Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20170122

First order of business, and hell probably start to roll back some of what president obama did. Obviously, the congress is poised to repeal obamacare. There was a report, i guess, early last week, about 178,000 jobs that would be lost in pennsylvania and a doubling of the state budget as a result of that. I think the changes that are needed to obamacare, which are both branding and substantive are probably appropriate. Completely removing the bill before theres something to replace it strikes me as very shortsighted, and we should remember that there were no public hearings held in the process of creating obamacare. The republicans in congress and the president would be wise to engage the American Public in a debate about the future of a segment of the economy which represents 18 of gdp. Critics are jumping in already, even with some of the cabinet pick nominations and the hearings weve been watching in the past week, saying, look, republicans, for argument sake, have had six or seven years to roll out a plan. Why dont they have it on day 1 . And whats your answer to that . Well, you know what, a couple different things. Donald trump is a believer, and i had the opportunity to work with him, being an investor in the trump casino here with pat croce, so ive seen him up close. Hes very much about the best defense is a good offense. So its run and gun, if you will. Hes gonna surround himself with smart people, and i think hes done that. And i think a lot of the arguments on the other side of things are just politics, frankly. I mean, theyre like, why dont you do this . Why dont you do this . Why dont you do this . Whatever he does and the administration does this first 30, 90, 100 days theyre gonna critique. I also think it was really a shame that some of them didnt show up for the swearing in. Really poor form. And were gonna talk about that. In fact, the entire Pennsylvania Congressional delegation has decided, did decide to sit it out. Our senators attended, but that certainly sent a loud, clear message. Thats one of the first times. Its not the only time its ever happened, but it was a big, loud message for pennsylvania. Is that gonna hurt the state . Is that gonna hurt philadelphia any more than it would have been hurt . Philadelphia was already gonna be hurt, lets be honest. Philadelphia was not a trump city. We all know that going into the game. Now, you had representative evans, representative boyle, and representative brady say, well, were not gonna go. Thats fine. Whats the alternative . If youre not gonna go, are you opening up something for constituents . Are you saying that we are doing x, y, and z in relation to. . You know, im all about the optics because this presidency, if nothing else, is gonna be all about optics. It has nothing to do with substance that ive seen so far. And that is more disappointing than anything. You talked about healing. Well, it would be appropriate if someone says, were gonna get rid of this medical Insurance Plan because its no good how do assuage those people who, for the first time in their lives, have insurance, whose lives have been saved because of obamacare . This great waste, and fraud. Blah, blah, blah. Most of the people that are arguing about obamacare or the Affordable Care act already have insurance. They have it through their jobs. The people who are most desperate are the ones who need it, and i have not heard anything to heal the nation, to speak to those people or their fears. But, larry, incoming folks with the trump staff say theyre not trying to, you know, pull the rug out from under people. They do have a plan. They just havent announced it yet. Do you believe them . Well, its sort of like Richard Nixons secret plan to end the vietnam war. Sams right, we need to actually constructively engage this, and thats why i think brians right. It was disgraceful that the pennsylvania delegation didnt go to the inauguration because that signals that theyre i think the democrats are in danger of doubling down on the obstructionism that they criticized republicans and Mitch Mcconnell for doing to president obama. They say it was in response to the crisis or the, you know, sort of controversy with representative john lewis to, you know, stand up for their colleague because he and trump got into a shouting match. I say stand up for the country, though. And i think it would have been a great thing for the president at his last press conference to say, as much as somebody may be upset about john. Factually, john lewis didnt go in 2001, right . Right. So john lewis hasnt been for the inauguration of a republican president , sounds like, since 1988. Okay . So its not like he doesnt show up a lot. And i respect him and Martin Luther king and all that, but it would have been great for the president to say, you know what, guys . You should go. And to say that publicly. We want a moment of healing here as a country. But why is it always contingent upon other people to do the healing . Okay, lets take this, for instance. We talked about evans, we talked about boyle, we talked about brady. Theyre representing their people. And there were 60 members of congress that didnt go. They werent the only ones. And lets be real i mean, its one thing for someone to say, i am not going because i think this is illegitimate because of these reasons. They stated their thing. Thats fine. But when the president elect comes back and says, oh, all talk, no action. It was petty, it was small. It was unfortunate. It was not president ial. Indeed, and i would have liked to have heard some of his republican colleagues well, not colleagues, but his republican constituents say, you know what, thats a little bit above and beyond, then turn a cheek, and he didnt. Theres a problem here. If you remember, at the very earliest stages of the obama administration, during the discussion of the stimulus bill, he invited the republicans in congress to meet with him. And at some point, one of the members it may have been eric cantor, i cant remember stood up and said something, and he said, the president said, there are consequences to winning. The message was very clear, which is the consequence is that we dont have to Pay Attention to you. By virtue of changing the filibuster rules in the senate, the democrats are now gonna be hoisted on their own petard. And donald trump has the ability to effectuate law without so much as reading a proposal from the democrats, and those are the consequences of winning. And the nation is gonna suffer from that. Except that, in the longterm, politically, he needs the cities because thats where the economic engine is. And so my hope is that there are things like infrastructure that democrats and this administration can Work Together on. But theyre not gonna get to that sort or constructive dialogue with this sort of childlike. But the most successful when you think about it, the most successful president s have been those who have figured out how to bill clinton with newt gingrich, right . Right. Ronald reagan with tip oneill. President obama, i didnt vote him, yet you got to admit that when he got elected, you thought, wow, this represents such a wonderful thing you know, a single mom, biracial, bright guy, all this. Unfortunately, he did not have the Emotional Intelligence to say, im gonna also be smart enough to bring people in, whether it be the 480 times he played golf without another member, whether it be the bill signing. There was one particular bill signing on a medical device. It passed overwhelmingly republican and democrat. I know somebody who knows boehner. He was standing there. He wasnt even asked to stand behind the president. I mean, he missed so many opportunities to try to build goodwill, and i hope trump is savvy enough to figure out how to do that. But, you know, even before any of that happened, you had Mitch Mcconnell calling out and they had their little confab to say, you know what, we dont want this president to succeed. I do not agree with that. Disgraceful. I do not agree with any politics that says that we dont want the presidency to be effective. I want this presidency to be effective because i want this nation to succeed. Right. Yeah. We need something, but what i dont want to see and what i expect to see are more 2 00 a. M. And 3 00 a. M. Tweets from the now 45. I think hes out of control there. Absolutely. Definitely. Theres no filter. If the term Emotional Intelligence gets applied, im not sure that donald trump is gonna qualify too highly to fit into a category of high Emotional Intelligence. And when we talk about president obama and his inability to sort of get coalitions together, one of the reasons that was is because, counterintuitively, is because of political reform that took away his weapons, like earmarks. Right. Politics is about using the statecraft of earmarks and so forth to get things from members of congress, to get them involved in the game. And he was unable to do that. He might not have also had the skill, youre right, but im in favor of politicians who know how to do politics, and im not sure donald trump is that guy. And lets talk about another consequence because philadelphia and our mayor, jim kenney, have insisted that philadelphias gonna stay a sanctuary city, a place where immigrants are not gonna be hauled off by federal agents as the federal government would like to have that ability more than they currently do. The premise now is only if theres, you know, some illegal activity that can be proven at that moment. So, if we are a sanctuary city, which is against what trump is coming and saying he wants, theres more funding that were gonna lose. Is philadelphia just gonna be left high and dry at this point . Well, thats a fight that jim kenneys gonna lose. Yeah. Theres a law. We have a country in which the constitution does not grant to municipalities the right to make immigration law. And while the message of a sanctuary city and the idea of being open to immigrants is very much ingrained in the dna of philadelphia and needs to stay in the dna of philadelphia, it needs to be done legally. And if jim kenneys position is going to be the position he takes throughout this, when infrastructure money gets parceled out. Millions. And hud is the administrator or the department of commerce, philadelphias gonna find itself up the creek without a paddle. That will not be good for the city or for jim kenney. Its already the poorest big city in america. How many millions can we stand to lose . Were already the poorest big city in america. Its just about shortterm, local politics. To, you know, certain speaking circuits, perhaps, you look like a hero. Youre not the secretary of state. Youre not the president of the united states, mr. Mayor, okay . So dont worry about immigration law, foreign policy. Lets focus on what needs to be done here in the city. All right, and how do you heal a polarized pennsylvania, even . Many people have equated it to two different states, with, you know, the two big cities and alabama in the middle. Thats what one of the quotes was during some of the elections from way back. We have plenty of people who are very upset about the inauguration of donald trump. How do we get everybody moving in one direction, at least, you know, keeping their comments to themselves and Holding Hands and trying to move forward . So, this goes back to your opening comments, monica, about will donald trump be able to heal the nation . And i see no evidence based on his addiction to twitter and to just being incendiary on twitter, that he can do that. But i think it does start with president ial leadership. Thomas friedman had a great column in the New York Times last week, sort of fantasizing the effect of what would have been, had Donald Trumps response to john lewis been instead of attacking back, like a schoolyard fight, saying, congressman lewis, i respect everything you went through. Lets Work Together to make america great. Period. Thats the way to get to healing. When you look at this, you have to see where is everyones pain point, right . What is the point of investment that we can all agree on . We talked about lots of things here. When you talk about education, when you talk about healthcare, when you talk about infrastructure, when you talk about safety, there are some things that we can all overlap on, and i understand what youre saying about president ial leadership, but if youre looking for president ial leadership from somebody whos leading with twitter and tweets, i dont think thats the right place to look. I think we really will have to focus a little bit more on talking to your own neighbors and not being afraid of your neighbors and basically saying, okay, i might not agree with you on these points. Is there some place that we can agree . Because, clearly, if you are a staunch hillary supporter or youre a staunch trump supporter. Never the twain shall meet. Thats not gonna change. So where can you find Common Ground . Thats gonna be up to us as citizens, and we have abdicated for too long our citizenship. When we look at the electoral results, its not as though we had most of the electorate come out to vote. You know, this person, 45, was elected with a minority of the total electorate, if we look at it, so, again, if we are serious about building our communities, if we are serious about protecting our children, you got to get in the game. Well, our senators did go to the inauguration, but they are against three of the big key cabinet nominees. Attorney general, the education secretary thats being proposed, the epa head those are all being disregarded or at least poopooed by senator bob casey and across the river in new jersey, senator cory booker. They dont like the nominees theyre being handed. Cory booker if they offered him pizza on tuesday, hed be complaining about it. I mean, he took an unprecedented step. You can tell hes running for president of the united states. And if i lived in new jersey, id say how about doing this job first, cory . Your ambition is screaming out there. As it relates to the other. You know, people can have differences of opinion on the nominees. I personally think devos as education secretary, whos a big reformer in School Choice and options and things like that i think thats a terrific pick, and i think this cabinet is strong as the people who. Donald trump, when you look at his businesses, he always had smart people around him in his businesses. Hes kind of a handsoff, kind of a bigpicture guy. And im seeing great people. But they havent necessarily done any sort of training steps leading up to that. I dont think too many of them are prepared to be you know, its one thing to be Rex Tillerson and have the control over the hiring and firing of 40,000 exxonmobil employees. But the vast majority of the people in the state department and commerce and all these other places where people with extraordinary business experience now find themselves at c. E. O. S is that theyre covered by civil service. So you cant just dictate. You have to cajole and negotiate to get things done. They may not have the highest iqs. But john kerry, what had he been . A u. S. Senator with a staff of about 85 people . I mean, other than marrying teresa heinz . I mean. But he did have some experience with foreign policy. I mean, we have betsy devos, and granted, shes done some wonderful things and education reform is important, but she didnt prepare for her hearings very well. Whoever staffed her did not prepare her well. She did not come off well. And, let me say, Jeff Sessions as attorney general, as an africanamerican, i can only say no, no, and no. I mean, any time that Coretta Scott king came up and had to write a letter when he was up before a federal judgeship, she said, no, not him because of how he approached issues of voter fraud among africanamericans. This was way back then. He has not changed. He is the same person. So anybody named Jefferson Beauregard sessions yeah, he is the epitome of that. All right, we have to leave it at that. Inside stories of the week coming your way next. 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. Welcome back to inside story. An unprecedented fine has been lobbied against the District Attorney in philadelphia, seth williams, because of his actions for not declaring some of the gifts he was given 160,000worthplus. He must now pay 62,000 in fines according to the ethics board. Some people are even calling for him to resign. Do you think its enough that he paid a fine and let well enough be done . I think this is pretty egregious, as egregious as ive seen. And the thing that is most egregious about it is that he took gifts from defense lawyers who had cases that his office was adjudicating. That smacks of thats over the line. I dont care about, you know, getting a dinner here and there from someone who doesnt have business in front of your public interest. It was a new roof. It was a lot of things. And the gifts were legal, technically. Its just the declaration of them that was not done. Well, the gifts that are illegal are the ones that are taken from people who have business before the courts in which his office is arguing the other side. So that remains to be seen, whether thatll be but i think this is grounds for at least not running again, having the decency to say, you know what . I screwed up. Its someone elses turn. But thats not gonna happen. I mean, the truth of the matter is i cant find a person nor should i find a person who could defend this behavior. You know, this is indefensible, particularly for a District Attorney, and you can say, well, i made a mistake. You can make one mistake. You cannot make multiple mistakes of this magnitude and continue to have the publics trust. And im sorry. Thats unfortunate, and it is so sad because there was so much trust, there was so much faith put into this man, i mean, for many, many years. When you talk to older people, ward leaders, Committee People throughout the city, they are heartbroken by this and really, truly disappointed. It is hard to lead an ethics challenge against other people when your own ethics are being questioned, so even if its just the sheer face of the matter, whether its the truth or not that ever comes out. It was a mistake, i think, for philadelphia not to be able to find a replacement for the recall provisions of the city charter. That happened, i believe, in 1978 when there was a recall petition or 77 filed against mayor rizzo. And the courts the Supreme Court of pennsylvania found recall unconstitutional. Seth williams should step down, shouldnt run again, or should be recalled. He has no standing to represent the people of philadelphia in anything as a matter of crime and justice because, in fact, he has committed crimes and he will not get justice. All right, lets move on and talk about the src. Our new mayor, jim kenk in 2001. Is it time for this whole src to be put out of business, as it were, and let philadelphians pick an entire group to oversee the schools . This was done as a compromise with harrisburg. Do we still need that compromise . Well, if you want the money, they would like to have the restrictions, and i think thats kind of a key thing. I think superintendent hite is doing a terrific job in very challenging situations, but we do have a situation here in philadelphia with about 180,000 kids of publicschool possibility. 40,000 or so are in charter schools. 50,000 of the remainder want to go to a charter school. Theres something thats not working here. So the thought of, you know what lets just turn it back to the city and go back to 1999, would be crazy. I think we need more reform. We need more choice. We need more opportunities for people. We definitely need innovation. I would agree with you completely there. I think the choice that the src is going to have in mcginley is a good one. Its nice to have a voice who understands what happens in the classroom, what happens in a school, actually on the src. But the interesting thing is going to be, when it gets down to the real budgeting, the nittygritty, where hes gonna end up standing at the end of the day. I mean, he knows the background of principals. He knows Public Schools and all of that. Maybe he will offer a little bit more authenticity for those who rail against first one thing or another. He said his heart is with traditional schools, though he does think that there are some charters that are successful, et cetera. And his own children went to Public School. His own children went to Public School both in the suburban, when he was out there, as well as in the city. And i think its gonna be a powerful testament to see how he brings a new voice, so to speak, to the src. And maybe, if you want to call it this, a perfect storm we have a new governor, new mayor, a more powerful teachers union. It might be that they would, because of the power push between them all, get rid of the src. Its been talked about for years. Yeah, its been talked about for years, but i think that its a misguided argument. The challenge facing the Philadelphia School district is not about governance. Its about management, and its about managing and its about creating a system that is not beholden to this one central bureaucracy and that reimagines education in an age where people are learning differently. And theres all sorts of innovations, and there are green shoots of it in this school district, right . The renaissance schools are really interesting. Theres the. Innovation schools. Those things need to flower. That has nothing to do with governance. The governance has sort of taken on the big issue, and its really gonna have no impact on student performance. What will have an impact on student performance are great principals in a system in which principals are appointed not because of their creativity, but because of their tenure, their politics, and their union Great Teachers who are teaching with creativity, which testing undermines. The standardized testing, all of the metrics geared towards testing, strips the creativity from teachers and engaged parents. And when brian was talking about these choices that we have you know, we have magnet schools, homeschool, cyber schools, charter schools, parochial schools, independent schools, and the Public Schools. And the kids whose parents are Truly Engaged in their education are using all these other choices that are out there. And whats left in the Public School system are the children most at risk and most at need, and theyre totally underresourced. And changing the src isnt going to have any impact. All right. And, quickly, our new state treasurer, joe torsella, just took the oath of office, already has decided to get rid of part of the state bidding process with the finders fees. It basically cuts out the middleman when youre bidding on a project to provide services for the state. Nobody disagrees with that . Hard to argue with that. Its bad for recycling, though, because its been helpful to recycle Campaign Contributions into the fees, and so the rec no, its hard to argue with. I have a tiny violin somewhere. Were gonna take a break. Inside story is coming your way next. Fios is not cable. Were wired differently. So we created internet that doesnt make you wait. Introducing fios instant internet. It means you can download a video just like that. Or upload your photos like this. Or this. Or that. Its the only 750 meg internet available to millions, with uploads as instant as downloads. We took Internet Speed and completely reinvented it, introducing fios instant internet. Internet the way it should be. 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. Welcome back. Time for inside stories, and lets start with larry. Well, in these partisan times, kudos to congressman brendan boyle, who, last week, reintroduced a bill that a republican introduced in the last congress, called the stop act, that would prohibit congresspeople from raising money. Their staff still can, but the congressmen cant, because, in some of these competitive districts, they spend four hours a day dialing for dollars when they should be representing us. All right. Now to brian. Wage equity is a critical issue. Men and women should be paid the same amount of money, but the most roundabout, ridiculous way to try to achieve that is the bill that was recently passed and that the mayors talking about signing. To not be able to ask somebody, how much did you make at your previous job . Whats next . I cant ask you where you went to college . I mean, its the most if youre trying to fight for wage equity, thats a great thing. This is a ridiculous way, and thank god to the chamber and comcast and those others standing for it. All right. Nia. On the flip side of wage equity, we had the World Economic forum, that basically said wage equity for men and women will not happen at our current rate and pace until another 170 years. So theres a need for some dire action, and even if its a gambit to get the conversation moving, its time now, particularly in a city thats dominated by women. Youll take it no matter how small the achievement. All right, sam. Weve been working for a decade to try to end bullying, and watching the president elect president now bullying people, bullying washington, is going to be one of the really sad chapters, i think, in american political history. I think hes picked the wrong persons to bully. Washingtons a tough town. Theres gonna be a lot of pushback, and hes going to learn how to moderate those emotions and those angers that he expresses so readily against people. All right, and thats inside story for this week. Thanks so much for watching. He has a special trump glass here drinking glass. Hey, is it a beer mug . Fantastic. [ laughs ] its got the inaugural symbol on it. Very nice. All right, thats inside story for this week. Thanks for watching. We hope to see you right back here next sunday morning. Im nydia han along with gray hall. Coming up on action news, repair work continues on a major bridge connecting pennsylvania and new jersey what it means for drivers preparing for their monday morning commute. A man is in it Critical Condition this afternoon after he showed up on a womans doorstep with gunshot wounds. Donald trump responds to want protesters who manders around the world his first day in office. Those stories, plus the exclusive accuweather sevenday forecast, were tracking a noreaster tomorrow next on action news. Good afternoos sunday, january 22 im nydia han along with gray hall. We have breaking news to tell you about at noon. There has been an arrest in the vicious attack in the transgender woman we have a look