>> well, this is that. this is where it all happened. i mention that? my garage door made history. this is where the big press conference took place. >> i don't even know how to explain 2020. ♪ ♪ ♪ it was a crazy, crazy year. >> bad things happen in philadelphia. >> former president joe biden has become the 46th president of the united states. >> i had no idea of what we would be in for. >> i thought it was -- i thought my friends were messing with me. >> a philadelphia landscaping company has been pressed into the national spotlight >> the entire thing was supposed to be anonymous. >> it put me in shock to see my name on the president's twitter. we probably got thousands of calls. >> you have 950 new messages. >> we had a lot of haters. >> i remember asking, did we make a mistake? there were just way too many trees. here's the other thing, and i think we'll discuss this with the board when we have zoom. >> my name is marie ziravo, i'm 65. i'm the president at four seasons total landscaping in philadelphia. we do grounds maintenance and irrigation, seeding, flowers, snow removal. it's kind of boring. >> i think the most challenging part of starting the business and being in business was being woman-owned. nobody took you serious. you own the property. you have cameras. my other maintenance men, on other properties, they cannot assess. we help them, they help us. if i had $1 for every time i got asked did i have a husband. i have a wonderful husband! he just had his business and i had mine. this is my life. other than my family, this is my entire life. we want to make sure that if we do purchase this, it's meeting our needs, and that we don't now also need another building. i have three boys. michael is the youngest. mike took on the general manager role. i had to let go a little bit, because i want my hands in everything. >> how many people get the chance to go to work every day with their mother? >> the first thing we do is fix everything with food. this is part of our italian culture. >> some days are like, phenomenal. and some days, she can't figure out how to use the printer, and it's frustrating. >> mike! i need some help! we have some days when our horns lock, and he forget some still his boss, but i try not to use that card, because i need him to learn everything that is in my head. >> i started from the very bottom, being a laborer, learning everything to working underneath the supervisor and shadowing him. so i pretty much work from the ground up to where i am now. get it, ground up? other than that, that's not scheduled work, so like -- >> basically, mike and shawn, they run the daily operations. >> i really do depend on my. we are partners with his mother in this business. >> sean and i met when we were in college. i looked up to him as a role model. he was almost like a big brother to me. >> mike and i have been through a lot together, both personally and professionally. we are both in recovery, which is a big thing we have in common. >> if you could do it with somebody else who has the same goals as you do, to become a better person on a daily basis, it makes it easier. >> they're like two old souls. they work together so well. i know they both have the company's best interest at heart. sometimes it takes a little -- i just got to let him be him and back up. he comes around. so is this what people want to hear about in this documentary? >> the race to the white house has been no -- >> confusing -- >> president trump is still leading in that state by about 108,000 votes. >> for days after the election, there was not a clue. it just left everybody worried and stressed. >> philadelphia became kind of ground zero for the election battle. the convention center in the center of town is where all the votes were being counted. crowds started gathering outside. you had trump supporters gathered outside and you had biden supporters. they were facing off against each other across the street. >> people were dressing up as a constitution. people were dressing up as mailboxes. they're holding signs saying, we the people. progressive, conservative america. in one place. literally, these two streets outside with the convention center. trump's legal team composed of -- turned up at the philly convention center -- the account every votes protest just across the street turned up the music really really loud. ♪ ♪ ♪ so you cannot hear a word that pam says, because it's completely overwhelmed by the sound of the music. >> everybody was biting at each other. every post and tweet and instagram you saw, people were arguing. it just was very uneasy. and then, the phone call. >> my phone rang around 8:45 am. i was in a men's bible study and doylestown, pennsylvania. >> hello? >> i did not answer it. then my phone immediately ran again. i excused myself and walk outside. it was a trump staffer. they were asking if we would be amenable to them having a press conference at four seasons total landscaping. i just thought, why not? >> by about 9:45, the deal was sealed. it's just insane. out of all places, it's here. >> we are a landscaping company. we are experts in ground maintenance, irrigation, seeding, planting, not press conferences. sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities. while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. 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[ cheering ] you ready? let's do it. ready. i know you're ready. let's race. boom. ♪ ♪ ♪ introducing the 10g network only from xfinity. suddenly, this tweet comes through from donald trump, the press conference at four seasons philadelphia 11 am. i sprang into action, gathered all my stuff, grabbed bags, made phone calls to the editor. >> i jumped in my car and i go down to the four seasons hotel in downtown philadelphia. >> i think i was at the door with the second tweet came through. four seasons landscaping, philadelphia. my reaction was utter confusion. >> of course it's there! there's landscaping there. oh yeah. it's the four seasons hotel. it's the entrance area with the landscaping. my assumption was that he mushed the keypad somehow and pipe the word landscaping. >> i got a call from the four seasons hotel and he said marie, i've got one question, are they coming to you or are they coming to me? >> trump deletes the second tweet. a third tweet comes in. and it's says, big press conference in philadelphia, four seasons total landscaping. why would the president's lawyers hold a conference that a landscaping company? the story starts with donald trump tweeting that there would be a press conference on saturday morning at the four seasons in philadelphia. no, not the hotel, but the four seasons total landscape. it remains unclear whether the trump campaign booked the whole thing in error or not? >> why did you pick this place? it was just ahead scratcher. this was just the beginning of how surreal this was was. it's not prominent. why was it here? you had more questions than you could possibly have answered. with trump, it was always difficult to get answers about the truth. sometimes, it was because people didn't know the answers. often, it was because they were lying. i spent weeks and weeks interviewing everybody i could. and hitting dead end after dead end after dead end. nobody really knew how they ended up at the landscaping place, in a part of town that is normally not where campaigns host these things. i said i will try to answer what i thought was a simple question. what's the hell happened? and the longer that i dug into it, the crazier it was. >> mistake or not, they held their press conference at the loading dock of the landscaper. here's what it looked like. that is quite an image. projects power. >> obviously, they screwed up. they got the wrong place. they said let's just go with it. >> we are on an industrial strip with a crematorium across the street and an adult video and bookstore up the street. >> there was a level of excitement among our staff that we would be hosting the president's campaign staff here. but that was quickly followed by dread. an obvious screwup in booking, but they all played along and pretended that was the master plan. >> there are two different theories, really. that i had. that other people had as well. one, i thought that maybe they had someone that thought they could book the four seasons hotel. someone on the campaign made the president think that it was a possibility that it would be held there, and that once he tweeted that, they googled around and found that the closest thing called four seasons to the four seasons philadelphia happened to be this landscaping place. the other theory was this of minor screw ups from various people at various levels at the campaign. and somehow through a connection or an accident, they ended up here. >> i met the campaign staff here at about 9:30. it was a pretty quick set up obviously. you saw what was on tv. i'm pretty proud of the space that we were able to curate in such a small amount of time. i mean, it was a landscape construction yard. >> normally, you might have police outside of the perimeter, but it was just private security, and they asked us to put our news organizations down on a clipboard, and they would call us in, and they make it look like it might be exclusive, like we might not all get called in. every time they called a news organization, the 6 to 8 trump supporters would boo. [crowd chanting] >> i think the biggest part for me was seeing giuliani, like, pull up in two black suburbans. i thought i was dreaming. nobody famous has ever been here. it was almost like in slow motion. like him walking into the office. >> i actually wasn't going to come here. and i got a phone call from my son anthony, he said mom. this is bigger than we think. and he sends me a picture while i'm talking to him. and rudy is sitting at my desk, and the plaque in front of my desk says boss lady. i looked at my husband, i said, we better get over there. >> we demand a fair election! i demand you shut the hell up! we demand a fair election! we demand a fair election! >> there was a crowd of people, the biden and trump supporters were there, they were going back and forth with each other. and then the cops showed up and the entire front row was shut down. that's when it kind of got like, very nerve wracking for me. >> it was just overwhelming, so i just looked around, i looked at everybody, i tried to figure out who everybody was. the press conference was about to start. i stood on top of the trailer so i could see. and i just watched. >> in the final weeks, officials told me keeping rudy busy became a full-time job. they had to devise places to send him. specific aides to keep with him. that would make it so he was not running wild, creating whack-a-mole problems for them. >> rudy giuliani is undermining confidence in the american election system. and therefore undermining our national security. >> rudy giuliani was considered to be a great force of law and order. he was one of the heroes of 9/11. >> i think that's part of why it was so disturbing to watch him unravel. and to watch him kind of debase himself in support of this guy who they thought he was better than. >> by the way, do you have any idea that the state department -- >> do you know the lie? >> shut up. you don't know where you're talking about. you don't know what you're talking about, idiot. >> he was kind of a mess, but he was always around. and he was always loyal, and that was the only thing that seem to matter to the president. >> he is a great guy, he knows it's a witch hunt, that's what he knows. >> rudy followed his press coverage very closely. and he was very aware of what's the view of him was in mainstream circles. >> he was nothing but respectful to us when he was here. shook our hands, took pictures with us. greeted all the cops, but i think going on tv -- i don't know if something changes. he once told me my view of my legacy is, quote, fuck it. >> what a beautiful day. thank you. i'm here on behalf of the trump campaign as an attorney for the president, to describe to you the first part of a situation that is extremely, extremely troubling. >> rudy comes out and launches into this speech about how the election was stolen and how there are very grave allegations of fraud. he has witnesses behind him. >> people who have seen alleged fraud, people who will be testifying in lawsuits. he presents this guy darrell brooks. we later learned he's exposed himself to children under age. >> it became clear pretty quickly that nothing was there. there was no revelation. he wasn't exposing a big fraud that took place in philadelphia. the election wasn't stolen. >> while rudy was speaking i was off to the side with mike and murray. we looked at each other, and we are in awe of how long this was going on. >> and i know, i know you won't accept it because of your hateful biases. but see if you can try to think rationally. put some of those ballots and manufactured in advance by the democrat machine of philadelphia. wouldn't be the first time they did it. >> i didn't think anyone took this real serious. >> how can i possibly tell you? there's fraud or no fraud. >> you just said -- >> and somebody says, yells out, do you know they have called the election for biden? who was a called by? oh my goodness. all the networks! wow! all the networks! >> all the networks! when have the networks decided the election? and we're all thinking all the time. networks called the elections all the time. >> you can see this ripple among the crowd of journalists as they try to find out what to do. i am trying to figure out the same thing, do i listen to rudy giuliani or go back to philadelphia, where people will be celebrating the election? then you see people starting to pack up their stuff. >> many of them had to leave. because the primary story wasn't that rudy giuliani was challenging the election results. the story was that biden has just won the presidency. if somebody asked me, where were you when they called the election for joe biden? i'd say well, i was in the parking lot of four seasons total landscaping. >> the president's lawyer left as the news came in that joe biden had been declared the victor. perhaps this is why they chose the industrial estate. they wouldn't be heard or welcome here in downtown philadelphia. [applause] a city in a state which delivered donald trump the white house four years ago, pennsylvania is now the state which pushed joe biden over the line. >> i just thought, sure, we said yeah. and it was going to be over. period. >> we would have done this for either political campaign. we just wanted to be helpful. >> and we just had no idea what we were in for. >> i just see my press conference today, it was at the four seasons, fancy. >> yeah, it sounds fancy. but it was at a landscaping company called four seasons. was that a mistake? [laughs] >> what? no! >> we heard from all different types of media outlets, and people wanting to know more about what happened. >> i got calls from the washington post. >> chicago times. >> new york times. >> usa today. >> yahoo news. >> netflix. >> hulu. >> business insider. >> nbc. >> fox. >> cnn. >> in the bbc. i started seeing that this was going further. and it was going into europe. >> german newspapers, irish newspapers, you name it, they were all calling. >> my emails have not stopped. are you getting emails? >> nonstop. >> are you? >> yeah, it's insane. >> that's why i said yes. otherwise, if i thought it was turning into this, i would have thought twice. >> on the day after the press conference it was nothing but chaos. we couldn't even use the office phone for two weeks. because it just never stopped ringing. >> you couldn't even get a thought process, let alone entered am >> you have 1010 new messages, of which three are urgent. >> [inaudible] i understood that there is a special on bullshit this week. >> hi, do you provide services like dismantling our democracy? >> deleted. >> you are a traitor. >> deleted, new message, 39. >> the things they are saying about us is like amazing. i just can't even believe this. okay guys, wait till you hear this one. there is a big conspiracy theory. we are burning ballots across the street at the crematorium. people's minds, they are just delusional. >> that was one of the hardest parts for me. i never had to deal with that level of hate. i'm talking hundreds and hundreds of emails. i just got, basically saying to go f yourself. we're going to burn down your building. it created a lot of fear of what the future holds for four seasons total landscaping. >> it's frightening, because 28 years could go down the tubes. i remember asking my husband, joe, are we going to survive this? are we going to get out of this in one piece? people don't get it that being in business is not a picnic. i remember them coming to take my car in the middle of the night, bringing a generator home because they shut my electric off because i couldn't cash my checks. i had a tough time borrowing money when i bought this building. i had to put my house up for the bank to give me the mortgage, so i had the shot of losing both places. >> do i want to see something that she built just disappear, or was i going to keep the legacy going? >> trying to operate a business throughout all of this, i don't even know what's word to use to describe this. >> people were taunting us, laughing at us, mocking us. and we needed to figure out a way to let them all know that we were in on the joke and we were laughing too. >> all of the networks! [laughs] >> when you surround yourself with good people, good things happen. i think it started to turn when michael and sean started to run with this on instagram and facebook. and they made a joke out of everything because it was funny to us after. that they picked us, out of everyone in the world, they picked our place. >> if this whole thing blew, up, i would recover from it. i would go and work somewhere else. but a family business that was 28 years in the making might not recover from something like this. and i felt responsible, because these people are my family. >> understanding the joke, and being in on it. it was just like a waterfall of memes that you can make. >> we got put into a corner, and we used our humor to get out of it. >> we were making thousands of people laugh all over the entire -- not only nation, but world. it went from being a majority negative, and getting hate, to then be total opposite overnight. >> they ended up doing this in a rinky drink parking lot, no offensive to landscaping company. the real winner wasn't the campaign, which got to use it for free. it was the total landscaping company which has really come out of this on top. just owning social media over the last month. >> like true entrepreneurs, we wanted to capitalize on this international attention. and sell t-shirts. >> we went from being a landscaper, to selling merchandise. we just started filling orders day and night. >> we have done approximately $1.5 million in sales revenue. that's a lot of t-shirts. we've been getting a lot of fan mail, people have been sending us christmas cards with our zoom background on them. >> can you believe somebody made this? they made us our own lego set. there was a diorama of our company in berlin. that amazed me. but who would want this? >> somebody made a virtual reality four seasons. we had people showing up on our doorstep knocking, asking for t-shirts. we even had one employee that was leaving, and somebody offered them $50 for the stained sweaty t-shirt off their back. we had hundreds of visitors coming in the first couple days following our social media revamp. >> suddenly, we had fans. it was surreal. >> would you look at all of these people out here? it's like every day, this is insane. people have referred to us as a philadelphia landmark. we've had so many families out front. >> we even had two sisters, one lived in bethlehem, pennsylvania. the other in new york city. and they met here with a blanket, and a picnic basket, and had their thanksgiving dinner together here. i really think the four seasons hotel thing was a blessing for us. if our name had been marie's landscaping, none of this would've happened. >> the team at four seasons total landscaping appears to be have taken this in their stride. go online, you can buy a range of make america rake again, and lawn and order merchandise. >> i reached out to the four seasons hotel, my reporting concluded that no one from the trump campaign or any campaign had reached out to the four seasons hotel. about hosting any kind of event. >> i love the narrative that it was a mistake and that they meant to book the four seasons hotel. >> there was no mistake, this is exactly where the press conference was supposed to be. >> they had surveyed some areas along the i-95 corridor, and our site was one of the ones that they determined would be secure with quick access on and off the highway. >> and it was free, that's another important thing. the trump campaign blew through 1. 1 billion dollars they were near broke before the presidential election. they didn't have any money. and that's why it couldn't have been at the four seasons hotel. they would have charged them. >> that's why it was at four season total landscaping. there is your inside track. because they didn't want to do it anywhere else. >> this has given me something the i can't even explain to you. this was not about money at all. this was about our story. >> it's an american underdog story. i think we will able to turn something that appeared to be disastrous for a small business into something positive. >> before the press conference, four seasons total landscaping was struggling. most were living from paycheck to paycheck. going from being a local city landscaping company to now being globally recognized, it's amazing. but we were just honored to be able to give back. being able to help the next person out. we did a toy drive this christmas. me and sean went into the hospital to deliver toys. thank you ladies so much, i really appreciate it. for them to get that joy, that was the best part for me. you know. i'm very proud of myself for that. >> when we get on the zoom, i want you to take over this. we are at the end of the line for me in my career. when i hand those keys over to michael, he's got it. he's proved himself. michael has shown every day how much he has grown as an individual. as a father, as a husband, as a son. >> she's a phenomenal mother. she's always there to support me. it's like always having somebody with their hand on your back, pushing you to greatness. >> for him to step into my shoes and take over my role, i have so much faith in him. i know he can do anything. [applause] >> my distinguished guests, my fellow americans, this is america's day. this is democracy's day. a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve. through a crucible for the ages, america has been tested anew, and america has risen to the challenge. >> the most amazing thing in my life has happened. i am in a super bowl commercial. looks good, guys! success! right place, right time. fiverr gets that. from graphic design, to web development, or even a pr expert for things like, i don't know, booking a press conference, fiverr has the freelancers to get you where you want to be. >> is this the lobby? >> this is not a hotel. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. ♪♪ ♪ it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. ♪♪ inner voice 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networks! >> i remember asking, did we make a mistake? >> we had a lot of haters. >> you have 1000 new messages. >> it created a lot of fear of what the future holds for total landscaping. >> we got put into a corner and we used our humor to get us out of it. >> oh, oh the networks. >> we made a joke out of everything because it was funny to us. >> it is an american underdog story. >> on the morning of november 7th, 2020, then president donald trump sent out a series of tweets announcing that his campaign would be holding a press conference at the four seasons in philadelphia. not the four seasons hotel, but four seasons total landscaping, a family-owned business located in philadelphia, and the national park off of i-95. it became host to one of the most severe moments of the 2020 election, and subject of the four seasons documentary. the documentary of it, christopher stout, the owners -- guys, it's great to have you with us, this was an absolutely incredible documentary. i cried, i laughed, i felt sorry for you, i was rooting for you at the end, and i'm so happy to finally had ability to talk to you. marie, i want to talk to you and see how you're doing with all of this. how is this journey been for you, how is the family doing now? >> everybody is doing great. i will be honest with you, this was the ride of the lifetime. i am at the end of my career, and i am happy that i made the decision i made when we were initially called to hold the press conference here. i never could have imagined that it would have turned out like this. but it has been such a year for us because we have had one thing after another. people have embraced us around the country and around the world. messages we've gotten, i could not be happier. then, to get to a year and have a documentary is -- it's just amazing for us. we are thrilled. >> chris, let's talk about the documentary for a moment. how did you decide on doing a documentary about this? how did you connect with the family? how did you manage to get through to them with all of the thousands of phone calls and messages that they were receiving on any given day? >> obviously, the whole world wanted to know the mystery. why did the president's lawyer hold a press conference with a landscaping company? clearly, this was a big question, the million dollar question that needed to be solved. and yes, outlets from all over the world were reaching out to them. but i actually had an inside track. as it turned out, a friend of mine was brothers with sean middleton, the director of sales at four seasons. i was actually able to get on the phone with them before anyone else did. and when we got on the phone together, i got the sense that every outlet wanted to know, why did this happen? why was the press conference out there? for me, i was a lot more interested in getting to know them as people and seeing how their experience has been, just having their world turned upside down. they were such a fish of water. for me, the conflict called to me as a filmmaker. what the hell happened? >> michael, i want to play for you this clip from the documentary just after the press conference with rudy giuliani, watch this moment. >> that was one of the hardest parts for me, i never had to deal with that level of hate. i am talking hundreds and hundreds of emails i just got, basically saying to go f yourself, we will burn down your building. it created a lot of fear of what the future holds for four seasons total landscaping. >> michael, the future has put out a little bit, tell us if you are still getting messages like that. how do you handle the messages, if at all, that you're receiving now? >> complete opposite messages. they are filled with love and appreciation for the way that we spun this and making it almost comedic -- if anybody ever comes or stops through here, we hand them stickers, t-shirts, wherever we can, because it is crazy to even think that, for us, there are fans. that is the hardest part for me. there are actual fans of a philadelphia-based landscaping company. it's still hard for me to grasp. but i always tell people, if you are in the area, stop through, we will take pictures, we'll do what we can if we have time. i love it. >> christopher, you had such an intimate insight into making the documentary, what's surprised you the most while making the film? >> i think to mike's point, the thing that surprised me the most was this outpouring of love that the four seasons received after the press conference. i mean, they sold $1.5 million worth of t-shirts. that is incredible. you can actually still buy the t-shirts now. people were making christmas cards featuring leave the garage doors in their zoom backgrounds. those two sisters that came to four seasons to have their thanksgiving there -- clearly, this moment resonated with people, and a created just such an outpouring of love. suddenly, four seasons total landscaping meant something to people, and it became this meme that people could actually share with together. it created this online community. >> i'm going to go out on a limb and say that there will be some wedding proposal there at some point. let me ask you really quickly [laughs] marie, because it has become such an iconic location, has any other political party or campaign reached out to you to hold a political event there? if so, what would you say? >> unfortunately, no other political campaign has approached us, but we would have said yes, because knowing where it got us here and all the excitement that we have had, we'd do it again. we would do it again. the outpouring and embracing that we have had, the way people have treated us, the end result, it may not have been business-enhancing but the treatment that we got -- truthfully, everywhere we go, someone knows us. it's exciting, it's really exciting. you work your whole life, and what a way to go out. i'm at the end of my career, and this is just amazing to me that people stop me and say, you look like the girl, the lady from four seasons? i am the lady from four seasons! and it's just funny. it's amazing. >> michael, i know the future of this company is so important to you and your family. we heard christopher there talk about how you turned the bad situation into a positive one with the merchandise. have you given any thought about the future of the company and what you can do, if you even plan on expanding it from beyond just doing landscaping, and now the merchandise, perhaps even becoming an event space one day? >> i think the -- for me is to create more jobs, keep growing to the next level, that was always my plan from prior to all this excitement in the conference. our niche is landscaping, it probably always will be. i will do the same thing that i did the first time around, just take one day at a time, one week at a time and go from there. if something gets put in our opportunity to do something, yeah, i don't see why not. >> well, we will be rooting for you for whatever you decide to do in the future. christopher stout, michael and marie, thank you so much for this absolutely brilliant documentary. up next, how the election fraud narrative pushed by rudy giuliani at four seasons total landscaping became a defining belief among republican voters. the growth of the big lie coming up next. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv (cecily) what's up, einstein? 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>> so the election lies pushed by the trump campaign at force diseases total landscaping, in november 2020, have only kept growing ever since. joining me here to talk about that. one of the produces on four seasons documentary. the washington correspondent for -- msnbc political analyst kimberly atkins. great to have both of you with us. olivia, let's start with that moment there. when you look at that time that rudy giuliani was standing there. peddling the allegations of voter fraud and that the election was stolen. just as the networks were calling the election for joe biden, it almost seemed comical. and you want to laugh at what you were seeing there. but given how this has now resonated among republicans. what does that moment in time mean for what we are as a country? >> one way you could look at it, i wouldn't say a break with reality. when people talk about, they would talk about the wheels being out of the trump white house. i would always say, there were wheels? so four seasons was not a breaking point because things had been insane if the election had been all about conspiracies. for a long time. the administration had been about conspiracies, donald trump's entire political career was about conspiracies. but it was this kind of formal moment where they officially made conspiracies and insanity their strategy going forward. and what followed that was the insurrection. so even though this was this hilariously weird historic event at this landscaping company by mistake, or for planning, it still -- there's a grimness to the whole thing knowing what came after. >> so kimberly to that point. when you look at where the polling is today on this. some poll suggest as much as 60% of republicans believe the election was stolen. they believe the big lie. it's even higher for people who use fox news as their main source of information, or who trust it. i think it's in the low 80s. how do you begin to even counter the big lie? when you have that many people buying into it? >> it's difficult, and to be sure, this was amplified by donald trump and his campaign. but it goes back so much farther. we have to remember that the idea of the big lie, and why it was able to take hold, is because decades, lawmakers, particularly republicans, have used this idea of protecting against fraud, fraud that has never existed, never been proven, in order to make voting more difficult. to pass laws with everything -- from stripping voter's names from polls, from requiring i. d. requirements where we know that it's more difficult for black people, brown people, poor people to get them, and they tend to vote democratic. that's been happening for a long time. you have the stripping of the voting rights act where it happened even more. that was the kindling. where donald trump's big lies was able to set a fire. and really lead to this. so it's a slow build up. and that's why it's so much harder to fight back against now. >> in the months leading up to this fateful day at four seasons total landscaping, the trump campaign was -- trump was throwing out different reasons why he would eventually lose. once it became clear to him, i remember talking to advisers at the white house in the campaign, once he started to accept it was a possibility, which took a really long time, given what the polls said, and how things were going in the country, with the coronavirus, he started to kind of amp things up with spitballing about things that were going wrong, who was taking the election from him, the fact that fraud was forthcoming, basically, to give himself an excuse in the event that he did lose. >> you talk about conspiracy theories. there was this one moment in the documentary, that is very foreshadowing. let me play for you. when marie starts receiving phone calls and messages. one of them was a conspiracy theory, watch. >> the things they are saying about us is like, amazing. i can't even believe this. okay guys, wait till you hear this one. there's a big conspiracy theory -- we are burning ballots across the street at the crematorium. >> kimberly, that seems like a harbinger of the conspiracy theories that we are now inundated with around this election because of moments like that. >> absolutely, when there is no uniform source of information, information sources are diversified. and when so much misinformation is just being fueled into this election and the past several elections. that's what happens. people believe what they want to believe. they believe even farfetched things. as long as it confirms their own biases. and that's where you see the thing run wild. and we see that today people are dug into their are dug into their are dug into their ♪