Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20160904

Some of her lead to donald trump. Its now 47 to 40 . Thats among likely voters in pennsylvania, and thats a change from an 11point lead clinton had right after the Democratic National convention, which was in philadelphia, pennsylvania 4938 back then. So, just talking about the president ial race, what happened between then and now, terry . First of all, this is the third poll this week that shows the race tightening third poll this week. Essentially, heres what happened. Hillary clinton has not had the best two weeks all the questions not just about the email, but about her activities in the state department, whether favors where granted as secretary of state to help the Clinton Foundation in speeches. This two weeks has been not her best. The second big point is that ill look across the table here donald trump did not insert foot in mouth, [chuckling] you know what i mean . I think he would agree. For two weeks, he was i hate this expression president ial, if you will. And by the way, this was done and we were out of the field before the trip to mexico. Right. And we are seeing the final point we are seeing the same decline nationally, where trump has picked up a couple of points on secretary clinton, and, in some of the battleground states, its beginning to tighten. Again, third poll this week its now a much closer race. Let me get some more voices in here, but let me throw out a couple of other numbers from your poll. You have whats called a favorability rating, and sometimes its negative. [ chuckles ] clinton is negative16. Trump is negative21. What does that tell you . Therein lies the historically unprecedented nature of the 2016 president ial election, that we can be choosing between two people who the public has such low regard for. And i think, had the republicans nominated almost anyone else, not just given the last weeks even ted cruz . Almost anyone else, they would be in a very strong position to win this election. The fact that Hillary Clinton has had just the beginning of the tip of the iceberg of leaks of emails that she did not turn over because they were personal and have them turn out not to be personal but to be central to this connection between the Clinton Foundation and the state department and were still 10 weeks away or 9 weeks away and more to come, this is a very unpredictable situation. You know, matt, i think, first of all, on the overall poll, its very common and im sure terry would agree that after a successful convention, as the democrats had, youre gonna get a bounce thats gonna last a week, two or so, then is gonna kind of dissipate a bit. Its still a substantial lead for mrs. Clinton in pennsylvania. And on the negative front, you know, is it surprising that hillary has a negative rating . Theres been millions and millions and millions of dollars of ads run against her not just this cycle, but going back cycle after cycle after cycle. This has been a Concerted Campaign for many years to erode peoples confidence her. [ chuckling ] frankly, im shocked its not higher. Let me ask you this, val listen, nobody spent any money that caused her to create, for convenience, a private email server of which theres been nothing found to be illegal at all and no actual Security Breach none. But the political problems investigations by the well, capitol hill well, lets get the true republican in here [ laughter ] val, does the Republican Party in the state, in pennsylvania, have hope that he can narrow the gap and maybe actually win in pennsylvania . Well, you know, polls are a snapshot in time. They, in and of themselves, dont tell you anything about what other than what today folks are feeling, but you have to look at the trend. So donald trump was on the right trajectory until he stuck his foot in his mouth and took the focus off of Hillary Clintons scandals. Now that he seems to be a little bit more president ial and staying on message and not saying stupid things, youre seeing that trend now come back. I think hes hit a floor in pennsylvania. In southeastern pennsylvania, hes got some real serious problems, and he needs to make those numbers up. Hes down double digits in two polls ive seen in chester and delaware county. Its not affecting the down ticket. Thats the good news for us. But youre seeing the trajectory now heading back up. If he can continue to do what hes doing, stay on message, look president ial, not stick his foot in his mouth, and let the drip, drip, drip of scandals that are coming out against Hillary Clinton start to gel, youll see us have a chance of winning pennsylvania. Want to talk about a downticket race you mentioned that, val and this is part of your poll here, the u. S. Senate race in pennsylvania, which its probably the most watched race in the country cause it has such a big impact on who could have control of the senate. Democrat Katie Mcginty, according to 6abc franklin and marshall poll, has the lead 43 to 38 among likely voters. Her lead was only one percent back in late july, so shes widened it a bit. But the other thing about your poll, terry, is that the race is essentially tight among registered voters 36 to 37 . So does that tell us that it actually is a tossup . No, i think what it tells us is that theres room to grow for both of the candidates, meaning that this race has about 25 of the voters who havent made up their mind, who could change their mind about a quarter. And so this race has a long way to go, but heres the way i think about this. Hypothetically, if secretary clinton were to carry our state by 7, 8, 9, 10 points, pat toomey has to get a huge number of ticket splitters. And that has been, of late, in the last couple of president ial campaigns, much more difficult to do. Weve had much more straightparty voting. Im not suggesting you cant get some, particularly in vals area in the philly suburbs, where you get a larger proportion of ticket splitters than anywhere in the state. So, heres my thinking. If clinton goes up and wins substantially, toomeys in real trouble. If it stays four or five percentage points, then i think the senator has a chance. He can get enough ticket splitters. But the bad news for toomey is hes the betterknown candidate. Hes the incumbent. Very difficult to beat an incumbent senator, unless youre rick santorum. [ chuckles ] so, you look at the polls, you know, thats pretty bad for an incumbent whos been in office, run a number of times statewide. And i think the mcginty campaign has been criticized that she stays on message too much, but thats a good thing in politics. The media campaigns been brilliant. Toomey runs an ad saying she doesnt support cops. Shes right back on my dad was a cop. I mean, i think its a very Effective Campaign up to this point. We think its a good thing that shes not known because just an article came out today that talked about the fact that, when she was in government, in a highranking secretary of environment, dep she took a taxpayerfunded trip to california to interview to be on the board of a company. The revolving door that shes been involved in, in government, and then working in corporations that had benefited from her and benefiting her own husband, her own husbands company when she was dep secretary and on and on. We think, when voters get to know that about her, theyre gonna like toomey more and more. I think, if you look at terrys last poll, toomey was down among registered voters, down eight percent. And now, among registered voters, hes up one percent. Thats a pretty big swing. Now, i dont understand precisely why the difference exists between people who say theyre gonna vote and people who are registered, but toomey has done a very good job, in my opinion, of distancing himself, of defining himself as not trump. And i think but at the same time, he wont say whether or not hes gonna vote for him. Well, hopefully, he wont, but [laughs] the point is that, so far, hes gotten away without having to take a position in the president ial election. And theres no benefit to him, i dont think, of doing that. But heres the dilemma that he faces. Im not saying he cant overcome it. He wants the support of trumps ardent supporters, particularly up in the northeastern part of our state, the southwest. He needs them. The white bluecollar workers, you know, highschool educations. Theyre 50 grand or less in income. No doubt. But then he wants the vote of the moderate republicans and democrats down here in the philly suburbs. Who are not trump supporters. And the key thing he has done, i think, is to define a position thats counter to what people normally think of with republicans on gun control, particularly as it relates to terrorists. Val. Exactly right. Do you agree . I mean, as a republican, do you think that hes been able to walk this narrow line, that you can fall on either side very quickly at any point, and hes kind of gotten away with it so far . Yeah, its a needle he has to thread. Hes doing the best he can with it. The biggest danger for toomey is what terry just pointed out, is whether i think hes gonna do very well in the sub matter of fact, we have him winning in Chester County right now and winning by probably seven or eight points. I think that the bigger challenge for him is keeping the Republican Base in line because hes not come out for trump yet. And as long as he i think those folks will come home because theyll see the difference between the two candidates and theyll want to especially if they think Hillary Clintons going to win, theyll want to keep the senate republican. So i think pat will bring those folks home and win the race. I want to throw up another poll that says something a bit different. Its the Emerson College poll. It actually has toomey up 46 to 39 among likely voters over mcginty. Now, this is a poll that only surveys people through landlines, and, terry, youre shaking your head, saying this cant be right. Yeah, im not a fan of robocalled you know, autodialers. Im not a fan of using you know, not having live interviewers. You got to have live interviewers, you got to call cellphones, you got to reach out because, you know, 40 of the people are landlineonly if not more. The National Average is higher. We have, what, the fourtholdest population in the country, so we still have a lot of people with landlines. I think the other problem for toomey and ill be quick about this is because hes been so cautious in the senate, he has very little to talk about. Theres not much of a record. He cant really point to well, there was the attempt at gun legislation. Yeah, but didnt pass. Still hasnt passed. He did very little to make it pass. So other than that and i watch it closely, and im open to what he has to say i dont see him saying, i did x, y, and z, it became law, and its really changed peoples lives. Where is it . And if you look back over the last eight years, six years in the senate, they havent done anything, so [laughs] im not so sure you can blame pat toomey. Fair enough. Lets move over to City Politics here. Federal investigators have subpoenaed Kenney Campaign records, and this is part of the Ongoing Investigation into the local Electricians Union and its leader, john dougherty, who was a mayor kenney ally. And the mayor says his Campaign Committee will comply with the request, that there is no reason to suspect that he is a target of this fbi probe. But, sam, how uncomfortable should a city leader be like kenney, who is seeing this happen within the first year that he is in office at city hall . Uncomfortable in one way. Uncomfortable because he was off to what has to be one of the great starts by a philadelphia mayor in recent history. Uncomfortable because the chairman of the zoning board got subpoenaed and his house invaded. Uncomfortable because the leading political figure in philadelphia facilitated his nomination, in my view. And uncomfortable because its a distraction. And, also, youve got the City Council Majority leader whose office was invaded. So were trying to get away from we just congressman fattah convicted, state treasurer convicted, state attorney general convicted, former chief of staff convicted, state reps, members of supreme court. My god, when does this end . I mean, are we so immune to the corruption prospect in this city that we react not at all . Having said that sam, as a former federal prosecutor youre right. Wed prefer not to have anybody ask any questions, but this is a pretty wide net that the government is casting here, from what i can see. And the fact that you ask for records from someone, that doesnt mean youre guilty of anything. That doesnt even mean youre suspected of anything. Are you saying it could be fishing . Well, no, because thats not allowed under the department of justice rules. It cant be a fishing expedition, but i thought you needed probable cause to get a subpoena. Not to make a request for documents or even issue a subpoena. No, not at all. A. Benjamin mannes from the hill says in a recent column and ill just quote one of the main reasons there are no virtually no checks and balances in the electorate is because philadelphia democrats outnumber republicans in the city to a seventoone ratio. I think its more like 11 to 1. [ laughs ] this is not a recent thing. This is a generational thing. Talk about it all the time on this show. When i grow up in south philly in the 70s, this was going on then. Congressmen then were going to jail and state senators and on and on. Philadelphia needs reform. They try to pass new ethics laws, and nothing gets better. And the state does the state did that. And then you got the same problems. Does the city need a strong i mean, you tried to run as a republican. Does it need a strong Republican Party . It does. Right, it needs an Opposition Party to go out and talk about this thing. Were seeing that now with the New Philadelphia Republican Party chairman, joe defelice, hes out there talking about these things. Its time for them to recruit a topnotch controller candidate, da candidate, to run and run a ticket of reform. Were gonna do that at the state level with john rafferty, and hell clean the house of corruption thats happening in the Democratic Party in pennsylvania. John raffertys gonna be talking about that during his race. Yeah, quickly, picking up on what jim said, i think jims absolutely right about the scope of it, but, ill tell you, a lot of mischief can be done once you broaden the search and you begin to find things you didnt look for. Youre right. You didnt go out consciously to look for initially. And that happened in bonusgate, you know, where 23 of 25 lawmakers, exlawmakers, and staffers once you get into these records, they may find some things that are unrelated but not very good. But to be fair on the ethics front, during the nutter years, very strong ethics legislation was passed for the city of philadelphia. There is a strong ethics board headed up by shane cramer jr. , who i think does an excellent job those of us who know him. And mayor nutter set a great tone. There were very, very little corruption allegations, if any, during his administration. One thing got to go. We got to go. Well be right back. Sorry, sam. [ laughter ] inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. [ theme music plays ] Hillary Clinton im Hillary Clinton and i approve this message. Vo in times of crisis america depends on steady leadership. Donald trump knock the crap out of them, would you . Seriously. Vo clear thinking. Donald trump i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me. Vo and calm judgment. Donald trump and you can tell them to go fu k themselves. Vo because all it takes is one wrong move. Donald trump audio only i would bomb the sh t out of them. Vo just one. For senate, Katie Mcginty or pat toomey . Mcginty supports clean energy jobs. Pat toomey voted to protect tax breaks for oil companies. Mcginty is prochoice. Toomey wants to overturn roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion. Mcginty will consistently stand up to the gun lobby. Toomeys against an assault weapons ban and gets an a rating from the nra. This year, pennsylvanians have a clear choice. Senate majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. [ theme music plays ] back with inside story. Were gonna talk about pennsylvania getting its third attorney general in the last month. Bruce beemer has the job until january, when the term is done. The democrat who worked under Kathleen Kane during her term was confirmed by the state senate unanimously. The members had returned from their summer recess to confirm governor wolfs appointment, which, before we talk about the Attorney Generals Office itself, i found to be encouraging, that the senate ran back from vacation to confirm an appointee by the democratic governor. It was done unanimously, and heres whats fascinating beemer testified not once, but twice against Kathleen Kane, and he is popular within the hallways, if you will, of the ags office. He will make a great effort to straighten it out. Hes a firstclass prosecutor who came from allegheny county. I want to mention that, where and heres another point, and this is really important. They have found hundreds hundreds of people who have distributed or received pornographic emails hundred, several hundred, in the attorneygenerals office and elsewhere. The big question out there is what do they do with th lets turn to sam katz what did they do with them . Sam katz is working on a documentary on Kathleen Kane, and there is this report, the porngate report hasnt been released. Now, Kathleen Kane did not release it. Acting attorney general bruce castor said he would not release it. Bruce beemer says he hasnt looked at it yet and doesnt know if he will release it. Whats in this thing . Well, the question is whether theyll redact certain names, and i think the unions representing certain state employees, particularly in the correctional area, are anxious to see names removed. The prospect of this document staying unleaked is about zero percent. If theres a second copy somewhere theres another copy, and its coming out. The ques would that be irony if it did not get leaked, given what has happened with the attorneygenerals office recently . Well, it would be surprising to see, given the fact that virtually everything else, whether electronic or not, has been leaked to think that this will not be. But it will come out. This will come out. It will be devastatingly embarrassing to a lot of people. And it will it reflects really poorly on a state and on the office of the attorney general, and on the criminaljustice system in ways that no one couldve predicted when Kathleen Kane was first elected attorney general and. Having run for the office myself, matt, in looking at it, i mean, the whole thing is a mess. This report was commissioned by kane. Mmhmm. She hired a former Maryland Attorney general to conduct whos not saying anything about it now. It was not done, as i understand, using a grand jury. So its kind of questionable what the methods were to conduct such an investigation. And, you know, i think people are just tired of this. I agree with terry that bruce beemer is wellrespected. He, i believe, worked for tom corbett before he worked for kane. Hes a harrisburg guy, and hes only got five months. And let me ask you this, val. You mentioned state senator john rafferty. Hes running as a republican for attorney general. Tod you have do with this thing . No, i think the job of a prosecutor is to take the facts where they lead you and to apply the law to them. So i dont know that any laws have been broken here. Theres a lot of folks that are gonna be embarrassed, and i think that beemer is the attorney general and he should do his job and decide what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. This is a potentially serious thing. But i wouldnt wait until the next attorney general comes in to make this im sure the next attorney general will agree with you. Theyre not gonna want to deal with this thing. [ laughter ] yeah, thats funny. All right, well see what happens with that. Lets move back to City Politics real quick. Theres this thing that came out there saying there might be a change at the top of philadelphias Democratic Party. Cityandstatepa. Com reporting that congressman bob brady is considering leaving his post as head of the Democratic City Committee something hes led for 30 years and that former city controller and onetime mayoral candidate Jonathan Saidel could take over. Brady himself vehemently denied the report, and he also talked to jim eisenhower. Thats right. I did talk to bob brady this week, and he told me to tell you tell Matt Odonnell its absolutely untrue and i have no intention of resigning. So whats going on here . You know, lots of people like to you know, in the media, they call this time in august the silly season. Lots of silly stories come out and lots of shenanigans. Did jonathan circulate that rumor . Not to my knowledge. [ laughter ] i think a lot of this stems from what looked like the natural order of ascension was john dougherty, and it may still be. I mean, dougherty is effectively the most prolific democratic politician in the street, in fundraising, and as a fulltime professional. So maybe there was a thought that dougherty was going to ascend to be the chair, doughertys recent publicity about whats going on with the investigations may have sidetracked that, and somebody thought that there was an opening. And that got leaked i think it got leaked by brady. And then the whole thing was put to bed, and then jon saidel had to write a text or an email that said, oh, my god, i would never think of anything of that sort. Ive been supporting brady forever. Bradys not going anywhere soon, but hes not gonna be in the congress forever, either. I mean, i think hes probably had enough. Hes in the minority. Its very difficult to be in the minority and be in congress. Well see. I think hes made no statements that he doesnt intend to run for reelection. I think hes reasonably happy with what hes doing, so i dont think theres gonna be any change in the near future. Inside stories of the week coming up. [ theme music plays ] katie on crime, pat toomeys attacks on me are shameful. Hes making it up. Of course, anyone who commits a Violent Crime needs to be prosecuted and put behind bars. Narrator Katie Mcginty will keep us safe more police on the streets, better training and equipment, and take on the gun lobby for gun safety laws. Katie im the daughter of a police officer, and the mother of three. Ill stand with Law Enforcement to fight crime, and protect our families. Im Katie Mcginty, and i approve this message. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Inside stories of the week. We start with terry. Back to the f. And m. Poll. If you include gary johnson, libertarian candidate, and jill stein, the green party candidate, Hillary Clintons lead in pennsylvania is only five. I went back and looked. This is a little different. The libertarian candidate actually hurts Hillary Clinton more than donald trump, which might surprise a lot of people. And so the more he comes up in the polls, gary johnson hes coming up in some of the other polls, as well this could actually hurt secretary clinton in some of the battleground states. Thanks, terry. Sam. Well, tomorrow is labor day, and i just want to make mention of the fact that philadelphia, which is under Mass Construction today, is tomorrows the day we celebrate the contributions of working people, which are getting a lot of attention in this election. Im not sure its anything more than cursory attention, but, in philadelphia, in 1724, the first union was formed of carpenters, called the carpenters company, and they ended up building Carpenters Hall a few years later. And i just want to wish everyone whos out there doing the difficult work, whether for municipal, school, or in the trades, have a good day off. Thanks, sam. And, jim. Id like to echo those comments and give a call out to my dads old union, the letter carriers of america a great Union Representing our postal workers and, this year, celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the first women members, first women letter carriers. Thanks, jim. And, val. Our good friend George Burrell spent his inside story last week talking about the Democratic Party and what its meant for africanamericans. I want to set the record straight on a couple things. It was senate republicans, under dirksens leadership that passed the Civil Rights Act of 1965. It was nixon who ended the segregation in the trade unions and in the schools. It was george w. Bush who appointed more africanamericans to high post, including secretary of state. The legacy of the Democratic Party, after the great society, is high illegitimacy, high drug use, low wealth creation, and all kinds of problems, including standing against things like School Reform and Charter Schools and vouchers that could help the africanamerican community, and were gonna take that message to africanamericans this fall. Thanks to all our panelists. Thanks for you for watching. Thats inside story for this week. Well see you next week, and have a great labor day. [ theme music plays ] im nydia han along with gray hall. Coming up next on action news, tracker hermine, the storm is turning toward shore, live team coverage. Displease police have released details about an overnight shooting in west philadelphia. A man was shot after crashing into prkd cars. Thousands of pilgrim pack into st. Peters square as Mother Teresa is declared a saint. A Tropical Storm warning is in effect for the parts of new jersey and delaware as hermine makes its way to our shores. Is that storm is blamed for