>> more people are calling for philadelphia district attorney seth williams to resign. let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning, everyone. i'm matt'd it is time for "inside story." let's meetdonna gentile o'donne, author and nonprofit executive. policyd morning, matt. analyst. >> good morning, matt. >> hi, ed. sharmain matlock-turner, nonprofit executive. >> and all-around nice guy. [ laughter ] he's also a communications whicn why he's on the show, jeff jubelirer. good morning, jeff. >> good morning, matt. thank you. several developments in the philadelphia district attorney's race. governor wolf told action news system is working, but he also thinks current d.a. seth williams should resign andn his federal corruption case. also, a local black lives matter

resignation, which presents some irony to this situation because williams is the fit position. first off, let's start out by putting ourselves in seth williams' shoes. maybe donna, you can do this. why would you not want to resign if you are seth williams, beyond the fact that he doesn't have to, legally? >> he needs a way to make a living and pay for his lawyers.r of this. i think if he had some other means of supporting himself, he but there's a bigger issue here, and seth is gonna have to face black lives matter calls for i think the hypocrisy of a prosecuting people like louise b offenses that -- they were compared to what he did. and so, i think the hypocrisyint going over well, and i think he's not gonna be able to walki, the responsibility forha >> mayor kenney has called for

his resignation, and also interesting, black lives mattero resign, which is another, i guess, ironic part of all this, jeff. >> absolutely. but the thing is also, you know, the court of law will determine. i mean, the evidence seems extremely overwhelming that he is guilty, but let's be clear that the court of law will determine. and he believes, perhaps, that he is innocent, and it's difficult to put ourselves in his shoes knowing he is a strong leader regardless of the mistakes and many mistakes, apparently, allegedly, he has made. from the time he was a young boy to penn state university where he was student body president, there's a lot of pride on the line, and it's very difficult to put ourselves in those shoes. >> it's heartbreaking. >> but i do think that knowing the work that the d.a.'s office has to do, it's really the rest of the citizens of philadelphia who really need to know that the cases that come before them are not gonna be in any way tainted by this process, that, you know, who's going to be sort of

managing the office, are there gonna be people where we're gonna be spending millions of dollars on appeals because people are gonna use this as a way to say that they didn't get a fair trial? i mean, i think the thing to do is for him to step down. i do understand the issue around income, and i agree with donna. i think that has something to do with it. but i think if you look at the overall picture and the charges, i think it's gonna be very difficult for him to be able to effectively run that office. and i do agree -- i think he needs to step aside. >> ed, he has about nine months to go in his term. why should he resign? let's take that argument, present that. >> leave aside the public good, because that's what's been discussed here. >> sure. >> i do think that if you look the nature of the crimes of which he's been accused, it does suggest that he lived beyond his means, if this is correct. that being the case, he needs this money. and his attorney this week asked

out. >> mm-hmm. >> said, "because i don't think this guy can pay me." and the judge said, "well, you've bought into this, you're staying." so, my sense is that you get into a very desperate situation, or an individual does, and decides "i need the money. maybe, maybe something happens. somehow, the prosecution against me winds up becoming tainted." it's happened before. maybe he's got that little thread that lets him hold on just to see what's going to happen, 'cause as you say, it's nine months. that's not a long time to tread water. and right now, i think he's in a pretty desperate situation. >> how about the perception in the public, and also the potential jury pool, people thinking that, "oh, he's guilty because he reigned." >> yep. >> that could be another motivation, right? >> well, the other thing he could do -- i mean, he is a lawyer. he could start out from the premise that he's gonna have to

represent himself with some assistance that he might be able to afford. i think that's a credible thing to be able to say to the folks about why he might leave. >> here's another thing -- we may not know if he was offered a deal. a lot of times, when the deal is offered, part of it is, "well, you're going to fall on your sword. you're going to resign." >> mm-hmm. >> we just don't know what the state of play is in terms of what the prosecutors are going to bring to him. the only time they do a deal is if they have some sort of doubt. the longer it goes without a deal being proffered, the more likely it is that they've got the goods. >> real quick -- we know a ton of people are running in the primaries for philadelphia district attorney. one of them is michael untermeyer. we're gonna be talking about all of them leading up to the primary, which is in may. he started running tv ads. he wants to be the democratic nominee. kind of what governor wolf did during his campaign -- getting ahead of the news and getting yourself out there early, right, jeff?

>> yeah, nothing like reportedly $500,000 -- actually $550,000 self -- putting his own money into the race. he's using the same group that michael nutter used -- the campaign group, neil oxman's group and doc sweitzer -- that very effectively positioned michael nutter, and this -- how do break through when you have this many candidates in a low elect-- low-turnout election? >> but this is a low-turnout election where you're looking at possibly 15% of turnout when you have seven candidates. you also have social media. this is the first time social media's gonna play a big role. certainly larry krasner, a lot of people are talking about him on the social media sites. so again, i'm not sure coming off of the november election how you're gonna engage the electorate. there are a whole group of people who believe that they can increase turnout, because people really are excited about politics, and then there's another group of people who feel as if people are just throwing up their hands and saying, "i can't take it. i don't want to be involved in politics." so, i think there are a lot of ifs here, and it's gonna be

interesting to see whether or not television money alone is going to be able to trump this race. >> who's gonna coalesce around one or more of these candidates? >> and social media is free. >> that's right. >> if we're talking about it, then it's even more valuable. >> sure, sure, sure. you want to wrap things up? >> just very quickly, i was very struck my michael coard's impressive, specific recommendation of krasner on social media. really, really something important. >> again, a lot of candidates. we're gonna be talking about them on "inside story" in the coming weeks leading up to may 16th. bridgegate time now. two former governor christie aides are going to jail. bridget kelly and bill baroni were convicted in the bridgegate scandal -- received prison time after sentencing this week. christie's former deputy chief of staff, kelly, gets 18 months. baroni, a christie port authority appointee, gets two years. both vow to appeal their convictions. now, governor christie, whether this was convenient or not, was with president trump at the white house at the same time to talk about an opioid-abuse initiative and told cbs that

the verdict confirms what he has been saying all along -- he wasn't involved. first off -- you're shaking your head. we'll get to that. i just want to know if anyone's surprised that they received jail time, because these are two first-time offenders, ed. >> i am. and full disclosure, i got stuck in that closing. >> i never knew that. >> yeah, i did. >> back in 2013. >> yeah, well, i'm gonna do serious purgatory time for what i said when i was waiting there, because when you finally got there, you said, "there's nothing going on here. why did i just spend an hour and a half..." >> which aggravates you even more, yes. >> but i am surprised that it was jail time, although they did lie. >> it was the perjury. >> i think it was the perjury. i think they were offered opportunities to come forward throughout this process and say what they had done, and they didn't do it. and so, i think the combination of those things, they said, "yes, we're definitely gonna give them time." >> i think the thing that's sad is that bridget kelly is a

single mom, as i understand it. her kids are heartbroken that she's gonna be in jail. i think the -- i just want to put out the idea that when public officials destroy their lives in these very public ways, there's probably other considerations that ought to get constructed into the sentencing, including all the time in which they are public figures under scrutiny and with the cloud of suspicion, and if not guilt, ultimately hanging over them. if i were the judge, i would've given her 90 days. it's enough of a statement, and it does less damage to those kids, who did nothing wrong. >> i think it's a really harsh standard. now, if that's gonna be the standard, you're gonna have to apply it across the board. we're gonna need to build more prisons. there's gonna be a lot more people going in. >> and we lock up more people than any industrialized country in the world. >> and as far as christie goes, you know, he says, "oh, i had nothing to do with it." it's sort of like king henry who

said, "will no one rid me of this meddlesome cleric?" and his men went out and took care of business. >> well, i'd like to give them the buck stops here, and he should put that in front of him. because they were his people. >> well, let me ask you this about governor christie. has he escaped any more political damage with the sentencing of these two? >> i'm leaving him in the hands of jared kushner. >> we'll see. >> well, you know, governor christie actually mentioned something about how they're not exactly buds, but he's forgiven him, i guess, in a way for regaling his dad? >> i don't think he'll ever win an election again. >> locked up his father -- we'll see. >> his legacy is shot. he's got an advisory role, not a paid, as far as i understand, perhaps not a paid role, and something he frankly has a very big passion about -- opioid abuse, and his personal connection to it, a close friend who lost his life due to it. but he's toast. >> mark sanford came back -- south carolina governor. >> i was gonna say, people say, "never say never" in politics,

and so i think you can never say never. but at least for the foreseeable future, i don't really see an opportunity for him. he's in a blue state that clearly -- where people were looking for him to be able to cross the aisle and to be able to work on both sides. and i think he hasn't been able to do that, and i really don't see a path for him going forward. >> wrap this up, ed. >> different than sanford. people will say christie let two people go to jail. >> mm-hmm. >> they will, right or wrong... >> sanford winning south america? >> well, but sanford, i mean... >> i'm saying it's different circumstances. >> but christie let two people go to jail. that's where people will land on this. >> i agree. >> i think it's going to be very difficult to climb out of that. >> let's talk about education in philadelphia, as we always do -- lottery for education, in this situation. parents of more than 1,300 children entered a lottery for enrollment at a global leadership academy in west philadelphia. this charter school only had 81 open slots for 1,300 children who wanted them. one parent told action news she

had tried to get her child in three other charters, with no success. now, we have seen parents spend the night outside charter schools in philadelphia hoping to get a spot on enrollment day. they don't really do that all that much anymore. parents say global leadership has forward-thinking teaching methods, and they're dissatisfied with the public schools that are options. so, is it right to educate children this way, through the luck of the draw? >> it's a sha-- first, let me do a disclosure. my husband, bob o'donnell, represents tons of charter schools and was actually the author of the first charter schools bill in harrisburg, long history. but on the subject of charter schools, the most important thing i want to say about the charter schools -- they are public schools. people don't get that. they don't understand that they are public schools. >> but they are different. >> and they are different, and parents are voting with their feet. they're taking their kids to places where, number one, they're gonna be safer, and number two, they're gonna have different kinds of academic opportunities. i think there's a real opportunity in philadelphia to

reposition charter schools to be a place for all these young people that are moving into the city. let's keep them here. let's give their kids good schools to go to. >> and, matt, i would certainly add that, you know, i've been a part of the charter-school movement, too. but this whole idea of parents looking for choices has not just been about charter schools. parents have been looking for choices within the school district. if you look at the number of students who apply to masterman every year, to girls' high, to central, to sadie tm alexander in west philadelphia that's on the university of pennsylvania campus, people are looking for quality choices for their children, no matter whether it's charter, whether it's a district school, or whether or not it's within the catholic system, if they can ultimately find the resources to do it. >> what about the people that their only option is these other schools that are -- >> well, here is something that i think is important, and this was announced this week by the mayor and also by council president clarke, was

the idea of putting more resources in some of the other schools to make those schools work for more students. southern high school was the one that was highlighted this week, where they've actually put in counselors and other kinds of services based on research in that particular community so that the educators can spend more time on education, but yet still meet the needs of where students are. and the students and parents and community members around southern high school are really excited about this option. >> get one more comment in here. jeff? >> two quick things -- one, it's easier to get into harvard than it is to get into mast charter school in mastery. it's amazing. what you do is you reward the good charters, you measure them, and you get rid of the bad ones. we haven't done that in philadelphia. get rid of the bad ones that haven't performed, that aren't safe, and help the good ones. >> and they would say they don't have enough money to monitor the bad charter schools. >> but they take tests. i'm saying not all tests. look at their safety. you have to -- we need the police involved, we need parents

involved. parents should vote, too, saying, "this isn't good enough for our kids." >> parents and everyone is saying, "close schools that don't work." it doesn't make a difference of whether you put a "charter" in front of it, or whether or not you put another title. >> we got to close this discussion, but we will be back after the commercial break. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact.

♪ >> back with "inside story." president trump warns the philadelphia mayor and a local republican congressman. through u.s. attorney general jeff sessions, the trump administration announced cities like philadelphia that are sanctuary cities, places that will protect illegal citizens from federal immigration laws, could run the risk of losing out on justice department grants. mayor kenney, i'll read his comment -- "obviously," and this is a quote, "obviously, the thumping that they took on healthcare brings them back to an area where they feel comfortable being divisive about and being bullies about, and that's their style." but let me say this. if the trump administration does pull the trigger and says, "listen, here's a $500 million grant that philadelphia would have gotten for their police, and we're not giving it to them because of sanctuary cities," how fast would the citizenry, the constituency of mayor kenney say, "oh, well, you know what? maybe we shouldn't be doing this"? how fast could that happen? >> i think they're gonna go to

court. what i'm hearing from the mayors across the country that are sanctuary cities, they're, number one, saying, "look, we're complying with the law as it relates to turning over felons in our cities." where they're saying that they're not is that they're not sending people just because ice comes and says, "i want that particular person." and the issue of whether or not they're gonna take money -- remember, 81% of the money that comes into cities comes through states. so, you're gonna have to figure out, how do you negotiate through states as it relates to this money? the other thing that is the money is going to people who don't have anything at all to do with this issue. how are you gonna take that money away from them? then you're gonna say, "but we're giving" -- remember in his executive order, he cut the police out of the executive order saying, "you could send money for police." so, i think there are a lot of legal issues here, and i think they're gonna immediately go to court. >> let me get ed on this. >> the mayors aren't being exactly forthright, because

jeff sessions in that press conference also put out a list of cities and the number of felons who were released by various cities. so, that's point one. look, this is nullification. this is the states and municipalities deciding which federal laws they will and will not enforce. be very careful when you play that game, because if you decide you're not going to enforce or you're going to allow people not to enforce immigration law and do their part, don't be surprised if some municipalities decide they don't like other laws, and they're gonna set those aside. we fought a civil war over this. you can't do what these mayors want to do. there has to be a reasonable middle ground, but right now the mayors have taken an extreme position, and it's not helping their cause. >> three quick points -- number one, the citation that the attorney general cited in his

surprise press conference, the press pool was floored to see him step up to the podium, in which he quoted section 1371, and then gave a narrative which was completely counter to the content of section 1371. so, this clearly was thrown together to be a distraction. second, the police leadership was in washington the day before, meeting with the president. and to sharmain's point, i think they're gonna be fine. third and most importantly, all of these mayors, including ours, they're doing the research to figure out what's actually at risk, what dollars are actually at risk. so, sharmain's point about state money -- but even federal money. there are some areas of federal money that will not be impeded. so, to your earliest question, matt, about what are the citizens, how are they gonna react -- i think the job of this administration, and i think they will do this job, is to make sure that the citizenry is actually informed about the real

implications and not the fake news, dare i say it. >> jeff, i want to get you on this with charlie dent. >> yes! >> so, the new york times says when the lehigh valley congressman, who is a republican, told president trump to his face he wouldn't support the gop healthcare plan, the president told dent that "you're destroying the republican party. you're taking down tax reform and that the president would blame you for that." is charlie dent destroying the republican party? >> no, charlie dent is not destroying the republican party. >> yay, charlie dent. we like charlie dent. >> president trump changed his mind a couple days later and has now said he's gonna go after the freedom caucus, if you will, saying they're the ones who ruined the healthcare bill. therefore, you're gonna be "stuck with," is his words, obamacare and all these other things. and he said, "if you don't get on this train, i'm gonna come after you." so, charlie dent -- listen, charlie dent is what you see is what you get. you know where he is. he represents his district. >> he is smart, thoughtful, and he's staying. >> well, i think the other thing with charlie dent is, too, that he also said -- it seems like

he's not afraid -- that the house of representatives can't handle the investigation into the russia connections. we need a bipartisan work in the senate. so he doesn't seem like he's afraid of the president to me. >> the president has a very short attention span. he's moved on. >> trump's been "dented." >> there are other groups that can "primary" him. >> they can absolutely primary him. >> and i'm sure he's worried about that. and i'm sure his district probably has a lot of trump voters. >> the district is...eh. >> i'm not saying... >> yeah, but i think he's not this whacky liberal republican. >> no, he's a moderate man. >> all right, so why are there -- if he's making sense, why are there not more republicans coming out? >> 'cause they're afraid of their own shadows, some of them, and they're afraid to go on the record. and it's disappointing, but we should watch out here in the southeast. we do have a couple of, what i consider to be, much more mainstream, moderate -- whether it be pat meehan, ryan costello, who are thoughtful, who take all

the issues into consideration. but there is fear of being primaried. you said it. >> inside stories of the week coming up. ♪ fios is not cable. we're wired differently. maybe that's why we've been ranked highest in customer satisfaction by jd power 4 years in a row. and now you can love fios too. get 150 meg internet, tv and phone. all for $79.99 per month, for the first year with a two-year agreement.

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>> "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 donna. >> this past week in washington, the national leadership of the building trades, sean mcgarvey, met with president trump and a whole bunch of investment advisers to try and figure out if they can pool pension funds for purposes of moving on the billion-dollar infrastructure project. good leadership there. let's see if it happens. >> okay, donna. ed. >> matt, evelyn farkas is a name you're gonna get to know. obama administration undersecretary of defense, msnbc contributor -- and on that

network this week said that she and her colleagues were so concerned about the trump people that they widely discussed on capitol hill the investigation of trump. question is, how did she know? what did she say to whom? this is something the house and the senate may have an interest in. >> thanks, ed. sharmain. >> summer jobs. i know it's april, but we are thinking about teens for the summer. 18,000 young people every year apply for jobs in philadelphia, and only about half of them get it. i am asking all of us to find a way to either hire a teen this summer or to make a contribution so that we can hire one. if we need a little competition, chicago is gonna hire 30,000 teens. come on, philadelphia. we can do this. >> sharmain, thank you. jeff. >> strange bedfellows -- could the republicans and the green party actually be coming together and being on the same side? just this past week, republicans decided to join a lawsuit by cheri honkala and the green party contesting the results of the house district 197, the special election, where it had

about 5% turnout, and the write-in candidate for the democrats, emilio vasquez, won. story's not over yet. they would've won anyway if they didn't have any shenanigans, which allegedly occurred. is this philadelphia getting another bad rap? deservingly so it appears to be. >> we shall see. thanks for watching "inside story." have a great sunday, everyone. we'll see you next week. i'll see you monday morning at 4:30 a.m. set your alarm clocks. [ laughter ] drive ar driver shot and killed in his car in philadelphia feltonville second, police are looking for a motive and suspects drama on the ice michael neuvirth collapsed at last night's game financial statements show just how much money trump administration leaders have, this is the after the forecast

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action news delaware valley's lead, news program. good afternoon, it's sunday, april 2nd. some stories we're following at action news. a car trying to avoid a deer gets into a fatal crash es