Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20170219 : vimarsana.com

Gossip and rumor is the coin of the political realm, so its not surprising that these rumors of someones demise continue to perpetuate. I thought it was so funny that Chris Brennan actually tracked him down. Yeah. And took a selfie and said, no, hes not locked up. Hes actually right here. So, i think in terms of what happens to him next, it all depends on whether or not another shoe drops. So i think if there are any Legal Proceedings that look like an indictment or anything like that, i think that therell be much more pressure. Sam, some people dont want him to resign because then theyd have to appoint a new d. A. , and that person then would get a leg up if they wanted to run. But at a certain point, is it something worth thinking about . Like, can he be effective at all . Well, he has a fairly stiff financial burden hanging over his head from the city ethics committee. I believe he has a 62,000 liability to be repaid, so cutting himself off from his source of income may not be the most prudent Financial Action he could take. I think his risk really is, did he report the gifts on his income taxes . Mm. If he failed to do that, the irs is usually not very concerned about whether you are or are not holding an office if you engage in tax fraud. And i think thats his that particularly strikes me as a difficult problem, especially now that its not a democratic administration. Its the republicans control the Internal Revenue service, and they may have their axes out. Lets turn and talk about all the people running. Weve got five people who were announced as candidates. Were hearing that Williams Deputy is saying that he might get into it, as well. Tariq elshabazz, a state rep from out in western philadelphia. Joanna mcclinton says shes thinking about it. We could be up to seven. We could be up to eight. More may be coming. Some are describing this as the most chaotic scene theyve ever seen, running for philadelphia d. A. Ts an extraordinary situation to have such a plum position in the city and in the state, frankly, which has been a stepping stone for people to Higher Office to have no frontrunner in a position like that. And people only have a couple weeks to gather signatures before the filing deadline for the primary. So its an extraordinary situation. To not have an incumbent to have the seat vacated so suddenly and abruptly and have so many candidates scrambling, its understandable the people want to get into this race and take their shot. Anything can happen in a multicandidate race. Theres been a lot of speculation about whos got the money, and obviously having money is a huge advantage in a multicandidate race. Speaking about speaking about that, george soros, some are saying that he might be tipping into this. A pac that he backs, many people think that he may back larry krasner. Would that make a difference for krasner . Well, it could. I mean, television, as sam katz knows, is hugely important in elections. And you get a half a million or a million bucks and you get on tv. But i think theres another feature. Weve not heard anything about the city Democratic Party. Mmhmm. What are the ward leaders going to do . What are the apparatchiks that basically run the politics of the city, can they get a consensus with seven or eight candidates . Id be careful calling democrats apparatchiks at this particular moment in time. Just want to note for the record. Im using that generically. Well, and also in philadelphia, race matters. The two candidates i just mentioned, elshabazz and mcclinton, are both africanamerican. Would that tip things in their favor in the city . I think i think you marched into an important field when you observed that the Democratic Party doesnt have a candidate. Bob brady came out fairly early in the process and said that seth would not have the support of the ward leaders. But wheres the bench . Yeah. Wheres this team of people whove been schooled to become candidates, future leaders of the city . I say this not with glee, but i think the Democratic Party is bankrupt on that account. You do have a couple of very attractive young people, a guy like jared solomon who just got elected. But he just got elected, so to march into a d. A. s race, you know, you have seven people or eight people who might well be i mean, rich negrin certainly stands out as a solid guy who would, under normal circumstances, appear to be a logical guy. Nobody in the Democratic Party is rallying, at least that i can tell yet, to any of these people. And both dougherty and brady seem to be awol on the subject. Lets i just want to say, i think theres a little bit of political exhaustion. I mean, i think that were getting exhausted at the National Level daily. And i think thats translating into exhaustion locally. Maybe let them figure it out and well show up later. Look at the fight, though, that val digiorgio just won against lawrence tabis 173 to 171. And that was as brutal a fight for the state gop as was the president ial nomination. Congratulations to val digiorgio. Indeed, congratulations to val, one of our inside story panelists. Well, one thing that weve heard from most of the democrats in the race is that they support the idea of philadelphia staying a sanctuary city, which is interesting because we had two different visions this week one, increased ice raids across the country and then a day without immigrants. Many businesses shutting down. Public opinion does seem to play into these things. Jan, you pay a lot of attention to this issue. Which one do you think holds greater purchase in philadelphia with people the ice raids or the day without an immigrant . Well, i think the what we see is the illegal immigrant population trying to blur the lines between themselves and legal immigrants. Theyre always pointing to all the great things that legal immigrants have done, nobel prize winners, right . Distinguished professors in every field. Sure, thats true. But, um, you know, some of the people who are most critical of illegal immigration are the people that are here legally and who are having to compete for jobs with the illegal immigrant population. Who knows whether the raids are significant or not . Ice says, this is what theyve always done. Theyve always been trying to go after undocumented aliens who have some other problem, usually a criminal conviction or a criminal record. Those are the people who are priorities for removal in the Prior Administration and under the Current Administration. Is this the kind of thing that pushes people to think about guestworker programs versus just crackdowns, or, no, theyre gonna keep up with crackdowns . Of of course it does. And the reports were out of washington that this planning was actually done during the obama administration, so this isnt something new. I mean, heres what i think the failure is. What donald trump said during the campaign at various times was that he was going to literally kick out 11 million Illegal Immigrants. Now, he backed off of that. If he clearly distinguished, and hes done that a bit, that were gonna get rid of the Illegal Immigrants who commit Violent Crimes, who are felons, that has the support of the American People. But in the polls that have been done recently, the American People do not support kicking out 11 million people, which you probably couldnt do, anyway. So i think thats a hugely important distinction to make felons, Violent Crimes, they go. The other immigrants, you put them eventually on a path to citizenship. Trump has walked up to that door, but he hasnt opened it up yet. But the problem is that thats not where theyre drawing the line. I mean, we had that National Story about the woman who immigrated here illegally. She bore two children who are american citizens, and they had to watch their mother being carted off in a police vehicle, an ice vehicle, chained up like a common prisoner. Now, she had admittedly used a Social Security number. Exactly. That was not proper. But thats, i think i think we need to draw lines of demarcation when it comes to pulling families apart, and thats what most americans are upset about, thats what the mayor is against, thats what people in the city care about. And so, being a sanctuary city, i think, is in some ways in this time, a badge of honor. Is everybody upset about that, though . Somebody might look at her and say, but if you hadnt come originally the wrong way, you wouldnt be in this position. And you hear some people on the trump side say that, that this was the end result of an original decision. But theres an inhumanity to this. Theres an inhumanity to this that is unkind and indecent, and thats what people are pat toomey just got reelected by campaigning against the sanctuary city policy in the city of philadelphia. I mean, the state legislature is up in arms about the sanctuary city policy in philadelphia. It may be good politics within the city of philadelphia. You know, and people are counting votes all the time. But its not good politics in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. Its not good politics nationally. There are two big problems here. One is the discretion that is decentralized to the ice officer on the scene, who takes a look at a persons record, sees a Social Security violation, and can compare that to a Violent Crime and make a decision. Thank you. You know what . This one needs to be left alone. Thats one issue. The other issue is when you decide, whether youre a mayor or a governor or a county executive, to take on donald trump, you better be a pretty damn good street fighter, because it doesnt matter to trump that youre engaged in a policy debate. Youre now engaged in a fight with him, and he has to win. And this is what the jim kenneys of the world are faced with. They may have the morally defensible and perhaps correct, even legally correct, position, but theyre taking on the president of the United States who has to win every fight and who has some pretty powerful purse strings. Well, he lost a couple of fights this past week. His secretary of labor went down. I mean, were seeing fights but many people would say, in some cases, hes won more than hes lost. Hes gotten most of his cabinet through. Only one so far has fallen. We will see. Every president doesnt get 100 of their cabinet. Obama didnt four of them. Lets turn and go back to something thats in city council. Jim kenney ran for mayor talking he wants the money to run through the Free Library Foundation and the Fairmount Park conservancy. Theyre all over the city. He says they know how to do this. Council says, no, we think it should go through a council office, and you got to get these bonds through us. Whos gonna win this fight . I think well, first of all, let me just say, theres a ton of moving parts in these projects. Theyre talking about not just rehabbing rec centers, but putting Training Centers that are unprecedented in terms of giving kids that are in High School Access to getting trade approvals, special certificates, that are gonna get them real jobs. So the competition is, in some ways, is much about that. But theres there is, i think, a complex network of relationships that are playing themselves out. I think when the program finally gets unveiled, and to the mayors credit and the people that are doing the big lift, theyre trying to make sure that they tighten everything up before they go public with it. But Darrell Clarke is saying, this is risky. I want diversity. I look at the Fairmount Park conservancy. Doesnt look diverse to me, so lets stop here. Let me just say, i mean, i oppose the mayors policy on sanctuary cities, threatening public safety. But i support the mayor on rebuild. I think the way that he wants to do it is the right way, is in the best interest of the entire city. I think the Fairmount Park conservancy and the other nonprofit have a track record. They have established staffs and personnel. They know how to do the projects, and, most importantly, they have the ability to raise additional funding from other sources. Thats key, i think. Clark was mad, because he said he didnt feel enough people had gotten in on the action to bid. But what hes saying is, maybe these two candidates were just far and away above everybody else. Well, first of all, there havent been any bids, or there havent been that many bids. The money hasnt been raised. The william penn foundations grant was just announced. You have the ability by outsourcing, if you will, the management of these Development Projects that are parkspecific to the Fairmount Park commission and to the other foundation of generating a whole lot more private money, because the private sectors going to say, its not going to the city. Yeah. Were and as far as the track record on minority Business Engagement by the city of philadelphia, thats paltry. And anybody who can stand up and show how minority Business Enterprise either for women, for minorities, for veterans, has dramatically affected the economic landscape of philadelphia, i challenge them to do that. Yes, there should be minority business, but there needs to be a management and a rollout of this thats hugely professional and effective. And the Fairmount Park conservancy with what they did in hunting park and what theyve done in other pocket parks around the city is extraordinary. Shows for itself. Lets talk a little bit quickly about tom wolfs budget a couple of surprises in there. Mckinsey is saying, you can squeeze more money out of the state stores, if they negotiate better and run better. Thats 53 million. Do you buy it . No. [ laughter ] uh, look. Oddly, yeah, you can create an enormous amount of efficiencies in any government, and particularly State Government. When youre talking about if you take state and federal sources, youre up to, what, 60 billion, 70 billion. Of course you can. But the problem is you deal with the bureaucracy. But other states are doing it alabama. Yeah, but in the case of the state stores, they have a liquor system thats, in a sense, independent. The governor cant say, were doing a, b, and c. Its not the way the boards and commissions of State Government work. That stunning cost, 1. 8 million theres an inefficiency right there. We got to wrap up. But really quickly, a yes or no. Should we be charging small towns in pennsylvania 25 a head. No. For state troopers to be their police force . Yes. Yes. Theres a long story. Cant tell it. Yes. You say no. You say yes. Were paying 400 a citizen in philadelphia to support the Philadelphia Police department. This is a big deal in harrisburg. Well keep talking. Well take a break, and when we come back, were talking trump. 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. Tradingin or selling your car, truck or suv . Webuyanycar. Com takes the hassle out of selling in just 3 easy steps. One, get your free online valuation. Two, drive to your local car buying center. And three, walk out with your check in as little as 30 minutes so dont wait. Get your free online valuation now at webuyanycar. Com. Find out how much your car is worth at webuyanycar. Com welcome back to inside story. Im tamala edwards. Terry, my heads spinning here a little bit. Donald trump and his press conference talked about a rasmussen poll which finds hes got 55 approval. Meanwhile, theres a pew poll that says hes got 56 disapproval, 46 of that strongly. What . Its not just its not just the pew poll. If you look at the averages of the other polls, rasmussen is what we call in polling terms an outlier. I love that term. Its an outlier. In other words, we dont believe you. Well, theres some theres something going on with it, either in the waiting, and you know, scott rasmussen, people dont remember. He left the report in 2013, so he it used to be, literally, if you go back to 2004 and 2008, one of the most accurate polls. Thats true. In the country. It went from being one of the most accurate polls to being an outlier. Now, i have to say this, very quickly. We, like many others, were wrong in our state polls. Weve done an investigation of it. We have a poll out next week. Were gonna take a look at a lot of the issues. We did a couple of interesting things that i dont have time to talk about to get it straight. Well look forward to seeing that. Well, lets talk about this pat toomey this week. Any number of republicans usually go back home, they do town halls. Not this time, because theyve seen other colleagues get yelled at with you know, the town halls are packed. Instead, he went on Facebook Live and took 10 curated questions. So that suggests that the resist movement has some purchase, but at the same time, many places that support trump, theyre saying, were fine. Were good with this. Go to pennsport. They still love him. Again, which story is the truth . I think that, first of all, if youve just been elected to the senate reelected to the senate for six years you do have a little more flexibility than the guys that are gonna be up in 2018. And toomey, you know, threaded the needle. When did he come out and decide who hes voting for . 15 minutes before on day of. Lets give the guy a little bit of credit for having the smarts to thread that needle, cause everybody else was getting killed between the trump or the Republican Party. This level of angst and anger and emotion that has permeated the entire american body politic is showing up in every letter to the editor, in every town hall meeting. And if youre a public official, whether youre pat toomey or youre congressmen chaffetz and youre going home and youre suddenly seeing this kind of vitriolic reaction, yeah, you probably want to go home and have a drink and spend the evening watching television. And its cause people are not talking about anything. Theyre screaming. I think its a tactical mistake for the critics of the Current Administration to focus on pat toomey, because as sam suggests, the guys not up for six years. Hell be confronting a completely different situation. I mean, from the Republican Point of view, its kind of a good thing. Let all of the slings and arrows hit pat whos invulnerable and but this is one thing ive seen some people, some pundits, come up with. Its easy to avoid them, but be careful, this could be a tea party in the making. You can just keep avoiding them. So at some point, do they have to show up . I dont think it helps, if its a tea party in the making on the left, and look at toomeys record. Whether he confronts them directly or not, its not going to help. Toomey was also a leading voice this week on a big backandforth. Michael flynn leaving the nsa over concern well, it was focused that he had a conversation about sanctions before the transition took place. Some say that wasnt the issue, that he misled the Vice President was the issue. The information coming out, big hubbub. Pat toomey was one of the voices that said, its not about flynn, its about the leaks. Other people are saying, no, its about the information in the leaks. Which one is true, and is it smart for republicans, like toomey, just to focus on the leaks but not the information . I think i think its a mistake for toomey to treat this as just an issue associated with leaks and not an issue associated with the integrity of the presidency. What i find fascinating is that there wasnt a reaction or a severe reaction among the republicans until it was revealed that pence was out of the loop, and this is, i think, very important. The Republican Party in congress is relying on pence to essentially be the guardian the regent to the childcare. Thats whats going on. Thats whats going on. But it was revealed he was out of the loop for two weeks on this. He was out of the loop, and people that are part of the establishment are concerned because they regard pence as the modulating influence, and hes the guy thats gonna kind of keep everything together. Sam, leaks or whats in the leaks . The really big story here is the extent of the ferociousness of the National Security communitys decision, collectively and individually, to undermine the Trump Administration on foreign policy. And these republicans who are attacking taking this issue of mike flynns resignation and his communications with the russians and turning it into a conversation about leaks is to scare the crap, pardon me, out of all the people in the National Security infrastructure who are doing the leaking. I agree with that. Thats what they have to do, because if, in fact, this leaking continues, this could bring down the presidency, because if, in fact, trump has done the things that were speculating he might have done have conversations with ex parte conversations with the russians about leaking information about hillary or the dnc, possibly talking about sanctions and overlooking or letting bypass the obama administrations position these are very dangerous these are watergate type of things. Were a month into this new administration. Theres no National Security adviser on board. Theres no director of national intelligence. Theres no deputy secretary at the department of state. Were a month in, and so. And these are dangerous times. Its an awkward situation. But i get sams point on why you do it, but does it hurt them if they dont put down a marker on, but weve seen this information and we dont like it . If the information that comes out makes a fullfledged bipartisan investigation necessary, the Trump Administration is in big doo not just on this, but they could lose four or five members of the senate. We can talk about murkowski, collins, lindsey graham. And theyve already peeled off on some things. Mccain, and possibly marco rubio, and all of a sudden, you have a coalition of democrats and republicans and trump is stuck. Quickly, were over time. Two wrongs dont make a right. We need to know exactly what contact, if any, the Trump Campaign people had with russia number one. Number two, the Intelligence Agency should not be leaking that. Thats a crime, and they need to stop it. All right, last word on that. Well take a short break and come back. 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. Inside stories. Donna. In the last mayoral election, there was a draft Darrell Clarke movement. A lot of people may have forgotten about that. The conflict that were seeing, really, i think, has much more to do with the executive agenda moving forward from mayor kenneys office and a little bit of buyers remorse on the part of the council president. That he didnt run. All right, sam. The citys 91 million projected collections on the beverage tax seems to be in tatters, at least after the first month. And it also looks like theres a lot of empty seats in the Early Childhood program, so thats an initiative that does really need a lot of focus to make sure its successful. All right, terry. 50 of the states 2,500 municipalities get their Police Service from the state police. 67 some or all. Were talking about millions in a cost shift to local municipalities should that pass the legislature. All right, jan. Because of vacancies on our federal courts and because of the advanced age of the incumbents, President Trump has a greater opportunity than any firstterm president in recent years to pack the courts with his appointees, ensuring republican control of the courts as well as the congress and the white house and the state legislatures. All right. Thank you. This has been a great show. Thank you for joining us. Well see you next sunday on inside story. Im nydia han along with gray hall. Coming up on action news, sky6 live hd taking you live outside over the Commodore Barry bridge were experiencing springlike conditions in the middle of february. Meteorologist chris sowers will let you know how warm it will get and is this the end of winter. Plus a fight between two cab drivers ends with one getting shot. Hundreds pass over the border into canada, well tell you why they are leaving the u. S. Those stories and more next on action news. Garn it is sunday, february 19. Im nydia han along with gray hall. Heres some of the stories were following on action news, a man is stabbed twice in center city. We have the latest on the search for the