After the Delaware Valley Journal broke the story about state Sen. Jimmy Dillon’s basketball academy Twitter account harboring posts with the “N” word, an LGBTQ insult and insults against Asians, Dillon blamed the offending posts on his players.
“As a coach, I work with kids to teach them how to play basketball and learn skills both on and off the court. I’m not a big social media guy. If basketball players who work with Hoops 24-7 posted something like this more than a decade ago, it’s the first I’ve heard about it,” Dillon said in a statement to DVJournal.
Nobody disputes that the Twitter account, @Hoops24_7, belongs to the basketball academy the Philadelphia Democrat founded. And the account is full of posts featuring references to @senjimmydillon and political activities engaged in by Dillon.
What Dillon and his campaign dispute is the claim that he posted the specific posts with the offensive language.
However, Michael Straw, communications director for the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee, pointed to other tweets that appear to show Dillon controlled the account at that time.
“He’s posted numerous tweets in the first-person on this account and retweeted official and campaign content as well,” said Straw. “This is classic Senator Jimmy Dillon, running away from the problem and not wanting to be held accountable. Just like when the arrest warrant was uncovered, he ran away from it for 20 years.”
Also notable: When DVJournal contacted the campaign for a response late Monday night, the offensive posts were quickly deleted.
Dillon’s campaign dismissed the story as a “phony MAGA Republican distraction,” said spokesman Mark Nevins.
“They’re taking decades-old tweets someone else wrote and waving them around like a bunch of maniacs. Meanwhile, they’re hoping we’re too dumb to notice that, at the same time, they’re trying to rip away women’s reproductive rights, prevent access to IVF treatments, and block commonsense gun violence legislation.
“Sorry, weirdos. It’s not happening,” said Nevins.
Dillon’s Republican opponent, Joe Picozzi — an Eagle Scout who was appointed by City Councilman Brian O’Neill to serve on the Philadelphia Youth Commission — declined to comment on the unsavory tweets.
“My focus is on delivering real change for the people of Northeast Philadelphia. Crime’s going out of control. People can’t afford to pay for their groceries. My focus is on delivering results for the people here,” Picozzi told DVJournal.
Albert Eisenberg a political consultant from Philadelphia with BlueStateRed, called the Twitter posts on Dillon’s account “appalling,” “bizarre,” and “disqualifying.”
“If Democrats have any consistency, they would revoke their endorsements of this guy that’s been spewing slurs and deleted them after being contacted. So, clearly, it was him,” said Eisenberg.
Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanne McClinton declined to comment about the Dillon revelations. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), a candidate for state auditor general, did not respond when asked to comment, nor did Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny). The Philadelphia branch of the NAACP did not respond to a request for comment.
Brittany Crampsie, spokesperson for the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said, “Senator Dillon’s record speaks for itself. At every opportunity, he has been a strong advocate and a consistent vote in support of Black and LGBTQ Pennsylvanians. He has nurtured and trained young people from all backgrounds his entire career. Distasteful tweets from more than a decade ago written by someone else don’t change that.”
Dillon became a state Senator in 2022. He won a special election after the sitting Democratic senator was appointed to the bench. Dillon’s brother, Shawn, was going to fill the vacancy but was bumped from the ballot after he failed to file documents required under the state’s ethics laws. Party insiders then chose Dillon to replace his brother.
This is not Dillon’s first controversy of the campaign. Previously, the DVJournal reported that Dillon had an outstanding warrant from New Jersey due to unpaid traffic ticket fines and failure to appear in court.
