>> the new 6abc franklin and marshall poll has the presidential race in pennsylvania tightening, the pa senate race widening. "inside story" starts right now. [ theme music plays ] good morning, everyone. it is sunday, september 4, 2016. you are watching "inside story," and let's meet our insiders of the week. first up here -- g. terry madonna with the franklin and marshall poll, which we will be discussing very shortly. >> good morning. >> good to see you, terry. we have sam katz, documentarian. good morning, sam. >> good morning. >> you don't have a poll. >> i have a poll, but i made it up. [ laughter ] >> jim eisenhower, attorney. good morning, jim. >> good morning, matt. >> and val digiorgio, the chester county gop chair. >> good morning, matt. >> how you all doing? let's talk about this 6abc franklin and marshall poll. it is out. i have the highlights right here. first, let's talk about the presidential race, as it applies to pennsylvania. hillary clinton kind of losing

some of her lead to donald trump. it's now 47% to 40%. that's among likely voters in pennsylvania, and that's a change from an 11-point lead clinton had right after the democratic national convention, which was in philadelphia, pennsylvania -- 49-38 back then. so, just talking about the presidential race, what happened between then and now, terry? >> first of all, this is the third poll this week that shows the race tightening -- third poll this week. essentially, here's what happened. hillary clinton has not had the best two weeks -- all the questions not just about the e-mail, but about her activities in the state department, whether favors where granted as secretary of state to help the clinton foundation in speeches. this two weeks has been not her best. the second big point is that -- i'll look across the table here -- donald trump did not insert foot in mouth, [chuckling] you know what i mean? i think he would agree. for two weeks, he was -- i hate this expression -- "presidential," if you will. and by the way, this was done

and we were out of the field before the trip to mexico. >> right. >> and we are seeing -- the final point -- we are seeing the same decline nationally, where trump has picked up a couple of points on secretary clinton, and, in some of the battleground states, it's beginning to tighten. again, third poll this week -- it's now a much closer race. >> let me get some more voices in here, but let me throw out a couple of other numbers from your poll. you have what's called a "favorability rating," and sometimes it's negative. >> [ chuckles ] >> clinton is negative-16. trump is negative-21. >> what does that tell you? >> therein lies the historically unprecedented nature of the 2016 presidential election, that we can be choosing between two people who the public has such low regard for. and i think, had the republicans nominated almost anyone else, not just given the last weeks --

>> even ted cruz? >> almost anyone else, they would be in a very strong position to win this election. the fact that hillary clinton has had just the beginning of the tip of the iceberg of leaks of e-mails that she did not turn over because they were personal and have them turn out not to be personal but to be central to this connection between the clinton foundation and the state department and we're still 10 weeks away -- or 9 weeks away -- and more to come, this is a very unpredictable situation. >> you know, matt, i think, first of all, on the overall poll, it's very common -- and i'm sure terry would agree -- that after a successful convention, as the democrats had, you're gonna get a bounce that's gonna last a week, two or so, then is gonna kind of dissipate a bit. it's still a substantial lead for mrs. clinton in pennsylvania. and on the negative front, you know, is it surprising that hillary has a negative rating? there's been millions and millions and millions of dollars of ads run against her -- not just this cycle, but going back cycle after cycle after cycle. this has been a concerted

campaign for many years to erode people's confidence her. [ chuckling ] frankly, i'm shocked it's not higher. >> let me ask you this, val -- >> listen, nobody spent any money that caused her to create, for convenience, a private e-mail server -- >> of which there's been nothing found to be illegal at all and no actual security breach -- none. >> but the political problems -- >> investigations by the -- well, capitol hill -- >> well, let's get the true republican in here -- [ laughter ] val, does the republican party in the state, in pennsylvania, have hope that he can narrow the gap and maybe actually win in pennsylvania? >> well, you know, polls are a snapshot in time. they, in and of themselves, don't tell you anything about what -- other than what today folks are feeling, but you have to look at the trend. so donald trump was on the right trajectory until he stuck his foot in his mouth and took the focus off of hillary clinton's scandals. now that he seems to be a little bit more presidential and staying on message and not saying stupid things, you're seeing that trend now come back. i think he's hit a floor in pennsylvania. in southeastern pennsylvania,

he's got some real serious problems, and he needs to make those numbers up. he's down double digits in two polls i've seen in chester and delaware county. it's not affecting the down ticket. that's the good news for us. but you're seeing the trajectory now heading back up. if he can continue to do what he's doing, stay on message, look presidential, not stick his foot in his mouth, and let the drip, drip, drip of scandals that are coming out against hillary clinton start to gel, you'll see us have a chance of winning pennsylvania. >> want to talk about a down-ticket race -- you mentioned that, val -- and this is part of your poll here, the u.s. senate race in pennsylvania, which it's probably the most watched race in the country 'cause it has such a big impact on who could have control of the senate. democrat katie mcginty, according to 6abc franklin and marshall poll, has the lead -- 43% to 38% among likely voters. her lead was only one percent back in late july, so she's widened it a bit. but the other thing about your poll, terry, is that the race is essentially tight among registered voters -- 36% to

37%. so does that tell us that it actually is a toss-up? >> no, i think what it tells us is that there's room to grow for both of the candidates, meaning that this race has about 25% of the voters who haven't made up their mind, who could change their mind -- about a quarter. and so this race has a long way to go, but here's the way i think about this. hypothetically, if secretary clinton were to carry our state by 7, 8, 9, 10 points, pat toomey has to get a huge number of ticket splitters. and that has been, of late, in the last couple of presidential campaigns, much more difficult to do. we've had much more straight-party voting. i'm not suggesting you can't get some, particularly in val's area in the philly suburbs, where you get a larger proportion of ticket splitters than anywhere in the state. so, here's my thinking. if clinton goes up and wins substantially, toomey's in real trouble. if it stays four or five percentage points, then i think

the senator has a chance. he can get enough ticket splitters. >> but the bad news for toomey is he's the better-known candidate. he's the incumbent. very difficult to beat an incumbent senator, unless you're rick santorum. >> [ chuckles ] >> so, you look at the polls, you know, that's pretty bad for an incumbent who's been in office, run a number of times statewide. and i think the mcginty campaign has been criticized that she stays on message too much, but that's a good thing in politics. the media campaign's been brilliant. toomey runs an ad saying she doesn't support cops. she's right back on -- "my dad was a cop." i mean, i think it's a very effective campaign up to this point. >> we think it's a good thing that she's not known because -- just an article came out today that talked about the fact that, when she was in government, in a high-ranking -- secretary of environment, dep -- she took a taxpayer-funded trip to california to interview to be on the board of a company. the revolving door that she's been involved in, in government, and then working in corporations that had benefited from her and benefiting her own husband, her own husband's company when she

was dep secretary -- and on and on. we think, when voters get to know that about her, they're gonna like toomey more and more. >> i think, if you look at terry's last poll, toomey was down among registered voters, down eight percent. and now, among registered voters, he's up one percent. that's a pretty big swing. now, i don't understand precisely why the difference exists between people who say they're gonna vote and people who are registered, but toomey has done a very good job, in my opinion, of distancing himself, of defining himself as not trump. and i think -- >> but at the same time, he won't say whether or not he's gonna vote for him. >> well, hopefully, he won't, but [laughs] the point is that, so far, he's gotten away without having to take a position in the presidential election. and there's no benefit to him, i don't think, of doing that. >> but here's the dilemma that he faces. i'm not saying he can't overcome it. he wants the support of trump's ardent supporters, particularly up in the northeastern part of our state, the southwest... >> he needs them. >> ...the white blue-collar workers, you know, high-school

educations. they're 50 grand or less in income. no doubt. but then he wants the vote of the moderate republicans and democrats down here in the philly suburbs. >> who are not trump supporters. >> and the key thing he has done, i think, is to define a position that's counter to what people normally think of with republicans on gun control, particularly as it relates to terrorists. >> val... >> exactly right. >> ...do you agree? i mean, as a republican, do you think that he's been able to walk this narrow line, that you can fall on either side very quickly at any point, and he's kind of gotten away with it so far? >> yeah, it's a needle he has to thread. he's doing the best he can with it. the biggest danger for toomey is what terry just pointed out, is whether -- i think he's gonna do very well in the sub-- matter of fact, we have him winning in chester county right now and winning by probably seven or eight points. i think that the bigger challenge for him is keeping the republican base in line because he's not come out for trump yet. and as long as he -- i think those folks will come home because they'll see the difference between the two candidates and they'll want

to -- especially if they think hillary clinton's going to win, they'll want to keep the senate republican. so i think pat will bring those folks home and win the race. >> i want to throw up another poll that says something a bit different. it's the emerson college poll. it actually has toomey up 46% to 39% among likely voters over mcginty. now, this is a poll that only surveys people through landlines, and, terry, you're shaking your head, saying this can't be right. >> yeah, i'm not a fan of robo-called -- you know, auto-dialers. i'm not a fan of using -- you know, not having live interviewers. you got to have live interviewers, you got to call cellphones, you got to reach out because, you know, 40% of the people are landline-only -- if not more. the national average is higher. we have, what, the fourth-oldest population in the country, so we still have a lot of people with landlines. >> i think the other problem for toomey -- and i'll be quick about this -- is because he's been so cautious in the senate, he has very little to talk about. there's not much of a record.

he can't really point to -- >> well, there was the attempt at gun legislation. >> yeah, but didn't pass. still hasn't passed. he did very little to make it pass. so other than that -- and i watch it closely, and i'm open to what he has to say -- i don't see him saying, "i did 'x,' 'y,' and 'z,' it became law, and it's really changed people's lives." where is it? >> and if you look back over the last eight years, six years in the senate, they haven't done anything, so [laughs] i'm not so sure you can blame pat toomey. >> fair enough. >> let's move over to city politics here. federal investigators have subpoenaed kenney campaign records, and this is part of the ongoing investigation into the local electricians union and its leader, john dougherty, who was a mayor kenney ally. and the mayor says his campaign committee will comply with the request, that there is no reason to suspect that he is a target of this fbi probe. but, sam, how uncomfortable should a city leader be like kenney, who is seeing this happen within the first year that he is in office at city hall? >> uncomfortable -- in one way. uncomfortable because he was off to what has to be one of the great starts by a philadelphia

mayor in recent history. uncomfortable because the chairman of the zoning board got subpoenaed and his house invaded. uncomfortable because the leading political figure in philadelphia facilitated his nomination, in my view. and uncomfortable because it's a distraction. and, also, you've got the city council majority leader whose office was invaded. so we're trying to get away from -- we just -- congressman fattah convicted, state treasurer convicted, state attorney general convicted, former chief of staff convicted, state reps, members of supreme court. my god, when does this end? i mean, are we so immune to the corruption prospect in this city that we react not at all? >> having said that sam, as a former federal prosecutor -- you're right. we'd prefer not to have anybody ask any questions, but this is a pretty wide net that the government is casting here, from what i can see. and the fact that you ask for records from someone, that doesn't mean you're guilty of anything. that doesn't even mean you're

suspected of anything. >> are you saying it could be fishing? >> well, no, because that's not allowed under the department of justice rules. it can't be a fishing expedition, but -- >> i thought you needed probable cause to get a subpoena. >> not to make a request for documents or even issue a subpoena. no, not at all. >> a. benjamin mannes from the hill says in a recent column -- and i'll just quote -- "one of the main reasons there are no virtually no checks and balances in the electorate is because philadelphia democrats outnumber republicans in the city to a seven-to-one ratio. >> i think it's more like 11 to 1. [ laughs ] >> this is not a recent thing. this is a generational thing. talk about it all the time on this show. when i grow up in south philly in the '70s, this was going on then. congressmen then were going to jail and state senators and on and on. philadelphia needs reform. they try to pass new ethics laws, and nothing gets better. >> and the state does -- the state did that. >> and then you got the same problems. >> does the city need a strong -- i mean, you tried to run as a republican. does it need a strong republican party? >> it does. >> right, it needs an opposition

party to go out and talk about this thing. we're seeing that now with the new philadelphia republican party chairman, joe defelice, he's out there talking about these things. it's time for them to recruit a top-notch controller candidate, da candidate, to run and run a ticket of reform. we're gonna do that at the state level with john rafferty, and he'll clean the house of corruption that's happening in the democratic party in pennsylvania. john rafferty's gonna be talking about that during his race. >> yeah, quickly, picking up on what jim said, i think jim's absolutely right about the scope of it, but, i'll tell you, a lot of mischief can be done once you broaden the search and you begin to find things you didn't look for... >> you're right. >> ...you didn't go out consciously to look for initially. and that happened in "bonusgate," you know, where 23 of 25 lawmakers, ex-lawmakers, and staffers -- once you get into these records, they may find some things that are unrelated but not very good. >> but to be fair on the ethics front, during the nutter years, very strong ethics legislation was passed for the city of philadelphia. there is a strong ethics board headed up by shane cramer jr.,

who i think does an excellent job -- those of us who know him. and mayor nutter set a great tone. there were very, very little corruption allegations, if any, during his administration. >> one thing -- >> got to go. we got to go. we'll be right back. sorry, sam. [ laughter ] >> "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. [ theme music plays ] hillary clinton: i'm hillary clinton and i approve this

message. vo: in times of crisis america depends on steady leadership. donald trump: "knock the crap out of them, would you? seriously..."vo: clear thinking... donald trump: "i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me." vo: and calm judgment. donald trump: "and you can tell them to go fu_k themselves." vo: because all it takes is one wrong move. donald trump audio only: "i would bomb the sh_t out of them." vo: just one.

for senate, katie mcginty or pat toomey? mcginty supports clean energy jobs. pat toomey voted to protect tax breaks for oil companies. mcginty is pro-choice. toomey wants to overturn roe v. wade and criminalize abortion. mcginty will consistently stand up to the gun lobby. toomey's against an assault weapons ban and gets an a rating from the nra. this year, pennsylvanians have a clear choice. senate majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. [ theme music plays ]

>> back with "inside story." we're gonna talk about pennsylvania getting its third attorney general in the last month. bruce beemer has the job until january, when the term is done. the democrat who worked under kathleen kane during her term was confirmed by the state senate unanimously. the members had returned from their summer recess to confirm governor wolf's appointment, which, before we talk about the attorney general's office itself, i found to be encouraging, that the senate ran back from vacation to confirm an appointee by the democratic governor. >> it was done unanimously, and here's what's fascinating -- beemer testified not once, but twice against kathleen kane, and he is popular within the hallways, if you will, of the ag's office. he will make a great effort to straighten it out. he's a first-class prosecutor who came from allegheny county. i want to mention that, where -- and here's another point, and this is really important. they have found hundreds --

hundreds of people -- who have distributed or received pornographic e-mails -- hundred, several hundred, in the attorney-general's office and elsewhere. the big question out there is what do they do with th-- >> let's turn to sam katz -- >> what did they do with them? >> sam katz is working on a documentary on kathleen kane, and there is this report, the "porngate" report -- hasn't been released. now, kathleen kane did not release it. acting attorney general bruce castor said he would not release it. bruce beemer says he hasn't looked at it yet and doesn't know if he will release it. what's in this thing? >> well, the question is whether they'll redact certain names, and i think the unions representing certain state employees, particularly in the correctional area, are anxious to see names removed. the prospect of this document staying unleaked is about zero percent. if there's a second copy somewhere -- there's another copy, and it's coming out. the ques-- >> would that be irony if it did not get leaked, given what has happened with the

attorney-general's office recently? >> well, it would be surprising to see, given the fact that virtually everything else, whether electronic or not, has been leaked -- to think that this will not be. but it will come out. this will come out. it will be devastatingly embarrassing to a lot of people. and it will -- it reflects really poorly on a state and on the office of the attorney general, and on the criminal-justice system in ways that no one could've predicted when kathleen kane was first elected attorney general and... >> having run for the office myself, matt, in looking at it, i mean, the whole thing is a mess. this report was commissioned by kane. >> mm-hmm. >> she hired a former maryland attorney general to conduct -- >> who's not saying anything about it now. >> it was not done, as i understand, using a grand jury. so it's kind of questionable what the methods were to conduct such an investigation. and, you know, i think people are just tired of this. i agree with terry that bruce beemer is well-respected. he, i believe, worked for

tom corbett before he worked for kane. he's a harrisburg guy, and he's only got five months. >> and let me ask you this, val. you mentioned state senator john rafferty. he's running as a republican for attorney general. tod you have do with this thing? >> no, i think the job of a prosecutor is to take the facts where they lead you and to apply the law to them. so i don't know that any laws have been broken here. there's a lot of folks that are gonna be embarrassed, and i think that beemer is the attorney general and he should do his job and decide what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. this is a potentially serious thing. but i wouldn't wait until the next attorney general comes in to make this -- >> i'm sure the next attorney general will agree with you. they're not gonna want to deal with this thing. [ laughter ] >> yeah, that's funny. >> all right, we'll see what happens with that. let's move back to city politics real quick. there's this thing that came out

there saying there might be a change at the top of philadelphia's democratic party. cityandstatepa.com reporting that congressman bob brady is considering leaving his post as head of the democratic city committee -- something he's led for 30 years -- and that former city controller and one-time mayoral candidate jonathan saidel could take over. brady himself vehemently denied the report, and he also talked to jim eisenhower. >> that's right. i did talk to bob brady this week, and he told me to tell you -- "tell matt o'donnell it's absolutely untrue and i have no intention of resigning." >> so what's going on here? >> you know, lots of people like to -- you know, in the media, they call this time in august the silly season. lots of silly stories come out and lots of shenanigans. >> did jonathan circulate that rumor? >> not to my knowledge. [ laughter ] >> i think a lot of this stems from what looked like -- the natural order of ascension was john dougherty, and it may still be. i mean, dougherty is effectively the most prolific democratic politician in the street, in fundraising, and as a full-time

professional. so maybe there was a thought that dougherty was going to ascend to be the chair, dougherty's recent publicity about what's going on with the investigations may have sidetracked that, and somebody thought that there was an opening. and that got leaked -- i think it got leaked by brady. and then the whole thing was put to bed, and then jon saidel had to write a text or an e-mail that said, "oh, my god, i would never think of anything of that sort. i've been supporting brady forever." brady's not going anywhere soon, but he's not gonna be in the congress forever, either. i mean, i think he's probably had enough. he's in the minority. it's very difficult to be in the minority and be in congress. >> we'll see. i think he's made no statements that he doesn't intend to run for reelection. i think he's reasonably happy with what he's doing, so i don't think there's gonna be any change in the near future. >> inside stories of the week coming up. [ theme music plays ] katie: on crime, pat toomey's attacks on me are shameful.

he's making it up. of course, anyone who commits a violent crime needs to be prosecuted -- and put behind bars. narrator: katie mcginty will keep us safe -- more police on the streets, better training and equipment, and take on the gun lobby for gun safety laws. katie: i'm the daughter of a police officer, and the mother of three. i'll stand with law enforcement to fight crime, and protect our families. i'm katie mcginty, and i approve this message. >> "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 terry. >> back to the f. and m. poll. if you include gary johnson, libertarian candidate, and jill stein, the green party candidate, hillary clinton's lead in pennsylvania is only five. i went back and looked. this is a little different. the libertarian candidate actually hurts hillary clinton more than donald trump, which might surprise a lot of people. and so the more he comes up in the polls, gary johnson -- he's coming up in some of the other polls, as well -- this could actually hurt secretary clinton in some of the battleground states. >> thanks, terry. sam. >> well, tomorrow is labor day, and i just want to make mention of the fact that philadelphia, which is under mass construction today, is -- tomorrow's the day we celebrate the contributions of working people, which are

getting a lot of attention in this election. i'm not sure it's anything more than cursory attention, but, in philadelphia, in 1724, the first union was formed of carpenters, called the carpenters' company, and they ended up building carpenters' hall a few years later. and i just want to wish everyone who's out there doing the difficult work, whether for municipal, school, or in the trades, have a good day off. >> thanks, sam. and, jim. >> i'd like to echo those comments and give a call out to my dad's old union, the letter carriers of america -- a great union representing our postal workers and, this year, celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the first women members, first women letter carriers. >> thanks, jim. and, val. >> our good friend george burrell spent his inside story last week talking about the democratic party and what it's meant for african-americans. i want to set the record straight on a couple things. it was senate republicans, under dirksen's leadership that passed the civil rights act of 1965. it was nixon who ended the segregation in the trade unions and in the schools. it was george w. bush who

appointed more african-americans to high post, including secretary of state. the legacy of the democratic party, after the great society, is high illegitimacy, high drug use, low wealth creation, and all kinds of problems, including standing against things like school reform and charter schools and vouchers that could help the african-american community, and we're gonna take that message to african-americans this fall. >> thanks to all our panelists. thanks for you for watching. that's "inside story" for this week. we'll see you next week, and have a great labor day. [ theme music plays ] >> i'm nydia han along with gray hall. >> coming up next on "action news," tracker hermine, the storm is turning toward shore, live team coverage. displease police have released details about an overnight shooting in west philadelphia. a man was shot after crashing into prkd cars. thousands of pilgrim pack

into st. peter's square as mother teresa is declared a saint.

>> a tropical storm warning is in effect for the parts of new jersey and delaware as hermine makes its way to our shores. >> is that storm is blamed for