As this moment because hes been putting the heat on people in his own party and pursuing allegations against the state attorney general Kathleen Kane, among others. Is this just a political retribution . What do you make of it, ajay . Well, first of all, lets make a couple of things clear. You can be under investigation. You dont even need probable cause all you need is an allegation to be under investigation. Then, you can be a subject of an investigation. That doesnt mean that an incitement is coming forth. Its only when you become a target. And right now, all we know is that theyre looking into the feds are looking into whether or not there has been misappropriation of his finance public, you know, his Political Campaign funds for personal use. Its too early to speculate anything other than that. Anybody can get investigated doesnt mean that it amounts to anything. It is the irs and the fbi jointly, reportedly. And he is in his second term, having run just in 2013, and starting his second fouryear term. So, again, do you feel like theres much tempest in a teapot here . I mean, well see as it goes forward, but his reputation his public reputation is one of being very ethical. You know, he these are questions about his expenses, and were they appropriate, if those are, indeed, whats being investigated. And i think its way too early to kind of comment, to be honest with you. I mean, im one to weigh in, but this one seems really early to comment on. Yeah, its completely fresh, and then, were still waiting to see what exactly the allegations may yield. And, again, they are allegations they are not charges or anything of that nature, so. Its interesting the timing, of course, because i dont know about anybody else around the table, but were just tired of the phrase the federal government is investigating. Fill in the blank. I mean, it is somewhat wearying, and it is unfortunate that we have a District Attorney who has a great reputation for being above board and, you know, a crusader also, now, part of that mix and that mire thats become philadelphia, unfortunately, with our Public Officials. And it is perception versus reality. Absolutely. I mean, perceptions the problem. And you think about it take away you know, the court of law will determine. Well see what happens. But you think about harrisburg. You think about the perception of philadelphia, and here we go. Heres another official whether or not its accurate or fair to say that, another official whos under investigation, on top of congressman fattah, on top of now, Kathleen Kanes not from here, but on top of the four out of five state representatives who are charged. Yeah, if i was talking to harrisburg, id say, look at the panoply of folks who have gone away to higher education, universities, federal and stateowned for periods of time. They came out of harrisburg. Sure. And it does seem something, unfortunately, about the new jersey, pennsylvania political culture its been written about in the new york times. You also see it in states like illinois, et cetera, where this is going on. But its not like this in most of the country. And i dont know whether its the twoparty system isnt vibrant enough, frankly. One party gets entrenched, and they just kind of all the decisions of who wins the primary, wins the general election, but theres a culture here in our state and in jersey and in states like illinois which is very bad for democracy. And lets talk about Kathleen Kane now, because new information came out last week from the pennsylvania Supreme Court. She had said that she was being there was retribution being taken against her because she had released some pornographic emails by Public Officials, and she was not allowed to release those or shouldnt have. Originally well, the Supreme Court just released documents showing they had said its okay, as long as its appropriately released. So, in other words, they are sort of undoing her idea of why shes being attacked with charges against her. Does that undo her entire argument, nia . You know, the Public Perception for Kathleen Kane shes lost that battle i mean, just plain and simple. We have yet to see whats going to unfold completely in court, as far as the legalities, but when it comes to the Public Perception, its been one thing after another after another. And when you talk about unfortunate squandering, she had the most Political Capital in this commonwealth to spend, and it has evaporated, for the most part. I dont care if youre male or female. At this point, when youre looking at. Democrat or republican. Democrat or republican. At this point, for Kathleen Kane, its the ability to really conduct her office well. And when you lose that public support from the governor down, thats a difficult hurdle. So, we dont know, again, all of whats true or not true, but, you know, every bit that seems to chip away at her story is unfortunate for her. Is it also that she allegedly only released documents about eight people with the pornographic information and photos, and there were allegedly dozens of them . Who were those eight people . They all happen to work. Right. Sorry, monica. In the corbett administration. So, she has yet to connect what those pornographic emails or what those emails were discussing that directly ties it into, therefore, i had the ability to perhaps do something, leak not, you know leak information which was legal. Theres no connection that has been made yet to what the federal feds have said that she has done. The real inside story with her is, from those who know her close, is that she has an explosive temper, that shes an intemperate person, that she thinks very much about the next news cycle. If you were giving her advice, the best advice would be, stop talking about this. The only thing that really matters for her is what happens in terms of the criminal investigation. The rest of it, you know, dont worry about trying to get, like, shortterm hits out it was about the emails, the porn emails cause then shes embarrassed when they say, you could have released this for months. Its just, calm down. Do your job. Show youre doing your job. Stop talking about the investigation and worry about the criminal side of things. If you get through that, you might have a chance to run for reelection. But she is playing a constant shortterm game, and it just gets her further and further in the hole. And then theres the chief of staff debacle. Allegedly, she appointed someone to chief of staff that she knew about. Some unwanted sexual advances had been mentioned by some women on her staff, but she appointed him, anyway. Even the h. R. Office, or human relations folks said, fire him. Get rid dont do this. But hes appointed. Hes still there. And now there may be some Union Negotiations that were tied to, just, please, if you support my chief of staff, ill support your union. It sounds like a mess, ajay. Well, you know, given the petty details of her alleged misdeeds and, also, the mounting contradictions of our own narrative, i think it would be a stretch to imagine that she would come out of this fiasco with both her dignity and her career intact. So i dont think she probably has a political career in pennsylvania. But having said that, i think, brian, you were spot on, which is, you know, at this point, she has to sort of close the ranks and do less, and that probably is more for her. Did chaka fattah this week make up some ground . He was in court. He pleaded not guilty before it was even asked of him what his plea would be. But he also sort of sent a letter and said to the public at large and the feds in general that they are targeting him. And he alleged they improperly approached witnesses, they violated grand jury secrecy themselves, they used threats to his office, they made false statements he said they lied, basically. Do you think thats mostly an appeal to voters, because he says hes gonna run again, or is it really the Obama Administration is known to oh, no, that doesnt make any sense does it . At all. [ laughter ] now, why would the Obama Administration, which runs the justice department, be after a democratic congressman . Their own. Okay, let me think of another reason. I think, again, chaka fattah has had a long career. Itll be really interesting to see how this unfolds. But i dont think his start was last week was off to a great one. If you speak with experienced prosecutors, they say, if you have the facts, you argue the facts. Facts, right. But if you dont have the facts, you argue the law. And if you dont have either, then you attack the prosecutor. Now, i dont know if there is wisdom in that in whats happening with congressman fattahs case, and i dont want to pile on to congressmans woes. But the real focus is, last time we commented on it you know, you have a 2nd district that has 28 poverty rate. You have 61 of the population is africanamerican. In this country, postgreat recession, the concentration of poverty in urban areas, especially with africanamericans and latinos, have climbed 7. 8 million americans in 2007 today, 13. 2 million. So i think that should be the real focus, which is whos going to lead the 2nd district. Well, now we have a new name. Out of the hole that theyre finding themselves in. Right, someone already ready to dive in there. Ward leader dan muroff has announced that hes going to run, and he resides in the very voterrich in terms of turnout mount airy and Chestnut Hill ward, 9th ward. And he has a strong background. And another number to remember is 81 registered democrat. This isnt going republican. But, you know, the other thing that you also have to consider, looking at the statistics that ajay just rattled off we keep hearing about all these different names. Theyre all males. And its interesting when you look at this district, its majority female. Why is it that we have not yet heard of a female name being advanced by the party or anyone else. Could Kathleen Kane get out and get into that district . Youre being quite funny, but there are other women that hey, even our own sharmain matlockturner. Sure. Super bright woman, yeah. There are plenty of female leaders that are in the area, that are in the district. Sure. And this is a fault of both parties, but particularly the Democratic Party here in philadelphia that we are not advancing names and a farm team that includes the majority of the population. Yeah, exactly. Quiet. [ laughter ] no, no, no. Nia, i was just gonna say a lot of the men and women happen to be on chakas team, cause thats the way it seems to work in a lot of philadelphia. But thats not the entirety of the district. Im not saying the entirety. Im saying theres a lot of prominent Public Officials that are part of the chaka team or the Anthony Williams team or what have you philadelphia. But they dont have to necessarily be Public Officials. They can be nonprofit oh, god bless you. Bless you. Sharmain would be a terrific example of somebody. There are plenty of people that are out here. These are great, longterm public servants. We just saw Donna Johnson bullock that just came up and became now a state representative. And she was a young woman. I mean, there are leaders that are out here. We are not cultivating or advancing them. All right, lets talk about the papal visit. Its just about a month away from philadelphia. Secret service has been heavily involved, of course, protecting the pontiff, among all the people, as well, who are gonna be attending millions or around that. And now there are letters going around in newspapers. There are editorials. Theres all kinds of criticism before it even happens, even from the former governor ed rendell that were overdoing it in philadelphia, that were actually ruining the event before it even comes our way. What do you make of it . Is it just the fact that it is so large of an area thats gonna be fenced off, that there is gonna be so little ability to drive buses and trains and cars and get people in and out of there, that people who are elderly a bulk of our population who may want to go would have to walk 4 or 5 miles . There are some legitimate criticisms and other cities didnt do a fencedin area this way that have large poor populations or is it the fact that philadelphia needs to make sure its safe . We dont want to be the city where the pope got hurt, for heavens sakes. First of all, let me just disclose again, as ive done before, were helping out a little bit with the world meeting of families, so in terms of this. I think theres a couple of things. Theres been a lot of misinformation or like, when i saw the middletown township in bucks county declared a state of emergency. Mmhmm. Okay . And then, when you see the head of the new Jersey Department of transportation talking about paralyzing crowds coming in from new jersey, the fact of the matter is, theres 80,000 patco passes. As of a few days ago, they had sold 4,000. That means thats 76,000 passes. So, everybodys got to just chill and calm down. Theres many festivals and things like this that are approximately this size. The area thats the magnetometer area is a relatively small part of it. The other part of it if you have a car, youre gonna be able to drive inside. And its gonna be a really fun, chill event. I mean, and i think youll see more of that over the next few weeks. So, i think the septa crashing, in terms of the ecommerce well, theyd never done ecommerce before, so, you know and there are still septa passes left, after all. But it creates this sense of frenzy, which is unfortunate. And a lot of voices from a lot of different agencies that arent in coordination but i think, over the next month, people are gonna realize its historic. You know, maybe your father and mother took you or your younger older brother one time. Right. You want to be part of it. And you wont have to get to the parkway to have fun with this thing. Yeah, the lack of coordination is the important key here, because its really, nature abhors a vacuum. When you didnt have information right away, people just made up all kinds of things, and it spread. And we are now in that digital age. It only takes 10 seconds put some falsehood out there, and then everyone panics, and it gets crazy. And, oh, i live in fairmount. And whats gonna happen here . And, im pregnant, and i got to get to the hospital. And all of that is unnecessary. Its unfortunate that we did not have a better coordinated message earlier on. Thats not to say it cant be overcome. No, we have six weeks. We have plenty of time to get it done, yeah. It can definitely happen, and it can be a great event. It will be a great event. It will be, yeah. They dont call it popenado for nothing. The only thing i would say is, the secret service, as i understand it, has one mission protect the pope and protect philadelphians. Their job isnt public relations. No, protect the pope is their mission. Yeah, sorry protect the pope. They dont care about us. No. Sure. Well, they care about the city has to protect its citizens. Right. But when you start seeing the more you talk sometimes, the less effective you are. When mayor nutter again, i think hes doing a great job or a good job again, another press conference. And rendell did not criticize him. No, he didnt. Another press conference. Again, another press conference. Right. And then a 1,000word response to will bunch in a news in the daily news, and, you know, it looks like hes its defensive. Right. Mm. All right, lets talk quickly about something a little more somber with the archdiocese. They did settle a sexualabuse lawsuit that was brought by an accuser, and that accuser and the allegations led to the conviction of two catholic priests for abuse and a parish teacher, as well as, for the first time, a Church Administrator being held culpable for alleged coverup of those people who were attacking. So, now theres been a settlement, ajay. Is this the end of that . Well, i dont know if its the end of it. I think that, you know, you may have as long as you have people that youll have sin, so i dont know if thats the end of it, as much as i will say one thing. Pope francis, if you look at his popularity rating, compared to the peak of when john paul ii was pope, theyre probably comparable. Yeah. 8 catholics out of 10 consider have him on the favorably rating not just catholics, but universally beloved. So, i think what pope francis does is lift the image of the catholic church, separate of what is happening. Thats one thing. Second, look i think, with this the pope visit this is a multigenerational opportunity to have a global spotlight shine on philadelphia. And if were ready for the big times, as we claim that we ought to be, then the panic and the conversation really undermines our ability to suggest that were a global city. In new york, if you ever go down there, if theres a puerto rican day parade or an indian day parade or a vietnamese day parade, they also have the same thing where they cordon off areas, and thats just for public safety. People are used to it because thats what it is. You cant complain at the trainer just because you want a sixpack. You just have to do [ laughter ] you just have to do the workout. It goes with the territory. The fact of the matter one of the things two thoughts one is, you know, 50 and 100 years from now, people are gonna be talking about this pope his incredible popularity because of what hes doing and what hes saying. So, i think people will want to be part of that and say they were part of that, no matter even if he was way in the distance. And were blessed to be part of it. Everybody in the world would love to have this happening. Sure. And then, the other part of it is, these recent things that were announced these are issues that occurred a decade ago that are just getting resolved now. And you got to thank this archbishop chaput the first thing he did as he come to town he sold the cardinals mansion, and he lives in the seminary, in a room in the seminary. There you go. And all of this is getting resolved. All right, were gonna leave it at that. Were taking a break. More inside story for you right after this. Stick around. Inside story is presented by temple university. Temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. Plugged into the city, powered by the world. Temple. Edu takecharge. Welcome back to inside story. Governor tom wolf is targetin