>> it's supposed to be the quiet, boring days of summer, but a number of political races are already looking like they could be hot. let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning. i'm tamala edwards. welcome to "inside story." we've been talking art. now it's time to get to politics. let's introduce you to the panel. first up, attorney ajay raju. good morning. >> morning. >> marketing exec brian tierney. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> journalist larry platt. good to see you. and communications exec jeff jubelirer. >> good morning, tami. >> okay, congress is going on recess. this is supposed to be the time that people only think about sand and surf, but there's so much going on, starting with this. bob casey, giant in the state as a senator, five people have put their names out there as were gonna run in the primary for the gop -- got a little attention, but this name is getting a certain amount of attention -- lou barletta, who's a congressman out of luzerne,

used to be the mayor of hazleton. trump supposedly said, "i want you to run in this race." does he clear the field now? is he the big gun? >> i don't think so. first of all, you know, he doesn't have much name i.d. the mayor of hazleton isn't as known, as you can imagine. trump won this state by less than one point, too. i mean, it was super close. i think out of 6 million votes, about 60,000, 70,000 votes total. so i think it will be a complicated field. i think there will be a lot of opportunity for people to kind of get their name out there, but i have a hard time, given today's environment, thinking how you beat bob casey. >> really? with casey moving more and more to the left, and here's barletta, who made his name on anti-immigration. people may not know him a lot now, but if you are a trump supporter, somebody in the middle of the state, it seems to me that he looks a lot more appealing to you than, perhaps, somebody else. >> i understand, but the way you win an election is 50% plus one, and i'm not saying this won't be a very tight race, but i think the trump phenomenon was really -- i mean, it was super, super close last time. i don't think he's gotten

any stronger, and polling has shown that he hasn't gotten stronger in pennsylvania, and there's something about bob casey who -- and that name, obviously, going back, et cetera, that i think has a lot of equity. >> and remember, while he's moved to the left, he's still someone who's gonna appeal to some of the same element and some of the constituencies that lou barletta appeals to, more of a caucasian working-class voter. bob casey's pro-union, he's pro-life... >> mm-hmm. >> ...so he takes away some of the other hot-button issues. he's also -- these guys are both from the scranton-wilkes-barre area, so you can't look and say, "well, barletta gets everybody there," and barletta was a precursor to trump. >> yeah. >> and i think -- i agree with brian. it's the timing of the race as if it were today that's gonna be tough to beat casey. >> so it sounds as though it would be pretty hard for anybody except for maybe a giant out of the west of the state to come through. >> and i think that's because this is looking like it may be a wave election, right? trump -- trump is really the referendum, and, you know, in the latest quinnipiac poll, he's down to 33%, so he's shedding support, and is that what you really want to hang

your hat on? >> but, ajay, can you look at the numbers today with the race being at least a year out and say, "that's where we're gonna be in a year"? he might get some stuff passed and be looking great. >> are you talking about trump? >> about trump, yeah. >> look, i think it depends on what he gets passed. i'm surprised that he went after healthcare reform first and then he went to immigration reform next. what he could have gone after was corporate reform, tax reform. you have corporate earnings at an all-time high even if the multiples are historical highs. you have a low-interest-rate climate. you have low unemployment, cheap dollar. if you can expatriate some of those monies -- even president obama and the democrats were for corporate tax reform so they can expatriate more funds and have a dow that is at 22,000. it could go up to 24,000, have that long -- >> but is he getting any of this out there? >> he's not getting out there. that's what's odd. what he should have done is corporate reform. he should be talking about opioids, where the trump county is affected by. i'm surprised at the priorities

of this administration -- >> it's funny that you bring that up. let's look at these things. in the last two weeks, he's brought up kicking out transgender people out of the military. the dod said, "we don't respond to tweets. that's not policy." they brought up affirmative action, this idea that maybe they would go against anti-white discrimination. then they came out the next day and said, "no, this was just one case, not a change in policy," and then cutting legal immigration in half, and the senate said, "that's a nonstarter. our states won't go for that." is this a good idea now? his base likes these ideas. is that a good idea when, after the summer, he needs to try for tax reform with many people saying, "if he doesn't win on tax reform, he's in a lot of trouble"? >> i think that is the larger point -- i think not just tax reform. just to go back to the opioid. you talk about 28% of the electorate that is always consistently supporting trump, if you look at the appalachian and the midwest regions, where some of them are resident in, 52,000 deaths from opioid-related cases alone in 2015, but --

>> if you're gonna do that, you have to have discipline about that, and the biggest problem we have -- early on in my career when i was working in washington, i worked at the republican national committee, and i ran all the campaign schools as a young man, and one of the things -- all over the country, we would have these schools, and we would talk to people and say, "you have to keep repeating the same thing, and by the time you're so sick of saying it, it's just starting to get through." >> but is he repeating the same right thing? >> he isn't. he says five different things in the same day. he has a week where he's talking about jobs, and then he talks about something else. he's confusing his own message, and he's confusing -- he's stepping on his own message. there's no message discipline. there is an opioid problem, but then you have to have opioid week, and you can't -- >> my larger point -- and sorry about the long wind-up, brian. my larger point is that there are bigger issues that his constituents actually should care about, that they're suffering from, and he's not talking about it, is that a distraction? >> that's what i'm getting at. when you bring up the divisive issues, do you have what you need for congress to come back and say, "here's a tax-reform bill that we can get through, that you can maybe pick up some votes"? >> he is addicted to the base

because the base is what gives him adulation, and he's our narcissist in chief. to ajay's point, i think what he should have began with is a marshall plan for infrastructure, which would be game-changing economically for all the people who voted for him and for the rest of the country, but he doesn't have the vision to come up with something like that. >> and that's where you get democrat votes, and the democrats are not going to run away their infrastructure, therefore, tax reform in many reverse that and get some wins under his belt. now he has no wins, he has no juice. >> but i do have to make this note. are they getti aout other than , "we don't want him"? >> no. >> no, and here is a real problem for the president in the last two or three weeks. in the house and in the senate, republicans are coming to a moment ofit, but they don't personally trust him. they think that he is erratic, they think that he'll say, "congratulations on passing the healthcare reform bill"

in the house, and two weeks later calling it mean-spirited. they see what he's doing to sessions, so if you're a u.s. senator, and you've been in there for, say, two or three terms, this guy was basically a democrat two years ago, okay?t now. is he gonna have my back? and if you want people to take tough votes, you have to feel-- and, unfortunately, particularly in the last few weeks when you talk to people, think, "i can't trust him." >> let's try and talk a little bit about some of the other races. philadelphia, the surrounding collar counties, it's looking as though there could be a number of races here that will be competitive. politicspa is saying there are a number of republicans in the state. emily's list is starting to say, "we want to run some people against philadelphia area republicans." will we not be able to turn on the tv next fall without seeing the political ad? >> i always was mad that we didn't get newspaper ads out of this. you get all the tv ads. but anyway, yeah. i think there will be, but i think that people like pat meehan, people talk about that. >> yes, costello, meehan, smucker, lobiondo -- those are the names they keep raising.

>> well, meehan, in particular, i think, is one of those folks who is a middle-of-the-road. he really reflects that district. he won 60-40 last time. i think he's a safe seat. i think some of the other races you look at -- >> what about costello? he's always number one on the list that people say is gonna be vulnerable. >> yeah, costello's in some trouble. he has a really credible challenger in chrissy houlahan, who is a military vet, an entrepreneur. she was part of that group that started the basketball-apparel company and1, and has worked in the nonprofit sector. she could be this area's amy mcgrath, who is running in kentucky as a military veteran. >> if you haven't seen the political ad, it may be the best political ad i've ever seen. go look it up on youtube. >> yeah. and i think chrissy houlahan might be that kind of candidate. >> you got to look at it's the most gerrymandered district in the country. i think costello, like meehan, middle-of-the-road republican, tough opponent, but he's taken some tough votes. he certainly comes around on issues like the environment, supporting the renewable-energy

sector. he's gonna have no shortage of money, and while it will be tough, i think he's still leans republican. >> this number jumped out at me from emily's list. they said in the 2016 cycle, they had 900 women who said, "i want to run." they say already this cycle, they have 16,000 women who say, "consider me." it's as though there could be an incredible field next year of just a number of changing pieces. that's quite a difference! >> yeah, well... >> yeah, that's great. >> i think it's about building the infrastructure, creating the pipeline, feeding the pipeline, and it's about time that is being developed. >> not to beat a dead horse, but it's also about whether this is a wave election or not, whether trump -- where trump is in terms of popularity is gonna determine a lot of this. >> let's talk about bob brady, who, for three decades has been a kingmaker in the city. a young man named omar woodard, a nonprofit director -- he's in his 30s -- is saying -- you know, he put out a facebook message saying,

"enough is enough, and i'm considering. i'll let you know in the next few weeks if i'm gonna run in the primary. something needs to change." the thinking is, even if he doesn't win, his running might cause a number of people to jump in. now, let's remember, we're in a cycle where we saw rebecca rhynhart and larry krasner win in probable races. what does this say about the potential for bob brady? >> i think brady's still in a pretty good position, and here's why. those are citywide races. bob brady is in the first congressional district, which he benefited very much when republicans were in control of redistricting in the last census because they made his district more favorable. it's more caucasian, and it's more looks like the type of issues that he supports are the ones that his constituents support, and i just think what's going on -- it's depressing saying this -- is people don't follow the intricacies of was it illegal what he did, was his campaign finance -- it's ugly, it's terrible, but i don't know if it's gonna break through. >> look, i've written often about the perils of the democratic party machine,

right, and how we don't have true democracy often. that said -- and i know omar woodard, and we've written about him at the citizen. he's an up-and-coming young rising star, but running against bob brady in congress does nothing to fix the problems in philadelphia in terms of political reform. bob brady was the head of the democratic party before he was a u.s. congressman, so i think if you want to change philadelphia politics, run for ward leader and run for committee person. >> let's talk about new jersey politics. cory booker came out with a bill wanting to legalize marijuana across the country, saying that if we see you targeting certain people for marijuana offenses, we'll withhold federal funding. he calls it part of criminal justice, saying that minorities are prosecuted a lot more than other people. it's a nonstarter, no cosigners at this point, but many people see it as a placeholder, putting his name out there for 2020.

does it, and does it really get him where he wants to be? is this the place to hang your hat in 2020? >> it's part of the cory booker story. he also has the mayor of newark story and all those sorts of things, and this is pieces of it. he's got an incredible social-media presence, as you probably know, but this is a nonstarter, but this is definitely -- and, also, you can get down to one layer. shouldn't utah be able to decide how they want to handle marijuana versus the state of california and company? >> why is it a nonstarter, brian? i mean, last year alone 537,000 arrests related to marijuana. that's more than all violent crimes, including murder and rape. colorado had half a billion dollars in revenue from marijuana. you have a whole class and population of african-americans from '80s on, mostly entrepreneurial, who've been arrested. now there are certain states that it's legal. families, communities have been destroyed -- >> but medical is different than recreational. >> well, we can go back to opioid. the opioid is community compassion, but if it's marijuana, lock them up. where is the standard? if you have uneven standard, and you have communities destroyed that way, it should not just be

a nonstarter. it should be a national conversation about race and history. >> but this is a question of political possibilities. if the country is dealing with the fallout from opioids, and you're saying you want to legalize the drug, even if there's an argument for it, is it the right place for him to stand? >> wait, wait, wait. tamala, whites and blacks equally use marijuana, but blacks are four times in more likelihood to go to jail for it. so why is it a nonstarter? that is a much larger conversation that america should be having. >> well, i should say nonstarter in terms of politics. as an issue, i think it's absolutely an issue, but the question becomes, if he using this to out-bernie bernie, is it the right place? >> if the issue is only concerning a small population that don't matter, then it's not politics. what i'm saying is, it should be politics as well as an issue, because opioid affects people like us, the other one does not. i think it should be politics at a national level. >> i think his eyes looked funny when he was saying that, too. [ laughter ] no, i'm just kidding. just kidding. >> i have one concern about cory booker when you talk about him for running for

president. there's a great book called "the prize" by dale russakoff about mark zuckerberg's $100-million gift to the newark schools that, according to this book, that cory booker frittered away and gave it to his friends. i think what has he accomplished? he's a great speaker, but what has he accomplished? this is more example of show horse. >> well, he also gets a lot of fire from the left on some of the stances he's taken, and it's not across the board that people think his stances are great, and you wonder if this was a move to shore up that political part of the... >> and one, in particular, tamala, is school choice and education reform in newark. he's been very, very good about -- a proponent of charter schools. >> all right. well, we've got to take a break. we'll come back to more "inside story." >> "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.

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♪ >> welcome back to "inside story." i'm tamala edwards. the poor people of margate, new jersey. they're building these dunes, told this is what we need to do in order to deal with any other sort of superstorm. big rain -- they call it a 100-year rain -- came last week. they, all of a sudden, had a massive -- you see it there -- pool of water. they'd have to swim it to get over to their beach, and it became fetid and backed up with bacteria. >> right. >> and so they went to

the judge and said, "you got to stop this," and he said, "yes, i'm stopping this, and we're bringing everybody into federal court. you need to come up with a remedy." what do they do? they're halfway through this project. what do they do for the residents of margate? >> well, i'll tell you one thing. i live in avalon, so we agree to these dunes, which are horrendous because they block the view, et cetera, and friends of mine in margate were like, "you guys should fight it. you should fight it." they fought it, and you have to feel like this is a bit of a payback by the state and the feds saying, "we're gonna do your beach right in the middle of the summer -- oh, and sorry about the fetid pools of water." so it is a bit of a payback. that's not fair or right, either, because they did it through the proper procedures, and i think what they're doing now is -- but, again, paybacks are a pain sometimes. >> but how do you think it ends up? how do they fix it? do they stop the dune project? >> i think they stop the dune project right now, but they wind up having the dunes in the off-season. >> and it's $100 million more to do it, but too bad. >> exactly. yeah. >> all right. let's go on to this. city hall, a young man made his way here while the scaffolding was still up around the top of city hall, shot a video -- him and billy penn hanging out

on top of city hall. he just posted it. he doesn't live here, so it's not like they can run into a neighborhood and get him, and some people might find it funny, but there was no restraints there. he could have fallen out of something and killed himself, and it also sends a message to other daredevils. >> yeah. >> what should and can the city do? i want to say, where was the guard? how did he get up there? >> i think there are two issues. one is the daredevil mentality and the voyeurism -- six million people on youtube's gopro channel alone who like to see these things from a voyeurism standpoint, and you need a daredevil to do it. but there is also a post-9/11 different issue. if it's that easy for somebody to scale the most valuable asset in our city, where the heart of our government sits and where the town square where people come and children come to enjoy, and if that is that accessible, what does that say about our security and where we are as a society? >> well, that's right, and, actually, the last two stories we're talking about, this one and the margate dunes, and all the stuff we're hearing out of washington, is it any wonder that people have lost

faith in the basic competence of government to get things done? you can't keep a daredevil out of city hall, you can't do the dunes in margate, you're passing legislation -- trying to pass healthcare legislation, and the republicans are saying, "we don't believe in this bill, but let's pass it so we can --" >> fix it at some point. >> "we can fix it in conference." it's just incompetence across the board. >> i don't see the question about why you wouldn't issue a warrant for this man's arrest. i mean, this is criminal trespass, and they're like, well, they're not sure what they're gonna do, and he lives in washington, d.c., and could you get him and all that sort of thing, but you have to make this statement that if you do this, we're going to arrest you. >> yeah. >> and obviously we have to figure out the security after the gate's already been found open. >> let's talk about this. this was a big talker this week. pete rose. he was supposed to go up on the wall of fame for the phillies. it came out he's embroiled in this trial, that a woman filed a statement with the court saying, "he had sex with me in ohio.

i was 14 or 15 years old." his response wasn't, "no, i didn't do it." it was, "yeah, i did it, but she was 16, and that was legal." so big kerfuffle there, and a number of people say we were gonna do some events around this, too hot, we're backing down. but there's been a counterargument here that says it may be unsavory, but the wall of fame is about what he did at citizens bank on the field, or the vet. it's not about this. >> i understand the phillies canceling the ceremony in light of this, but i still think that -- and i'm not defending pete rose, but i still think, on merit, he deserves to be in the hall of fame. it's been since 1989. when you look at the statistics, if we were to take out everyone whose character falls short of the hall of fame, you'd have a lot of room in cooperstown. ty cobb wouldn't be in the hall of fame. >> should we be honoring bill cosby? he's had a towering career. we don't like some things that he's rumored to have done. >> no, but we honor bill cosby.

>> would they give him an award right now? >> no, it's not an issue of would they give him an award. we recognize the work that he has done in "the cosby show," but we also recognize that there are moral failings. "e" equals mc-square, einstein gets the credit, but if we find out einstein had something else, we will still say "e" equals mc-square was einstein's contribution. >> now, my old agency did the temple campaign that used to have bill cosby in it. you wouldn't use him as a spokesperson anymore. don't get me wrong. i mean, "i could have gone anywhere and i chose temple," but the fact of the matter is, you have to look -- and i do think as it relates to pete rose, this is a situation where you'd have to go back and say -- but i think it's you got to look at his career, and there's always gonna be a new accusation, and it seems like he's acknowledging this one. i think he goes up in the hall of fame. >> no wall of fame. he put himself in his own "bâtard," because this would have never been found out, frankly, if it wasn't part of a lawsuit where he's the one who said he's suing for defamation, saying that this attorney went after him on radio and said he's a serial rapist. so he is immoral, he's a bad dude, and the phillies did the right thing. he should not be honored. >> but a great baseball player.

>> heck of a baseball player. heck of a baseball player. >> who brought us a world series. >> well, let's talk about this very quickly with 60 seconds to go. a suit against the city saying there should be no parking in south philadelphia on the median. what happens if they lose median parking in philadelphia? where do people in south philly park? >> that is the issue. there's a dearth of parking spaces. it's not like people are parking in the median -- partially, it's out of this quirky tradition, but it's also need, and this is an example of how the ppa and even mayor kenney haven't stepped up to look at solutions. >> last word really quickly, ajay. you're the lawyer. is this suit gonna go anywhere? >> well, i don't know if the individual who's filing has standing, so that's one issue. i just -- for me, the larger point is, we also have dearth of parking in society hill. is that okay over there, too, and other places? why have an exception to one neighborhood, but not apply universally throughout philadelphia? >> all right. we got to take another break. we'll come back to our inside stories. ♪

>> "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. >> all right. welcome back. time for our inside stories. ajay. >> tamala, for the germination project, the gala is on september 19th. one of the reasons is we announce where the new kids are, but the first part of the program is the icon award, and we're honoring temple university. reason is, philadelphia is the only city, big city, that doesn't have a public hospital. temple is our de facto public hospital, serving the most needy and the underserved in our community. so we're gonna honor them with the icon. >> all right. brian. >> inside story -- special counsel, whitewater. you know, robert mueller is at this now, and he's starting on this thing. it started with the clinton administration. don't forget. by the time it was done, it metastasized from a land deal in arkansas to 15 people, to a blue dress -- monica lewinsky, et cetera. the president has to be very, very concerned 'cause this is

gonna go in a lot of different directions. >> all right. >> when i was growing up, states' rights was a code word for justification for race-based policies. josh shapiro recently spoke at the aspen ideas festival, and he talked about the new states' rights, which is attorney generals leading the way against federal overreach toup liberties, and that's why shapiro is joining all these other a.g.'s and suing the trump administration. >> jeff. the lehigh valley is probably, perhaps, the most integral and important congressman in the united states right now -- charlie dent. charlie dent is the co-chair of what is called the tuesday group. it's a group of about 50 moderate members of the senate and who come together. they have like-minded interests, and they have already helped to derail some of the healthcare reform, fighting to make sure that whatever happens in the russia investigation goes through, and they're also gonna be integral when it comes

to what's coming up next, whether it be infrastructure, tax reform, and our federal budget. president trump has gone after charlie dent, but charlie dent is, in essence, part of this group that is the role reversal of what the tea party was a few years ago. watch out. these guys are making a stand, and he's someone to keep looking out for. >> all right. well, we will do so. that is it for us. you guys, great show. you guys were wonderful. it was a joy to be here. thank you for being here. that's it for "inside story." we'll see you next sunday. ♪ is. >> i'm nydia han coming up with gray hall. >> three shootings overnight sending three men to area hospitals. terrifying moments on an american airlines flight heading to philadelphia. president donald trump is in new jersey, details on what he calls his so-called vacation.

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