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tv   QA  CSPAN  September 27, 2015 11:00pm-12:01am EDT

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jinping as part of his visit to the u.s. later, portions from the value voter summit in washington, d.c. that featured several republican presidential ♪ announcer: this week on q&a, political reporter tom sherwood. mr. sherwood, who covers politics for washington, did you talks about corruption in washington, d.c., maryland, in virginia. brian: tom sherwood, after 40 years of covering washington, d.c., when you look at, what is the biggest scandal? tom: do not think there is any doubt that the marion barry scandal that captivated people
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and 1990's was it. brian: do you think it is strange and all that they want to change the name of a high school to marion barry in high school and have a statute that says, mirror for life. tom: there is a camp in to get some kind of acknowledgment of im in washington, d.c. marion barry was heralded as a hero for the things he did. he was hated for the bad things. i am not surprised. mary was a big figure. four terms as mayor, for terms on the deep. see perry council. he did do it never things that he ought to be remembered. aian: because there are number of officials from butinia, not virginia maryland, who are in jail, public officials -- we wanted to
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kind of do an update on everything. we have some video of you interviewing someone the audience might remember because was father, ron brown. this is michael brown. he is in prison. where? tom: he is at a small, minimum security prison in alabama. a spectacular falling for michael brown. he had all of the gifts you hisd possibly want from father, ron brown. he was close to clinton, a commerce secretary before he died in a plane crash. michael brown got lots of money toward with law firms. got elected to counsel. he only spent on his father's need. he should have followed one more thing and not taken money, which his father did not do. he was on the council and what brought him down was he offered to help you businessmen get through the maze of contracting -- 2 businessmen
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help to get to the maze of contracting in the city. and here federal agents, took bribes. brian: you were on a radio show here. let's take a clip -- let's watch a clip of his take in jewelry answer. laws need to be tougher, i do not hear anyone calling for more ethics officers. they have a new ethics committee that does not have an office space as far as i know. they have to start working this fall. it seems like ethics is a back burner issue when it should be the engine. is backnot know of it burner, tom. see what you're saying. as we deal with ethics, and campaign finance, and two different issues -- tom: not in the republic's mind. in the publicass
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mind. tom: i have not seen any evidence or charges of folks have been played by a particular campaign person and there was a alcohol. i do not say that. brian: he is to have an of is in this building. a handsome guy, friendly guy. what happened? tom: he was corrupt. he skated through a lot of his life, and again, because of his father's reputation. he had doors open for him dead in christ to have of what them. he took it. the republic doesn't well, fancy cars, acting up, having a good time as a public official. something went off in his brain or he did not have it to begin with. because, you know, when you say the cliche, money is the milk of politics. the mothers milk of politics, it is a cliche but it is true. he fell right in it, leapt up
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money, it was ridiculous. brian: had to get the money? was in cash? tom: i can't remember the exact amount. it was in a washington redskins can or something like that. he got the money. look at the delight on his face, even a. i mean, as a citizen of the city that gets maligned as a nation as a corrupt little town, without providing -- voting rights and all that, it annoys the hell out of me that this person wasted his life. he is smart. he had access. he could have done a lot for the city, instead he chose to do for himself. brian: recently, the former mayor died. we have some video from 2015, a short time ago, where it is from nbc baltimore. martin mindel went to prison,
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but it was commuted. i will ask about him in a minute. [video clip] theelped him get a seat in house of delegates, he became speaker 1963 when governor spiro agnew resigned in 1969 to become richard nixon's vice president. he was appointed to serve the rest of agnew's term. in placept mandell rangers, but there was a 1970 five indictment of mail fraud and racketeering. >> i think the future will show administration nothing was ever done to defraud the public or the state of maryland. reporter: federal prosecutors say mandell received money and exchange for pushing through legislation that would benefit the old owners of the
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marlborough racetrack. can you say about him? tom: fabulous politician, but it is kind of like marion barry, i don't mean in any way to compare the two, but mandell wrote his , called the accidental politician, where things are like he just happened to be indicted. he did a lot of things. he was a classic politician, where he knew, he understood people, in t new what he wanted to do. paidange the way the state for education building throughout the state. a hodgepodge of things. which places got money, other places did not. he change things so had a clear understanding. a state government with over 200 50 agencies, again, a
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morass of agencies, very little organization structure. he changed it to 12 department heads. a cabinet that would report to the government about what was happening in the state. he did things that made the state become much more modernized. it was backwater, the way it was run. did all that, it was great. he did go to prison because he got caught up in the race track in prince george's county, a suburb of washington. it needed more racing days. racetrackof days a could have was dependent on how many days the state said you cannot. the marlborough racetrack was going bankrupt. one of mandell's friends, i don't know how much you to do with it, got a bill killed in the legislature that would allow them to have more racing days. one of the same friends went and and thene racing track got permission for more racing
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days, so they made a fortune. they could sell it for a lot more money. that is what the prosecutors one out for mandell four. he helped that and in the process he got money. i am not a lawyer, so i'm not going to get into issues of why it was overturned, but he did spend months in prison. there is another case in new jersey or somewhere else, where the prosecutors had to reach too far to say he had done something corrupt. brian: it got to the supreme court, went to the appeals court , very commuting. tom: reagan commuted his sentence. brian: he still is a hero based on the coverage we are seeing in maryland. why would that be? tom: paper look at politicians, particularly sometimes they have a rosy idea. someone like trump today. i'm going to do this, i can be bought, on the stuff. but politicians have to do a lot of compromising to get things
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done. asyou get things done, just barry did, just as bob mcdonnell, the governor of virginia, got done things in virginia. when you're exposed to crime and corruption in things like that, the people who benefited from you being government -- governor or mayor, tend to give you slack. mandell was a remarkable politician. like the clinton. when you go meet marvin mandel, you are his friend for life for that moment you are talking to him. same thing with clinton, same thing with marion barry. the fact that he did something slate doesn't wipe the clean. brian: can you remember spiro agnew? tom: i did not read -- covert national politics, but i don't remember why he was picked for the vice president's candidate. he cheated money for groceries, he got all kinds of things. small potato corruption. this is what gets me.
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i was telling someone before we came on, small potato corruption. michael brown, the councilman we talked about a moment ago. a few thousand dollars he there. as income was $130,000 is councilmember. ios tell politicians, look, if you're going to cheat make sure you make a lot of money and had it before we cheat you. your force if you go to jail for just a little bit of money. brian: in sporadic news case, he took cash money when he was president. tom: there was an entitlement thing where he thought he could just take it and no one would be watching. brian: what you think about the fact he pled no contest, went on to make millions. public was out of office. like ron mentioned, who was the investigator of the former mayor, he said, even in holder
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-- it even eric holder, the attorney general at the time, wrote a letter from the u.s. , if the people who represent us are corrupt, we have to get them out of office. , and they leave. he left office. he made a successful life afterwards, but he was shamed and ridiculed the rest of his time. brian: you are at channel four here in town. what are your job -- what is your job? tom: mainly politics. the way the federal government treats the city. is theion's capital it most un-american city in america , for the people who call it home, they do not have a vote in congress. we have a delicate voting committee, but not in the house floor. we do not have any representation in the senate.
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the constitution says congress shall have full legislative authority over the district. it is a remarkable place. i cover the interactions. orn bill clinton, in 1992 1993, said on georgia avenue, one of the rundown streets and said we're going to make the street come back, and 20 years later nothing it happen. brian: we have an interview that you did. ronald nation? tom: he was the -- he left on his own accord in april of this year, 2015. he was a very aggressive prosecutor on public corruption issues. he was a successful lawyer before this. he is now a successful private lawyer. but he led the investigation
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into the allegations of corruption of mayor vincent gray. in 2010, when mayor gray breanne and defeated his opponent, within a few months there were allegations that money had been spent and not accounted for to lack it. that unfolded and fbi investigation that has lasted over five years. brian: why did he step down? tom: he was the longest-serving district attorney in the district for like a 38-40 year time. one of the largest u.s. attorney's offices in the country. it has over 300 something lawyers. unlike anywhere else in the -- in america, the u.s. attorneys office prosecutes all of the major crimes in the district of columbia that you would think eight offices did and other places. anything above a misdemeanor was prosecuted there. hundreds of them.
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after five years, it is a grueling thing. without he step down concluding the case against mayor gray. he said, look, i have done this for five years. it is a demanding job. a lot of people think he did it well except for the mayor gray thing, which is controversial. he is a family, he has a wife. he was ready to move back into the private sector. it is a tough job. with: you did something him called all politics is local. where's that? on capitol place hill called the hill center. every couple months, we invite a person to come in who is in some kind of public office to talk about themselves more than in what they do for work. where they come from, where they go to school, their family life. on, i asked him
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things like, you played football. i think it was seattle or stanford maybe. i said, do you let your son's play football, given the controversy and concussion issues? we give a chance to see people in public, to see their personality and who they are. that is what that program does. brian: that was back in september of 2013, he was still in office. tom: at yes. i am not sure what clip you're going to show. brian: we will watch. [video clip] down the laundry list of our cases, you will see the five aces operation. the largest federal contracting and big rigging scheme in our nations history. crimes involving a officials with the u.s. army corps of engineers. three councilman who have been
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convicted of felonies. chief of staff to another councilman who has been convicted. two congressmen that have been convicted. crushedhere in d.c., so -- so corruption is the name of the game. tom: bread and butter. over 100 25ad public corruption convictions in the last 3.5 years, it is critical and it is a priority because you have to have the leadership. when you do not have people who believe in the system of government, who believe officials on the take, it tears the fabric of our democracy. it really does. big blue's trust in the system. -- april lose trust in the system. people lose trust in the system.
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say, i do have more than one tie. they prosecute all manner of corruption, there is something like 200,000 federal workers in the metropolitan washington area. cases.re fraud they do a lot of fraud cases and people go against the government. so, when you hear 10012i-5 cases, it is not necessarily district of columbia citizens. we have had a two-long list of corruption in the city, but a lot of that is federal. who wast vincent gray, the merit of this town but who was defeated in the primary, anrybody kept waiting for indictment that never came. tom: as we center, it has still not come. he left office on april 1, people thought, well this will the time for vinny: common
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acting u.s. attorney, we all --ught, maybe vincent: well cohen will step forward. at that has not happened. i checked just within 24 hours. they tell me again and again, the investigation is continuing. it was a complex scheme where 600 $50,000 was spent in 2010 to to buyple to the polls campaign material, to do all kinds of things. none of the money was reported. the person who controlled the money, jeffrey thompson, pled guilty to creating the scheme and said vincent gray about a. people said, will of the guy who ran the scheme says been screened about it, why has it's great not been indicted? courtthompson's word and
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may not be very good. to my knowledge is a reporter, they have been going through a whole series of people. at least six people of pled guilty in the scandal. including jeffrey thompson. the people who handle the money. but do they have enough to mail the mayor? -- last yearported it was reported he turned it plea bargaineanor where he would have to admit he this deal. brian: wears jeffrey thompson? tom: he is still palling around, going down to the caribbean islands. he used to have an accounting firm, he got out of that. he is a well-to-do man living life as if there is no trouble in the world. we have a picture of him buying shoes at nordstrom. he has to get permission from prosecutors of egos out of town
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but he goes to the caribbean and other places. ryan: any prison? tom: that is one of the things that has people angry. he pled guilty in court in march of 2014. the money.ated he provided the money and orchestrated the money. he will maybe face six months in prison. whoe are several people pled guilty but who is not served anytime because they are waiting for the last shoe. what amounts to a centipede, to drop. whether or not mayor gray is going to be charged. we do not know about is going to happen. i talked to defense attorneys, people familiar with prosecutors, and everyone who is involved still thinks there is going to be some kind of legal action against vincent gray. brian: back in july of 2015, reported that a big piece on jeffrey thompson.
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let us let her explain him a little bit more for a minute. [video clip] beenffrey e. thompson has in the news. he is at the center of a local investigation but no one knew who he was until i sent out -- i told my editor i wanted to write a definitive article about jeffrey thompson. he was at the center of d.c. politics and some folks say he is at the center of d.c. politics basically falling apart . for years, behind the scenes, he had been giving two candidates. he had several huge contracts with the city. one worth $322 million a year. no one really knew who he was inil things came to light 2011 over problems with current mayor vincent gray's campaign for mayor in 2010.
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tom: she is a terrific reporter and is probably would not have happened without her reporting. she now works for the new york times covering deblasio among other things. there,e just said jeffrey thompson was not popularly known in the public mind. known ins very well the business community. extremely well known. the a short note, back in 1990's, 1995 when the district of columbia was nearly bankrupt when marion barry was mayor, the congress and the president put together a control board to control the city finances. mayor, marionhe barry then, the authority to appoint a cfo. and marion barry, out of the blue, cfo anthony williams who had been working at the agriculture department as cfo. we found, much later,
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out the person who recommended to marion barry to hire anthony williams was jeffrey thompson. brian: thompson? tom: he was well-known in the african-american business community. 300 50,000 for indigent medical services. brian: diseased of the business? tom: no. but the accounting firm and that business. i have not seen his books, but he seems to be wealthy based on the way he travels around. he even had a business agreement with eric holder. this surprised me. version in the updated of our book, dream city. when the washington nationals were still the montreal expos, and they said the team could be to washington, summit had to buy the team. there were about four or five bidders. one of the bidders was a group of businessmen that included
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jeffrey thompson and eric holder. so i asked air colder, at the time the attorney general the united states, did you have any other businesses with jeffrey thompson you could tell us? it to them two weeks, but they old me "no." brian: i want to put up a map so people can get an understanding of what this looks like. between baltimore and northern virginia there about 9.5 minute people. tom: there are 6 million people in the washington, d.c., area itself. up to the side of district of columbia is a county called prince george's county, maryland. what can you tell us about jack jackson who was the former ?xecutive of the county tom: jack johnson -- a lot of --he built himself
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up, he ran and become the county executive. he got caught up, there were about four or five people, we say, how long did the investigation go on? federal investigators were looking at prince george's county politics for more than five years. jack johnson was taking money and kick backs from contracts. a horrible explosion before he got indicted. the fda raided his house. usually embarrassing. his wife was at home. the feds came to the door. she called jack johnson, he was telling her to hide something like $78,000 in her bra so the fbi people would not see it. dollars check,000 down the commode so they would not see it. was caught on audiotapes. apparently they had bugged his home. it was a humiliating fall.
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known for had been many years as a rapidly changing to african-american community. the police were considered for decades as abusers of african. it is much different now. the jack johnson was part of the growth of the african american leadership in prince george's. once again, he just fell to the money. he took the money. brian: his wife is out of prison after serving 10 months. he was still in and he is prisoner five 277 -- zero 37 in north carolina. here's a video of one of the sting operations where he is taking money from an fbi agent. [video clip] >> [indiscernible] >> thank you, thank you.
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i am going to try to get you a [indiscernible] -- the profiteers always want to try to, especially the [indiscernible] if one of the prosecutors, you know, is able to bring somebody like -- is unable to bring somebody like -- is able to bring something like me down, they bragged their whole career chuckling] brian: what do you think? tom: i do not like to use the word arrogance, but that is what it is. i am above all of this. i can take money and laugh about being indicted by the prosecutors. brian: whatbout -- about the minorities?
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they don't want to bring a minority down? tom: there is no credible information debt to african americans were singled out by prosecutors and the district of columbia cases. african-american prosecutors, there was a mix in prince george's county. i just tell people, when you think about all of what we're talking about in this immediate washington area in virginia and maryland, he have to remember four out of seven governors in illinois have gone or are in prison. mayor of new orleans when katrina happened. turns out, he was convicted after he leaves office, he was indicted. he is serving a tenure prison center. kilpatrick in detroit. mayor.anta and out in california, since
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1976 eyes are some statistics, from 1976-2010, there is 13,000 300ike politicians. a similar number in the state of new york. public corruption is there. that is where the money and the power is. there is always going to be people who try to steal it. who try to co-opt things. that is why we have to better ethics laws. a series done by the university of illinois, i think. about the 50 states and how they rank in terms of ethics. even now, in 2012 or 2013, like or an fem got a d- rating. it,media gets a hold of call for reforms are done, and we repeat the cycle over and over. brian: jack johnson does not get
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out of prison until 2018, which goes back to marion barry. marion barry was sent to prison for six months on a misdemeanor. check johnson was sent on a felony. but he got a lot of time comparatively. should marion barry have been sent to prison for a missed demeanor of smoking coke? will tell of people you know. he initially faced 14 charges of corruption and drug abuse and other things. , thenk 12 of the charges jury was hung on them. one was "not guilty." caught where he was smoking crack, people felt like he was on trial. then he was convicted on a different case of having another woman. not the woman at the vista hotel. so, it judge thomas -- jackson, who just radiated irritation and
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contempt for barry, gave him the full six months. this solidified, in the african american mind, and among other people in the city, that barry was mistreated. he had a corruption problem they said. go in we have several to this area. by the way, prince george's county has one million people in it. 900,000. moore went to prison. he was the governor of west virginia. as west virginia right now. did you follow that case? tom: at no. it is unnerving sometimes. i worked for the nbc station in washington, the people who run the station tell us, you know, we have yours in west virginia. job,i am doing my heart -- it is hard for me to think, what
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do the people and less rigid thing? -- i used to say, put me in some kind of jurisdiction any jurisdiction for six month, and i will find corruption. he pleaded guilty to five felonies. tom: right. and all the things in west virginia, i don't know it all now, but successful politicians do things. maybe that is where they get this they can shield of armor where they think they can do the wrong thing. that is where we need ethics laws, application of the laws in every state. the washington post, district of columbia, recently wrote a letter praising for the ethics right now. you can ask them questions, they
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will investigate, they can find people. it has put a damper on the unethical behavior in the city. his daughter, shelley moore capito has never been accused of anything. she has just been elected to the united states senate. tom: a good example of somebody being a child of a successful politician, unlike ryan brought of aan brown, child politician. when harry was elected to replace his father, i said to him, now here he, you know you are are going to be offered a lot of money. people are just going to handed to you, but you are going to be offered subtle way to move things around. be very careful. yeah, i am going to.
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but it turns out, he had already started the paperwork to start corrupting some contracts for youth athletics even before he took office. brian: $300,000? summer youthor programs. baseball, sports. one of the problems in urban areas, and a lot of children whose parents work have nothing to do. you have to have afterschool programs and things like that. i told him after he got convicted and played guilty, you know, if i had one of the about i would hit you with it. brian: what did he say? tom: he had that hangdog look, like addition of done it. then he went off to prison. same prison michael brown is that now. he prison in alabama. no security. brian: if i understand right, harry thomas got a 30 eight-month sentence. tom: with good behavior, he got
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out early. he spent time in a baltimore halfway house. last march, he was out. brian: the other one we talked was chairman who of the edc council, did not go to prison. tom: at no, but he resigned from office. one of the personal goals of a --secutor for a public or public official, is to get him out of office. we have had three sons. one's father, marshall brown, was a very active political leader in the city. he got out the vote for marion barry principally, but he was a well-known, well-liked person in the city. that andenefited from ended up an ethically cheating on his mortgage. had to resign. michael brown, who we already
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mentioned, was the son of ron brown. he humiliated himself and harry thomas. three council members. all three. they should've been the city leaders, even now had the attention to the job instead of the money they could make on the side. brian: any accusations about the current mayor? tom: none. muriel bowser, who said, we have to have a green -- clean government. its budget is $13 billion a year. like other cities, we have had a economics explosion in growth. 100,000 new people in town. a lot money sloshing around in the city. she said at herself, we have to be very careful how we do all these contracts. do what other to
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people have done. brian: did you follow the mayor of baltimore, sheila dixon? she had to step down because she was taking these gift cards that were supposed to go to people in poverty. she has already announced you is going to run again. tom: i wish we could just say, you have the robe of goodness or the robe of corruption on. often it is a mix of things. again, going back to barry. why do people put up with this guy who is abusing drugs, hanging out with women. this is a person who brought a fire station to southeast washington when there was not one. invited senior citizen homes for people for the first time to be fed and taking care of in senior citizen homes. taking care about of people in the don of life and the twilight of life. he has done all those things, so
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these people have constituencies. it is not just they pass out money and contracts. they are seen as people who try to do well and then they get krupp. that is what does a most crazy as a political reporter. they don't need to do that. brian: the last time i saw you was 21 years ago. you are you are 21 years ago talking about marion barry. people --p] tom: marion barry used upon you and in a crowd and say that is tom over there, i made him. and i would point back to him and say, yes you did! you forid very talk to the book? tom: not officially, but we talked for a decade. in it foring, what is me. the fact of it is, we know all the bad stuff, we want to know the good stuff. turns out we did not know the
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bad stuff. even now, he does not dispute the book. he just says that i am a better reporter then i am a writer. i do not know what that means. he dismisses it. he says, this happened in the past. i am the new marion barry. i'd knowledge might problems with women, with drugs, with taking my hand off the door for the government. i am moving on. he does not want to address the book. i wish you talk to us, it would've been a better book. brian: how many different times was he elected? fourhe was elected mayor times. three times in a row. 1978, 1980 2, 1980 six. then he was elected in 19 94. brian: how many times was he elected to the council? tom: in his political career, he was elected to the council at-large and the council twice.
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i'm sorry, once. then, after he was mayor, he was elected to the council from ward eight, of course the heaviest african-american ward in the city. i think he was elected there are three times. brian: at his memorial, newt gingrich spoke. a local television -- about somebodynk in this business speaking at a memorial? in the business of journalism? memorialse spoken at for people. none elected, but publicly well-known. think, marion barry is what i wanted someone from the media to kind of knowledge the impact of barry in the city. coveringn has been cities since the 1970's.
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people call me the dean of washington, actually, he was working a couple months before me. i have mixed emotions. i get invited to speak at 11 things that are political and i have to turn them down. bruce does also. posters the integrations on january 2 at high noon, we have a big city inaugural. this is often called on to be the master of the ceremonies for that. some people think that is not good. too chummy with the people you are covering. seen evidenceer that proves has done anything improper because of it. brian: throughout marion barry's life in this town, after he went to prison for six months, he did come back and constantly had problems with the law, but never really suffered from it. tom: he would have little fender banners and all this. what of my favorite stories, he had some thunder bender where the baseball stadium was.
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it wasn't area. he was was some dancing girl, here been to some are called place 55. during the day, the afternoon the next day, i went over to the neighborhood to see this club because i've not been there. so i was there, and it was open. i did not know was open in the middle the day, but i went in and said i am a reporter for nbc4, is as marion barry's place question mark and they said, yet, there's a seat right over there. this is like when he was years-old. so i went back to the office and called him up and i said, mr. mayor, i've just been to club 55, no you realize people are watching what you do? would you go? they said you were sitting now the time watching the naked dancing girls. there was a pause on the phone and he said, it is nice, isn't
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it? he paid his taxes. the dispute about this. he did not file his taxes. as a government employee, money was taken out of his paycheck to pay part of his taxes in t did not file to see whether he owed more about a refund like we all do. you have taxes taken out of your paycheck. so a lot of his money was taken out, but he never filed taxes, 12, 15 years. a dozen years. so when they went over his money, he owed taxes. it was a misdemeanor, i believe. not a felony. people thought, if you don't pay your taxes it is a felony. well, no it is not. he paid taxes. he just did not file. a clip of marion barry late in his life speaking. >> washington, d.c., has foreign embassies. cabinets are here. international press is here.
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national press is here. which means there are more eyes on me then any other person in america. in america. and, i have survived that. i have overcome that. i am not letting that get me down. i went to think the people in washington, d.c., who are bright and beautiful for having the sense and understanding to cut through all of the bs. [cheering] also, there is major press here. we have a few barry haters. probably about half a dozen. some are here tonight. -- what the barry haters do, they cannot find anything good. everybody's good at something, are they? tom: he was a master. makes me think of donald trump in the summer and fall campaign we are in now.
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i'm good. all the haters don't like me. that was a good fix on very late in his life. -- on barry late in his life. he was good at it. hisou know of his crime, of being arrested and the contracting scandals and all of that in his term of office, that is a foolish old man talking about his life. he was just giving his point of view about how he did, in fact, survive a great deal. aat there is a con -- a woman,mber here, barry was talking about the slings and arrows of public life, how much it suffered, he said, i have suffered one thousand wounds. to which shirley jarvis leaned over and said, all self-inflicted. barry,marion christopher son. his father represented the council. what happened?
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tom: marion christopher barry, he lost. badly. was the headline. grow had wanted his son to earlycome, it even in his 30's, to become the next councilmen. to carry on the barry legacy. christopher always went by christopher. when he ran for office, he .hanged his name to marion c barry. town.is is a small 11 international community here, you have the federal community here, with congress and white house and all this. and then there's a little, southern town called the district of columbia. in the little neighborhoods like district eight, you cannot just bogota your way in and say, i am going to run for this or that.
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patricia roberts harris, the famoushousing secretary, in the nation, tried to run for mayor. and barry said, i am going to kick her as. and he did. christopher barry lived in ward local but he had no following. yet a small painting company. he would show up at his father's thanksgiving and christmas turkey giveaways in the ward. but he could not stand on his own two feet. christopher has had all kinds of problems, that he is not in prison. clear, he has had some drug possession problems and the most recent things, just before he was running, as he was about to run for the road eight seed, he went on to a local bank to get some money to pay his mortgage, he said and the person behind the shield, the security
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shield, said i cannot view that much money you do not have that money. christopher barry got furious and threw a chair up over the plexiglas and i do not think it hit the woman, but he was charged with assault. that case, to my knowledge, is not yet earnest. brian: at the funeral for marion barry, for those around town they get self-righteous about the things marion barry did wrong, louis farrakhan had this to say. [video clip] louis farrakhan: i was here in washington when my brother went .hrough his great trial and the reporter from one of the washington newspapers came to me , but before she asked her question, she was building me up as some moral , somebody who was married
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and had a good life and did not use drugs. do you think, she said, of a man who broke his marital and -- used drugs i said, who are you talking about? john fitzgerald kennedy? [applause] is in his hunting outfit or whatever he was wearing. brian: he also put jesse jackson, junior, in prison. he is out now, but his wife is in order due to government. tom: met with out of illinois. next to herse here to where walter washington,
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first mayor of the city lived. that was a case i did not follow because it was out of illinois. and once again, illinois is in trouble. i do not want to talk about what jesse jackson's son did. he took some money. he did not report it. -- tom: we do not want to blame the district of columbia for jesse jackson's problems. brian: finally, this man is not in prison, he has been sentenced and his wife for one year and one day. a man named bob ronald. before asking about this, here are two reporters from the washington post that spent a lot of time on this case reporting on the conviction of the former governor of virginia, bob mcdonald. [video clip] >> bob mcdonnell
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has earned the dubious recognition of the first being accused of a crime. a man who ran a dietary supplement company, johnny williams, gave him about $77,000 in luxury occasions, sweetheart loan deals. withey are charged conspiracy, meaning they have to assist -- conspired together. defense is saying that their marriage is broken, they were hardly talking, they could out of conspired together. >> the governor and first lady purposely did not interact. they were showing with their body language that their marriage was on the rock. >> and further that murray mcdonnell had a crush on johnny williams, senior, and maybe that rather than a lust for money is why she was soliciting things from him. brian: those two reporters were and matt's appetite is
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gay. tom: rosalyn's who got the story going. there were several others from the washington post who got the story happening. a quick federal investigation, an indictment, a conviction. brian: 170 $7,000 is the total amount we know of. there is a picture with got of the former governor bob mcdonnell in his ferrari. johnny williams ferrari. did you cover this? tom: i only covenant to the radio station, talking about it and calling. channelt handle it for four. our northern virginia reporter covenant. but i talked a great deal about it on the radio show each friday. talk now, you're wanting to see if this up in court is going to be a final savior for bob mcdonnell. he was convicted in the trial.
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he appealed. the appeals court turned him down. he appealed to the federal appeals court, 15 judges, to reconsider his conviction. and said no. now he is gone to the supreme court. he got one worth of good news recently when the supreme court -- the chief judge, john roberts, said, you can stay at a prison until we decide if we're going to take her case or not. if the supreme court does not take the case, bob mcdonnell will go to prison for two years. but if the supreme court takes the case, i do not think he will be going to prison until the supreme court decides. brian: his wife's appearance in october. tom: right. she finds out if her appeal is going to be accepted or not. the mosthas some of lax ethics laws in the country. amount togive any
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anyone who is running for office. mcdonnell said, already did was referred this businessman who wanted to do a business and virginia, saying if he needed help. he said he never did run over thing. never passed any legislation. didn't do anything except with a good politician does, refer people. 44 attorneys general from around the country signed the letter saying they agreed with governor mcdonnell, that what he did was politics not bribery and that she should have reported the gifts, that might be a problem. he did not report the gifts. $15,000 for a child's wedding. $70,000 loan. the problem was, bob mcdonnell possibleconsidered a vice presidential candidate. he was in over his head when he
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got into the governor's office. he owned to be chums. investments. could not afford to pay the mortgages. his wife somewhat in paris slave running the governor's mansion, was out looking for money to pay their bills. next up credit cards and all kinds of other things. this is another case where you are a public figure and you let your messy private life combine together. the mayoralked about of baltimore having to step down. we have talked about the former governor of west virginia going to prison, arch moore. the former governor of maryland, going to prison. the studio and new having to the vice president. the current governor of virginia . the three council members and the addition of crimea. jack johnson, executive director of prince george's county in prison at the moment. and the former mayor of washington, d.c., vince gray.
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what do you think after five years of investigation? will he ever be indicted and should he be? tom: as a reporter, i should not say what i think about him being indicted. what i will say about mayor gray, and i have been a couple opportunities. i mentioned one. that was the time for the investigators and justice department to say we have looked for five years into mayor vincent gray, we cannot nail him to the corrupt acts we know occurred. therefore, we'll let the case go. they did not let that go. that was a perfect window of opportunity they did not take. defense attorneys, people familiar with the case, the prosecutors, they still believe they have a case where vince gray is going to have technology, maybe he did not started, but he knew of this shadow campaign and did not do anything to stop it. brian: what -- one less question, what kind of grade would you give to our democracy
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in this area over the last 30 years? tom: you may not like my grade, area.think it is in the b not nearly as good to earn and eight. along have had some f's the way. the milkorruption is of the entire country. that is why we need ethics, better enforcement of ethics laws. more disclosure. everything a public person does on to be disclosed if it has anything to do with his or her business. hillary clinton is in trouble for e-mail, her privates over a number of that. a whole different, complicated issue. when you have great power and great wealth that is a great opportunity that someone will take advantage of it. that is human nature. that is really covers reporters. ryan: tom sherwood has been in washington for many years.
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we thank you very much for : tom sherwoodan has been in washington for many years. we thank you very much for joining us. tom: thank you. ♪ free transcripts, rentokil initial comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. also -- q&apts are programs are also available as podcasts. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> our history series has to have relevance. when we thought about what we should do to give relevance, a show made sense.
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>> it is the third branch of government. impact.undamental >> inside this elegant building is a courtroom where >> incredibly interesting cases and the court's history. we have heard about roe versus wade, roberts versus board of education, but for so many people they are names. we want to talk about not only the legal sides but the people involved. passionatelylt so that their rights were being abridged that they brought them to the court. >> i think what people will find most fascinating are the personal stories. one of my personal favorites is matt versus ohio. i think when people hear of his personal story of this woman in this

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