Today theres just a lack of respect. Ito assume the other sidenot just the political opponent, bu themy. And what this produces is two americas that are separate not only in their partisan affiliation, but in pretty much everything. Narrator tonight on frontline part one of americas great divide. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your s station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ra and by the coron for public broadsting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macahur foundation, committe to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. And by the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of cial change worldwide. Adtional support is provided by the Abrams Foundation committed to excellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and spires. Si the heisinns foundation unlocking 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 nathan. I remember when barack obama got the call, uh, thats going to make the keynote speech at the democraticonvention in 2004. And as soon as he hung up the phone, he turned to me and hew said, i kat i want to say. I want to tell my story as part of the larger american story. crowd cheering and applauding narrator he delivered the speech of his life. Thank you. Tonight is a particular honor for me because, lets face it, my prence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, village in kenya. N a small my parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. The idea of barack obam being unique in so many waysh unique ws funny name, unique with his skin color. Or unique with his message look, im not a creature ofgt wash. Im new. Im just showing up. Im willing to work across the aisle. There is not a libel america and a conservative america, there is the United States of america cheering and applauding there is not a black america and a white america, a latinoia america, an asamerica, theres the uned states of america he was a star. Lithat we hadnt seen a potician like that before, not in recent history. Hes going to tell it like it is, and, you know, you can believe in what he says, and he doesnt seem to be so wrapped ui inpartisan divide. Thank you very much, everyby, god bless you. He was going to be the one who was going to try to heal that wound. Narrator barack obam arrived with a promise of unity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yarrator but his preside would usher in an age of unprecedted anger. Afroleninism. Narrator resentment. I want my country back. Narrator pol. Ical conflict the republicans messed up so bad. Narrator polarization. What do we want . W justice n do we want it . Now narrator a turning point. crowd chanting . In americas great divide. President ial contendersl began their fish in iowa today. B aause somebody stood up a few more stood up, and then a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stoop up, iowa, i need you tstand up. I think whaobama represented was generational change. Heres younger person unburdened by some of the old fights of the past. Re he obivously rnted racial change in a way that was very motivating to African Americans. We will win this election, we will change the course of history, and the real journey to heal the nation and repair the world will have truly beguni thank yoa. He was also just an incredibly talenteand charismatic and inspirational politician. crowd chanting obama ma o political rise came at a time when america was increasingly divided. I can hear you, the rest ofwo thd hears you, and. Narrar at the end of y,george w. Bushs presidehe nation was reeling. The country had been through eight tumultuous years. Narrator Steve Schmidt was a Vice President cheney. Elor to we saw a war fought or weapons of mass destruction that didnt exist. Disarm iraq, to free its people. We saw the United States mired in a civil war in iraq. I opposed this war from the start. And what barack obama wasof ring was widely appealing. He represented generational change crowd cheering and applauding we can finally bring theo change we needshington. We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. Narrator in 2008, as obama ran for president , he delivere a simple messageri the an people are looking for change. There was a real ability to oject onto obama what you wanted to see. He anncouraged that, i mean, hope and change is not a its not an agenda. , you knope and change doesnt mean anything. Hope and change basically says to the public, whatever you think hope and change look like, thats what i can be. crowd chanting obama and the nt Vice President of the United States, sarah palin. Narrator democrats werentth only ones looking for a change. For republicans, sarah palin ignited a new political force. Rowd chanting Sarah Sar Palin came out and brought the house down. Ec she ified that g. O. P. Base like no one i had ever seen, and you recall, that was one of the times where the prompter failed and she just adlibbed i i love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull . Lipstick. crowd laughs cheering and applauding and people loved it she was almost a pretrump, in e way that she just sort of had this matteroffact, sort of folksy, she wasnt too s highbrow, areal americans, you know, regular folks could relate to her. Of well, im not a membehe permanent political establishment. She was the beginning of the shift where the people began to lieve that they could take the power back from the elite. Ive learned quickly these last few days that if youre not a member in good standinof the washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone, but. crowdooing she tapped into a simmeringgr vance in the country thats real. Theres a rebeion thats taken place in this country against the elites. Thank you, and god bless erica. Thank you. Narrator for her supporters she was heroic. Its saturday night live. Narrator but in new york she was made into a joke. Governor sarah palin. First off i just want to say how excited i am to be in front of both the liberal elite media as well as the liberal regular media. I am looking forward ta portion of your questions, so lets get started. Yes, you. You said that you like to visit the quote, proamerica parts of the country. Are there parts of the country that you consider unamerican . Yes, new york, new jersey, massachusetts, connecticut, delaware, california. When you started to see the shine come off that cathe katie couric ierview. What newspapers and magazines d you regularly read before you were tapped. Over time as the camera usually does it brings out the truth. Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these yrs i have a vast can you name a few . Iave a vast variety of sources where we get. But most republicans, who y alresliked the media, blamed katie for that. Its kind of suggested, it seems like, wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of washington d. C. May be thinking and doing when you live up there in alaska . Believe me, alaska is like a microcosm of america. Most republicans looked at that and said, she was set up, that was a gotcha question, and stood by palin and it just made them hate the media more. I was reading today a copy of the new york tim crowd booing if yowant to pinpoint the moment when the right completely rejected the left. We have a scarcity. I think it was over the sarah palin nomination. Now, this is not a man who sees america ayou and i see america. And for one bef, shining moment, the right saw her as everything they were looking for. Brash, tough, independent, someone who said what they meant and meant what they said, and wouldnt edit itor anyone. Shes something else. Sarah palin has completely. Nsformed republican par narrator mccain and palin wouldnt prevail, but the populist fervor would grow. Boy, were you right about this one, did you know how great she . Its the Inauguration Day of the nations first africanamerican president. Hundreds of thousands of. Narrator arack obama had promised unity. Much of the country seemed to believe he could deliver it. I looked out, never forget,om he west front of the capitol all the way down to the monument. And i ink its about a mile. And all you could see were people. A sea of people. The fact that our country e ected a black president is just. It was h significance. cheering and applauding the thing i remember most about that day was an older white man turning to me d my daughter and him saying to her, young lady,ou could be up there one day. United states. Esident i will never, ever forget thatme. crowd chanting obama even americans who had been skeptical of barack obama were giving him look, listening to what he was saying. T i thinre was just an enormous amount of good will toward him and toward the possibility of what might be under this first africanamerican president. Io congratul, mr. President. crowd cheering and applauding obama led with that message of, e are now going to come together, were going to unify this country, even if you didnt back me, im now goi to usher in this better part of your life. crowd chanting obama the first couple to arrive at the neighborhood ball. The firstever neighborhood ball open to the public. At last crowd cheering hseemed like a kind of redemptive vision for american politics. People on the National Stage saw barack obama as a kind of man apart from the pettiness, the various kinds of ways in which politics did not reflect the highest aspirations of theun ed states as a society. And hes black. crowd cheering and applauding in retrospect, its ea to see how that was a doomed mission from the start. Narrator in fact, that very evening, across washington, Republican Leaders gathered. Took meeting, a dinner place in a famous steakhouse in downtown washington. The room was filled. It was a whos who of ranking members who had at one point been committee chairmen, or in the majority, who now wondered out loud whether they were in the permanent minority. Many of them had attended obamas inauguration. They had seen that breathtaking spectacle and it felt like a wholesale repudiation of the Republican Party. Narrator as the night wore on, they talked about a plan of attack. The pnt i made was that we had to be prepared to run a fullcourt press. We had to see how obama beved and to off an alternative to what he wanted to do. Wo narrator thed try to block the president , fight his agenda, exploit the divide. I thought, he could be s feated partly by his own ideology and by n behaviors. Bl gowns are on their way to the cleaners, the party is over for both the new president and the nation. Now, he is facing many sobering challenges. The enomy, its a frustration with the economy. Back to the economy, then, obviously its issue number one, its on the front pages of every newspaper. The economy that barack obama inherited, i think, is thent defining ef this generation, even more so than 9 11, and it profouny reshaped american politics. Anger from the u. S. Public tords bankers is hh. Narrator the economy was collapsing. The growing backlash against wall street. Narrator trillions of wall street. Been u middleclass americans were angry. They took to the sts to express thr anger. Frustraon with financial bigwigs continues to grow. Level was that theanks,om ground the people who had created theis financial crwere being bailed out when the little guy was being screwed. S on the heof growing public anger aimed abanks. Backlash against wall street. Narrator before he couldli dever on his promise of unity, obama had to confront the economic crisis. The banks need to be held accountable. We were told by our economic advisers that was a oneinthree chance that the country would slip into a second great depression. We we on a ledge and we coul fall off that ledge. Narrator his new secretary of the treasury was overwhelmed ed already thrown trillions and trillionof dollars at the problem. Iti think it was, you knowas a very perilous moment, a very istential moment at that point. How do you respond to that . Ow not onlyo you respond to it in terms of getting the economy moving again, but how do you respond to it in Holding People accountable for what happened . And that was a definition moment. Narrator some of his political advisers argued for what they called old testamen justice punishing the banks. David axelrod, obamas top political adviser, very much waed some scalps. Robert gibbs, who was the press political aide, wanted scalps. Or narrator geithner told the president taking on the banks could make the economic crisis much worse. You had to make sure you kept concentrated and focused on the core basic imperative that was going to affect the fortunes of, you know, hundreds of millions of americans not get t wrapped up in trying to design political theater. Narrator in the end, the iesident would be cautious. Barack obama erently very conservative. And he also wants to believe the be in other people, and he really does believe that Common Ground and work together. I think it was a miske, off very easy. Nkers really got and the public knows it. There was a perception that president obama flinchthat point. At that, in one way or another, he was not prepared to go there, to, to go after c. E. Os. , or to take people to courand to charge them with, narrator anger and distrust of the government would grow. Rowd chanting it was deep, deeply unpopular. Enand this came at a time people were losing their homes, were losing their jobs, and felt like they had been abandoned. tambourine banging the rich and the powerful get away with anything. Oops oops they f up and, and i havto share in the losses. And every american does. I mean, that just it just it is just ordinary middleclass people thinking, i cant get away with that the government is promotingbe bavior, because we. Narrator and on cable television, the talk had alrdy begun of something they called a tea party. Anthink that they ought to save it. The word tea party is born in cnbc moment when rick santelli, a somewhat agited even under the best of circumstances reporter for cnbc in chicago starts to. This is america how many of you people want to pay for your neighbors mortgag that has an exthroom and cant pay their bills . Raise their hand s othoing president obama,re you listening . Were thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in july. Ta all you casts that want to show up to lake michigan, im going to start organizing. This created a level of anger like i havent seen since i got involved in politicse 1980s. Ea people really,y resentedis resident for siding with the rich and powerful, and forgetting them. At as the onus where the tea party was created. You gotta be kidding me what are we putting up with, america . Like, that ll get the economy kicking. Well, did it . No, it didnt 450 billion down the crapper. Give us a trillion dollars and, oh, everything will be great. Well, extly the opposite happened, so can we revoke that bailout now . Arrator even as the economic crisis was roiling the country, on capitol hill, barack obama wantedo Push Congress to take on another divisive issue overhauling healthcare. H i was his politicaldviser, and i understoodow much political currency it would take to pass that law. And he said, well, what are we supposed to do, put our Approval Rating on the shelf and admire it for the next eight years . Or are we supposed to draw down on it to try and solve some of blthese really big, intrac problems . Let there be no doubt healthcare reforcannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another yea cheering and applauding healthcare reform d. Ord to put we cant afford to do it. Its time. There is nothing more fraught than healthcare, because it is so personal and it is so intimate. Po and evertical party that decides to take on healthcare in oome massive, poorly under way, reaps both the backlash and, and political retaliation. Americans are seriously worried that this is going to destroy the healthcare their parents ge this has been on the lefts todo list since neither fdr or lbj got it done. They have just been waiting,in wa waiting. When we have the presidency and both houses of congress, we are going to push this through. Its about too much power going to feral government. The whole point of this is to government Healthcare Plan. He narrator from across the divide, sarah palin reappeared, wielding a new political weapon. She was aaven on facebook. The original politician who saw that you could skirt the media, and you could get the message out filtered, uncut to the public, was sarah palin. She did that with facebook. keys clicking as more americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized Healthcare Plan our collective jaw is dropping, and were saying not just no, but hell no narrator she exploited fear with a new phre that went viral death panels. The america i know and love is not one in which my parents or my babyith down syndrome will have to stand in front of obamas death panel. Narrator it wasnt true. She is the first of a generation of politicians who live in a posttruth environment. Narrator Steve Schmidt had also been a tocampaign aide for john mccains president ial run. He had pushed mccain to select sarah palin. S was, and theres no polite way to say it, but a serial liar. She would say things that are simply not true. Or things that were picked up from the internet. And this obliteration of fact from fiction, of truth from lie, has become now endemic in american politics. But it started then. She introduced the term death panel when referring to it. Narrator the rightwing media ran with it. Ng and were go have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, youre dead. We now have ltist radicals in charge of your healthcare decisions rather than doctors. Were hanging by a tead. If you think this country is great, but oma and the tsars are marching our country right off a cliff, save your lif grab the parachute, pull. Me and come follo narrator glenn beck was a former top40 disc jockey. He rose to the pinnacle of fox news during the presidency of barack obama. Th to watccoverage from the rightwing media of the obama years now is to perience true hysteria. Sa see glenn becevery day and the things he wang about the president. Ive got my little messiah here, my dashboard obama. Im going to pray to him later, maybe get some universal healthcare. Now, for more insanity and blood shooting out of your eyes, obama. You would have thought the nation was collapsing. President obama, why dont you just set us on fire . You doing . Of pete, what are this is not the america i grew up in, or you grew up in. When we said change, we didnt mean ts nobody meant this it would never have happened without glenn beck. Glenn beck was the catalyst for the uprising. If you want to understand barack obama. Glenn had the perfect phraseology that took nger and channeled it into an organization that rose up from nowhere. Narrator for beck and fox record ratings. Glenn beck was the kind of seing of this Conspiracy Theory narrator ben rhodes was one of obamas closest aides. Obama is seeking to control your lives. You know, obama has a secret plan to do x or to do y. Or, this shadowy figure in the Obama Administration wo regulate every aspect of your life. Of and it kintarts there. And then it, it gets darker andk. Narrator facebook and meetup. Com welcomed beck and other angry americans. Now they would organize. You had this vast outrage machine that arose on the right. Youre talking about, you know, not just the tea party, but talk radio, fox news, really changed the nature of our politics in ways that i think were livi with, with today. Were mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore to narra the outrage machine onne. You want to kill my grandparts, you come through me first narrator anger on the ground. Ou dirty thieves we cant afford it afroleninism there is an ugliness with these fringe people who are comparing the president to hitler. Ts is not simply a disagreement about policy, this is a repudiation of obama and, more significantly, a repudiation of obamas race. His church was bad on racism. Theyre depicting obama as an ape, you know, on, on sign that theyre carrying. There are pejotive stereotypes about africa and africans. Narrator obamas election offered hope of racial harmony. But in that first year, it was clear that race was a central part of the divide, and his presidency was a flash point. Obama was big symbol. You know, every time you turned on your tv, you were reminded that the country was changing in fundamental ways. , i me had had 200 years of president s. We had never had one that looked like barack obama. And just mere presence in the white house was y reminder that this is a diffent america than many people had grown up with. And it scared the hell out of a lot people. Prominent africanamerican harvard scholar henry louis gas,r. Narrator one early incident enflamed both sides. Arrested in his own home. H arrest is prompting outrage. The story grabbed naonal headlines because the man in question is one of the nations most pronent africanamerican scholars. Rofessor henry louis gat is arrested in his own home for trespassing. And Barack Obama Says what virtually every black person inn the y thought. That the cambridge policely acted stupn arresting somebody whethere was already proof that they were in their own home. Thank you, everybody. All of a sudden, theres essure on the other side there are people who are saying that hes anticop, theres a concern that hes racist. This president , i think, has exposemself as a guy, over and over and oveagain, who has a deepseated hatred for white people or the white culture, i this guy is, i believe, a racist. People lost their minds. He had the largest drop in his polling numbers of anything th happened in the eight years of the obama presidency. Hey. Cameo appearance. Narrator he apologized. I these aues that are still very sensitive here in america. And, you know, so, to the extent that my choi of words didnt illuminate but rather contributed to more media frenzy, i think that was unfortunate. All right . Thank you, guys. Narrator then he went even rther a photo op. Obama did this very awkward thing where he called in Henry Louis Gates and the po officer, and they had this beer summit. He would probably say that that was one of the ridiculous moments of his presidency. Not so much that he brought a black harvard professor and a but the fact that diaogether, anointed it a beer summit. Narrator it was a painful lesson. And the lesson he took from oat is, like, this is a loser. If im weighing these racial issues, its only going to galvanize the, the forces against me. What i didnt appreciate aswa mu thejust how much obama would become a symbol of change in the country, a change from a, you know, a white m america toe diverse america. A more cosmopolitan i think he became a symbol for o segmenour country of change that they did not welcome. E tr a little healing he wants you to Pay Attention because his poll numbers are tanking. This is just folks, it is a lousy, lou image to present to america. Cop as a, you know, a stooger here to make believe he did it al we are skating on very thin ice with this man in the white house, and youve only seen thnn begig of it. Madam speaker. States. President of the united crowd cheering and applauding narrator healthcare reform was stuck. The dide with the republicans was widening. The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American People that we can still do what we were sent here to do, now is the time to deliver on healthcare narrator but at that moment, the outrage machine arrived on the floor ofongress. Therere also those who claim that our Reform Efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. S. The refo members murmuring we reforms im proposing would not apply to tho are here illegally. You l audience exclaiming its not true. A member shouted, you lie y lie audience exclaiming narrator it was ican representative joe wilson from South Carolina. Well, the tea party exrience came right to the, you know, the house chamber, but to see that sort odisrespect on the floor of the house directed towards the president of the United States, i think, naused everybodys head to ng you lie audience exclai not too many years before, he would have resned in disgrace from the congress, and he would have been called upon to do so by leaders of both parties. Instead, what happened . He raised a couple Million Dollars overnight. Whats the lesson there . Theres no longer a punishment for dishonesty, for aziness. Itsewarded. Narrator the president faced an emerging reality. The republicans Inauguration Day pledge to oppose him was coming true. Ay there was noealth reform would be bipartisan. He wasnt going to get a republican vote for anything. If youre going to tell barack obama that you cant do anything without a republican vote, youre telling him, you cannot do a single thing as president , that you jt. Youre just going to sit there and do nothing. Because the republicans werent going to givhim votes for anything. Barack obama came into office thinking, well, i can reason with them. If ive got good arguments, theyre reasonle people, and well come to some reasonable conclusion. Well, he was wrong. That was not there. The republicans didnt want to give him any victory. It had nothing to do with reason or logic, theyust didnt want to give him a victory. Narrator he would fight back, rallying his democratic supporters including many young, diverse liberals. Do not quit do not give up we keep on going we are going to t this done we are going to make history we are going to fix healthcareri in a with your help United States of a god bless the down tohe wire on healthcare refm. The house votes just hours from now. After months of rancor in the streets, the vote takes place in just a few hours. Narrator t had consumed the first year of his presidency. Members will record their votes by electronic device. On this vote, the yeas are 219, the nays are 212. The motion is adopted. Its 219 to 212. No votes from republicans. All democrats, no republicans. This is a huge victory for this president. For decades, theyve been trying to do it. Ow it haseen done. This legislation will not fix everything that ails our healthcare system. But it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like. Obamacare got shoved down our throats without majority support in the country, which was a huge thing. And people were angry. Republicans were angry. And i dont think republicans have ever forgiven him for it. What many calllized medicine. Its the most brazen assault on a fundament aspect of our republic. Every single republican senator votes consistently agait governmentrun healthcare should be a clear indication. This isoing to be the end of the economy as we know it. By passing a Healthcare Program essentially on the strength of one party, it was fated, destined to beca continuing partisan divide, part of the issues thawould come up in election after election from then on. The perfect title, lies, damn lieats what obamacare was all about. Narrator the anger directed at obama was growing. There were even questions about who he really was from across the divide. crowd cheering and plauding crowd cheering and applauding the Birther Movement was so powerful was because it spoke to all types er anxieties that many white americanhad out barack obama. Well, hes not even from here, hes not one of us. Prove it prove you were born here. Narrator rightwing websites picked it up. He wont even produce a birtt certificate, dou love that . Narrator talk radio joined in. President doesnt want people to see on that birth certificate. If you have nothing to hide, why wont you show. Narrator before long, it caught the attention of reality tv star donald trump. He says, have you read this stuff . Its very interesting, theres a lot of odd questions her but he brings the issue into the mainstream. Narrator roger stone was a tlongtime political advis trump. He has since been convicted of lying to congress. Tru understands among reblicans theres a very substantial majority who have questions about obamas origins and how he jusps up out of nowhere to become a naonal figure, and whether he was in president. We thought that trump needed an iss that resonates with people. The birth certificate ant a lot of Different Things to a lot of different pple. Overall, it talked about how obama was different, he was a different kind of person, he was a manchuriantype candidate. They release the birth certificate. Narrator trump w of running against obama in 2012. It dont matter whether i have doubts or not. Please welcome my friend donald trump. Narrator he made himself the face of the Birther Movement. Why doesnt he show his birth certificate . I think i think he probably. Why should he have to . H becausee to and erybody else has to, whoopi. Why wouldnte show. Excuse me. No, excuse me. I really believe theres a birth certificate. Why look, shes smiling. T why does show his birth certificate . I never heard any white president asked to be shown the birth certificate. Everybody does. When you become a president. You are not allowed to be a president if youre not born in this country. He may not have been born in this country. That was the racist manifestation of resistance topr thident. Donald trump was at the forefront of it. I think it, it rankledam president because the birther stuff was just a pure racismslashxenophobia, and it was based in nothing. More than 40 of the pulation still question whether hes actually anno american o narrator obama had already released his birth certificate during t president ial campaign. But the issue wouldnt go away. Obama was furious. It wasnt trump. It was the media. If trump couldnt get booked on all those shows, hed just be some, another whack job, you know, tweeting about conspiracy theories. And maybe getting booked on fox. Hes a donald trump a creation of the american political news media. And thats what angered obama, thats what angered us in the white house. The great part about a guy with your resourwes that you able to deploy people to go and find out what is actually going on with Barack Obamas birtcertificate. What did you find . Well, were looking into it very, very strongly. K nobo who he is. Its very strange. The whole thing is very strange. And she was saying he was born, essentially, in kenya. And if he wasn born in this country, its one of the greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history, period. Re the go into it, the more suspect it is. Narrator obama reluctantly released more proof of his citizenship. As nowany of you have been briefed, we provided additional of my birth. Today about the site this thing just kept on going. Yes, in fact, i was born in waii, august 4, 1961, in kapiolani hospital. Wevposted the certification that is given by the state of hawaii. Narrator three days later, it was time for payback. The president usethe white house Correspondents Dinner that year, with donald trump in the room, to completely ridicule donald trump in front of this audience that, you know, that, you know, journalists and lobbyists and government officials. And people who, at that ti, trump wanted to have the respect of. All right, everybody, please have a seat. crowd cheering and apng donald trump is here tonight. cheering and applauding no one is happier, no one is prouder, to put this birth certificatmatter to rest than the donald. And thats because hcan finally get backo focusing on the issues that matter like, did we fake the moon landing . audience laughing i was two tables away from trump. The conventional way in washington of absorbing a joke at the white house Correspondents Dinner is to keep your chin up and at least prorend to have a sense of h about it, even if yogo cry into your pillow that night. Trump was steaming. His face was all locked in he was not having good time. All kidding aside, viously, we all know abo your credentials and breadth of experience audience laughing for example. No, seriously, just recently, in an episode of celebrityce appren at the steakhouse, the Mens Cooking Team did not impress the judges from omaha steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately you didnt blame lil jon or meatloaf. Nc audlaughing you fired gary busey. audience laughing and these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. audience laughing cheering and applauding we handled, sir. Well handled. Ut it just kept going and going and he just kept hammering him. And i thought, barack obama is starting something that i dont know if hell able to finish. Say what you will about mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the whise. Lets see what weve got up there. I think that is the night that he resolves to run for president. I think that he is kind of motivated by it. Maybe ill just run. Maybe ill show them every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to president trump. Its everyone whos ever doubted donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him, it is the ultimate revenge to become universe. Powerful man in the god bless you and may god bless the United States of america. audience applauding narrator neither trump,e nor rther ise, were going to go away. Si back to this birther ss for just a second. Obama is an unknown man, may not be a citizen, surrounded by dicals, surrounded by terrorists. If obama were such a shooin, donaldrump would not have had any jokes told about him on saturday night at the white house. E. Py of the new fake birth certificate. Now, weve looked at it, were going to go over whyts fake, how its a composite. Democrats are nursing a major midterm hangover. Nsense in sugarcoating narrator out in the country and in washington. s tuesd election was a game changer. Nrator the divide was growing. Republicans rose up. Ang repudiation of the president and his policies. Happyat is a very electorate. Narrator democrats lost control of the house. Democrats of every stripe were voted out of office last night. Narrator obama called it a shellacking. Voters, they went to the polls tonight to senssage to barack obama. I can tell you that, you know, some Election Nights are more fun than others. Some are exhilarating, some are humbling. In 2010, it became an election very much about president obama and about how his administration was much more liberal than what the country wanted or had voted for. It was as if, you know, weve been betrayed, this is a president whos going take us off in a crazy dangerous direction, and we cant let at happen. And we won races in every corner of the nation, h a broad and wide victory, that the outcome is unprecedented. Narrator 87 new republicans joined what became known as the tea party congress. The Tea Party Movement has given life to the Republican Party. The washington leadership of the Republican Party saw energy and enthusiasm amongst the grassroots, so the leaders sought to capitalize on the energy of that movement. Narrator the 87 were rebels who had run on changing washington. But their first challenge was their own leader, the neshington insider john bo i now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes witit to the new speaker. God bless you, Speaker Boehner. members cheering narrator boehner had a reputation as a dealmaker someone willing to work with democrats. Ne i didn to be speaker because i needed a fancy title or a big office. I want to be speaki could lead an effort to deal with the serious issues that are facingur country. Obama used to tell me, john boehner is just li the republicans that i worked really well with in the illinois statee sea midwestern Country Club Republican. Hes not a racist, hes a good and decent man. He has serious ideological differences with obama, but they could get stuff done together, right . Ill be working with a bipartisan. Narrator and obama believe he knew just how to reach out to a Country Club Republican golf. Before the golf match started, told the president , i said, mr. President , this is about golf, not about anything else. And he and i were partners. We played wellnd we won. Ar tor obama had more than golf on his mind. An hed to make a deal to solve the countrys fiscal problems. I suggested to the president , you know, whyont we have a conversation . And he agreed. Narrator but it would be dangerous for boehner. The tea Party Faction was watching him. They would have to meet in secret. Well, that was boehners decision, not oursobviously. Its not every day that the speaker comes to see the president quietly and says, im willing to do a deal, that Everybody Knows is going to be dangerous for him politicay. Narrator the speaker racretly entered the white house through a side ee. Because it was so difficult for john boehner to be seen as working with barack obama, he would be snuck in the back door of the white house. Hed come in on the weekends, or hed come in at night, and kind of sneak the guy through and, negotiate or have k, obama, and right . Narrator they talked of a grand bargain, a onceina neration deal to reduce the deficit. Obama would agree to cut entitlements, boehner to raise taxes. The Republican Leadership was willing to make a deal. Joke boehner was willing to a deal. And the president was able ff get Democratic Leaders in congress to signn that deal. Narrator but back at thehn capitol,er was confronted by resistae from his tea party mbers. Here was support for wha was being discussed at the white house was not there in the republican confence. There was no way that a majority of republicans were going to support what the president was talking about. It just wasnt goingo happen. It was absolutely scuttled by boehners own people. Tt the fact was, he could get it done. He dnt have the strength or the conviction to, to have a fight out it in his own party, and it, and it fell apart. Its a bad idea for Speaker Boehner to meet alone with president obama. Tea party nation calling for john boehner to step down. And e screwup is the leadership in the house of reprentatives, rather than trashing conservatives. Boehners a complete fraud. The tan man always claims to have the pulse of the American People. He never had any control of this caucus, and whenever he took anying back to his caucus, they just tore him aparv and ate him ale. They would lose their minds. And so then, we realize there ir nod bargai to be had with these people. I just got a call about a halfhour ago from Speaker Boehner. It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal, and frankly, i think that, you know, one of the questio that the republicanartys going to have to ask itself is, can they say yes to anything . Can they say yes to anything . Thank you very much. The republicans were more than happy to takehe votes of the Tea Party Members and thefr tea parthman class. But it changed the nature of thc in fundamental ways. Group of congressmen and women who were really not interested in governing. They were more interested in taking a snd, and frustrated one legislative procedure after another. The establishment part of the Republican Partyidnt understand that by allying themselves with the tea party, they were, in a sense, writing their own deatcertificate in a way that would lead to the takeover of the Republican Party by donald trump. He has no one to ame but himself. Im not going to do the waterworks of john boehner. I want to salute the Freedom Fighters in the house of ing to take johners theyre not crap sitting down anymore. Gone along just along with president obama, like spker boehner. You kn, we need to thank them for their service, and say, okay, time for new energy. Tonight on nightline. License to kill . Its the shooting death thats sparked an explosion of outrage. Good evening, im terry moran. Its the story thats ignited fice passions across the nation, as allegations of racism apart a small florida town. Tear narrator for obama, once again, the issue of race. Trayvon martin was walking back from a conveniestore when he was allegedly shot ba neighborhood watch. Ol pice have the gun, theyve got the shooter, but they have not arrested him. The dead mans grieving fami wants to know, why not . President obama, as the first africanamerican preside, had been very careful t to talk too much about race. W frustrating to some africanamericans. Then Trayvon Martin is killed in florida, and the country gasps. The country is, is really on edge. Heres a teenager walking through the neighborhood whereer his faives, committing no followed, confronted, and endss up in a physic altercation with a stranger ere he ends up killed. And then the person who killed him is allowed to go home that day. The contradiction of th happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony and intensified the pain i think people felt around this. Africanamericans who had rned out in record numbers for him, who, in some ways, obamanc owed his presito, felt as thoughe wasnt saying enough about race. Say something. Are you going to say anything . Youre a black man. Young black boy has been murdered by a guy whos a hypedup, you know, neighborhood watcan. Black america is traumatized by this. Silence from the white house. Nothing no leadership, no, no insight. cameras clickin narrator finally. Good morning, everybody. H narrator nearly a mont after the killing, the president was publicly confronted about it. An you comment on the Trayvon Martin case, sir . My main message is, is toe rents of Trayvon Martin. Um. You know, if i had a son, hed look like trayvon. And, um. You know, i think they are right to expect that all of us ase americans ing to take this with the seriousness it deservet and ere going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. L right, thank you. It showed and it underscored the complication the difficulties of the first black president weighing in on issues of race. That by his ry presence, by his very willingness to discuss, he himself was bringing the partisan guns to the fight. And suddenly, annnocuous statement became deeply inflammatory to half of the country. The president had a son, he wouldnt look anything likeay n martin. Hed be wearing a blazer from his prep school. Hed be driving a beamer. We have a president who has, who has frozen racial tension in our country instead of thawing racial tension. Narrator it blew up on fox. The president s goal is to heighten africanamerican rnout by stoking a feeling of victimization in the africanamerican cmunity. Narrator and it took off on an increasingly powerful new platform breitbart. We were the blog kind of for the tea party. This tea party energy, you know, right after the fincial collapse. We caught on with this kind of working class, middleclass audience. Narrator they were the voice of the populist outrage sarah palin had activated, runningto stories thatd fear and division blackonblack crime, islamic terrorism, violence by immigrants, a culture under assault. Hispanic and black thugs tend to attack asians because. Blacks are incapable for beg responsible. Narrator breitbarts comment sections became notorious gathering places for extre viewpoints. The towel heads are taking er because weve let the gayness is a cancer. I mea it ads like youve walked into a hate Club Gathering of some kind. How stupid are women . Lets find out. Th they were appealing t segment of the population that are racist, homophobic, antisemitic really, the wst. Among creating this congregating space everyday, where people from that worldview can go and rally around one another to find content that validates their worldview. And i think thats what theywe building, ultimately. Think that there was a failurto appreciate the extent to which these online communities were forand these online ecosystems were forming. That if you were someone who spent all day in your car listening to rush limbaughnd got home and watched glenn beck at night and then opened your Facebook Page and saw a bunch or breilinks, it didnt really matter to you the New York Times d the Washington Post had said that birtherism wasnt true. Didnt matter how many pinocchios that ctcheck had gotten of Donald Trumps latest talk show appearance. Theres a story on breitbart, Republican National committee declares war. This was provided to me by breitbart. Breitbart breaking more stories in the past few years than most journalists who like to dust off their awards on their shelves. Theyre going to keep the race businesalive, and its going to prosper during the Obama Administration, cause that causes more chaos. They want to stir up racial hatred in the country, and you know what . Im not raid to talk about race lets talk about it, lets see. Ma president oba is battling for his own second term. Is in such difficult shape right now. President obamas Approval Ratings have hit an alltime low. Obama out on the campaign trail today, then we saw. Ar tor by the time he was running for reelection in 2012. A difficult road ahead for the president. Narrator the divisiveness was rampant. He had dramatically dropped in the polls. President obama faces anhi battle. Narrator he was fighting to keep his job. It was a much different president obamout on the campaign trail today. We were in bad shape politically. Nate silver wrote a piece on the cover of the New York Times magazine, and the headlinwas, is obama toast . T narrator a very differ barack obama headed out to do battle with the republicans. It was not a campaign about ity. We knew that we had to run a very hardedged Reelection Campaign that posited th president as someone who was battling for the middle class. If i said, theas blue, they said, no. If i said, there were fish in the sea, they said, no. They figured, if obama fails, then we win. President obama decided, were goi to have an argument in 2012. Were going to win that argument if we can. It and if we wiwe are then going to do what we want to do, or, or push in the directions we want to push. crowd applauding because of their policies, the republicans messed up so bad. Hes a more scarred presiden who come himself frustrated by the way washington works, no longer quite so believing in the idea that bipartisanship is possible. It as a different message than it was in 2008. It was not a come together messe. It was not a hope and change message. It was a stop the otheruys message. Itthe same agenda that they have been pushing for years. Narrator as obama attacked, publicans were also at war with themselves. The establishment had gotten behind one of their own, wealthy businessman mitt romney. Barack obama has failed america. This country we love is in peril. crowd cheering and applauding narrator the tea party sawut him asf touch. He verges on hysterical. Mitt romney has never done a single thing to favor conservative cause. I swear, every time mitt no. I think hesngth, i have against me. I dont think that romney was somebody who understood the angst of the American People. D nt understand what, what, throughout the United States, were feeling, how, how disaffected they felt. What does mitromney believe . And is he truly a conservative . Not exactly a person of conviction, not even. Narrator romney needed the tea party and its populist base. Trying to win them over, he went to las vegas for anfr endorsement the man who put the Birther Movement on the map. audience applauding mitt romney looks completely uncomfortable. Donald trump is totally in his its, in a curiousits Donald Trumps event, not mitt romneys event. He you know, he, he commands the stage. Is my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse mitt romney. It was literally one of the most bizarre political scenes id ever seen. Th and bway, this is a great couple. Mitt and ann romney were standing up there. And i kept looking at ann romney, who looked le she was using every single bit of energy she had not to startac ng up uncontrollably. At that moment, it seemed like, you know, not unlike sarah palin four years earlier, kind of a comic diversion, sething that was different. So, governor romney, go out and get em, you can do it. It was hilarious; it was bizarre. In retrospect, i guess it represented some kind passingor of the. There are some things that you justant imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. crowd laughing being in Donald Trumps Magnificent Hotel and having h endorsement is a delight. Im, im so honored, and. T it was a tadorsement in the other direction of mitt romney to the kind of rhetoricth donald trump was vociferous in trafficking in arounds obamrth certificate the, the perpetrator of a blattly nativist campaign against the president of the United States. Narrator but on Election Night at romney headquarters in boston, there was noictory party. Romney was the worst candidate. He got his clock cleaned. Today im pissed off, and you should be, too narrator Establishment Republicans were reeling. Especially when you look at the turnout. Narrator and one particular republicanas making plans for the future. Theres serious soulsearching going to happen in the republic part and the. Donald trump went to boston, in fact, to be at the victory pay that never occurred. He got on his plane, turned aroundwent back to new york city, and he started tweeting. This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy tweets we cant let this happen. We should march on washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided tweets we should have a revolution in is country. tweets narrator it was an opening salvo in a campaign to capture the conservative base. And just six days later, trumpsi ed this trademark application for the phrase make amica great again. Om right aftery lost, we had a brief chat. Can hlary be beat . Who else is going to run . Hes already handicapping. Romneys body isnt even cold yet, and hes already handicapping this election. It was clear to me then he was going to run. The president of the United States has been reelecte barack obama wins. Defeating mitt romney following an often nasty. Narrator obamas coalition had prevailed. Another four years forck president babama. Narrator now he would test whether the election had consequences obama gets reelected, you know, rather decisively. And, you know, he was hopeful that this fever would break. He kept saying, like, hopefully, this bree fever. Narrator to win, obama had energized latino vers. Republican leaders had taken note now the president hoped they rght be willing to work with him on immigratiorm. Everybody understood th there was an opening, a political opening, because republicans were ready to come to the conversation. D the president s marching orders to s team were very clear this is a priority. I want to get it done. The republicans did a sobering study of where things stood, and they realized, after 2012, that americas changing, d that if you wanted to win the white house, not just congress, you had to appeal to younger voters, latinos, andme we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration. Reform if we do not, our partys appeal will continue to shrink. Narrator g. O. P. Power brokers like majority leader eric cantor laid out the partys problem. Too many millennials, minorities, and others have rejected us at the polls hocause they sense that so were not inclusive. And unless we show the American People that conservative principles actually help them in a real, and not just theory, well never get the majority today, a Bipartisan Group of senators unveiled a plan that. Now republicans and democrats set to announce a major compromise surrounding immigration. Isne of those issues. Narrator republican senator marco rubio was the face of bipartisanmmigration reform. speaking spanish the Political Class was sure going to be like falling off a log. Narrator even on fox news,su ort for the softer immigration approach. Nd even people like sean hannity went on the air and said, we need to rethink our positionn immigration. I was wrong to take such a hard line on, on immigration. You create a pathway for those people that are here. You dont say, you got to go home. And that is an. A, an, a position that ive evolved on. Narrator sean hannity invited obamas nemesis and fox regular onto his show. And even he seemed to favor immigratioreform. Tough to win as a ican. Very look, theyve lost on immigration. Theyre going to have to do something on iigration. Because,ou know, our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. So well see what happens. Mr. Trumpalways a pleasure. Thank you very much. Narrar obamas wish in therm afh of his reelection seemed like it mige true. K but there was a new wrinkle. What was interesting is, the fever broke among certain repuican elites, right . The problem is, thats not where the republican voter or the majority of the Republican House caucus. Narrator at breitbart, the chairman, steve bannon, was sowing division, rallying the populist base against the republican establishment. I said, lets attack the real enemy, and the real enemys the republican what were going ts just go after the house leadership, were going to go after the mitch mcconnells, were going to go after the donors. Were just going to goat kind of this paul ryan philosophy. Narrator bannon and breitbart weaponized immigration against the establishment. We spent a lot more time talking to t public than w spent talking to the elite. Narrator the issue lit up breitbarts already incendiary message boards. Illegals kill 12plus people a day in this country. Torturous, murderous, rapists. This president calls them damers. deport all of the illegal aliens. It is potentially, the threa of aopen borr is pretty catastrophic. Immigration, to republican numberone issue, even ahead of tax cuts. This was some of theil ance of bannon. He recognized an anxiety that had been building in the heartland for years. The country itself felt like it was changing, and, are these people here illegally . Did they skip a step in line . Did they folloall the rules . Again, the, the economy for some manycans has still been so frustrating. So all of this is happening about their own security. Est narrator bannon decided it was time was for a show of force, to usimmigration to take down a ntral figure in the reblican establishment. And when they looked around, the guy th they thought was most vulnerable was eric cantor, the House Majority leader. Narrator cantor was up for reelection. Tea Party Challenger dave brat was mo than 30 points behind in the primary. I i. He definitely kn was coming. stutters that was, also happened to be my home district, but i could feel it. I knew that, that a guy like brat could. They were. They were very weak. Cantor, can you believe this guy . Can you believe ryan . Narrator breitbart swung behind brat. Eric cantor, hes all in for amnesty. Io narrator they set the agenda for rightwing r youre a coward, eric ctor. You only. Eric cantor, w wants amnestl ryanwho i. Th anythin became talking points on conservative radio were coming from breitbart. And you d a transformation where conservative radio hostst wereicking on drudge report on what to say, they were clicking on breitbart. Narrator it worked. Historymaking upset housey majoeader eric cantor lost. This was a Seismic Shift that took all of the establishment figures. Narrator cantors defeat sent a message to republicans. A new Republican Party, with fresh faces. Narrator bipartisan Immigration Reform was dead. Hou majority leader eric cantors defeat is the end of Immigration Reform. I knew that night when i i was talking to my republican. They were, basically, theres no reason for us to talk anymo this is not going anywhere. Capitol shake. Ost feel the ive never seen so many people crying with long faces, all upset on capitol hill. I mean, thats, i think, the worst drubbing the establishment has had in, in many years. It was the elected republicans and talk radio realizing that the peoe who vote for them and watch their media hated their guts. Absolutely hated their guts. R it was clat the voter base was throwing out the publican establishments ideas on immigration. Thats what that represented. S and it was stunning, it e of the biggest upsets in the history of american politics. Narrator president omas advisers understood what it meant. The second that eric cantor is defeated in that primary was the death knell of Immigration Reform, and also was a signal that the Republican Party was no long just kind of talking publicly about obamacare and spending, and a little quietly to their base about immigration. This was going to become what racially or ethnically fueled grievances with immigration at the center. Narrator the divide was widening. But outse of washington, in newtown, connecticut, in one tragic event, shared national grief. Whats your emergency . Sandy hook school, i think theres somebody whos shooting in here. Sandy hook elementary school, inside, i believe theres shooting at the front. Please hurry, please hurry. Please. gunshots echo over phone i need assistance here immediately. I still hear him shooting. siren blaring newtown was the worst moment of the presidency. It was unfathomable to imagine 20 children, six and sevenyearold firstgraders being gunned down in that violent and destructive y. And then six adults who were trying to help. I remember seei obama several times that day, and he was, like. Ive never seen him as much of an emotional wreck. When i got a email fr the president saying, this is the first time that i cried in the oval office. Ou i mean, he was just bursting into tears throuthe day. He always told me that ifpp something ed to one of his kids, he didnt think he could get out of bed. And here are all these beautiful, young kids o were, were slaughtered. And he was, he was sad, and he was irate. And he kept saying, like, all i. I, i dont think i can talk about th publicly, because the second i Start Talking about kiose kids, im just going to be thinking about m. The majority of those who died today were chdren, the ages of five and ten years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. As a country, we have been through this too many times. May god bless the memory of the victims, a in the words of scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bindp their wounds. Narrator for obama, newtown was a test whether a tragedy coulbring the country together around another contentious issue gun control. He was so moved by what happened in newtown, and he thoughthe country was, as well, that this would be a chance to do something that bumocrats would have loved to have done beforenever thought was possible. Narrato the president wanted gun legislation. But by now, he h become so polarizing, he told Vice President joe bin to take the lead. A it was ontext of sorrow, extreme, i mean, anger cant we do something about this . E it was, likeugh is enough is enough. Put togeth something for me, joe. Nartor bid turned to democratic senator joe Manchin Toomey to draft itator pat we have what looks to be a model of bipartisan action. And they propose a modest change in the gun laws, but one that would begin, at least, to turn an issue that had gone entirely in one direction in a somewhat different direction. Narrator public support was. Stro republicans were signing on. Everyone felt like the world was going to change. Everyone felt like, this is going to bthe mass shooting that makes america really look at its gun laws and change something. I was optimistic. Over 91 of the American People supported expanding background checks, 80 of the households that had an nra member supported it. I e had enough of all these people, all their talk. Narrator then, the blowbackr tbart, talk radio. Always try to hide their endas behind womennd chilen and most of all victims. They apparently dont believe libertys on the line, ty apparently dont believe thend constitution ahe bill of rights are on the line. Narrator fox news. Its about the ideology. s about stripping lawabiding american citizens from their, their legal right to have a gun. And theyre very eager to usr whatragedy they can to advance their cause. Their gun, gun laws are going to hurt the, the defense of the innocent. Its got inside jo written all over it. Narrator and on the fringes, rioutrageous conspiracy th, denying the shooting had actually hpened. Sandy hook is a synthetic, f mpletee, with actors, in my view, manufactured. People, none. Faith in these you would think now, if ever, that a socalled conrvative republican in the senate would have learned the lesson thatde this prent cannot be relied on to foll the law. Narrator one by one, obama watched key republicans and even some democrats back away from the bill. Cutting deals over what . Over the sond amendment . I despise these people. And the older i get,ore i despise. Here was a moment where 80 , 90 of americans, i think, would have supported some sort of a reasonable compromist it. And yet, nothing happened. So, this is where you have the Republican Party held hostage by its base, and american polits held hostage by that Republican Party. R. Inhofe, mr. Isakson. Mr. Lautenberg, mr. Leahy. Mr. Lee. Mr. Wyden. gavel banging the amendment is not agreed to. Narrator the bill fell five votes short. How could they vote that way . Dont they understand what happened . How can they do that . How can this be . I mean, it was disbeli and a sense of betrayal. That was the mood. It was an emotional setback for the president. It was a huge political setbackd for the prt. And, and in some ways, helped to set the tone, again, for what was going to come after, in other areas. Narrator obama invited the newtown families to the white house. Daniel was a firstgrader at sandy hook elementary school. I ow that he felt, he felt a sense of responsibility to us and, and to the nation and to that 90 of the country that, that wanted th. You know, i think he felt a, a strong sense of responsibility toward that,nd his, his disgust was palpable. It came down to politics the worry that that vocalow minority of gurs would come after them in future elections. So, all in all, this was a pretty shameful dafor washington. Thank you very much, everybody. N great president s have b able to forge compromise. President obama was not able to and the reason may well be the implacability of the peopleon sittinhe other side of the table from him. Sometimes, you cant get to yes th someone who wt say anything other than no. Were supposed toelieve that if only these background checks were in place, all. Ne own wouldnt have happened, none of this would have happened. There wasnt one part of this bill that would have stopped what happened at thaol. Wont you just turn your whyd you do it to him, gun owners . Listen, i didnt kill your kids. From nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester ho. There is growing outrage tonight after an unarmed africanamerican teenager was shot and killed by police in thu st. Louirb of ferguson, missouri. St. Louis county police have taken over the investigation of officer that left a teenagerice dead. Witnesses say the teen was not armed and had his hands up in the air when a Police Officer fatally shot him. Narrator once again, race would emerge and sow division. Ferguson becomes a tinderbox, explodes. People want an Immediate Reaction from barack obama and his administration. He aint armed, he dont got no gun, they just killed him. His blood evywhere. Ferguson became a metaphor for this entire comple relationships between black people and police, and the criminaljustice system. And it becomes a kind of rorschach test. Michael brown is unarmed. He is fired upon by the Police Officer who says that heed attackim. There are varying eyewitness accounts that dispute that. What is not in dispute is that his body lays on the street where heas shot in the sweltering heat for multiple hours. What do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now what doe want . Justice when do we want it . Now what do we want . Narrator night after night, the streets of fergusowere a war zone. fireworks exploding people claming the president remained silent. When ferguson blew, it exploded h inability to grapple straightforwardly with the issue of race he was contorted and tragically twoted when it came to, um, ferguson. The difficulty of this situation for barack obama is that it expos him, again and again and again, to the most inflammatory thing about his presidency, with, you know, the beer summit ip gates, with Trayvon Martin, and now with ferguson, tt he is brought again and again back to this thirdrail issue of the disparities of race in this country. Narrator finally, after five days. Rybody. Afternoon, e narrator he went before the press. There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. Narrator he chose a cautious route. Hold ourselveso a high standard. So, nows the time for healing, nows the time for peace and calm on the streets of ferguson. Hes trying to thread this needle. And feels as though both sides end up being disappointed by what does. Thanks very much, everybody. I was once interviewing obama in the white house, and. I asked him a question about race. And his answer was unusually, uh. Guarded. Inconsequential, and, for journalistic purposes, almostus ess. N rator later, as remnick was leaving the interview, obama stopped him inhe hallway. He says to me, you got to remember, i am the presint of the unitedtates im not theck president of bmerica. Everybody knows who i am, cause they loo they can see me. Im black. But anything i say on race, anything i say on race, i have be extremely careful and calibrated in what i say. clamoring, horn honking arrator and as the anger in ferguson grew out of control, on television, obama remained careful and calibrated. To those in ferguson, there arways of channeling your concerns constructively and there are ways of chng your concerns destructively. The split screen was the line that showed his disconnect with america. One side of the screen, youre seeing the nations black president begging that a city do not up in flames. And the other side of the blacpeople saying, were done waiting. Wernot putting up with this anymore. We elect a black president ,s and eight yeter, we have this . I remember talking to activists who said, i voted for barack obama twice, and Trayvon Martins still dead, Michael Browns still dead. It was this sense that simply having representation, even at the highest levels, didnt nessarily mean that these issues were going to be addressed. He was really frustrated. And, you know, we would talk. And he would just say,now, well, cops need to stop shooting unarmed black kids. But he also recognnd wasught. Very disciplined about the facts that he was ent of the United States. Narrator the anger transcended ferguson. Online, black lives matter emerged activists connecting, Police Shootings around thes of country. shouting, gs firing ive been recording. Ive been recording. I cant breathe. Get that gun off of there. Shots fired radio squawking oh, my god and within moments, the entire world cou see it. And it forced white americans te things that their eyes never would have seen. Black lives matter black lives matter black lives matter ra nr across the divide, the blowback. They hate Police Officers. Well, they have strong feelings about. No, they hate them they want them dead. Th re a hate group, and im going to tell you right now, im going to put them out of business. Tir agenda is, its okay to go ahead and kill cops. No, nobody said tha oh, really . Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon . When they act like that, theyre criminals, and theyre calling for the murder of hardworking Police Officers. Dont believe that. We now have to counter this slime, this filth coming out of these cophaters. A black lives matter protest shut down traffic in frederick, maryland. Alack lives matter is jus mplete fraud. Are you going to riot, loot,o roas pigs, what . Absolutely unbelievable all lives matter see, to me, dividing lives that matter by color sounds downright racist. No. Republicans tore it up at the election victory, taking control of the senate. Narrator fall 2014. Senate and now helthured the houses of congress. Wave of voter frustrati has all but washedff the democrats. Democrats in states that were both blue and red, iluding many states that president n. Obama. All was lost. We found ourselves in the. World. Congress had gone in a different direction, and, we werent su if wed ever get them back on anything. The mood of the country was nasty, and the country took most of it out on barack obama. President obama was heading into a, a place where he was gointo be opposed by congress, byhe republican majorities in congress, over virtually everything he tried to do. And i think the ndwriting was on the wall that his presidency was going to come to an end with really bitter split between the two political parties, likeve nothing we hadseen narrator over six years, the promise of hope, change, bipartisanship, had been confronted by fear, anger, division. Barack obama said he would try to bridge these divides. He couldnt. It wasnt for lack of trying. Tmean, just the fact that was six years fore he really just said, im going to stop trying. Nrator he would go aroun the republican congress, go his own way. The president is, is saying,g ing to do what im able to do with the tools avaable to me. Omim never going to get, republican congress, much progress on e things i think are very important. E wasnt satisfied to sit there and have people play hail to the chief when he walkedn the room. And he was determined that hes ing to use every bit of power that he could legitimately claim. My fellow americans, there are actions i have the Legal Authority to take as president. Tonight, im announcing those actions. President obama signed ala ma climatechange deal on his final trip to china today. Breaking right now, executive action on gun control. Change the lives of millions of undocumented bypasses congress. E move president obama says the keystone xl pipeline project. R tor obamas actions energized his supporters, but provoked outragen the other side. He couldnt get anythingss through congtrue. But the congresspeoplet represe American Public. What did obama do . I take out my pen and my phone. Ill take out my pen and my phone, im going to do an end around congress. Meaning, you people, im going to do an end around you, the American Public. Ive got a pen to take ecutive actions where congress wont, and ive got a telephone to rally folks around the country on this mission. He gets shellacked. He loses the senate, he shows back up, he ts smoked, he calls a press conference, and all, cnn and everybody, New York Times, is he going to to what the people are saying, the country going in a different direction, obama going to listen . He gets up there and he goes, oy, guys, heres how it i im president of the United States, and youre not. He gs, heres ten executive orders im going to sign immediately. Im sitting the going, this guys my role model. I said, he just got smoked, and he comes out and hits you right in the mouth. This is a leader the constitution is going to cease to exist as we know it. Obama is going to start shooting a bb gun at it. Where does this end . Does it ever end . At what point do we roll back this homegrown tyranny . Executive order. What they are really are, are perial fiats. This is what we have to fear. And now he has to use very, very dangerous thing. Is a i mean, i think, certainly, he could be impeached. for the love of money playing money, money, mmoney good morning. Good morning. Everybodys saying i should run for president. A let you a question meatloaf, should i run for president . Absolutely now, you uld definitely vote for me. I would vote for you, in fact, ill, ill help you with your campaign. What do you think narrator it was Donald Trumps mome. Who would not vote for me . Narrator the reality tv star wamaking his move. All right, good. A hot hint dont raise your hand. Iould say, anybody that raised their hand would immediately be fired, cause theyre stupid. Trump is a showman. This is tv gold, right . Who would not watch this . Hes interesting, and hese dynamic, aows how to work theameras. And hes been the numberone show on nbc for all these years for a reason. Another political story making news this morning nald trumps growing poll numbers on a list of possible. Donald trumps serious about a run for the white house. Will. Donald trumpwho may run for president in the republican primaries. Donald actually told me in 2013 that he was going to run for president , and i thought he. Was kiddin and then he argued that it was based on his twitter feed and facebook posts that so many people were posting on social media that he should run, that he thought maybe he ould. Rt as promised, donald trump speaking now in outh, New Hampshire lets listen. You ready . Yeah, were ready. You get ready whenever youre ready, im okay. He says to me, my effective television career, me as a Television Star is over, im running for president i laughed. N looked rights face, i laughed. phone ringing and then he proceedeto tell me that he had a, a base of operations built in the trump towe that he had hired roger stone and sam nunberg and co lewandowski. You had a perfect storm. A ost 40 years in american politics, id never seen the voters in this bad a mood. Of political institutionsious whether its congress, whether its the two parties. Narrator trump had used the Birther Movement, and now seized another hotbutton issue for the consvative base immigratio a top aide, sanunberg, helped him package it. Nunberg had realized that this issue of immigration has al salience with republican voters. The problem ey had was, they couldnt get trump to stay on topic famously short attention span. This idea, essenti came up with mnemonic device to keep trump focused on the issue of immigration. Nexyear. So, i said, well, why dont wall, because its bigger . U a going to build a wall. And well, like. And youll gemexico to pay for it. Narrator trump took it on versions of the line. Different we have to build a fence, and its got to be a beauty. Who can build better than trump . I build; its what i do. He said it in iowa that day, and the crowd went nuts. You can watch it, the owd went nuts. If i run, i will tell you, the king of building buildings, the king of building walls, nobody canuild them like trump. That i can promise you. crowd cheers and applauds i can promise you that he said to me, you know what . I talking about immigration, i feel it. Sam, ts is a movement. Th is a movement. They, they get it, they get it. crowd cheering and applauding narrator obama had promised uny, but as trump announced his intentn to run, it wass clear hindidacy would be about exploitingivision. applause continues nf you look at sarah pali taing to real americans; tea party talking about taking the country back; the Birther Movement itself that launched trump; by the time he came down that escalator, he was the obvious republican frontrunner. He was the guy saying the same thing that theyd all beenan saying on foon talk radio and on breitbart for the lt sixandahalf yea. When mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending u, theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people thahave lots of problems, and theyre bringi those problems with us. When he starts doing the overthetoptuff, and i go, i said, youatch, theyre, aneyre going to bite hard theyre going to bite hard and blow this up. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists, and some, i assume, are good people. Oh, my god, i said, th is. I said, hes just, hes just buried every. Theyre going to go nuts. Cnn is literally going to broadcast 24 hours a day. Donald trumps comment about mexican immigran has created controversy nationwide. Donald trumps comments have triggered outrage. Donald trump not baing down from his controversi, some say racist, language. I was waiting for trump to take it back and say, oh, no, no, i didnt mean thatos sending rapists; theyre sending rhodes scholars, theyre so much better than we are. And damned if he never took it back so, i had to say, okay, im for. Im for thiguy. Ann, which republican candidate has the best chance of winning the general election . Of the declared ones, right now, donald trump. audience laughing i said, this is our guy. Hes a very imperfect llstrument, but hes a armorpiercing s crowd cheering i tell the guys, hesoing to go through this thing like a scythe through grass. Ill tell you what i like about him, he doesnt take any ap from obama. Hes the leader right now of the entire conservative movement in amera. Donald trump has changed the entire debate on immigration. He might be blunt, he might wp inartful at times, but hes channeling the vnt of, i would say, the majority of republan voters. on radio i copy, several victims regarding that active shooter. Ve me at least four medi units, plus two supervisors. All units responding, 110ou castreet. We have breaking news. Police and Emergency Responders are on the sne of what Police Confirm is a shooting inside a church in downtown charleston, South Carolina. Dispatchers tell. Nine people are dead, and theres a massive manhunt underway. The shooting happened at the historic emmanuel a. M. E. Church the pastor, a. Charleston represented a lot of things coming together. It was re, it was guns, and it was the great divide. siren blaring, radio squawking narrator eight African American parishioners and their minister. siren blaring murdered in a church by a white supremacist. They found the shooters journal. The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case,f while hundredsese blackonwhite murders got ignored . He is driven to vioby e fact that he says this. He says that black peoe are taking over the world. Reverend pinckney was dead, in large measure, because barack oba was the president. That massacre in South Carolina let obama finally know that black americans are the proxies for me. And i think that he was aware of the fact that he had to address this, he could no longer avoid this, that this was mething that we as a nation must grapple with. Narrator he would head for charleston and the collective icgrief at the memorial se as he told Valerie Jarrett on the way down, hehinking about singing amang grace. Me well, hioned it to, to me and to the first lady, and he said, theres a moment in my eulogy where ihink i might sing. Well, and id said, dont sing, dont sing. And he goes, i think im going to sing. Ded built the speech aro this concept of grace. And he said, you know, maybe ill sing Amazing Grace. here was moment where the nation needed its president. And for one of the first tes in theations history, the presidt was completely t preparprovide the comfort needed to black americans. The president of the United States of america, the honorable barack obama, will come at this time. congregation cheering narrator obama would speak about race in a way he never had as president. It was an act that drew on ao long histobombs and arson and shots fired at churches. Amen. Not random, but as a means of control. Amen. A way to terrorize and oppress. congregation applauding an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination. Violence and suspicion. An act that he presumed would deep divisions that trace back to our nations original sin. The shooting in charleston was a moment for him to, to show the, the fullness of hisof feelingsis emotions, and his identification with, with his community. And to speak for them, um, in a way that he probably hadt done in his predency. As a nation, out of this t terribgedy, god has visited grace upons. congregation agreeing for he has alled us to see auere weve been blind. congregation apng if we can tap that grace,an everythinghange. Amazing grace. He paed. Ce. And i remember thinking, is he thinking, am i ing to sing, or am i not going to sing . Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretchan join in like me i once was lost but now im found was blind but now i see organ concluding it was like in those notes of Amazing Grace, the entire history of the obama presidency,l the adversity hed fac all the opposition hed faced, everything hed repressed, was coming out. Clementa pinckney found that grace. Cynthia hurd found that grace. congregation responds Susie Jackson found that grace. congregation responds ethel lance found that. congregation responds Depayne Middleton doctor found that grace. Nz tysanders found that grace. Daniel l. Simmons, sr. , found that grace. Sharonda colemansingleton found that grace. Myra thompson found that grace. I remember just sitting there and sobbing at my desk, in a way that never did, because it was, like, hes finally being his compte self in full view of the country. May grace now lead them homen egation agreeing may god continue to shed his grace on the United States of americ cheering and applauding having a black president has no effect, no effect, on whats going on in some of our cities, zero. You know theyre ramping it up for the 2016 election. Every speech theyve given has fanned the flame of racial. Enmi henot the man of compassion and empathy that he. Claims to the race is wl underway, with a new republican candidate. President is underen for donald trump begins flirting. Trumps Campaign Blitz in iowa, promising a big, special announcement. Well, he says therell be a big announcement at the last even. Narrator early days on the campaign trail trump had plenty of money and celebrity. He wanted one more thing. eye of the tiger playing governor sarah palin, special, special person. Thank you. Thank you so much, its so great be in iowa. Were here just thawing out, lending our support for the next president of our great United States of america, donald j. Trump. For her to endorse donald trump was a way for her to say. Heads are spinning. Media heads are spinning. This is going to be so. s he is doing the kinds of things id wanted to do. He is saying the kinds of thing i wanted to sa but i think most important was, his constituency and my constituency are, are one and the same. Being here tonight,su orting the right man who will allow you to make America Great again, god bless you, god bless the United States of america, and our next president of the United States, donald j. Trump. Donald trump is running. Ainst the establishment. The Republican Party better Pay Attention. If you wanted the exactba opposite of ck obama, its donald trump. Obama was cool, trump is hot. Obama was cerebral and laidback, trump is rough and inyourface. Obama is mr. Teleprompter. Donald trump is a no card and no limits, no boundaries, no editing. Obama is a tremendous divider you cant get muche. Wo hes been a great, great divider. In i president obama has been the most ignorant president in our history. He will go down as one of the worst president s in the history of our country iis a mess. Isis is honoring president am he is the founder of isis. Hes the founder of isis he just couldnt believe that the Republican Party would minate trump. The ideahat the American Public would elect twice barack obama, first africanamecan president in history, and then turn around and pick donald p trump, wyed to racial resentment and anxiety, it just didnt compute for president obama it just didnt make anyo sensim. He couldnt imagine it. He looks at me, and he says, you know, what if we we wrong . Hes, like, you know,ell, what, what if people just want to fall back into their tribe . What if peoples identity, their kind of sense of racial or etic identity, is justor powerful . We just have to be honest it has been difficult to fi agreement over the last seven years. Narrator n his final state of the union address, he said it out loud. Its one of the few regrets rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. Along the way, president ie obama to do things that didnt sit well with a chunk oft the american eate. We saw the, the rise of the tea part you had the Birther Movement. It all became angry. It becamthis sort of angry stew that dissolved into disagreement and, and worse, division. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise. Orhen even basic facts are contested. Or when we listen only to those who agree with us. He meant, and he really, truly believed that he could bring about meaningful change in discourse and attitude and the politics of politicization. He became enormously frustrated, enormously discouraged, enormously pessimistic about his prospects for doing just that over the course of his eight years. So, while he started filled with hope and filled with this enormous desire and determination to do just that, he acknowledged defeat, he acknowledged his collapse, his inability to bring his country together. And that was deey disappointing. Narrator he left with warning. There will be voices urging us to fall back into our respective tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who dont look like us or pray like us vote like we do or share the same background. We cant afford to go down that path. It contradicts everything that t makes envy of the world. Donald trump will be the 45th president of the United States. Nartor tomorrow night, the story continues. Whoa, everyone got this wrong and this is a huge story. R narrato donald trump inherits the deeply divided country obama warned of. Trump didnt create this, but he leaned into it and everything he has done has deepened this trench. Bring the country er. Lection to you are fake news. Its time to take on the elites, hit them with a blowtorch. I think there is blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it. Ab its pr the first time where the country realizes, thia is going to ge narrator the conclusion of frontlines epic investigation. A very bitterlvided america. No matter who is elected president , they are going to face this deep divide and that it could shape their entire presidency. Narrator americas great divide. Its only going to get nastier. Narrator tomorrow night, on frontline. Go to pbs. Org frontline for the latest frontline transparency project. See key quotes from the film in context. Obama care goshoved down our throats. En thire complex of relationships between black people and police. Hes a very imperfect instrument. Connect to the frontle community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app or pbs. Org frontline. Frontline is made possible bo ributions 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, committed to building a more just, verdanr and peaceful. And by the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of sociale worldwide. Additional support is provided by the abrams undation, committed to excellence in journalism. E park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. Thheisingsimons foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and psibilities. And by the frontline journalism fund,up with majorrt from jon and jo ann hagler. And Additional Support from laurdebonis and scott nathan captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at p. Org frontline. Frontlines, n mericas great divide is available on amaime video. Youre wching pbs. One of my friends said, come on, were gonna go to wendys for shabbat. I said, wendys, shabbat . I couldnt believe this. Hl i said, wendys, shabbat . My name is eva s. Im actually a recording. Why dont yoask me a question about auschwitz two documentaries about tradition and history, with a 21scentury twist. Pov shorts making memories. Haajor funding for pov been provide by