A generation assumes new responsibilities. F narratontline has investigated the candidates. Americas best days are yet to come. Narrator who would be president . I, William Jefferson clinton, do solemnly swear. I believe we have to make the grght choices. We will meet sion with resolve and strength. Do everything in our power to change the world. I, George Walker bush, do solemnly swear. Narrator the moments that shaped them. I won let you down. I wont. Let it be said we refusedo let this journey end. That future is our destiny. Narrator the president s thee woulme. I, Barack Hussein obama, do solemnly swear. We have to heal the divides in our country. I am your voice. Narrator and now on frontline. That the end of this chapter of american darkness began here narratthe choice 2020. Frontline is made possible by contributions to youpbs station from viers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public brocasting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. The Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social changedw woe at fordfoundation. Org Additional Support is provided a by tams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Overnight, growing national unrest. Narrator with the nation in crisis. Mobs sowing chaos in cities across the nation. Narrator . This is the story of two candidates forged in their own crises. Political pundits said there was no way it could be done f e city would gather around with us. Narrator . Personal tragedies. Mo an aule accident killed the wife and baby daughter of biden. Narrator . Public. Controversie trumps newspaper ads contribute to the citys racial polarization. Narratochallenges that shaped them. Anita hill comes to washington. The donald is facing an incredible cash crisis. I cant breathe i cant breathe arrator . And showow they would lead a country now in crisis. Together, we are taking back narrator the choice 2020. In a battle for the soul of america. Narrator trump vs. Biden. America wants to know welcome to america wants to know im ernie anastas, and this is the. In 12, i hosted a special show in new york where viewers asked a lot of questionsbout their favorite celebrities. Many, of course, were interested in donald trump, and whate was like as a young boy growing up in queens. I managed to catch up with donalds parents, mary and freda trum asked them, what was donalds favorite game as a child . Op he played my. Yes, indeed. He liked to play. He played with his brother. He played with robert, but more than monopoly, he played with building blocks. Ooh. Aays with building blocks. Narrator but Donald Trumps childhood was much more complicated. Early on, a family crisis, his mother seriously ill. When he was twoandahalf, ilmy grandmother got very l. Donald, who was at a very, very critical point in his development as a child, was essentially abandoned by her. He may not entirely trust women. He finds it difficult, if not on any deep level, because ithem dont believe he ever was ab to with her. When you ask him about how she showed her love,s nothing to say. The complexity of that relationship, i think, plays out through l of his relationships with women throughout his life. With one wife after another. Reach any recognizable level of intimacy. Narrator young donald had his own cr finding his place a family dominated by his father, fred, a stern and demanding real estatdeveloper. I strongly suspect that heip had a relationith his father that accounts for a lot of what he became. And his father was a very brutal guy. He was a tough, harddriving g who had very, very little emotional intelligence, to use todays terms. Donalds fathers overall message to his children was and it was a very different o message to the boys thane girls to the boys, was, ompete, win, be a killer do whayou have to to win. Arrator inside the family, a harsh game of apprentice who would take over freds empire . The first in linwasnt donald, it was his older brother freddy. Ou my father was sensitive, he was kind and gen he liked hanging out with his friends who adored him, and, maybe worst of all, although is hard to say, he had interests outside of the Family Business. My grandfather understood none of that. Narrator their father said freddy wasnt a killer. He wanted to fly airplanes for a living. Donald thought that was crazy. He could not understand why fred did not go into the Family Business and be a builder like their fatheras. But fred wanted to be a pilot, and nald looked at that and said, well, thats sort of like being a bus driver. Why would you want to be a pilot . Narrator donald watched as c freddy wt out. My dad couldnt do anything right, and my grandfather madeab his life mis. He was frustrated, and he began to realize that he, itt waoing anywhere. Narrator his life ended early in alcoholism and poor health. Through the years, donald would take a much different he wanted to avoid my faers fate of, you know, abuse and humiliation at the hands of his father. Narrator he warminedeart. To live up to his fathers ideal be a killer. trumpet fanfare plays ha narrator but he was also tempestuous, impulsive. And at 13, his father sent him to military school. students chanting he must have said, this ds going to grow up in a tough world, really tough world. If i want him to succes going to have to be tough. He tas about it as almost this rite of passage. He said to mthat when he arrived at the military academ for the first time in his life, when he got out of line. He face narrator it would be a fiveyear lesson in w to be a bully. Donald trump yelled at his assmates. He pushed them around. He even used a broomstick as a c weapon againssmates who didnt listen to him when he told them what to do. Culture of, you bekids of this when they didnt do the righ thing. You got hit. You may have gotten slammed against the ll. You were put in, in. You got put artificinto fights. Uh. He became a leader of the cadets. He became one of the student leaders who had a number of kidsnder him in the dormitories, and he ruled the dormitory life with an iron fist. Ra nr inside that brutal world, donald had found his place. His mother told me that he was never homesick. He loved it. It was also really competitive. Her kids didnt really like him all that much. He wasnt that popular because he was so competitive. He was always looking for the edge. But it was, it was an environment that he thrived in. Narrator with his father and mother by his side, donald hed become a killer, learned the power of bullying to get ahead a method hed carry into the future. military students chanting td beeping on counown stammering hope to p. Teach p. E. Two s. stuttering on s uh, s. Sisters. Well, my. Father is very strict. Among the many causes of retarded speech are low intelligence, hearing loss, emotional conflicts, poor methods of the teaching of talking by the parents, brain injury, and many others. For example, a child may stutter as he comes out the early ages of retarded speech. Crisis was stuttering. Ns he came of age in a, another time, in which people. stuttering softly . Werent as open about disorders or disabilities or setbacks. stuttering en he common. Prescription was. Buck up. Deal with it. Narrator dealing with it a roughandtumble childhood in delare, his father a car salesman fallen on hard times. For little joey, catholic hool. Nuns. He had an assignment he had to memorize. He had to stand up and deliver it in the classroom. T narrato words were in front of him sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman. When joe read it, it went. claps out rhythm sir walter leigh was a gentle man. Say that again . Mmm. Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man. And this went on three times. H said gentle man instead of gentleman. And. The nun said. imitating nun mr. Bbbbbiden, whats that word . And this is a person in a. Tsition of authority, this is a person whos meaprotect you. It was so embarrassing and so enraging that biden walked out of the room, he walked out of the school. He walked all the way home car motor starts narrator joeys mom, jean, marched him back to the schoolt to confrs teacher. The sister starts telling her hodisrespectful joe is, and my mother, stop. She said, just tell me, did you make fun of my s . Sister, did you mn of my son . Well. And my mother said, well, ill answer it for you. You sure in hell did. R and if you ever, ever, e that again, im going to come back and im going to knock your bonnet right off your head. Do we understand each other . Stuttering is a fear problem. The person feels fear, shame, guilt, tension. Hes alws worried about what might happen. He might get into a situation, not be able to say his name, or lephone rings and he cant answer it. I was surprised at how oftenm this subjectup during my time with him. It helped me understand that so much of who he is comes back to. Th that people are ready to make n of him. That people will laugh. Li narrator b, harassed, ridiculed, he was hellbent on beatg the utter. Biden would stand in front of his bedroom mirror holding at flashlo his face, and he would recite yeats and emerson. Narrator he kept pushing against the stutter, the p bullies and d off. People liked to be around him, he really had a presence. You knew him when he walked in. He was a little taller than most, and in very goodhape. He was a star Football Player on their team. Narrator joey biden found another way to fight back politics. In high school, hes president of his senior class. Honestly, thats when he gets a taste for it. The stutter is still part of him during his senior year in high school, whe he has to introduce his family at the, at graduation, and he has to stand there and not stutter, and say this publicly. D he does it. We want joe want joe narrator in the crisis of stuttering, a life method ev pee. Just push through. Confer to conquer devastating diseases like cancer, and. Not the end in, um, um, in themselves. The uaw took ex credible cuts in their future. Many peop would say bidens stutter is a his most visible weaknesses, if not number one. But its also a source of his strength. Its also. The main source of his grit and his. Determination to just be there, comting. This is the cbs evening news th walter cronkite. Good evening. For seven months, new york city has teetered on the brink f ancial disaster. Another piece of new york fell by the curbside tod for who knows how long. Narrator by the 1970s, new york city was in crisis. To keep the city fgoingruggle bankrupt. New york city suddenly comes apart. The city, for the first time, was losing population, as well as jobs. And losing its economic base. siren wailing new york was tatters then, but there were portunities everywhere you looked. The new york city of the early 1970s was made foromeone like donald trump. Narrar in that crisis, 25yearold donald trump saw a chance for personal gain. He was struggling to make a name for himself, break out of his fathers shadow. Donald, from a very young age, wanted to exceed his faer and go into manhattan and be the success that his father hadnt been in terms of why . Whats going on . Narrator trump took his shot. It started with a Rundown Hotel nearrand central station. The Old Commodore Hotel was in such sorry shape that it had boardedup windows, it had rodents all over the place. It was one of the markers of new yorks sorry decline. And trump saw this as a grand opportunity. In new york city, the rate of unemployment is much higher than it is. Narrator it was an enormous gamble, but with the city on the brink. S athe city continues to stagger beneath the weight of its multiplying fiscal problems. Narrator trump bd new york was desperate enough to pay him to transform the hotel. If the city would gather around with us, we can produce, with a lease, guaranteed by the state of new york, aew york city lease. Narrator but he was new to he needed a guide. He found roy cohn. Roy, who was a roughdtumble fixer democrat, power within the Democratic Power strucre in new york city, close friend of mayor abe beame, close friend of carmine desapio, the boss of the Manhattan Democratic Party i think he was, like, donalds ambassador to thed wo manhattan. Disgraced for leading en mccarthyera witch hunts, but trump saw him as a killer. Roy cultivated an image as a bulldog. Nothing, nothing would stop him from tarring opponents or even doing illegal things. His pride and joy was buying people and bribing people and making deals behind the scenes. He was a fixer. He was a connector. Roy cohn was the kind of master of thdark arts. He was the person who helpede shumps approach to life. What he learned from roy cohn was never apologize, always attack. Attack the character of your opponents, that theyre somehowt maliciout theyre somehow doing the devils deed here. And, and let the publiknow that. That was roy cohn. Narrator cohn knew just how to get the t breaks trump needed to build his hotel. Roy cohn, becauhis unique positioning within new york city at that tis get tax breaks. Rtain strings, to ay narrator new york taers would be on the hook forha more t 400 million. He is able to set up this deal, which the state bills as a special new ogram, but isnt a special new program. It is just a giveaway to donald, tr tax giveaway. Its been a long, hard fight. How do you feel . Well, im very happy, and i think the city of new york is gointo be very happy. Narrator he transformed the commodore hotel. With cohns help, trump had thrived in crisis, used it to hiadvantage. The mayor and the governor of new york were among those on hand for the ribncutting ceremony. He got it done. Heot it done by bulling his way through, by pretending to have more backers than he really had, by pretenng that he was actually putting large sums of money into it when he reallywa t. Uh, and the con worked. He got t money, he got the permits. He got it done. You use deception, you use intimidation. You use all ofhe tactics that you can find. It is a utterly transactionalse e of the world. Anwhats in it for me . Is kind of the founding credo. One of the things that donalm learned chool of dad and school of roy was that almost everybody has their price. Ig whatever. It not necessarily be dollars, although it often is. It might be so vulnerability that wont be revealed. Bu roy said that almost everyone, theres a pressure poin narrator it uld become trumps playbook exploit crisis, in business, in life, in politics. Kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy for me narrator joe biden also hads a role model catholic, goodlooking. Joe emulated what he could. Kennedy was drawto politics, biden was drawn to politics. Jack had a ptogenic wife and children. Joe had a photogenic wife and children. The kennedys had a family compound at hyannis port. The bidens would have a family compound in wilmington, delaware. Joe biden was always fascinated by the kennedy mystique. W he really mself as a natural heir to that tradition. Im joe biden and im a candidatfor the United States senate. Tliticians have done such a job on the people th people dont believe them anymore, and id like a shot at changing that. Narrator but wiln was no hyannis port. We, the bidens, we had no money. Bo had no power or influence. We didnt know a who was a big name who could help us. Hi, how are you . Hi, how are you . Joe bidens my name. Narrator like the crisis over his stutter, his political start was a struggle. Behind in the polls, facing a powerful opponent United States senator cale boggs, an ally of president richard nixon. Joe biden asked me about getting involved in hisgn camp i started off by telling him that theres no way you can win. Cale boggs was the candidate hed been a twoterm congressman. Twoterm governo twoterm senator. He was beloved around the state. So i said that he couldnt win. Toaudacious is a good ter apply to biden back then. This is a guy who wasnt yet old enough to hold the seat. Narrator it was a time of crisis in the country. The vietnam war had divided americans. Opposition to thear in vietnam has set off demonstrations in several major cities. Narrator . Igniting social unrest. In delaware, racial tensions boiled over. The National Guard was called out in several cities to put r downiots. One of these cities was wilmington, delaware. Ts narrator black resid were angry. Joe biden saw an opportunity to draw on his personal experience with race back when he was 19, working at an innercity pool. He was a lifeguard. He was one of the two white guys. He was a tall, slim, uh. Ok youngg, goodlooking, elvis presleylooking kind of guy. Thats how he got to know some of the guys who were in the gangs. He just seemed to have a natural instinct for getting to know people, getting to understand them, but not being afraid to be around them. We became friends. We became friends. I was a very troubled child. Okay . Ad of a gang, no food at sme, electric cut off, no soap sometime p and water to take a bath, no hot water. Narrator joe and ricky he likes to be called moe forged a lifetime frip they both stuttered. Ed demon understand, back there for osblack, black folks back was retarded or yo orred, you youre something was mentally wrong with you. Idtart with. So he basically told me, gohe toirror, look at yourself, pronounce your words. Go and put your voice on tape. Well, my wordsid chae. I started reading the papers from the back from theack to the forth, back and forth. Narrator mouse intduced joe all around the neighborhood. Over the years, biden kept in touch, building relationships in the bck community that would pay off. P he would go through this personalizing wiple. I never really heard him say, im going to change the community. Im going to deal with wiployment. Im going to dea. You know, the typical politician mess that you hear. I always tell people, be wary of any politician who tells youcr hes going tte jobs. Hes lying to you. Some people are in politics because theyre in love with licy, but theyre not necessarily in love with mans. He loves the game of it. He loves the dancef it. He loves meeting people. He loves hugging strangers. Narrator it became his goto strategy. President nixons landslide didnt help the republicans. Narrator and in 1972, thatme od worked. Some of those who did lose had been considered the most certain to win. Narrator the black community helped me joe biden a winner. In delaware. Narrator by less than 3,000 votes. Whipped by 29ye joseph biden. It was very close. And people were still surprised, you know, how this even h