>> hi. i'm monica malpass on "inside story." it's hillary clinton and the democrats' week to shine in philadelphia. can she switch the momentum from donald trump? let's get the inside story. good morning and welcome. i'm monica malpass. let's meet our insiders this week on "inside story." they are harold jackson, journalist. good morning, sir. welcome to you. sam katz, documentarian. good morning. nia meeks, communications executive. hello. and jeff jubelirer, also communications executive. thank you all for being here. 50,000 people -- politicians, celebrities, media, and protesters -- are descending on our city even as we speak for next week's big convention. we'll talk about the democrats in a moment, but let's first give the republicans and donald trump their due. do you think that their message and their values, their core ideas, got through last week's convention in ohio, or was it sort of put to the side because of all the controversies? >> well, there were so many

different messages each day, so you can't say it was completely successful. but for those people in the convention hall, they seemed to eat it up. they felt that they got what they wanted. trump said the things they wanted to hear. he made some entreaties to other parts of american that aren't in the base. so, you know, i think they would consider it a success, even with the stumbles. >> and let's hear from donald trump right now, a little takeoff from the convention. >> i humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the united states. i am with you. i will fight for you. and i will win for you. >> the longest speech that we've had from a candidate. do you think it was effective, or did something get lost in the shuffle between melania trump and the alleged plagiarism, between not having ted cruz come on board, and some of the other issues? >> those were the high points. [ laughter ] i thought it was a disaster for the republicans. i thought that they stepped on their story and the way they

crushed the effort to have a conscience vote. i thought they stepped on themselves with the denial of the melania plagiarism. giving ted cruz prime time to express, "vote your conscience." when the high point of a convention is the performance of the candidate's children, that may not be the best message. and i thought trump last night demonstrated one thing and one thing only, which is that he can work with the teleprompter, which was in question. i don't think the -- i would be surprised if there's a bounce. >> mm. >> and that's all that a convention -- >> in the polls, right. >> that's all that a convention really needs to do is give the candidate a bounce. yes, he did make some overtures to constituencies that he's never spoken on behalf of, but i also think he planted a lot of doubt in the minds of a lot of conservatives. >> we also heard from the vice presidential pick, mike pence, of course. we also heard from a number of other people. chris christie, let's get a sound bite from him since he's our new jersey governor.

>> as to hillary clinton lying to the american people about her selfish, awful judgment in making our secrets vulnerable, what's your verdict, guilty or not guilty? >> guilty! >> so there was a lot of "attack hillary." that doesn't come as a shock. but did you think it was too much of that and not enough of new ideas and "here's what we can do for you," not just a vote against her, which would not necessarily be the same thing as a vote for donald? >> sure. the first rule of party convention is unify the base. there is nothing more unifying in the republican party nationally or donald trump's campaign nationally than the dislike of hillary clinton. >> "dislike"? >> that is an area, frankly -- that's a kind word. >> yeah, it is. >> that's probably one of the high points, is you might see a bounce in the reverse -- maybe a little less support for hillary based on the republican convention. unfortunately for the trump campaign, that was already the case. people that are supporting trump, a lot of them aren't doing it 'cause they like him so much or they're in favor of his

policies. it's their dislike of hillary clinton. and chris christie delivered it well, or mike pence certainly had probably the most effective speech. but they were washed out, as sam said and as you said, monica, by a ted not supporting him at his own party and melania's plagiarism. those things drowned out what should have been donald trump message only. >> so in the end, did you feel any better about this ticket? do you think, nia, that the mike pence factor -- not because of the convention alone, but now going forward to november. we have, you know, 3 1/2 months to go. do you think mike pence was able to neutralize people's fears that donald might be, in some critics's regard, a loose cannon and a finger on the trigger too fast, that mike pence is the conservative, quiet, measured voice that will balance that? >> he's the quiet, measured voice, so to speak. but he's the third, fourth banana in this trump...circus. >> drama. >> circus is what it is. i mean, to the point as far as the story being drowned out, i think for the people that were

in that hall, they wanted to hear something. they wanted their red meat. they wanted to have a reason to believe, a reason -- they already didn't like hillary clinton, but they just did not feel good about donald trump. he gave them just enough between his speech and mike pence's speech, just so they can say, "okay. [ sighs ] i can feel not so dirty about supporting this particular person," seriously. i mean, the cognitive dissonance has been horrifying when you look throughout this campaign. when someone looks at facts and says, "oh, well, those aren't real facts. these are some other types of facts. well, that's not really plagiarism. just because someone took someone's words verbatim, that doesn't make it plagiarism. it makes it...something else." >> admiration. [ laughter ] >> "but we don't admire this particular first lady. but it's the ideas, the concepts. and by the way, did i mention that first lady stole those?" it's been a twisted sensibility throughout. and the vitriol that you saw throughout this convention was actually kind of frightening, as i'm watching. i have spoken to some friends that they are covering it. and it's unnerving when you see

this mass sea of people with the anger that comes out, with the almost lynch-mob mentality that was stoked throughout this. but -- >> now we have philadelphia, though, and we have a whole different scenario. so, when we have 50,000 additional people come, a national spotlight, of course, this city is certainly capable and terrific under the national spotlight. but it's a different story when we have a lot of protests that are likely to happen. this might be because they feel they can be on a national stage, not against hillary, but just because the media's here, and they have a way to get their message out in general. don't you think, harold? >> well, i think how the protesters are handled in philadelphia will have a lot to deal with how hillary is seen. it's not her fault, you know? it's a local policing matter. but if there is a disruption, a large disruption in the convention or that becomes the story, as numerous things became the story in cleveland, then that will detract from her campaign. but the example that cleveland showed is that you can have good crowd control and allow people to get their message out. right now, the anticipation is that we won't have that problem

in philadelphia, but you have to wonder about that. >> okay, and also, as of this taping, she has not named her vice presidential pick. but we do know there are three people allegedly in the final offing. so would you go with the tim or two toms? what do you think would be the best way to go? >> i don't think it really matters. all three of those candidates have been vetted. tim kaine from virginia strikes me as the safest bet -- the fact that he speaks spanish, the fact that he comes from a state that's in play, the fact that he's been in the senate and he could serve as commander-in-chief. but i think the protest issue in philadelphia is something we're actually very good at. philadelphia has been managing protests since 1774. and in philadelphia, this would be a place where you would expect voices to be heard. and it would be, in my mind, in the democratic party and hillary clinton's interests to facilitate the hearing of those voices. it was not in donald trump's interests to have a vote on "vote your conscience."

>> although when he did have a heckler, if you want to call her that, or a protester, many people said he handled it the best he has so far in the campaign. he didn't really even acknowledge her, just said, "great security and policing we have here in the arena." >> and squelched the free speech that he said that he's a proponent of. >> but he didn't call her out and say, "let's do something mean to her." >> he had his best week of behavior in the entire campaign this week. but did it matter to the convention? i would argue it did not. >> the bar is pretty low. >> i would just say one thing. and we'll see if our predictions are right. tim kaine, if he is the selection, he is someone very supportive of free trade. that is an issue that bernie sanders and, frankly, donald trump agree on against nafta, against free trade. and you want to unify the democrats, too, when they're here this week. and the bernie sanders supporters and those on the left side of, if you will, the democrat equation, or more to the left, are certainly not in support of that. >> the democrats are gonna be pragmatic about it, though. regardless of what anyone says, they're gonna come together. >> it's not gonna matter at the end of the day. they're not voting for the vice president. >> and there will be more people here at this convention, if nothing else, more elected

officials who are democrats, unlike in cleveland, where a lot of elected officials and politicos, they did not want to have any part to that particular convention. >> both bushes. right. >> i mean, a lot of leading lights and a lot of leading thinkers on the republican side abdicated and said, "we're not dealing with this," unlike in philadelphia. you're gonna have that brainpower. you're gonna have a lot of different type of energy here in this city. >> in fact, bob brady, all of our congressman, senator casey, as well as the governor and the mayor of the city, they're all gonna be speaking. they're listed on the speakers list. and so it does look like, at least on the face of it, they're being unified. and when they took a little criticism last week from the f.o.p., who said, "we aren't hearing from any of our police officers or their widows and families. we're only hearing from victims of policing action," then immediately, the clinton organizers did put a couple of people on that list, including someone who is a 9/11 survivor and, of course, our former police chief. so at least they're responding and listening. do you think in the end, it's gonna be enough? >> yes, i think the democratic convention will be as successful as it could be. i don't think -- look. this is august or july.

we're so far away from that point when the country is paying attention for decision-making. the conventions are gonna be so far in the rearview mirror, they don't matter. >> then why do they do them, sam? why go to that expense? is it just because it's historical? is it because it makes them feel special? it's a very expensive proposal. >> they used to nominate presidents at conventions. >> right. i know. [ laughter ] >> they handled business there. >> that was the reason for having them. >> why bother? >> the primary process normally has produced in i don't know how long, but for the most part, maybe since 1976, the primaries have chosen the nominee. and the only then open question is the vice president, who usually gets picked in order to create a story the week before the convention. so, this is a "expand your base" moment for the democrats. for hillary, it means bringing millennials and the sanders people into the tent. i think she will do that. she has the advantage -- as, i suppose, trump felt he did -- of

making the main issue her opponent. and that's, i think, not gonna be a hard sell. >> i think, if anything, trump helped her in that regard. i think what we've heard from bernie sanders after the republican convention, it is he's more energized than ever to let people know that, "no, my people are not going to join the trump campaign just on the free trade issue." >> and how big of a hit was it that even ohio's john kasich didn't show up, didn't have a quote, not a taped piece, didn't do anything, unlike marco rubio and cruz, as we know, did some damage. but he was no part of it. >> yeah, and kasich 2020, i mean, in the sense of if trump were to be beaten and be beaten badly, it provides not only for ted cruz, who certainly lost some of certainly the trump people with his remarks and his speech, but john kasich, others in the party -- jeb bush -- you know, they hold fire, and it bodes well for them. and perhaps the party goes through a realignment. >> they're holding out to make sure that perhaps we can rebuild this party. >> and there's other races. just remember, you still have congress. you still have the u.s. senate.

>> and that's where a lot of people are putting their energy right now. >> and let's look at the latest odds. this is not a poll. this is a compilation of 16 polls, and it's very interesting but could be a little bit disconcerting to some people. so, the latest 16 polls, when you put them all together and weigh them for many odds, clinton is at 61.3% chance of winning just pennsylvania, by the way, and trump at 38.6% in pennsylvania. when you look overall, each of the individual polls, they're within a point or two, sometimes four or five, of each other for closer than that would indicate. but what do you make of this poll? >> well, i don't think this is a poll. and as much as i admire nate silver's analytics, averaging polls is statistically irrelevant. but one of the things i wanted to say about kasich -- and it isn't gonna happen, but if hillary clinton selected john kasich to be her running mate... >> oh, my goodness. >> ...i think the election would be over. >> she'd win slam dunk? >> i think the election is over. >> really? and what are the odds of that? [ laughter ] >> i would think that someone of hillary's experience would think this is a good idea.

but she would be surrounded by people who would kill it. >> harold, what were you gonna say? >> i was just going to say, in terms of -- i actually lost my train of thought, because you were talking about something, and then he went into a different direction. >> we were talking about the odds here and how polls can be misleading or helpful. >> i was going to say that that was very misleading projection, and that the polls do show that it's actually close in pennsylvania, that it could be very close, which is disconcerting for democrats. but the old cliche about pennsylvania not being pittsburgh and philadelphia is true. >> right. >> and there is a lot of appeal to trump for the middle part of the state. >> i mean, we're in the summer months. people really don't start paying true attention till about september, october. and the fact is, we may want to present this as, like, "oh, well, hillary's just going to walk away with it." i don't necessarily think that it's true, not among people who are interested in going out and voting. it's really gonna be a turnout election. i mean, surprisingly enough, you're gonna have high partisanship on both sides. but it's those folks in the middle that just -- they haven't really been engaged at all because they don't like this

process. >> let's be clear. in the southwest, there are many democrats. they are reagan democrats. they are voting for trump. the question is, there are a lot of republicans in our five-county area that are voting for hillary. >> exactly. it's a turnout. >> so it is not necessarily a republican-democrat alignment. >> do those negate each other? is that pretty even? >> and republicans have gained in voter registration in pennsylvania over the last year by a significant amount, actually. >> but still out. >> oh, still outnumbered by democrats. if a turnout election, democrats do well. >> it's gonna be a turnout election. >> but trump's people have said -- david urban, who is from pennsylvania, who's helping run the trump organization or trump campaign and the convention, said pennsylvania, if not number one, is the number-two state that trump needs to win if he's gonna win the election. >> hillary clinton has to jazz up her base. she's got to get the jazz. she's got to get the ra-ra. right now, people are more in the pragmatic sensibilities. and so it's like, "okay, i'll go out." when you don't have that ra-ra, there are people who will just miss the election altogether. >> because they think their vote doesn't matter, or they're just not even interested? >> they're not engaged, and they figure, "well, you know, it doesn't matter one way or the other, whichever way i go." >> this is the poor suit for hillary. she is not a ra-ra person.

she does not have charisma, so, you know, you're right. she needs someone who can fire up that base for her. and her speech something that i'll be watching very closely, because it's important for her to show some intimacy, again, to show that humanness, that, "i am not this caricature that the trump people are trying to portray me as." and if she can do that, great. that will give her a big bounce. if not, she'll get some bounce, but it won't be as significant. >> as well as her vice presidential pick. >> the last time a republican won pennsylvania i believe was 1988, george herbert walker bush. and at that point, the republican-democratic registration was much closer, and it was a very close election. it will be a very tall order, not impossible, but a very tall order for a republican to win pennsylvania. >> all right. we got to take a break. "inside story" continues right after this. stick around. >> this special edition of "inside story" is brought to you by temple university. explore temple's impact, temple.edu/impact. and buick, your philadelphia super network buick dealer.

i'm hillary clinton and i approved this message.

who do you talk to for military advice right now? well, i watch the shows. i mean i really see a lot of great - you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows... while donald trump watched tv, as secretary of state, hillary clinton negotiated a cease fire in gaza. a reduction in nuclear weapons... took on vladimir putin... and stood up against the trafficking of human beings. a steady leader in an unsteady world.

>> welcome back to "inside story." last week, pennsylvania got a budget through, so on wednesday, it was signed into law. no tax on cigars, by the way. we're one of the last two holdout states, florida and pennsylvania. $1.8 million spent by the cigar lobbyists, 34 of them working pretty hard to make sure it didn't happen, and they were successful. anybody surprised, nia? >> no. not really.

>> and are you disappointed? >> disappointed, yes. if you're gonna do it, do it equally across the board. but surprised? again, who's smoking the cigars? the people making the laws and people funding those who are making the laws. so no real shocker there. >> wait a second. the fact of the matter is, there's a big cigar industry in pennsylvania. >> so it would be jobs. >> there isn't a big cigarette or electronic cigarette industry in pennsylvania. and that industry employs people and has long had a seat at the table as an establishment player in the state. and it helps that of the 250-some members of the legislature, 227 of them smoke cigars, so... >> [ chuckles ] but the takeaway would be, do you want to lose the jobs, or do you want to get the tax revenue? >> i don't think we would have lost the jobs. >> it's like a hobson's choice. right. i mean, what about little "c"? like, you know what? you'll adjust, like chewing tobacco has to adjust, like cigarettes and e-vape. vape is safer -- or i should be careful what i say. but some use it to get off the addiction to nicotine. >> right. >> the bottom line is it's a victory for pennsylvania that they got a budget within this period of time...

[ laughter ] ...as opposed to nine months before. and, you know, that means that the governor and the legislature actually talked to each other, so that represents progress. but they still haven't done the hard work of looking at the tax code in this state and addressing some issues that need to be addressed, including imposition of a fracking tax. >> right. >> and both the state and the city have a massive pension crisis. >> oh, yes. >> not even remotely being dealt with. no one's paying any attention to that. and the voices that are being heard about the new contract as an impact on the city's pension crisis is a joke. the city has almost a $6-billion unfunded liability. harrisburg is $53 billion. so this is a problem that we will pass on to the next generation. it will be enormous. >> is it just too big of a nut to crack, or nobody wants to expend their own career... >> that's correct. >> ...and be the sacrificial lamb on that topic? >> it's a third rail. and the truth of the matter is, with this budget, it's what we are seeing more and more and these profiles of courage. we see frameworks but not the hard work. and you have to dig in deep and do the hard work. >> "blue-ribbon commissions," my favorite. >> there are those, too. but there's a lot of digging

that you have to do. and there's sacrifices, whether it's your office or your pet project. nobody wants to touch that anymore. >> and meantime, on the soda tax -- sorry, harold -- $2.6 million is now out there so they can hire for implementing all of this and helping out on the one end. on the other hand, there are the appeals by the soda industry, as we speak of lobbyists and appeals. do you think that we're gonna get very far on hiring people before it's shut down? >> i don't know. but i have to say that one of the most savvy moves in that process is the decision by the soda industry to hire shanin specter, whose basic legal practice is personal injury, medical malpractice, and is now litigating a major constitutional issue and is probably the most high-profile pennsylvania trial lawyer in the state. >> because he's connected. >> and the state's trial lawyer association has been probably the most generous contributor to the judicial races of appellate court judges in pennsylvania. >> all right. one last topic before we go to inside stories after the break. >> and shanin's a great lawyer, so i don't want to denigrate --

i don't mean to imply that he's not. >> right. of course. >> this is just not where he has generally focused. >> john mcnesby, president of the philadelphia f.o.p., called the black lives matter movement a "terrorist group." those are his words. do you think he was just reaching out there? did he say it as a misstep? were you surprised that he used language that harsh, or -- what is your feeling on it? >> john mcnesby wears his heart on his sleeve. and i don't agree at all. i think you have a few bad apples that may say in a protest, whether or not they're part of the black lives matter movement or not, "kill the pigs." but to say it as a blanket statement is wrong and only inflames tensions worse. john mcnesby does wonderful things in philadelphia, but this is not one of his shining moments. >> and he said it, by the way, on dom giordano's show. he's one of our insiders and does a radio program. what was your takeaway from that? >> well, i wrote a blog post about this, a column that appeared on philly.com. and part of the problem is black lives matter itself, in that it considers itself a movement, not an organization. so it does not really have identifiable speakers who can

look at a comment made by mcnesby and say, "well, the people you're talking about don't really represent us. they're people who show up at our rallies because we invite everyone to our rallies. but we as a movement are not about killing police officers or inciting violence." so they have some responsibility in this, too. mcnesby's remarks -- absolutely wrong. but, you know, there's also some responsibility on the other side. >> last word. >> it's inflammatory language, which we can agree to. but we also have seen other examples, such as in wichita, kansas, i believe, where they turned a black lives matter protest, after the shooting in baton rouge, into a picnic with the police officers in their area and to dialogue. so, again, it's the concept that black lives matter. it's not always the actions, and it's how we move that forward together is what we need to focus on. >> all right. we're gonna take a break. inside stories of the week coming your way right after this.

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by temple university. explore temple's impact -- temple.edu/impact. and buick, your philadelphia super network buick dealer. >> time for inside stories of the week. and let's start with nia. >> so, throughout this political campaign and season, we've seen a lot of anger directed toward muslims and muslim-americans on a lot of levels. right here in our area, in bensalem, the department of justice and others have been looking at possible discrimination when it came to building a masjid. and then down in florida recently, a polling place that had been in a masjid had been revoked allegedly because of fear and possible disenfranchisement. so locally, there is a group of muslim-americans that are putting together an islamophobia town hall meeting, the american friends society, and it's taking place this evening to kick off this kind of policy conversation before the democratic national convention. >> all right. sam. >> temple university -- not to step on our sponsor -- but big turmoil this week at the top of the university. and one of the factors, i believe, that led to the resignation or the forcing out

of neil theobald was his pushing the provost out over the question of the provost speaking at a board meeting about temple's new stadium. and i think it's time for the city to take a look, and the state, at the fact that we put a lot of public money into lincoln financial in order to make it possible for temple to play there. and there should be pressure on the eagles to make concessions to temple so that a new stadium, in the face of enormous pressure on higher education, doesn't have to get built for temple's football team, which i think is a mistake. >> all right. harold. >> my inside story is who's rob mccord going to snitch on next? i mean, his cooperation with federal authorities investigating the state treasurer's office has not only led to charges against him, but now against barbara hafer, former treasurer of pennsylvania. and so we'll see where the investigation goes next. >> three treasurers now. all right. and to you, jeff. >> in light of brexit, we have something called philexit. there was a poll recently, commissioned by harper, that asked pennsylvanians if any region were to secede from the state, which one would you pick? number one? you guessed it -- our five-county region.

29% said philadelphia should secede. but guess what? philadelphians and the surrounding county residents themselves, 26% said, "yes, we should secede." my goodness. >> all right. and that's "inside story" for this week. thank you so much for watching. hope to see you right back here next sunday morning. thanks to all our insiders, and we'll see you in one week. >> i'm in i'm nydia han along h gray hall. >> protesters for the democratic party national convention are expected to heat up today one day before the gavel goes down. plus, a at this time firefighter dies on the job, the philadelphia medical examiner is trying to find the cause. the powerball jackpot grows again. those stories and more next on

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sunday, july 24 i'm nydia han along with gray hall. >> here's some of the stories we're following on "action news." philadelphia becomes the center of american politics and the center of attention for the people protesting the democratic party. also, a philadelphia firehouse is