>> the new d.a. goes on a firing spree, says the coach gets to pick the team. is it understandable or troublesome? let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning. i'm tamala edwards. welcome to "inside story." let's introduce you to our panel. we'll start with non-profit exec george burrell. >> good morning, tam. >> columnist christine flowers. >> morning, tam. >> good morning. journalist larry platt. >> morning. >> and documentarian sam katz. great to have you all here. we do have a take a moment and start with the news that's everywhere -- the president, a vulgarity attributed to him in discussing immigrants from haiti and african nations. a lot of back and forth. the white house didn't deny it. he seemed to suggest he didn't quite say it, but a senator's come out and said, "i was there, he did say it." we wanted to get your quick take on this news. george? >> the only latin phrase i know

is "res ipsa loquitur" and that if the thing speaks for itself and donald trump speaks for himself. the concern i have is that the republicans value power more than they do integrity and values. they should be denouncing donald trump. >> nobody has come out, republican, on the record to do so. christine? >> tam, as we were saying, there's -- it seems as if we haven't hit a bottom. we haven't found the bottom to hit yet, and i do believe he said it. and i think republicans and democrats should both be -- this is a bipartisan offense, and we should all be upset about this. and i'm particularly hurt because the one african-american female representative in congress, mia love, is a haitian-american, and her family fled the duvalier regime -- they were refugees -- and she doesn't deserve that. >> you know, during the army-mccarthy hearings, there was a young lawyer named joe

welch who sort of historically said to senator mccarthy, "have you no decency left at long last?" and we need a joe welch and among republicans to stand up and say -- 'cause this is -- you're right, this is a bipartisan attack on decency. >> and sam, so many republicans are saying it wasn't racist. it was just tough talk about a tough issue. >> we elected a vulgar thug to be president, and we shouldn't be surprised that his behavior is vulgar and thuggish. the republican party, while circling the wagons around power, i think are on the verge of losing it. so there are consequences to the kinds of behavior that donald trump has allowed to perpetrate and be protected by his party, and his party is going to pay a serious price for it. >> all right. let's turn to local topics here. larry krasner goes into office, fires 31 prosecutors. it's a tenth of his staff. we're talking about heads of

many divisions, half of homicide. he announced a new team, many of whom seem focused on what he talked about -- criminal justice reform. some people said this was petty and vindictive. there were cases in progress that essentially got -- had no prosecutor anymore. this could hurt that. but others say, look, they were people out of step with him. they were people who weren't doing the job. they had other issues going on. coach gets to pick the team. rendell's saying, "you know what, when i took the job, i fired 25% of the people." so, how are you to look at this? is this shocking or sensible? >> it was not rolled out in a smart, managerial process. it reminded me of the travel ban, because it was just so haphazard and not well thought out and incompetent, frankly. yes, the coach gets to pick the team. but we also expect the coach to treat his players with respect, and you had people like carlos vega, who's a 35-year prosecutor, who is told to pack

up his bags and his desk and leave and gets escorted out of the building as if he were a criminal. you know, a young female d.a. fired in the hallway. this had the stench of if not vendetta, then at least incompetence. >> tam -- bravo, larry. larry said pretty much everything i wanted to say, but my problem, among many problems, is the manner in which our new district attorney treated the people who had given their lives, decades in many cases, mark gilson. a lot of people who may have had a different philosophy from the new coach, who has absolutely every right to field his own team, but who had as much as a dedication to the people of philadelphia as mr. krasner says he has. he did not go to these individuals personally and give

them the respect of saying, "i no longer need your services. thank you. goodbye." he had it done, as larry said, in some cases people were told as they were going through hallways. people were escorted out of that building as if they had committed crimes. and, as you mentioned, there are trials that were continued, that had to be continued, because of this ad hoc literal massacre, a clearinghouse. there were judges who were angry because they had to continue cases. there are certain cases that may very well be dropped because of different priorities now. and so, i find this to be reprehensible, the manner in which mr. krasner made his entrance. >> but is there an argument somewhat for this? i mean, many of these people spoke out against him during the election saying he'd be a bad choice, they didn't like the direction he was going. if you're going to switch, you maybe can't do it halfheartedly. to really get going on what he promised his voters, did he need

to do this even if it was done unartfully? >> well, i've been part of a lot of governmental transitions, and none of them are done well. and most of them are done quickly at the beginning of an administration. this is much more visible because, i think this is -- i think the reaction's much more about larry krasner than it is about what he did. and i think that's unfortunate because i actually agree with many of the things that he wants to achieve as district attorney. but it requires leadership. i mean, changing a culture requires leadership. it requires more than rhetoric. it drives more than arrogance. it requires leadership, and he's got to figure out how to work with the judicial system, the court system, with the police, and with the criminal justice system. he probably would've been better off if he had talked to the judges in advance. >> you know, and sam, he had kind of come to an interesting détente with the f.o.p. does this kind of throw that up in the air, or are there constituencies that said, "all right, we'll give you a minute." >> there are two sides in a criminal case. there's the prosecutor and there's the defense. now, there's maybe a better way

to prosecute than historically the district attorney's office in philadelphia has done. i'm not a lawyer, and i don't know much about this system. but krasner clearly allied his office with the defense in this process, and i think that undermines the district attorney's relationships with the police, with the judiciary, with the corrections system, with the probation and parole. everybody in that system got whacked even more than the 31 people. >> what happens when we get the first big, ugly case? >> correct, and the thing about this that's most disturbing to me is the notion of reform. the basis on which larry krasner was elected was an anti-reform campaign funded by george soros through independent expenditures. yes, it's the rules, but it's exactly the kind of behavior and politics that the larry krasners of this world speak out against. and i would encourage the media to look at all 15 or 20 d.a. races that the soros machinery supported and find out whether

there's a consistent theme. it seems to me that krasner is the tip of that sword. >> all right -- >> hold on. i'm sorry, i just wanted to say very, very quickly, also -- there has been -- and it's a very clear orientation away from the victims and toward the injustices in the criminal justice system, and i understand that that's important and that needs to be reformed. but there seems to have been, you know, a finger in the face to victims, particularly those who are currently awaiting the trials of those who victimized their family members. >> you know, george, i'm gonna ask you about that. a community that's betwixt and between, the minority community in this city that is often targeted with crime within that community. they want redress, but they also want to be treated fairly. how does this look to them? >> well, i think the community... i think there was tremendous support for larry krasner and the reforms that he's talking about in the african-american community and the hispanic community, people who interface with the criminal justice system. and our community, we want protection. we want criminals to go to jail.

but we also want our family members who sit in jail innocently for months and sometimes years without having been convicted of anything because they can't pay bail. they're victims also. we have a system that's about punishment, not about rehabilitation. the people who don't get rehabilitated will come back and are not ready for re-entry are victims also. and so we've got to balance this victim scale. it's not just... >> i think that's an important point. you know, the thing that we don't talk about -- we in the media don't ta abysmal clearance rate of homicides in this city. it's like 40%, which is one of the worst -- it's one of the worst in the country. and it disproportionately affects african-americans, and that's something -- and the other thing is -- i'll just say real quickly -- when rendell did this process, he did it in 1978, he did it right. everyone had to reapply for their jobs. it was a process. it wasn't... >> guess what you're at. >> yeah. >> and it wasn't on day 1. it was done over time. rendell was accumulating. >> and this was bringing people in -- >> it was a dramatically different era. >> definitely. >> yes. >> let's talk about this.

the governor of pennsylvania this week declared a state of emergency. it's a 90-day fixed thing. pennsylvania's the eighth state to do this. we are the fourth highest in terms of overdoses. to give you a sense -- at the height of the aids epidemic, there were about 930 deaths across the state. opioid deaths, in just this city alone last year, over 1,200. this is a major problem. so this will cut red tape, help people get treatment, and other things. but will we really see changes enough, a problem this big, if this is a 90-day holding pattern? does it work? >> look, the irony of all of this, of course, is that there is overwhelming evidence that cannabis is a better substitute for opioids for a lot of the things that get people on the road to addiction, mostly pain, anxiety, all kinds of emotional disturbances and problems. and in the same week, and an accumulation of eight governors declaring a state of opioid emergency, jeff sessions comes out with a memorandum to change

the guidance to u.s. attorneys in connection with prosecuting cannabis cases in states that have made cannabis legal medically or recreationally. so, as a national problem, we haven't quite bought into a real war on opioid. we may have a war on drugs, but we do not have a war on opioids. >> sam is absolutely right. my brother is very much involved in the -- you know, as a disclaimer -- in the medical marijuana field, and he's absolutely right that medical marijuana is a very viable substitute and solution and response to the opioids. >> it doesn't look like it's gonna get support. >> and it doesn't, and it's quite distressing that this department of justice is now cracking down on something which is a substance that could also help children. and we're sort of, like, sort of playing catch-up with the opioid crisis. and i think a lot of the things that were mentioned with governor wolf also with this, you know, with leaving naloxone,

the revival drug, with some people leaving it behind. it's all patchwork. it's not something that's really addressing the problem. >> let's talk about this. one of the things that's up for consideration, maybe by the end of this month, are clean-injection sites. just this week, chief ross said, you know, he'd been adamantly against it a year ago, but he talked to the chief in vancouver, which has these sites, and he says he's at least open to considering it. you know, an odd thing -- "don't do drugs, but if you are gonna, do them over there." where should the city come down on this issue? >> well, that's, you know, a defensive mechanism that's trying to deal with people and protect against this death rate and what's going on. it's not a solution for the problem. the opioid crisis, like the heroin crisis before it and the cocaine crisis before that, like poverty and other issues, are structural problems and they require directed and intentional programs and that's not what this is. the governor's to be commended for doing what he's doing, 'cause there is a crisis, but we need structural solutions for these problems. >> and there still is a law enforcement role here.

attorney general josh shapiro, under him, prosecution of doctors who... >> pill mills. >> ...pill mills is up 72%, and that's important. the epidemic turned around in kentucky a couple years ago after two guys who ran a pill mill got 14-year sentences. >> all right. quickly, larry, i want to do this topic with you. we found out about a revenue department payoff. a woman said that her supervisor -- terrible, racist, and sexual harassment. happened under corbett, but under wolf in 2016. she got $900,000. we would've only found out because two newspapers went under the right to know. wolf has been very vocal telling other people whose cases are public, you need to resign, but they didn't tell us about this and there may be more. can this keep going on, that only because newspapers are pushing, we found out how our taxpayer money is being used? >> well, first of all, you're right to single out the

importance of the press in a matter like this. you know, government only functions well under the disinfectant of sunlight, and if left to its own devices without inspection, this is what you get. you get de facto cover-ups. it is unconscionable that there is this slush fund that we don't know about, but for newspapers and journalism. >> so this is a moment. what happens to change it? does there need to be a law? like, what about all three branches of government, "you need to start telling us when people get paid out for sexual harassment claims?" >> that may be a tough bill to pass in the legislature. [ laughter ] >> but the issue, at least in my mind -- look, we want transparency. we want to know about... but once the problem has -- once there's a plaintiff with a legitimate claim, somebody's got to pay, and that's gonna be the state, who's the defendant in this case. the question is, what are they gonna be doing about informing people? the governor, and every secretary in the department, needs to have a plan, needs the communication --

>> should wolf do this on his own and say, "i'm gonna say transparency here?" >> i think -- to me, it's not transparency. it's how do you put in place a sexual harassment, a hostile workforce environment policy that everybody knows and that employees know that if they the report it, they're not gonna be victims. >> that's right. >> i can keep talking, but i can tell it's time to go for a commercial. we'll be right back. >> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by temple university. ♪

♪ >> welcome back to "inside story." i'm tamala edwards. let's talk a little bit about local races. bob brady, a number of people have come forward to say they think they're gonna jump in and challenge him. he's been dealing with an issue that has brought down two members of his campaign over payments to a former opponent. he said, "i have nothing to do with that," but we've seen nina ahmad come out. she's got over $500,000 on hand. deputy mayor rich lazer says he's taking a strong consideration. he's got strong union ties. as well, former banking exec administer michele lawrence from fishtown. she's registered a domain. it looks like she's going to do this. they're joining a number of other people. how does it look for brady, because sometimes when too many people get in, it actually helps the incumbent, or does this send a sign to him that this could be a really rough race? >> you know, bob brady is a philadelphia legend, tradition, and i think the way that his

longevity is due to the fact that he really is someone who knows how to represent his constituents and appeal to a broad base. he's not one of those -- he's not a democrat that is disliked by republicans and conservatives in the city. you know, all 12 of them. >> like that would matter. >> he's -- but he's also, he is a moderate democrat. he's not someone -- i don't think he's viewed as a reformer, which may be problematic for him, but i really think that he has -- he doesn't have a lot of baggage, even with the recent, you know, the indictments and the situation with his assistants, but i do think that he still has a strong foothold. >> but we saw some surprises with krasner, with rebecca reinhardt. there does seem to be something afoot in the city. and each of these people kind of seem to be chipping off various parts of him -- unions, traditional democrats, progressives. is that something for him to be worried about? >> tam, i spoke to congressman brady last night. he was coming off the floor of the house where he was fighting with republicans to try and get

same-sex protection in a sexual harassment bill. and he had just failed, so he was in a thorny mood, and lambasted me as a member of the media. he said, "you people all think that everything i do, there's a shadow behind every curtain," 'cause all this speculation that he's, you know, gonna groom lazer into his successor and so forth. i don't buy any of that, and by the way, i think christine is right about his importance. think about this -- if this is a wave election coming up, the democrats would be crazy to jeopardize brady's seniority coming into -- he would take over the house administration committee, and he's number-two on armed services. if he's not leading this delegation, who is the senior member of this delegation? it's brendan boyle, who's been around for two terms, maybe. >> you know, i think congressman brady is a formidable candidate. this is an organizational race,

though. it's not a message race, and he has the strongest organization. but it is the largest minority district in america not represented by a minority representative -- 46% african-american, 19% hispanic, 6% or 7% asian. and i think i heard you said or you just said, you can't undermine the spirit of change that is existing among voters today. they want to see change, and congressman brady, i think he's been an effective congressman, better than most people thought he might be once he went there. i think people are looking for change, and so it's gonna be a tough race for him. >> let's talk about john morganelli, who has said he's one of the many people jumping in to run for charlie dent's congressional seat. dent's saying he's not gonna run this fall. his name -- i was looking at the other names running -- of course, his stands out. is he sort of the giant stepping into this race, and he is kind of prohibitive to everybody else? >> well, first, i want to get my shot on the last point. >> okay. >> if rich lazer -- i don't know him -- but obviously was given a

lot of credit for helping to bring about a labor settlement with district council 33, which had been elusive. if rich lazer is in this race, realistically, this is all a setup. i mean, bob brady is not going to face rich lazer. there's not gonna be a division of the building trades over -- a primary over bob brady. so this strikes me as brady getting ready to step aside, whether it's this session of the congress or soon -- >> there have been rumors about that. >> well, look, he's been in there a long time. i once spoke to him about it. i'm not one of his favorite people, but i spoke to him about this, and, you know, the fact of the matter is that being in the minority in the house... being the majority doesn't look like it's particularly fun either, but being in the minority is basically having very little power except the administrative power that comes from his position as the administrative committee. he's been there in public service a long time. he's a young guy, relatively speaking. we just saw this week that larry krasner's new first deputy is a person in their 80s, which gave me a lot of comfort, 'cause

i'm headed in that direction and i'd like to think that when i'm 80, i might get a job, so... but i think bob brady's probably had it, and if i'm bob brady, i want to make sure i do everything i can to perpetuate... this will a tough race for a white ethnic candidate to win if it's not bob brady. >> all right. very quickly -- we've got one minute. what about morganelli? >> morganelli is a very strong democratic candidate. he's finally running for an office that he might have a chance to win. running statewide for attorney general has not worked out well for him. he's a well-known person. he's very articulate. he's very smart. and charlie's seat, it's a very middle-of-the-road seat, so... and if the republicans nominate someone whose orientation is more trump-like in this election, a democrat could win. >> all right. well, we're going to take a quick break and come back to your inside stories of the week. we'll be right back. ♪ ,000 deaths in america last year.

we need to stand up and say enough. the only way this problem is going to be solved is if we raise our voices. choose help over helplessness, hope over hopelessness.

make sure that the lives we've lost will not have been lost in vain. addiction is a disease. when you ask for help, help is there for you. >> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by

temple university. ♪ >> welcome back. i'm tamala edwards. let's introduce you to our inside stories of the week. >> george, we'll start with you. >> well, given the challenges in our country right now, i would encourage each of our viewers this week to reach out to someone who doesn't look like them -- different race, different ethnicity, different religion -- take them out to lunch or dinner, talk to one another about the america that we would all like to see. >> you might be surprised. >> that there's an interest in right now today. >> all right. christine? >> beautiful, george. >> yeah. >> back in september, tam, a program called daca, which is very important to some young immigrants and many of them in the philadelphia area, was announced it was going to be terminated. and this week, a federal judge in california stopped, stayed the termination of that program, which has helped a great deal of very good, young, wannabe americans to stay in the united states. and so, regardless of the -- what we talked about at the beginning of this show and some bad words, and in the spirit of

what george just talked about, this is actually a great victory. >> larry? >> tam, jeremy nowak is out with an important new book. it's called "the new localism," and it's about how, in the age of trump and angry populism, cities are leading the way in terms of innovation and collaboration between academia and government and civic institutions. and we're holding a book party for him tuesday. go to thephiladelphiacitizen.org. everyone's invited. >> all right. sam? >> the soda tax, which is of course waiting for the supreme court to decide whether to take the case -- recently, a study was published which suggested that we were seeing not only a loss of business but a loss of jobs and a loss of tax revenue. i would like to see the finance department of the city publish not only what we're generating from soda taxes, but what we might be losing from wage and business taxes, because it may be that we're seeing a diminution of value that has not been publicly reported.

>> all right. thanks to all of you for being here. we tape on fridays. it is now sunday. we will know at this point, when you see this show, whether or not the eagles won, but i just want to say either way, this team has really brought this city together. they've been a great team, a great group of guys. so no matter what happened, we love you, and we thank you for what you've done. and we hope we're talking about the game next week, too. all right, that's been "inside story." we'll see you next week. ♪ i'm gray hall with alycia vitarelli, nydia han is off. >> coming up next a man shot his wife in philadelphia's lawncrest section, we will tell you why gas crew where is called to the scene. after weeks of being called the under dog the eagles came out on top, hear what the team says about their accomplishment as their playoff journey continues. plus it is going to be one hot at tome get your hands on we're talking about tickets to

the nfce championship game when you can try to snag yourself a seat. exciting time those stories and more plus accu weather forecast all next on "action news".

"action news", delaware val i's leading news program with gray hall, nydia han, and meteorologist chris sowers. tn