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tv   Inside Story  ABC  May 17, 2015 11:30am-12:01pm EDT

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>> i'm monica malpass on "inside story." was the amtrak tragedy in port richmond preventable? would more money from congress have made a difference? let's get the inside story. good morning. i'm monica malpass. welcome to "inside story." let's meet our insiders. today we want to welcome terry madonna with the f&m poll. good morning, sir. christine flowers, attorney and journalist. welcome back. jan ting, law professor from temple. good morning to you. jeff jubelirer, communications executive. >> hi, monica. >> good morning, everyone. let's talk, obviously, about the amtrak tragedy in port richmond. we still don't know so many things, but what we do know is that, apparently, the track was fine, the signals were fine, there was no rush to get to another stop or a station, the train was running on time. the engineer is giving an interview. they will hear many more answers as soon as they know that component. but let's talk about the funding for amtrak, which got cut last
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week -- a bill that was not allowed to go through. it's really john boehner versus chaka fattah, who's from our area, at this point saying -- democrats say we need more because that would've helped with maintenance and training. john boehner saying, "let's don't just pack those ideas all into one bundle," because, in fact, we did not cut safety, we did not cut anything that would've mattered in this case. what's your take on it? >> well, you guys have to throw nancy pelosi in the mix, too because she immediately said -- you know, hinted fairly strongly -- that funding was at issue. look, the funding over amtrak has been going on for 40 years. this isn't new. and there isn't any doubt that we've got lots of bridges that carry lots of people and freight that are badly in need of repair, built in the early 20th century, much less the 21st century. the fact of the matter is that there's a lot more that can be done for safety. the various technological devices have been implemented in other parts of the system but
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just not where the accident occurred. so what we need to do is to re-evaluate the safety procedures on amtrak, on freight lines, as well, and get it right so that this is avoidable. >> and, of course, before the end of the year, as you mentioned, this positive train control device will stop a train from going so fast by the end of 2015, but it wasn't soon enough. >> well, it's taken a long time for that to be implemented. i wish -- i wish terry had been in congress, had been in washington, d.c., on the day that the accident happened -- the night, the evening -- because what he's saying is common sense. he's looking at the facts. and, actually, what's happening -- what upset me was the optics of -- and i'm gonna say this -- mostly democratic, mostly progressive pundits talking about how we need funding, how taking -- politicizing a tragedy when they hadn't even found the eighth victim yet -- there were people that were dying, that were being taken to hospitals.
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and right away, blame was being placed on a partisan basis saying, "well, the g.o.p. has stonewalled this funding, and they're opposed to president obama, and they haven't helped amtrak implement these controls -- the positive train control. >> so whether it turns out that the engineer is or is not to blame, whether it was a technical malfunction, we don't know, and we won't know for months, technically. but it certainly does bear asking -- is throwing money the issue, is trying to fund better bridges and highways always gonna be the issue? what is the real issue that it boils down to, on a bigger scale? >> it's what you do when you have the money. i mean, in this case, what we have learned is, one side of the tracks, going southbound, had a control system in place. the other side, going northbound, unfortunately, did not. and the c.e.o. of amtrak has publicly said he did not know that. that's an embarrassment. >> and they have taken blame. they are taking full responsibility. >> you know, new information is coming out almost hourly about this, but one thing you can generally say is that democrats
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have been much more enthusiastic about spending public money on infrastructure improvements. and republicans have been more reluctant, feeling constrained by sequestration, and that's just a fact. so, we've been saying, before we came on that often a tragedy will spur new spending and concern about infrastructure and i think that's probably gonna happen. we're gonna see the democrats make progress on their desire to spend more money on infrastructure. >> because the public wind will be at their back? >> absolutely. >> but you know what? in 2008, the railroad safety act was passed in reaction to that tragic accident in california, where 25 people were killed. and seven years down the line, that positive train control, those procedures that they were supposed to have implemented they're still not in place. so you trigger this event. you want to have some kind of reaction to this horrible tragedy, but that doesn't
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necessary mean that it's actually going to be placed into effect or implemented. >> the money's important, but it's also accountability. the money and the accountability have to go together for any government program. you can spend as much -- and i think all of us would agree, infrastructure improvements are essential -- they create jobs, it's an important part of the economy. but once the infrastructure is there, accountability for operating it has to be maintained. >> and one of the things is, you have different options. people have to have the wherewithal to come together. even corbett, who was very unpopular, helped pass a gas tax. pennsylvania has the worst bridges in the country. there are things that democrats and republicans have come together in in other states -- something called p3s, which stand for public-private partnerships. government can't just print money, although, in congress, we think they do. they can partner with private businesses, which republicans like, to raise money. so let's look at options. let's do it. who's gonna have the -- excuse me -- the cojones to take it on? >> and we, again, don't know if
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the engineer will be at fault. we just don't know so much. but let's just speak generically, not just about this accident. should amtrak have -- besides training, should they have screening for sleep apnea issues? should they have screening for mental-health issues? should they have some system where they have in place, if one person has the ability to stop or start or speed up that train, or slow it down, and they don't, should there be some system for figuring out, as they do in the military, when someone is having a personal failure or issue? >> there's a long list of things that amtrak could've, should've, ought to have done in hindsight. whether those are all cost-effective remains to be seen. i think there's been a rush to judgment on the engineer, and technical issues remain to be disclosed as to what really happened here. >> sure. >> and i think we all await with great interest the ultimate scientific report on what happened. >> all right, let's move on and talk about the philadelphia mayor's race coming up in just a
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couple of days. it's been an interesting spring, and a lot of big decisions about to be made. a new poll shows that jim kenney appears to have pulled way ahead of the pack. 42% of people support him, according to this philly.com poll. only 15% each for lynne abraham and hardy williams. 14% undecided. and the rest of the pack has single digits. small numbers for the remaining three. what do you make of this particular poll? because other polls show different findings, of course, and some people don't even believe a poll is the right way to go because people really decide -- [ laughter ] i'm not looking at terry when i say that, but other people would say it really matters if you get the vote out, if you have seen a ballot, and who's at the top of the ballot. >> well, i looked at the poll fairly carefully, as you might expect. i was asked to do that. and, you know, it looked reasonably sound to me. i might quibble over how they selected the people to be interviewed a bit. there may be some sense that i would've done it differently. but here's what's sort of stunning for me. by consensus, i think, we would
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all -- i hope my fellow panelists would agree -- that kenney has moved out into a lead. earlier polls that i don't like to talk about -- party-oriented or interest-group polls -- showed that to be the case. what stunned me -- and if it proves to be the case, it will be stunning -- is that it looks like jim kenney could win a plurality of the african-american vote. that would be stunning. >> and does that hinge on the fact that hardy williams stuck his neck out and said he would get rid of police commissioner ramsey? some analysts are saying according to national research founder adam geller, that was a big mistake. don't get rid of the popular guy. >> i think it was a huge mistake, and i think it was knee-jerk reaction to what had happened in baltimore and ferguson. and i think anthony williams was trying to make himself more palatable to a constituency that sees police brutality as a huge problem. but he targeted his -- his target was way off. i mean, chief ramsey has so much
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widespread support -- black, white, latino -- across the board. so to attack him and essentially saying, "i wouldn't keep him on," it had the opposite effect. i don't think it engendered a lot of support in the african-american community, and i believe it diminished support across the board, perhaps, in non-african-american communities who really support commissioner ramsey and what he's doing. >> here's another point, though -- do you think that if jim kenney is, in fact, pulling out -- again, it depends which poll you look at -- is he peaking too early? is the momentum that he's created, which has been interesting -- many people would say stunning, given the field of all these qualified people -- do you think it's too soon? >> i do not. and i also think it's not stunning, and here's why. jim kenney's been elected citywide seven times. city council in philadelphia -- in greater philadelphia -- gets covered as if it's the eagles. anything they do, it seems like there's news coverage on. people relate to jim kenney. he's very -- he's like "one of us," if you will. we can have a beer with him or something.
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i think he's running an amazing campaign. i don't feel that williams has defined himself beyond harrisburg, which is not popular, and of course not defined jim kenney. jim kenney has defined jim kenney. the only thing i'm surprised about this poll is the margin. i don't think it's that far. >> jim kenney has run a great campaign and not least of which has been his rollout of endorsements, gradually, including the last one of the city council president on the eve of the election. i think that has been masterful, and people ought to get credit for that planned rollout, just sort of building momentum as he went along. conversely, the williams campaign has been a big disappointment, i think, to a lot of people. he came on originally as a charter-school advocate. i think a lot of people in the city would've welcome a broad debate on charter schools and their place in educational reform. that's supposedly anthony williams' passion. he should've latched onto that. he would've at least achieved
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some educational goals. he might still have lost, but at least he would've spread the ideas that he says he stands for, and i think it's inexplicable why he didn't go with his strength and find himself in the situation he's in now. >> i think jan's right. and another way to look at it -- i think it muddled his message as i think my colleague across the way would know more about than i do. the other thing, onto ramsey you can't rule out that internal polling showed him not doing well or as well as he would like to in the african-american community. so he comes out with the attack on ramsey, saying, "i'll fire him." >> but it appears like pandering, which is a problem. >> i understand that, but i'm merely pointing out that it could be that his own polling showed him losing increasingly as the weeks went by. >> and it was a rare misstep, i think, in his campaign, as well, because anthony williams comes off as an extremely capable, dedicated, ethical man, and this was just such a glaring misstep in his campaign, and i think it's really hurt him.
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>> and also, last week, sam katz decided not to run for the race. it wouldn't have been for this primary, obviously. but was it unexpected that he wouldn't run? he was on the fence, he said. was it too soon that he announced that he wouldn't run? who did that help or hurt? >> it helped sam katz. sam katz is probably as popular as he's ever been, among republicans, democrats independents. he's certainly been all these parties, as well. but there's a modicum of credibility by announcing before the primary election. so now i think, when he puts out his position papers, whether it be on education, crime, economic development... >> doesn't look like he has an axe to grind. >> doesn't look like, "yeah, well, you know, i didn't run because tony didn't win," or something like that. >> and he's turning into a thacher longstreth elder statesman with his series on philadelphia history, and maybe he doesn't want to be in politics anymore. maybe he wants to have his impact in a different way. >> isn't it nice -- sorry -- that he took a walk with his family or his wife, and it was about what really matters? not to get sappy. i mean, it's true. >> all right, while we're talking election, 23 people running for city council, some of them at-large positions. an interesting field.
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again, 16 democrats. four incumbents are going for five seats. seven republicans, including two incumbents, going for two seats. what do you see? any shakeup in the likely future for that? >> you know, most philadelphia voters can name some of the candidates running for mayor. i doubt that the majority of voters can name even one at-large candidate for city council. >> despite all the money spent despite the tv ads. >> these are important races. council is a really important institution in the city of philadelphia, but it's hard to get attention. i mean, only a couple of candidates are running tv ads. and so -- >> it's extremely important. our past two mayors have come from council. >> yeah, but it's really in the hands of the political organizations. >> do you think those slate cards that get hand out by the consultants and the ward leaders and all the connections, you think that matters at all? >> a little bit, a little bit. >> does it matter more than a half million of tv ads, as one of the candidates has spent a lot of his own money. he's self-made and has done well, obviously. now has some name recognition. you're saying that's not good --
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not enough. >> what terry said. i think it's these -- "who am i gonna vote for? i'm going to vote for mayor. there's 23 people running. should i vote for the incumbents or not?" >> they ask their ward leaders. >> yeah, "and here's the card. go into the booth." but there are some really wonderful candidates running on both sides of the aisle. it's sad. we're giving them more attention in this few minutes than they get overall in the entire campaign. >> and the same situation for pennsylvania supreme court. >> yes! >> we've got people running for three positions. we've had some retirements -- forced retirements, if you will. >> i stop polling in those elections because i ended up with, "oh, 75% of the people don't know anything about the candidates." >> but they're not allowed to talk about the issues. they're not allowed to talk about the sexy stuff. >> the supreme court says they are, but a canon in this state says they can't. >> exactly. >> this campaign is another example of why we should not elect judges. >> they should be appointed? >> as though we don't have enough negative examples already, this is one more example of a bad way to select judges. >> all right, we'll take a break. "inside story" continues right after this. stick around.
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>> "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.
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i'm lynne abraham. when i became philadelphia's da, child victims had to face a judge ...a jury...the public... and testify eye to eye with their attackers. it wasn't right. so i got a constitutional amendment passed allowing children to testify remotely. i'm running for mayor for the same reason -- our children should come first. jim kenney and tony williams are fighting over public schools versus charters. i disagree. we have to improve education for all of our children. >> welcome back to "inside story." a new poll shows pennsylvania governor wolf has a 49% favorability rating.
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that's fairly high. what's interesting to me in the poll is 59% of the people still think the state's going in the wrong direction, and 70% think their taxes are gonna go up. so bad news on two fronts, but they think the guy leading is doing well. what do you make of that, terry? >> i think, by and large, the governor has an agenda on education spending, which is popular with the voters, a shale tax, which is popular with the voters. i mean, it seems consistent. and, by the way, it's actually slightly lower on the state moving in the wrong direction. >> so that got better. >> the numbers were in the 60s for the longest period of time. there's a better sense of optimism, i think, among the voters. and my inside story -- i'll get to that later -- has to do with the way republicans in the legislature are reacting to governor wolf's agenda. >> is it because people think he's a nice guy? i mean, people do want a nice leader. >> yeah. >> likability matters. >> likability matters tremendously, and he's done a good job of that. what is not as popular, i believe, and the polls show it is people think their taxes are gonna be raised. i mean, democrats, republicans rich, poor -- >> across the board. >> almost across the board.
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and republicans, politically are certainly using that. there's a lot of confusion over, "i'm gonna lower your property tax, but i'm gonna raise your income and sales tax." "what does that mean for me?" people think their own taxes are gonna be raised. that is not popular. >> all right, and let us move on across the river. governor chris christie has national interest, many believe. some real looking into his financial spending -- not on the personal account but state money. he does get $360,000 to spend on food and drinks and entertainment costs, which certainly come with the job. he hasn't spent the whole amount, but people are arguing over $82,000 that was spent at some football games in his state. so, he did pay it back. his party said, "maybe we don't want to have that as a tempest in a teapot." do you think that that cleared it up, jan, or is there gonna be more intense scrutiny? >> he did spend most of the money, $80,000, at metlife stadium, which the party had to reimburse to -- >> right. >> at two football games. >> because of the bad political hit. but regardless of that christie's star is falling. i mean, a lot of it started with bridgegate. christie says he's "not responsible."
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>> right. >> i think that could describe his whole attitude towards being governor -- he's not responsible. >> it's not his fault. >> can i piggyback on what jan said? i think that's exactly it. he comes out being this maverick. he's somebody -- "i'm a take-control person, and i don't care what you think. i'm gonna do what i need to do." and then, to do that kind of wimpy thing -- "oh, well, people who are working for me might do things that i don't want them to do," as if he doesn't know what's going on. >> he was asked specifically did he set a feeling in his office or in his administration that maybe led people to do things on his behalf -- >> he said, "i don't think so." >> and he said no. >> at best, he's a poor manager and a poor leader. i mean, that's the best you can say about him. >> plus, he's petulant. >> the only thing i'll say -- at least they were giants games and jets games and not cowboys games. >> well, because does that erase people's view of him sitting and hugging jerry jones down at the dallas cowboys? >> i know it does my partner in crime over here, christine. >> this has nothing to do with football. >> i know. eagles fan. but that being said, no, jan's
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spot on. i mean, bridgegate is the number-one issue, and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy now where he is just not ready for prime time. >> he's nowhere near the top tier. of every national analyst that look at this election for the republican nomination, he is way down. i'm not convinced -- we'll see what you all think. i'm not convinced he's gonna run. >> oh, i'm not, either. his wife made the comment about his enthusiasm dropping. >> i don't think he's gonna run. >> would he have -- had not bridgegate and issues about finances -- >> probably, i think so. >> but there's a certain irony that the people who thought they were doing christie a favor actually did him in. >> right. >> by falling on their sword? >> well, no. >> you know, and the lines of courters that existed back in 2012 are thinned out. i mean, i doubt that he has three or four -- you know, half of the amount of people -- who are urging him to run as he had before. so i think his time has passed. i think it was in 2012. >> let's talk about corporate leadership. the afl-cio, which does represent laborers in or country, did an analysis of c.e.o. salaries and, in one
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instance, found that c.e.o.s around the country are earning 373 times what their lowest-level entry-level workers are making, and the difference is getting bigger. they're getting bonuses, they're getting their pensions and things that do tie in and make a lot of money. this at a time when some of the workers can't even make ends meet because they're doing, as i said, hourly jobs that really don't afford a family. what do you think should happen here? the c.e.o.s can make an argument for they're running companies nationwide. they deserve something. but do they deserve 373 times what their workers are making. >> oy. >> walmart is getting jumped on, in particular. >> well, the c.e.o. of walmart came up from the worker ranks. >> exactly. and he said it's out there for everybody, "go get yours." >> that's -- i always -- consider the source. not that it sounds blatantly partisan, but of course -- and what is making mean? is that pension? is that i.r.a.? is that other forms of income? it's an optics problem tremendously, but in which i think you have to have the
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shareholders. you have to have others pressure the companies in order to probably raise the bottom, not lower the top. >> i'm gonna take a different view. i think it's way disproportionate. i think we have too many people at the bottom end of the economic scale. it's disproportionate. we have the largest number of people out of the workforce, proportionately, in the history of our country. we need to do something to improve middle-class wages. now, i'm not saying the government should do it. >> that's right. >> but you can't -- you can't argue that corporation heads making $60 million and $70 million and $80 million makes sense to me. >> rising inequality is the theme of the 21st century here in america. >> the haves and the have-nots -- that gap is bigger. >> the hollowing out of the middle class, the fact that we have so many people working part-time on hourly wages with no benefits and what can government do about it, even if they want to do about it. one thing that they could do about it is restrict immigration. since 2000 -- >> all right, we have to leave it at that. "inside story" is coming your way right after a break. sorry, jan. >> we're just having fun.
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as teachers, we're on the front lines fighting to give every child the education they deserve. every child in every kind of school. jim kenney is the one we trust to be a mayor for all our kids. jim kenney. he's committed to providing pre-k in philadelphia and he'll work with communities and parents to turn around poor-performing schools. i trust jim kenney. jim kenney. jim kenney. jim kenney. he'll be a mayor for all of philadelphia.
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a part of what standardized tests don't measure, very frankly they don't measure the diligence, the potential passion of a student. so it's really a measure of how adept you are to working out a problem quickly. but what if you're brilliant and it might take you twenty minutes, but you can figure out something if you were just given time to do it and show real brilliance. is that a real measure of ability and intelligence? what you can do in one minute on a problem? get out of here.
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>> "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. >> time for inside stories of the week, and let's start with jan. >> this week saw the curious spectacle of most republicans in the senate supporting president obama's trade deal in the pacific while most democrats opposed it out of fear that it'll cost u.s. jobs and restrain u.s. wages. they should know the same corporate forces behind the trade deal are behind obama's immigration initiatives for the same reason -- more profits, lower wages. >> christine. >> monica, pope francis is not afraid to make waves. his announcement that he's going to visit cuba before he comes to the united states in september was followed by the recognition of the state of palestine. now, this was for religious reasons, for the protection of
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christians in middle eastern lands, but it shows that this pope is not afraid to overstep his temporal bounds and have some influence in the world. >> all right. terry. >> well, wolf's agenda has really pushed republicans in the legislature. imagine this -- the house passes a very ambitious property tax reform bill. the senate passes a pension bill. the senate sends a medical marijuana bill. they're considering mandatory age for judges, moving it from 70 to 75. a lot's going on in harrisburg. we'll see if it materializes. >> mm. all right. and jeff. >> this past week or two tom brady's had to play a lot of defense, but now he's gonna go back on offense, and the patriots organization, too. they have a new website -- wellsreportcontext.com -- where they go on the offensive about how to measure the temperature of a football and all this and all that. they're trying to prove to us -- 'cause goodness knows, unless you're the boston media, you're taking this on that they're not guilty. sure thing, tom. >> you're not buying it. all right, that's "inside story" for this week. thanks to all our insiders for being here. we appreciate it. and thanks so much to you for
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watching. we will have much more for you coming up, of course, a week from now because, after the election for mayor. the primaries coming up this week. hope you'll get out and vote. polls open at 7:00 a.m. i'm monica malpass. have a great week ahead. >> i'm nydia han coming cup next developing at this hour a massive fire guts warehouse in delaware county. a woman is fighting are for her life after flames rip through her trenton home. we have warmer weather on tap and we could see a thunderstorm this afternoon. chris has the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast those stories next on "action
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news."
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>> good afternoon, it is sunday may 17, i'm nydia han eva pilgrim is off. here's some of the stories we're following on "action news." developing this noon, the search for answers is on after warehouse goes up in flames in montgomery county. we're live. the feds order amtrak to make immediate changes after

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