Attleboro's acting mayor says photo taken at 2020 rally 'happenstance,' doesn't support QAnon
ATTLEBORO — The city’s acting mayor says a photo of him at a rally in August 2020 that touted the conspiratorial views of QAnon were pure “happenstance” and he does not support the far right group.
“The timing during the campaign is interesting,” Jay DiLisio, president of the city council and a candidate for mayor, said of the fact that the photo has resurfaced now.
The photo, along with two others that show the rally but that he does not appear in, were sent anonymously to The Sun Chronicle.
“I definitely do not support QAnon,” DiLisio said Monday in a phone interview. “It could not be further from the truth. It’s because of the campaign, definitely.”
He added, “It’s a non-story.”
DiLisio did not speculate on who would have released the photos.
Supporters of the online QAnon group, starting in 2020, flooded social media with false information about COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter protests and the presidential election. They also falsely claimed prominent politicians, including Hillary Clinton, were involved in child sex trafficking and child abductions with their home base being a small pizza shop in Washington, D.C. The incident became known as PizzaGate.
Delisio says he came upon a group of people gathered with signs at Capron Park after attending the Attleboro Farmers Market with Republican state senate candidate Matt Kelly of Franklin, who was campaigning in the area that day.
He said he saw people holding signs denouncing human and child sex trafficking and, “I thought that was something people need to be aware of.”
In the caption that appeared on the photo originally posted to his Instagram account, jaydilisiocouncilatlarge, he wrote, “Glad to see people taking action to end the child sex slave trade. It’s scary how widespread this is.” He wrote that he spoke to some of the “activists” and added, “This is a real danger to our children.”
In one of the photos, DiLisio, in a T-shirt and shorts and wearing a surgical mask because of the coronavirus, stands between two men behind signs planted in the ground. One sign reads, “If pedophilia is just sexuality then burying them all is just gardening!!!!” The other says, “Media Silence is DEAFENING.”
Another photo of the same event taken by former Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel — in town to report on the congressional campaign of Jake Auchincloss — shows a scattering of people with signs saying “Support the police” and another shows a woman holding a sign reading “Kids don’t just disappear.” At least one sign, with a drawing of a slice of pizza and the words PizzaGate, was also at the protest.
DiLisio said he’s still not sure that the event was an actual QAnon rally but added he took the photos down after a day or so after people pointed out it looked like it could be.
He said it’s “unfortunate” the photos have resurfaced during the mayoral campaign, adding “I have nothing to hide. I know who I am and what I believe in.”
DiLisio is a candidate to replace Paul Heroux as mayor of Attleboro. Heroux officially left office last week to become sheriff of Bristol County.
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/attleboros-acting-mayor-says-photo-taken-at-2020-rally-happenstance-doesnt-support-qanon/article_7b6964c7-ac5f-565a-8bd6-c5d1a625ae06.html