Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20170205

Were turned away and sent back to syria in the philadelphia area. So, a lot of these folks just say theyre so furious about this in particular, that its unconstitutional and unlawful, that theyre getting these big protests together and going to meetings. In king of prussia, they had 3,000 people meet to figure out how do we protest effectively against this new president. What do you think of, number one, was it unconstitutional, jim, the executive order, and, number two, to the panel, are these protesters gonna be able to get some steam behind themselves and make a difference . Does it matter . The man won the election. Well, you know, monica, i dont know if its unconstitutional, but i can tell you, when i worked for bill clinton, i worked on executive orders. These things are vetted interagency. Lawyers from, you know, many different departments are gonna touch these things, look at them. All the possible contingencies are, you know, vetted and looked at. Unless its some absolutely emergency, which this wasnt. And i think this is just another example of the Trump Administration getting off to this stumbling start. No coherency internally. Youve got a president just snapping his fingers and saying i want to do this or that. So you dont think that were vetted in this case . And a staff thats afraid to say, wait, slow down. Yeah, i think it wasnt properly vetted. The ramifications werent thought through. See, you had people who were lawfully in the country, had gone home to visit their ailing mother, theyve got a family of three kids and a husband back in california, and they cant get home. Its crazy. Right. And, so, do you think the protests, obviously, they feel they have merit. Do you think theyll be able to garner enough support to make a difference, to have an impact, nia . The whole concept of the protest, again, its like, what is the end goal . Its one thing to get out in the streets and say im angry, but unless you have a directed goal, unless you say im angry and im gonna channel this anger toward moving a piece of legislation, trying to get my congress person, senator to vote a certain way, were gonna get xnumber of signatures or some sort, then the protests come and the protests go. This is not necessarily a politician or a person in power who really cares about the protests. Any news is good news. Theres no such thing as bad publicity. And i would have to agree, it did not seem as though this executive order was wellvetted. It was sloppy. It was sloppy, and it came across as unamerican. And even if some people say its legal, theres the spirit of the law, and theres the intent of the law. And this just did not pass the smell test. Meantime, mayor kenney has said people who come from now on into the Philadelphia International airport, in that terminal in particular, are going to be treated the way they have been for years until the constitutionality is decided. So hes, in a way, perhaps thumbing his nose at the president s executive order. I think he is. And i would say this is a pause. Its not an executive order forever. It was not done with the green card people particularly. And that allowed people on the other side to protest and use that. But they would have done this anyhow. I mean, theyre spoiling for a fight. And im in the camp that thinks that protesters are helping trump, particularly when we see, some of this gets conflated, the berkeley protesters, the rioters. And some of the madonna and the womens march and all that, i think the face of it is not the people that are necessarily new people to this and wellmeaning. I think the face of it is more the other, and the net here is it helps trump. He got dinged because this wasnt done in the proper manner, but the broad goal of it, i think, works. Meantime, the two syrian families, among others, are filing lawsuits against the federal government saying they want, at least, their airfare paid back. Id say so. At the very lowest. And a federal judge, ann donnelly of new york, did grant a stay to part of the order to people who were negatively impacted for other reasons. So, parts of it are being challenged in the courts. And its the frame in which you see how this extremely sloppy executive order was executed. Here in greater philadelphia, where we have much more of a liberal to left point of view, we do see it as egregious and unamerican for the most part, not everybody. But in other parts of the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the central part of the country, they are seeing it as these are threats. Not necessarily these individuals, but individuals from these countries that do have the majority of muslim citizens that have attacked in europe. But another point, there are countries that were not included, like saudi arabia, where, by the way, the 9 11 bombers all came from. Right. Well, i would say thats another flaw. Rand paul was on my show, and i think hes second to none when it comes to the constitution. He wanted to have a pause with 34 countries, including russia, which i would also. And saudi arabia, the tension there, im in agreement with pausing with them, is war on isis, oil. But they have in some new intelligence introduced to the country that said, listen, we see these immediate threats that are coming on. With these threats, this is what were gonna do. That would have made more sense. That did not happen. It just came out of the blue. I mean, the president had just been here with his republican colleagues and everybody, no whispers of that there. Anytime that the people in your own party are taken aback like, whoa, what happened . Charlie dent was one of the people saying, hey, this is not constitutional. I dont like the feel of this. This is hurting my constituents. It was unamerican. Period. A couple of republicans did react negatively against their own president. Although, our own senator pat toomey for pennsylvania broke his twoweek silence about the issue. He did decide to jump in there and say he goes along with it. Well, it took him the entire campaign to decide whether to vote to trump. He came onboard. I think he announced that at 7 00 at night on election night. On election night. Josh shapiro, whos the new Pennsylvania Attorney general, said he considers it unconstitutional, unamerican, and unlawful. And senator bob casey, a democrat from pennsylvania, did release a statement, which we have, and his was very terse as well, saying that president trumps actions, he believes, will have grave potential effects on pennsylvania on a number of executive orders, not just the one about the muslim immigrants who are coming in. So, two things quickly. One, one thing you say about trump, he said it in his campaign, and hes delivering it now as president. Im not saying its the right thing to do, but im saying. What, discord, chaos . Yeah, that was the campaign, too. Arnold schwarzenegger wasnt in his campaign platform, but apparently he is more now in terms of ratings at the prayer breakfast. That being said, something very important happened on friday. At least, it was reported on friday, which was Council President Darrell Clarke said maybe philadelphia should reconsider its sanctuary policy. Watch out for that, because that is something that, clearly, the mayor and the city policy clearly disagrees with. I also find that dann cuellar, to his credit, got jim kenney to say 300 million bucks . Oh, that might make a difference. That was smart, right . I was shocked. I had never thought jim kenney would buckle even for 300 million. But the mayors spokesperson, lauren hitt, immediately came back on Darrell Clarkes statement and said were not gonna do that, were not reconsider this. Its not the type of city were gonna be. Chaos is in an interesting comment, because thats what were seeing. Were seeing everything being thrown up against the wall, saying okay, look over here, look over here, look over here, but dont Pay Attention to this here, right . And so that goes back to that aspect of protesting. People will get protest fatigue because its like, okay. What are we protesting now . Literally, every day across the sphere, when i talk to people, they say, i feel exhausted. How long has he been in office . Its been two weeks . Are you kidding me . Its called flooding the zone a super bowl reference. Exactly. But, you know, this blitzkriegtype of policymaking is not necessarily effective. And, lets just say, its like riling our allies. I mean, suddenly australias an enemy weve got to get tough with . Mexico. Right . I mean, really . But mainly people who are protesting are looking further down the road to 2018. And if democrats, by the way, lose eight more seats, then republicans have a filibusterproof majority. Theyve got their threefifths going forward. So the rallies, the protests might, as nia said, want to focus and actually take action if they want to have an impact. Well, thats where the action is. And, i mean, im on bob casey jr. s mailing list. Mmhmm. And he was at his Office Taking phones, hi, this is senator casey, and people were shocked. And were not close to 2018 yet. Hes in a i dont know if i can pennsylvania a red state with any credibility, but hes feeling it already. And all these votes on betsy devos and these others coming up are gonna be an acid test. If they go too much to their base im talking about the democrats in red states, i think theyre gonna have a bit of a problem. Strategists are telling some of these protesters how do you eat an elephant . One bite at a time. You know, take baby steps, and pretty soon youve walked a ways. Do you agree that there could be an impact, or do you think that really, when you hear from senator cory booker, new jersey, senator bob casey, pennsylvania, they were advising some lgbt members, for example, how to get their protests in line and make them effective. Do you think there could be an impact . There absolutely can be an impact if they harness this energy. One thing that senator booker said was if youre for lgbt rights, you for womens rights. There are so many things, as nia said before, that folks are protesting the cabinet officials, the nomination of the Supreme Court justice. Theyve got to Stay Together. And democrats, you know, thats the line. Theyve got to Stay Together and put up good candidates and raise money. Herding cats has always been a challenge with democrats. Thats why i think the womens march was so effective, because that was not a one particular issue. It was broad base coalition. By the way, i was in dc. There were more people there than there were for the inaugural. [ laughter ] dont tell the president that. Some alternative facts there. And dont think that doesnt irritate the president. And as long as this emphasis continues in a more broad front that, a, hes a minority president. He did not win the popular vote. And we can turn our protests on a Broad Coalition of issues that are big, you know . But the protests, jim, i think, are more fun. People have to show up and vote. Its a common type of thing. Got to get candidates, too. Yeah, but they did not show up and vote. But its waking up people who never would have done things, right . And to your point, monica, absolutely. People have to figure out, okay, if im gonna run for office, what is that going to take . If im gonna harness this energy if you look at the Democratic Leadership in dc, i mean, theyre all aarp members just about. [ laughter ] so, that being said, theres nothing wrong with wisdom and age, however, you have to refresh. Absolutely. If you do a comparison between the top officials in the Republican Party and those in the democratic party, you will see youth is not on the side of the democrats. Nows the time for renewal of energy and for leadership. And this is an opportunity for womens issues, for issues that deal with vulnerable populations. And these are people who have been ignored, who feel like, oh, well, were just being subjugated right now because were being jammed up behind fear. Oh, my goodness. All these people are gonna come to attack us, even though we have had no evidence of that. It is disturbing the way these type of edicts have been rolling out. And for all those people that talked about president obama being the imperial president , theyre surprisingly quiet right in through here. And not every voting block in philadelphia, by the way, is antitrump and protests. That is correct. Lets be clear. In fact, the head of one of our biggest unions, ibew, john dougherty, they had a couple of signs, if you will, up in a very prominent place down on market street, i believe. Thats what i read about. Exactly saying go trump. And they were right over the protesters, too. It was shocking. And so, when people ask him whats that all about . He basically said, i support the guy cause hes gonna save and create jobs, and im a union boss. Thats what he says. You know, monica, this is a realignment possibility of the political parties. What trump has been able to do, at least to win, and, perhaps, will he do effectively, and this brings in the unions, hes met with the unions in his first week on the job. Hes talking about infrastructure spending. Hes talking about pipelines and energy. And hes talking about and these Union Members and workers, of course they want jobs. The environment might not be as big a concern for them visavis getting a goodpaying job. And john dougherty, he said hes gonna represent his members. Absolutely. Its a great carrot. Its a great carrot. All right. Follow through. Meantime, lets talk about the soda tax money that is coming in by the bucket loads. There is a fight over whos gonna hand it out to the schools and how. It sounds like to me a bit of a power struggle. Maybe im missing something here. But theres 500 million already from the rebuild of City Rec Centers and parks and other things that is gonna be the first level of handing out. But who should do it . Should it be two nonprofits, or should it be city council, which would give them, obviously, more control . They say theyd been to those community meetings, they know where people need a new particular monkey bars and a rec center to be rebuilt. And the nonprofits maybe have not attended those meetings. But, by the same token, nonprofits bring a fresh perspective and have some practice in this area. You know, monica, what the mayor wants to do is run these projects through the Fairmount Park conservancy and the free library foundation, i believe. Both of which have great experience with running similar projects revitalizing parks around the city. So thats point one. Point two, Fairmount Park conservancy, Council President clarke, and Council Member bass sit on that ex officio. So theyd have a voice. Right. So i dont see, other than a political desire, to divvy up this money among councilmanic districts which theres nothing wrong with that from a political position, but whether its right for the city, i think, is a different question. And i think it was nia in a previous show may have been nia who said it part of this is they want to be out there cutting ribbons in their own councilmanic districts. And the mayor said theres no problem with that. They wouldnt be in would they be invited . There are 200 projects. Surely you can get a few Council People out. You know what . Its one thing to be invited. Its another to be the person with the thumbprint, i put this here type of thing. And they im sorry. Im sorry. When you have people in your district that youre responsible to, you want to feel like, okay, i can go back to betsy or jim and say this is whats going on. Of course. And right now, they would be kind of cut out of that process. So, i think there can be a strong case made for a hybrid, where you can have councilmanic influence, because they do know these things. Sure. I mean, theyve been there. They get those calls. The nonprofits might be great for the execution aspect of it, but theyre gonna be a little colder. Does it make it too much bureaucracy and red tape, though, if you have double layers of people making decisions . You can blend it. Its the slow when its the city. You have council has to approve the bonds by which these will be funded. And one very important point that, of course, the mayor is very big at and city council, frankly is you have to have the city by council or excuse me city rules the lowest bidder. What that may hurt is goals around diversity, and minority and womenowned businesses. So, there are some very meritorious goals. I think this is the most efficient way to do it. And the other interesting thing to remember legally, there still is a challenge sitting out there to the soda tax. Thats right. Those that have brought that challenge have not been able to get it in junction. They have not prevailed at that level. Very smart of the mayor to say were starting to get this money, and were gonna spend it. Sure, before it gets taken away, if it does. All right, well take a break. Inside story continues right after this. 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. 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. Welcome back, everyone. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is doing some budgetcutting. Were gonna have a multibillion dollar deficit apparently. And so hes trying to merge two Health Departments and manage read into that, cut education funds possibly, and do other things to save money. And hes also hired for 81 million closed a prison in allegheny county. That will some money, but hes hired an outside consultant to try to find another billion dollars to save of the 1. 8 billion that were gonna have a deficit of. So hes trying to slash the deficit in half, in effect. Thats a big contract to go out to one of these independent contractors to figure out where the savings could be. Do you like the fact that hes going outside to look for help, or should he have used the people that we already have in place for that . Well, i think the answers to be determined. Im not trying to skirt the question, but what i think his budget secretary said, right now in the draft budget that he will deliver next tuesday, theyre probably gonna take 90 to 95 of their recommendations. To me, i look at this as like and i dont mean to use, you know, big mckinsey, thats the firm words, roi return on investment. If it shows that they have made some suggestions that enhance and the legislature will accept them, then im not necessarily against having an outside firm do it. It seems a little political when you criticize it cause i think the republicans can do it, too but theyre are people that do it in the budget. Tom wolf is an mit guy. Mckinsey is a worldrenown consultant in this area, highly respected with a lot of mit guys. So i dont think its a bad idea. I do think that getting rid of the department of aging is a mistake. I dont say that because my wife was the secretary of aging. Full disclosure. We have the secondlargest Elderly Population in the country outside of florida, so theres a lot of people impacted. Thats why governor casey created that department. And those issues are separate and distinct from the kind of issues that dpw normally handles. So, i think thats a mistake. Well, i think the prison thing might be a mistake. I dont know the innards of it, but its surprising to me that, suddenly, we dont need all these prisons. And the line out there is we were building prisons just to build them. It was a broke industry. Left and right. Left and right. I dont know about that. Im not sure of who gets sent to these prisons. And now youre creating overcrowding perhaps in other places. I dont know, but maybe. Thats what we hear all the time. Judges say its overcrowded. So i think thats a rub. But its a quick savings to engage in it, yeah. Overcrowding equals lawsuits more times than not, and it can cause other damage. So, again, thats something that has to be studied. Its wonderful to have fresh ideas. And lets just be real pennsylvania, were kind of slow to doing anything new. So this whole concept of bringing somebody else in and saying, okay, lets study this, i mean, its great on one end. But, also, i think its the process that more people are chaffed about. It kind of happened quickly. It was sort of like a new bid, and then suddenly we have this. So, it gives your enemies, politically, politically enemies, more fuel for their fire, which is not necessarily the case as far as whether its a good idea. You dont want a good idea torpedoed behind the politics of it. He did say hes not things rarely pass in harrisburg just because theyre a good idea. Im sorry. He did say the governors not gonna raise sales tax or income taxes, so hes trying to get by by cutting other budget items. All right, lets move on to what many people would consider a shocker the civil trial over the Salvation Army collapse in 2013 that killed six people and injured many others, 13 others rather, killed seven. And now the civil jurors have ruled that, in fact, the two people who went to prison for many years, 15, 20, 30 years for running backhoes that actually caused a wall to collapse on the Salvation Army thrift store in center city and were blamed nearly 100 back then are, in fact, in the civil trials regard, only 1 or 2 liable, and they, in fact, blamed the wealthy people who were the Architectural Firm and the Real Estate Developer from new york and his firm and say they should be more liable and even the Salvation Army should be liable. And theyre gonna decide next week the monetary value theyre assigning to that. Were you shocked and stunned . I was, but i dont get the Salvation Army. I didnt got through im amazed that theyre seeing liability here, but im in agreement with this. And i think they hired these people. I dont see that they i think that they neglected overseeing these people. Its pretty obvious based upon what they were doing on a regular basis right there in the center of downtown philadelphia. And, you know, legally, theres a big difference between criminal liability and civil liability. So, the fellows that were convicted under the criminal statute had to act intentionally or recklessly, i believe, would be the standard there. In the civil trial, you can have a much more expansive liability. So you can have a negligence, for instance, standard, which does not apply in criminal law. So i wasnt that shocked and stunned about it. Probably a fair verdict. The naacp is calling for a new trial for the two men who were already in jail, the backhoe operator. But, you know, its interesting. Its always the little guy that tends to get the big brunt of this type of thing. And this civil trial flipped the switch a little bit, so that was an interesting concept. And overall, when you look at it, theyre the moneymakers and the decisionmakers. And those are the people who, really, where the responsibility lies with, with the buck was supposed to start. I would agree, and clearly im not a lawyer, but truly, the criminal aspect has been handled, but now were talking about the civil component of it. And civilly, these were the people that i think were responsible. And the jury, surprising, but it was definitely refreshing. Let me talk about who has the most money its the Salvation Army, if you look at their books. Oh, yeah. And what i understand, and weve read in reports in the case, is the higher ups were told that theres a problem, and they didnt act upon it. Right. And do the two men deserve a new trial . Well, ill say it as a nonlawyer, it seems very unfair that the penalty they got visavis the Civil Penalties that these folks with a lot more deep pockets got have. All right. Inside stories of the week coming your way. Were gonna take a break. Well be right back with more. 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. All right. Time for inside stories of the week, and lets start with dom. Well, lot of news this week. Kind of fun news, or startling news. Donald trump goes into the National Prayer breakfast solemn, you know, usually and all, and digresses into an allout battle with arnold schwarzenegger, who fires back at him, over celebrity apprentice. What is not widely reported is when he tried to make the joke about praying for arnold, mark burnett, the creator of all these series, was the keynote speaker. He was right there. So trump just didnt go out there in the middle of iran or something and talk about schwarzenegger. He was going after mark burnett, just to put a little note to that to give some sanity to this whole thing. Okay. Nia . Speaking of sanity and our president , were also looking at the state of education in america, and clearly our president did not know that much about frederick douglass, who lived in the 1800s and actually died around 1895. He talked about him as if he was still a contemporary figure. In spirit, yes. If you need to know a little bit about africanamerican history, this is the month for it. Were in february. In philadelphia, you can go to the African American museum in philadelphia. If youre in new jersey, you can go to the new underground museum in Burlington County or the one right here in philadelphia. All right. Jeff . Is there a new tone among Democratic Leaders in philadelphia and harrisburg . This past week, mayor jim kenney addressed the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of commerce at the annual mayors luncheon and said he will not be proposing any new or increased taxes in his budget for this coming year. And in harrisburg this coming tuesday, Governor Wolf will not propose an increase in the sales or income tax. Sounds very republicanesque to me. Maybe theyre reaching out. Okay, jim . Monica, kudos to new attorney general josh shapiro. This week announced a big settlement against western union. Remember them for transporting money and all that and telegrams . Turns out that they also facilitate fraud fraud cases, telemarketing fraud against, particularly, seniors. And josh was able to settle that case and get 20 million for the commonwealth of pennsylvania to help combat that right here in our state. All right. Terrific. And now we have a few minutes to figure out who are you supporting for the super bowl . Whos gonna win it . I say the patriots, but i think brady was a cheater. [ laughter ] but he got the goods. I love belichicks you know, hes such an easy guy to get to know. Okay. Quickly, yours . Im from pittsburgh. Im still heartbroken over the patriots decimation of my beloved steelers. I cant i would never bet against bill belichick. All right. Quickly . I got to go with matt ryan. All right, and you . Atlanta. Go, atlanta have a good day, everybody. Im nydia han along with gray hall. Coming up next on action news, new quoments in developments in the legal fight about president trumps travel ban. An 81yearold woman is recovering in the hospital after being pulled from a burning home in new jersey. Septa is on the hunt for moving love stories well tell you about the prize septa is offering for any commuter crushes that found romances on their coach. Good afternoon it is sunday february 5, im nydia han along with gray hall. Heres some of the stories were following on action news, developing news