Let it be said we refed to let this journey end. That future is our destiny. Narrator the president s uley become. 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 hereo nar the choice 2020. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just,erdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. The Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide at fordfoundation. Org the abrams foundation,rovided committed to excellence in journalism. E park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awarens of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. G overnight, growtional 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 if the city would gather narrator . Personal tragedies. An Automobile Accident killed the wife and baby daughterid of. Narrator . Public controversies. Trumps newspaper adsbu cont to the citys racial polarization. Narrator . Challenges that anita hill comes to washington. The donald is facing an incredible cash crisis. I cant breathe i cant breathe narrator . And show how crisis. Uld lead a country together, we are taking bac our country. Narrator the choice 2020. Ul. In a battle for the of america. Narrator trump vs. Biden. America wants to know welcome to america wants to know. Im ernie anastas, and this is the. In 1992, i hosted a special show in new york where viewers asked a lot of queions about their favorite celebrities. Many, of course, were t interested in donaldmp, and what he was like as a young boy growing up in queens. I managed to catch up with ump, and asked them, what wasd donalds favorite game as a child . Ay he monopoly. Yes, indeed. He liked to play. He played with his brother. Uhhuh. He played with robert, but with building blocks. E played ooh. Always 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,er my grandmoot very ill. Donald, who was at a very, very critical point in his development as a child, wasia essey abandoned by her. Us he may not entirely women. He finds it difficult, if not impossible, to connect with them on any deep level, because i dont believe he ever was able to with her. W when you ask him about she showed her love, he has nothing to say. The mplexity of that relationship, i think, plays ouh ugh all of his relationships with women throughout his life. With one wife after another. Theres a, an inabily to reach any recognizable level of intimacy. Narrator young donald had his own crisis finding his place in a family domited by his fath, fred, a stern and demanding al estate developer. Itrongly suspect that he father that accounts fothis of what he became. Er and his father was abrutal guy. He was a tough, harddring guy who had very, very little emotional intelligence, to use todays terms. Onalds fathers overall message to his children was and it was a very different message to the boys than to the girls to the boys, was, compete, win, be a killer. Do what you have to to win. Narrator inside the family, a harsh game of apprentice who would take over freds empire . Th first in line wasnt donald, it was his older brother freddy. My father was sensitive, he was kind and generous, he liked hanging out with his friends who adored him, and, maybe worst of all, although its 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. D he cot understand why fred did not go into the Family Business and be a builder like their ther was. But fred wanted to be a pilot, and donald looked at that and said, well, thats sort ofve like being a bus d why would you want to be a pilot . Narrator donald watched as freddy was cast out. My dad couldnt do anytng right, and my grandfather made his life miserable. He was frustted, and he began to realize that he, it wasnt going anywhere. Ra nr his life ended early in alcoholism and poor health. Through the years, donald would take a much different path. He wanted to avoid my fathers fate of, u know,an abushumiliation at the he took that lesson to. Narrator he was determined to live up to his fathers ideal be a killer. trumpet fanfare plays ha narrator but he was also tempestuous, impulsive. And 13, his father sent him to military school. students chanting he must have said, ts kids going to grow up in a tough worl really tough world. If i want him to succeed, hes going to have to be tough. He talks about it as almost this rite of passage. He said to me that when he arrived at the military ademy, for the first time in his life, someone slapped him in the face when he got out of line. Narrator it would be a fiveyear lesson in how to be a bully. Donald trump yelled at his classmates. Even used a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who hedidnt listen to him whe told them what to do. All of us were part of this culture of, you beat on kids when they didnt do the right thing. You got h. You may have gotten slammed against the wall. You were put in, in. You got put artificially into fights. Uh. He became a leader of the cadets. He became one of the studenta leaders who hamber of kids under him in thele dormitories, and he the dormitory life with an iron fist. Narrator inside that brutal world, donald had und his place. His mother told me that hesi was never ho. He loved it. He loved all that stuff because it was also really competitive. Other kids didnt really like him all thatuch. 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 ther and mother by his side, donald graduated. Hed become a killer, learned the power of bullying to get ahead a method hed carry into the future. military students chanting o beepin countdown 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, ain injury, and many others. For example, a child may stutter as he comes out of the earlype stages of retardedh. Narrator joey bidens crisis was stuttering. He came of age in a, another time, in which people. Y stuttering so. Werent as open about disorders or disabilities or setbacks. When the common. Prescription was. Buck up. Deal with it. Narrator dealing with it a roughandtumble childhood cain delaware, his father salesman fallen on hard times. R fottle joey, catholic school. Nuns. He had an assignment he had to memorize. He had to stand up and delivercl it in thsroom. Narrator the words were in front of him sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman. When joe readt, it went. claps out rhythm sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man. Say that again . Mmm. Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man. And this went on three times. He id gentle man instead of gentleman. And. The nun said. imitating nun mr. Bbbbbiden, whats that word . And this is a person in a. Position of authority, this is a person whos meant to protect you. It was so embarrassing and so enraging th biden walked out of the room, he walked out of the school. He walked all the way home. car motor stas narrator jys mom, jean, marched him back to the school to confront his teacher. The sister starts telling her how disrespectful joe is, e said, just tell me, did you make fun of my son . Well, i. Sister, did you make fun of my son . Well. He and my msaid, well, ill answer it for you. You sure in hell did. R, and if you ever, ever do that again, im going to come back and im going to knock your bonnet right off your head. Do we understand each other . R stuttering is a f problem. The person feels fear, shame, guilt, tension hes always worried about what might happen. Ht he met into a situation, not be able to say his name, or the telephone rings and he cant answer it. I was surprised at how often this subject came up during my time with him. It helped me understand that so much of who he is comes back to that. That people are ready to make fun of him. At people will laugh. Ridiculed, he was hellonrassed, biden would stand in front of his bedroom mirror holding as ight to his face, and he would recite yeats and emerson. Narrator he kept pushing against the stutter, the bullies and it paid 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 good shape. 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. Hostly, thats when he gets a taste for it. The stutter is still part of him during his senior year in high school, where he has to introduce his family at the, at gduation, and he has to erand up there and not stu and say this publicly. And he does it. We want joe we want joe narrator in thcrisis of stuttering, a life method persevere. Just pusthrough. More medical research to diseases like cancer, and. Ing not the end in, um, um, in themselves. The uaw took ex credible cuts in their future. Many people would say bidens stutter is among his most visible weakness, 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, competing. News with walter cronening good evening. For seven months, new yo city has teetered on the brink another piece of new york fell by the curbside today for who knows how long. Narrator by the 1970s, new york city was in crisis. As part of the strugglee to keep city from going bankrupt. K new yorcity 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 in tatters then, but there wereev opportunitieywhere you looked. The new rk city of the early 1970s was made for someone like donald trump. Narrator 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 younge, anted to exceed his father and go into manhattan and be the success that his father hadnt been in terms ofet notoand fame. Why . Whats going on . Oo narrator trumphis shot. It started with a rudown hotel. Near Grand Central stati the Old Commodore Hotel was in such sorry shape that it ha 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 and so the city continues to stagger beneath the weight of its multiplying fiscal problems. Ru narrator believed 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 nework, a new york city lease. Narrator but he was new to manhattan. He needed a guide. Found roy cohn. Roy, who was a ughandtumble fixer democrat, power within the Democratic Power structure in c new yoy, close friend of rimayor abe beame, close fd of carmine desapio, the boss of the Manhattan Democratic Party i think he was, like, rld of manhattan. Or to the narrator cohn had been disgraced for leading mccarthyera wch hunts, but trump saw him as a killer. Roy cultivated image as a bulldog. From tarring opponentsentop him doing illegal things his pride and joy was bullying people and bribi people and making deals behind the scenes. He was a fixer. He was a connector. Roy cohn was the kind of mast of the dark arts. He was the person who helped shape trumps approach to life. What he learned from roy cohn was never apologize, always attack. Attack the character of your opponents, that theyre somehowa cious, that theyre somehow doing the devils deed here. And, and lethe public know that. That was roy cohn. Narrator cohn knew just how to get the tax breaks trump needed tbuild his hotel. Roy cohn, because of his unique positiong within new york city at that time, was able to pull certain strings, to get tax breaks. Or narrator newk taxpayers would be on the hook for more than 400 million. He is able to set up this deal, which the state bills as a special new program, but isnt a special new program. It is just a giveaway to donald trump, a tax giveaway. Its been a long, hard fight. How do you feel . Well,m very happy, and i think the city of new york is going to be very happy. Narrator he transformed thed coe hotel. With cohns help, trump had his advantage. Sis, used it to the mayor and the governor of new york were among those on hand for the ribboncutting ceremony. He got it done. Hi got it done by bulling way through, by pretending to have more backers than he really had, by pretending that he was oftually putting large sum money into it when he really wasnt. Uh, and the con worked. Hehe got the money, he got permits. He got it done. You use deception, you use. Intimidati you use all of the tactics that you can find. It is a utterly transactional sense of the world. S and wha it for me . Is kind othe founding credo. One of the things that donald learned from school of dad and school of roy was that almost everybody has their price. Er what. It might not necessarily be dollars, although it often is. It might be some vulnerability. That wont be reveal but roy said that almost, everyoeres a pressure point. Narrator it would become trumps playbook exploit crisis, in business, in life, in politics. Kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy for me narrator joe biden also had a role model irish, catholic, goodlooking. Joe emulated what he could. Kennedy wadrawn to politics, biden was drawn to politics. Jack had a photogenic 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 waslways fascinated by the kennedy mystique. Ea hey saw himself as a natural heir to that tradition. Im joe biden and im a tendidate for the united s senate. Politicians have done such a job on the people that the people dont believe themnymore, and id like a shot at changing that. Ut narrator ilmington was no hyannis port. We, the bidens, we had no money. We had no power or influence. Kn we didn anybody 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 stat senator cale boggs, an joe biden asked me aboutixon. Getting involved in his campaign. By i started ofelling him at theres no way you can win. Cale boggs was the candidate for the senate. Hed been a twoterm congreman. Twoterm governor. Twoterm sator. He was beloved around the state. So i said that he couldnt win. Audacious is a good term tn apply to back then. This is a guy who wasnt yet old enough to hold the seat. Wa narrator ia time of crisis in the country. The vietnam war had divided americans. Opposition to the war in demonstrations in sevemajor cities. Narrator . Igniting social unrest. In delaware, racial tensions boiled over. The National Guard was lled out in several cities to put down riots. One of these cities was wilmington, delaware. Narrator black residents were angry. Joe biden saw an opportunity to draw on his personal experience with race back when he was 19, working at an innerci pool. He was a lifeguar he was one of the two white guys. He was a tall, sli uh. Younglooking, goodlooking, elvis presleylooking kind of guy. Thats how he got to know some of the guys who were in the gangs. T he just seemhave 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 . Leader of a gang, no food at home, elecic cut off, no soap sometime no soap and water to take a bath, no hot water. Narrator joe and ricky he likes to be called mouse forged a lifetime friendshipr afating a shared demon they both stuttered. Understand, back there for black, black folks back those days, when y stuttered, you was retarded or you was, orre yo something was mentally wrong with you. Id start with. So he basically told me, go to the mirror, look at yourself, pronounce your words. Go and put your voice on tape. Well, my words did change. Te i streading the papers from the back from the back to the forth, back and forth. Narrator mouse introduced joe all around the neighborhood. Over the years, biden kept in touch, building relationships in the black community that would pay off. He would go through thisiz persong with people. I never really heard him say, im going to change the community. Igoing to deal with employment. Im going to deal with. You know, the typical polician mess that you hear. I ofways tell people, be war any politician who tells young hes go create jobs. Hes lying to you. Some peop are in politics because theyre in love with policy, but theyre noty necessar love with humans. G he loves te of it. He loves the dance of it. He loves meeting people. He loves hugging strangers. Narrator it became his goto strategy. President nixs landslide didnt help the republicans. Method worked. Nd in 1972, that some of those who did lose had been considered the most certain to win. Narrator the black community helped make joe biden a winner. In delaware. Ha narrator by less 3,000 votes. Whipped by 29yearold joseph biden. It was very close. St and people werl surprised, you know, how this even happened. On all of you have something that the political pundits said there was no way in the world it could be done cheering that ght, all the college kids were so excited. A lot of us went to the hotelll du pont om. And it was packed, packed. And there was so much excitement in the air. I saw this woman coming through the crowd, and i realized that it was neilia, joes wife. And so i walked up to her, and i shook her hand, and i said, uh, congratulations on your win. Ou and she said, thankery much. And that was our exchange. The war of the trumps has ignid a battle of the tabloids. The unfolding saga of trump versus trump. A highoctane mix of the narrator they cal