>> happy new year. time to look back over the big stories of 2016 and look at what's ahead in 2017. let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning. hope that you didn't need any aspirin this morning, but you had a good time last night. let's introduce you to the panel. first up, we've got lawyer ajay raju. good morning. >> happy new year. >> happy new year. documentarian sam katz. happy new year. >> good morning. happy new year. >> communications exec nia meeks. >> good morning. >> and attorney journalist christine flowers. >> happy new year. >> you guys all look so festive. thank you for continuing on the celebration. this is the show where we take a look at the big stories looking backward, but also trying to look ahead to what we think is coming, and, of course, a key question on that is trump. what do we think when we reflect over the past year, and as we stand a couple of weeks out from his inauguration? first of all, let's get into the electorate.

what does his election tell us about who we are as a people and as a city? >> first of all, it tells us that you cannot trust pollsters. you simply cannot. this was -- he was the fireball. he was thrown into this. everyone, when you look at -- first of all, speaking of fire, women were supposed to be hillary's firewall, and the majority of women, white women, voted for donald trump. the -- he had the same percentage of women, more or less, that mitt romney did overall, so this whole idea that women were not gonna vote for donald trump was completely wrong. he had a coalition of individuals that probably you simply -- you didn't know where they were coming from because they weren't actually on the radar screen for most of the pollsters -- the "hillbilly elegy" people, the people who -- the blue collar, those who felt disaffected, those who the -- a lot of white collar -- i'm sorry -- white blue-collar workers. so i think he basically

completely defied the odds and defied the pollsters. >> i still feel like a couple months out from the election, people are still having a hard time actually pinning down who voted for him and why, but there's not one sterling reason, that it's still a hodgepodge of reasons. >> when you look at the whole thing, i mean, true, there are a lot of blue-collar voters, and when they always say women, they usually mean white women, 'cause black women did not vote for donald trump. let's be really clear there. most women of color did not vote for him. however, when you drill down a little bit more, it really speaks to the cynicism in this nation. a lot of people looked at it and said, "eh, not so much." there were people who didn't vote -- a lot of people who did not vote. >> half the electorate. >> yeah, and that was really the more troubling aspect, and i think that is really the gauntlet that's out there for elected officials, for politicians, for any kind of civic leader to re-engage people, because any time you look at donald trump, who has had really no meaningful impact in the public sphere that was outside of anything that was not self-serving, and they say,

"okay, yeah, whatever. let him be president," that's a troubling aspect of where we are as americans, and i think that's a need for us to stop and reflect, truly. >> sam, is the polling wrong or is just the polling has to change -- the days of getting people over dinner on the landline are just gone, and we kept trying to do that? >> well, the sampling is wrong, and if you can't reach people on their cellphones, if you can't get them to answer the phone -- people don't -- you see an 800 number pop up on your screen, you're not gonna answer it. you know it's telemarketing or a robot call, so i think that the underlying premise of polling has completely fallen apart in the digital age, but, also, the media and the news media, particularly, missed the story. when they went out to trump rallies, 15,000 people in a hall, 5,000 people waiting outside, they saw the fistfight, they saw the sucker punch, they saw the neo-nazi or the skinhead, but they didn't see the person who had voted for obama, who was there frustrated, having lost their job or their child is living in their basement, or they can't

afford the student loans, and all of this was reflected, but not covered, because it wasn't the story of the narrative of who donald trump was, and i'm not defending him 'cause i certainly didn't do that during the course of the last year, but there was a story going on out there that everybody missed because the nature of reporting today was to get the visual story, and i just think of that sucker punch in north carolina when the guy's going up, and, bam, somebody whacks him, that's the story, but, meanwhile, there are 15,000 people, and there are people waiting to get in, and that hasn't happened in american politics. >> let's talk a little bit about the press, ajay, because that seems to be where the story goes forward. there's now a lot of debate about what is news, what is fake news, what is news that is credible. sources that you never would have questioned before, it's now all up in the air. where do people go for their walter cronkite if it's here, it's real moment in 2017? >> well, it's not just the fake news. it's also lumping together real news and making it look like fake news. i think all of us are now

sifting through maggots, trying to piece together a cadaver of an explanation of why clinton lost the most winnable election in history, and there are many reasons for that, but, to me, the three things that really stood out -- one, was that hillary clinton was trying to cash in a rain check from 2008, and that sense of entitlement that was viewed as arrogance by the electorate, and they rejected that. number two, the data-obsessed clinton team absolutely missed the enthusiasm deficit in key states like wisconsin, pennsylvania, and michigan, where she should have spent more time with the voters, especially the working-class voters that sam and christina are talking about than miss that. and number three, i think all of us got it wrong. we just missed the zeitgeist of the american public, the ones who, since 2008 great recession, have been suffering. people like me who speak as though they know everything just got it wrong. we just got it wrong. we are not connected with the regular american. >> there's something to be said for man or woman out of time, and it's hard for somebody

to tell. you know, a year before when people were sending around the secretary of state memes of her on her phone, and everybody's going, "you're a rock star," you could see why she said, "let's run." now a lot of people are saying, "joe biden, come back," saying certain other people should get in. how should somebody going into 2017/2018 assess whether or not they should stand up and try to say, "i want to be a standard-bearer for the democratic party"? >> one thing is, we can all agree that she was probably the most prepared and qualified candidate in american history, but she wasn't the candidate for the here and now. all of these folks who are being prepped for the next round, we are now in a reality-tv mode, the celebrity mode, and the traditional candidate is no longer what the public wants. they want antiestablishment. >> but you know what, also? i just want to say, when you were talking about this whole thing about the press. the press focused -- actually, the press tried to have us focus on things that, quite frankly, those who voted for donald trump didn't care about. they didn't care about chubby miss universes --

you know, latina miss universes who were being attacked by donald trump in the past. they didn't care as much, unfortunately, about some of the misogynistic things that were said on a bus. they heard those things. they said, "ew, icky guy, but this has nothing to do with the economy, this has nothing to do with my pocketbook, this has nothing to do with what hits me in my home," so this whole idea that the press sort of -- i think the press -- we are responsible, also. people who write columns, people who are on the radio, people who are on tv focusing so much on things that the rest of the electorate said, "we want to hear about issues, people. we don't want to hear about miss universe." >> i want to bring up this point because you're a communications executive. many of these moments in the past would have been defining moments. there's a reason why the press keys in on these moments because it would have been a collapsing moment any other time for a campaign. >> well, you know, the other thing that we have to look at, and the reality, is that there has been a poisoning of the well, realistically,

as far as what is actually news. we talk about the "mainstream media," and all of this has been put out there to sow the seeds of distrust of the most veritable institutions that are out here. so with that being said, that created a perfect storm for donald trump to rise up and say, "oh, don't trust those people. they don't know what they're talking about. you know, trust me. trust my twitter feed. you know, don't trust what you read, don't trust the facts. you know, trust me." i mean, facts suffered in this election. i have to say that. across the board, people are more likely to listen to whatever was on their echo chamber, on their facebook feed, their twitter feed, or what somebody said that they heard, and blah, blah, blah. there was no independent reporting that came out often enough. there was too much of the washington-insider corps. the washington press corps likes to glom on to the little things, but, i mean, what other modern president has not released his or her tax forms? >> though these things, i mean, you don't have to. it's just... >> no, but it's a standard -- it's an operation-type thing, and it's one of those accepted cultural norms, but we have

dismissed all cultural norms because we have looked and said, "oh, that doesn't matter. pooh, pooh, pooh, pooh." >> you asked at the outset of the question, what does it say about us? and i think it reflects our declining commitment to citizenship and to being knowledgeable about our government, being knowledgeable about the world, and to having the point of view that may or may not be consistent between different groups, but at least it's founded on some basic understandings of how we operate, who we are, and the institutions that help keep democracy strong, all of which took a bath in this -- >> do we get it back, or is it just gone? >> we may get it back because pendulums swing, and, of course, you know, look. we're gonna talk about all these people that are coming up next year, or whatever -- all of it will depend on how trump performs as president. if trump is a strong president, and is consistent to the principles, whatever those might have been, that he articulated during the campaign, he's gonna be very, very difficult to contend with 'cause he's a much better street fighter than anybody else in the game, and it is a street-fighting kind of game. >> well, let's talk about this,

because you also heard people say politicians are corrupt, the institutions are corrupt, there was a wholesale. and listen to these facts. people this year watch chaka fattah get 10 years of a sentence, kathleen kane, pennsylvania attorney general, 10 to 23 months -- just in the newspaper in the last couple of days, two more philadelphia judges, after a string of local and state judges being kicked off the bench. at a certain point, does it catch up with you when people look around, and it just feels as though all of these people, politicians, judges right here in front of you, who are supposed to be the best of you, and they don't do what they're supposed to do, they don't believe anything? >> but it goes back to what sam was saying earlier, and i will tell you, after this election, i had to dig into the federalist papers, i had to jump back into the constitution. i mean, i really -- i had to go back into the foundational documents and kind of get a sense of this nation. it's always been rockets when we got started, but there's a responsibility that we also hold. when we talk about people that are shady grady on

the court, whether they're in congress, wherever they are, it's our responsibility as citizens, because we instill these people there. it's not just, "oh, it's out there. it's someone else's." we have to take responsibility for the leadership that we have, and we have not done that, and we have abdicated it. so, on the other hand, when you see their stories, and you're reading about this, yes, one after another sounds like, oh, my gosh. everything's falling apart. how many members of congress are there, and we're talking about...? >> 536. >> and we're talking about one guy, right? how many judges are there out there? how many have served for years and years? we don't take that context because we're not thinking and we're not analyzing as individuals. >> interesting point. let's talk about somebody who had a pretty good year, you might say. that was jim kenney -- first year as mayor. many people thought he was not gonna be able to get the soda tax through. he did. he's been able to -- he's saying that he's going to fight on sanctuary cities. you can do any number of things in the city. schools -- he got some of the money that he wanted for kindergarten seats,

or i should say pre-k seats. when you look at him in total -- >> stop-and-frisk. >> well, those are the things that could come back on him. >> right. >> stop-and-frisk being a key one. how should we assess him, and also the rebuild program. a lot of people saying they're waiting to see how much diversity is in it when it really gets going. how would you assess him year-end? >> i would say he's had a very good year, but i also think that being mayor of a city, you get defined by a crisis, whenever that crisis comes, and it hasn't come for jim kenney. early on in mike nutter's tenure, the country's economy collapsed. he had an opportunity to do some really big things. he did none of them, and that defined his mayoralty. you know, john street had his issues, and kenney will have his. he hasn't had it yet. the soda tax was a reflection, in my opinion, of a very shrewd politician who knew how to work city council and who was willing to trade with city council, which nutter was unwilling to do. >> i think kenney has his crisis, which is a broken school system, poverty, and i think he's dealing with it, which even the stingiest of kenney critics will say that he had a good year. the soda tax -- we'll become

the first city in the country to have that. his ability to work with city council -- >> berkeley was the first city. >> well, but one big city. the ability to work with city council, which the former administration did not -- i mean, that, to me, is a second hat trick. and number three, when you talk about bringing inclusion in, still keeping that coalition patchwork alive -- that i did not expect -- i think you have -- i did not endorse the guy, but -- >> we have a very low bar in philadelphia. when we say raising taxes is a good thing for philadelphia, i have to say -- i have to be the republican at the table. [ laughter ] >> i do not endorse kenney, but i'll say this. every word that i said that the other candidate might do, kenney is doing, and you have to -- even the stingiest of his critics has to acknowledge that he's off to a rocking start. >> well, you know what? actually, i do think that he's -- i agree with sam. i agree with you, as well, ajay, by the fact that he's able to work well with city council. he's one of the first mayors that really has had that great relationship, although street did, in a way.

>> street and rendell both had it, too. it's not a high bar to have a working relationship with city council. >> the one thing i want to say is, his tone has to be a little bit different here. when one of the city solicitors was found to have been -- that whole graffiti situation. he needed to come out more strongly instead of just come and say, "well, you know, everybody makes mistakes." >> right. >> i mean, this was not just a mistake, and this was on his watch, and this was his city solicitor's office. >> his city wants to hear strongly -- a more conservative city, yes, but his city, which is heavily democratic, did they want that? >> i'll tell you. that was a shameful event, but i will also say that kenney has managed to hold on to the public. you know, he's captured their imagination, and he hasn't let any of those people fall off the plate so far, right? and as long as he can continue to keep the trust of the city and people feeling, okay, genuinely he's in my corner, he'll do well. >> all right. well, when we come back, we're going to assess the governors, wolf and

christie, and see what 2017 looks like for them. >> "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. start the car! start the car! the ikea winter sale. wooooooo! get up to 50% off select items. now through january 10th. ikea

start the car! start the car! the ikea winter sale. wooooooo! get up to 50% off select items. now through january 10th. ikea ♪ >> welcome back to "inside story." some people used to say that bill clinton was so popular because he was the mayor in chief, that he came up with small-bore things that affected people's day-to-day life that they liked.

so listen to these things that governor wolf has done that affect your day-to-day life, and in the upcoming year, if medical marijuana is something you're interested in, you'll be able to get it. in our area, you can get wine shipped to your house. you can catch an uber or a lyft, and there's probably more money for your public school. he should be riding high, but the sense is that governor wolf is more than a little bit vulnerable. what's going on here? >> well, he's more than a little bit vulnerable, and his performance as a chief executive in a big state, a complex state, and a diverse state has been disconnected from the political reality of the state. his inability to effectuate some compromise with the legislature through the first nine months of the budget crisis last year, the fact that he had to throw in the towel on the major increases in funding and equalization formula, the fact that he had a monstrous tax increase proposed, he got virtually none of it -- i think all of these things signal vulnerability, political vulnerability. he's a very smart and nice guy and a very ineffective leader of the commonwealth, and he's

exposed himself, i think, both in his own party, although i doubt because of his own wealth, that he'll get a primary, but if you see trump winning pennsylvania by 60,000 votes, and you're a democrat in a state where the democrats enjoy a 1-million registration advantage, or a 900,000, you're looking at democrats who are very comfortable voting republican. if trump performs well, scott wagner will be a very ferocious candidate and a very difficult opponent for tom wolf. >> i guess that's the big question going forward into 2017, into 2018 -- will we be talking about a governor wagner in two years? >> it's a possibility. the things that you talked about impact those urbane pennsylvanians, but those other pennsylvanians that are living in the smaller towns and the rural areas, i mean, i don't really think they care that much about wine being shipped in. i mean, that's not the biggest thing on their docket. >> or catching an uber. >> or catching an uber -- yeah. go on down to the cow patty. i'm going down to this other cow patch over here. but, i mean, at the end of the day, you have to have those big policy points. we still have pension reform that's completely necessary, and it's not being touched

in an effective way, so the big issues have not defined this particular governor, and his inability to really work with the legislature in a substantive way -- it's going to be a problem. >> he's got to get back in the jeep and start selling himself a lot better, but we've now got a good look at him. do you see him doing it or no? >> you know, i was out in york county yesterday, his home base -- i was out there for work -- and, i mean, i think that there is a disconnect between those of us who are here in the eastern part of the state and the more rural, the more -- you know, the pennsylvanians that you see up in sullivan county, the pennsylvanians who don't necessarily have as priorities things that philadelphians would have. i think the problem is, he's seen as not understanding, even though he comes from york county -- understanding what those people want. i will say very, very quickly, the issue of medical marijuana, i find that to be fascinating in a commonwealth, as relatively conservative as pennsylvania is,

that we were able with a democratic governor and an overwhelmingly republican congress or state house to actually approve medical marijuana. >> we have an aging population, also, that suffers from arthritis, and they want simple relief. >> 145 members of the house, in a house with 81 democrats, voted for medical marijuana. so you're talking about an issue about which there was a broad consensus. >> yeah. >> it'll be interesting to see what the state is like in a year. let's talk a little bit across the river about chris christie. in his last year of his term, what is he in for in 2017? is he gonna get anything done? the polling numbers are outrageous. he can't get over 20% in the last couple of polls for approval ratings. what does it look like for him this next year? >> you can put a fork in him 'cause he's done. >> he's going to be trump's personal assistant. >> my understanding is, in some quarters, he thinks that the current team, somebody's going to fail, and they will want an executive, somebody who's used to being an administrator, and they will come back to him. >> no, i think he's

the political lazarus. we said we can put a fork in him several years ago, right after bridgegate, and then he still became a candidate, at least in the republican primary. i think he has multiple lives. he has more endings than "die hard" movie. >> yeah, but he's been about through 8 for this cat. >> he's only 18% favorability, but i think he's limping. >> i don't see trump calling him. i see him more auditioning for a sports radio job or something else where he can use that bombast in a way that will be effective. i think his voice will continue on the national landscape. i think he'll still be a pundit-type, someone that people will call upon, and he may even come back to the rncs, but i don't really see his star rising any higher. >> kim guadagno clearly wants to run for governor. has he undercut her chances as we look ahead? >> i think -- if you've noticed, you've seen her separating herself from him more and more, particularly in the last few months. so i don't think she's necessarily damaged goods, and the more that she can assert herself and her own policies, she may be okay. >> we're down to the last minute. quickly, let's talk about philadelphia district attorney

seth williams, who is facing three primary challengers in may in an election. there was a time when people were talking about seth williams for mayor at some point. that talk has gone away. is he gonna survive a primary challenge, and will he survive in november? >> he would be much more vulnerable if he had one primary opponent. >> he's got three. >> and that has the potential to split the vote that's anti-seth. he has not played the race card, and he might be able to because, after all, this is a very democratic community with a very large african-american vote, but i think seth williams has hoisted himself on his own petard and very well could be defeated. >> very quickly. is that black vote there for him, though? he had a lot of flack for prosecuting a number of black politicians. >> there's been a lot of split, and when seth first went into office, there was a lot of love. that started to wane increasingly, so it's not a guaranteed lock-up, but he only needs 26% to win. >> and it's a 12% turnout. >> exactly. >> so it's not exactly the control. a d.a. race doesn't bring people out of their homes. >> well, we have to go and take another break. we'll see you right back here.

>> "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. time for our insiders' resolutions. ajay, we'll start with you. >> 2017, i settle my debts. i've accumulated a debt of gratitude to my family. i settle my debt with them. my firm, dilworth paxson, my colleagues who let me take credit for their work -- i'm gonna do work 2017, let them take some credit, but that's my resolution for 2017. >> all right. very nice. sam. >> well, i'm resolved to be a little more informed so i don't miss things quite as badly as i did in 2016, to try to really understand what's going on and not to be so comfortable in my own preconceived notions of things. i have two grandsons, and i love spending time with them. i'm gonna spend more. i'm hopefully gonna be having a granddaughter in april. and, lastly, we're gonna produce a film called

"the daring women of philadelphia," which is gonna tell the story of philadelphia's women in the early 19th century who led the fight against slavery and for women's rights. >> you got a busy year. sounds good. nia. >> in 2017, i'm really resolving myself to be even more engaged in my community. that means doing more in my individual block, that means doing more in my individual community -- in the schools and such, from mentoring to just helping out with fundraising with various institutions, because, truly, it's about collective work and responsibility, and truly it is about us getting more involved, reading more, and being better citizens. so that's my resolution. >> christine. >> in 2017, tam, i resolve to try and be a little bit more ecumenical in my beliefs, to see both sides of the issue, which i have a very difficult time doing with my own perspective. i've learned a lot from my dear, dear friends and family here in seeing that sometimes what my preconceptions are are not necessarily the right things, and i also resolve -- as sam was

talking about his grandkids, i have a nephew who i love very dearly, and i resolve to try and teach an 8-year-old that getting pie in the face is not the worst thing in the world. >> good luck with that. then you can try to rub the thing in your mouth. they love that one, too. well, i think i'm gonna join all of you in trying to read more widely, speak to people more widely, and more poetry. i want to read more poetry. it brings a different kind of calm and tuning of the mind, and we could use that. they're telling me it's time to get out of here. have a wonderful new year. >> happy new year! whoo-hoo! i'm nydia han, next on "action news," on the first day of the new year, a military veteran is killed in an early morning hit-and-run. details on the horrific scene. new year's day is here, that means the mummers have taken over broad street. a look at the parade excitement. after the party it's time for a massive cleanup in time square. what it takes to clear the confetti after the ball drops. those stories and all next on

"action news."

garn, -- good afternoon, sunday, january 1, happy new year. i'm nydia han i gray is off. the ball has dropped and the fireworks lit up the sky it