Transcripts For KQED Frontline 20240713

You are fake news. Its time to take on the elite, hit em with a blowtorch. There is blame on both sides, an. I have no doubt about it its probably the first time where thcountry realizes this is going to get bad. A very bitterly divided narrator americas great divide. T ionly going to get nastier. Narrator the dramatic conclusion, tonight on frontline. Frontline is made possible by contributions toour pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. C and by tporation for public broadcasting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Itmacarthur foundation, cod to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. And by the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. By the abrams foun,is provided committed to excellence in journalism. The park foundion, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. Nd the johnelen glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. Is the gsimons foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon d jo ann hagler. And Additional Support from Laura Debonis and scott nathan. For some people, the ul ima golife has been becoming the president of the United States. Wo d you like to be the president ofhe United States . Would, rona. Dont believ but i would like to see somebody as the president who could do the job. Hy wouldnt someone like yourself run for Political Office . Oney that youthe possibly need. Youve accomplished a great deal even though you are only 34. Why wouldnt you dedicate yourself to Public Service . Because i thinkts a very mean life. I would love, and i would i country, but i seet as being a mean le, and i also see it that somebody with strong views, and somebody with the kind of views that are maybe a littlet popular, which may be right, but may be unpopular, woult necessarily have a chance of getting elected against somebody with no great brain but a big smile. And thats a s commentary for the political process. Narrator over the decades, as donald trump watched and waited, the prospect of becoming president would ow. Just as the nation was becoming more and more divided. It is time to heal america. Il clinton ran against braindead politics in both parties. And a leader must be a uniter not a divider. S george w. Bush said he uniter, not a divider. We are and always will be thf united statemerica. Barack obama was introduced to the count saying, there is not a blue america and a red america. And each of them, by the end of their presidency, the country was more divided than when they took office. Narrator it was in that moment. N that trump saw his he was looking for anit opportand his opportunity was division. His opportunity was mining resentnt, and weaponize race, and thatshat he did. This is a classic case of the time being right for a trump candidacy. Now you have a level of eessatisfaction with the voters that weve neverbefore, and they want somebody with the toughness and the independence, and nobody can bully him. Own man, who will tell it like it is, wheth its politically correct or not. I am your voice. Narrator an age of unprecedented anger. Go bleep cook my burrito bitch narrator resentment. crowd chanting shame narrator political lsnflict. No bans, no w narrator polarization. You will not replace us. Narrator . Had arrived. Impeach trump impeach trump narrator and with it, donald trump. C democrats. Cs, the narrator ready and willing to stoke americas great divide. chanting drain the swamp cheers and applause the biggest event to date in campaign 2016. Top ten candidates taking the stage for a prime time showdown. Businessman donald trump. I had my Research Assistant research all the candidas who were going to be on stage that night. It is 9 00 p. M. On the eastco t and the moment of truth has arrived. And pull anything interesting o controversout them, right . Er ody had a binder like this. laughing and trump had a binder like this, right . Narrator at the time, megyn kelly waa star on fox news. People love about you is, yougs speak your mind. And you dont use a politicians filter however, that is not without its downsides. In particular when it comes to women. Youve called women you dont like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. Ur twitter account has. Only sie odonnell. cheers and applause no, it wasnt. He knew i was going to hit him on something, and he guessed it would be women, and he got some line worked up. Ne. We forged forward. The Convention Center was laughing. But i was going to get throughmy the rest ouestion. For the record, it was well yes, im sure it was. Your twitter account has several disparaging comments about womens looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would hbe a pretty picture to s on her knees. Does that sound to you likthe temperent of a man we should elect as president . What i say is what i say. And honestly, megyn, if you dont like it, im sorry. Ive been very nice to you, though i could probably maybe not be based on the way you have treated me, but i wouldnt do that. The way trump sees media, the way he sees life, is all, they like me or they dont like me. We need strength. And in that moment, i got moved from te likes me category into the she doesnt like me. And i do believe, i believe that night, the anger was real his anger at me was real that night. Ank you all very much. And that will do it, for the first republican primary debate night of the 2016 president ial race. Ks our tho the candidates. Narrator in his clash with kelly, trump was creating conflictust as hed done as a reality tv star. And afterwards, in spin alley, he would use the press to keep it going. Donald trump shows up, as ifs before he went homew yk. Line you guys okay . Dont hurt yourselves. It was like mosquitos to, to a lantern on aummer night. I mean, the entire National Press corps descended. People were being trampled, and camera equipment was flying all over the place, and id never seen a scene like this. I mean, ive seen many media stampedes, but nothing like that. Whats your history with megyn . Think megyn, i think megyn behaved ve badly, personally. The question about women. You didnt like that . No, i thought it was an unfair question. They didnt ask those questions of anybody else. And i thought it was an unfair question. But you know what. Ar rator it was just the beginning. Are you going to caoger ailes about it . Narrator at 3 40 in the morning, he lit up twitter. Wow, megynkelly really bombed tonight. Ople are going wild on twitter funny to wat. tweets th narrator on e phone with cnn, he went farther. What is it with you and megyn kelly . Sorts of ridiculous questions. And, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Uh, blood coming out of her wherever, but. Trump recognized that it was a good storyline. And he kepfuel going under that fire, because he knew some portion of his audience loved to see him challenging, you know, a powerful woman, never mind a woman at fox. And so he accuratelyeduced that this would drive his numbers up with some segment of his base. Narrator trump porful ally in the attack on kelly. The rightwing website breitbart and its leader, steve bannon. Fox has chosen a side. Thers so evident in that debate that theyre there to kneecap donald trump, okay . Theyre there to take him out. And thats when we go, okay. R. 20 stories on megyn kelly. Ny i get ee and matt boyle, my two hammers. They go right after megyn kelly. Nsky her,ng to a right . Were going to cut her out from the cull her out from the herd and just hit her nonstop. Thats when all war broke out. Ats when breitbart, thas en you had to choose sides. Narrator in takingn fox, bannon and trump were inciting the kind of conflict breitbarts readers thrived on. She is a low life bleep . Everyone stop watching fox. We need to chop f at the knees. We looked at the comments section these things were10 gettin00 to 15,000, 20,000 comments. Megyns the type for a quickie in the mens room. The whole trump, all the pepes, all these trump guys weri po in here. Megyn kelly needs to be put in her place. Fast. And hard. By all of us. It was scary at times. And breitbart kept lighting, the fier and over. And you know, i had and have three young kidsreally young kids. And the security threats were escalating. And we were doing everything in our power to convey to tm that they needed to stop. It was it was one debate question, just one debate question. And he handled it fine. You know, he did. So get off of it. And they couldnt have cared less. Nrator roger ailes ran f news. Ruthless and powerful, ailes was a force to be reckoned with. Ailes calls me up and says, youve got to knock off these stories. Shes crying, shes alt. Shes getting death threats. I go, sounds like a personal problem. I said, were not backing off. Were going to put more stories. Up tomor if kelly cant take the heat, go back to the kitchen. Trsh statue of ms. Kelly on her knees and place it in front of trump tower. Narrator under theon aught, ailes eventually backed down he needed roger definitel that hemp had to keep that sort of breitbart wing othe viewership onboard. That they were at risk, thanks to trumps attacks on me and fox in the wake of that debate. And he definitely wasntoing to lose 30 of the viewers, of 2015, we knew was the likely publican nominee. He didnt want that guy to be driving a division between roger anthe viewers. Narrator trump had won. And it was a sign of what was to come brutal, divisive, anything goes. Ha Republican Voters were looking for was strength. And in that moment, heres what voters saw. At they saw a genn of republican politicians whowt ed to fox news, who genuflected. Then they saw somebody take on fox news, and trump won. He broke fox news. In the steelage death match of republican politics in that meinstant, donald trump be king. music playing ar tor but across the political divide. audience applauding for comedians, donald trump has been the gifthat keeps giving, but for everyone else, hes the gift that keeps on giving women the creeps. Narrator from the coastal entertainment capitals. I now everyones all up in arms about the comments i made about megyn key. I was not referring to hormones or menstruation period narrator . A kind of resistance by ridicule. Cmon, trump, if youre going to Say Something offensive, just come out and say it. Narrator trump a punchline. Trump insults more women by 6 00 a. M. Than most people do all year, but. audience cheering the reason that he doesnt like them. c ers and applause donald trump is back on the road campaigning in iowa. Narrator as donald trump embarked on s president ial campaign, he doubled down on what his opponents found offensive. To fuel his political rise. Sions trump hasold me that he believes the country was already divided, that if he is just confrontational and a fighter, that people who feel aggrieved in the country will rato him. s an entirely unconventional approach to the presidency, to to rally your own base, and then to not really try to unite the country. music playing nrator and in arena afte arena, trump cultivated his growing populist base. crowd chanting trump he loves the energy and he loves the adoration that he gets from those rallies. crowd chanting its a cricatool for him, these rallies to keep that conntion. Narrator he called them the forgotten. The iconic forgotten man or the forgotten man and woman is somebody thats been left out of the system. cheers and applause eres a rejection of elitists and a rejectioof intellectuals. Y, and certainl disdain for the media, uh because those people feel that theyre being looked down upon. Bld that wall narrar trump sensed what the crds wanted. Were going to have such a Strong Military that nobody,in nobody is to mess with us. Nobody narrator anger. We are led by very stupid people. Narrator confrontation. We cant beat isis give me a break he loves to arouse passion and emotions; its the thi hes best at, and he cares most about, is sort of provoking emotion. Al anthe fire he was getting from the crowds was about immigration. Ar hes going to drive the over the illegals uild a wall build that wa build that wall it spoke to real worries and frustrations that had been coaxed and had caramelized over the course of a decade across america, where white americans were truly convinced they were losing their country, and the only opportunity they had to stop it was to elect this man something about it. Ng build that wall build that wall we are going to sta winning bigleague. Trump sounded like them. There was an authenticity to him that i think they connected with. He would drop an fbomb. About ted cruz one on the air i was in iowa, like, oh, my god, d he just say. What rhymes with wussy . laus i mean, this happened, right . And i think theres a swath of the American Public that, look, its not like they love vulgarity. But they just loved at they lt was his authenticity and his willingness to throw a punch, which they felt was on their behalf. Build tt wall narrator he spoke directly to their resentment at washington, the elites, us versus them. He saw what that forgotten man and woman was going through in the United States right now. Im the avatar of your anger. If you elect me, illiterally be an orange wrecking ball at the barricade known ashe swamp. And ill knock that barricade down for you. But i want the cameras to span the room. Go ahead, fellas watch, they nt turn them. They dont turn them. They dont turn them. crowd booing go ahead, turn them. Look, turn the camera, go ahead, turn the camera, maam, turn the camera you with the blon hair, turn the camera, show the room, go ahead. They dont turn em. What about hey, you in the center, why dont you turn your camera . Show them how many pcome to these rallies. Turn em. Go ahead, turn em. Go ahead. cheers and applause cable ns was so fascinated with donald trump that they wert putting him on air almost every y. R every one of hlies made great television. And the news media jumped on that and gave him a lot of airtime. And you know were in, look at all those Live Television time i speak, they put me onvery Live Television, so i have to make different speeches. Ar these guys gnd, they make the same speech hundreds and hundreds and hundredof times, nody cares its true. He was looking out at the cameraank. And he couldee the red light on the camera. And that meant that he was live on cnn. Ou got cnn live, you got them all, and. Or fox or one of the other networks. And he said that what he tried to do in those rallies was saywh ever it took to keep the red light on. Now, if you le the medi give them a big hand, and if you dont, give them a big boo. crowd booing i had a feeling. Donald trump running for president is a plane that crashes every day. There is news as long as hes talkg. Uh, theres news even if he isnt talking, because who knows whate might say . Once again, were still awaiting Donald Trumps arrival at his South Carolina rally. And so you have things like cnn just showing the ety podium where hes ready to get on stage. The b awaiting donald trump he will speak live any moment. That empty podiumw news. Stand by, youre going to hear donald trump live. Becau it tells you, if you wait long enough, something crazy mit happen again. We are awaiting donald trump to take the stage. This is t of tampa, flora. Breaking news, donald trump about to rally thousands of supporters. Live pictures that were bringing to you. This is of a donald trump rally about to get underway in tam. All right. Were awaiting the arrival of donald trump at a rally in virginia beach. These are live pictures right now as the crowd. Narrator and as the monthsn, worerumps message caught fire with a more sinister crowd. The anger only increased aser it got farthlong. It became completely acceptable. It became okay to come to a that says Hillary Clinton is a c bleep bleep t. The campaign is continually dogged by a small and vocal number of white supremacists, klansmen, neonazis. Arrator oger stone was longtime polical adviser to donald trump. B he has sinn convicted of lying to congress. This isnt a ry large group of people, but theyre very vocal. And ey attach themselves to trump. Trump, whenever there was a moment to draw a le between himself and these extreme parts of the voting bloc, he refused. I ink without question, th only way you can interpret that is that he was going to use these groups to try to build this coalition. crowd shouting narrator as antitrump protesters showed up at his rallies. Theres the guy. Totally disruptive, throwing punches. Narrator trump had no boundaries. I loved the old days. Do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they wer in a place lis . Theyd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. Id like to punch him in the face, ill tell ya. Ah, its true. And you start seeing these really ugly momes at the some of whom are nonwhitesters, protesters, geing treated very violently by, by his supporters. shouting trump himself seeming to incite his suprters to go after protesters. Knock the crap out of him,u . Would just knock the hell out of him. I promise you i will pay for the legal fees, i promise. I promise. Narrator trump was pouring fuel on the flames of division. His brand of politics and american anger were becoming one and the same. Moment. Id not create this he did not create the ugliness. He did not create the twitter, social media universe. He id not create the xenophobia, the nationalism, the backlash against globalism and global crusades. He did not create ainment politics, politics as a form ofs realw television. He created none of this. He is its pure manifestation. The absolute logical endpoint of a bunch of trends in an life. He is its beneficiary. 100 . laughter a new poll has 87 of republics supporting trump. The other 13 are currently standing on bridges lookgva ntly into the distance. laughter unscientific, because even science cant explain how donald trump is still in the lead. And six flags on stage hes like a president and an Amusement Park all rolled up into one. laughter narrator donald trump wasnt the only one who seized the opportunitto exploit the nations division. Vladimir putin did it, too, using a cyberatck to strike at the fault lines of american democracy. The effectiveness of this on a couple of thirussia depends people speaking russian it depends on the polarization of politics inic amer there were divides, and russia was pushing out material that exploited those divides, that broadened them, that called attention to those divides. pne chimes narrator posts on black power. Staying woke, uplifting our people. Re we a proud to be black and stand. Narrator on southe pride. The Confederate Flag represents heritage. Join our fight to saveag southern her narrator russian attacks played into deepseated fears. If i win, clinton wins narrator exploiting both sides on the most divisiveis es. Stop Police Brutality Blue Lives Matter narrator immigration. s time to get rid of parasites narrator guns. Ill keep my guns. Narrator race. White kids chant nword in school bus. And thats when i realized, uhoh, things have gone too far. There was a Tipping Point that took place. And i think thrussians didnt create that Tipping Point, but they exploited it. They saw the fissures of. Of division. They saw these, these. These pivot points andhey went right for them. To narrar trump, himself sowi discord and chaos, encouraged the russians to continue their attack and target Hillary Clinton and thes. Democr i will tell you this russiau ife listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think they started their operation to interne in the election with the idea of simply sowing discord, and, uh, weakening the United States as a country by doing so. Mission to actuallifically elect donald trump. man speaking russian narrator to help trump, the russians created fake news about Hillary Clinton. reporters speaking russian la vdimir putin certainly has our number as a cotry. He understood how easily americans could be turnedns ageach other with facebook. K what facebes is obliterate the ability to tell the lie from truth. Where what is real, what is fake, is not discernible and not knowable. And the conseqnces of that, for a democratic republic, areht fring, at best, to think about. Narrator one particular conspira theory was aired in america by a russian propaganda network, rt. Theories about her health caught on. Narrator exaggerated and questionable stories about clintonhealth. Under a microscope are clintons falls, coughs, and head motions reporters talking laughing have you talked about Vice President ial possibilitiesith senator warren . You guys have got to try the cold chai. This video filmed in junewe viral and started a slew of rumors that clinton may have ha. A seiz we were watching stories abouHillary Clinton appearin on russian propaganda websitesto like russiy and sputnik. A democratic frontrunner has been forced to refute rumors of her deteriorating health, maybe. P and then somehow ending very similar form in theight wing media ecosystem of the United States breitbart, infowars, even fox news. Whawas once a concern voiced in whispers is now getting mainstream attention. Were talking about hillary. Clintons he some have said its like a miniseizure. What does it look like to you . It could be a postconcussion syndrome. U ow, your balance is off, youre youre dizzy all the time, your memory is off. Ed narrator it was inve overblown, but it didnt matter. The fact is, shes t there giving speeches every day and has to cancel them having these coughing fits. New questions tonight about t llary clintons health. Good evening,s a dratic moment thats already being watch and rewatched. The episode this morning is raising more questions about her health. reporters speaking russian narrator and the candidate made the most of it. And she cant make it 15 feet to her car, give me a brk. Give me a break. cheers and applause give me a break arrator as the fake new spread, conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes saw how it hardened the divide. Ill tell you what mype ence was in 2016. That the flood of thesesl ding or outright false stories was increasing. T past, id always been able to push back on my audience and say, okay, you understand this is not true. This is not e case. You know, there are not bodies stacked up in the clinton library, and heres the source of all of that. By late 2016, though, i wano longer able to do that. People were not willing to accepthe corrections. And donald trump is counting on this, and this does fundamentally change our politics. Umaughter not sure why would openly ask russia to spy on his treasons. Im sure he has laughter donald trump is asking russic toour former secretary of state. A manunning for president just asked russia to hack america. Donald, your party wants you to appeal to the red states, not the red state. Au ter and applause narrator using conflict and outrage, donald trump had galvanized an angry base and won over theeluctant republican establishment. But a tabloid crisis would testo much they would take and how far he could go. That day, were up in the 25th floor conference room, and s friday afternoon, about 2 00. And all of a sudden, hope hicks shows up outside the glass thing and shes giving me the signal. And so i step out. I go out and i read this thing. And shes, like, about to cry, she goes, oh, this is terrible. Narrator breitbateve bannon had signed on as the c. E. O. Of Trumps Campaign. I said, what are you so upset about . What is this . the Washington Post is going to publish a storyn an hour. D i go, whats so bad about it . And she goes, well, look it, he says, im going to grab them by the leep . and i go, oh, maybe i havent focused on it. So i look do, i go, oh, okay, i gotta use some tic tacs just in case we start kissing. Narrator bannon, hicks, aan top aideother members of the trump team watched it online. Whatever you want. laughing im, like, wh boom, that thing hits. Conference room. G in the and on video i didnt quite realize it was audio and video in. Ideo, its pretty powerf so everything shuts down. Al dond trump caught on tape, in his own words, vulgar words,i boasting about able to grab women by their genitals and get away with it because hes a star. So after the access hollywood tape, our poll numbers took a hit, and some National Polls h us down to 35 and her at 48 . Thats with one month to go exactly. In the audio, you can hear trump talk about a married woman he tried to have sex with and how he behaves with women that t Trump Campaign is in full damage control mode following a troubling story. I thought that was pbably it for trump. It was stunning. It i meanas stunning just to hear, you know, a Major Party Nominee talk that way about any group, never md my own, right . Women. Um. It was jarring. It was very jarring. The trump camp has swiftly launed into disaster mode. A big, Big Development in thisampaign as it cos to. This was the october surprise. Had the ability to take down a campgn. An the internal discussion amongst the campaign. Some were, you need toog ape immediately, and some were, you need to, uh. Double down. Narrator a Damage Control Team gathered rudy giuliani, chris christie, kell conway, bannon. You know, its rudy and christie and all the traditional politicians are sayings over and you gotta. You know, trumps going around our saying, give me percentage and what do i do. And theyre all, like, you know, zero percent, 20 . I , its 100 . And he goes. I said, listen, they dont care. This is locker room talk. They dont care about vulgarity or anything like that. They care about, theyre losing their jobs, theyre losing their country, they see their country going away from them. Arrator the republican establishment began to defect. ughing hes in a bad mood, okay . Now weve got a full revolt. E penc nowhere to be found;he hes not out saying he gives, we get a letter from him. Paul ryans out of the campaign. Mcconnells out. Because they thought they were going to lose the reblican party. They thought every woman in america will never vote for a republican again, right . Because this guys a barbarian. This is a political disaster, no doubt. Donald Trumps Campaign its worst crisis ever. You see so many republicans denounce trump, even though he r is tublican nominee and theres not going to be someone else to emerge. The republicans are basically saying, whever, give it to the democrats. Narrator the traditional rules of politics called for an. Abject apolo ive never said im a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that im not. Ive said and done things i regret, and the words released today on this morethana them. Eold video are one of reframe the crisiss owne would terms us versus them. Bill clinton has actually abused women, and hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims. chanting trump narrator and soon, the base let him know they had gotten the message. chting we want trump theres literally this mob down there. And he goes, look, theres my people. Ump just walks out there here he i Donald Donald whoo narrator they wen his side. They liked the conflict. The fight. He will never apologize. He punches and then he punches harder and then he doubles down and he refigures and then he punches again. He is never someone thats going to say, i made a mistake, or, i apologi he will never back down. Narrator and the very next day just before the president ial debate. Bannon had a plan to keep the conflict going. We didnt tell anybody. Trump didnt know about it. Were in the president ial suite the hotel. Walk up and trump, as often he would do, would kind of lean a ba almost close his eyes, and i said, okay, heres what we got. We got paula jones and all the women that. That clinton assaulted, then youre going to t in the middle. Were going to open the door and theyre going to come in and were going to bleep hit th, okay . And he. And im sitting there, im making my pitch, right . He goes i go, what do you think . He goes, i love it. laughs narrator they spited him down the freight elevator, put him in a conference room, and opened the drs to an unsuspecting press corps. Next thing, i knowand no one in the press knew this was happening there was a press conference with all of bill clintons accusers right before the debate. These four very courageous women have asked to be here and it was our honor to help them. There wasidespread shock nobody had it beforehand. Mr. Trump may have id some bad words, but bill clinton a raped Hillary Clinton threatened me. I dont think theres any comparison. Narrator they re allegations the clintons had long dend. But it didnt matter to bannon and trp. They were song more chaos. Whats the point to all of this . It doesnt make donald trump or what he ught on tape saying any better. But it just creates a lot of confusion and chaos. Even though it felt dirty, and you felt kind of gross when you watched the ole thing unfold, it was effective. It reminded all of us that the woman who would go into office if he lost was no saint, either llary herself necessarily, but her husband, and with her enabling, really, it must be said. Okay. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. It was perfect. It an was that, that, that got us momentum. T that gave velocity, that gave us the muzzle velocity to kind of drive home in the last, you know, five, four or five weeks of the campaign. Its it was a sw. First of all, it took some of the attention away from trump. What hes really good at in a, in a fight is muddying the, muddying the waters, muddying the truth, muddyinthe focus to the point where everybody just says, ah, its a wash. W hes done thh the media for years. They say this about me, its not, i say this, you know, people dont trust the media, people dont trust trump. He knows that in the end, thnd f throw up their hands and and say, you deserve each other. And thats fine with him. laughter if the president thing doesnt work out, i would love to see a reality show where donald trump and billy bush just travel around the country in a bus. Take a tic tac and grab them by the bleep is the closest thing to a plan donald trump ha descriis entire election. Yeah, i dont think thats what Donald Trumps advisers meant when they told him to reach out to women. An g applause pl cheers d se the decision desk has called pennsylvania for donald trump. Ra nartor on election night, trumps Divisive Campaign paid off. This means that donald trump will be the 45th president of the United States. The most ueal. Narrator the base, energized,arrowly put him over the top. In an electoral collegeor victthat virtually no one saw coming a year ago, a few months ago even a month ago, even yesterday. Whoa, everyone got this wron i mean, one percent of the pollsters and the prognosticators called this. E and everyone es wrong. And this is a huge story. What trump are we probably going to see. Donald trump has broken the rules. W the a kind of prejudice against trump, a kind of incredulity in the parlors of washington and new york and los angeles. Somehow, this guy who was so coarse and so blatan exploiting race and division could actually win. How unpredictable the new terrain. Hes come to washington to change washington. It speaks to how deeply divideour nation is, that you have two candidates receive tens of millions of votes, a race thats separatedy just a handful of votes in a handful of states. They care about donald trump. They like that guy, they want and they want to beat the democrats. Crooked hillary. The creation of a new reality. Caught a political earthquake and unraveling at a stem, where even a revolution. A president tmp is very much a wild card. Dont think any of us thought he was going to win. When he wins, if people arebr being utally honest, there wasle l, in large measure, of disbelief. Is this our new normal . Is there reason for concern . It the sheer unpredictabof a president donald trump. Even for him, it was a little of an overwhelming feeling to see yourself be elected president of the United States and realize that youre going to be the next commanderinchief,e th leader of the free world. Its a humbling, humbling thing. 2016 changed the face of american politics forever. Narrator after a polarizing campaign, he would need anac ptance speech to signal to the country, to an anxious wall street, d the world. A case of disruption coming to washington. Narrator what kind of president he would be. I remember calling him on his cell phone when the futures were down bloomberg was reportinges that stock futere down 600 as a result of his victory. And i remember saying to him, hey, we got to put some stuff in there that are sensitizing to the markets, to let people know things are going to be okay. Narrator but steve bannon didnt want things to be okay. He went to work on a speech that would emphasize division, give the base what it wanted. Rt and i sorking on it, like at, you know, 1 00, 12 00, 1 00 in the morning. It was, go to whington, and wergoing to burn out the permanent political class. Were going to take a torch to the enemy. Okay . That it was firebreathing. crowd chanting u. S. A. narrator but having won, trump wavered. He would sound uncharacteristically conciliatory. Now its time for america tod bind the wof division; have to get together. To ll republicans and democrats and independents across this nation, i say it is time for us to come together as one united people. cheers and applause you never see the Trump Victory night speech ever replayed. Because its just not trump. Its not a its kind of like, lets have a group hug. cheers and applause for those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people. laughter im reaching out to you for youn gu and your help so that we can Work Together and unify our great country. cheers and applause i said, no, no, no, no, we didnt win an election to bring the country together. Its not time to bring the country together, ite to take on the elites in this country, take the torch to them. Hit them with a blowtorch. Ou i love thisry. Thank you, thank you very much cheers and applause i saw him, not only then, but owter he returned to trump that night. And the weight of the election, the, the processing of recognizing what was about to happen, was clearly going through his mind at that time. You uld you could see how profound the moment was. I think there was a little bit of shock, uh, there, a moment of vulnerability. He said he was literally going to a more president ial than abraham lincoln. I mean, we laughed, but he meant it seriously. You know, he was going to dial o batwitter, dial up on president ial nature, if youwi. Narrator in his next publicw appearance, as toneddown trump ain. In the oval office. No sign of the brutal divisiveness that had gotten him there. Opportunity to have an excellent conversation with president elect trump. To see the two of them in the oval office was kind of the, you know, the final moment of, how in the world did this happen . Av and whatwe just gone through . Been very encouraged by the, i think, ierest in president , president elect trumps. I believe thatt is important. Trump is totally disinterested in the gravity of the job hes walking into. Just doesnt care, you know. To nar ben rhodes was one of obamas closest aides. You know, i think for obama, it was like a gut punch. Obamas seeing this meas an opportunity, i need to tell him about all these things, you know, how healcare works in this country, north korean threat, whats going on with iran. And trump is totally disinterested in any of this. Didnt even care. Narrator in front the cameras, the reality tv star smiled and tried out his new role. We were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other. Fhave Great Respect. The meeting last almost an hour and a half. And it could have as far as im concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer. The donald trump who came to the oval office on november 10, two days after election day, seemed like a very different donald trump. He spoke very reectfully of president obama, who h questioned whether he was a legitimate president , to the birther sue. But here he was saying he greatly admired president obama. So for someone whos just heard trump talk on the campaign, it seemed like an outofbody experience. And i look forward to being in the future. Many more times thank you. Thank you, everybody. Were not we are not going to. And there was an idea, for a brief moment, that he was about to pivot, that he was about to be president ial. He would show us all that he was capable of uniting america and speaking to everybody at once. Narrator but before long, the anger, resentment, conflict that had put donald trump in power would return. It erupted after one decisive meeting. Between the president elect and top intelligence. About to get all of the details from u. S. Intelligence chiefs. Powerful leaders of thethe Intelligence Community arrived at trump tower. They cam evidence in hand, to convince the presintelect the russians really had interfered in the election. For what could be a day of firewor here at trump tower. He came to identify the question of the russian intervention in the election as a questioning of his own election as president. And so he, from the very beginning, refused to treat this in a way thai think any other president would have which is as a serious attack on the u. S. And its Election Integrity but chose to view it in very personalized terms. La the officials s theyll present him withified material. Narrator and it only got more personal. After the briefing, fbi director james comey spoke to t privately. Comeyulls the president aside,nd he tells him, hey, listen, uh, i needou to know that theres this what we now call the dossier. Narrator the dossier unverified and sensational rmlegations prepared by a british spy partially paid for by the democrats. It was political dynamite. Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting, andsi ing trump for at least five years. Its full of things that may be able to allow the russians to blackmail him. It has information about him involved in perverted sexual acts. To exploit trumps personal obsessions and sexual perversion in order to obtain suitable c kompromaprising material on him. Narrator after the meeting, the president elect was rious. Trumps talking to his top aides and he views this as blackmail. Its a shakedown, he tells them. His assumption is that comey is givinghis to him to show him that hes got something on him. Narrator then news of the briefing leaked. This is cnn breaking news. Cnn has learned that the officials provided information to president elect donald. Theres the controversial move by buzzfeed last night, publishing a dossier. Narrator before long, the entire dossier was online. But they have been detailed by numerous Media Outletsg includzzfeed. Narrator trumps chief strategist, steve bannon, told the president elect he knew what was going on. Bannon himself had used breitbart to wage harsright wing attacks. Now, bannon said, the Mainstream Media was going afteump. This is what scumbags the Mainstream Media a. And how gutless they are. Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed, the standard of excellence in journalism in ouro try, prints the dossier, with a link. And i said, here it goes. Because then the new york times, the Washington Post, so on, its all bang, bang, bang, bang, theyre reporting this was given to the president , right . N narrator he wasnt e president and already trump was under siege. The president elect must have concluded that the press was going to be an adversarial, confrontational force, this is even before he took office, anthat the press had sourc that could undermine him, sources that knew what he was atdoing, even if he was pry meeting with the fbi direcr. I think that set the tone for what was to follow. applause narrator now, it was bacto what trump did best. At a press conference the very next day, he gave his base what they had come to expect he attacked. I think it was disgraceful disgraceful that the telligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. He expresses frustration. He knows its a setup. Ws he knots a plot to destroy m, and people around him and thats something that nazi germany would have done and did do. I think its a disgrace. Trump, i think because of the dossier and the leak of the dossier, was so furious thate just came out and lashed out at everybody. And i think that sort of set the tone forntire administration, to be honest. That information that was false and fake and never happened got released to theic pu. I think that was a signal to everybody, certainly to me and the restf the media, that this was the trump we were going to get in the white house that it wasnt going to be any sort of a reset. He angry,ing to be same, the same trump that was out there on the campaign, campaign trail. E can you g a question . Go ahead. Narrator trump made it clear the press was the enemy. N n you. Not you. Can you give us a chance . Your ganization is rrible. Youre attacking our news organization. Can you give us a chance to ask a qution, sir . Go ahead. Quiet. Quiet. Go ahead shes asking a estion, dont be rude. Mr. President elect. Can you give us a question . Youre attacking us. Narrator he then deployed a weapon designed to undermine the media a catchphrase. Can you state categorically. You are fake news. Go ahead. T was really extraordinary watching donald trump take fake news, the term fake news, and the media. S his own critique of he has created this alternative reality that allows him to dismiss or discredit anything that is negative while pushing his own narrative. But i will tell you, some of the Media Outlets that i deal with are fake news, more so than anybody. I could name them, but iont bother, but you have a few sitting right in front of us. So theyre very, very dishonest people. W he used it as again to divide the country, to energize hisupporters, and to castms f as somebody who is under siege by, you know, an establishment or an whos interests are counter to the peop who elected dald trum and frankly, very effectively done. Its all fake news. Its phony stuff. It didnt happen. Hes a brilliant marketer. And he knew that with the drop in credibility of the media, and the increase in skepticism and cynicism from the public, that he was able to get away with much more. He was able to say things that no other president had said. And to bable to chalnge the press directly. This fake news was indeeds. Fake sir, you did not answer. Sir, you did not answer whether any of your associates were in contt with the russians. Sir, you did not answer, you did not answer whetherny of your associates were in contact with the russians. Can you categorically deny that did not happen, sir . Can you categorically deny that that did n happen, sir . cheers and applause hail to the chief playing theorld is watching our trump is set to become americas 45th president today. Narrator as he took the oath n office, donald trump ma pretense of seeking unity or healing. He spoke directly to his base. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no l cheers and applause narrato he framed the conflict us versus them. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have noteen your triumphs. cheers and applause he very much made accentuating the divide part of his campaign strategy, and even mo incredibly, part of his governing strategies. I mean, i think he is the first president who arrived exicitly understanding, and even seeking to speak only to his base. crowd chanting narrator but that very day, he would be confronted by the other side of the divide. And they got their moment, and i have to tell you, we are just passing trump hotel, we did pass protesters, so you could hear the din of the people. We are next, right across the street from the hotel theres a huge group of otesters combined with supporters, and andve been very voca weve seen a few flareups. Ok it lolike theyre going back to the car. So, lester, there is a change of plans now, i believe. He is back in his vehicle. Narrator it was a sign of the anger also deepening on the left. The mood that day went from aceful protests. Trump and pence are fascists what . Trump and pence are. Illegitimate trump and pence are fascists narrator to standoffs. people shouting tear gas canisters popping officers shouting narrator to violent provocation. G, shoutinheering sirens blaring people shouting sirens bling narrator by the next day, hundreds of thousands Peaceful Protesters overwhelmed washington. The resistance will be televised. Live from washington, dc. One of the largest singleday protests in American History,sp king out against dond trump just one day after he took office. We want a leader not a tweeter we want a leader t day after the inauguration. chanting there were more people who showed up on the National Mall in washington for the womens t march thre had been the day bere, when a new esident was inaugurated. Pence sucks, too pence sucks, too when you had the womens march and the hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets. Donald trump has got to g in washington, in cities around the country, in places around the world. There was annergy created by his election. That energy began to course through the political system. And you uld see that with the womens march. There will be a debate about the sizee crowd, these protesters saying that theyre going to have a bigger crowd here today than donald trumpad his supporters at his inaugural yesterday. Well let that debate play out. Narrator t protests, the women, then the breaking point the news aut the sizof the crowd at his inauguration. Former president obama on the left, and trumps inauguration,h were on the right, with far fewer spectators. Vantage point showing a big difference in the size of the crowd. There were big holes in the crowd, so those are the comparisons right there. Paling in comparison to presidt obama take a look at that exact same image from today. I was, we saw a lot fewer, we saw fewer people. Visually at least . It was smaller. I think its safe to say there was light turnout. Donald trump is, is a tv guy. He has always been concerned with his ratings, and with numeric vaes of winning versus losing. Aso the notion of having smaller crowd than somebody else, uh, just eats atim. Narrator on their first day in the white house, press aide cliff sims saw trumps frustration up close. Within the first, you know,in fivees that im in the building, theres this kind of crisis moment. There was a lot of reporting that the inaugural crowds for him were not as big as the inaugural crowds for obama. That is the equivalent for donald trump of a schoolyard fight, so they were really cong after him, hitting hi where it hurts. And he starts insisting, thats not true we have the biggest crowd ever. He tells sean spicer, his press secretary, you go o there andt and it sets the tone. It sets the tone frothe beginning. You know, this is not about healing, this is not aboutng brineople together. Sean, first day on the b, is thinking to himself, heres my chance to kind of show im tough. Im going to punch back ten times harder than they hit us. Lets figure out how to do that. I grab a computer, start, you know, pecking out a statement. Narrator this was the statement they drafted. Almost every fact about the crowd sizeas wrong. We were so caught up in the moment, and seans trying to imprs the president. And im being told facts that end up not being true, which wei t vet properly. Sean was basically like marching out to his own death there. Good evening. Thank you guys for coming. Is at least,redibilitys death. Photographs of the inaugural proceedings werententionally framed in a way, in one particular tweet, to minimize thenormous support that ha gaered on the National Mall. And only a fool would have gone out there kind of halfcocked the way that we did. And we were those fools. This was the largest audience to ever witness an person and around the globe. N even the new york times. When he goes ouand says, this is the biggest crowd size ever. A misreprentation of the crowd. What hes saying, in essence, is, whats true is what the leader says is true. The obliteration of the line between truth and the lie is fundamental to grasp because its so elemental a functionindemocracy. And the degration of those institutions is a weakening of our system. Did you lie on his behalf . No. Never . No. There were plenty of times when. Look, your, your job. U y not go, go fullon, but i dont think that thats. Youre. I think i. The job of the press secretary is to articulate what the principal wants articulated. Not what you want youre n there to call balls and strikesp and int. Thats what you guys should be writing and covering, instead of Sowing Division about tweets and false narratives. I will see you on monday. reporters clamoring sean . Womens march. How about the obamacare changes . What we lrned in those first days of the Trump Presidency was t degree to which donald trump was going to insist on trying to write the history of his presidency the way he wanted. That if you spoke fodonald trump, you had a constituency of one, and that was donald trump. What it. Youre saying its a falsehood, and theyre giving sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains. Wait a minute alternative facts . Alternate facts fourf the five facts he uttered. Hey, chuck, why. The one thing he got right was zeke miller. Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true look, alternative facts are not facts theyre falsehoods. I mean, the obvious impact is that its created a tremendously dangerous,un able force in American Life, where people dont know what to believe. People have beenold theyre right not to believe the things they are told by credible the president of tted states has contributed mightily to an environment where people believe what they want to believe, and that is going toha longterm repercussions. Narrator trump didnt let it go. The fight over crowd size resonated with his base and the us versus them ware was waging. Just before we leave, the president tells us he wants to ow us just one more imag one thing this shows is how far over they go here. Look. Look how far this is. This goes all the way down here e way down. Nobody sees that you dont see that in the pictures. But when you look at this tremendous sea of love i call it a sea of love its really something special. But it really did become emblematic of what the Trump Presidency was to, to be, in that nothing was accepted at face value. It was kind of a warning sign that, not to take your eye off this ball, because its going to be differe from now on. And it has been. audience laughi hes focused on the size of his crowds, the size of his rating the size of hisands, the size of, well, everything and. audience ughs either thats a lot of empty space, or that crowd is even whiter than i tught. audience laughs you just couldntee trumps crowd because they were wearing polar bear skins. Hs audience la narrator trumps first acts as president were also meant to stoke conflict. Next is an executive order minimizing the economic burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act pending repeal. Narrator he signed a raft os executive orn some of the most divisive issues in American Life and politics. D. Have tee more than 200 possible executive orders for the new president. Narrator on obamacare. Associated with obamacare. Narrator the environment. Speeding up environmental reviews. Narrator immigration. S ning an executive order. Narrator and the border wall. I do think that they wantedav toa flurry of activity at the beginning to demonstrate that trump is what he said hes not going to wait, hes not going to take his time. He knows what to do and hes verything hes going to set the wld right immediately. The message is, its a crisis, were at work. And were driving this. Donald trumps predent of the United States. Now comes the hour of action theres been enough talk. Narrator steve bannon kept a list on his office wall of vee promises that the president was trying to deon. The people talk all the time politically is a base play. Since steve bannon being the example of the one who encourages him to, you know, lets play to the base. Lets play to the base. Lets play to the base. They feel vindicated that 2016 showed that if you energize a iver of the country, that that can be more powerful than kind of having this, you know, more evenkeel message that wereg go appeal to a little bit of everyone. Steve bannon, i think, rejects at premise and he says that im all about energizing this sliver. And that thats the way to win narrator the most explosive executive order crted to create shock and awe w aimed at blocking people from seven predominantly muslim countries fromntering the United States. Everybo understoo the travel ban was designed, in fact, to do. They understood the symbolism, they understood the message that it sent to his base. And what they were saying was, promise made, promise kept. Protection of the nation into the United States. Entering its big stuff. Narrator the reaction from the other side was immediate more outrage. protesters chanting a scene of outrage at jfk airport in new york, where. Protests all across the country, reaction from around the rld, after the president. As a symbolic issue to his base and to his opponents, as a marker in American Life and in the american political debate, i mean, we moved into an entirely different darnd of period. And i think its, its significance is hard tst ove. Swift reaction from around the country. Now protests, outrage, and backlash from president. These actions that trump does to appease his base and to excite his base have incited the resistance against him. O ban no wall the travel ban is one of the most important days in the Trump Presidency. Not just becausef the poli itself and what it says about us as amecans much less the people themselves who are now imperiled, unclear if they could come to the United States. chanting but it was the thousands of people rushing the airports. In seattle, Police Actually c dispersed somewds with pepper spray. It was a day of high drama. It was the day when it felt like democracy may be crumbling at its seams. No bans no walls and what might still be he when we wake up in the morning . Theres going to be 7,000 people at laguardia and at dca and atdu es . Are they going to start storming the gateand seizing refugees from tsa agents . Let them go right now let them go it, it struck me that this lot different than any other we had seen. Th they were simply not going to abide by any type oess, that there was a certain amount of spontaneity and impulsiveness about the way thin administraas going to operate. The People United will never be divided the People United will never be divided the People United. The president will meet with more republicans in congress. President trump will meet c wiservative leaders to talk about healthcare today. Narrator he had incited conflict with the trav ban, and now he would move on to another polarizing issue obacare. The Republican Party had forl thretions in a row run on the repeal of obamacare. Which, i think there was a sense that, hey, we owe our electorate they put us here for thiseason. Narrator to get it done, trump would rely on Speaker Paul Ryan and the republican establishment. In the sequencing, repeal t and replace, ats where the establishment, and ryan says, i got this. Weve voted 50 times. 50 times to repeal this. This is something we o. We know this better than anybody. President trump met earlier this evening with members of the Freedom Caucus to diuss. Narrator but like the travel ban, trumps effort was immediately mired in angryop sition. Theres still half of america, which is a significante entage, that did not vote for trump, did not vote for republicans in congress, and did want to repair obamacare,t but diant to dump it. And when you start with the most contentious issue, what are you going to get . Rowd clamoring all around the country, you had these, these hugely energized wn halls, and legislators would go home and get screamed at. yelling . By constituents who were terrified they were gointo take away their healthcare. chanting things like had the resist movement and the protesters around the building. The problem is obamacare has just collapsed. crowd yelling a booing theres just a huge reaction. I had town halls with people in churches swearing and lobbing fbombs at the pastor, if thate helps set thne. crowd yelling angri id try to finish sentences on healthcare, et cetera. Whatever, folks were just. growling in imitation chanting read our questions thats what we were facing, right . People were saying youre going to take away healthcare for millions, and, like. growls boo, you know . So it was hard to have a rational dialogue still is. crowd yelling chanting shame on you they wereicking a hornets nest of millions of americans who were now terrified that they could lose their Health Insurance coverage. And take the billionaires money and give it to that woman it just created an think republicans eallyont politically ready for. Singlepayer, run by the government . Oh, yeah, its got problems, but its also got elections, and youre going to find that out in 2018 what trump has done is o mamacare popular. The reality is that obamacare is. Nartor trumps frustration grew as the legislation became bogged down. New legislation that is twice as popular as the president. He vagaries of the legislative process are lost on him. On the apprentice, you jus simply say, youre fired, and thats the end of it. The idea of working with a legislaturis kind of, its a mystery to him. And so, how is it these onpublicans cant get this what is it youre doing, paul ryan . Get this done. Were going to repeal and replace becomes a fiasco. Theyre totally d completely incompetent. E theyt ready to govern. Theyre just not ready to govern. The senate is scheduled to vote on the latest version of the bill to replace obamacare. Narrator trump watched as the senate prepared for a cruciavote on healthcare reform. A vote on healthcare, a vote thats too close to call at this point. Narrator he key vote reblican senator john mccain, a longtime trump adversary. He is expected to show up at capitol hill today to cast what is expected to be a yes voten healthcare. He clerk will call the roll. It was the most dramatic night on theenate floor i had seen in all my years up there. Mr. Barrasso. The votes ticking away, the votes ticking away. And mccains on the floor, but hes not voting. Mr. Blunt. Mr. Booker. You saw Mitch Mcconnell looking more and more unhappy, his arms were closed. And you could tell from the body language on the republican side that they were very d. Mr. Durbin. John mccain walks up to where ate vote clerks are and he lifts his hand very drally. Narrator mccain, with age thumbsdowure, shocked the chamber. people gasping you could hear audible gasps in the chamber. And those gasps of surprise came from both sides of the aisle. No. In people ga in the senate chambers, you could hear the shock first gasps. Another devastating blow to republican senators as an Obamacare Repeal fails. Nobody was expecting John N Mccain to vo and the way that he did obviously hads ramificatit just in the senate or in congress, but in e ite house, as well. And how it would make m everythie difficult because members are fighting with each other now. Breaking news right now. The republicans Obamacare Repeal fled in the senate tonight, the vote 49 to 51. The dratic collapse of the healthcare effort. Narrator the president had been watching on television. We were in the dining room off the oval office. There was profound diatppointment that we were close, and that had spent a lot of effort really believing that we could finallyo something when it comes to healthcare. Republicans tried and have failed again. And so it was just huge ointment. We are continuing to follow breaking news on capitol hill, idere lawmakers dealt a serious blow to the prests. Narrator his first legislative effort went down in defeat. Trump was angry he was angry because he was failing as a president. All he had to do was click on ble news to see that he wasnt being portrayed as, asnn the g, swashbuckling, powerful predent he wanted to be. Narrator it was a decisive mont. He would have to unleash hisat ck politics onto the republican establishment itself. He goes with the corrupt, establishment instincts for the first couple of months of his presidency, and it backfires. What other conclusio ocould he drer than, now its time to try some stuff on my own . Narrator this time turned to the base. Spoke to them directly. You can thank congress, the same people that cantven give us hcare tweets narrator he targeted congressional republans, especially leader Mitch Mcconnell. Senator mitch mcnnell sa i had excessive expectations, after seven years of hearing repeal replace, why not done . tweets the president s frustration s not subtle, right . Particularly towards Mitch Mcconnell. I think he jt saw him as a e ilure. Can you beliat Mitch Mcconnell, who has screamed repeal replace for sevt years, couldt it done. tweets trump is using the most powerful weapon he h, which is twitter, to humiliate him repeatedly, to rake him over the coals. To let his followers know, this is Mitch Mcconnells fault. Ai hesd you, not me. Mitch, get back to work and put repeal replace, tax refort cuts and a g infrastructure bill on my desk for signing. tweets hes feeding it. Trump is feeding hostility towards congress. An that tweet storm galvanized trump voters to turn against congress in a way that ive never seen a governing partyspp ters engage in. Narrator he had exploited division, separated the country ine us versus them, and now would target a new enemy the government itself, tapping into conspiratori fears he called the deep state. Federal employees that donts of necessarily agree or voted for this president and arent thrilled to see him in power. Theyre working internally against the president. Narrator trumps war with the deep sta began with fbi director james comey, the man who had delivered the dossr and was investigating Russian Election interference. Unable to get him to back down, trump fired him. Breaking news james comey has been removed from heading the fbi. This is a statement. Narrator tv news helicopters were waiting as comey left the Fbi Field Office in los geles. This is a very closely kept secret here at the white house. I am told only a handful of. Trump has finally fired fbi direct comey this guy. When the president fired jim comey, there was an explosion, a huge eruption, in the media and the country. D u started hearing donald trump compared to richxon. This was another saturday night massacre. This was another watergate. Firing comey, though, has Richard Nixons saturdaysident night massacre. This is a moment whereu really understand the feedback loop that trump kind o. Thrives i make a decisiond then im able to immediately go and watch the reaction stunning news, even for President Trump, who has been known to shock people. This is a president using his power to prevent himselffa ing under the Justice System that wall have to deal with. The bombshell announcement,g somethat was completely what are the taheads saying about this . How it being framed . How is it being covered by the media . crowd cheering narrator trump would t escalate conflt. In a campaignstyle rally, a defiant President Trump. Narrator rallying his base against the media. Back in his happy place. Narrator the justicent departmeand the fbi. I did you a great favor when i fired this guy, i tell you i did you a great favor. crowdheering look at whats happened, look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion, give me a break its basicalla kind of divideandconquer kind of strategy. And so as long as the co sort of divided and he has his defenders, he can underminee those who tacking him. People, take a look at the intelligence agencies. Honestly, folks, let me tell you, let me tell you, its a disgrace. We gotta get back down to business, its a disgrace. I was surprised, and. President who is attackingew institutions of his ow government. His own Intelligence Community, his own law enforcent community. These are people who work for him, and are sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States, so. This was an unpreced historic situation. Narrator to his suppters, he cast himself as a victim. This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American History tweets there is no collusion and no obstruction. I should be given apology tweets you are witnessing the single greate witch hunt in american political history, led by some very bad and conflicted people tweets narrator his tweets provided the script for fox news. Fox and friends starts right now. The president is really mad. He tweed this out as the phony russian witch hunt continues. His is a very dangerous witch hunt. Its only because i think this is a witch hunt. And putn end to the political witch hunt against President Trump. Iyou turn on fox news, if you click on breitbart, he is this hero victimized bes who are unfairly attacking him. If you turn on cnn,g news. If you open up the new york times. It really looks a lot like obstruction of justice. Trump is a failing president whos very unpopular. Esident has no one to blame but himself. And increasingly, those two worlds pulled apart. The partisan dide became even deeper than it was in the election it became a chasm. And in many ways, its an unbridgeable chasm. But he thinks hes ill on the Celebrity Apprentice. It was between james comey and meatloaf and, well, the loaf won again. La laughter, ae president Vladimir Putin said today that russia had nothing to do with the firing of fbi director james comey. laughter james comey thought it was a prank and started laughing. Te lau but to be fair, thats also how trump reacted when he won the election. laughter and applause chanting you will not replace us you will not replace us you will not replace us narrator then, the starkest example of just how ugly it was all becoming. Charlottesville. , in many wa was the worst moment of the first year of his presidency. Because it was so it was sowh obviou a president should do in a situation like that. We have breaking news tonight with that altright White Nationalist rally. Take a look at this. University, the torchwielding White Nationalists coming face to face. A demonstration by White Nationalists at the university charlottesville. Ha what yoin charlottesville was the altright people, many of them marching in trumps name. We could see them marching with torches, and it looked like something out of nazi germany. drums pounding, whistles blowing to narra neonazis and White Nationalist protesters were forming, protesting plans to remove a statue of robert e. Lee. Hi, howre yall doin . Narrator former ku klu klan leader david duke praisedes prent trump. We are determined to take our country back. Were going to fulfill the promises of donald trump. At th what we believed in, thats why we voted for donald trump. Narrator also arriving, counterprotesters, determined to confront the white thtionalists. This is what represent. Charlottesville was a clash between these forces. protesters shouting the forces of these farright groups and then counterf protestersthem. Folks who say, why are there nazis in our streets . Were going to get them out. Narrator armed rigwing militia arrived. Hour by hour, the tensions grew. Violent clashes betweenhite supremacists and counter b protesterske out. protesters outing we see, time and , videos of farright protesters beating black attendees of the counterprotest. Charlottesville under siege. As police in riot gear es try tore calm. Narrator and then, the unthinkable. protesters chanting crowd screams in people screg bleep holy blee a man drives his vehicle t inhe crowd, killing Heather Heyer and woundi others. people yelling this was an incident that was clearly the ta of these farright, white supremacist powers eoldened and out of control. Panic and horror in arlottesville a car sl into a crowd of countert protestersa White Supremacy a woman was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd, wjuring 19 others. Narrator truched the violence. Killing a young woman. Narrator his response at d this explosive moment wo crucial to both sides of the divide. H when thpens, the instinct of most president s would be, heal, unify, mourn. But thats not what he wants to do. Its not his impulse. Something. S to say, say but were closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. Hhad prepared remarks that he was going to read, um. You know, condemning the violence in charlottesville. We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this egregious didlay of hatred, bigotry, violence on many sides on many sides. The words many sides werel bed and added by trump. They were not in his prepared remarks. Thank you very much, thank you. Narrator the ad lib immediately provoked an uproar. Suggled to shore up the president s equivocal response to charlottesville. That didn go over very well, that it was clear that one side seemed to, you know, initiatehis altercation. It was the nationalists, these White Nationalists. They were largely responsie for the violence. Narrator arriving in newyo city, the president faced a firestorm. When the president wont and with you against klansmen who showed up with guns. He didnt respond plicitly condemning rightwing. Thats how neonazis see President Trump theyre clapping for him. I tnk he is making very clear who and what he is. A talks likwhite supremacist, is likely a white. Narrator some advisers t wantmp to apologize, but not steve bannon. Not a tough call for mosts, politicind so if you cant. This is where various elements in thwhite house, in the west wing, get in his ear about trying to get him to do mething that is not in his wheelhouse, not in the way he rolls. You cant do that. Let trump be trump. V the natied for it. It is what it is. Its just not if you try to do it, itll be phony and everybody can smell the phoniness. Narrator trump kept it going. Xc e me, what about the altleft that came charging at the, as you say, the altright . Do they have any semblance of ilt . reporters clamoring hes so fiery, and hes so angry, and hes really getting in personal backandforth with membs of the press. So, you know, as far as im concerned, that was a hoible, rrible day. Wait a minute im nofinished im not finished, fake news. We saw trump completely unbound from convention, adition, even democratic norms, i would say. And just fully speaking his mind in an unfiltered, and i think, to a lot of people, unnerving way. I think theres blame on both sides. And i have no doubt about it, anyou dont have any doubt about it, either. reporters clamoring and, and, and if you reported accurately, you would say. Excuse me, they didnt put and you had some very bad people in that group. You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. O had people. Im a reporter who has reported on race for a long time, and i ver would have imagined the person in the office of the president callinge le who go to a nazi rally very fine people. But you had many people in that group other than neonazis and White Nationalists, okay . Thank you all very much. Thank you. What about the nazis who support you . Its probably the first time where the country realizes this is going to get bad. And it is the beginning of a time in america where people realize that america is not just exist, but its a whereeals can racist ideals can be fueled by the ite house. Tremendously positive impact on race. He is about division. His presidency is predicated on that. He wants division. Se craves it. He enjoys findins and. And driving right into them, you ow. Theres no fight he doesnt want to be part of, and there are plenty of fights hed like to start. The fight is the goal. Its. Theres no reward, from his point of view, in unity. Therea reward in fighting. Nt presirump is being criticized by fellow republicans r being too. R narraome republicans broke ranks and came out against him. E whpremacy, bigotry racism have absolutely no place in our society no one especial potus should ever tolerate it. tweets mr. President , you cant alw whitesupremacists to share only part of blame. tweets am theres no moral equivalency between racists icans standing up to defy hate tweets i reacted in a way that most of my colleagues did, as well, that ts was not where a president should be. This was a layup. This was easy, you know . If theres White Supremacy in any form, u condemn it. I mean, thats thats the easy thing to do. And he and he didnt. Gh and i th oh, man. Thats really drilling down on the base. With that statement, it sent a signal to some of the mo untolerant elements in the country, in our y, american citizens who. Are racist. That he was listening to them, that he respected that point of view. That he wasnt going to walk away from them. And, um, and thats, thats been a lasting messagehats been out there. President trump is hoing a make America Great again rally in. Harrator President Trumpad been compiling an enemies list. G campastyle event tonight. Nartor the media, the fbi, and now, republicans who werent sufficiently loyal. If youre an elected republican, donald trump has made it clear that if you go against him, hes going to go against you, and you will pay price for that. And we saw it in any number of individual cases, and it doesnt take very many of those. I mean, all it takes is two or three of those cases for people to get the message that. That there is enormous risk if you go against the president. Narrator one example Arizona Republican senator jeff aflake, who had emerged a trump critic. Well, im thrilled to be back in phoenix, in the great state of arizona. crowd cheers ra nr as always, trump would attack, rallying his base ainst flake. They all said, please, mr. President , dont mention any names. Rowd laughs and boos so i wont. I wont crowd cheering i s about going back to the base, to demonstrate how popular it is to be with the president , particularly in jeffs own state. And nody wants me to talk about your senator, whos meak on borders, weak on c crowd boos i k about m. Noll not mention any names. Very president l, isnt it . Very president ial. When the president of t United States rolls in, and you have a rly that has thousands of people in it, jeff pays attention. chanting drain the swamp drain the swamp drain the swamp. For donald trump, a everythingut donald trump. Youre either for donald trump or you are against donald trump. And he wants to he wants to encourage everybody to see it his way, so he steps in to all of these and makes his voice heard and makes his muscle felt. Narrator it was effective. Flakes own votersurned on him. I think he knew at that time that i was out of sth a at that he reped morease, of their feelings than i did. E will make America Great again. Ank you, arizona, god bless you. Thank you, thank you. Narrator flake understood what it meant his senate the senator from arizona. I decided to pull the pin. Ag none of my cols knew it, at that point. But i told a few of them, you may want to come to e floor. But anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy. The impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens t us into a fearful, backwardlooking people. In the case of the Republican Party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backwardlooking minority party. I think there was relief among a lot of, of members ofic the repu party that finally, somebody was coming out in the open and saying this, becae on some level, this is what most of them felt. And theyd been afraid to say it. Theyd been afraid because theyn were afraid ofd trump. Theyd been afraid because they defeat them in the Party Primary the next time they were up for the election. camera shutters clicking narrator as flake walked off the flr, he left the other republicans with a choice. Hes basically drawing a line. If we are going to be a successful conservative party, we have got to turn away from what donald trump is doing tous and the way he is leading us. Its kind of a moment of truth r the Republican Party. What kind of a party is this going to be . Whos going to lead this party . Narrator but flake soon ctscovered there would be no repuican insurn. There it a rush to stick up f jeff flake or side with him. Everyone just kind of stays on the sidelines and wants to a lot of when yod talk to someone, what did you think about jeff flake . Oh, i didnt see what he said, you know . , i missed i was in a meeting. Like, there wasnt. Much ruminating on his decision. We have a guts and couragean crisis in amerolitics. We have politicians who go to eat effort to get elected to go to washington, not to fight for great princies or causes, but to see who can be the best bootlicker. Narrator the presint had wo eff flake thought he was going to raise his profile to the point where he would have an opportunity to be something bigger than what he is. And what happened . On made a terrible calcula he went against donald trump, jeff is a guy who also used to be a u. S. Senator. G. O. P. Congressmen announcing that they will not seek reelection in the 2018. President trump from two republican senators calling it quits. Narrator in time, more than 40 other republicans would leave. Of morehan a dozen republicans who. In the trump era, theres no room for disagreement. The era where the senators, the their prerogativesr power,ed would stand up to a president , sees largely to be over in United States today. It looks like President Trump is going to get his christmas wish. The most sweeping rewrite of our tax code. St the firegislative win. Narrator trumps dominance would culminate in front of the cameras in the rose garden. The most sweeping tax ovhaul in three decades. Narrator it was a ceremony for the passage of his first major piece of leglation a tax cut. A major victory for president donald trump. Its really. I guess s very simple. When you think you haventis heard xpression but we are making America Great again. You havent heard that, have you . N rator one by one, congressional leaders some hed previously ridiculed. Mitch, how about you start it . Narrator came forward to praise President Trump. Yes. Well, let me just say, mr. Present, you made the case f the tax bill, but this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the trump administration. Weve cemented the supme court right of center for a generation. Youve ended the overregulationt american economy. Thank you, mr. Preside, for all youre doing. What the republican establishment now know is, donald trump is unuivocally the leader of the Republican Party. He is the one who sets the tone washington. Es place in he is the leader of our country, both politicallynd from a legislative side of things. Something this big coulnot have not been done without exquisite president ial leadership. Mr. President , thank you for getting us over the finish linet thank you for g us where we are, really. Donald trump has conflated Republican Party loyalty with loyalty to himself to an extrema degree, anbeen remarkably successful over the last several years in what amounts to reallye a hostile er of a Republican Party that s actually quite united against him in 2016. Orrin, say a few words, please. That youre living everyo say everything i thought you wou. Youre one heck of a leader and were all benefiting from it. And were going to make this the greatest presidency that weve seen not only in generations, but maybe ever. God bless all of you. applause whoa paul ryan just said, how good in essence, thime trumps Republican Party. The testimony that people gave there is hard to take ba. Orrin hatch, for example. But mcconnell and ryan and others who gave trump an enormous amount of credit. Thatthat created a unity within the Republican Party that had not existed. applause this was a fight for the soul of the Republican Party, and trump won. Theres no question about it. Anpits not so much that tr took over the Republican Party, its that the Republican Party completely capitulated to him. Theyre all united in believing that in order to survive politically, and not lose in a primary, they have to stick as close to him as possib even when he puts out racisttw ts, you cannot criticize him in public. Evenhen he engages in the mo reckless behavior, you cannot break with him in public. crowd applauding narrator trump had brought divisive politics to the presidency, the congress, and it would even extend to the supme cot. It is my honor and privilege announce that i will nominate judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Supreme Court Showdown as democrats are promising to fight President Trump. The battle is on. Rpreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh made tounds. Now is the time to fight. Ow , some democrats have already come out in total opposition. You dont belong in this building as a justice. Pay attention to this, guys. Pay attention. If hes confirmed, hell be on the court for 25 to 30 years. Thats six presintial terms. That is a key vote. people talking in background trump sees courts as just another political body. You know, he refers to judges, he refers to an obama judge or a bush judge or a trump judge. You know, you might asput a d or an r after their names. He doesnt see judges as beingre independent fi he sees them as just an extension of the political battles. Narrator the nomination was immediately polarizingti igniting parsan warfare in thear judicommittee. Good morning. I welcome everyone to this confirmation hearing on the nomination of judge. Mr. Chairman. Brett kavanaugh. Mr. Chairman. To serve as associate justice. Narrator cable news corage packaged and projected to each side of the divide. You are out, you are ourof orill proceed. We cannot possibly move forward, mr. Chairman, with this hearing. I extend a very warm welcome judge kavanaugh. We have not been given the opportunity. R. M chairman, i appeal to the chair to recognize myself or one of my colleagues. gavel rapping youre out of order. Mr. Chairman, i appeal to be decency and ingrur sense of mr. Chairman, if we cannot be recognized, i move to adjourn. The American People. Mr. Chairman, i move to ryjourn. This is a mocnd a travesty of justice this is a travesty of justice we will not go back. Cancel Brett Kavanaugh, adjourn the hearing. You should have been a hero be a hero cancel this hearing allegation that would feed the conflict. Chrisne blaseyford, a research psychologist. The womans name is christins ford. Narrator they told him his trouble. As worstcase scenar for kavanaugh and his defenders. Narrator the allegations consumed the nation. Chrisne blaseyfordug described kavaas stumblingdrunk at a maryland house party. Both say theyre willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee, but that. Narrator the trump strategy make it tv drama. Play to the base. Na tonight, supreme Court Nominee brett kah breaks his silence for the first time. Ox narrator the network i did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter. S and the giom the schools i went to, and i. Narrator the performance, however, was not vintage trump. Trumps idea is, if somebodyh ever hits yo them back twice as hard. D instead, hes got Brett Kavanaugh talking out how long he stayed a virgin after he was in college. And it was it was embarrassing. D not especially effec through all these years a virgin. Ereques thats correct. And its through what years in clege, since were probin into your personal life there . Many years, many years after. Ill leave it at that. Ma years after. When you look at how all of this where all thirated from. Narrator kavanaugh decided to hold back. Wheres this all coming aiom . I just want aprocess where i can be heard. You dont have any thoughts on whats, wre this is coming from. I just want an opportunity of fair process where i can defend my integrity. You were a virgin. Hats correct. Trump wanted him to get out there and fight back. He wanted m to be outraged. He wanted him to show anger and, and resolve, and this was communicated to judge kavanaugh. To say that everything that could have gone wrong for brett. Vanaugh has is a the impetus is on judge kavanaugh. They did not have the votes in the senate. Narrator by the timeh kavanaugstified, he had received trumps message launch an us versus them atta there was only one person that mattered. It wasnt the committee. It wasnt the American People. It was the president of the United States watching to see whether that nominatn would be pulled. President trump even noted he was gointo be watching the testimony. Your coordinated andrt wellfunded efo destroy my good name will not drive me out. You may deat me in the final vote, but youll nev get me to quit. Never. He gives a performance in committee that is basically a donald trump impression. This confirmaticess has become a national disgrace. But you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. Narrator right out of it political. Ook, kavanaugh made this whole twoweek effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit. Narrator dredging up a name sure to enflame the cltons. Revenge on behalf of the clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside leftwing opposition groups. It has become this completely politicized drama. He turned it into a huge fight between democrats and republicans. Hes trying to rally all the republicans to his side. This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. For decades. Nc will be with us the president appreciates themselves and for what they believe, and dont allow the politically correct poce or in this case, accusers stop them or thwart them or impede them. And the president would tell you he knows a thing or two about that. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful. tweets weve t the idea of judicial independence, judicial neutrality, and weve discredited that in the eyes of the americaneople. What are the American People supposed to think if they watched four days of reality theater, where people are giving speeches and pounding pounding the table. And throwing down pieces of paper, and saying things like that . Its, its its very damaginga institution that i have Great Respect for. And i hate to see this happen. I have to say that i fear for the future. Metoo. audience shouts and cheers t never okay to try to rape somebody, not even in high school, t even if youre totally ing to be a Supreme Court justice. Many experts think he has a shot, to which kavanaugh replied, a shot . Yeah, ill take a shot t feels like theyre doi this just to deliver a bleep you to democrats, and even more directly, a bleep y women, because when this, when this. audience applauds and cheers siren blaring narrator soon, across e divide, a gathering storm democrats roaring back, taking over the hou of representatives,if inteying the partisanshiphi inngton. Quite a dramatic night. Rs voteave decided on. House of representatives. Te even democrats flipped the hoe. House democrats are already preparing for battle. You have a Democratic Party that is as dominant as its evei bemetro america, abl repuican party that is as domint as it has ever been in nonmetro america. And what this produces is tw americas that are separately not n their partisan affiliation, but in pretty much everything. Trump didnt create this. Weve been heading in this direction foyears. But he leaned into it. And everything he has done has deepened this trench. Narrator now, a new level of confntation. Up close and in full view of the television cameras. Very much. Ank y its a great honor to ha nancy pelosi with us, and chuck and weve. Us. Trump les an enemy. So t advantage of the House Flipping is, now he has one. He has somebody to blame other than replicans, you know, if things dont get done. Wall not being built . Thats because of the democrats. The border . Mmigrants coming over thats becausef the democrats. 60 people of the republican parthave lost their are losing their offices. Hes now got this foil that he likes to use in public. We gained in the senate. Nancy, weve gained in the senate. Cuse me, did we win the senate . We won the senate. When the president brags that he won north dakota andiana, hes in real trouble. I did. Let me say this. We did winorth dakota and indiana. This is the most unfortunate thing. We came in here in good faith, a and. Were entering into this kind of a discussion in the public view. But its not bad, nancy. Let let us. No, no. Its called transpa i know, but its not. Hes carrying on, and pelosi keeps trying to sort of get it to stop, like, do we need to do this in front of the cameras . Lets call a halt to this. Weve come in here in good faith. I thought that moment demonstrated for me what he understood about his presidency and the modern presidency that a lot of democrats and that a r lot ublicans do not. I mean, this is where trump understands entertainment. He understandselevision. Nancys in a situation where its not easy for her talk right no and i understand that. The best moments for him of his presidency are when he is breaking through the artifice washington. But we have to have border security. Mr. President , please dontze charactehe strength that i bring to this meeting as the s,ader of the house democr who just won big victory. To pelosi or to s, yelling at each other in front of cameras and the amerin public is seeing you behave like children. Thats just. Its oliating and its beneath the dignity of tice and their offices. But to him, thats winning. Because thats that is showing people, im not standing for thistagecraft here. Thank you very much, everybody. Thanks, guys. Thank you narrator ithe months that followed, the political conflict would escal he pressured ukraines government to assist trumps reelection campaign. The president pressured times, eight times. T eight today, im announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. Narrar demrats, activated and angry. The president must be held accountable. Ab no one ie the law. Are zeroing in on a framework for their impeachment case against. A deeply divided moment playing t in American History as we come. Hat we know is that our nation has two mobilized movements, that there remains a fundamental fault line in our populace and in our population. Were not going back to politics as usual. An imachment is the only option. President trump continues to attack top democrats. Narrator trump ampfying us versus them. The absolutely crazed lunatics, the democrats, radicah left, anr Media Partners standing right back there. cwd booing are pushing the deranged impeachment witch hunt foroing nothing wrong. President trump is firing back and drawing widespread criticism for likening himself to the victim of a lynching. chanting hey, hey, ho, ho nald trump has got to go today theres just a lack of respect and a willingness towo ascribe tht motives, to assume the other side is not just the opponent politicalhe opponent butnemy. The guy who needs to be not just vanquishe but eliminated. Our radical democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage. They want to destroy our country as we know it. Not acceptable, its not going to happen. To be longterm, and i think its going to be very, very deep. At have we been willing accept that we werent willing to accept before . How do we think about ch other, how do we think being an american, how do we treat one another, what are our standards . And thats and i think the damage is potentially going to be very deep. H President Trump sending a scathing letter se speaker nancy pelosi, demanding she immedtely cease this impeachment fantasy. Narrator an historic vote those in favor say aye. in unison aye. Those opposed, nay. in unison no the ayes have it. We ju saw what is a very bitterly divided america on display, virtually every democr voting for impeachment. Narrator a standoff. Against it. Blican voting narrator feeding the anger, the outrage. The division. in unison aye. We were far more divided ine vil war. Great depression. During the but weve always had hope in the future. And that hope. Were losing it, with this division. And all of the debates and all of theearings hasnt seemed to budge anybody very much. President donald trump ismpeached, the vote in th house of representatives. Narrator and soon, the election. This country goes into 2020 as divided as its ever been. It will go through 2020 with one of the most divisive campaig weve probably ever seen. And it is likely to come out at the end of 2020 still divided. And whher the nextdent, whether its donald trump for a second term or whoevthe democratic nominee, whether they can move us past that, i k think, is, yw, the biggest single question for the next presidency. And i think based on everything weve seen, not st over the last few years, t over the last decade or more, tells us how enormously difficult that going to be. Go to pbs. Org frontline for the latest frontline transparency project. See kequotes from the film in context. He was ableto saythings that noother prt had said. Nothing wasaccepted atface value. We havea newpresident who isattackinitutions of his owngovernment. Its time to take on th elites in this count. Connect to the Frontline Community on facebooand twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app pbs. Org frontline. Narrator next time on frontline. Ive been coveringfg the war in anistan for about 18 years. Narrator almost o decades since the u. S. Invasion of afghanistan. Its war, its fighting, theres no secity. Narrator with exclusive access to the taliban, its fighters, and isis, correspondent najibullah querishi investigates theon situation he ground. A special report, next time on frontline. Frontline is ma possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewersike you. Thank you. And by the corporation for publicroadcasting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committedo to building just, verdant and peaceful world. And by the Fd Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Additional support is provided committed to excelintion, journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening publicn aws of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that inform inspires. The heisingsimons foundation ck ung knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. And Additional Support from Laura Debonis and scott nath. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlines, americas great divide is available on amazon prime video. Youre watching pbs. [cheering and applause] man 200 years ago, we had an American Revolution to make sure that we got democry in this country. Well, today starts the new american revolion. [woman speaking spanish] to make sure that we get our democracy back. [woman continues speaking spanish] so brothers and sisters, are you ready to stand up . [woman cones] are you ready to fight . [woman continues] are ready to march . Announcer this program is made ssible by the Rockefeller Brothers fund, the jonaan l family foundation, the Solutions Journalism network, the park foundation, the gaia fund, the Seattle International foundation, roger and vicki sant