>> i'm monica malpass. pulse nightclub, orlando, the worst mass murder in u.s. history, an attack on america, and specifically, the lgbt community. let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning. welcome to "inside story." let's meet our insiders. today they are mark segal, lgbt rights activist. good morning. welcome to have you. dom giordano, radio talk show host. welcome back, dom. >> thanks, monica. >> george burrell, nonprofit executive and attorney. good morning, sir. and jim eisenhower, attorney. glad to have all of you with us today. so, as we know, this was a horrific attack. 49 people dead, many more injured. many people are thinking this harkens back to 47 years ago when there was also an attack on a gay nightclub in new orleans. 34 people died. mark, did it feel eerily similar to what happened four or five decades ago? have we come no further? >> we in the gay community have been asked this question all

week long, and we have a multitude of feelings since it's a complex question. but i think the first thing we really have to say, any of us, is to the loved ones here in the area and in florida who suffered and lost their loved ones, we have to say to them, "you didn't die in vain." what happened in orlando has created a sea change, not only across the united states, but across the world. think about what happened. there have been candlelight vigils in almost every major city in the united states. in sydney, australia, they lit the sydney bridge in rainbow. the eiffel tower was lit up in rainbow. there were literally almost 100,000 people out in london. tel aviv city hall was done. >> the ben franklin bridge in our area. >> ben franklin bridge. and what you see from that is a movement. no longer are allies being quiet. they're now coming out and supporting in full strength. so, these people didn't die in vain because what you're going

to see is already happening. you're gonna see nondiscrimination laws being passed in state after state after state. you're going to see hate-crimes bills finally, after being tied up for years, and the biggest proof of this whole thing is that speaker ryan in washington now is trying to decide how does he pass the equal rights legislation called enda, which was literally introduced by a woman by the name of bella abzug in 1974 and has sit in congress for that entire time. >> the meantime, the shooter also reportedly said isis a number of times in conversations and during the attack, so there might have been multiple reasons, including possible insanity on this person's part, for the attack. we don't know all the reasons yet as they investigate. but nonetheless, now there are new pushes, including four bills that will be voted on this week in senate committees for gun control. it always happens when there's a mass attack, and some people say nothing gets done, but this time something might get done, dom. >> well, what i'd like to see done is, i want to know why,

when, apparently, monica, several news outlets are reporting that this guy was called out by one gun shop owner. they called the fbi, and he had been on the list before. i want to see the minutia of this. why was this guy able to buy a weapon and he was rejected from body armor and all the rest? why, when he was already in that? the fbi doesn't have enough agents is one part of this to me. that's the takeaway from this. and i also hope that we see that groups like isis and others, what they're doing on a regular basis to people that are gay explicitly, in addition to everybody else. >> and some people are saying he was taken off the list because he got married and had a baby. and, jim, people i guess in the know felt that sort of, you know, neutralized him and quieted him down a bit, which clearly it didn't. >> you know, to be fair, the fbi is just inundated with these sorts of things, and i think they do, by and large, a very good job of monitoring them. but this seems to, at least to me in the evidence i've seen, to be kind of a lone-wolf thing. his identification with isis, he identified with a number of other terrorist groups that don't even agree with isis. i think hillary's proposed, in addition to gun-control

measures, a sharper focus on these lone wolves. we just saw one in britain on thursday -- a member of parliament killed in cold blood by a lone wolf. some evidence that the san bernardino people were lone wolves. these are very difficult to detect, but i think the idea the bureau and law enforcement needs to communicate better and be more focused on these lone-wolf killers i think is a good idea. >> meantime, some of these proposed bills, george, or variations of a theme, i guess. democrats have one version or a couple versions, the republicans others. there's the issue of civil liberties and should people be allowed to buy a gun when it is the second amendment versus if they're on the watch list and there are hundreds of thousands of people, by the way, on that list. it's not a short list. very long. many people don't even know they're on it. a member of congress was on it. so, would they have the right to buy a gun until, you know, the folks in washington prove they should be on that list? should there be a 72-hour waiting period? >> you know, it's too complicated for me to really think my way through it. i think clearly we need gun

control. but we need, whether it's more fbi agents, more resources. the fact is -- and i'm for passing all that legislation -- but african-american community, other minority communities have passed a lot of legislation. it has not changed the reality. we have to, in america, try to figure out what it means both to be free and have equality. we figured out the freedom part. we haven't necessarily figured out the equality part, and that's the part we're doing now. and we're looking at and we get really focused on these terrorist-type activities and we kind of overlook that. you know, what is it? -- 20 kids got killed in newtown. you know, eight people got killed in a black church in south carolina and sandy hook. this whole thing, there's a mental-health issue. there are a whole series of issues that contribute to this, and we want to jump on this guy that says, "i'm related to two terrorist organizations that hate each other." and i also think that -- and i understand the responsibility of the news media, but i think some of these folks do this stuff for attention. and now this person that nobody

knows anything about and really doesn't want to know anything about and is not gonna think much about two and three weeks from now. >> his own father is using it for publicity. >> right, i mean, it's just they get all the publicity that they're looking for as a result of this one -- >> if they can't be famous, they'll be infamous. i guess they settle for that. which presidential candidate do you think is more favorable or at least more sympathetic to the lgbt community and their needs, and what do you see going forward? the rhetoric has been changing in the last week for both of them, as well. >> well, i think the comparison is just outrageous and so wide. when donald trump responded to orlando, he put out a seven-paragraph statement. in those seven paragraphs, not one word -- not one word about the lgbt community, gay and lesbian. nowhere was he sympathizing with the community that was most affected. he then started using what happened in orlando to bash the muslim community. how dare he use our community, which has suffered discrimination and hate crimes

for millennia, to bash another community? it was not any one community. the muslim community, if it was the muslim community, it would not -- building a wall would not have stopped what happened in orlando. building a wall would not have stopped what happened in san bernardino. building a wall would not change what happened at that church. building a wall would change absolutely nothing. >> because there are american born citizens who are perpetrating the crimes. >> and his use of stepping over the dead bodies, warm, dead bodies in orlando is absolutely heinous. >> and do you feel the president has done enough on the gun-control issue, the terrorism issue, now that people are saying home-grown terrorists are as big of a threat as anything else? >> no, i think it's a failure on the part of the president. the gun-control issue he's animated by and he's tried to do various things in that, but on the other issues, no. monica, he's not. we are not calling out what i see as the threat here.

i see these guys inspired. isis is the threat. all these other terrorist groups pale in comparison. they're the rock stars because they've established territory and they've told these people, "do whatever you can. just pick up whatever you can and go and kill somebody. do it in your own way." and if you mix in hatred that this guy had toward gay people, well, that animates them even more. >> or latinos. everyone was saying it was latino night. if you look at the names of who died -- >> yes, many latinos. >> ...most of them were latinos. was he anti-latino? was he anti-gay latino? we don't know. >> well, these people are insane, too. >> yeah. >> on top of that. we realize that. that's why it's so hard. >> but to be fair to the president, dom, after newtown, he did propose legislation. he got some bipartisan support. senator toomey's talked a lot about the support that he had for that bill, although katie mcginty says he really didn't do much to try and help pass it. and, of course, it didn't pass. so, i think it's pretty hard to say the president hasn't done enough. i mean, he did what he could do. >> no, on guns, yes. i'm talking about on terrorism. >> but isis -- >> we're not even calling people. >> isis is the next iteration of

a whole series of terrorist organizations that we've been fighting not just in the obama administration, but in the bush administration and before that, which people are fighting around the world. if people are gonna act independently, i don't care what you do. it's like assassinating a president. you could put all the security around the president you want. if one single person wants to assassinate that president, they're gonna figure out a way to do it. so you're not gonna stop this stuff, but everybody is criticizing the president, and i'm not here to defend the president, but i haven't heard much coming from the united states congress about what we should do about this. it's that we shouldn't have gun control. we have to protect the second amendment. i don't see people around the world complaining that the united states has not engaged in the effort to overcome isis. what's the solution? are we just gonna go somewhere over there in the middle east and bomb people and then get criticized for killing a lot of innocent people in the course of doing it? it's not as simple as anybody wants to do, and whether you call them radical islamists or not, doesn't really make it that much -- >> i think you got to

identify -- david gergen even said this week when ronald reagan said the evil empire, that has meaning. we have to know who we're fighting. >> nothing has meaning unless you follow it up. you can call it what you want. >> tell me one person that has not been killed because of those two words. >> it's not a question of that. it's a question of why would we stem from that? aren't we trying to segregate the muslims that are not engaged in this from the small number that are, and we're saying radical islamists. >> is any american as confused about who we're fighting? i think it's pretty clear. >> how do you define them? who's a radical islamist? >> this guy was. >> no, we don't know that. we don't know that. no, we do not. >> he also was rejected for a job at a police department. he was a security guard, so there are a number of issues here, and there might even be some possibilities that he may have had gay intimations and that kind of thing because he was on several websites with hookups. >> self-hatred is a very big motivation. if you go to a mosque or a synagogue or a church and all your life you're hearing, "oh, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad," and then you

force yourself into getting married, who knows when you might snap? >> meantime, on the ground, a local journalist was able to buy an assault weapon in seven minutes. so it's not hard to do on the streets of philadelphia or the streets of anywhere in the united states, as well as in other places around the world. that is the reality, meantime, as we all try to wrestle with what's the right answer, how do we stop this from happening again and again and again, and people who are trying to become infamous if they can't be famous in any other way. do you see a real ability in the next few months before the presidential race really kicks into high gear after the summer to get anything done? >> yeah, i think the filibuster this week by the democrats in the senate, and the fact that there are moderate republicans both in pennsylvania and illinois and other states that are up for reelection in november, i think there is a chance that at least this ban on people on the watch list, that they will not be able to get at least semi-automatic weapons. i think there is a political will to get that done both

because of the democratic filibuster and because a lot of these republican moderates are running from donald trump and they're concerned about their reelection efforts. >> even though contributions from members of congress from pennsylvania are the highest in the nra of anybody in the united states. >> you know, if you look at pennsylvania, for instance, bob casey, for a long time, was very over on the gun issue, much more with the nra for a democrat. and he has really evolved on that issue, and i think that's very symbolic of the state itself. >> all right. >> but what you see is the nra's focus is much more on their members than it is on elected -- they spend a lot more money sending out mail, and so they have the koch brother model. they send it out to the people and rally under the elected officials, these voters who kind of say, "don't do this." >> right. >> the reason we're gonna have some form of gun legislation -- not sure how strong it's gonna be, not how weak it's gonna be, is because if congress does not pass some form of gun legislation, that shows the failure of the republican party.

>> all right, we're gonna leave it there. "inside story" continues right after we take a break. don't go away. much more ahead. selfies are cool.

know what else is cool? blinds to go's summer shades sa, going on now. take 20% off all shades! roller, cellular, pleated, woven wood, roman, solar and cascade shades don't blink. sale ends soon. blinds to go. blinds for life. >> "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. >> welcome back to "inside story." philadelphia last week became the first major city in the united states to pass a soda tax, 13-4.

it was a huge win for the new mayor jim kenney, and now comes the legal challenge, because the soda industry put up $3 million in advertisements on our television station and others trying to win that vote, when they didn't win it. and by the way, they had a history of winning 45-1 everywhere except in berkeley, california, so this was their second big setback. now the thought is they're gonna put up that much effort in court. and what do you expect to happen next? >> well, i think there's no question that there's gonna be a court case with respect to it. their argument is that it's a sales tax and the uniformity clause and all that stuff, and that will play itself out. my biggest concern is that we've now passed the soda tax, what does it mean? how are you gonna implement, you know, early childhood education so that it really does make a difference? and what else are you going to do? the mayor said this is a part of the effort to address poverty in the city of philadelphia, and i think it's a critical component, but that outcome is 20 years down the road. what else are you gonna do today that improves the quality of life and the home life for these kids? unless you can improve the

quality of life in the communities that they live in, early childhood education's gonna help some of them, but it's not gonna solve the problem. >> in fact, let's listen to what the mayor had to say after the win last week. >> council president clarke. >> ayes are 13, the nays are 4. the majority -- [ cheers and applause ] >> this is just the beginning of the process. it was certainly a long road to get here, but this is the beginning of the process of changing the narrative of poverty in our city. >> so, no doubt that it is one way to try to start improving the city and the life of many impoverished people in our neighborhoods, but you do have to start somewhere. so, nonetheless, was there some interesting backstory to this, the arm twisting, the promises, speculations, other investments? how did they get this vote passed, in other words, dom? >> well, when you make sausage, it's not a pretty thing -- or scrapple. we're in philadelphia. >> right. >> so, yeah, i don't even know -- maybe some of the other insiders know -- some of the things that haven't come out yet, but at the 11th hour, the

11:30 hour, monica, there were all these other monies and developments that are going around. so i still think it's an open question how much of this goes to pre-k, what type of pre-k, who are the people, how much are they gonna be paid? and it's kind of strange to me that the school district, as i understand it, will not be the pre-k provider around that, and i don't quite understand why. >> from a legal perspective i think is that it's possible that the soda industry will move to enjoin and stop the implementation of the tax. >> right. >> and that would be a straw move on their part. if a judge were to agree to that, that would stop for the time being whether the litigation went forward, the implementation of the tax. now, rob dubow, finance director for the mayor, forthrightly testified before council that some of the money wasn't really gonna go to education. it was gonna go to plug the deficit. so, then you got the pica board having to look at the city budget without that money. it becomes a very complicated issue if they were to get that injunction. >> and some of it's gonna go to fix our parks and some rec centers, so that would provide jobs, which is why the unions

were backing the idea. >> and that's where the legislation got passed. i mean, you had a good, strong city council president in darrell clarke who literally made the deal with the mayor, and they are the two powers of the city. and what was decided upon in that meeting was, you know, center city philadelphia has, over the last few years, really grown, and philadelphia is a first-class city with some of the best art outside of paris, one of the biggest communications hub. and what we needed now was to fix up our neighborhoods, particularly our poor neighborhoods. so an agreement was hashed out, so a good deal of that tax is gonna go to the impoverished neighborhoods of philadelphia. it's about time. >> meantime, this is the same issue that got through all of the legislative ramifications in new york city but was derailed by the courts, so new york doesn't have a soda tax. what makes philadelphia think it's gonna get its way through the courts? >> well, i don't think that anybody knows. there's a 5-4 majority i think on the pennsylvania state

supreme court, and i do think the issue has some ability to raise questions in folks' minds of whether it is or whether it isn't, and i think you're just gonna get -- it's one of those -- i don't think it's clear-clutch slam dunk issue for either side of the equation. >> i'm a cynic on it, to george's point. you have five democrats on the court. that's why they think it'll get through. or they think this is such a good -- this has been genius. and even though i'm on the opposite side of it of moving it around, "it's a health issue. no, it's not a health issue." we're back to that. >> mayor nutter tried it as a health issue and failed twice. >> bernie sanders says it's a regressive tax. hillary clinton says it's not. bernie sanders says it's regressive. >> the total issue is very different from new york because that's under new york law. this is pennsylvania institution, so it's a totally separate legal issue that's been litigated elsewhere. >> we already tax in pennsylvania gas -- one product. we already tax in pennsylvania cigarettes on their own. we could do the same with soda. >> how many more things should we tax? >> but you're asking for legal precedents.

i'm giving you legal precedent. >> the question is do you need state authority? does the local authority need state authority to do it? >> right. all right, let's move on. the democratic national convention coming to town in less than two months, and now the aclu is working with the city on some regards and worried about other areas where they're afraid the 50,000 protestors who are expected to come to philadelphia to stage legal protests might not be met with welcome arms. and the mayor says there should be no problem there. he believes obviously people have a right to say what they want in a free country and they should have their way and their place, but maybe not during rush hour on broad street. so, will they be granted permits? do you think that they will have free access? the 50,000 people sleeping in fdr park might not be what the city wants, but it might be the reality. >> well, i think so. i mean, the city has had some good test runs -- the pope, the occupy thing, the way that was generally handled i think was handled fairly well. we had a convention in 2000. the protest movement -- i happened to be a delegate to the democratic commission that year, republican convention here. protest movement was a lot bigger then, move against

globalism. remember the riots across the country in seattle? commissioner timoney handled it pretty well. so i think the city has a good record, and my prediction is that we will handle it well. >> all right. >> part of the question is i think they'll handle the permit part of it really well. we won't be able to figure out whether they handle the unpermitted part of it until it gets here and we see what it is. >> well, with the republican convention in 2000, instead of city police being the enforcer, state police were brought in because there was a different set of laws. >> controlled by the same rules. >> yeah, i'm a member of the host committee, so i can tell you that every step is being taken to not only make sure that delegates have a great time here in philadelphia, the citizens in philadelphia have a great time, and we're gonna make sure that even the protestors have a good time. philadelphia's gonna be a welcoming city. we're also gonna be a historic city again. >> good to hear. all right, but also pennsylvania could be critical. obviously the 20 electoral votes could be the tipping point on the democratic side, certainly

for the entire race. so what do you think? is this our moment in the sun to shine, dom? >> well, i hope so. i'd like to see it as i'm not a trump guy, but i do think that he brings such an unorthodox, unusual stuff, and i'm still convinced a lot of these people in desolate places in pennsylvania have heard his message about trade and all that and mrs. clinton has a more nuanced message. i don't think it works with these people, though. i think they're tired of business as usual, and trump is not offering solutions, per se, but he's telling them he's gonna do something, and so far, i think it's worked for them. >> jobs, jobs, jobs. >> i don't really think donald trump is telling people he's gonna do anything. i think donald trump is appealing to the worst in people. i mean, everything is negative. everybody's got a nickname. you know, he's that classic candidate that, you know, "here's the problem, here's the solution, when you're the candidate who's never been in office, your solutions always work." but he's not appealing to people as what they think. he's appealing to what is worst in people, and it goes back to what i said earlier is that we

figured out how to do freedom in america. we haven't figured out how to do equality. >> if you look at what hillary -- >> we'll have to leave it at that. i'm sorry. we're out of time. "inside story" continues right after this. stick around. ♪

>> "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. >> time for inside stories of the week, and let's start with jim. >> monica, flying under the radar screen in this political season is the race for pennsylvania attorney general. of course, the cloud of kathleen kane sort of overcomes everything. but quietly under the radar, josh shapiro, the democratic candidate, is solidifying support across the state, raising money, and it looks like he's gonna get a significant amount of republican endorsements. >> hmm. george? >> i want to recognize judy rodin, who's stepping down as c.e.o. of the rockefeller foundation, where she's done a great job. first president of an ivy league institution at the university of pennsylvania, along with dr. papadakis at drexel and

peter liacouras at temple, the best examples of transformative leadership in philadelphia in my lifetime. >> terrific. all right, dom. >> progress is my theme this week. southern baptists held their annual convention, and by over 90% -- they call the folks who go there messengers -- they put forward a resolution and passed it, asking fellow members, body of christ and language like that, not to display the confederate flag. that's a deeply -- they're all over the country, but that's a deeply southern institution. they were jim crow-ish over the years, and for the southern baptists to say that, it's pretty good progress. >> all right. there you go. mark. >> monica, i thought i'd end on a happy note. everybody wants to see the show "hamilton" in new york. it's the hottest show on broadway that there's been in 50 years. well, a piece of that is coming to philadelphia july 4th, so thank mayor jim kenney and jeff garcino for putting together what will probably be the most red, white, and blue july 4th we've ever had. >> terrific. all right, great. and, mark, thank you for being here. thanks to all the rest of our

insiders. we appreciate your time and your thoughts. thank you so much for joining us. i hope you have a terrific week ahead, and we'll see you right back here next sunday morning. ♪ >> i'm nydia han along with gray hall. coming up next, dive teams are in the river looking for the driver of a minivan that plunged into the water overnight. a consider ran into a utility pole and snapping it in half. thousands hit the pavement for the gary pappa run. we'll have a live report. those stories and more next on "action news."

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father's day, happy father's day to you. >> thank you. >> it is sunday, june 19. i'm nydia han along with gray hall. >> here's some of the stories we're working on "action news." a dive team are searching the delaware rivera minivan plunged into into the river overnight the driver is missing. the cost of a south jersey