We will change the course. Narrator and donald trump. Make America Great again the third president in u. S. History to be impeached. Today theres just a lack of respect. To assume the other side is not just the political opponent, but the enemy. 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 pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadsting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. And by the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlinesf 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. The heisingsimons 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, that he was going to make the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. And as soon as he hung up the phone, he turned to me and he said, i know what 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 presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in kenya. My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. The idea of barack obama being unique in so many ways unique with his funny name, unique with his skin color. Or unique with his message look, im not a creature of washington. Im new. Im just showing up. Im willing to work across the aisle. There is not a liberal 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 latino america, an asian america, theres the United States of america he was a star. That we hadnt seen a politician 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 up in this partisan divide. Thank you very much, everybody, god bless you. He was going to be the one who was going to try to heal that wound. Narrator barack obama arrived with a promise of unity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Narrator but his presidency would usher in an age of unprecedted anger. Afroleninism. Narrator resentment. I want my country back. Narrator political conflict. The republicans messed up so bad. Narrator polarization. What do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now narrator a turning point. crowd chanting . In americas great divide. President ial contenders began their final push in iowa today. And because 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 to stand up. I think what obama represented was generational change. Heres a younger person unburdened by some of the old fights of the past. He obivously represented 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 begun. Thank you, iowa. He was also just an incredibly talenteand charismatic and inspirational politician. crowd chanting obama obamas political rise came at a time when america was increasingly divided. I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and. Narrar at the end of george w. Bushs presidency, the nation was reeling. The country had been through eight tumultuous years. Narrator Steve Schmidt was a bush adviser and counselor to Vice President cheney. We saw a war fought over 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 was offering was widely appealing. He represented generational change. crowd cheering and applauding we can finally bring the change we need to washington. We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. Narrator in 2008, as obama ran for president , he delivere a simple message. The American People are looking for change. There was a real ability to project onto obama what you wanted to see. And he encouraged that, i mean, hope and change is not a its not an agenda. You know, hope 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 next Vice President of the United States, sarah palin. Narrator democrats werent the only ones looking for a change. For republicans, sarah palin ignited a new political force. crowd chanting Sarah Sarah Palin came out and brought the house down. She electrified 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 it. 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 the way that she just sort of had this matteroffact, sort of folksy, she wasnt too highbrow, and so real americans, you know, regular folks could relate to her. Well, im not a member of the permanent political establishment. She was the beginning of the shift where the people began to believe 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 Standing of the washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone, but. crowd booing she tapped into a simmering grievance in the country thats real. Theres a rebellion 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 car was the katie couric ierview. What newspapers and magazines did 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 years i have a vast can you name a few . Iave a vast variety of sources where we get. But most republicans, who already disliked 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 Times. crowd booing if you want 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 as you and i see america. And for one brief, 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 it for anyone. Shes something else. Sarah palin has completely transformed Republican Party. 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 is . Its the Inauguration Day of the nations first africanamerican president. Hundreds of thousands of. Narrator barack obama had promised unity. Much of the country seemed to believe he could deliver it. I looked out, never forget, from the west front of the capitol all the way down to the monument. And i think its about a mile. And all you could see were people. A sea of people. The fact that our country elected a black president is just. It was huge in significance. cheering and applauding the thing i remember most about that day was an older white man turning to me and my daughter and him saying to her, young lady, you could be up there one day. You could be president of the United States. I will never, ever forget that moment. crowd chanting obama even americans who had been skeptical of barack obama were giving him a look, listening to what he was saying. I think, there was just an enormous amount of good will toward him and toward the possibility of what might be under this first africanamerican president. Congratulations, mr. President. crowd cheering and applauding obama led with that message of, we are now going to come together, were going to unify this country, even if you didnt back me, im now going 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 he seemed 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 the United States as a society. And hes black. crowd cheering and applauding in retrospect, its easy to see how that was a doomed mission from the start. Narrator in fact, that very evening, across washington, Republican Leaders gathered. A meeting, a dinner, took 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. And we had to see how obama behaved and to off an alternative to what he wanted to do. Narrator they would try to block the president , fight his agenda, exploit the divide. I thought, he could be defeated partly by his own ideology and by his own 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 economy, 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 the defining event of this generation, even more so than 9 11, and it profoundly reshaped american politics. Anger from the u. S. Public towards bankers is high. Narrator the economy was collapsing. The growing backlash against wall street. Narrator trillions of dollars had been used to prop up wall street. Middleclass americans were angry. They took to the streets to express thr anger. Frustration with financial bigwigs continues to grow. The way it looked from ground level was that the big banks, the people who had creat the financial crisis, were being bailed out when the little guy was being screwed. On the heels of growing public anger aimed at banks. Backlash against wall street. Narrator before he could deliver 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 there was a oneinthree chance that the country would slip into a second great depression. We were on a ledge and we could fall off that ledge. Narrator his new secretary of the treasury was overwhelmed. Wed already thrown trillions and trillionof dollars at the problem. I think it was, you know, it was a very perilous moment, a very existential moment at that point. How do you respond to that . Not only how do you respd 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 stament justice punishing the banks. David axelrod, obamas top litical adviser, very much wanted some scalps. Robert gibbs, who was the press secretary but also a very senior political aide, wanted scalps. 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 too wrapped up in trying to design political theater. Narrator in the end, the president would be cautious. Barack obama is inherently very conservative. And he also wants to believe the best in other people, and he really does believe that everybody can ultimately find Common Ground and work together. I think it was a mistake, because the bankers really got off very easy. And the public knows it. There was a perception that president obama flinched at that point. That, 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 court and to charge them with, with things. Narrator anger and distrust of the government would grow. Rowd chanting it was deeply, deeply unpopular. And this came at a time when 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 have to share in the losses. And every american does. I mean, that just it just burns up ordinary people. It is just ordinary middleclass people thinking, i cant get away with that the government is promoting bad behavior, because we. Narrator and on cable television, the talk had already begun of something they called a tea party. And think 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. Starts an uproar. This is america how many of you people want to pay for your neighbors mortgage that has an extra bathroom and cant pay their bills . Raise their hand others booing president obama,re you listening . Were thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in july. All you capitalists 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 politics in the 1980s. People really, really resented this president for siding with the rich and powerful, and forgetting them. That was 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, exactly the opposite happened, so can we revoke that bailout now . Narrator 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. I was his politicaldviser, and i understood how 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 these really big, intractable problems . Let there be no doubt healthcare reforcannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year. cheering and applauding we can no longer afford to put healthcare reform on hold. 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. And every Political Party that decides to take on healthcare in some massive, poorly understood way, reaps both the backlash and, and political retaliation. Americans are seriously worried that this is going to destroy the healthcare their parents get. This has been on the lefts todo list since neither fdr or lbj got it done. They have just been waiting, waiting, 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 federal government. The whole point of this is to get everybody enrolled in the government healthcare plan. Narrator from across the divide, sarah palin reappeared, wielding a new political weapon. She was a maven on facebook. The original politician who saw that you could skirt the media, and you could get the message out unfiltered, 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 phrase that went viral death panels. The america i know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with 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 potruth environment. Narrator Steve Schmidt had also been a tocampaign aide for john mccains president ial run. He had pushed mccain to select sarah palin. She 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. And were going to have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, youre dead. We now have leftist radicals in charge of your healthcare decisions rather than doctors. Were hanging by a thread. If you think this country is great, but obama and the tsars are marching our country right off a cliff, save your life. Grab the parachute, pull. And come follow me. Narrator glenn beck was a former top40 disc jockey. He rose to the pinnacle of fox news during the presidency of bara obama. To watch the coverage from the rightwing media of the obama years now is to experience true hysteria. To see glenn becevery day and the things he was saying 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 . For the love of pete, what are you doing . This is not the america i grew up in, or you grew up in. When we said change, we didnt mean this 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 t perfect phraseology that took this anger 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 wants to regulate every aspect of your life. And it kind of starts there. And then it, it gets darker and darker. 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. And this, this outrage machine, 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 narrator the outrage machine onne. You want to kill my grandparents, you come through me first narrator anger on the ground. You dirty thieves we cant afford it afroleninism there is an ugliness with these fringe people who are comparing the president to hitler. This is not simply a disagreement about policy, this is a repudiation of obama and, more significantly, a repudiation of obamas race. His church was based on racism. Theyre depicting obama as an ape, you know, o on signs that theyre carrying. There are pejorative 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 a big symbol. You know, every time you turned on your tv, you were reminded that the country was changing in fundamental ways. I mean, we had had 200 years of president s. We had never had one that looked like barack obama. And s just mere presence in the white house was a daily reminder that this is a different 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, jr. Narrator one early incident enflamed both sides. Arrested in his own home. His arrest is prompting outrage. The story grabbed National Headlines because the man in question is one of the nations most pronent africanamerican scholars. Professor Henry Louis Gates is arrested in his own home for trespassing. And Barack Obama Says what virtually every black person in the country thought. That the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. Thank you, everybody. All of a sudden, theres pressure on the other side. There are people who are saying that hes anticop, theres a concern that hes racist. This president , i think, has exposed mself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deepseated hatred for white people or the white culture, i dont know what it is. This guy is, i believe, a racist. People lost their minds. He had the largest drop in his polling numbers of anything that happened in the eight years of the obama presidency. Hey. Cameo appearance. Narrator he apologized. These are issues that are still very sensitive here in america. And, you know, so, to the extent that my choice 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 further a photo op. Obama did this very awkward thing where he called in Henry Louis Gates and the Police Officer, and they had this beer summit. He would probably say that that was one of the most ridiculous moments of his presidency. Not so much that he brought a black harvard professor and a White Cambridge cop together, but the fact that the media anointed it a beer summit. Narrator it was a painful lesson. And the lesson he took from that is, like, this is a loser. If im weighing in on these racial issues, its only going to galvanize the, the forces against me. What i didnt appreciate as mu then was just how much obama would become a symbol of change in the country, a change from a, you know, a White America to a more diverse america, a more cosmopolitan america. I think he became a symbol for segments of our country of change that they did not welcome. Time for a little healing over some beers, my friends. He wants you to Pay Attention because his poll numbers are tanking. This is just folks, it is a lousy, lousy image to present to america. Now theyre using the poor cop as a, you know, a stooge here to make believe he did it all. We are skating on very thin ice with this man in the white house, and youve only seen th beginning of it. Madam speaker. The president of the United States. crowd cheering and applauding narrator healthcare reform was stuck. The divide with the republicans was widening. Obama would demand action. 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 of congress. There are also those who claim that our Reform Efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms. members murmuring the reforms im proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. You l audience exclaiming its not true. A member shouted, you lie you lie audience exclaiming narrator it was republican representative joe wilson from South Carolina. Well, the tea party exrience came right into the, you know, the house chamber, but to see tt sort of disrespect on the floor of the house directed towards the president of the United States, i think, caused everybodys head to snap. You lie audience exclaiming 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 craziness. Its rewarded. Narrator the president faced an emerging reality. The republicans Inauguration Day pledge to oppose him was coming true. There was no way Health 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 just. Youre just going to sit there and do nothing. Because the republicans werent going to give him votes for anything. Barack obama came into office thinking, well, i can reason with them. If ie got good arguments, theyre reasonable 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, they just 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 healthcare in america with your help god bless you, and god bless the United States of america down to the wire on healthcare reform. The house votes just hours from now. After months of rancor in the streets, the vote takes place in just a few hours. Narrator it 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. It has now been 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 downur 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 call socialized medicine. Its the most brazen assault on a fundamental aspect of our republic. Every single republican senator votes consistently against governmentrun healthcare should be a clear indication. This is going 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 that would come up in election after election from then on. The perfect title, lies, damn lies, thats 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 applauding crowd cheering and applauding the Birther Movement was so powerful was because it spoke to all types of other anxieties that many White Americans had about 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 birth certificate, dont you love that . Narrator talk radio joined in. Something there that the 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 asks me about it. He says, have you read this stuff . Its very interesting, theres a lot of odd questions here. But he brings the issue into the mainstream. Narrator roger stone was a longtime political adviser to trump. He has since been convicted of lying to congress. Trump understands among reblicans theres a very substantial majority who have questions about obamas origins and how he just pops up out of nowhere to become a naonal figure, and whether he was in fact eligible to serve as president. We thought that trump needed an issue that resonates with people. The birth certificate ant a lot of Different Things to a lot of different people. 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 was thinking of running against obama in 2012. It doesnt 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 . Because i have 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. Why doesnt he 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 to the president. Donald trump was at the forefront of it. I think it, it rankled president obama because the birther stuff was just a pure racismslashxenophobia, and it was bas in nothing. More than 40 of the population still question whether hes actually an american or not. Narrator obama had already released his birth certificate during the 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 is 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 resources that you were able to deploy people to go and find out what is actually going on with Barack Obamas birth certificate. What did you find . Well, were looking into it very, very strongly. Nobody kno 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 wasnt born in this country, its one of the greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history, period. The more i go into it, the more suspect it is. Narrator obama reluctantly released more proof of his citizenship. Now, as many of you have been briefed, we provided Additional Information today about the site of my birth. This thing just kept on going. Yes, in fact, i was born in hawaii, august 4, 1961, in kapiolani hospital. Weve posted the certification that is given by the state of hawaii. Narrator three days later, it was time for payback. The president uses the 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 applauding donald trump is here tonight. cheering and applauding no one is happier, no one is prouder, to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And thats because hcan finally get back to 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 pretend to have a sense of humor about it, even if you go cry into your pillow that night. Trump was steaming. His face was all locked in he was not having a good time. All kidding aside, obvisly, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience audience laughing for example. No, seriously, just recently, in an episode of celebrity apprentice, 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. audience laughing 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 well handled, sir. Well handled. But it just kept going and going and he just kept hammering him. And i thought, oh, barack obama is starting something that i dont know if hell be able to finish. Say what you will about mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the white house. Lets see what weve got up there. I think that is the night that he resolves to run for president. I ink that he is kind of motivated by it. Maybe ill just run. Maybe ill show them all 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 the most powerful man in the universe. God bless you and may god bless the United States of america. audience applauding narrator neither trump, nor the birther ise, were going to go away. Back to this birther business for just a second. Obama is an unknown man, may not be a citizen, surrounded by radicals, surrounded by terrorists. If obama were such a shooin, donald trump would not have had any jokes told about him on saturday night at the white house. The copy of the new fake birth certificate. Now, weve looked at it, were going to go over why its fake, how its a composite. Democrats are nursing a major midterm hangover. Nsense in sugarcoating last nights. Narrator out in thcountry and in washington. Tuesdays election was a game changer. Narrator the divide was growing. And in the midterms, angry republicans rose up. A repudiation of the president and his policies. That is a very unhappy 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 send a message 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 to take us off in a crazy dangerous direction, and we cant let at happen. And we won races in every corner of the nation, in such 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 soht 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 washington insid john boehner. I now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes with it 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. I didnt need to be speaker because i needed a fancy title or a big office. I want to be speaker so i could lead an effort to deal with the serious issues that are facing our country. Obama used to tell me, john boehner is just like the republicans that i worked really well with in the Illinois State senate, a 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 believed he knew just how to reach out to a Country Club Republican golf. Before the golf match started, i 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. Narrator obama had more than golf on his mind. He wanted 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 ours, obviously. 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 politically. Narrator the speaker secretly entered the white house through a side entrance. 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, like, sit there with obama, and negotiate or have a drink, right . Narrator they talked of a grand bargain, a onceina generation deal to reduce the deficit. Obama would agree to cut entitlements, boehner to raise taxes. The Republican Leadership was willing to make a deal. John boehner was willing to make a deal. And the president was able to get Democratic Leaders in congress to sign off on that deal. Narrator but back at the capitol, boehner was confronted by resistance from his tea party mbers. There was support for what was being discussed at the white house was not there in the republican conference. There was no way that a majority of republicans were going to support what the president was talking about. It just wasnt going to happen. It was absolutely scuttled by boehners own people. But the fact was, he couldnt get it done. He didnt have the strength or the conviction to, to have a fight about 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 the screwup is the leadership in the house of representatives, 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 anything back to his caucus, they just tore him apart and ate him alive. They would lose their minds. And so then, we realize there is no grand bargain 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 questions 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 take the votes of the Tea Party Members and the tea party freshman class. But it changed the nature of the caucus in fundamental ways. You now had a hard group, hard 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 repuican party didnt understand that by allying themselves with the tea party, they were, in a sense, writing their own death certificate 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 representatives, and theyre not ing to take John Boehners crap sitting down anymore. Gone along just to get along with president obama, like spker boehner. You know, 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 fierce passions across the nation, as allegations of racism and miscarriage of justice tear apart a small florida town. Narrator for obama, once again, the issue of race. Trayvon martin was walking back from a Convenience Store when he was allegedly shot by a neighborhood watch. Police have the gun, theyve got the shooter, but they have not arrested him. The dead mans grieving family wants to know, why not . President obama, as the first africanamerican president , had been very careful t to talk too much about race. It was 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 wal through the neighborhood where his father lives, committing no crime, bothering no one, who is followed, confronted, and ends up in a physical 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 this happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony and intensified the pain i think people felt around this. Africanamericans who had turned out in record numbers for him, who, in some ways, obama owed his presidency to, felt as thoughe wasnt saying enough about race. People were pushing him. Say something. Are you going to say anything . Youre a black man. A 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 clicking narrator finally. Good morning, everybody. Narrator nearly a month after the killing, the president was publicly confronted about it. Can you comment on the Trayvon Martin case, sir . My main message is, is to the parents 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 as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that were going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. All right, thank you. It showed and it underscored the complications, the difficulties of the first black president weighing in on issues of race. That by his very presence, by his very willingness to discuss, he himself was bringing the partisan guns to the fight. And suddenly, an innocuous statement became deeply inflammatory to half of the country. The president had a son, he wouldnt look anything like Trayvon 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 turnout by stoking a feeling of victimization in the africanamerican community. 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 financial 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, running stories that stoked 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 being responsible. Narrator breitbarts comment sections became notorious gathering places for extreme viewpoints. The towel heads are taking over because weve let them. Gayness is a cancer. I mean, it reads like youve walked into a hate Club Gathering of some kind. How stupid are women . Lets find out. They were appealing to the segment of the population that are racist, homophobic, antisemitic really, the wst among us. 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 they were building, ultimately. Think that there was a failure to appreciate the extent to which these online communities were forming, and these online ecosystems were forming. That if you were someone who spent all day in your car listening to Rush Limbaugh and got home and watched glenn beck at night and then opened your Facebook Page and saw a bunch of breitbart links, it didnt really matter to you the New York Times and the Washington Post had said that birtherism wasnt true. Didnt matter how many pinocchios that factcheck 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 business alive, 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 afraid to talk about race lets talk about it, lets see. President obama 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. Narrator 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 an uphill battle. Narrator he was fighting to keep his job. It was a much different president obama out 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 . Narrator a very different barack obama headed out to do battle with the republicans. It was not a campaign about unity. We knew that we had to run a very hardedged Reelection Campaign that posited the president as someone who was battling for the middle class. crowd applauding if i said, the sky was 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 going to have an argument in 2012. Were going to win that argument if we can. And if we win it, we 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 president who has become himself frustrated by the way washington works, no longer quite so believing in the idea that bipartisanship is possible. It was a different message than it was in 2008. It was not a come together message. It was not a hope and change message. It was a stop the other guys message. Its the same agenda that they have been pushing for years. Narrator as obama attacked, republicans 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 saw him as out of touch. He verges on hysterical. Mitt romney has never done a single thing to favor the conservative cause. I swear, every time mitt romney opens his mouth, i have no. I think hes running against me. I dont think that romney was somebody who understood the angst of the American People. He didnt understand what, what, especially the republicans in, throughout the United States, were feeling, how, how disaffected they felt. What does mitt romney 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 an endorsement from the man who put the Birther Movement on the map. audience applauding mitt romney looks completely uncomfortable. Donald trump is totally in his element. Its, in a curious way, its Donald Trumps event, not mitt romneys event. He, you know, he, he commands the stage. Its my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse mitt romney. It was literally one of the most bizarre political scenes id ever seen. And by the way, this is a great couple. Mitt and ann romney were standing up there. And i kept looking at ann romney, who looked like she was using every single bit of energy she had not to start cracking 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 passing of the torch. There are some things that you just cant imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. crowd laughing being in Donald Trumps magnifict hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. Im, im so honored, and. It was a tacit endorsement in the other direction of mitt romney to the kind of rhetoric that donald trump was vociferous in trafficking in around obamas birth certificate the, the perpetrator of a blatantly 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 republican was making plans for the future. Theres serious soulsearching going to happen in the republican part and the. Donald trump went to boston, in fact, to be at the Victory Party that never occurred. He got on his plane, turned around, went 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 this country. tweets narrator it was an opening salvo in a campaign to capture the conservative base. And just six days later, trump signed this trademark application for the phrase make America Great again. Right after romney lost, we had a brief chat. Can hillary 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 reelected. Barack obama wins. Defeating mitt romney following an often nasty. Narrator obamas coalition had prevailed. Another four years for president barack obama. 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 breaks the fever. Narrator to win, obama had energized latino voters. Republican leaders had taken note. Now the president hoped they might be willing to work with him on Immigration Reform. Everybody understood that there was an opening, a political opening, because republicans were ready to come to the conversation. And so 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, and that if you wanted to win the white house, not just congress, you had to appeal to younger voters, latinos, and women. 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 because they sense that somehow 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 confidence back. Today, a Bipartisan Group of senators unveiled a plan that. Now republicans and democrats set to announce a major compromise surrounding immigration. Is one of those issues. Narrator republican senator marco rubio was the face of bipartisan Immigration Reform. speaking spanish the Political Class was sure that Immigration Reform was going to be like falling off a log. Narrator even on fox news, support for the softer immigration approach. And even people like sean hannity went on the air and said, we need to rethink our position on 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 Immigration Reform. I think its getting very tough to win as a republican. Look, theyve lost on immigration. Theyre going to have to do something on immigration. Because, you know, our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. So well see what happens. Mr. Trump, always a pleasure. Thank you very much. Narrar obamas wish in the aftermath of his reelection that the fever would break seemed like it might come true. But there was a new wrinkle. What was interesting is, the fever broke among certain republican elites, right . The problem is, thats not where the Republican Voters were 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 establishment. What were going to do is 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 go hard at kind of this paul ryan philosophy. Narrator bannon and breitbart weaponized immigration against the establishment. We spent a lot more time talking to the 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 threat of an open border is pretty catastrophic. Immigration, to Republican Voters, by a mile, itthe numberone issue, even ahead of tax cuts. This was some of the brilliance 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 so Many Americans has still been so frustrating. So all of this is happening while people have real questions about their own security. Narrator bannon decided it was time was for a show of force, to usimmigration to take down a ntral figure in the republican establishment. And when they looked around, the guy that they thought was most vulnerable was eric cantor, the House Majority leader. Narrator cantor was up for reelection. Tea Party Challenger dave brat was more than 30 points behind in the primary. I. He definitely knew it 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. Narrator they set the agenda for rightwing radio. Youre a coward, eric cantor. You only. Eric cantor, who wants amnesty; paul ryan, who i. Anything that became talking points on consvative radio were coming from breitbart. And you had a transformation where conservative radio hosts werent clicking on drudge report on what to say, they were clicking on breitbart. Narrator it worked. Historymaking upset House Majority leader 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. House majority leader eric cantors defeat is the end of Immigration Reform. I knew that night when i heard. I was talking to my republican. They were, basically, theres no reason for us to talk anymore. This is not going anywhere. You can almost feel the capitol shake. 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 people who vote for them and watch their media hated their guts. Absolutely hated their guts. It was clear that the voter base was throwing out the republican establishments ideas on immigration. Thats what that represented. And it was stunning, it was one of the biggest upsets in the history of american politics. Narrator president obamas advisers understood what it meant. The second that eric cantor is defeated in that primary was the death knell of iigration reform, and also was a signal that the Republican Party was no longer just kind of talking publicly about obamacare and spending, and a little quietly to their base about immigration. This was going to become what the party was about, which is racially or ethnically fueled grievances with immigration at the center. Narrator the divide was widening. But outside 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 way. 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 from the president saying, this is the first time that i cried in the oval office. I mean, he was just bursting into tears throughout the day. He always told me that if something happened to one of his kids, he didnt think he could get out of bed. And here are all these beautiful, young kids who 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 this publicly, because the second i Start Talking about those kidsim just going to be thinking about my kids. The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between 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, and in the words of scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. Narrator for obama, newtown was a test whether a tragedy could bring the country together around another contentious issue gun control. He was so moved by what happened in newtown, and he thought the country was, as well, that this would be a chance to do something that democrats would have loved to have done before, but never thought was possible. Narrator the president wanted gun legislation. But by now, he had become so polarizing, he told Vice President joe biden to take the lead. It was in a context of sorrow, extreme, i mean, anger and frustration about, why cant we do something about this . It was, like, enough is enough is enough. Put together something for me, joe. Nartor biden turned to democratic senator joe manchin and republican senator pat toomey to draft it. 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 strong. 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. Ive had enough of all these people, all their talk. Narrator then, the blowback. Breitbart, talk radio. Always try to hide their agendas behind womennd chilen and most of all victims. They apparently dont believe libertys on the line, ty apparently dont believe the constitution and the 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 use whatever tragedy they can to advance their cause. Their gun, gun laws are going to hurt the, the defense of the innocent. Its got inside job written all over it. Narrator and on the fringes, outrageous conspiracy theories, denying the shooting had actually happened. Sandy hook is a synthetic, mpletely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured. I have no faith in these people, none. You would think now, if ever, that a socalled conservative republican in the senate would have learned the lesson that this president cannot be relied on to follow 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 Second Amendment . I despise these people. And the older i get, the more i despise. Here was a moment where 80 , 90 of americans, i think, would have supported some sort of a reasonable compromise about it. And yet, nothing happened. So, this is where you have the Republican Party held hostage by its base, and american politics held hostage by that Republican Party. Mr. 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 washe mood. It was an emotional setback for the president. It was a huge political setback for the president. 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 firstgrader at sandy hook elementary school. I know 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 this. You know, i think he felt a, a strong sense of responsibility toward that, and his, his disgust was palpable. It came down to politics the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections. So, all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for washington. Thank you very much, everybody. Great president s have been able to forge compromise. President obama was not able to do that. And the reason may well be the implacability of the people sitting on the other side of the table from him. Sometimes, you cant get to yes with someone who wont say anything other than no. Were supposed to believe that if only these background checks were in place, all. Newtown wouldnt have happened, none of this would have happened. There wasnt one part of this bill that would have stopped what happened at that school. Wont you just turn your guns in for my son . 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 the st. Louis suburb of ferguson, missouri. St. Louis county police have taken over the investigation of a shooting by a Ferguson Police officer that left a teenager 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 everywhere. Ferguson became a metaphor for this entire complex of relationshipbetween 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 he attacked him. There are varying eyewitness accounts that dispute that. What is not in dispute is that his body lays on the street where he was shot in the sweltering heat for multiple hours. What do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now what do we 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 clamoring the president remained silent. When ferguson blew, it exploded his inability to grapple straightforwardly with the issue of race. He was contorted and tragically twisted when it came to, um, to ferguson. The difficulty of this situation for barack obama is that it exposes him, again and again and again, to the most inflammatory thing about his presidency, with, you know, the beer summit and skip gates, with Trayvon Martin, and now with ferguson, that he is brought again and again back to this thirdrail issue of the disparities of race in this country. Narrator finally, after five days. Good afternoon, everybody. 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 ourselves to 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 it feels as though both sides end up being disappointed by what he does. Thanks very much, everybody. I was once interviewing obama the white house, and. I asked him a question about race. And his answer was unusually, uh. Guarded. Inconsequential, and, for journalistic purposes, almost useless. Narrator later, as remnick was leaving the interview, obama stopped him in the hallway. He says to me, you got to remember, i am the president of the unitedtates im not the president of black america. Everybody knows who i am, cause they look, they can see me. Im black. But anything i say on race, anything i say on race, i have to be extremely careful and calibrated in what i say. clamoring, horn honking narrator and as the anger in ferguson grew out of control, on television, obama remained careful and calibrated. To those in ferguson, there are ways of channeling your concerns constructively and there are ways of channeling 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 screen, youre seeing young black people saying, were done waiting. Were not putting up with this anymore. We elect a black president , and eight years later, we have this . I remember talking to activists who said, i ved 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 necessarily mean that these issues were going to be addressed. He was really frustrated. And, you know, we would talk. And he would just say, you know, well, cops need to stop shooting unarmed black kids. Like, thats what he thought. But he also recognized and was very disciplined about the fact that he was president of the United States. Narrator the anger transcended ferguson. Online, black lives matter emerged activists connecting, sharing and uploading videos of Police Shootings around the country. shouting, guns 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 could see it. And it forced White Americans to see things that their eyes never would have seen. Black lives matter black lives matter black lives matter narrator across the divide, the blowback. They hate Police Officers. Well, they have strong feelings about. No, they hate them they want them dead. Theyre 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 that. 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. I dontelieve 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. Black lives matter is just a complete fraud. Are you going to riot, loot, roast more 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 polls historic Midterm Election victory, taking control of the senate. Narrator fall 2014. Republicans had captured the senate and now held both houses of congress. A wave of voter frustration has all but washed off the democrats. Republicans beat the democrats in states that were both blue and red, including many states that president obama n. All was lost. It was our darkest moment. We found ourselves alone in the world. Congress had gone in a different direction, and, um, we werent sure 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 going to be opposed by congress, byhe republican majorities in congress, over virtually everything he tried to do. And i think the handwriting was on the wall that his presidency was going to come to an end with really bitter split between the two political parties, like nothing we had ever seen 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. I mean, just the fact that it was six years before he really just said, im going to stop trying. Narrator he would go around the republican congress, go his own way. The president is, is saying, im going to do what im able to do with the tools avaable to me. Im never going to get, from a 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 he was going 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 a landma climatechange deal on his nal trip to china today. Breaking right now, executive action on gun control. Change the lives of millions of undocumented immigrants, but the move bypasses congress. President obama says the keystone xl pipeline project. Narrator obamas actions energized his supporters, but provoked outrage on the other side. He couldnt get anything through congress, true. But the congresspeople represent the american public. What did obama do . I take out my pen and my phone. Thats what he kept saying, 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 executive 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 gets smoked, he calls a press conference, and all, cnn and everybody, New York Times, is he going to listen to what the people are saying, the country going in a different direction, obama going to listen . He gets up there and he goes, okay, guys, heres how it is. Im president of the United States, and youre not. He goes, heres ten executive orders im going to sign immediately. Im sitting there 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 executive action, and this is a very, very dangerous thing. I mean, i think, certainly, he could be impeached. for the love of money playing money, money, money, money money good morning. Good morning. Everybodys saying i should run for president. Let me ask you a question meatloaf, should i run for president . Absolutely now, you would 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 moment. Who would not vote for me . Narrato the reality tv star was making his move. All right, good. A hot hint dont raise your hand. I would 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 hes dynamic, a he knows 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 Donald Trumps growing poll numbers on a list of possible. Donald trumps serious about a run for the white house. Will. Donald trump, who 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 kidding. 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 should. As promised, donald trump speaking now in portsmouth, 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. Looked right in his face, i laughed. phone ringing and then he proceeded to tell me that he had a, a base of operations built in the trump tower. That he had hired roger stone and sam nunberg and corey lewandowski. You had a perfect storm. In almost 40 years in american politics, id never seen the voters in this bad a mood. They were sour, very suspicious of Political Institutions whether its congress, whether its the two parties. Narrator trump had used the Birther Movement, and now seized another hotbutton issue for the conservative base immigration. A top aide, sanunberg, helped him package it. Nunberg had realized that this issue of immigration has real salience with Republican Voters. The problem they had was, they couldnt get trump to stay on topic famously short attention span. And so sam nunberg came up with this idea, essentially a mnemonic device to keep trump focused on the issue of immigration. Nexyear. So, i said, well, why dont we say youre going to build a wall, because its bigger . Youre going to build a wall. And well, like. And youll get mexico to pay for it. Narrator trump took it on the road, testing out different versions of the line. 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 crowd went nuts. If i run, i will tell you, the king of building buildings, the king of building walls, nobody can build them like trump. That i can promise you. crowd cheers and applauds i can promise you that. He said to me, you know what . Im talking about immigration, i feel it. Sam, ts is a movement. This is a movement. They, they get it, they get it. crowd cheering and applauding narrator obama had promised unity, but as trump announced his intention to run, it was clear his candidacy woulbe about exploiting division. applause continues if you look at sarah palin talking to real americans; the 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 been saying on fox and on talk radio and on breitbart for the last sixandahalf yea. When mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending you, theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people thahave lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. When he starts doing the overthetop stuff, and i go, i said, you watch, theyre, theyre going to bite hard, and 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, this 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 backing down from his controversial, some say racist, language. I was waiting for trump to take it back and say, oh, no, no, i didnt mean that mexicos sending rapists; there 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 this guy. 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 aery imperfect instrument, but hes a armorpiercing shell. crowd cheering i tell the guys, hes going to go through this thing like a scythe through grass. Ill tell you what i like about him, he doesnt take any crap from obama. Hes the leader right now of the entire conservative movement in america. Donald trump has changed the entire debate on immigration. He might be blunt, he might be inartful at times, but hes channeling the viewpoint of, i would say, the majority of Republican Voters. on radio i copy, several victims regarding that active shooter. Give me at least four medic units, plus two supervisors. All units responding, 110 calhoun street. We have breaking news. Police and Emergency Responders are on the scene 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, while hundreds of these blackonwhite murders got ignored . He is driven to violence by the fact that he says this. He says that black people are taking over the world. Reverend pinckney was dead, in large measure, because barack obama 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 something that we as a nation must grapple with. Narrator he would head for charleston and the collective grief at the memorial service. He told Valerie Jarrett on the way down, he was thinking about singing amang grace. Well, he mentioned 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. Hed built the speech around this concept of grace. And he said, you know, maybe ill sing Amazing Grace. here was a moment where the nation needed its president. And for one of the first times in the nations history, the presidt was completely prepared to provide 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 a long history of bombs 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 deepen divions that trace back to our nations original sin. The shooting in charleston was a moment for him to, to show the, the fullness of his feelings, of his emotions, and his identification with, with his community. And to speak for them, um, in a way that he probably hadnt done in his presidency. As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, god has visited grace upon us. congregation agreeing for he has allowed us to see where weve been blind. congregation applauding if we can tap that grace, everything can change. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. He paused. And i remember thinking, is he thinking, am i going to sing, or am i not going to sing . Amazing Grace how sweet the sound congregation and organ join in that saved a wretch 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, all the adversity hed faced, 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 grace. congregation responds Depayne Middleton doctor found that grace. Tywanza sanders 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 i never did, because it was, like, hes finally being his complete self in full view of the country. May grace now lead them home. congregation agreeing may god continue to shed his grace on the United States of america. 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 enmity. Henot the man of compassion and empathy that he claims to be. The race is well underway, with a new republican candidate. You know the race for president is underway when 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 event. 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 to 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. Hes, he is doing the kinds of things id wanted to do. He is saying the kinds of things i wanted to say. But i think most important was, his constituency and my constituency are, are one and the same. Being here tonight, supporting 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 against the establishment. The Republican Party better Pay Attention. If you wanted the exact opposite of barack 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 much worse. Hes been a great, great divider. I think 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 it is a mess. Isis is honoring president obama. He is the founder of isis. Hes the founder of isis. He just couldnt believe that the Republican Party would nominate trump. The idea that the american puic would elect twice barack obama, first africanamerican president in history, and then turn around and pick donald trump, who played to racial resentment and anxiety, it just didnt compute for president obama it just didnt make any sense to him. He couldnt imagine it. He looks at me, and he says, you know, what if we were 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 ethnic identity, is just more powerful . We just have to be honest it has been difficult to find agreement over the last seven years. Narrator in his final state of the union address, he said it out loud. Its one of the few regrets of my presidency that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. Along the way, president obama tried to do things that didnt sit well with a chunk of the american electorate. We saw the, the rise of the tea party, you had the Birther Movement. It all became angry. It became this sort of angry stew that dissolved into disagreement and, and worse, division. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise. Or when 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 out 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 acknledged his collapse, his inability to bring his country together. And that was deey disappointing. Narrator he left with a warning. There will be voices urging to fall back into our respective tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who dont look like us or pray like us or vote like we do or share the same background. We cant afford to go down that path. It contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world. Donald trump will be the 45th president of the United States. Narrator tomorrow night, the story continues. Whoa, everyone got this wrong and this is a huge story. Narrator 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. We didnt win an election to bring the country together. 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. Its probably the first time where the country realizes, this is going to get bad. Narrator the conclusion of frontlines epic investigation. A very bitterly divided 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. This entire complex of relationships between black people and police. Hes a very imperfect instrument. Connect to the Frontline Community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app or pbs. Org frontline. Frontline 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, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. And by the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Additional support is provided by the abrams undation, 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 inspires. The heisingsimons 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. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlines, americas great divide is available on amazon prime video. Youre watching pbs. One of my friends said, come on, were gonna go to wendys for shabbat. I said, wendys, shabbat . I couldnt believe this. My name is eva schloss. Im actually a recording. Why dont you ask me a question about auschwitz . Two documentaries about tradition and history, with a 21stcentury twist. Pov shorts making memories