We refused to let this journey end. That future is our destiny. Narrator the president s they would 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 ofmerican darkness beg here. Narrator the choice 2020. Frontline is made possible b contributions to ys station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcastin major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur fodation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Or more ition at macfound. Org. The Ford Foundation working with visionaes on the frontlines of social change worldwide at fordfoundation. Org Additional Support is provided by the abrams foundation, coitted to excellence in journali. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of crical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo a hagler. Overnight, growing National Narrator with the nation in crisis. Mobs sowing chaos in citi across the nation. Narrator . This is the story of two candidates forged in their own crises. Political pundits said there was no way it uld be done if the city would gather around with us. Rs narrator . Al tragedies. An Automobile Accident killed of biden. D baby daughter narrator . Public controversies. Trumps newspaper ads accontribute to the citysl larization. Narrator . Challenges that shaped them. Anita hill comes to washington. He onald is facing an incredible cash crisis. I cant breathe i cant breathe . Narratoand show how they would lead a country now in crisis. Together, we are taking back our country. Narrator the choice 2020. In a battle r 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 1992, i hosted a special show in new york where viewers asked a lot of questions about their favorite celebrities. Many, of course, were interested in donald trump, and wh he was like as a young boy managed to catch up with donalds parents, mary and fredt trump, and askm, what was donalds favorite game as a child . He played monopoly. Yes, indeed. He liked to play. He played with hisr. Brot uhhuh. He played with robert, but more than monopoly, he played with building blocks. Ooh. Always with building blocks. Narrator but Donald Trumps childhood was much more complicated. Rly on, a family crisis, his mother seriously ill. When he was twoandahalf, my gndmother got very ill. Donald, who was at a very, very critical point in his essentially abandoned. Was he may not eirely trust women. He finds it difficult, if not impossible, toonnect with them on any deep level, because i dont believe he ever was able to with her. When you ask him about how she owed her love, he has nothing to say. The complexity of that relationship, i think, plays out through all of his relationshipn with wom throughout his life. With one wife after another. Theres a, an inability to reach any recognizable level of intimacy. Narrator young donald had his own crisis finding his place in a family dominated by his father, fred, a stern and demanding real estate develope i strongly suspect th he had a relationship with his father that accounts for a lot of what he became. And his father was a very brutal guy. He was a tough, harddriving guy 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 message the boys than to the girls to the boys, was, competewin, be a killer. Do what you have to to win. Narrator inside the family, a harsh game of apprence who would take over freds empire . The 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 ed who adim, and, maybe worst of all, alough its ha to say, he had interest 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 business and be a builke family their father was. But fred wanted to be a pilot, and donald looked at that and said, well, thats sort of like being aus driver. Why would you want to be a pilot . R narraonald watched as freddy was cast out. My dad couldnt do anything right, and my grandfather made his life miserable. He was frustrated, and he began to realize that he, it a wasnt goiwhere. Narrator his life ended early in alcoholism and poor health. D through the yearald would take a much dierent path. He wanted to avoid my fathers fate of, you know, heabuse and humiliation at hands of his father. He took that lesn to heart. Narrator he was determined to live up to his fathers ideal be a killer. trumpet fanfare plays ha nrator but he was also tempestuous, impulsive. And at 13, his father se him to military school. students chanting he must have said, thisin kids gog to grow up in a tough world, really tough wod. If i want him to succeed, hes going to have to be tough. This rite of passage. As almost he said to me that when he arrived at the military academy, for the first time in his life, someone slapped hiin the faceen e got out of line. Narrator it would be a fiveyear lesson in how to be a bully. Donald trump yelled at his classmates. He pushed them around. Ro he even used astick as a weapon against classmates who didnt listen toim when he told them what to do. Pa allf us wer of this culture of, you beat on kids when they didnt do the right thing. You got hit. You may have gotten slammed against the wall. You were put in, in. Yogot put artificially int fights. Uh. He became a leader ofhe cadets. He became one of the student leaders o had a number of kids under him in the dormitories, a he ruled the dormitory life with an iron fist. Narrator inside that brutal world, donald had found his place. His mother told me that he was never mesick. He loved it. Ov he all that stuff because it was also really competitive. Other 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 gruated. Hed become a killer, learned the power of bullying to get ahead a method hed carry into the future. Ud military ts chanting beeping on countdown stammering hope to p. Teach p. E. Two s. stuttering on s uh, s. Sisters. Wellmy. Fatheis 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 of the early stages of retarded speech. Isis was stuttering. Dens he came of age in a, another time, in which people. stuttering softly en. Werent as bout disorders or disabilities orac se. stuttering when the common. Prescription was. Buck up. Deal with it. Narrator dealing with it ug a andtumble childod in delaware, his father a car salesman fallen on hard times. For little joey, catholic school. Nuns. He had an assignment he had to memorize. He had to stand up and deliver it in the classroom. W narrator the wore in front of him sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman. When joe read it, 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. Ge he idle 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 that biden walked out of the room,e walked out of the school. He walked all the way home. car motor starts narrator joeys mom, jean, marched him back to the schoolr. To confront his teac the sister starts telling her how disrespectl joe is, and my mother, stop. She said, just tell me, did you make fun of my son . Well, i. Sister, did you make fun of my son . Well. ld my mother said, well, answer it for you. You sure in hell did. And if yver, ever, ever do that again, im going to come bonnet right off your head. Your do we understand each other . Stutterinis a fear problem. The person feels fear, shame, guilt, tension. Hes always worried about what he might get into a sin, 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 h that people will laugh. Narrator bullied, harassed, ridiculed, he s hellbent on beating the stutter. Ta biden would in front of his bedroom mirror holding a flashlight to his face, and he would recite yeats and emerson. Against the stutter, thehing 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 polics. In high school, hes president of his senior class. Honestly, thats when he gets a taste for it. The stutter is still part of hin during hisr year in high school, where he has to introduce his family at the, at graduation, and he has to stand up there and not stutter,l and say this pub and he does it. We want joe we want joe narrator in the crisis of stuttering, a life method persevere. Just push through. More medical research to confer to conquer devastating diseases like cancer, and. Not the end in, um, um themselves. The uaw took ex credible cuts in their future. Many people would say bidens stutter is among 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, competing. This is the cbs evening news with walter cronkite. En good g. For seven months, new york city has teetered on the brinkis of financialter. 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 struggle to keep the city from going bankrupt. Sew york city suddenly co apart. The city, for the first time, was losing population, as well and losing its economic base. siren wailing new york was in tatte then, but there were opportities everywhere you looked. The new york city of the early 1970s was made for someone le donald trump. Narrator in th 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. On d, from a very young age, wanted to exceed his father and ginto manhattan and be the success that his father hadnt been in terms of notoriety and fame. Hy . Whats going on . Narrator trump took his shot. It staed with a Rundown Hotel near Grand Central station. 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 gamb, but with the city on t brink. And so the city continues to stagger beneath the weight of its multiplying fiscal problems. Nrator trump believed ne york was desperate enough to pay him to transform the hotel. If the city would gather around with us, we can produce, wie a lease, guaranteed by state of new york, a new york city lease. Narrator but he was new to manhattan. Ee hed a guide. He found roy cohn. Roy, who was a roughandtumble fixer democrat, power within the Democratic Power structure in ofw york city, close frien mayor abe beame, close friend of carmine desapio, the boss rty i think he was, like, donalds ambassador to thean world of manha narrator cohn had beence disgfor leading mccarthyera witch hunts, but trump saw him as a killer. Roy cultivated an image as a bulldog. Nothing, nothing would stop him from tarring oonents or even doing illegathings. His pride and joy was bullying people and bribing people and making deals behind the scenes. He was a fixer. He as a connector. Roy cohn was the kind of master 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. Atta the character of your opponents, that theyre somehowr malicious, that thsomehow doing the devils deed here. And, and let the public know that. That was roy cohn. Narrator cohn knew just how to get the tax breaks trump needed to build his hotel. Oy cohn, because of his unique positioning within new yorkity at that time, was able to pull certain strings, te tax breaks. Narrator new york taxpayers would be on the hook foril more than 400 mon. 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 donalda trump, a tax gy. Its been a long, hard fight. How do you feel . Well, im very happy, a i think the city of new york is going to be very happy. Narrator he transformed the commodore hotel. With cohns help, trump had thrived in crisis, used it to his advantage. The mayor and the governor of new york were among those on hand for the ribboncutting ceremony. He got it done. He got it done by buing his way through, by pretending to have more backers than he rely had, by pretending that was actually putting large sums of money into it when he really wasnt. Uh, and the con worked. He got the money, got the permits. He got it done. You use deception, you use intidation. You use all of the tactics that you can find. It is a utterly transactionalhe sense oforld. And whats in it for me . Isnd f the founding credo. One of the things that donalf learned from schooad and school of roy was that almost everybody has their price. Whatever. It might not necessarily be dollars,of although in is. It might be some vulnerability that wont be revealed. Id but roy hat almost everyone, theres a pressure point. Narrator it would beco trumps playbook exploit crisis, in business, in life, in politics. Kennedy, kennedy, kennedy,n kennedy, kennedy, y, kenny for me narrator joe biden also had a c,le model irish, catholi goodlooking. Joe emulated what he could. Kennedy was drawn to politics, biden was drawn to politics. H ja a photogenic wife and children. Joe had a photogenic wife and children. The kennedys had a familyhy compound anis port. The bidens would have a familymp nd in wilmington, delaware. Joe biden was always fascinated by the kennedy mystique. He really saw himself as a natural heir to that tradition. Im joe biden and im a candidate for the United States senate. On politicians vesuch a job on the people that the people dont believe them anymore, and id like a shot at changing that. Nartor but wilmington was no hyannis port. We, the bidens, we had no money. We had no power or influence. We didnt know anybody who was a big me who could help us. Hi, how are you . Hi, how are you . Narrator like the is. Over his stutter, his political start was a struggle. Behind in the polls, facing a werful opponent United States senator cale boggs, an ally of president richard nixonk joe biden me about getting involved in his campaign. I stard off by telling him that theres no way you can win. T cale boggs w candidate for the senate. Hed been a twoterm congressman. Twoterm governor. Twoterm senator. He was beloved arod the state. So i said that he couldnt win. Audacious is a good term to applto biden back then. This is a guy who wasnt yet old enough to hold the seat. Narrar it was a time of crisis in the country. The vietnam war had divided americans. Opposition to the war in vietnam has set off monstrations in several major cities. N rator . Igniting social unrest. In delaware, racial tensions boiled over. The National Guard was called t 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 innercity pool. He was a lifeguard. He was one of the two white guys. He was a tall, slim, uh. Younglooking, goodlooking, elvis presleylooking kind of guy. Thats how he got to know some of the guys who were in the gangs. He jt seemed to have a natur instinct for getting to know people, getting to understand them, but not being afraid to bd arhem. Me we beriends. We became friends. I was a very troubled child. Okay . Leader of a gang, no food at home, electric cut off, no soap sometime no soap andak water toa bath, no hot water. Narrator joe and ricky he likes to be called mouse forged lifetime friendship after beating a shared demon they both stuttered. Er uand, back there for black, black folks back those days, when you stuttered, you was retarded or you was, or m youre something wtally wrong with you. Id start with. So he basically told me, gooo to the mirror,at yourself, pronounce your words. Go and put your voice on tape. I started reading the nge. 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 this personalizing with people. Ly i never reeard him say, im going to change the community. Im going to deal wi employment. Im going to deal with. You know, the typical politician mess that you hear. I always tell people, be wary of y politician who tells y hes going to create jobs. Hes lying tyou. Some people are in politics because theyre in love with policy, but theyre not nessarily in love with humans. He les the gamof it. He loves the dance of it. He loves meeting people. He les hugging strangers. Goto strategy. Became his president nixons landslide didnt help the republicans. Narrator and in 1972, that method worked. 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. Narrator y less than 3,000 votes. Whipped by 29yearold joseph biden. It was very close. And pele were still surprised, you know, how this even happened. All of yohave done something that the political t pundits saidre was no way in the world it could be done cheering that night, all the college kids were so excited. A lot of uwent to the Hotel Du Pont ballroom. And it w 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 upo her, and i shook her h