Soledad im soledad obrien. Welcome to matter of fact fromp. Behind me is independence hall, the birthplace of the declaration of independence and the constitution. This city holds an important place in American History and this state plays an Important Role in president ial history. With campaign 2020 now fully underway, the nations pollsters and pundits turn to a handful of candidates president ial hopes, including pennsylvania. Since 1992, pennsylvanias Electoral College votes have gone to the democratic candidate. Until 2016 when the political ground shifted as the keystone state chose donald trump. One county that flipped from blue to red is erie in the far northwestern corner of the state. Thats where special contributor joie chen met with voters as part of our matter of fact listening tour in pennsylvania. Joie the orange vanilla twist at saras is everything here. This is real erie . If somebody has lived here for a year and they havent been to saras, they havent been to erie. Joie it is also a trait that captures the flavor of erie politics. Sharp contrasts twisted together. Do you think the rest of the country understands eries politics . No, but i think thats why erie was one of the top counties that changed their mind to go and the rest of the country needs to catch up. Joie we asked 71yearold judy phelps, a lifelong democrat turned diehard trumper, to join us. She brought along friends from the local gop, some who had also made the switch from d to r. And the last two years have proven you right, in your mind . Well in my mind, absolutely. One big thing is that im very happy with what hes doing and sticking to his guns. Every time i see anything about the border i think, you go because thats what we need. I do believe in the wall that he wants to do, i do believe that hes doing the right thing. Joie what are the good things that hes done for you . The economy, boosting peoples morale. Hes kind of not politically correct, which i love. Joie in this longtime blue stronghold, democrats still hold a big advantage. But even before trump erie county began to see increases in the number of voters who switched from blue to red. Should democrats be afraid . In the shortterm, democrats dont have to be afraid. Right now democrats in erie county enjoy our 28,000 to 30,000 voter advantage. Joie at mercy hearst university, Professor Joseph morris runs the center for applied politics. When people outside of erie look at our home what they see i think is a manufacturing, an old manufacturing town a rust belt town that is filled with these blue collar voters. Really nothing could be further from the truth. Erie is a dynamic place with a large number of refugees, a diversifying economy. Believe it or not i think erie is one of the most diverse places ive been to. Joie maitham is one of eries new americans. More than 10thousand refugees live here today. One out of every five residents is foreignborn, helping to shore up eries declining population. Theres also a younger its one of those cities that people think theres not a lot of hope, not a lot of opportunity here. But i definitely think now, that narrative has definitely changed. The National Press is telling one story, about erie being a divisive place. I dont really see that. Joie helping to change the narrative, local leaders. Frustrated by outside media reports about the community they chose to work across party lines. This grassroots production not funded by the local chamber of commerce or tourism board, our erie aims to be a springboard for more productive partnerships. Its not about politics, its not about trump. Its about how we feel about our community and what were going to do about it. I dont think we have the bandwidth to separate by party in a place like erie pennsylvania. Joie that may be the biggest warning to politicians of any political stripe here. Dont make any assumptions about this community. It votes like its favorite dessert, with a twist. For matteroffact, i am joie chen in erie, pennsylvania. Next, donald trump cannot win the 2020 election. The democrats can lose it. Is a progessive agenda a losing platform in a battleground state . Plus, the philly d. C. Rivalry goes back, way back. Is the city of brotherly love still a little angry about is the city of brotherly love still a little angry about losing its status as the my mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. Come on lets hide in the attic. No. In the basement. Why cant we just get in the running car . Are you crazy . Lets hide behind the chainsaws. Smart. Yeah. Ok. If youre in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. Its what you do. This was a good idea. Shhhh. Im being quiet. Youre breathing on me if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Lets go to the cemetery take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. So you dont have to stash antacids here. Here. Or, here. Kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. One pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. Soledad welcome back to matter of fact from philadelphia. President trump may have won pennsylvania back in 2016, but a recent quinnipiac poll shows the president struggling with voters here. Ed rendell served as the democratic governor of pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. He was also the mayor of philadelphia, and hes the author of a nation of wusses how americas leaders lost the guts to make us great. Governor rendell, thank you for sitting down and talking with me. Give me the lay of the land of the state of pennsylvania. Politically speaking. Gov. Rendell well. Pennsylvania is decidedly purple state. We have a democratic governor elected twice but we have republican control of the house and the senate. State house and state senate. We have one democratic u. S. Senator one republican u. S. Senator. So its a decidedly purple state. Soledad the counties. I mean obviously philadelphia where we are is blue. Erie, northampton, lucerne, those are the ones that flipped for trump in 2016. What messages do you think are coming from donald trump that resonate with people in those counties or do you think things have changed dramatically. Gov. Rendell when you assess Donald Trumps chances. He has a tougher road to hoe in pennsylvania. But understand he has two advantages. Hes an incumbent president presiding over a good economy. Now that incumbent with a good economy has never lost in the history of u. S. Elections. It doesnt seem to help him in the polls but its still an asset. There are a lot of people out there who dont want to admit theyre voting for donald trump but they like some of the things hes done. Soledad some of the candidates on the democratic side obviously are very progressive. Is that going to be problematic in this state, which as you know is purple basically . Gov. Rendell it will be problems for two reasons. Soledad bernie sanders, elizabeth warren. Gov. Rendell right. Donald trump cannot win the 2020 election. The democrats can lose it. And donald trump can help us lose it. In his state of the union address, he attacked democrats and said the democrats were trying to turn the country into a socialist country. Hes got a little guy somewhere down in the basement of his Campaign Headquarters totalling up all the promithat a the Democratic Candidates running for president are making. Free college, medicare for all. Hes totally not what they are going to cost. Hes going to come up with a fairly credible figure. It is going to mean a tax increase which has to be borne by everyone. And it will be hard to dispute that. And of course it doesnt matter whether its true or not. If you are a democrat, get ready for the fight of your life. Soledad theres lots of conversations about impeachment. Nancy pelosi has been clear that is not a direction shes willing to go. Where do you stand on that . Gov. Rendell im with nancy. We can never get donald trump out of office by impeachment. Theres absolutely no chance that the senate as its constituted now will vote to convict donald trump. Soledad what is the analogy in a court of law, we are never going to win this case, so we shouldnt bother to bring it . Gov. Rendell that is what most u. S. Attorneys do. They dont bring cases they know they cant win. So thats number one. You cant win. Number two is its clear to me that the trump base is still with him but not quite as enthusiastic still enthusiastic some but not quite as enthusiastic as it was in 2016. Do we want to rile them up by there is a theory that donald trump wants to be impeached because he thinks it would help his reelection chances. Soledad governor at rendell, nice to see you. When we come back. I didnt know how to navigate the student loan situation and now i am paying for it. A heavy burden to bear. Soledad the Student Loan Debt crisis. Why are College Graduates buried in more debt in pennsylvania than anywhere else . California phones offers free specialized phones. Like cordless phones. phone ringing big button, and volumeenhanced phones. Get details on this state program. Visit right now or call during business hours. And accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state Program Visit right now or call during business hours. Soledad welcome back to matter of fact from pennsylvania. One Campaign Issue resonating here is Student Loan Debt. Americans owe nearly 1. 5 trillion in student loans. College and Postsecondary Education is now the largest source of consumer borrowing behind mortgage loans. And in pennsylvania, graduates here have the highest average Student Loan Debt in the country, owing about 36,000 after graduation. Correspondent Jessica Gomez tells us, as the state tries to get a handle on this growing crisis, many borrowers are worried their debt will follow them for life. Jessica 29yearold carlos aponte, riding his bike the 15 miles roundtrip to work to save money. The Philadelphia High School history teacher is in debt, and has been since he graduated from Temple University 7 years ago. Is the biggest regret of my life. Definitely is. 192 a month is the minimum payment. Jessica apontes Student Loan Debt, though, no laughing matter. The first in his family to go to college, he applied for 50,000 in federal and private loans. So far hes paid back about 14,000. But with high interest rates, he knows 57,000. More than he originally took out. The vocabulary was all foreign to me. Variable rates, fixed rates, i didnt know what any of it meant. I thought i was going to be a service to other people and everything would work out. It will impact their ability to buy a home, to form a family, have children. Jessica at the Federal Reserve bank of philadelphia, Dubravka Ritter specializes in Student Loan Debt. She says the skyrocketing cost of College Tuition is part of the problem. We have some of the highest tuition in the country. In addition, the prerecession levels of support from the state for Public Education have not been restored. Jessica jennifer omara, also the first in her family to go to college, took out 36,000 in federal loans to get her undergraduate and masters degrees. Veteran. Until recently, the 29yearold was working three jobs. I have a story to tell you. Jessica last november, things changed. She ran for a seat on the Pennsylvania State legislature and won, becoming the youngest female democrat to get elected. Shes making Student Loan Debt priority number one. Is a stressful situation. You thought you were doing everything right. Now you have a degree, you have a good job, and you still cant get ahead. Jessica she enlisted the help of another millennial freshman representative. Theyve created the student debt caucus. Everybody seems to have a story. Jessica the state reps say they are focusing on predatory lending, College Tuition cost, and how to improve Financial Literacy for young people. If this is the field you want to go into, this is probably some of the Job Opportunities and this is what they make. We are going to be digging out of this problem for years and years. I dont know how im going to look my kids in the face and tell them that they need to go to college and do the same thing i did. How do i set them down that same path . How many of you think you are going to go to college . Jessica carlos feels the same pressure when it comes to his students. How do i in good faith tell students to go to school if they are going to take out this kind of debt as an 18yearold . This is the biggest financial decision you are going to make in your life and you have to do it at 18 . Jessica hes still passionate though, about making a difference. Hoping to pass on the life lessons he learned, the hard way. I would tell my 17yearold self to relax, take a minute, go find help, find someone who has been through it. Dont be in such a rush to be a grownup without growing up yourself. Jessica in philadelphia, Jessica Gomez. Soledad pennsylvanias attorney general has joined other states in suing some of the countrys top student loan servicers, accusing them of pushing students into bad loans and other predatory lending practices. Coming up next, the battle lines are drawn, erased, and drawn again. Why the redistricting tugofwar is far from over. Plus, soledad did you know the Founding Fathers considered making philadelphia the Nations Capital . How the city of brotherly love lost the capital to washington. There are those who will say that youre too fat. Too skinny. Too hard. Too soft. Too old. Too much. Too unexpected. Too limited. And to them we say too bad. Because at kaiser permanente, we believe that everyone deserves the right to thrive. Soledad now to a weekly feature we like to call were paying attention even if youre too busy. Up until last year, pennsylvania held the title as one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation. The Washington Post ranked it third, just behind maryland and above west viriginia. Gerrymandering happens when Political Parties redraw maps to benefit their own party, essentially letting the politician pick the voter instead of the other way around. The states 2011 map was criticized for giving republicans an unbeatable advantage as the majority in a state thats evenly split between democrats and the gop. The pennsylavania Supreme Court declared the 2011 map unconstiutional, and drew a new one to make things more even. But this is only temporary because lawmakers will have to create a new map after the 2020 census. So now, theres a push to create an independent Citizens Commission to draw district maps and taking it out of the hands of lawmakers. When we return, a tale of two cities, thcomprose that turned the birthplace of america into the excapital of america. Turned the birthplace of america into the excapital of america. Introducing new Vicks Vapopatch easy to wear, with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. New Vicks Vapopatch. Breathe easy. Pampers is here to help every parent love the changes a baby brings. [baby cries] pampers is the first and only diaper with air dry channels. They stay up to 3 times drier, so babies can sleep soundly. All night. Pampers. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. Soledad finally, did you know the Founding Fathers considered making philadelphia the Nations Capital . But it moved due to political infighting and safety issues. As part of a plan to appease proslavery states who feared a Northern Capital as being too sympathetic to abolitionists, Congress Passed the residence act of 1790, which put the Nations Capital in currentday washington, d. C. Philadelphia had served as the unofficial hub of the new nation for years, until 1783 when some continental soldiers showed up at the meeting of the continental congress, blocking the doors of the building , demanding money. Turns out they hadnt been paid for fighting the british. Delegate Alexander Hamilton convinced the soldiers to set Congress Free so they could work on a deal to pay the troops. He also asked pennsylvanias leader for help from its militia umm no. So Congress Left philadelphia and used other east coast cities as capitals including trenton new york city, and annapolis maryland. They returned to philly in 1787 to draw the u. S. Constitution. Some lawmakers lobbied for more than a decade to keep the capital here. In april of 1800, president john adams left philadelphia. And one month later, all business ceased in philadelphia and congress headed to washington, d. C. That is it for this edition of matteroffa. Well see you next week back i the nations current capitol washington, d. C. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] robert handa hello and welcome to a special edition of Asian Pacific america. Im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area and cozi tv. Its hard to believe we are now in our fifth year and i really appreciate our very loyal viewers. It is really gratifying to all of us who work on the program to hear such positive feedback including people at Community Events who tell me this is their actual favorite show. Now one of the things i hear is many fans of Asian Pacific america appreciate that we make sure the artistic and cultural side of the community is highlighted and not forgotten. When we were creating the show it was our goal to try to capture the true spirit and personality of the community at large and i dont think that can be done without showing our artists. So, as many of you know, we feature a live artistic