Transcripts For CNNW CNN Special Report 20200908 : compareme

"fight for the white house: donald trump's presidency." ♪ >> together we will crush the virus. [ applause ] >> reporter: against the backdrop of a global pandemic president trump was making his case for a second term. and from the looks of it, no real concerns about an extremely contagious and deadly virus. >> what the white house was trying to do was say look, we believe that covid's gone and we want you to believe that too. >> you saw donald trump try to sort of put lipstick on a pig last night with regards to the trump administration's response to covid. >> we will defeat the virus and the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever before. [ applause ] >> i have witnessed him make some of the most difficult decisions of his life. >> reporter: but there might have been an accidental clue that this was not the whole story. >> thanks to advances, we have pioneered the fatality rate. >> reporter: pioneered the fatality rate? in fact, president trump and his administration have been pioneers of a mishandled response and flawed leadership. from the very beginning. >> new details on the deadly coronavirus outbreak in china and spreading across the globe. >> reporter: as early as january president trump was warned during more than a dozen daily classified intelligence briefings about the novel coronavirus, according to the "washington post." public health officials were also briefing the president. "washington post" white house reporter and cnn contributor josh dawsey. >> hhs secretary alex azar called to brief the president and they talked about it briefly and the president soon moved the conversation to vaping. and azar later said to others that he was quite frustrated. >> i was in the early meetings in the oval office. >> reporter: former white house counselor kellyanne conway, however, tells a different story. >> he did take it seriously. he banned travel from china in january. >> nobody thought we should do it. zero cases. zero deaths. >> reporter: it was not a full ban on travel from china. tens of thousands of people were allowed to travel to the u.s. even after it was ordered. perhaps more importantly, president trump was publicly dismissing the threat. with cdc efforts to come up with a test botched and no comprehensive effort to identify and isolate the virus nationwide. still the president would continue to point to partial travel bans to argue that he was on the case. cnn's white house correspondent kaitlan collins. >> if you talk to experts, by the time the president put those in place the virus was already circulating inside the united states. >> reporter: all of this was accompanied by a nearly daily barrage of presidential lies. >> we have it totally under control. it's one person. coming in from china. >> we think we have it very well under control. >> the consensus among his own health experts was that we needed to shift to a strategy of trying to limit the number of illnesses and deaths instead of just trying block it from entering the united states. >> reporter: according to "new york times" investigative reporter eric lipton, february was a lost month. >> trump was unwilling to accept that advice. >> it will go away. just stay calm. it will go away. >> reporter: a message at odds with health experts. cases kept increasing and increasing. >> the coronavirus death toll that jumped again today. >> reporter: finally on march 11th, the day tom hanks and his wife, rita wilson, became the first high-profile americans to announce they had tested positive and the nba shut down its season, trump set out to reasure a very nervous nation. >> my fellow americans. >> the president was uncomfortable heading into it. >> reporter: "new york times" white house correspondent and cnn political analyst maggie haberman. >> the president looked unfamiliar with the material as he was reading it. it contained at least three errors. that speech was probably the single most important moment in the u.s. response to the coronavirus but for all the wrong reasons. >> reporter: cnn's abby phillip. >> it really highlighted that the administration was not prepared to deal with the crisis. >> it was an historic day on wall street. >> reporter: the next day the new york stock exchange halted trading for 15 minutes after the s&p 500 fell 7% on its way to a 10% loss in one day. the white house scrambled to try to fix the errors, correcting the omission that the ban trump announced on anything coming from europe actually did not apply to american citizens or legal residents and would not apply to goods. also he was forced to clarify that insurance companies would waive co-payments for coronavirus testing only, not treatments, as he had said. the next day -- >> today i am officially declaring a national emergency. >> reporter: the country had lost two months really to ramp up testing and production of key supplies such as ppe or ventilators. >> he had that at his fingertips. >> reporter: president trump, says presidential historian tim naftali, could have nationalized the response and invoked the defense production act to immediately force companies to manufacture what was needed. >> he had an opportunity with covid-19 to use the enormous power of the presidency in a moment of national crisis. >> reporter: governors were left to fend for their states. >> it was just mass pandemonium. >> reporter: maryland republican governor larry hogan. >> it was a 50-state strategy. some states doing better than others. and really a mad scramble to try to find these things. >> reporter: hogan secretly sourced half a million tests for his state from south korea. >> i asked the president about that at a briefing we had. >> could have saved a lot of money but that's okay. >> go to south korea for -- >> no, i don't think he needed to go to south korea. i think he needed to get a little knowledge would have been helpful. >> he'd been assuring that testing was amazing in the united states and the question was, well, if that's true then why is the governor of maryland having to go to another country? >> reporter: testing was lagging far behind despite the president's spin. >> anybody that wants a test can get a test. that's what the bottom line is. >> reporter: that was a lie. experts agree one of the singular reasons that we still have so many cases and so many deaths is because the u.s. lagged in its ability to identify the virus through testing and isolate it. >> i said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. >> reporter: trump then tried to pressure governors to open up their states and their economies. >> i really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states. >> reporter: what mistakes do yu think have been made by the president? >> allowing some of the groofrnz and mayors to make decisions about whether and when to lock down and how to lock down. also made this more fraught. >> reporter: it was not a health strategy. it was a political strategy. allowing the white house to blame the governors no matter what and accept zero responsibility. this while the president also so the to undermine the nation's leading infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, for telling the truth, including acknowledging the fact that the president's delay in action cost lives. >> obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier you could have saved lives. obviously. no one is going to deny that. >> reporter: the president tried to control the message. something that led to serious communication failures. such as minimizing the risk. >> young people are almost immune to this disease. >> reporter: pushing unproven, potentially dangerous drugs to treat covid-19, such as hydroxychloroquine. >> what do you have to lose? i'll say it again. what do you have to lose? take it. >> reporter: or this jaw-dropping moment. >> i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. one minute. and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning. >> reporter: the president's briefings ended for a while and he let the experts take the lead. he pushed guidelines on social distancing and wearing a mask. and he finally wore a mask himself. the trump administration did eventually invoke the dpa for key supplies such as testing swabs. progress has been made when it comes to treatments. and the trump administration is optimistic about developing a vaccine. >> dr. francis collins, who spent drakds at nih alongside dr. anthony fauci, jake, has said he's never seen vaccine therapies come together so quickly in the way that they are. >> reporter: but the facts sadly speak for themselves. the u.s., with less than 5% of the world's population, has a much higher case count and death count than the rest of the western world. the worst response of any western wealthy nation, according to this data. and it's not even close. and recently the president seems to be back to undermining efforts to save lives, whether it's holding events with seemingly no social distancing or required mask wearing or even mocking joe biden for wearing a mask. again. >> did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? >> reporter: we wanted to ask president trump about all of this and more. but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. >> he views this virus as standing in the way of him being re-elected. >> covid-19 was not of his making, but covid-19 was his opportunity to be a great president. he looked at covid-19 and backed away, not wanting to take a chance. >> reporter: the quality donald trump values perhaps the most. that when we come back. okay, give it a try. between wisdom and curiosity, there's a bridge. between ideas and inspiration, trauma and treatment. gained a couple of more pounds. that's good for the babies. between the moments that make us who we are, and keeping them safe, private and secure, there's webex. ♪ ♪ beautiful. to save you up to 60%. these are all great. and when you get a big deal... ♪ ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. ♪ but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. introducing the future of fitness. it's every class you can imagine, live. welcome back to the mirror. you've got this john. and on demand. it's boxing... cardio... yoga... and more. it's an interactive, goal crushing...whole family...whole body fitness machine. it's so cool! the future of fitness is at home. the mirror. ♪ go go go ♪ go go go go on a real vacation. visit go rving.com or your nearest rv dealer. you know, some of these people have like a 10% loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction they're gone. loyalty. >> good morning. welcome to your new day. it is monday december 19th. >> texas electors sealing the deal for donald trump. >> to make donald trump's victory official today. >> reporter: it was the day trump's win was officially certified by the electoral college. the president-elect was reportedly celebrating with top aides at his private club in palm beach, florida. the conversation turned to whom he should hire. >> they focused on campaign advisers and supporters who had been loyal to him during the 2016 campaign at a time when most republicans were trying to distance themselves from him. >> that dinner's certainly been consistent with everything we've seen from this president. he's been obsessed. >> reporter: obsessed with loyalty. he always has been. here he is in 1980. >> i learned that there were some great loyal people and i've learned that there were some people that could have been more loyal. and those people i've discarded totally. >> reporter: and once donald trump became president, he didn't just look for it. he demanded it. >> it's a tradition that presidents bring a little clique with them, whether it's the boston mafia of john f. kennedy, the georgia mafia of jimmy carter. loyalty is not new in the white house. >> reporter: but trump's brand of loyalty was new. >> the trump people said essentially if we could ever find that you publicly posted something negative about the president, you are very unlikely to get a position. >> i have never heard of that kind of vetting of people for negative comments about the president in their past lives. >> reporter: his early hires were loyalists throughout the campaign and in the early months of the presidency. he did hire a few one-time opponents who have been loyal since. >> thank you, mr. president. >> reporter: including secretary of housing and urban development ben carson. >> our president, donald j. trump, he makes promises and he keeps them. >> reporter: and secretary of energy, former governor rick perry. >> mr. president, i know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one. and you were. >> reporter: but it would not take long for president trump to learn others' loyalty was fleeting. >> i have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the white house. >> reporter: former white house communications director anthony scaramucci was hired six months into trump's presidency to weed out disloyal leakers. >> there were three or four people that were probably the biggest qulaerkz and he wanted them gone. so the loyalty goes one way toward him. >> reporter: this demand for loyalty could be a problem when it seemed to supersede ethics. >> loyalty means you do what i need you to do. even if it's unethical. you work for me. that may be a good strategy if you run a small private business. but it's absolutely unacceptable for a constitutional officer in a republic. >> he immediately tests you to see if you were going to be on his side, if you're going to be his enemy. >> reporter: it was an unfamiliar situation for someone such as andrew mccabe, then acting director of the fbi. he had served four administrations at the fbi for both republican and democratic presidents. zbll as career government servants dedicated first and foremost to the constitution and the ruvell lle of law, those foe not simply going to cede to the president's will. >> does working for president trump ultimately mean you have to agree with him all the time if you want to keep your job? >> yeah, i think that's the case. they're going to do what they think is their job. >> director comey. >> reporter: and that is a very tough decision for people to make. and it's one that will likely bring you great personal pain and sacrifice. and so if you are committed to doing that work you're likely going to run headlong into a conflict with president trump. >> i have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the united states. >> for instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy, but made one decision complying with ethics suggestions from doj and that's it. he's dead to president trump. >> he could run you over with a steamroller at any time. i need you to do things and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. >> reporter: perhaps contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89% of his senior staff, trump's a-team, have left. that's more turnover than all of the past five presidents had in their entire first terms. and one more number. trump has had 40% of his top positions replaced more than onc once. former white house press secretary sean spicer. >> there were some people that weren't qualified but they'd been loyal to the president. >> reporter: and when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against president trump. >> it was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't read briefing reports. >> the only person in the military that mr. trump doesn't think is overrated is colonel sanders. >> reporter: the ultimate betrayal for trump, who resorted to name calling. former national security adviser john bolton, a wacko. former secretary of defense jim mattis, the world's most overrated general. former secretary of state rex tillerson, "dumb as a rock." >> he would turn on them in a really aggressive way, in a way i've never seen or heard of presidents doing before. >> i think turnover is natural in any white house. >> reporter: former trump adviser david urban. >> i think this administration may be more high pressure. more issues that are pressing. >> reporter: a demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win, repealing and replacing obamacare. >> we have so many unbelievable alternatives. much less expensive. >> i think donald trump believed that his iron grip on republican voters would get him all republican votes. >> reporter: two months after the trump inauguration the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. >> the bill is passed and without objection -- >> reporter: and while the bill did make it through the house the senate posed some issues. >> i think that there would have to be fundamentally change. >> reporter: the senate bill was known as skinny repeal going into that vote in july 2017. trump's hopes for success rested with arizona republican senator john mccain. whom trump had attacked for years. >> he's not a war hero. >> 5 1/2 years -- >> he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. >> senator mccain was sick and he was heading out to arizona. i made the suggestion maybe we should go out there and see him on one of these trips that we were making. and the president did not want to do that. >> reporter: in the early hours of july 28th, 2017 mccain arrived to vote. a singular motion that left the senate chamber aghast and the white house reeling. >> no. >> it was incredibly personal. president trump holds on to grudges, and like he wants loyalty he probably will never let that moment go. >> reporter: for the rest of mccain's life and long after his death trump would attack him. >> i was never a fan of john mccain and i never will be. >> reporter: something that trump would do to any republican who turned against him. >> i'm not a fan of mitt romney. >> jeb bush is a puppet to his donors. >> reporter: he has effectively chased many of his critics out of the republican party. >> the president has defied political wisdom in bringing the party along with virtually everything that he has done over four years now since he was a candidate. and he requires that loyalty. >> reporter: loyalty that would carry trump through many issues and crises in his first term. >> we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. >> reporter: from tax reform to judicial appointments to impeachment. >> the only good headline i've ever had in the "washington post." >> reporter: more on those later. but first, when we come back, trump's economy. adventure. to reconnect and be together. and once we did that, we realized his greatest adventure is just 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made a lot of money. i'm going to give if my best. >> i mean, we haven't really seen a whole lot of deals. he's actually frankly been more likely to walk away from deals or threaten to walk away from deals. >> reporter: that's republican congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania, who resigned in 2018 and in 2020 endorsed joe biden for president. >> candidly, and i'm not blaming the president for this, this is congress's fault in some respects, i never thought we should have led off with health care. >> the amendment is not agreed to. >> since that health care piece never really materialized, he was frustrated and that's why he was returning back to his campaign instinct mode. >> we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. >> reporter: the president was determined to strike a deal on tax cuts by the end of his first year in office. >> there's never been tax cuts like what we're talking about. >> this is a tax bill. >> reporter: democrats railed against republicans for rushing a complicated overhaul of the tax system through congress. >> it is about 500 pages, and they want us to vote on this thing in about an hour. an hour. >> reporter: some republicans such as senator jeff flake of arizona worried that a radical tax cut might inflate the national debt. >> at first you were a holdout, one of two key holdouts. what were your concerns? >> i would have felt there was a better option simply to lower the corporate tax and leave individual rates as they were. but mine was not a popular opinion. >> reporter: at the 11th hour senator flake reversed course, siding with president trump. >> in the end as a whole i thought it was a good package. >> reporter: the tax cuts and jobs act, the first major tax overhaul in more than three decades, passed the house, then the senate in late december 2017. the bill promised to slash individual and corporate tax rates, increase wages, and boost business spending. >> these massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. >> reporter: some of that did happen. >> most americans saw a small increase in their take-home pay. some of them ended up with big tax bills at the end of the year. and many americans felt that they just didn't get a tax cut. >> i can think of no better christmas present for the american people. >> reporter: experts say the tax bill was a much bigger present for companies. the corporate tax rate was slashed from 35% to 21%. >> i mean, really what we got in 2017 was a big corporate tax boondoggle. >> reporter: rana faruhar is cnn's global economic analyst. >> he sold this idea that hey, these companies are going to save so much money they're going to bring back investment now from overseas. we're going to see new factories, we're going to see hiring. well, some money did come back. about 700 billion or so. but the majority of it went into share buybacks. when companies go into the market and they buy back their own shares. so it's great for the c suite. it's great for that top 10%. but it doesn't change the story on main street. >> i would respond with a lot of disagreement. >> reporter: white house economic adviser larry kudlow. >> the biggest beneficiaries of that 2017 bill whose centerpiece was the business tax cuts were actually middle-income blue-collar workers, main street folks. they had the largest gains in wages. >> reporter: economists say the bill probably did help lift wage growth for many americans. overall momentum that began under president obama. but the bulk of the tax bill benefit went to the rich. adding to that success, trump supporters say, near-record low unemployment. >> we're in the midst of the longest positive job growth streak in history. >> reporter: and a booming stock market. >> the nasdaq has hit 9,000 for the first time ever. >> reporter: all true for a while. >> there was a period i think if you were to interview the average corporate executive in the united states when they felt more confident in their ability to make investments in the united states. as a result of trump. >> reporter: the dow jones hit more than 100 new highs between the 2016 election and the end of 2019. with the dow peaking at a record of 29,551 points on february 12th, 2020. right before the coronavirus outbreak froze the u.s. >> the president lives and dies by the market. and so anytime there's bad economic news he does whatever he can to try and goose things. and he's done that by tax cuts. he's done it by trying to encourage interest rates to be kept low, purk the fed around that. >> we've accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions. >> reporter: in september of 2018 presidential trump emboldened by america's economic growth and china's slowdown, ramped up his trade war with beijing, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of chinese goods entering the u.s. >> there was a need certainly to right-size the relationship with the united states. but what the president did was he disavowed the strategies that were put forth by trade experts. >> the tariffs are not being paid for by our people. it's being paid for by china. >> no, tariffs are being paid by american consumers who have higher prices on consumer goods that are being essentially taxed as they enter the united states. >> reporter: in retaliation -- >> the chinese put pressure on iowa and nebraska. >> reporter: by placing tariffs on hundreds of american products such as soybeans, hurting american farmers. >> this great dealmaker undermines american farmers by going after the chinese and in the end has to get congress to send financial assistance to farmers. >> i think that the chinese were at certain points ready to come to the table and actually make some changes but oftentimes right when a true deal might have been about to be cut you'd see the president really ramping up that really inflammatory rhetoric. >> it's got all different names. wuhan. kung flu. >> reporter: the president escalated his tariff roulette with china. >> well, it's a tricky business. we're very cross at them about denying the freedoms in hong kong and breaking that long-standing treaty. the president's cross with them with respect to their lack of human rights and the uighur problem. we're holding them accountable. >> reporter: but former national security adviser john bolton says president trump's recent sanctions on chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of uighur muslims in xeen jiang contradicts his previous stance. in his book he alleges during a conversation with xi he said xi should go ahead with building the cops which bolton writes trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. president trump denied that accusation. >> i can't make sense of our policy. we're rhetorically tough on china. we're intermittently tough. >> reporter: richardhaus was director of policy planning for the u.s. state department under president george w. bush. he's now the president of the council on foreign relations. >> but in many areas where we've been missing in action and we sent inconsistent or weak signals. more significantly we didn't join the transpacific partnership. if we had wanted to put pressure on china what better way than to join with all of our asia pacific trading partners? that would have been serious. the president wouldn't do it. >> reporter: trump supporters say the president's foreign policies with china are working. >> there is a widespread belief that many, many reforms need to be made in china in terms of technology transfer, in terms of theft of intellectual property, that this president concessions were able to get with president xi and the chinese by imposing tariffs. the long-term legacy of this president, similar to nixon, will be china. >> reporter: that's a harder case to make during a global health crisis. >> we're already in a recession. in fact, we're already in a depression technically. the numbers are that bad. when you layer the problems of the pandemic on an economy that already had all these structural weaknesses, that doesn't add up to any kind of a good picture. >> reporter: but during his acceptance speech at the republican national convention president trump was painting a rosy picture. >> over the past three months we have gained over 9 million jobs. and that's a record in the history of our country. >> reporter: what the president failed to mention, those gains followed a record 22 million job loss over the previous two months. something else the president didn't cover? the enormous economic toll caused by his bungled pandemic response. >> we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any western major nation. >> reporter: the economy has been president trump's calling card his entire first term. >> goodness. look at those numbers. down 7%. >> reporter: even as the shock waves of the covid crisis hit wall street in march 2020. >> we are going to see a spread of economic stutter stops. >> i do think once we get rid of the virus we'll have a boom economy. >> the covid crash on wall street is officially over. >> reporter: yet even as the virus continues to grip the country it has not stopped the stock market from surging. >> the s&p 500 closed at a record high tuesday for the first time since the pandemic began. >> it is the best time to talk about the economy. folks at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum need to know there's somebody in the oval office that's going to focus on rebuilding the economy. this president's done it once. and he'll do it again if re-elected. >> reporter: yet during the economic downturn the white house is grappling with an eviction crisis facing millions of americans. >> we will make america great again. you've heard that before. >> reporter: up next, the reshaping of the federal judiciary. when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. how long will this last? am i prepared for this? are we prepared for this? with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations, with access to tax-smart investment strategies designed to help you keep more of what you've earned so you'll know you're doing what you can for your family and your future. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. i've always heard, actually, that when you become president the most single most important thing you can do is federal judges. >> the court became an issue. it became a flash-point. republican candidates have run against the supreme court, saying we want to roll back the liberalism of prior years. and donald trump went along for that ride. >> i have some very sad news. united states supreme court justice antonin scalia has died. >> antonin scalia served on the court since 1986, and it looks like president barack obama is going to appoint a new member of the court, which would tip the liberal balance for the first time in years to the liberal side. >> cnn legal analyst joan biskupic. >> but what happens that actual night sets in motion a series of dominos that produce the court we have today. >> reporter: though leading in the polls, trump was still considered a long shot. but he knew the world would be watching later that night. >> donald trump of new york. >> reporter: as the gop presidential debate took center stage. so he called his friend and legal adviser don mcgahn. >> don mcgahn suggests some names that he could mention during the debate. most of them are veteran u.s. appeals court judges who again would be chosen by any republican president as potential candidates. >> a moment of silence for justice antonin scalia. >> reporter: they knew if he could capitalize on this moment and suggest a couple of respectable conservative judges to fill scalia's vacancy it might seal the deal with conservatives. >> we could have a diane sikes where you could have a bill pryor. we have some fantastic people. >> so just to be clear on this, mr. trump, you're okay with the president nominating somebody? >> i think he's going to do it whether i'm okay with it or not. i think it's up to mitch mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. it's called delay, delay, delay. [ cheers and applause ] >> that very first night mitch mcconnell threw up a roadblock that stayed up and frankly even got taller. >> this nomination should not be filled by this lame duck president. >> barack obama had nearly 11 months left on his term. >> thanks, everybody. >> we're going to hold this seat hostage. and mitch mcconnell pulled it off. >> reporter: president obama's nominee, u.s. court of appeals chief judge merrick garland, never got even a single hearing. >> outside adviser to the president for judicial selection leonard leo, the "l.a. times" says you're the man to see if you aspire to the supreme court. >> reporter: leonard leo co-chair of the conservative federalist society joined trump's team. >> he wanted to put out a list of individuals for the u.s. supreme court. >> one of the most important things we'll be doing, whoever the next president is, is naming judges. >> he wanted first someone who was in his words not weak. what that did was it basically said to the american people this is what i, donald trump, stand for. in terms of judicial selection. >> reporter: many felt that judicial selection campaign helped pave trump's path to the white house. with trump now in office and a republican-held congress, the small team of mcgahn, leo, and mcconnell wasted little time. >> today i am nominating judge neil gorsuch. >> reporter: the momentum did not stop there. when moderate republican and long-time jurist anthony kennedy retired in 2018, trump nominated young conservative u.s. appellate court judge brett kavanaugh to try to swing the court even further to the right. but he was not expecting this. >> federal investigators will now be looking into a matter connected with federal judge brett kavanaugh's u.s. supreme court nomination. >> started off rather predictably. but then a woman by the name of christine blasey ford came forward. >> i told leader mcconnell and others that i wouldn't vote to advance his nomination unless we heard from dr. ford. >> i believed he was going to rape me. i tried to yell for help. >> reporter: former arizona senator jeff flake. >> brett kavanaugh, he acted as if i think i would have acted had i felt that i'd been unjustly accused. >> i'm here today to tell the truth. i've never sexually assaulted anyone. >> reporter: down the street at the white house trump fired off a shot of his own. >> this is a big con job. and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing. how they fooled you all. >> reporter: following a week-long investigation that critics of kavanaugh thought was too brief. >> charade. >> sham. >> bullies. >> we'll call the roll. >> reporter: kavanaugh was confirmed to the u.s. supreme court by a two-vote margin. >> the nomination of brett m. kavanaugh is confirmed. >> reporter: another victory for trump. another justice on the bench. >> false charges. false accusations. and he toughed it out. >> reporter: while the supreme court confirmations grabbed the headlines, something else was happening that largely went unnoticed by the public. >> district courts and the circuit courts, you know, it's one of those quiet things that folks across america don't perhaps grasp the gravity. these courts all interpret the laws of our country every day in so many different ways. >> they identified 40-something, you know, conservative judges and they jammed them through the senate with incredible speed. >> reporter: speed and strategy. because mcconnell blocked so many obama nominees, trump inherited 103 vacancies. astoundingly, the president has appointed almost 1/3 of all current appellate court judges. >> much of the law in america is set by the federal courts of appeals. >> that is probably one of the very few things that helps republicans justify why they support him, is that he got the judges they wanted confirmed and put in place. >> reporter: that means controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, health care, immigration, and racial and same-sex discrimination. cases that could very likely be ruled on by trump appointees. largely young white male conservative judges serving lifetime appointments. but perhaps none of those issues will have the global impact such as the rulings we will see dealing with the environment. >> miners, get ready because you're going to be working your asses off. all right? >> reporter: a long-held republican belief. the message was clear. trump was going to roll back environmental regulations that he said hurt businesses. >> i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy and to cancel job-killing regulations. >> it was considered a slap in the face. >> reporter: former epa director betsy sutherland remembers trump signing an executive order to dismantle obama's signature clean power plan. signed at the epa. >> it was absolutely a display of sheer contempt for all the scientists, engineers, and economists that have worked on that rule for years and years. >> reporter: trump's newly appointed epa administrator, scott pruitt, was full steam ahead. >> the war on coal is done. it's over. >> reporter: and >> the united states will withdraw. >> i was surprised we stepped away from the paris climate accord because the president had given every indication he thought it was ridiculous. >> former epa director christine todd whitman. >> it was in sync with his total denial. it's a hoax in his mind. yet everybody can see it. we all see it, the changes in environment. >> warning shots to environmental agencies everywhere. deregulation had arrived. >> i think you can have clean water, clean air, safe skies, but do so in a manner that doesn't strangle business and produce the doom and gloom so many predict. >> every man, woman, child in this country has threatened drinking water, threatened fisheries, threatened air quality and more contaminated land because of this administration. >> donald trump's administration really doesn't want regulators in your life, in my life, in anybody's life. so their philosophy is to diminish regulations. >> trump is banking on voters agreeing with that philosophy when they cast their ballots in november. a philosophy and legacy that could very well be defined by the legacy of the judges he has is appointing. >> i don't think there's any question his greatest success is going to be what he's done in the judiciary. when you appointed over 200 judges at the federal level, that has a lasting legacy that can extend well beyond a generation. >> they're likely to affect the law in the country for our children and grandchildren long after donald trump is gone from this earth. >> coming up, trump's divisive stand on immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. they say carnivorous devourus inhabits these waters. if he's here, this devour white cheddar mac and cheese with bacon will lure him out. ahhhhhhh eat like an animal. devour. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. (peter walsh) people came and they met and they felt comfortable. it's what we did with coogan's. you felt safe and, if you were safe, you could be joyful. everybody has a coogan's. and almost half those small businesses, they could close if people don't do something. we have to keep our communities together. that's how we get through this. ♪ my only job is to take great care of my patients.? i'm empowered to do what's right for you. our digital records mean your medical history is in one place, so i can give you great care. your primary care doctor, your specialists... it's great! we all work together as one team. our integrated approach to health care helps my patients live longer, healthier lives. i don't just practice here, i'm a patient, too. i wouldn't trust my family's health care to anyone else. we are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. >> long before the rally chants during the 2016 campaign -- >> build that wall. build that wall. build that wall. >> -- donald trump believed immigration was the issue that would help land a republican back in the white house. >> they lost on immigration. they're going to have to do something on immigration because you know our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. we'll see what happens. >> what happened three years later? donald trump entered the presidential election in 2015 with a harsh if not blatantly racist stand on illegal immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume are good people. >> it was an unscripted moment, says julie hearst felt davis coauthor of the book border wars. it was so offensive businesses start started dumping trump. nbc discontinued the apprentice. macy's stopped selling his men's wear. >> it was a shock to americans and frankly a lot of republicans. >> but solidifying a base especially energized by the calls to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out. candidate trump also proposed one of the most shockingly bigoted policies modern politics has heard from a major party candidate, stark discrimination based upon religious observance. unconstitutional and hate filled. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> and trump was clear once he got in the white house he would not back down. >> we have defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own. >> he signed this executive order which was a travel ban on these roughly half a dozen muslim majority countries. and the idea was basically to catch people by surprise, to basically create confusion, to create mayhem. >> chaos has of course rippled from washington, d.c. to airports in foreign capitals around the world. today white house press secretary sean spicer was complaining members of the media are unfairly using the term ban to describe the president's action. >> not everyone was on board in different aspects of the roll out, and that makes it challenging to then communicate why you're doing it. >> after many months of revising, they did put in effect stricter vetting procedures for a large number of countries. so i think they saw it as sort of a qualified success. >> what was seen as an uncalled identified failure, the trump administration's family separation policy. >> if you cross the border unlawfully, even a first offense, we're going to prosecute you. if you're smuggling a child, then we're going to prosecute you. and that child will be separated from you probably as required by law. >> a zero tolerance policy enforcing a law that had long been on the books but had not been inforced in a widespread manner. >> children were being held behind chain link fencing on the border of mexico. >> the policy led from thousands of children being separated from their families. nonstop horror stories of children crying for their parents, alone, and scared. >> immigrants aren't welcome here. >> when trump first started to hear the stories, he didn't want to be seen as the monster who would take children away from their parents. >> almost two months after it began, trump ended his own policy, one that his own white house pushed with an executive order. >> ivanka feels very strongly, my wife feels very strongly about it. i feel very strongly about it. >> a lot of trump supporters think that was one of the lower moments of his presidency. >> well, look, i think as a nation we can do far better. we owe people as human beings a better shake than they got. >> in the wake of this chris, trump was looking for a way to turn the page and rally his base as he headed into the midterm elections. >> they marched for miles. thousands of migrants in a massive caravan. >> it was the summer of 2018 and the president's hard line policies alone had failed to prevent undocumented immigrants from coming to the southern border. >> we're getting prepared for the caravan, folks. you don't have to worry about that. they have a lot of rough people in those caravans. >> president trump threatened to yank aid from south american countries. >> how frustrated was it? >> he saw this as potentially fatal for him. >> they want to throw rocks at the military. they fight back. >> he went to barn burn republicans on the caravans. the results was it back fired. the republicans lost the house overwhelmingly. >> the hype and lies about the caravan also fed into a deranged anti-immigrant and anti-semitic view about jews bringing migrants into the u.s.. the man who posted that has been charged with the massacre at the tree of life synagogue. 11 lives were lost. in el paso 20 people were killed and more than two dozen injured by a man whose racist hatred was aimed at immigrants and latinos. president trump's stance on another immigration issue ending daca would threaten the livelihoods of young undocumented immigrants called the dreamers. >> i will immediately terminate president obama's illegal executive order on immigration. >> but after the inauguration he seemed to soften. >> he was getting a lot of private counsel that ending daca would be a total disaster. >> daca is a very, very difficult subject for me. i will tell you. >>s a early as january 9th, 2018, president trump had an opening during a bipartisan white house meeting on immigration. >> we're here today to advance bipartisan immigration reform. >> democratic senator dick durbin was seated right next to the president. >> he was saying things that did not fit into the republican platform when it came to immigration. >> republicans were not going to vote for a bill that simply gave legal status to the dreamers without something in exchange for it. >> i'll take the heat, he says. i'll sign it. send me a bipartisan bill. >> and that's what senator durbin and lindsey graham did when they presented it two days later at the white house, everything changed. >> they get to the point where it comes to talking about haiti and parts of africa, and trump stops the conversation and said, well, why do we want all these people here from "shithole" countries? >> that was the end of meaningful conversation when it came to the immigration problem. >> when it came to the president and immigration, the hard line views would win out. while the dreamers' view is uncertain, so is the zero tolerance policy they thought was done. long time biden supporter chief of staff at the homeland security under trump, he wanted to reinstate the homeland policy. >> he wanted to go further on the policy of ripping children from the parents to show they shouldn't come. >> something he denies. >> i think reasonable americans understand what that is, it's politics and nothing more. >> there is no debate as he approaches the 2020 election, president trump still prioritizes hard line policies on illegal and legal immigration. he's still selling the wall he once said mexicans would pay for. >> we're up to 122 miles. >> only 5 miles of new wall has been built where no wall existed before. the rest is mostly replacement wall. and, no, mexico is not paying for it. it has been paid for, in part, by congress and, in part, by reallocating military funds. ken cuccinelli is acting director of u.s. citizenship and immigration services. >> looking back on it how has president trump delivered on this important pledge of his to his voters? >> he has delivered on that promise. whether it's building hundreds of miles of the wall system that is proven effective where it's been built, that continues at an ever accelerating pace. or whether it is applying our lawes acro laws across the border to a degree of consistency hasn't happened in the past. >> if any president could achieve a real comprehensive immigration solution combining border security and deal with the undocumented immigrants in the u.s., it would be president trump. but he has chosen to focus on the divisions and not a solution. >> he found a way to divide america to appeal to fear and hate and to create images of people coming into this country which were totally untrue and unfair. >> drop the divider goes international when we come back. ♪ ugh! bye, babe. i gotta go. see you! ♪ monitoring patients in hospitals around the world so that doctors and nurses can make sure you feel safe. as new challenges have arisen, we've grown to bring that same safety and support to the place that you want to be most. together. masimo. together in hospital. together at home. for helping restaurants right now. actually, you're really helping actors. it's true. uh, no. this is about restaurants. they've always... without restaurants, we wouldn't even have actors. i'm not sure about that... most actors got started at restaurants, like me. same here! ok, fine. but restaurants give us food... but no actors means no superhero movies. or mobsters... or stupid criminals. so, keep your orders coming to help actors. you're really helping restaurants, and we're partnering with the national restaurant association to lend a hand. a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. from this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. from this day forward it's going to be only america first. >> november 10th, 2016, days after the election, president elect donald trump traveled to the white house. >> momentarily the president elect donald trump will arrive at the white house. >> it's assumed the president and his team will help give their successors a good start. >> try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president elect is successful. >> from the get go, president elect trump was warned by the outgoing president that north korea was going to be a major headache for him. >> and he was agitated about how to handle that, and so you would see him lashing out because of that anxiety. >> breaking news this hour, just hours ago north korea launched another missile. >> north korea's nuclear ambitions are becoming more dangerous by the day. >> the president is at his new jersey club typically when we'd go with the president to his golf club on the weekends, we don't ever see him. they don't hold events unless something big has happened. >> so they invite reporters to in to see the president. he is asked about north korea. >> north korea, let's not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> these were not preplanned remarks and you can kind of see the looks of the faces of people next to him. not just melania trump, but kellyanne conway and the other officials are kind of like -- and i'm not sure even his own staff knew what to say. >> i thought initially it was pursuant to a strategy, and that unlike the obama administration, which after eight years of strategic patience, had left north korea much closer to achieving its objective of deliverable nuclear weapons. what i found when i arrived at the white house was it wasn't part of any strategy at all. it was just the way he felt on the days he made those remarks. >> trump soon upped the ante in his speech at the united nations. >> if forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocketman is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> well, there is something to what was referred to during the nixon era as the mad man theory. you can gain strategic advantage by being seen as kind of a mad man. for them not to know what you're going to do next. >> the folks at foggy bottom who were there for eons prefer to g slow and steadily. >> the idea that president trump has been unpredictable, a lot of long-time diplomats obviously are not a fan of it. >> they take him much more seriously because he does things that others talked about but never do. >> there's no comparing how trump operates to any other president. it is completely disruptive and different than anything you've ever seen before. >> such as in israel. first moving the embassy to jerusalem and thus recognizing it as the capital of israel. >> administration after administration after administration had pledged to do that. we had a president that was able to do that because he was not constrained and bound by the more traditional norms, if you do that, our adversaries are going to be upset. the president said we're going to do it because it's the right thing to do. >> that's an -- not all he was able to do with israel. >> we finalized a peace agreement between israel and the united arab emirates. this is something nobody thought could happen for a long time. >> how important do you think this is? >> the israeli/uae agreement is the first of its kind in 26 years. due to the president's leadership and his patience and vigilance, in changing the dynamic instead of talking about age old conflicts, what he's trying to do is do things other presidents haven't done. >> so the theory goes, might disrupting the status quo work with the unstable north korean dictator? >> what he wanted to do repeatedly was get in a room with kim jong-un and negotiate with him. >> i thought it was a bad idea. >> the meeting was a gift to kim jong-un. it provided him visibility. >> trump and kim not only met three times, but exchanged letters. >> he wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters. we fell in love. >> they got straight into donald trump's brain and he's convinced kim jong-un is his friend. >> there were people in the nationality security apparatus, commentators and former officials who thought everything else has been tried. let's give this a shot. >> there he is on north korean soil. >> we gave north korea 2 1/2 more years to achieve progress in its nuclear and ballistic missile program. >> we'll invite him right now. >> the president yanked the rug out from under our north korea ally but among things unilaterally agreeing to the suspension of u.s./south korean military exercises. >> by some estimates, north korea may have doubled its arsenal during the trump presidency. >> they look at the four years and go not bad at all. >> particularly with the damaged relationship with u.s. allies. >> it upset our allies in the region. >> i don't think it's an exaggeration to say the president gets it upside down or backwards how he treats allies and adversaries. >> justin trudeau, nice guy. but they've taken advantage of us for so many years. >> the european union sounds so nice. they are brutal. >> whether it's bullying or badgering allies or pulling out of strategic partnerships in long-standing trade agreements -- >> we just officially terminated tpp. i withdrew the united states from the horrible one sided disgusting iran nuclear deal. we will be today terminating our relationship with the world health organization. >> even hinting one day he might pull the u.s. out of nato if allies do not pay their fair share. >> what this misses more than anything else, jake, is the great strategic and structural advantage of american foreign policy. we get up every day, and what we have are dozens and dozens of allies and partners in europe, asia and around the world. >> allies president trump has neglected and in some cases abandoned. >> we are going to be leaving and we're going to be bringing our soldiers back home. >> such as u.s. troops in northern syria. >> we're policing. we're not fighting, we're policing. we're not a police force. >> in the face of widespread criticism that he abandoned a reliable u.s. ally, the kurds. >> the president looks out for what's in the best interest of our country. it doesn't mean america alone. the president is thinking of what's in the best interest of our country. >> the president took office in early 2017, and the situation he inherited was daunting. american foreign policy had made mistakes. all of that is true. but before you tear things up, before you disrupt them, you've got to be sure that you have something better. >> and in some cases trump did get something better, such as replacing nafta with a new trade deal between the u.s., canada and mexico. >> the usmca is the largest, fairest, and most modern trade agreement ever achieved. >> even democratic house speaker nancy pelosi agreed. >> there is no question, of course, that trade agreement is much better than nafta. >> and when it comes to nato -- >> we are also getting our allies, finally, to help pay their fair share. >> why did all these presidents, you ask, promise to make the nato countries pay more for the common defense and he's the one, president trump is the one that has $130 billion more from those countries to provide for the common defense? >> it might not have been pretty, it may not have made any friends, but it benefited our country and our workers, so i think there's a balance. >> but it's a balance some worry might swing in the wrong direction. >> president trump, if re-elected, will be one of the most consequential presidents in history. he will have done more than his predecessors to have changed the world and change the united states. my fear is it will be largely for the worst. >> time will tell trump's legacy in the u.s.'s new standing in the world. one issue which continues to leave that in question is russia. trump and putin when we come back. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause 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cnn, russia hackers -- russia infiltrated the democratic national committee computers and john poe de podesta. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. >> his former campaign advisor and longtime friend roger stone hinted he had advance knowledge of the email releases, raising questions for the first time of possible cooperation between trump associates and russia. >> there's no telling what the october surprise may be. >> indeed on october 7th, 2016, the same day another story broke. >> hello, how are you. hi. >> the infamous access hollywood tape of trump in 2005 caught on a hot mic making crude vile comments about women had surfaced. minutes after that news -- >> steady drip of stolen emails being released. >> reports of another bombshell. wikileaks published the emails stolen by russian agents. >> this is the first time we've ever seen anything quite like that. >> there is plenty evidence linking trump allies and moscow. >> the release of an email chain last june between donald trump, jr., and this man. >> during the 2016 campaign, donald trump, jr., jared kushner and others on the trump team met with a russian lawyer at trump tower. >> the russian lawyer was offering dirt on hillary clinton and don junior very famously responded, if it's what you say it is, i love it. it was not, i don't want to know this. >> in addition, the republican chaired senate intelligence senate committee says trump campaign chairman paul manafort was a, quote, grave counter intelligence threat to the united states and had shared inside information with a russian agent. >> during the transition, the president began discussing his first meeting with vladimir putin. and some of his officials around him were concerned, they just interviewed in the election, you don't just go and meet with the russians early in the presidency. >> we wanted to ask president trump about his relationship with president putin, but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. >> then what happened with general flynn was troubling as well. >> just three weeks after entering office, talk of russia intensified when the president fired national security advisor michael flynn. flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about the nature of his contacts with russia, but later claimed he had been pressured into a plea deal by prosecutors. in may 2017, fbi director james comby who was leading the investigation into moscow meddling was fired by president trump. >> he's become more famous than me. >> comey had not seen it coming. >> welcome to donald trump. you know, he changes his mind. >> the president had blind sided his own press secretary at the time, sean spicer. >> relax and enjoy the night. >> we rushed it out. we had no one to back it up. we didn't have a strategy to do it in a way that was effective and it showed. >> all of a sudden, then, bang. now we're wide awake. that made inevitable some kind of independent inquiry. >> an inquiry to consider whether president trump's behavior constituted a possible threat to national security, and whether the president might be secretly working on behalf of moscow and president putin. that sparked the appointment of special counsel robert mueller. >> he said, i've heard you were part of the resistance. >> andrew mccabe replaced jim comey. he said he met with the president the day comey was fired. >> i said to him, i'm not sure what you were referring to, sir. i heard you were one of the people that didn't agree with jim comey. i said, no, sir, that's not true. he was looking for me to adopt his false narrative. >> the president's false narrative that comey was fired for mishandling the hillary clinton email probe. >> we had to consider was he truly fired because the president didn't want us to continue investigating this idea of russian collusion. >> investigators felt confident of that after president trump said this on primetime tv. >> and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. >> it's ridiculous. it's ridiculous. >> a ridiculous probe the president attempted to discredit in an extraordinary moment. >> mr. president, i will give this ball to you and now the ball is in your court. >> it was july 16th, 2018. >> being in helsinki for president trump's press conference with vladimir putin is one thing i will never forget for the rest of my life. when he says that he talked to vladimir putin, that he believed him. >> he just said it's not russia. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> vladimir putin, this former kgb agent, for the president to take his word like that, was so stunning. >> why does he seem to like putin despite the fact putin is the primary enemy of the united states? >> i think the president repeatedly confuses having good personal relationships with foreign leaders, with having good overall bilateral relationships between the two countries. >> trump's public allegiance to president putin, according to former national security advisor john bolton, has led the president to resist intelligence warnings about russia. what it was it like briefing him? >> it was clear he wasn't reading much of the material he was being sent. so i tried to be opportunistic in finding circumstances where i could convey information i felt that he needed, but i don't think that proved very successful. >> i've been in briefings many times when the president is being briefed on everything from domestic issues to national security issues to foreign policy issues. he's a listener. people miss how patient he is. i think that comes from being a deal maker. >> bolton left the white house last september, but the topic of trump's aversion to negative news about russia caused an uproar this year after president ignored russia that put they may have paid bounties to kill american service members in afghanistan. >> it never reached my desk. >> president trump denied it over and over. he said he did not raise the topic with a recent call with president putin. >> did you bring up the issue? >> that's a phone call to discuss other things. that's an issue many people said was fake news. >> although there continues to be disagreement within the intelligence community on this matter, some experts say it is likely very real. >> what's not plausible is that the president was not briefed on this or that of his senior lieutenants, the national security advisor and others. they were clearly briefed on this or they wouldn't have talked about this with the president. i think what this does is once again highlight a pattern of unwillingness to confront russia. >> trump supporters say critics are ignoring the president's military effort to deter russian aggression. >> 750 marines that are now on permanent rotation in norway for the first time since world war ii. the expanded military operations in the arctic, challenging the russians there. the projection of force into poland. >> in certain areas, administration policy is more robust. i applaud. but let's not overlook the bottom line that many areas this administration has essentially given mr. putin way too much of a free hand. here you have a russia that is violating american sovereignty, not with bombs, not with missiles, but through the digital space. >> in january 2019, roger stone was indicted for his dealings with the hacked emails. charged with lying to congress and witness tampering. stone was months later convicted by a federal jury on seven counts. after a nearly two-year investigation, the mueller report was released in april 2019, netting dozens more criminal charges and indictments. >> one of the biggest take aways was just how many of the president's allies got swept up in these probes. >> including former trump campaign chair paul manafort who was convicted on eight counts of financial fraud. >> congratulations. look where you're going. >> and campaign adviser george papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. and mueller found ten potential instances of president trump himself obstructing justice. yet the special counsel could not find prosecutable evidence of conspiracy with russia. >> there's no obstruction, there's no collusion, there's no nothing. >> a false trump mantra. coming up, another white house crisis. >> i'm the first person to ever get impeached and there's no crime. >> and the ripple effects of russia. what if you could have the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪ we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. we see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the next challenge. today, we are translating decades of experience into strategies for the road ahead. we are morgan stanley. monitoring patients in hospitals around the 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impeachment life. >> the impeachment of president trump is now a matter of history, but it was anything but light. >> oh, was it ever a big deal. >> yet this was no watergate. >> i was appalled. >> richard nixon tried to make his defense, i didn't participate in a cover up. that's what got him. >> there is a president waiting -- >> there's no question about the illegal activity. donald trump tried to make this an issue of collusion. >> the president and attorney general bill barr hammered that in an attempt to unravel the mueller report, even though that is not what the special counsel concluded. but then came ukraine, and a now infamous phone call president trump made on july 25th, 2019. >> my phone call was perfecto. it was totally perfect. >> that call ultimately led to his impeachment. >> tonight a white house whistleblower -- >> a whistleblower's report alleged that in a phone call with ukrainian president vladimir wh vladimir, he pressured him to -- with his opponent joe biden. >> the whistleblower got it wrong. >> also pressuring him to look into a bogus conspiracy theory that ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 election. >> it's an honor to be with you. >> the president's request was seen as so plainly an abuse of presidential power by democrats, and a month later the speaker of the house nancy pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry. >> the house will be in order. >> in december 2019, house leaders began impeachment hearings, focused on ukraine, unveiling two charges against president trump, abuse of power and the obstruction of congress. >> speaker pelosi knew that there was no way that donald trump was going to be convicted. no president has ever been convicted because the bar in the senate is so high. >> a string of witnesses testified, many of them foreign service officials and diplomats who corroborated the whistleblower complaint. >> was there a quid pro quo? >> they included gordon sondland, ambassador to the european union. >> the answer is yes. >> she was on the security council before she stepped down. >> she laid out how the president was being driven by conspiracy theories. >> these are harmful even if they're for purely domestic purposes. >> democrats had solid witnesses, but they failed to land the testimony on the quid pro quo question from fiona hill's boss, former national security adviser john bolton. >> that was a big thing. the question was are there enough firsthand witnesses to the president's behavior. >> the yeas are 230. >> a week before christmas, the house impeached president trump on both articles. >> article 1 is adopted. >> it was an historic step. donald trump became the third u.s. president to suffer the same fate after andrew johnson and bill clinton. >> the senate's fair process will draw a sharp contrast with the unfair inquiry that was carried out. >> the senate majority went into this ready to end it almost as soon as it began. >> hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. >> it lasted two weeks. >> donald trump's legal team was very effective. >> you are being asked to remove a duly elected president of the united states and you're being asked to do it in an election year. in an election year. >> the yeas are 49. the nays are 51. >> all but two senate republicans dropped the dramatic vote at the beginning of the trial to call witnesses. it helped pave the way for an acquittal. former national security advisor john bolton who had been criticized by democrats for not testifying willingly in the house impeachment hearings spoke out months later in a scathing tell all that formed the basis of the democrats' impeach case. >> when gordon sondland testified. >> everyone was in the loop. >> i think that's right. some of us were in the loop trying to stop it, however, and mark esper, the defense secretary, mike pompeo, secretary of state and i were trying to get trump to release the security assistance to ukraine. we probably tried eight or ten meetings with the tonight do that. one such conversation i had with him, that was the point where he made the clearest statement that i heard that describes a quid pro quo. >> and you said if you were a republican senator, you would have voted to convict? >> on that basis, yes. >> mr. scott of florida? >> not guilty. >> not guilty. >> on february 5th senators voted 48-52 on the abuse of power charge and 47-53 on obstruction of congress. far below the necessary threshold for removing the president. >> my faith is at the heart of who i am. >> senator mitt romney was the only republican to break ranks and vote to convict on abuse of power. still the president was acquitted. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> the day after the president's acquittal -- >> this is what the end result is. [ applause ] >> he acted like someone who was further emboldened in everything we have seen of him since. >> you can take that home, frame it. >> the president began escalating his attacks against investigators. >> it was dirty cops, leakers and liars. this should never, ever happen to another president, ever. >> no, it was not. it was his own behavior that got him in trouble. he ramped up dismissals, firing lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a national security staffer and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the e.u. both of whom testified against the president in the house impeachment hearing. then president trump began challenging the rule of law to help his convicted friends. >> i'm actually, i guess the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> five days after his acquittal, the president publicly criticized in a barrage of tweets the federal judge who presided over the sentencing of his former adviser roger stone. >> this is unheard of to have a sitting president talking about such matters in such a disparaging light. >> stone had been convicted of seven felony crimes during the russia probe. his sentencing played amid a massive blow up at the justice department. attorney general william barr accused of doing trump's bidding overruling prosecutors for pushing for a lighter sentence of roger stone. >> that's what you did. >> no t. >> roger stone was treated horribly. >> then president trump using the power of his office commuted the sentence of stone altogether. >> he believed the prosecution was righteous and the sentencing was fair. >> stone had just been days away from beginning a 40-month prison term. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you for saving my life. >> it wasn't the first time the president had intervened in the justice system to help a convicted ally. he fired national security advisor michael flynn for lying about his contacts with russia. >> he had not only lied to the fbi agents, but he also lied to the vice president, mike pence. and then, of course, he pleads guilty to precisely that. >> yet months after the president was acquitted by the senate, he reversed course, accusing the fbi of framing flynn. >> they treated him very unfairly as they have many people on this side. >> the fact that mr. flynn could be welcomed back into the president's good graces, he lied to pence's face. >> the justice department under the direction of attorney general barr filed a motion to drop the criminal charges against flynn. >> you had this sort of outside pressure campaign. >> flynn's appeals case is now in the hands of the washington, d.c. circuit court of appeals. john bolton says president trump made a habit of shoving the law aside for political gain. in your book, you talk about obstruction of justice as a way of life. >> right. that's why i discussed what i knew. >> such as bolton alleges another shocking instance of a quid pro quo. this time with china. you say that he asked president xi for help in getting re-elected. >> right, to purchase agricultural products from the farm states whose electoral votes we needed. that happened on a couple of occasions, all of which troubled me greatly. >> trump denied it all, firing off a tweet, bolton is just trying to get even for me firing him like the sick puppy he is. bolton insists he left of his own accord after trying to work for a president he ultimately deemed unfit for office. >> every president takes politics into account in their decision making. the difference is with trump, it crosses a line that i thought was, was never going to happen in american history. >> coming up, how will history judge this president? 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back off, uc. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. rpls, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. lasting remission can start with stelara®. if you've been financially impacted by covid-19, janssen may be able to help. i am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. >> good evening. i'm alice marie johnson. i was once told that the only way i would ever be reunited with my family would be as a corpse. >> reporter: it was an emotional and memorable moment at the republican national convention. >> i'm going to sign it right now. >> johnson was pardoned by president trump, after serving 21 years of a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent, drug trafficking charge. >> six months after president trump granted me a second chance, he signed the first step act into law. it was real justice reform. >> reporter: that moment was an opportunity to showcase an important accomplishment. but also, an effort to get people to forget the many things that president trump has said and done, that have stoked divisions, including racial divisions, in the u.s. such as, on the first monday in june, 2020. >> in some ways, that afternoon shaped up to be one of the more iconic images of the presidency. >> reporter: president trump had spent the weekend watching nonstop news coverage of the protests, following the killing of george floyd by a minneapolis police officer. >> when the protest really got underway, here, in d.c. two nights ago, the president was taken to an underground bunker in the white house. >> the president was so irritated by that reporting because he feared it made him look weak. >> the streets of washington were becoming, in his mind, increasingly embarrassing for him. >> reporter: so, monday morning, president trump crashed vice president pence's weekly coronavirus call with the governors. >> you have to dominate. if you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. they're going to run all over you. you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. >> he used this as some sort of a call to action. >> and if they were not going to dominate, trump would. >> his advisers hatch an idea. there was a fire that started in the basement of st. john's church. >> st. john's church is on fire. >> they decide they will have the president go to this church. >> he came up to the rose garden, and gave this fiery speech. >> in recent days, our nation has been gripped by arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, antifa, and others. >> reporter: in the background, mostly peaceful protestors. they were being forcibly, sometimes violently, removed from nearby lafayette park. >> our initial thinking was that they had moved the protestors from out in front so you could not hear them in the rose garden. >> and you see him leave the white house, surrounded by his aides and military leaders. >> president trump, now, walk across the street. >> gets in front of a church, and he holds up a bible. doesn't pray. doesn't tour the church. it was such a mesmerizing political moment. >> saying like i am on god's side and god is on my side. i am in the right, here. >> i am outraged. >> reporter: few agreed. >> this was a charade. >> this is james mattis, just a little while ago. donald trump is the first president, in my lifetime, who does not try to unite the american people. >> i should not have been there. >> thank you, very much, everybody. going to keep it nice and safe. >> was it worth the blow back, do you think, ultimately? >> i want to go back to what the original intent was. he wanted to go there and take a stand. >> reporter: a stand that would become more and more disconnected from the pain and furor that had grown. announcing the economic comeback and also announcing the need for equal treatment by law enforcement for every american. >> hopefully, george is looking down right now saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country. >> reporter: and then, just hours later, retweeting a post quoting a conservative commentator saying the fact that floyd's been held up as a martyr sickens me. >> instead of trying to lean into wanting to unify the country or bring in a more diverse constituency to his base, he leaned in, in the other direction. >> reporter: and despite polls that showed more and more people believe racial discrimination remains a big problem in the u.s., donald trump went on offense, in a way many found offensive. reminiscent of five years prior, when he said many mexicans were rapists and criminals. >> it's 1:00 in the morning and a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman. >> reporter: not unlike when he refused to condemn all of those marching at the unite the right rally in charlottesville, in 2017. >> very fine people, on both sides. >> reporter: prompting his top economic adviser at the white house, gary cohen, to say, quote, this administration can and must do better and consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups. and now, also, attacking a movement to remove confederate statues. >> they want to demolish our heritage. >> reporter: also, this, at a time when asian-americans are being unfairly attacked because of the coronavirus pandemic. >> kung flu. >> it's hard to believe that there's an american president, who pushes the envelope, at every opportunity, in his use of racist, incendiary, divisive language. he's scaring americans about other americans. >> even retweeting a white nationalist's video of a black man, violently, shoving a white woman. former trump homeland security official, elizabeth newman. >> white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-government, extremist ideas have been growing, for quite some time, in this country. and his divisive rhetoric is fuel on that fire, and it makes us less safe. >> reporter: trump would declare himself the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> i am your president of law and order. >> reporter: he deployed federal officers around the nation. often, in conflict with local law enforcement. especially, in states run by democratic governors. this is obviously a move that has prompted criticism, not just from the nancy pelosis and chuck schumers of the world but from former dhs secretaries. why do this? >> the president has never objected to protestors or demonstrators. the objection is to those who riot, loot, and commit violence. >> in reality, the president thinks that there is an advantage to him highlighting conflicts. showing a force of strength, by law enforcement, against protestors. he believes this is going to help him. >> help him win. president trump has survived and even thrived, by spreading distrust and inciting division, even racism. he has gone, largely, unchecked by his party. >> i love you all. god bless you. >> republicans happy with so many of the policies and afraid of his wrath seemed to almost accept and expect this from president trump. >> the president is not responsible for systemic racism. but he has thrown accelerant on all of the factors in society that have had the potential to explode, for a long time. >> reporter: this is something he and his close advisers dispute, on the record. >> i have never, ever heard that man say anything untoward based on race, in my experience. >> reporter: yet, it seems in stark contrast to a well-established pattern we have all witnessed, throughout his presidency. >> i've known you for a long time. he says things and tweets things that you would never even think about. four congresswomen of color, telling them to go back to their countries, even though they're all american citizens and three are born here. i could go on and on but i won't. he hurts himself when he does things, doesn't he? >> i understand why people feel that way, completely. and i always tease the president, oh, you need to tweet like we need to eat. it's just about better choices. sometimes, i have the kale salad. sometimes, i finish the brownies the kids made. it all balances out. >> but does it? racism is not brownies. white supremacy is not dessert. donald trump is not a private businessman or a reality television star, anymore. he is president of the united states of america. every move he makes, watched and analyzed. every tweet, every speech, every comment matters because words do matter. his words matter. and it will be those words and those deeds that will, ultimately, be the true legacy of president donald j. trump. the following is a cnn special report. he's gone from a young politician with swagger. >> they said we think you should run for the senate. i said i'm not old enough. >> to a young father, suffering great loss. >> my brother looked at me and said she's dead, isn't she? >> he is an irishman with a life story that reads like a greek tragedy. >> how can you experience the worst thing imaginable, twice, in one lifetime? >> his career has been long, and often controversial. >> do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> i do. >> that now has a new twist. >> i think joe biden is a person who should be elected in november. >> a senator. a vice president. finally, his pa

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