sanchez in the form of three deceased persons’ on the Councilwoman’s ballot petitions, an allegation Quinones-Sanchez denied.

Videos via Jose Hernandez