We refused to let this journey end. That future is our destiny. Narrator the president s they would beme. , Barack Hussein obama, do solemnly swear. We have to heal the divides in our country. I am your voice. Arrator and now on frontline. That the end of this chapter ofmerican darkness began here. Narrator the choice 2020. Ntline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from 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, committe 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 change wodwide at fordfoundation. Org Additional Support is provided by t abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of crical issues. And by t frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Overnight, growing natial unrest. Narrator with the nation in crisis. Mo. Sowing chaos in cities across the nati. Narrator . This is the story of two candidates forged in their own crises. Political pundi said there was no way it could be done if the city would gather around with us. Narrator . Personal tragedies. An aumobile accident killed the wife and baby daughter of biden. Narrator . Public controversie. Trumps newspaper ads contribute to the citys racial larization. Narrato. Challenges that shaped them. Anita hill comes to washington. G the donald is fac incredible cash crisis. I cant breathe i cant breathe narrator . And show how they would lead a country now in cris. Together, we are taking back our country. Narrator the choice 2020. In a battle for the soul of america. Arrator trump vs. Biden. America wants to know co w to america wants to know. Im ernie anastas, and this is the. In 1992, i hosted a special show in new rk where viewers asked a lot of questions about many, of course, wereies. Interested in donald trump, and what he was like as a young boy growing up in queens. Ch i managed to cp with donalds parents, mary and fred trump, and asked them, what was donalds favorite game as a child . He played monopoly. Yes, indeed. He liked to pla he played with his brother. Uhhuh. Ro he played witrt, but more than monopoly, he played with building blocks. 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, my grandmother got verill. 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. I he finds it difficulnot impossible, to connect with the, on any deep leecause i dont believe he ever was able to with her. When you ask him about how she showed her love, hhas nothing to say. The complexity of that relationship, i think, plays out througall of his relationships s with women throughout hilife. With one wife after another. Theres a, an inability to reach any recognizable level of intimacyra nr young donald had his own crisis finding his place in a family dominated by his father, fred, a stern and demanding Real Estate Developer. I strongly suspect that he had a relationip 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 littleot nal intelligence, to use todays terms. Donalds fathers overall h message 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 ke over freds empire . The fit in line wasnt donald, it was his oer brother freddy. My father was sensitive, he was nd and genous, he liked hanging out with his friends who adored him, and, may worst of all, although its hard to say, he had terests outside of the Family Business. My grandfather understood none of that. Narrator their father said freddy wasnt a killer. He wanted to fly airplanesli for ng. Donald thought that was crazy. He could not understand why fred did not go into the Family Business and ba builder like their father was. But fred wanted to be a pilot, and donald 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 freddy w cast out. My dad couldnt do anything right, and my grandfather made his life misable. He was frustrated, and he began to realize that he, it wat going anywhere. Narrator his life ended alth. In alcoholism and poor through e years, donald would take a much different path. He wanted to avoid my fathers fate of, you know, abuse and humiliation at the hands of his father. He took that lesson to heart. Narrator he wadetermined to live up to his fathers ideal be a killer. trumpet fanfare plays ha narrator but he waalso tempestuous, impulsive. And at 13, his father sent him to military school. students chanting he must have said, this kids going to grow up in a tough world, really tough world. 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 face when he got out of line. Narrator it would be fiveyear lesson in how to be a bully. P donald trlled at his classmates. He pushed them around. He eveused a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who didnt listen him when he told them what to do. Allf us were part of this culture of, you be on kids when they didnt do the right thing. You got hit. You may have gotten slammed against the wall. U re put in, in. You got put artificily into fights. Uh. He became a leader of the cadets. He became one of the student leaders who had a number of kids under him in the dormitories, and he ruled the dormitory life with an iron fist. Nrator inside that bruta world, donald had found his place. His mother told me that he was never homesick. He loved it. F he loved all that stcause 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 graduated. The power of bullying to getd ahead a method hed carry into the future. military students chanting beeping on countdn 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, brainin ry, and many others. For example, a child may stutter as he comes out of the early stages of retarded speech. Narrator joey bidenser crisis was stug. He came of age in a, another time, in which people. stuttering softly . Werent as open aboutie disorders or disabilor setbacks. stuttering en the common. Prescription was. Buck up. Deal with it. Narrator dealing with it a roughandtumble childod in delaware, his father a car salesman fallen on hard tis. For little joey, catholic school. Nuns. He had an assignment he had to memorize. St he had td up and deliver it in the classroom. Narrator the words were 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. E 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 mea to protect you. It was so embarrassing and so enraging that biden walked out of the room, he walked out of the school. Th he walked alway home. car motor starts narrator joeys mom, jean,ma hed him back to the school to confront his teacher. Ts the sister stelling her how disrespectful joe is, and my mother, stop. She sa, just tell me, did well, i. Of my son . Sister, did you make fun of my n . Well. And my mother saidwell, ill answer it for you. You sure in hell did. And if you ever, ever, ever do that again, im going to come back and im going to knock your do we understand each ead. Stuttering is a fear problem. The person feels fear, shame, guilt, tension. Hes always worried about what might happen. He might get io a situation, not be able to say his name, or the telephone rings and he cant i was surprised at how often time with him. Ame up during my it helped me understand that so much of who he is comes back to that. At eople are ready to make fun of him. That people will laugh. Narrator bullied, harassed, ridiculed, he was hellbent on beating the stutr. Bid would stand in front of his bedro mirror holding a flashlight to his face, and he would recite yeats and emerson. Narrator he kept pushingst against thter, the bullies and it paid off. People liked to be around him, he really h 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. Ethonestly, thats when hea 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 graduation, and he has to stand up there and not stutter, and say is publicly. And he does it. We want joe oe narrator in the crisis of stuttering, a life method peevere. Just push through. More medical research toue confer to codevastating diseases like cancer, and. Not the end inum, um, in themselves. Thuaw 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 ening news with walter cronkite. Good evening. For seven months, new york city has teetered on the brink of financial disaster. Anoer piece of new york fell by the curbside today for who knows how long. Arrator by the 1970s,in new york city was risis. As part of the struggle to keep the city fm going bankrupt. New york city suddenly comes apart. Rs the city, for the time, was losing population, as well as jobs. Ts and losingconomic base. siren wailing new york was in tattersen but there were opportunities everywhere you looked. The new york 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 naml for hi break out of his fathers shadow. Y donald, from a veng age, wanted to exceed his father and go into manhattan and be the success that his father hadnt been in terms of notoriety anfame. Why . Whats going on . Shot. Rrator trump took hi it started with a Rundown Hotel near Grand Central station. The Old Commodore Hotel wasy in such soape 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. A so the city continues to stagger beneath the weight of its multiplying fiscal problems. Narrator trumpelieved new york was desperate enough to pay him transform the hotel. If the city would gather aroundith us, we can produce, with a lease, guaranteed by the state of new york, a new york city lease. Narrator but he was new to manhattan. He needed a guide. He found roy cohn. O roy, s a roughandtumble fixer democrat, power within the Democratic Power structure in new york city, close friend of mayor abe beame, close friend of carmine desapio, the boss of the manhattan democratiche party i thinas, like, donalds ambassador to the world of manhattan. Narrator cohn had been disgraced for leading mccarthyera witch hunts, but trump saw him as a killer. Roy cultivated an image as ao bu nothing, nothing would stop him from tarring opponents or even doing illegal things. His pride and joy was bullying people and bribing people and making deals behind the scenes. He was a fixer. He was a connector. Royohn 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 n cohn wer apologize, always attack. Attack the character oyour opponents, that theyre somehow malicious, that theyre somehow 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. Roy cohn, becausef his unique positioning within new york city at that timewas able to pull certain strings, to get tax breaks. Narrator new york taxpayers would be on the hook for more tn 400 million. He is able to set up this deal, which the state bills as a special new program, but it is just a giveaway aldam. Trump, a tax giveaway. Ar its been a long, fight. How do you feel . Well, im very happy, and ik the city of new york is going to be very happy. Narrator he transformed the commodore hol. With cohns help, trump hadve thin crisis, used it to his advantage. The mayor and the governorng of new york were ahose on hand for the ribboncutting ceremony. He got it done. He got it done by bulling his way through, by pretending to have more backers than he really had, by pretending that he was actually putting large sums of money into it when he really snt. Uh, and the con worked. He got the money, he got the permits. He got idone. You use deception, you us intimidation. You use all of the tactics that you can find. It is a utterly transactional nse of the world. And whats in it for me . Is c kind of the foundido. One of the things that donald learned fr school of dad and school of roy was that almost everybody has their ice. Whatever. It might not cessarily be dollars, although it often is. It might be some vulnerability that wont be revealed. T roy said that almost everyone, theres a pressure point. Narrator it would becomepl trumpbook exploit crisis, in business, in life, in politics. Kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, kennedy, knedy, kennedy, kennedy for me narrator joe biden also had a role model ish, catholic, joe emulated what he could. Kennedy was drawn to politics, biden was drawn to politics. Wi jack had a photogeni and children. Joe had a photogenic wife andch dren. The kennedys had a family coound at hyannis port. The bidens would have a family compound in wilmington, delaware. Joe biden was always mystique. D by the kennedy he really saw himself as a natural heir to that tradition. B im jen and im a candidate for the United States senate. Politicis ve done such a job on the people that the people dont believe them anymore, and id like a shot at changing that. Narrator but wilmington was no hyannis port. We, the bens, we had no we had no power or inf. We didnt know anybody who was a big name who could helus. Hi, how are you . Hi, how are you . Joe bidens my name. Narrator ike the crisis over his stutter, his political start was a struggle. Be nd in the polls, facing a powerful opponent United States senator cale boggs, an ally of president richard nixon. J biden asked me about getting involved in his campaign. I started off by telling him that theres no way you can win. Cale boggs was the candidate for the senate. Te hed been a tw congressman. Twoterm governor. Twoterm senator. He was beloved around the state. So i said that he couldnt win. Audacious is a good term to 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 the war in vietnam has set off demonstrations in several mar cities. Narrator . Igniting social unrest. In delaware, racial tensions boiled over. The National Guard was callec out in severalies to put down rts. One of these cities wasin on, delaware. Narrator black residents were angry. Bi jon saw an opportunity to draw on his personal experience with rac back when he was 19, working at an innercity pool. He was a lifeguard. He as one of the two white guys. He was a tall, slim, uh. Younglooking, goodlooking, elvis presleylooking kind of guy. Kn thats how he g some of the guys who were in the gangs. He just seemed to have 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, electric cut off, no soap sometime no soap and water to take a bath, no hot water. Narrator joe and ricky heo likes to be callede forged a lifetime friendship after beatina shared demon understand, back thr black, black folks back those days, when you stuttered, you was retarded or you was, or youre somhing was mentally wrong with you. Id start with. So he basically tol, go to the mirror, look at yourself, pronounce your words. Go and put your voice on tape. Well, my words did change. I started readg 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 this personalizing wi people. I never really heard him say, im going to change the community. Im going to deal with employment. Im going to deal with. You know, the typical politicias hat you hear. I always tell people, be wary of any politician whoells you hes going to create jobs. Hes lying to you. Some people are in politics policy, but theyre noe with necessarily in love with humans. He loves the gamof it. He loves the dance of it. He loves meeting people. He loves hugging stranrs. Narrator it became hisgy goto stra 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 bin a winner. In delaware. Narrator by less than 3,000 votes. Whipped by 29yearold joseph biden. It was very close. And people were still surised, you know, how this even happened. All of you have done something that the political ypundits said there was nin the world it could be done cheering that night, all the college kids were so excited. Nt a lot of us o the Hotel Du Pont ballroom. And it was pac