>> a drastic change in the american political landscape on "inside story" right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. i'm matt o'donnell. it is sunday, may 8th. it is mother's day, so, first and foremost, happy mother's day to all of you watching out there. let's get into "inside story" and introduce our panelists here. we have nia meeks, communications executive. >> good morning. >> good morning, nia. >> sam katz, documentarian. >> matt. >> always making new documentaries. thank you, sam. donna gentile o'donnell. hello. >> good morning. >> nonprofit executive. and finally val digiorgio, g.o.p. state official. >> good morning. >> hello, val. >> good morning, matt. >> so, if you asked anyone at the beginning of last year around this time who are the front runners in the presidential race for 2016, people would have said jeb bush and hillary clinton. one of them is not even in it anymore, and the other is still trying to shake her opponent.

donald trump became the presumptive g.o.p. nominee after ted cruz and john kasich dropped out this week. most political pundits didn't think trump would make it past iowa, and many even said they believed his candidacy was to promote his vast business interests and celebrity and not to actually win. it is all but certain that trump's name will be listed on the ballot you will see when you go to vote for our nation's next president on november 8th of this year. trump has run the most unconventional political campaign we have seen in recent american political times. sam katz, should he be admired, admonished, or both? >> vilified, i would say, in the manner in which he has conducted himself in the campaign, the extent to which he has taken shots at people who he now needs to be for him -- not shots that would be traditional to political discourse, but vicious personal attacks on people, whether it was jeb bush, marco rubio -- "little marco," "lyin' ted" -- and now all these people are supposed to come back and be for

him because that was just conversation, just politics. and what that demonstrates, in my mind, is that trump is a great person at promoting the trump brand, but a lousy politician. he actually did a great job to win 45% of the vote until the field got narrow, but now he has to consolidate a party that this week the speaker of the house, who is probably the intellectual leader of the republican party, is already taking a step back and providing cover for other people, and i think this is going to be a very seriously damaging experience for that trump brand, which was the original reason for trump's candidacy. >> it's also really interesting. so many people who said they were supporters of trump said so because they were tired of the hypocrisy in politics, and you just wonder with the cognitive dissonance here that you say you don't like hypocrites, but you're supporting trump. you're supporting someone who has presented so much vile bile to the political discourse, to the public discourse in so

many ways and not enough policy, not enough discussion really about where we're trying to go as a nation, and so, regardless of what you say about politics, whether it's conservative or liberal, overall, we have lost decency for this country in this political process, and i can't see anyone saying that's a wonderful thing, but it really taps into not just anger, but this, i would have to say, a complete ignorance of what the political process is supposed to be about, and it's really a reflection of the educational process in the united states and a reflection of the media culture that we're in. anytime more people were turning out to vote for "american idol" than they were for their local representatives, this is just a continuation and a reflection of all of that. >> val, what do republicans in the suburbs think about this? >> well, it depends on who you ask. i mean, i have just as many people saying they're going to leave the party if trump's nominated that say if trump's not nominated, we're leaving the party. i get angry e-mails every day on both sides. the irony here is -- and nia kind of hit on his. as county chairman over

the last several years, my biggest challenge has been to convince the base that our incumbents, our elected officials are out there doing the job they want them to do, and the base has always complained that our folks aren't conservative enough. they don't stick to our principles enough. now we have -- are in the process of nominating a man who's not a conservative. he's a populist, and he's looking to change the face of the republican party, and a lot of those same people in the base who've been complaining about our elected officials for not being conservative enough are with them, and, ironically, the establishment, so to speak, embodied this week by the comment by speaker ryan, is saying the man we're nominating is not a conservative. he is not conservative enough. so you have sort of the flip side of what's been going on where the base is saying they want donald trump, where in the past, they've always said we want a more conservative candidate, and it's hard to reconcile. i think trump is going to have some fence-mending to do with folks like me, who have worked for the conservative cause, to show that he really wants to cut the size of government and to cut taxes, and is not just going to be a populist and do "the art of the deal" in washington, and that's been

a big irony. the one comment this year that struck me the most was a tea party person i know who angrily called me because he thought we were trying to stop trump, folks like me were trying to stop trump, and i said, "the guy's not a conservative. he doesn't believe what i believe, and i don't think he can win," i said at the time. i'm not sure if that's the case anymore, and his response was very angry. he almost yelled at me, "it doesn't matter. he might be a mistake, but he's gonna be our mistake," and that's what i'm getting a lot. >> will you support him, by the way, val? >> look, i'm a company man. if that's what the republican voters want, i'm gonna get behind donald trump. i'm gonna look to protect my incumbents in chester county, state reps, pat toomey. i'm gonna work hard for pat. but, yeah, i'm gonna go where my party voters go. >> we'll talk about that in a little bit. donna. >> that is probably the most important comment on the subject of the anger that you experienced in that call, val, because i think if you go back and you trace the anger, the anger, as evidenced in this book that was highlighted on the front page of the new york times, and it's sort of old liberal, you know,

kind of look back on where it all began, and it goes back to the '60s and disenfranchisement of big chunks of the democratic party, which then morphed into the republican party as reagan democrats, and there were expectations associated with that, and those expectations were not met. so those folks got left behind first by the democrats, then by the republicans, and now having no place to go, which i think is why they vote for "american idol." they feel more connected to the cultural phenomena than they do to their own government. so they're basically saying, "you left me behind, you left me behind, and i'm going with this guy 'cause i'm annoyed with all of you. so i'm done with you." that's what i think we're seeing, and that's what's so deeply troubling because they're not following the implications of what that is gonna mean for the country. a very prominent democrat that i know very recently said to me, "you know, wle we take delight in the fact that the republican party is collapsing, you have to say to yourself, 'what does this mean for the country?'"

and when george will writes an op-ed in which he says, "our job is to keep donald trump from being president and make sure that hillary clinton is a one-term president," this is a watershed moment in american politics. >> val, you touched on this how it may be big trouble for some local republican candidates, and they've been talking about that across the country. a lot of people have already been saying in the last few days after the last primary that, you know what? hillary clinton is just going to win this thing and win it big. isn't that extremely dangerous to say given that so many people have been wrong? one through 20, and the 21st time they think they're going to be right when they make a prediction about donald trump? he could win this election, couldn't he? >> i think donald trump could very well win this election. we don't know yet. we don't know. there's going to be a loss of sort of the suburban, highly educated republican voter, but that might be more than made up for by middle class. he's actually tied or leading with middle-class voters. republicans usually aren't at this point. there's every reason to think that he might rack up big

votes -- trump -- just in pennsylvania -- we'll talk pennsylvania -- in the western part of the state and in places like delaware county, where you have trade-union guys that really seem to like his "put america first" message. i don't know that i need to circle the wagons around my local guys 'cause trump's gonna do bad or gonna do -- he might actually do very well. it's just that i need to put my focus on making sure we send incumbents back to harrisburg and to washington, and then we'll focus on trump. >> i want to add on to that because i remember interviewing ed gillespie and ken mehlman some years ago. i didn't get a chance to talk with reince priebus. but it got into what the republican party stood for. now, as an american, i believe we should have robust political parties across the board because that's how you get the best thoughts. no one party owns the great ideas. when you see this party, when i heard from ed gillespie and ken mehlman, "we want an inclusive party. we want people from all stripes," and then you see this. this does not say "inclusivity." this does not say "america." it says, "we and them." you know, it's us against them, and those people are bad people.

it is disturbing as to where we are right now as a party or as a party system -- let me say that -- and for the locals who do good work, who want to do things, they're gonna be tainted by this. >> let's be honest. the democratic party has been us vs. them since the 1960s. >> not to the point of saying we're gonna throw people out of the country. >> it's always, "those guys make more money, and you're being kept down by white people or by corporate america" or whoever. >> we're not throwing people out of the country, though, val. >> it's not good messaging, i agree, but if you look back at the romney election, one of the things that came out of that was that for a republican to not have support across the diverse population of america, which includes african-american, latino, and asian, he or she has to win 66% of the caucasian vote. think about that. and that's four years ago where demographics have changed slightly since. so it may even be higher. to think that a republican

candidate can win by jettisoning the latino vote, having almost no chance to significantly make inroads among african-american voters, and make it up solidly with white working-class white voters, i just think that's very, very difficult. and we don't elect presidents on a national basis. we elect them on a state basis, and in a state like pennsylvania, where i think val is correct. working-class whites in the suburbs, working-class whites in erie and blair county and all these other places are gonna probably find something appealing about trump. the people of color, i think, are gonna come out massively to vote against him because his messaging has been completely cynical. >> you say he's gonna energize the other side. >> and his messaging on women is -- >> has been horrible. >> i think this is gonna be the most significant phenomena as you parse out those groups. >> absolutely. >> so, christie todd whitman, she's voting for hillary. laura bush -- she's not voting for trump. >> she didn't say that. >> actually, she did.

>> not in so many words. >> well, i think there is no bush that's voting for trump, okay? >> get that in there. >> here's another thing that a lot of people got wrong, and it's that the convention that could be contested could be the democratic convention here in philadelphia with bernie sanders saying he's just gonna ride this out. all of trump's opponents have... >> they've disappeared, but i really don't think that the convention will be that contested. there might be some people making some noise, blah, blah, blah, but it'll die out. >> i think that -- i'm sorry. i think that there is a chance of a contested convention in philadelphia, and i think we will see some very remarkable phenomena. it's gonna be incumbent upon hillary to figure out how to round up the sanders supporters and convince them that their agenda can be and will be her agenda, and this is my suggestion. i would make bernie sanders the head of the dnc, and i would take all that youth energy and direct it toward changing the face of congress. >> that would require a lot of really smart thinking on the

part of the democrats... >> well, that's true. >> ...who, by the way, chose to come to philadelphia at a moment in time when the state treasurer has been convicted, the chief of staff of the governor has been convicted, the attorney general is going to go through a trial this summer, a member of congress is on trial this summer, the five representatives are under -- the mayor of allentown, the mayor -- the democratic system in pennsylvania right now is a disaster. >> so they should put the convention in atlantic city instead? >> it's a time for rebirth. that's what they're saying. we got to start over, and this is the perfect place to do it. >> it would be better to be in a bankrupt place financially than a bankrupt place politically, and that's what's gonna be happening here. >> but, you know, donna did mention something that we can't ignore. when you're talking about the female vote, if we look at this state or across the country, women run households. >> right, right. >> women run the vote. and if women are inspired to come out, i don't see them being exorbitantly inspired to go vote for donald trump. i really don't. >> and i also don't see women in this country trading in michelle obama for melania trump. sorry. not happening.

>> except when you look at what's happened. look at the number of democrat registration that switched over republican just in pennsylvania alone. he's clearly generating some enthusiasm, and he's winning among women in a lot of states on the republican side, and a lot of those folks have switched over to vote for him. you know, the narrative was that they're switching over to vote against him. we didn't see that at all. we didn't see that anywhere. so he's creating tremendous enthusiasm, and there's another story here, which is, the antiestablishment wing of the democratic party, and we don't talk about it much 'cause donald trump sort of sucks all the oxygen out of the room, but for a socialist who would like to see 70%, 80%, 90% marginal tax rates, who wants to spend another $20 trillion in government spending over the course of his term, to be neck-and-neck with hillary at this point, who should have been coronated by this point, tells you that the democratic party, which has told their base that they can't get ahead because of corrupt washington politicians and wall street and sexism and racism, now has a situation

where a man who really should be getting 10%, 15% is neck-and-neck with the establishment of the democratic party. >> and that brings us all the way back to the beginning on the anger, because the anger is on both sides, it's among the republicans, it's among the democrats. the party that successfully deals with that anger -- and when i say deal with it, treats those issues that are part of that anger with the seriousness of purpose that they deserve. whoever does that is gonna win. >> at a moment in time when the country really needs to be thinking about its future internationally, domestically, financially, this campaign is gonna be about the evil of two lessers, and we're gonna be seeing such negative campaigning. it's going to be about which one are you most afraid of becoming the president. >> that's correct. >> that's a bad thing for our future. >> next election cycle, how many trump candidacy clones will we see using him as a template? >> local, state, or...? >> many, right? >> we could. >> i think scott wagner, who's the senator from york county, is likely to -- because he's got the wealth, is likely to be able

to do in the republican gubernatorial primary what tom wolf did in the democratic primary, and that could very well be that kind of a candidate. >> we're gonna be right back. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. ♪

♪ >> back with "inside story."

mayor kenney is getting pushback on two fronts. the first one he held a forum recently to clear the air about his stop & frisk policy, and he says he didn't break his campaign promise to end it, he's just implementing a new, more lawful policy that stops people only with reasonable suspicion, and then there's the soda tax that we'll get into in a second, but, nia, could this issue be something that could really snowball with the mayor in terms of stop & frisk and how the african-american community sees his position with it? >> stop & frisk has been so controversial for most reasons because most people say, "you know, if i'm innocent and walking down the street, does that automatically make me a suspect?" that's really been the main issue with stop & frisk, and unless you address that component of it, you're gonna have a problem. in any neighborhood where there is rampant crime, people want that crime to stop. so you have some people that would say, "okay, i'm with you when you want to stop criminals, but i don't want you to stop my son, my cousin," and therein lies the issue, and it comes into perception, it comes into policing, and we haven't resolved that aspect of

the issue. until that happens, we're gonna have problems. >> do you think mayor's trying? >> i think he's trying. i think people are giving him some credit for it, but, again, we're talking about years and years of frustration, and until that aspect of it is really tackled, we're just gonna keep going in this revolving circle of anger. >> the meeting that i spoke about, it had to end early because people were shouting and screaming at the mayor. >> one of the other issues is, of course, training police and how are police prepared to go out on the street and differentiate between what looks like something and what has a reasonable cause to believe it's something. i was a little disappointed when commissioner ross made the decision to abandon commissioner ramsey's policy about -- not college education. i don't think that's the important issue. it's the kind of courses that people might take preparatory to entering the police academy or being part of the police academy, and i think those kinds of issues, such as what nia is talking about, which relate to how do i evaluate information on the street

and process it so that my actions are appropriate to the circumstances so that i'm not racially profiling somebody because they're wearing a hoodie? and i think that's a difficult problem, but that's, i think, essential to training people. >> so, two points. first, when the mayor was here on this program explaining what it was he wanted to do, it was a cogent explanation of how he wanted to reposition stop & frisk. i think if people at that meeting had heard that characterization, it might have been a different orientation. second, i completely agree with you on the subject of that policy change. i think if you're going to try and reposition a policy that's troubled, you need talented, educated officers to do it. we have a great community college in this town. that community college should be a resource to bring in people that have some college credits. to sam's point, they should be college credits that are relevant to good policing. i think there is an opportunity there to reposition the police force in a way that will avoid

the worst circumstances and create a better outcome, but it does not come with less education, it comes with more. >> absolutely. >> well, it's nice to be talking about policy instead of politics all the time. you know, it seems to me we've identified that police need more training, and studies show that someone with some college credits, the more college credits you are, the more less likely you are to potentially get yourself in trouble or to point a gun at someone or abuse someone on the street. it's up to the city of philadelphia and other police departments to provide that training, and we have to get the money into the police to make sure that happens. when we moved from community policing, the cop on the beat, to making the police sort of a paramilitary force that just responds, we took a lot of money and shifted into other priorities, but we took it out of policing. i think the money needs to go back into training police, making sure they have the right psychological profiles and training, make sure they have the right courses, that they have sort of a perspective of what they're dealing with on the street. not everyone's bad just 'cause you see someone out there, and

make sure people aren't abused. >> the second front is the sugary drinks tax. there is yet another protest involving business owners, soda workers, consumers gathering outside city hall, telling the mayor that even though it's gonna go into pre-k across the city, it's gonna hit poor communities, it's going to cost jobs, it's going to lead to taxes on maybe other foods. who knows? we really haven't seen what the vote count might be at city council right now. we don't know. but what do you think? i mean, is this gonna go? >> the framing of this was poorly selected, in my opinion, because if they had come out with the health component, the diabetes issue -- >> which is what mayor nutter did. >> exactly. but you have to really hammer that on. we're talking, okay, the world health organization, one in 11 people worldwide have type 2 diabetes now, right? we're looking at so many people who are walking time bombs and not even knowing it, and the majority of them in this city are in those same poor neighborhoods, but what people are hearing is, "oh, this is gonna hit me economically. this is gonna hurt me right here and now." if we position this as a health

issue, with the added benefit of protecting children later on down the line, then you might be able to bring people on board. >> but that didn't work for mayor nutter. >> but this is a different mayor than mayor nutter. >> that may have been more politics and relationships than this, but they're sources of funds, and so we're talking about the soda tax, but there's also uses of funds, and the use of these funds for pre-k is something that's universally enjoyed and supported. but are we really in the position to go from zero to 100 between june and september to create a citywide pre-k system that's going to have the leadership, the facilities, the trained teachers to do the job that we're thinking? this is a feel-good thing, but i would like to see this delayed, that is, the implementation, for at least a year so that the administrative apparatus necessary to recruit and train pre-k teachers, to create a system that's gonna work and not just feel good, and i really think this is a mistake to move this quickly. >> "inside stories of the week" coming up. ♪ connections.

you're not just in the classroom; you're part of the community. you meet these tiny kids every year,

and you help them learn and grow. but you also get to know their families, and over the years they become a part of your life, and you become a part of theirs. when you build those connections, you can accomplish some pretty amazing things. i'm jackie kruzik and i'm proud to be a new jersey educator.

>> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. >> "inside stories of the week." we start with nia. >> last week was a sad one as we laid to rest three really strong individuals in civic life in philadelphia -- former police commissioner willie williams, activist and pr maven extraordinaire, barbara daniel-cox, and really a dean of politics in philadelphia, bill miller iv. while they'll be missed, we know that they left a rich legacy. >> thanks, nia. sam? >> i think senator bob casey was kind of dragged in with the posse to join forces behind katie mcginty's campaign, which came on strong at the end, but it was interesting that this week he noted that pennsylvanians have a proclivity for ticket splitting, and i think that was a message to voters in both parties and also maybe a little nod to senator pat toomey, with whom he's enjoyed a great personal and working relationship and

could, down ticket, help toomey in the fall. >> thanks, sam. donna? >> we also lost sam staten very recently, as nia and i mentioned earlier, and sam was this remarkable lion of pennsylvania labor, and his legacy will be extended in the coming weeks when there is a very terrific announcement about a new strategy to bring more minorities into the building trades, which is now led, as many of you know, by john dougherty, who followed pat gillespie, who's retired. this is an important legacy in pennsylvania labor. >> thanks, donna. val? >> in a sign of the times, the north carolina legislature has determined that -- has weighed in on the transgender issue and said that if you're going to use a public bathroom, you should use the bathroom of your actual gender as opposed to the one you identify with. those of us who have young daughters who use public bathrooms seem to think that's a good idea. unfortunately, the federal government does not, and is potentially going to deny north carolina hundreds of millions of dollars in federal revenue, and if you want to

wonder why we're in the political climate we're in, it's issues like this where you're made to feel like a bigot if you don't want your daughter to be in a bathroom with a man. >> that's "inside story" for this sunday. thanks for our panelists for joining us and you for watching, and also happy mother's day. moms rule. dads are pretty good, too. moms rule. all right? see you later. >> bye! ♪ i'm nydia han along with gray hall. coming up next on "action news," a shooting outside a trenton nightclub sent three people to the hospital and the search for the gunman continues. a university of pennsylvania professor is making headlines after he was mistaken for a possible terrorist. plus, powerball fever is heating up in new jersey, the only ticket sold in the garden state. we're winning in the weather department, the

accuweather forecast and more next on "action news." let the sun shine in. or don't. it's all good. blinds to go. blinds for life.

bgentle diffused light when you swant it. darkened privacy when you don't. modern elegance always. right now take 30% off our entire selection of beautiful cascade shades. let the sun shine in. or don't. it's all good. blinds to go. blinds for life. sunday, may 8, i'm nydia han along with gray hall. here's some of the stories we're would come ago on on "action news." a search continues for the man thrown from a jet ski in the delaware river. plus,