To refuse the obligations of International Leadership and our duty to remain the last, best hope of earth for the sake of some halfbaked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems. And, indeed, speaking of not pretty, shortly thereafter there was a backandforth between the president and a democratic congresswoman from florida over his condolence call to the widow of one of the soldiers killed in niger. And, also, we heard from two former president s, former president bush saying this later this week, that it was time to reclaim our identity, talking about casual cruelty. Nationalism distorted into nativism. President obama, campaigning for democrats in virginia and in new jersey saying, some politics we see now we thought we put to bed. Its the 21st century, not the 19th. Come on. Startling on so many levels to hear from a senator, from former president s, to see the chief of staff, john kelly, have to talk about his sons death. You almost dont know what to make of it. Is it just more of where weve been, with more to come, or was this week transformative in some way . Tamala, you know, on the historical aspect of it, its very interesting. The Republican Party has always had this modern Republican Party this split between isolationism and internationalism. Dwight eisenhower ran as a republican because he wanted to make sure the party had an International Focus and that the United States had a role in the world. And theres always been that push and pull in the party. It did seem in recent years that that had been put to rest, but its come roaring back, with steve bannon and, to some extent, president trump. And i think mccain is representing that internationalist trend that goes all the way back to dwight eisenhower. Dom, you talk to a lot of republican voters. Are they listening to mccain and bush, longtime republicans, or are they listening to the president . How is this playing out . I wouldnt say theyre listening directly to the president , because it meanders and all that, but theyre outraged over george w. Bush. I am, too, because he didnt step up, and he didnt call it out that hes talking about trump and trump voters here. And i resent the bushes because of this argument in his speech. He talked about immigration. Were not talking about immigration. Were talking about illegal immigration. Hes seen by a lot of trump people as the elite, the elite talking down to us. And the longer they do that, the more potent trump will be. Trump can be taken on but not by this sort of salvo that weve seen. But is it taking him on to say, we can talk about these issues, but some of the ugliness we got to cut this out . Well, i think bush then namecalls. He calls people nativists, and he goes into all these sorts of things. Trump is crasser at this, or more direct. I would prefer the direct. Im fine with the direct approach. I think that sometimes trump punches below his weight with some of the tabloid type of stuff hes gotten into. But people want the direct backandforth here on things, leaving aside some of the crass stuff. This week brought in the politicization of a soldiers death, and i think that really is what got me thinking, is this Something Different . You heard people on both sides of the aisle cringe that thats where we are now. It is a cringing moment, and the fact that the conversation was about a telephone call and not the service of the four officers who were killed in niger is i think a real disgrace for the country. We should be honoring those families and those men. And this whole thing is another distraction. Everything donald trump does always distracts him and us from what it is we should be talking about. But with mccain, there were two things going on here. There was a policy distinction between nationalism and globalism. And then there was the personal thing. And when donald trump says, im going to hit back, he hit first. He was the one who called john mccain out, not as a hero but as a failure for getting captured, for getting shot down by a missile, a groundtoair missile. So, were talking about payback, and i think for the balance of john Mccains Senate career, there will be payback. When youre a great negotiator and a great dealmaker hence, youre donald trump you find a way to solve the differences that existed so you can bring a john mccain into the fold to vote for amending the affordable healthcare act. Instead, he made a permanent enemy. And thats where we are right now. You know, sharmain, politicians often learn through what doesnt go well, what goes wrong. Its an onthejob curve. And they learn, dont go there. Come over here. Does the president learn something this week about theres a way to stand up for what i believe in and counterpunch but not get in these weeds . I wish that were true, tamala, but i didnt see any evidence at all this week that that is true. The idea that when he called the family of the officer who was killed in niger, and whatever his words were, they were interpreted as being insensitive and not really being sincere. If he was sincere and didnt mean to hurt the family, the easiest thing for him to do would have been to say, you know what . I said those words, but i didnt mean it in that way or the way that it was ultimately interpreted. Isnt that what john kelly essentially tried to say for him . He would have just called the wife back or called the family back and say, you know what . I just want to let you know i really appreciate his sacrifice, and were here for you for whatever you need. So, i didnt see any evidence at all in how he handled it. I dont think the president really is capable of change. He called people a liar. He went absolutely on the attack. And, as you said, even his chief of staff john kelly said, i told him not to make the phone call. He had the same type of inflammatory language with the khans during the president ial race. Hes attacked president h. W. Bush, president w. Bush, governor bush, jeb bush. So, youve got a vendetta there and with mccain. Hes belittled mitch mcconnell. Hes belittled paul ryan. These are all members of his own party. Bob corker. Bob corker. These are the leaders of his own party, and hes been very consistent. Ill give him that. It doesnt seem to affect him, though. I mean, dom, you would agree for many in his base. Well, i think, again, its two reasons. One, theyre sick of the elites. Im sick of a guy like mitch mcconnell. Im sick of the fact that nothing is happening in the senate. We had a groundbreaking election. Theres an agenda there. And i love john mccain as an american hero, but, to sams point, if hes going to use something thats a personal grudge, as offensive as what trump said, to not to vote to repeal the Affordable Care act, when 50, 60, 70 times he said he exactly wanted to do it, i dont think thats the proper response. He said he would have done it. He didnt like that bill. He said that bill wasnt put together properly and that his conscience couldnt let him vote for it. Well, i dont believe him on that. I really dont. The fallacy here, though, dom, is that the president needs to be engaged in the Affordable Care act. He actually needs to know whats in it, not the Affordable Care act, but the repeal of the Affordable Care act. He didnt. He couldnt engage the senate in a debate. He couldnt use the prestige and power of his office or the power of his leadership because he didnt engage. He doesnt know how to make a deal. At the end of the day, the base is not important until the next election. Whats important is the record, is getting things passed in a congress in which you have 52 republicans, and you cant pass anything. But i would ask again, how bad are democrats at this point, where theyre flummoxed by lets blame the democrats for being in the minority. No, that theyre flummoxed by this guy. Again, i think there are legitimate ways you just did it to take him on. Instead, i see this congresswoman overreacting, calling him all kinds of names. It plays back to him again. But, dom, we had a bipartisan agreement this week on healthcare that was supposed to move forward in which the president said, i want to do this. And within 24 hours, he was someplace else. Lets talk about Something Else thats getting a lot of attention, speaking of elections. Tom marino, who was supposed to be up to be drug czar, out of the running. And, in fact, people are questioning whether or not hes going to hold onto his seat in pennsylvania. If you saw the 60 minutes piece, it was damning. It was unbelievable in terms of how the dea, rather than defending a public thats going through an Opioid Crisis, seemed to be in cahoots almost with the drug industry. What happens with the bill . Does this get undone . Theres a movement for that. And what happens to tom marino . The drugdistribution industry, not the pharma industry. The distributors, like cardinal and amerisourcebergen, are shipping enormous quantities of opioids into communities in which the ratio of pills to people is completely out of kilter. Well, i think marino probably survives as a congressman, but hes out as drug czar. You think he survives . I think potentially. I think he has a longterm type of deal going on there. I dont know. Well, he represents a safe republican district. Thats exactly right. But williamsport has a very serious drug problem. Theyre a huge rehab center. And to the extent that hes seen as carrying the water for the drugdistribution industry and not so much for the people who are addicted to these drugs, i think someone could take him on and beat him. Its not just marino. How did people in congress allow this to go through . Theres the other side of that unanimous vote in the house and senate, quietly signed by the white house. This is a major deal, too. Major. Cbs says people keep calling in. They are furious about this piece. Does it go away the way we react to shootings these days . No, the Opioid Crisis is not going away, but the thing i took away from this, too, that they talked about why are we not more undercover in the online pharmacies, the bad pharmacies, and, also, the pillmill doctors, in addition to sams point, the distributors. Listen. With this particular issue, this is a critical problem. Where was the Due Diligence on the trump administrations decision to appoint tom marino as head of the dea . I think it was just, hes my guy. He stood up for me. Here we go. Oh, my god. The Opioid Crisis is a major american crisis. In which hes getting ready to make a major announcement about. Youve got the entire Investigative Team of the entire country at your disposal, and you cant figure any of this out . I will say kudos to the u. S. Attorneys office here in this district, the Eastern District of pennsylvania. Theyve had a long effort, especially against doctors in these pill mills, and theyve achieved a number of really important convictions, and thats not the case in every federal district. And i would say to your point, josh shapiro is moving forward aggressively on this. Im not saying hes correct or incorrect, as winning the lawsuit. He gets it. This is the issue. Yes, it is. Really quickly, lets try to get through a couple of other topics. Darrell clarke and Blondell Reynolds brown want to put forth a city bill that would pretty much say if youre on City Property, you cant have something offensive on your property. But it says, anything that would anger, alarm, cause resentment on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, or sexuality. I just read that as you cant have anything on your car because any can you actually pass this . Is it enforceable . Thats called the First Amendment, and i think that the government is not. The First Amendment i defer to you as the attorney doesnt preclude me from wanting you not to say something. It precludes the government from imposing limitations on speech. That bill if it it probably passes 170, but it has no constitutional basis. It used a slipperyslope argument. Now, on the other hand, there are laws against hate speech. How would you feel if someone put a swastika, a nazi flag on their front law next door to you . Its their front lawn. Is that stepping over the line . This is on City Property. But i think the argument is, what are you doing on City Property . Ive actually worked on a project, on a construction project where people put a noose in the building to try to use that as a way of making africanamerican workers very much afraid in that particular space. These things are real. This week we had schoolchildren in middle school putting up pumpkins with kkk. The kkk is coming after you. But lets keep it confined to City Property. Can the city say, you cant have a Confederate Flag on your car . Well, thats what it comes down to coming in with a sticker on your car. How in the world is that seen as a hate symbol clearly . I dont think so. It depends on whos looking. Right. Exactly. I saw it more as they were referring to City Employees and they were referring to city buildings, that if you are an employee or youre a part of the city government, you do not have a right to do something that is gonna create hate or be a part of hate. Does this go back to the Police Officer who had the tattoo . Is it too broad . Well, i think theyre giving it to the Citys Department of public property. Ito goes back to a cop who had this sticker on his bumper, and the narcotics department, whatever it is, is seen as biased, as racist, and this is evidence of it. Thats what started it. Well, i think that if they can get ahead of this when i see the kinds of things that are going on and coming up online, i think theyre trying to get ahead of something that could be very ugly in the city of philadelphia. All right, well take a short break, and well come back to more inside story. 6abcs inside story is presented by temple university. When youre a doubledipping pensionpadder like steve sweeney, its important to maintain a certain. Lifestyle. Thats why sweeney spent over a hundred grand of his Campaign Funds on highpriced meals and other gifts. Were talking fine cigars, fancy watches, pricey restaurants, and expensive wines all to charm the type of folks who helped him raise your taxes 145 times. Too many in south jersey are struggling. But steve sweeneys looking out for himself, not for us. Welcome back to inside story. Im tamala edwards. Lets talk about a big change in philadelphia education. There are 31 trade schools and craft schools, and the word had been you have to have pretty good attendance, good grades in middle school in order to get into one of these high schools. Now theyre saying, were not going to do that. Were going to do it by lottery. Who you were in middle school may not be a full view on who youre going to be. Lets give everybody a shot. Some people say right move. Other people say you only need a couple of disruptive kids. That was keeping these schools for the kids who wanted to work hard. Whos right on this one . Well, the School Districts wrong. I have personal experience. My son surprise wanted to go into the media. So, we went to a philadelphia public school, and i sat in three different classes. One of them was a complete lottery, completely out of control. The other was by grades, behavior, teacher recommendation. It was a great class. That will happen in this, and all that you needed, tam, were no ds to get into these programs. And these are kids that want to be chefs, want to do all this type of stuff. I know as a teacher you have one or two disruptive kids, and youre back to the same thing, where youre taking away a golden opportunity, or youre diminishing it. But arent you throwing away the good apples with the bad . I mean, to bar kids who couldnt get above a d, that doesnt mean that they wouldnt be a good chef or a good mechanic or anything like that. So, youve got disruptive kids. You deal with them on an individual basis rather than barring a whole group of kids from something that could perhaps give them a career and a job. You could show over the last year or so that youve improved. I think if a kids gonna go into these programs, he should be able to get a d. I dont see anything wrong with having support for a child coming into a program and giving them the opportunity. Middle school is tough. I do remember it. And to sort of say, okay, your whole life is now defined by exactly what happened in fifth through eighth grade i dont think is fair. When the pew study was done, as it looked at some of these special schools, guess who were the people who were more than likely not getting in . Poor boys of color from lowincome communities like north philadelphia, west philadelphia. But that was a choice to apply. For some reason, they werent applying, even when they had the credentials. Does the lottery change it in some ways . I think the lottery does change it because i think it says, everyone gets an opportunity to apply. You never know what the word is on the street. Yeah, you can fill out the paperwork, man, but youre not really gonna get a chance to get in, or counselors arent really encouraging you because we sort of know what the rules are, and im not gonna recommend you. So, i think the idea that you can get in, and the School District should be responsible for making sure that the supports are there so that all students are succeeding. This is an unusual situation. Other School Districts do it and other cities. I cant figure out why we cant figure out how to do it here. But if you have a lottery, what about the kids who are excellent . Theyre left out by a roll of chance. I dont like lotteries. I want to see criteria here to determine who gets in to what is a special program. Well, i lead a charter school, and thats the only way were allowed to let people in is through lotteries. Thats become the process for opportunity for many kids in our city. All right, lets talk about something interesting. The Philadelphia Inquirer announced its endorsement for philly d. A. I think people assumed this is a democratic town. They were gonna go for krasner. They went with beth grossman. Was that surprising to you guys, and does it make a difference to the average voter out and about on the street that she got the inky . I was not surprised because of the reason that the inquirer gave, and i thought it was a really thoughtful endorsement when it said that she understood who her constituency was the victims and the citizens of philadelphia. And i think a professional District Attorney understands the client is to protect the citizens of the city. Krasner, with his intellect, which is quite significant, and his skills as a lawyer, has represented perpetrators of crime, has attacked the criminaljustice system and the government, which, on occasion, deserves to be criticized. But has come across as a guy whos against the District Attorneys office. And i think that came through in the campaign, and i think it came through obviously in the editorial board. And the last thing i want to say is that you remember middle school. [ laughter ] just how young you still are. Thank you very much, sam. I dont. To answer your first question, i dont think its surprising. We have had a history of republican District Attorneys in philadelphia, even with a democratic majority ron castille, arlen specter. And then getting to sams points about larry krasner, who i happen to know. Ive had cases with him and against him over the years. I dont think its right to brand an attorney by his or her clients. We as lawyers are bound to represent our clients to the best of our ability. Everyone has a right to be represented. Having said that, there is something to be said for being qualified for the job that youre running for. And for someone to run for and become the District Attorney, having never spent a day as a prosecutor, ever been in a courtroom as a prosecutor, ever ask a jury for a conviction is a little bit out of the ordinary, and i think causes people to be concerned as to whether he really is up to the job. What about the people who say, what about josh shapiro . Who didnt have a certain background and yet is attorney general . I think thats a valid argument. However, its a very different job. The attorney general does not have original jurisdiction over Violent Crime throughout the state. There are a lot of administrative activities that the attorney general has to handle. And a lot of the job is civil, which josh shapiro did have a fair amount of experience as a civil lawyer. I simply cant speak from since im not a lawyer, and i did pass middle school. But i do think that the community is looking for someone who can go in and really take a look at everything thats going on there and try to figure out whether or not there are some opportunities for there to be more equity in the criminaljustice system. And someone who says that theyre gonna do that i think is gonna gain a lot of support in philadelphia. How much is the civilforfeiture thing an issue for her . I hear about it in certain circles. But i cant tell how much its being talked about among the electorate. I dont think they know. Krasners tried to make the point. I can tell you that libertarians, conservatives i oppose her on that. I think thats one of the bad things in her record. And, for the record, sam was endorsed by the inquirer, too. I remember when that endorsement came and a very successful outcome, too. No, but i remember saying, oh, my god. Civil forfeiture was the city policy of taking cash, car, and homes from people who hadnt even been charged in crimes yet. For people in lowincome communities, absolutely, because a lot of times, people are living together okay, all right. Commercial. Well be back. After 8 years of chris christie, is kim guadagno the change new jersey really needs . Guadagno is christies handpicked successor. Says shes proud to be part of the christie administration. Guadagno was Chris Christies right hand as our schools came under attack, Critical Services were underfunded, and our Credit Rating was downgraded. 11 times. From the bridge to the beach, weve seen it all, and weve had enough. Kim guadagno isnt the change we need. Kim guadagno isnt hes a husband, father, veteran. But most of all, hes a fighter. Chris brown has never been afraid to take on the big fights. Thats why he stood up to republicans and democrats alike to fight the north jersey casinos and the takeover of atlantic city. Chris brown is fighting to protect jobs in our region. A true champion for the working men and women of atlantic county. On november 7th, lets keep him fighting for us. Chris brown for state senate, hes on our side. 6abcs inside story is presented by temple university. Welcome back. Lets get our inside stories of the week. Well start with you, jim. Tamala, we talked about josh shapiro earlier in our conversation. This week he announced a case against navient, the studentloan lender, administrator, if you will a courageous case. Hes joined a lot of cases with other states, but this is a case that hes leading and a case in which the defendant has significant offices in pennsylvania. Showed a lot of guts to bring that case. Dom. My inside story is the Opioid Crisis. We touched upon that today. Is just unbelievable. And i happened upon something this week sober leagues, where people join. Theyre not gonna go drinking afterward. Or, if its a softball game, there can be no keg on second base none of that type of stuff. These are people in sobriety, a lot of them around opiates, and its taken on that these leagues are starting to happen. Sadly, some people dont want to referee them. Referee the leagues. Hopefully somebody that gives them an idea. Sharmain . Tamala, this week ken chenault, the ceo of american express, says hes gonna step down. But guess what . Philly has one of the top ceos of fortune 500s right here, ken frazier, whos the ceo of merck, and im excited to say that were gonna be honoring him on november 17th really good guy. All right. You get the last word. Philadelphians will be surprised to learn how impactful we were in the evolution of motion pictures, and on friday night, a certain documentaryfilm company that im familiar with. [ laughter ]. Will be premiering at the philadelphia Film Festival at the ritz east, before hollywood philadelphia and the birth of the movies. And itll be on 6abc oscar weekend. Oh, very proud of you. A round of applause for sam. Thats inside story. Well see you back here next sunday. At rare join appearance all five living former u. S. President s took politics aside. And important cause. You have been known to look at these little girls here, the sisters were conjoined. We have the promising prognosis, the twins are being cared for in philadelphia. We have the action news forecast and much more up next, on action news. Action news news, action newss number one news program. Good afternoon