Behind the Polarization — Divided States of America Part 2 (full documentary) — FRONTLINE (PBS)

[0:04] there is not a liberal america and a conservative america there is the united states of america it [0:10] was a promise of change to a divided country the president walked in with an expectation that he [0:16] would be able to reach across the aisle but in washington an epic battle you could almost see [0:21] the polarization it was palpable party rose up to say enough is enough and the anger that paved the [0:31] way for a political outsider how stupid are our leaders his nomination was the hostile takeover [0:38] of the republican party i am your voice if you wanted the exact opposite of donald trump it's [0:45] barack obama part two of a special two-part series obama came on the mandate of changing washington [0:53] by his very presence he forced more polarization and gridlock than we had seen the eight years prior [0:59] divided states of america the president-elect of the united states of america donald trump trump we [1:22] saw on election night that face almost welled up with emotion tight grimace bewilderment in the eyes [1:32] that was a different trump i had never seen that trump in all my time covering him sorry to keep [1:38] you waiting complicated business complicated donald trump rode to victory as the ultimate political [1:45] outsider his election capped a revolution inside the republican party let's face it he was larger than [1:53] the republican party in fact his nomination was the hostile takeover of the republican party for years [2:01] he had been watching and waiting he saw this moment he saw that the gop had been breaking up [2:07] and he sees that he had harnessed the anger of an increasingly frustrated segment of the american public [2:14] trump was so unfiltered that he was speaking straight to tens of millions of americans who [2:21] think that they've been betrayed not anger betrayal by both washington and wall street and they were [2:28] looking for someone who who spoke their language and had their passion and wouldn't back down [2:35] donald trump had stepped into a conflict that had been building throughout barack obama's presidency [2:41] to see the two of them in the oval office was kind of the you know the final moment of how in the [2:49] world did this happen and what have we just gone through during the obama years clashes over politics [2:56] race and the economy revealed deep divisions that gave rise to a political insurgency country [3:30] it'll be a fierce battle for control in the house and the senate closely watched midterm elections in years [3:36] the first clear sign of the insurgency to come was in november 2010 you can't understand what [3:43] happened with this divide without understanding the 2010 elections because that's the whole deal [3:49] an historic election for the republican the democrats and the president suffered an historic defeat [3:54] and had lost control of congress and a whole new day in washington a major victory well it was [4:00] obviously a sobering outcome the midterm he was very unhappy and sad about the loss we had a meeting [4:10] at the white house and the president began by saying we got our butts kicked and there's no doubt about it [4:17] now the republicans back in power in the house of representatives that is a very unhappy electorate [4:23] many of the new republicans had run on a pledge to oppose the president and enact a conservative agenda [4:29] once you change power on the capitol hill it changes how the other side of pennsylvania deals with [4:34] it who are the players what's possible whether they want to get anything done whether they even want [4:40] to work with you the president called the election a shellacking but he could not know just how [4:47] consequential the loss would be you know some election nights are more fun than others some are [4:54] exhilarating some are humbling it's clearly one of the most critical moments in the obama presidency [5:01] because it says we're now solidifying and accelerating this polarization this division [5:08] between the parties just two years before barack obama had arrived on a promise that he could unify [5:17] the country and transform washington we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states [5:26] we are and always will be the united states of america but in his first year he faced unexpected [5:33] populist anger from what was called the tea party you want to kill my grandparents you come through [5:39] me first government run amok healthcare reform rammed it down america's throat wall street bailouts [5:44] devastated by losses and mortgage and obama himself about being able to call half the country racist [5:49] what's that going to do for your fundraiser he came into office with a very naive view of politics [5:54] and very quickly um was was re-educated so how's that hopey changey thing working out for you his biggest [6:04] misunderstanding about american politics was that it wasn't polarized afro leninism but for the republican [6:13] establishment the polarization was an opportunity a lot of the angry citizens across america they saw that [6:21] the democratic majority along with the president were going in a direction where i don't think [6:27] people thought they would go no it was an anger that gave the gop an historic midterm victory [6:36] and set the stage for an insurgency inside the republican party here your congress new strategy day one [6:44] in congress sworn in the 112 congress do you solemnly swear that you will support the tea party class of 87 [6:52] new republicans came to the capitol armed with revolutionary fervor so help you guys congratulations [6:59] they arrived determined to transform the american government and their own party i think all 87 came [7:08] here with the idea to change washington there was a tremendous amount of energy when we first got here [7:15] they came into office with the sounds of the tea parties the concerns of the tea parties the reaction to [7:20] obama's massive overspending and a rejection of eight years of bush not just the cost of wars and [7:27] occupation but the complete disregard of cost of government as an issue public consent this was not [7:34] an election about but to change washington the insurgent freshmen would first have to deal with their [7:39] own leader the consummate political insider the new speaker of the house john boehner i now pass this gavel [7:47] and the sacred trust that goes with it to the new speaker god bless you speaker boehner he is a career [7:57] politician ohioan hardscrabble upbringing arrived in 1990 was part of the gang that went after the [8:07] democrats over the bank scandals rose to power became a deal maker boehner had spent 10 terms in congress [8:17] working his way up the leadership ladder john boehner regards himself as an institutionalist a guy who [8:22] really loves reveres even the house of representatives i'll be working i didn't need to be speaker because [8:28] i needed a fancy title or a big office i wanted to be speaker so i could lead an effort to deal with [8:33] the serious issues that are facing our country now boehner would have to deal with the insurgents who [8:39] came to washington to take on the establishment he embodied i don't think he knew what had fallen into [8:46] his lap i don't think he recognized that this was going to be such a hard ride house republicans of [8:53] the 112th congress plotted strategy a week after they were sworn in boehner and the house republicans [9:00] headed to a private retreat in baltimore to talk about getting back to the two and a half days they [9:05] came together to bond and build a strategy the star attraction in baltimore was not john boehner [9:13] but his heir apparent and political rival eric canter well canter is more in tune with the [9:19] newer republican party than john boehner he's a very ambitious politician a skilled operator and an [9:27] operator and somebody whose ambitions to be speaker or to be the republican leader [9:34] have been evident from the start canter told the tea party class that they had been sent to washington [9:40] to reign in the president the president his team totally disregarded half the country if not more [9:48] when he did things like health care reform strictly on a partisan basis these are things are too big [9:54] to be done with just one party so we need a check and balance uh on this president and that's why the [10:01] republicans i believe we were elected into majority in 2010. at the baltimore retreat canter outlined a [10:09] strategy for playing hardball with the president canter talked about these leverage options they [10:15] had shutting down the government or cutting off funding for this or that and it aroused all this [10:21] excitement inside the republican base they started to think these things could actually happen [10:26] canter left baltimore after telling the freshmen that one of their first jobs would be to get behind [10:33] a tough new budget that would radically change the size and scope of the american government a manifesto [10:40] that would return the country to eisenhower level era levels of government spending i mean it's an [10:49] incredibly austere document it was written by canter's friend congressman paul ryan and was called [10:57] the ryan budget the nation's fiscal trajectory is simply not it was designed to take on the government's [11:03] debt lowering taxes repealing obama's health care law even the privatization of medicare [11:11] well paul ryan's a very talented person from a budget perspective and a number crunching perspective [11:17] he gets it he built a budget that was the best way to bring some of that fiscal sanity back in [11:24] washington ryan is no doubt an upcoming star particularly i mean this guy on the budget backing [11:30] ryan and the tea party class a chorus of voices on conservative talk radio and websites his proposal [11:36] has a chance of saving our country angry at washington and looking for a fight going to be a hundred years [11:42] of darkness that follows us if we don't win this battle today it was an important test for obama [11:49] would he compromise or stand his ground clearly threatened by him just as they are threatened by [11:55] sarah palin to the others they had this idea that they'd give the speech a powerful full-throated [12:00] defense of of his view of the fiscal situation president obama will share his plan he decided to [12:06] push back drafting an aggressive speech that would take on the ryan budget the decision was made that [12:12] we had to frame this in a very aggressive way about what we wanted and what the president believed in [12:18] president obama will talk about his plans to reduce the national debt during a speech but as the white [12:23] house staff gathered washington's a-list they made an error they accidentally invited paul ryan [12:30] and gave him a front row seat they had done what you normally do on one of these speeches is they [12:36] invited the congressional leaders and somehow it didn't filter up to the top who just was who [12:43] was going to be there obama's chief of staff bill daly was one of the first to notice when i saw him in [12:50] the room i thought oh my god so in paul ryan's mind and he told me this he goes to the [12:56] george washington university speech thinking maybe this is the moment where after we've laid [13:02] out our negotiating positions we start to come together a little bit that's what he thinks he's [13:08] stepping into it daly tried to warn the president but it was too late obama you know with the lights [13:17] in his eyes they say unable to see who's directly in front of him just launches into a blistering [13:23] condemnation of the republican budget and how this is you know a very small and painful vision of a [13:30] country's shrinking there's nothing serious or courageous about this plan that claims to reduce [13:35] the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires [13:39] that's not a vision of the america i know it was an astonishing swipe at a congressman who happened [13:45] to be sitting right there in the audience and worst of all this is a vision that says even though [13:50] americans can't afford to invest in education even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment [13:55] on medicare and medicaid we can somehow afford more than one trillion dollars in new tax breaks [14:01] for the wealthy i mean jesus it was it was heavy he didn't use ryan's name he just made fun of anyone [14:09] who could propose anything like what he had read recently as a proposal presented to the house [14:15] republican leadership that did this to old people and on and on it was it was tough and it was nasty [14:25] paul ryan gets up after it's all over and he makes a quick exit the president's top economic advisor [14:32] gene sperling ran after ryan sperling jumped up like he'd been sitting in an electric chair rushed out to [14:39] to mollify him all i was trying to do was to let him know that uh that that we did not know they were [14:47] coming his response was that uh he felt the president had poisoned the well the president [14:53] took to task in his remarks yesterday ryan was deeply offended by having been put into that position [15:00] and his republican friends were even more angry president obama last to call ryan's budget that [15:05] was a personal slap primo the republicans were outraged furious that the president was so partisan [15:12] that afternoon ryan and cantor went on the offensive what we got was a speech that was excessively [15:18] partisan dramatically inaccurate and hopelessly inadequate to addressing our country's pressing [15:27] physical challenges the only concrete proposal that he proposed was raising taxes and that solution [15:37] falls far short of dealing with the kind of crisis that we're facing as far as the debt's concerned in [15:43] this country we are teetering on the brink of utter economic destruction just months into the new [15:50] republican congress the battle with the president was only growing they are enslaving future generations [15:56] to massive debt massive government in new york city a political outsider was watching and listening [16:04] this election was about defeating obama it was about stopping obama it was about stopping the democrats it [16:10] was not donald trump saw a vacuum in which he could step into and have some kind of influence trump saw [16:16] an opportunity obama's hell-bent on weakening america and he has told us the real estate developer and [16:23] reality tv star was looking for a way to raise his political profile why won't they release the person [16:29] what is the logic why don't they just release and get it over with we don't have to talk about it [16:33] in fact i'm tired trump saw an opening in a conspiracy theory surrounding obama's birthplace [16:38] the impression is that we have given the keys of the kingdom to a stranger and that's why these myths [16:44] donald trump realized that this issue which had been lurking in the shadows of american politics [16:48] basically ignored and mocked by the mainstream press resonated with a certain kind of voter out there [16:54] back to this birther business for just a second obama is an unknown man may not be a citizen [17:00] surrounded by radical surrounded by terrorists why president obama would have spent two million [17:05] dollars to not show his birth certificate mr president if you have nothing to hide [17:11] why are you hiding everything trump understands among republicans there's a very substantial majority [17:16] who have questions about obama's origins and how he just pops up out of nowhere to become a national [17:22] figure and whether he was in fact eligible to serve as president [17:26] in cities and towns across america the issue struck a chord establishment republicans had tried to [17:58] avoid the birther issue but the questions were growing on the internet he wanted to produce a birth [18:04] certificate don't you love that obviously if there's something there that the president doesn't [18:08] want people to see on that birth certificate trump seized the issue as he sat up in trump tower [18:15] watching and trump who comes out of the new york tabloid wars saw that the republican party [18:20] wasn't countering obama with really tabloid fervor more than 40 percent of the population still [18:28] question whether he's actually an american or not was a universe in which there was already this [18:33] reservoir of skepticism and trump walked in and just dropped a match into it please welcome my friend [18:42] now i'll drop him he made himself the face of the birther movement why doesn't he show his birth [18:48] certificate i i think he's probably because i have to and everybody else has to would be i'm sure [18:53] why would you show excuse me why no excuse me i really believe there's a birth certificate why [19:00] look she's smiling why doesn't he show his birth certificate when he was becoming the leader of the [19:06] birther movement i think he understood who he was speaking to it was the archie bunkers who were [19:12] uncomfortable with an african-american president i've never heard any white president asked to be [19:18] shown the birth certificate when you become a president you are not allowed to be a president [19:23] if you're not born in this country he may not have been born in this country to obama the birther [19:27] movement was about more than where he was born it made it easy for people who had ideas that someone [19:34] like him didn't belong in the white house to make the short leap over to the idea that this person [19:41] wasn't even an american and some people might say he's not american figuratively and all of a sudden [19:48] people say he's not an american literally it remained a problem he couldn't ignore the president [19:54] thought well let's just deal with it as mounting numbers of people were beginning to wonder well [19:59] is it true is he actually not born here the president just said all right let's put this to rest and he's [20:05] arranged to go get the long form birth certificate another political story making news this morning [20:11] donald trump's growing but donald trump didn't know what obama was about to do he was in new [20:18] hampshire for what looked like the beginning of a presidential campaign as promised donald trump [20:23] speaking now in portsmouth new hampshire let's listen you ready you get ready whenever you're [20:28] ready i'm okay trump's press conference was carried live on national television but president obama [20:35] upstaged him okay we're gonna leave new hampshire and go to washington in the white house where [20:40] president obama is speaking uh as many of you have been briefed uh we provided additional information [20:46] today about uh the site of my birth this thing obama had released his birth certificate yes in fact i was [20:55] born in hawaii august 4th 1961 in kapilani hospital in some ways it felt that all of black america had just [21:02] been racially profiled and people were saying if this can happen to him the most powerful person [21:08] in the world what exactly can happen to us what are the the boundaries of what can happen to us we're [21:17] talking about the white house correspondence dinner tonight it's an annual event right here in washington [21:21] obama joins the reporters who cover him at the annual white for good measure the president went even [21:26] further my fellow americans at the white house correspondent's dinner mahalo he ridiculed trump [21:38] and the controversy donald trump is here tonight no one is happier no one is prouder to put this birth [21:50] certificate matter to rest than the donald and that's because he can finally get back to focusing [21:58] on the issues that matter like did we fake the moon landing he engaged in what african americans would [22:08] call the game of the dozens ritual insult that people go except this is all one-sided and you can [22:15] see the humiliation being returned you know and trump looking increasingly uncomfortable what really [22:21] happened in roswell and where are biggie and tupac all kidding aside obviously we all know about [22:35] your credentials and breadth of experience um donald dreads humiliation and he dreads shame [22:44] in an episode so in the case of the president ridiculing him i think this was intolerable for [22:51] donald trump god bless you and may god bless the united states of america the president hoped he'd [22:57] finally put the birther issue and donald trump behind him the debt showdown so many that spring in [23:10] washington the president had a more pressing problem the nation is on the brink of fiscal crisis time's [23:16] ticking on america's debt ceiling eric kantor and the republicans were making good on their plans to [23:21] threaten the white house with leverage points on how or even whether to raise the debt ceiling [23:27] but eric kantor appealed to the most militant feelings in the caucus canter proposes that they [23:34] do something which had not been done before which is to use the debt ceiling vote for maximum leverage [23:40] um and uh threatened to uh throw the country into default canter told the insurgents that they could [23:48] stop the government from borrowing to pay its bills they were ready for the fight we all saw the debt [23:56] ceiling as the the best lever we had to make some changes to deal with the spending problem to deal with [24:02] the big government problem we do not need to raise the debt ceiling there is no crisis so we draw a line in [24:08] the sand this is our waterloo at the white house treasury secretary timothy geithner warned the [24:14] president failure to raise the debt ceiling would leave the country unable to pay its bills and trigger [24:21] a global financial crisis i was really was really terrified you know we made trillions and trillions [24:27] of dollars of commitments to try to hold things together not just the united states but around the [24:31] world and that that foundation rested on in some sense our ability to borrow and and that was what was at [24:38] stake and i think i felt that the consequences that we lost that ability would have been [24:45] existential much worse in many ways than what we faced in the fall of weight this is stimulus all [24:50] over again it's just tarp all over again this is the same lie repeated over and over again the same [24:56] attempt to make you think your country is coming to a screeching halt and is ending unless with time [25:02] running out the president decided to act he'd reach out directly to canter's boss the ultimate insider [25:10] the speaker of the house john boehner he knew boehner was a golfer so he arranged a get to know you game [25:18] before the golf match started i told the president i said mr president this is about golf not about [25:24] anything else and he and i were partners so we played well and we won and afterward they go back to [25:31] the clubhouse they're having a drink and it's at that point when boehner says to the president hey [25:35] you know on this debt ceiling stuff we ought to do something big but i suggested the president [25:42] you know why don't we have a conversation and he agreed obama and boehner met in secret the speaker [25:50] entered the white house through a side entrance well that was boehner's decision not ours obviously [25:57] it's not every day that the speaker comes to see the president quietly and says i'm willing to do [26:03] a deal that everybody knows is going to be dangerous for him politically boehner kept canter and the [26:09] republican insurgents in the dark he's keeping it as a secret from eric canter he knows how risky this [26:17] is uh boehner kept telling obama i'm taking a giant risk you know we're risking the speakership [26:23] because of this the president and the speaker one-on-one trying to reinvent the size and cost of [26:31] government boehner calls these the nicorettes and merlot sessions as boehner says that the president's [26:40] having iced tea and chewing a nicorette and boehner's having a glass of merlot red wine and smoking a [26:48] cigarette they put together the outlines of a deal what would be called the grand bargain obama would [26:56] agree to entitlement cuts boehner would consent to the unthinkable for a republican raising tax revenues [27:05] well it was very dangerous but it was became clear to me that the president wasn't going to deal [27:11] with the spending problem without having a conversation about revenues we always believed [27:17] that through tax reform there were lower rates for everyone so i felt comfortable putting a revenue on [27:23] the table as a way of trying to get the president uh to be serious about the spending problem that we [27:29] have after a few weeks both of them thought they had a deal there was a lot of excitement in the [27:37] oval office it was clear that we had an agreement that there was 800 billion dollars in revenues [27:44] more than that in reductions and reforms on the spending side and there there in effect was an [27:51] agreement when the president came out he said i want this done and everybody scurried to move into [27:59] action and he looked at us and he said get this deal done um and there we went [28:07] but as they worked out the details a surprise a group of republicans and democrats in the senate [28:14] had their own outline of a plan one that might even generate more tax revenue it was hard for [28:20] the president to resist obama went back to boehner and said look things have changed there's this other [28:26] plan out here i can't cut the deal that i thought i could cut before i need 400 billion more dollars [28:32] to sign on the dotted line and i told the president said mr president we had an agreement an agreement [28:37] on sunday uh and you know if if i make an agreement with someone i've got to live up to the agreement [28:44] that i made but uh he wanted more revenue wanted more revenue still boehner wanted the grand bargain [28:53] badly enough that he actually considered the president's request boehner had gotten this far [28:58] and he thought okay what can we offer to obama and he was starting to think through how to do his [29:05] own counter proposal to get the deal done boehner needed canter's help but canter couldn't believe [29:13] what boehner was thinking about doing canter gets paul ryan and other people together and they say my [29:20] god we've got a runaway speaker how do we get control of him i said the president's come back now with [29:26] even more revenues i said i know that my sense being the whip being trying to be close to where [29:32] the members are they're not going to be for tax increases if we can't get a transformative deal [29:37] and i was totally supported in that conversation jeb hensling paul ryan and others at the time [29:44] he confronted the speaker i went to the speaker and i said look we can't do this [29:49] we can't do it at the increased revenue number we can't do it at the lower revenue number from [29:56] canter's perspective he's now trying to walk boehner off a cliff he's saying you want this deal so [30:01] badly that what you are thinking about doing will destroy you and will destroy the caucus and i won't [30:08] let you do it the president didn't know what was going on he calls boehner that night and he leaves [30:16] a voicemail boehner doesn't think so the president he said to get back to me tonight john the president [30:21] didn't hear i think he called me around 10 o'clock 10 30 and said have you heard anything i said no i tried [30:26] to reach the speaker and i had his cell phone and he didn't answer which was very unlike him [30:31] because he always answered his cell phone i reported that i hadn't heard back from him yet [30:37] so we were you know there was trying to figure out what the hell was going on here eventually [30:44] boehner returned the president's phone call in the oval office when the president's on that phone call [30:50] rob neighbors the head of congressional relations sees the president is so angry neighbors worries [30:58] that he's going to break the phone receiver boehner put it quite succinctly he said that the president [31:04] was angry and so angry and so hot he was spewing coals outraged obama immediately called a press [31:14] conference i just got a call about a half hour ago from speaker boehner it is hard to understand why [31:25] speaker boehner would walk away from this kind of deal and frankly i think that you know one of the [31:30] questions that the republican party is going to have to ask itself is can they say yes to anything [31:36] can they say yes to anything that moment more than anything else and the anger that obama demonstrated [31:45] when he came out to speak about it something very unusual for obama visceral anger was a pivoted point [31:54] in terms of the president's understanding about what he could do with congress now let me just say what [32:02] i said several weeks ago then it was boehner's turn dealing with the white house is like dealing [32:06] with a bowl of jello the white house moved the goal post there was an agreement on some additional [32:13] revenues until yesterday when the president demanded 400 billion dollars more which was going to be [32:21] nothing more than a tax increase on the american people obama is knowingly and happily driving this [32:27] nation into bankruptcy a real debt limit seems to me to be exactly what we need a country [32:33] literally could be lost just two days before the deadline the senate stepped in working out a [32:39] stopgap deal to diffuse the debt ceiling crisis avoiding a default but pushing the country's fiscal [32:45] problems down the road and deepening the political polarization there was no grand bargain it was a [32:53] realization that the environment had changed dramatically that it was beyond personalities that we had created a [33:00] monster and this monster was virtually out of control and running the country in large measure we can't afford [33:06] to have obama's very radical agenda we are not stronger we are not freer since the regime took over [33:13] he must be defeated he must be driven out of washington if you talk to people at the time [33:18] and in the aftermath of that they say that that period in august of 2011 was as low a point in his [33:25] presidency as he had barack obama had promised to change washington but the dysfunction had only grown [33:34] barack obama is trying to dismantle the american dream there's no other way to put this and the [33:39] hope of many that he could bridge the country's racial divide was about to be tested after police [33:48] department lines being recorded this guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something [33:54] okay and this guy is he white black or hispanic he looks black the caller was george zimmerman he [34:01] had spotted a 17-year-old african-american high school student near his home they always get away [34:11] are you following him yeah okay we don't need you to do that that student trayvon martin do you need [34:18] police fire medical if someone's screaming outside all right what is your just there's gunshots you just [34:24] how many this one he was shot and killed by zimmerman trayvon martin was walking back from a [34:33] convenience store when he was allegedly shot by a neighborhood watch captain police have the gun [34:38] they've got the shooter to some the shooting suggested that race may have played a role [34:45] trayvon martin's only sin was his skin color and that had he been a white kid in a hoodie trying to [34:50] walk home that night no one would have confronted him or bothered him and i think that that is the [34:57] why trayvon martin becomes such a pivotal tension point during on race and justice during the obama [35:05] years mountain of evidence in the trayvon martin shooting story that's ignited fierce passions [35:10] across the nation as allegations of racism and miscarriage of justice terror shot trayvon hasn't been [35:16] in charge he's claiming self-defense at first the president did not make any public remarks about [35:22] the shooting the contradiction of this happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony [35:29] and intensified the pain i think people felt around this obama was reluctant to deal with race head [35:35] on he had learned to be cautious on the police did not arrest george zimmerman saying they didn't have [35:42] probable cause but now the pressure to say something was growing protests are being planned [35:47] tonight for a national day of justice the shooting sparked outrage across the country martin's [35:52] parents say rallies were held across the country today including here in dc demanding people were [35:57] pushing him say something are you going to say anything you're a black man a young black boy [36:02] has been murdered by a guy who's a hyped up you know neighborhood watchman a black america is [36:09] traumatized by this silence from the white house nothing no leadership no no insight finally almost a [36:20] month after the killing obama was confronted with it at a news conference in the rose garden we were [36:27] pressing the white house to say something you know to have to have the president um say something [36:34] about it you comment on the trayvon martin case well i'm the head of the executive branch and the [36:44] attorney general reports to me so i've got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we're [36:49] not impairing any investigation that's taking place right now every time there's an incident his rhetoric [36:55] is examined with a tuning fork it never satisfies every everybody it's very very difficult but obviously [37:06] this is a tragedy i can only imagine what these parents are going through and when he finally [37:13] comes out it was a rare moment of emotion for a president that liked to kind of keep that in check [37:21] but my main message is is to the parents of trayvon martin you know if i had a son he'd look like [37:29] trayvon i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the [37:43] seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened finally [37:49] when he's pushed he makes it a personal one you know if i had a son he'd look like trayvon martin [37:55] innocent remark anybody listening to that would see it's the father's heart looking at what might [38:01] have been his own son president's a black dude and so on some level he has some sort of familiarity with [38:09] that he understands the kind of fear that is you know typically pervaded you know the notion [38:16] of black malehood the president has inserted himself in a racial way on the right wing airwaves [38:23] outrage his whole goal is to provoke a racial confrontation he's got it in for this country [38:29] it became this huge tension point by the president literally just acknowledging his own skin color [38:36] that look i mean i have two daughters but if i had a son he probably looked like that kid [38:39] it's an objective fact but it became this this huge firestorm the president had a son he wouldn't [38:47] look anything like trayvon martin he'd be wearing a blazer from his prep school uh he'd be driving a [38:53] beamer we have a president who has who has frozen racial tension in our country instead of falling [39:00] racial tension all of a sudden it goes into this racially retrenched place people are kind of seeing [39:05] this as a kind of indicator that he's not fair or perhaps he favors african-americans in the context [39:12] of trayvon martin uh this really explodes president's goal is to hype an african-american turnout [39:20] by stoking a feeling of victimization in the african-american community the field of gop candidates [39:32] for 2012 taking shape more republican candidates are poised to enter the race for president the gop race [39:38] is still wide open more republicans make up their minds 2012 was also an election year although [39:45] anti-washington anger was growing the gop choice was an establishment candidate mitt romney this [39:52] country we love is in peril and that my friends is one reason why we're here today barack obama has [40:00] failed america he was a successful businessman and an experienced politician a former governor i believe [40:09] in america and i'm running for president of the united states but many in the republican base [40:14] especially in the tea party could barely stand hysterical mitt romney has never done a single [40:19] thing to favor the conservative i swear every time mitt romney opens his mouth i have no i think he's [40:23] running against me i don't think that romney was somebody who understood the angst of the american [40:30] people he didn't understand what what especially the republicans in throughout the united states were [40:36] feeling how how disaffected they felt mit romney just further exacerbates the frustration among [40:43] the republican base and the tea party wing of the party how could it be that they end up with mit [40:48] romney as their nominee when there's so much anti-washington anti-establishment energy out there [40:54] what does mit romney believe and is he truly a conservative exactly a person of conviction [40:59] romney knew he had to bolster his appeal among republicans and win over the tea party and insurgents [41:06] he named the author of the ryan budget his running mate to announce my running mate and the next [41:11] vice president of the united states paul ryan he took a tough stand on immigration the answer is [41:18] self-deportation we're going to encourage and he said he would finally deliver on that republican [41:23] promise to repeal obamacare if we want to get rid of obamacare we're going to have to replace [41:28] president obama but one move that seemed a curiosity at the time would later take on greater significance [41:35] in las vegas he would accept a controversial endorsement from the leader of the birther [41:41] movement mit romney looks completely uncomfortable donald trump is totally in his element it's in a [41:49] curious way it's donald trump's event not mit romney's event he you know he he commands the stage [41:56] it's my honor real honor and privilege to endorse mit romney it was literally one of the most bizarre [42:06] political scenes i'd ever seen this is a great company when mitt and ann romney were standing up [42:11] there and i kept looking at ann romney who looked like she was using every single bit of energy she had [42:18] not to start cracking up uncontrollably at that moment it seemed like you know not unlike sarah palin [42:26] four years earlier kind of a comic diversion something that was different so governor romney [42:33] go out and get him you can do it it was hilarious it was bizarre in retrospect i guess it represented [42:40] some kind of passing of the torch romney and the gop establishment formally embraced donald trump [42:47] there are some things that you just can't imagine happening in your life this is one of them [42:53] being in donald trump's magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight for trump [42:58] it was the republican establishment saying you're one of us and we'll stand on a stage with you [43:06] thank you so much for your help and your endorsement today and look forward to seeing you out [43:09] of the trail thank you donald it was tacit endorsement in the other direction of mitt romney [43:15] to the kind of rhetoric that donald trump was vociferous in trafficking in around obama's birth [43:21] certificate the perpetrator of a sort of blatantly nativist campaign against the president of the [43:26] united states president obama is battling for his own second that fall the president had dropped in [43:32] the polls and was fighting to keep his job out on the campaign trail today then we saw four years [43:37] earlier he had promised to bridge differences road ahead for the president i think you see president [43:43] obama with a thicker skin more jaundiced eyes has grown more skeptical even cynical perhaps about [43:50] washington as he made the case for re-election the man who once promised to transcend differences [44:00] now emphasized them if i said the sky was blue they said no if i said there were fish in the sea [44:08] they said no they figured if obama fails then we win it's hard to believe that it is the same person [44:16] who was talking about bringing red america and blue america together because he is now a polarizing figure [44:22] because of their policies the republicans messed up so bad having seen the collapse around washington [44:31] he knew he had to go into a different mode and he was prepared to do it and it was a much tougher [44:35] campaign it was a grittier campaign it was not a message of uplift in the same way by any means [44:41] that the first campaign was it's the same agenda that they have been pushing for years and his entire [44:47] campaign message is about the differences between the two parties not the similarities the voters vote [44:54] the counters count as the candidates and their supporters hold their breath we will take you to [45:00] by election day at romney ryan headquarters they believed they were about to reclaim the white [45:05] house paul ryan on election day was talking to people about resigning from his house seat [45:17] immediately to concentrate on being vice president-elect believing that that was going to happen that [45:26] night but just after 11 o'clock alert fox news can now project that president obama will win the [45:34] crucial battleground state of ohio this was the entire ball game to the fox news team including [45:41] carl rove it was a shocking surprise do you believe that ohio has been settled no i don't [45:48] republicans were stunned by the outcome of the 2012 election they believed it was all but inevitable [45:54] that they would win i just cannot believe though that the majority of americans would believe that [45:59] incurring more debt is good for our economy for our children's future so many people today [46:05] live in whole neighborhoods whole communities where nobody disagrees with them that if you were a mitt [46:11] romney voter you thought everybody hated president obama you couldn't imagine that anybody would vote for [46:17] that guy he was so terrible you know there it's a perplexing time for many of us right now if things [46:23] continue in this trend that we have seen uh earlier tonight in boston there would be no victory party [46:31] the loss would have a profound effect on one particular republican donald trump trump went to boston [46:38] in fact to be at the victory party that never occurred he got on his plane turned around went back to new [46:42] york city and he started tweeting this election is a total sham and a travesty we are not a democracy [46:49] we can't let this happen we should march on washington and stop this travesty our nation is totally [46:56] divided we should have a revolution in this country just six days later trump filed this trademark [47:03] application for the phrase make america great again laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign [47:11] in 2016. right after romney lost we had a brief chat can hillary bb who else is going to run he's already [47:20] handicapping romney's body isn't even cold yet and he's already handicapping this election it was [47:26] clear to me then he was going to run but for barack obama that night seemed to be a second chance [47:36] the mandate he needed to finally deliver on that promise to move beyond the partisan divide i think he [47:44] honestly felt okay i've won i'm here for four more years i'm not running again i'm not on the [47:49] ballot you know hopefully we can sit down here and uh and find some common ground to move forward [47:58] if i beat them if i beat mit romney i will have won the debate i will have a mandate and they won't [48:05] he and his people kept saying that we think that that if we can defeat the republicans and we can do it [48:10] decisively that finally will break the fever republicans will have gotten some kind of message that [48:16] the obstructionism that that you know that i have endured will not continue hope and [48:23] change were in the air again and it looked like some republicans were rethinking their strategy of [48:29] confrontation speaker john boehner was once again the highest ranking republican he strengthened a [48:38] little bit within his caucus right after the election because whether he says this outright it's [48:44] implied that look i tried it your way guys um and obama beat us and for eric kantor and paul ryan [48:53] the election seemed to signal that the tea party moment was over kantor's a pragmatist in a way i [48:59] mean he's he's gonna go where the power is and maybe the tea party isn't quite as strong as it was before [49:04] kantor would now publicly stand behind the speaker the majority leader kantor was a much different [49:11] person much more reasonable much more moderate very worried about the fact that he was being seen as [49:18] angling for the speaker's job and undercutting republican unity with canter in line boehner moved to [49:25] take control of his caucus a purge is underway with speaker boehner dumping uncontrollable [49:31] scene is not 15 players within his own party the speaker removing four conservative congressmen [49:37] from keen committees a move seen by purged tea party insurgents from key committee assignments [49:43] boehner needed to enforce some discipline so he booted four members from their committees this caused ripples [49:48] throughout the entire republican caucus republicans were shocked does i mean leadership gets rid of [49:53] challenges it gets rid of people that doesn't and boehner made an overture to the president [49:57] they wanted to get a card out there and put it down quickly so they prepared a speech and went [50:02] through 18 drafts speaker john boehner was tinkered with right there on the teleprompter up until the [50:08] final moments speaker john boehner is going to be speaking to reporters speaker boehner on this very [50:12] good afternoon everyone we're ready to be led not as democrats or republicans but as americans the [50:23] speaker came out and acknowledged the president won elections have consequences and he acknowledged [50:29] that right away if there's a mandate in yesterday's results it's a mandate for us to find a way to work [50:35] together on the solutions to the challenges that we all face as a nation i've been preparing for months [50:42] for one of two scenarios either the president was going to win or romney was going to win and uh [50:49] and so uh when it was clear that the president won i wanted to go out to the public uh and to the [50:56] ensure the president that i was being willing to be reasonable and responsible we want you to lead [51:03] not as a liberal or conservative but as president of the united states of america let's rise above the [51:09] dysfunction and do the right thing together for our country thank you but it wasn't long before that [51:19] optimism was put to the test it was okay emergency sandy hook school i think there's somebody's shooting [51:34] in here sandy hook school down the hallway a shooting they're still running they're still shooting [51:41] 154 rounds from a bushmaster semi-automatic rifle at a connecticut elementary school it was the 15th [51:53] mass shooting of obama's presidency sandy hook elementary school i believe they're shooting [51:59] at the front it's still happening this time it was six and seven year olds i keep hearing shooting [52:05] i can't keep hearing popping please hurry please hurry but we smell fire you guys come in my room [52:13] now get in here there's still shooting going on please i i need i need assistance here immediately [52:23] i still hear i'm shooting 20 children and six adults were shot and killed get everybody you can [52:29] going down there all right let me i have five children who ran from sandy hook school they were [52:37] just more emergency vehicles and personnel helicopters than i'd ever seen in my life i couldn't i just it [52:44] was a surreal scene i just couldn't believe it mark and jackie barden's son daniel was a first grader [52:54] at sandy hook elementary more and more of the kids were being collected by their families and [53:01] no daniel and there was this growing group of parents that were growing in concern where where [53:07] is my child you haven't been re reunited with your loved one yet you're not going to be morning [53:26] president obama received news of the shooting newtown was the worst moment of the presidency it was [53:35] unfathomable to imagine 20 children six and seven year old first graders being gunned down in that [53:42] violent and destructive way and then six adults who were they're trying to help he has two daughters [53:47] he's thinking about these parents who are never going to see their children again and he's he's [53:51] weeping he's just openly weeping in the oval office in the white house and he comes out to the [53:59] briefing room to talk about it the majority of those who died today were children beautiful little kids [54:08] between the ages of five and ten years old they had their entire lives ahead of them birthdays [54:26] graduations weddings kids of their own and he can't control himself he chokes up he he's very [54:38] emotional about it as a country we have been through this too many times may god bless the [54:46] memory of the victims and in the words of scripture heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds [54:56] during his first term obama had avoided the controversial issue of guns but now he wouldn't he's so upset [55:05] that he says he's going to make it the mission of his presidency to change the gun laws of this [55:10] country i think it surprised even his staff how determined he sounds in that moment i think he [55:17] thinks that having just one reelection he's got a mandate to do it obama saw an opportunity to do [55:23] something about guns and maybe in a bipartisan way it was in a context of uh sorrow uh extreme i mean [55:35] anger and frustration about why can't we do something about this it was like enough is [55:41] enough is enough put together something for me joe it would become the first major test of obama's [55:49] second term newtown i think struck everyone as just the point of no return on an issue that [55:56] like some of these other issues had languished for some years it just seemed like a given that that this [56:03] was the moment where the two sides could come together on just some of these basic principles [56:10] what obama needed was someone from congress who could try to find middle ground in the highly [56:15] polarized world of gun politics as your senator i'll protect our second amendment rights that's why [56:21] the nra endorsed me i'll take home washington and this administration to get the federal government [56:26] off of our backs and out of our pockets and i'll take dead aim at the cap and trade bill joe [56:32] manchin an a-rated nra member and democratic senator from west virginia was shaken by the newtown [56:38] shootings it really got to me these are babies five and six year old children who would have ever [56:45] it's just beyond my imagination most americans to conceive that anything this horrific could happen [56:50] in america light bulbs went off at the capitol harry reeds and chuck schumer and their age realized [56:58] wait a second we now have a democrat with an a rating from the nra saying he wants to do something [57:05] manchin joined with republican senator pat toomey to draft a bill that could attract republican votes [57:14] we have what looks to be a model of bipartisan action joe manchin of west virginia joining with [57:21] a conservative republican who had headed up the club for growth pat toomey and they propose a modest [57:28] change in the gun laws but one that would begin at least to turn an issue that had gone entirely in [57:34] one direction in a somewhat different direction they joined together to draft a bill that's going [57:40] to finally close the gun show loophole this this loophole that we have that allows you to buy guns [57:45] without a background check at gun shows or or in private sales and it looks like this bill might [57:51] make it through and with polls showing wide public support for expanding background checks [57:57] manchin and the vice president figured they had a chance i was optimistic over 91 of the american [58:05] people supported expanding background checks 80 of the households that had an nra member supported it [58:13] i've had enough all these people all their talk tough talk that's what the democrats do folks they [58:19] always try to hide their agendas behind women and children and most of all victims they apparently don't [58:27] believe liberty is on the line they apparently don't believe the constitution and the bill of [58:31] rights are on the line larry pratt represented some of the most fervent gun owners the manchin bill [58:38] was not aiming at loopholes it was aiming at nailing down some remaining freedom that american people have [58:48] gun control simply kills people and for senator manchin to wave the bloody shirts of those children [58:53] from newtown is despicable i have no faith in these people none you would think now if ever that a [59:02] so-called conservative republican in the senate would have learned the lesson that this president cannot [59:07] be relied on to follow the law one by one key republicans and even some democrats in congress [59:14] backed away from the bill cutting deals over what over the second amendment i despise these people [59:22] there was immense pressure from conservative groups to not respond to newtown with legislation [59:29] that's what we've really seen in the obama era conservatives urging republicans to not do [59:34] anything in response to national events whether it was a tragedy or something else inaction became the [59:41] new priority it's decision day for new gun control legislation the first votes taken today on the [59:46] gun safety legislation members of the family in the gallery today as this vote with parents [59:51] as the bill faced a crucial vote in the senate the families of newtown victims watched from the senate [59:57] gallery i remember sitting there kind of in a daze mr loutenburg mr lahey mr lee and that's about all i [1:00:04] just i'm sorry that i have such a mr reed of red island mr reed of nevada you know i think my psyche was [1:00:09] just kind of letting in little bits at a time it was just also such a whirlwind of of craziness for [1:00:16] me mr wyden on this vote the amendment is not agreed to the bill fell five votes short he felt [1:00:30] betrayed that's the word betrayed how could they vote that way don't they understand what happened [1:00:37] how can they do that how can this be i mean it was disbelief and a sense of betrayal that was the mode [1:00:47] the president watched the vote with disbelief was an emotional setback for the president it was a huge [1:00:56] political setback for the president and and in some ways helped to set the tone again for what was [1:01:04] going to come after in other areas obama invited the newtown families to the white house after the vote [1:01:13] daniel is a first grader at sandy hook elementary school i know that he felt he felt a sense of [1:01:18] responsibility to us and and to the nation and to that 90 percent of the country that that wanted [1:01:24] this you know i think he felt a strong sense of responsibility toward that and his his uh disgust was [1:01:31] palpable it came down to politics the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after [1:01:41] them in future elections after newtown i think his inability to get something done really made him feel [1:01:46] feel powerless and that was that's not a feeling you expect to have as a president and i think it i [1:01:50] think it really rattled him so all in all this was a pretty shameful day for washington thank you very [1:02:04] much everybody it's an odd diminishment of the power of the president who's just won a pretty [1:02:12] substantial re-election victory and it is a reminder of the kind of the the degree to which elections no [1:02:21] longer settle things on guns obama had failed to turn the tragedy of newtown into action and soon [1:02:31] another crisis another challenge to moving the country forward watching the trial of george [1:02:44] zimmerman very closely waiting for a there was a verdict in the case of george zimmerman the man who [1:02:50] shot him killed trayvon martin in what he claimed was self-defense circuit court of the 18th we the jury [1:02:56] find george zimmerman not guilty so say we all four percent not guilty of what everything everything [1:03:05] are you kidding me it's crap like always and that's right these men get away with it all the time [1:03:16] obama initially after george zimmerman is found not guilty releases a nearly cryptic press release [1:03:26] that says you know we're a nation of laws the jury has decided we must abide by those laws the president [1:03:35] watched as the protests grew stop are you serious i mean this is this is this is epic tides of grief [1:03:43] washing across the collective soul of black america the trauma that they are enduring people inside the [1:03:55] white house could see that he just desperately wanted to come out and say something and he did [1:04:02] surprising the press corps when he finally came out that it was like a last minute thing i got you [1:04:10] all right the reason i actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions but uh to speak [1:04:19] to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week uh the [1:04:23] issue of the uh trayvon martin he walks into the press room and begins essentially to riff on what his [1:04:31] experience as a black man has been and why in in black america there is such a distrust or lack of [1:04:39] trust of the system of the police of these processes when trayvon martin was first shot i said that this [1:04:48] could have been my son another way of saying that is a trayvon martin could have been me uh 35 years ago [1:05:00] it is a very literal placement of himself in this person's shoes and saying uh to african americans [1:05:08] that this is an experience that he is familiar with there are very few african-american men in this [1:05:14] country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store [1:05:19] that includes me that was actually a unique moment for the president it's him speaking to his own [1:05:26] experience as a black american something that no one can seize away from him there are very very few [1:05:33] african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks [1:05:39] click on the doors of cars that happens to me he began to speak for black people for the first time [1:05:50] in his administration it was apparent that we had a friend we being black people in the white house [1:05:57] why must he go behind a microphone today and give a speech that's intended to rile up obama is [1:06:03] grievance politics and the primary reason for that grievance is race but as before his comments lit up [1:06:10] the airwaves he fed into the victimization that the left has been peddling for decades to excuse this time [1:06:17] obama seemed to accept that he could not convince everyone this president doesn't stand for anything [1:06:22] that i stand for he doesn't have to worry about another potential election he's already kind of been [1:06:27] stymied in his political agenda by you know intransigent republicans at this point you know [1:06:32] speaking his mind is not going to make that any worse at fall the republican civil war entered a new [1:06:45] phase madam president the senator from texas madam president i rise today in opposition to obamacare [1:06:53] the freshman senator from texas launched a direct challenge to president obama and the gop leadership [1:07:00] madam president i intend to speak in support of defunding obamacare until i am no longer able to [1:07:06] stand it looked like an old-fashioned filibuster and it was a stepping out moment for ted cruz [1:07:12] cruz wanted to make his name known and i love this story and so i'm going to read it and he has dr seuss [1:07:18] books sam i am that sam i am that sam i am i do not like that sam i am what conservatives wanted at [1:07:28] that time was a fight do you like even if it didn't make strategic sense even if there wasn't a clear [1:07:33] plan sam i am i do not like green eggs and ham cruz was making the first move in a larger strategy [1:07:41] to shut down the government if obamacare was not stopped i sincerely hope that senator reid and [1:07:47] president obama do not choose to force a government shutdown simply to force obamacare on the american [1:07:53] people that would be a mistake cruz was trying to rally the republican insurgents tapping into tea [1:08:00] party anger that boehner and the establishment hadn't kept their promise to repeal obamacare [1:08:05] ted cruz recognizes the state of the republican party and the frustration of conservatives in the [1:08:12] republican party that's been welling up you know from sarah palin time tea party time all through [1:08:19] this period and he was going to be the embodiment of that grassroots anger obamacare is a cancer [1:08:26] it's a cancer unleashed by the federal government you republicans get off your backside and stand as [1:08:32] a bold contrast to obama you had talk radio any republican who votes against this strategy is not [1:08:41] worth your vote saying we're going to run a primary against you if you can't stop obamacare because i'm [1:08:46] not going to support anybody that doesn't vote to defund obamacare so ted cruz leaps to the front of [1:08:51] this movement and uh he decides he's going to exert some leadership cruz was pushing the renegade [1:09:01] house members to shut down the government he found support in the lower chamber cruz began to meet with [1:09:08] them at this mexican restaurant on capitol hill tortilla coast to urge them to stand up to the republican [1:09:16] establishment and essentially invite a government shutdown eric canter was concerned he had once [1:09:23] encouraged the insurgents to use leverage points but now he believed cruz had gone too far the false [1:09:31] notion that this shutdown would have gotten rid of obamacare is what never sat well with me it was [1:09:37] inaccurate it was frankly a falsehood it was a lie but it no longer seemed to matter what eric canter and [1:09:44] john boehner thought i think we could use a good government shutdown right about now just to prove [1:09:49] the point government shutdown losing elections what do you guys think you've been doing right of a [1:09:54] shutdown i'm going to do to the stock market oh my god the calls for a shutdown were growing we elected [1:10:01] them to block obama that's what that's if john boehner didn't go along with the shutdown he might no [1:10:06] longer be speaker your government shutdown boehner relented he'd let them shut down the government [1:10:13] and hoped the public backlash would teach the insurgents a lesson he was going to let them i [1:10:17] think the phrase was touch the hot stove get burned see what it felt like and hopefully learn [1:10:22] the lesson for next time what is the republican establishment afraid of all across america this is [1:10:27] real the federal government shut down this is about freedom this is about saving the republic national [1:10:34] parks what's left of art galleries my advice to the republicans hold the line hundreds of thousands [1:10:41] of federal workers were furloughed stand with the american people the shutdown continued for more [1:10:45] than two weeks in polls most americans blamed the republicans wow i mean that was really one of the [1:10:52] darkest days we um you know shut down unfortunately they included things like the va they included things like [1:11:00] clinical trials for pediatric cancer patients you know these are the things that when they're shut down [1:11:05] you're not helping anybody this was the moment that they saw how far the tea partiers were willing to [1:11:13] go these people will stop at nothing there's no line they won't cross no potential consequence too dire [1:11:21] for them to continue to to fight but boehner and canter had had enough they heeded the public outcry [1:11:31] and crossed the aisle to vote with democrats to end the shutdown vote is underway to end the [1:11:37] government moments ago saying he will allow a vote the shutdown's over boehner and canter believe [1:11:46] that the the sort of more rambunctious members of the of the house republican conference have been tamed [1:11:53] that they've learned their lesson um that they're not as influential that other republicans now will no [1:11:58] longer listen to them with the shutdown over boehner moved fast to get something done and he had an [1:12:06] issue immigration reform it grew out of this document known as the republican autopsy an analysis of what [1:12:15] the party had to do in the wake of the loss to president obama the republicans did a sobering study [1:12:23] of where things stood and they realized after 2012 that america's changing and that if you wanted to win [1:12:29] the white house not just congress he had to appeal to younger voters latinos and women we must embrace [1:12:36] and champion comprehensive immigration reform if we do not our party's appeal will continue to shrink [1:12:43] too many millennials minorities and others have rejected um um us at the polls because they sense [1:12:52] that somehow we're not inclusive and unless we show the american people that conservative principles [1:12:58] actually help them in a real and not just theory we'll never get the majority confidence back [1:13:05] republican paul ryan reached out to luis gutierrez a democratic congressman and immigration reform [1:13:14] advocate he said i gotta tell you i don't want to do it because it's the politically expedient thing to do [1:13:22] i want to do it because it's the right thing to do and i remember there are times when people tell you [1:13:27] stuff that you just remember and he said i'm catholic and my religious beliefs my my convictions do not [1:13:38] allow me to continue to have a permanent underclass of people that are exploited in america and i said [1:13:47] to myself wow i can work with this guy will immigration reform finally a possible deal on immigration reform [1:13:55] it took months of negotiations and by the spring they believed they had the votes they needed [1:14:01] secure the border halfway to citizenship but in the meantime the republican insurgency had spread to eric [1:14:07] canter's home district join me in voting to term limit eric canter it's time to restore the true [1:14:14] conservative values we all stand for canter faced a challenge in his primary canter's deal cutting with [1:14:20] obama pelosi and bainer has to end eric canter became a creation of washington and his constituency [1:14:27] became barack obama and the house leadership and if you listen to talk radio if you were listening to [1:14:32] you know laura ingram or mark levin canter was part of the republican establishment that they were [1:14:40] against canter the power has really gone to this guy's head i mean he's trying to take over the [1:14:44] republican party what are the republicans getting out of eric canter being house majority leader i'm not sure [1:14:49] the central issue became immigration any republican who stands up and says we're going to give a [1:14:55] special pathway to the people who are here illegally are in violation of their oath of office back when [1:15:00] i ran i was running pretty much just on immigration and so illegal immigration didn't seem to me was too [1:15:06] that controversial an issue to run on right you should follow the law of the land and so that was [1:15:12] the basic calculus if dave bratt here can get a big turnout he's gonna he's gonna make a difference [1:15:16] right dave bratt for congress uh eric canter's district let's send a real message early on [1:15:21] election night it looked like canter was in trouble eric canter is definitely in trouble in his [1:15:26] district i was sitting at the capitol hill club eating dinner and i get a text from somebody that eric [1:15:32] canter is losing his his primary i was as shocked as anybody else canter never saw it coming i didn't see [1:15:40] it coming and as they're giving me the numbers i couldn't believe it i thought my staff was joking with me [1:15:46] and i didn't find it funny history making upset house majority leader eric canter lost i was [1:15:51] unexpectedly by 8 30 canter knew it was over a stunning upset is shaking things up on capitol [1:15:57] eric canter who vastly outspent his opponent who had the entire party machinery behind him [1:16:03] loses by 11 points to this to this economics professor that no one had ever heard of i've never had a [1:16:09] loss and it was a huge one in a very public way and i remember telling my wife we're gonna go up on [1:16:17] that stage you're not gonna cry you're not gonna cry canter thought he could always manage all this [1:16:26] disorder and that the anger on the right was something that he could control and actually even use [1:16:31] for political gains whether it was personal or for the majority but what canter didn't recognize is [1:16:37] that the anger was much bigger than him thank you all very very much his defeat was yet another sign [1:16:44] of how the republican establishment was losing its grip now his loss marks a huge victory for the tea [1:16:49] party movement and clobbered by the novice dave bratt if you weren't angry enough then you didn't [1:16:55] represent them if you didn't shout and yell and scream if you didn't call barack obama traitor if you [1:17:01] didn't use the same language that they're using on talk radio or in social media then you weren't strong [1:17:07] enough tough enough anti-establishment enough also raising questions this morning about tea party [1:17:12] power he said he will step down as majority leader on july canter was kind of like like a labrador [1:17:17] retriever who falls in with a pack of coyotes and you know for a while they kind of recognize him [1:17:23] as like a canine he's one of us but at a certain point they realize no he's a domesticated house pet [1:17:29] and we're wild coyotes and they ate him tea party challenger david bratt beat canter in his [1:17:34] virginia history you can almost feel the capitol shake i certainly wasn't a friend with with eric [1:17:40] canter but you didn't see i've never seen so many people crying with long faces all upset on capitol [1:17:46] hill i mean that's i think the worst drubbing the establishment has had in in many years canter's loss [1:17:55] ended republican talk of immigration reform and put the rest of the gop leadership on notice it put the [1:18:03] fear of god in some of these guys that if this can happen to eric canter it could happen to me [1:18:14] august 2014 race would once again be thrust into the national spotlight a young black man michael [1:18:22] brown was shot by a police officer in ferguson missouri [1:18:25] all this they just killed this nigger his blood everywhere they just killed this nigger for no [1:18:32] reason there's several more units over here there's gonna be a problem we're gonna need [1:18:39] crop control here he ain't armed he don't got no gun they just killed this nigger you could feel it [1:18:46] in the air how palatable the anger and the pain was how a line had been crossed what do we want justice [1:18:54] where we want now what do we want justice where we want now all these things that had been culminating [1:19:00] that had been kind of slowly building up over the course of obama's presidency it seemed like they [1:19:04] all converged in ferguson missouri you're violating the state imposed curfew in the streets anger and for [1:19:13] many a feeling that things had not changed enough under the first black president by nightfall violence we [1:19:31] are now seeing officers in full riot gear looking through sniper scopes and in these large mrap vehicles [1:19:38] these militarized vehicles night after night the streets of ferguson were a war zone and you know [1:19:44] this had become kind of an american crucible within this the span of five days on the day of the shooting [1:19:52] the president had headed out of town on vacation it's kind of a perfect storm of racial calamity there's [1:19:59] a great deal of pressure and people are feeling like uh the president should come off vacation and [1:20:04] you know respond to this the president knew many black americans expected him to do something president [1:20:11] obama is so handcuffed no matter no matter what he says no matter what he does you have a president who [1:20:18] as the chief spokesperson for the american government is obligated by the nature of his position to defend [1:20:25] the police officers to defend the state to argue for the protection of property but to black americans [1:20:33] who thought they had their black president who would understand them who would get them it's just deeply [1:20:38] lacking on vacation he met with attorney general eric holder to figure out how to respond it was such a [1:20:47] treacherous area for him to navigate and i think it it took him a while to sort of find his voice and [1:20:53] figure out how he wanted to approach it in a way that he was comfortable with and that didn't cause him [1:21:01] you know maximum political damage finally after five days he went before the press there is never an [1:21:13] excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism [1:21:20] or looting it pulled him back into some of the same problems that he's had throughout which is [1:21:25] how can he talk about race in america as a black president without alienating the institutions that [1:21:31] he needs on his side to function he chose the cautious route now's the time for healing now's the time [1:21:38] for peace and calm on the streets of ferguson when ferguson blew it blew up as well and exploded [1:21:48] his inability to grapple straightforwardly with the issue of race as brilliant as he had been [1:21:54] with trayvon martin he was contorted and tragically twisted when it came to um to ferguson thanks very [1:22:02] much everybody the president would keep his distance for months the controversy simmered as a grand jury [1:22:10] weighed whether to indict the police officer darren wilson as the announcement approached authorities [1:22:17] urged calm when officer wilson was not charged the anger exploded again a grand jury finding not enough [1:22:31] evidence to charge the officer who shot and killed michael brown the situation within hours of the [1:22:36] decision protesters said squad cars on fire burned and put in stores and police violence is worse than [1:22:42] anything they saw back in august just after brown it's been nine hours since the decision not to [1:22:47] charge a ferguson police officer with the killing of an unarmed teenager there is still no calm on the [1:22:53] streets the president tried to avoid taking sides to those in ferguson there are ways of channeling [1:23:03] your concerns constructively and there are ways of channeling your concerns destructively the split [1:23:11] screen was the line that showed his disconnect with america one side of the screen you're seeing the [1:23:17] nation's black president begging that a city did not go up in flames and the other side of the screen [1:23:23] you're seeing young black people saying we're done waiting we're not putting up with this anymore [1:23:30] protesters were back out on the streets today in ferguson in just a short time as ferguson burned [1:23:36] the deep divide over race only grew we elect a black president eight years later we have this [1:23:41] hundreds of people march in the bay area today to protest the black lives matter movement [1:23:48] i can tell you how many times i've heard from activists in cleveland and baltimore and ferguson [1:23:53] i voted for barack obama twice i canvassed for barack obama and trayvon martin is still dead [1:23:58] and jordan davis is still dead and oscar grant is still dead sandra bland is still dead a black [1:24:04] lives matter protest shut down traffic in frederick maryland and the backlash a black lives matter is [1:24:09] just a complete fraud exposing two very different americas are you going to riot loot roast more pigs [1:24:17] what absolutely unbelievable all lives matter there was no post-racial utopia for us to enter into [1:24:23] it only laid bare the undercurrents of racism that still existed see to me dividing lives that [1:24:29] matter by color sounds downright racist no in the fall of 2014 barack obama was entering the final [1:24:43] years of his presidency and facing a harsh reality the insurgents in congress were increasingly powerful [1:24:51] by now republicans even had the senate all is lost it was [1:24:57] our darkest moment we found ourselves alone in the world the congress had gone in a different [1:25:03] direction and um we weren't sure if we'd ever get them back on anything time was running out [1:25:11] i got two years left if they're not going to move on some of the stuff i'm going to do it myself it [1:25:16] was finally just time to do the things that he wanted to do irrespective of what kind of outrage [1:25:22] might be prompted by the conservative side he decided to act on his own tonight i'd like to talk [1:25:28] with you about immigration in a dramatic move the president would sign an executive order acting [1:25:35] unilaterally and cutting out congress there are actions i have the legal authority to take as [1:25:42] president tonight i'm announcing those actions he's gonna go forward with or without congress that's [1:25:48] his phrase with or without congress he's given up he's given up thank you god bless you and god [1:25:55] bless this country we love immigration was only one of the president's executive actions [1:26:02] he also moved on climate change president obama signed a landmark climate change deal on his final [1:26:08] trip to china today gun control executive action on gun control worker pay [1:26:13] obama announced a sweeping change to the country's overtime and the environment president obama says [1:26:18] the keystone xl pipeline project is dead no to keystone president obama this creates like this [1:26:24] the sort of next big war between the republican party and obama that is that obama has is no [1:26:31] longer listening to congress he's ignoring the will of congress and that he's become a kind of a kind [1:26:37] of caesar the insurgents were particularly infuriated you couldn't have a more cynical [1:26:42] statement or a more unconstitutional statement the house hasn't acted therefore i'm a dictator right it is [1:26:49] in essence uh what was just stated the constitution is going to cease to exist as we know it and as the [1:26:56] right-wing fury grew where does this end does it ever end at what point do we roll back [1:27:01] this homegrown tyranny executive order but they are really are our imperial fiats it turned against [1:27:08] the leaders of the republican party too transformation has taken place among the republican leadership [1:27:14] they don't do what their voters believe the speaker of the house turns out he's a coward a political [1:27:20] i think there are quite a few republicans including john banner you know secretly half cheering what the [1:27:25] president is hey well if we can't get it down through these republicans and through the republican [1:27:31] base we'll just blame it all on the president let him do it i think that what is happening here is [1:27:36] that bainer wants to deal with obama we have men and women much more junior to these so-called leaders [1:27:44] who will do a hell of a lot better job as conservatives on the blogs on talk radio they hammered bainer day [1:27:50] after day almost as much as they'd hammer the president the rnc needs to be uh fumigated need to get rid [1:27:56] all the cockroaches clean it out start new bottom up top down in new york city at trump tower donald trump [1:28:07] had watched the unrest in the gop and was about to make his move trump watches the defeat of eric [1:28:13] canter in 2014 he sees the rising unrest on the right and he sees an opportunity donald trump entered [1:28:21] the field pretty late in june of 2015 and did so in what would be quintessential trumpian fashion [1:28:30] he had risen to political prominence questioning the president's legitimacy and now wanted the [1:28:36] presidency for himself he figures out that there is a white working class constituency who see republican [1:28:44] leaders as having been accommodationists or in trump's estimation just weak it's hard to explain [1:28:51] the trump phenomenon without explaining the fact that donald trump was willing to go where previous [1:28:56] leaders wouldn't go in terms of arousing people against each other and appealing to their darker [1:29:02] sides the republican establishment had embraced immigration reform but as he announced his candidacy [1:29:13] trump would go in the opposite direction when mexico sends its people they're not sending their best [1:29:19] they're not there's a single issue that trump seizes on that represents this gap between the grassroots [1:29:26] was and elites like paul ryan it is undoubtedly immigration they're bringing drugs they're bringing [1:29:35] crime they're rapists and some i assume are good people donald trump having used the birther issue to [1:29:42] his effect suddenly looks out there and sees that if he gets to the right of everybody else in a bombastic [1:29:48] fashion on immigration he emerges as first among equals when do we beat mexico at the border they're [1:29:56] laughing at us at our stupidity trump's advisors had prepared him to take advantage of the anger over [1:30:03] the airwaves and on the internet they had been listening to thousands of hours of talk radio and so they [1:30:09] built this whole campaign message around trade and immigration and so when trump descended that stairwell [1:30:16] he had already uh pinpointed the issue that was going to define the race i would build a great wall [1:30:22] and nobody builds walls better than me believe me and i'll build them very inexpensively his rhetoric [1:30:28] got him attention and fueled his rise donald trump was a great candidate for some of those platforms like [1:30:34] talk radio and um some of the websites because he gave content he gave he talked about illegal immigration [1:30:43] and the way they had been doing it for years how stupid are our leaders how stupid are these [1:30:50] politicians to allow this to happen how stupid trump promised that he could do what the republican [1:30:57] establishment failed to do he's an outsider and he can say don't blame me for that mess i'm the one [1:31:03] who can go in and fix it we will make america great again thank you thank you very much [1:31:09] cannot be laconic to an electorate that is mad as hell and for tens of millions of americans [1:31:24] that willingness to fight political correctness and not back down told them that he was the only [1:31:30] candidate who would really blow things up in washington tell you what i like about it he doesn't [1:31:36] take any crap from obama he's the leader right now of the entire conservative movement in america [1:31:41] maybe donald trump has changed the entire debate on immigration the very next evening the president [1:31:51] was once again confronted with two of the most difficult issues he had faced race and guns [1:32:06] the president was briefed we have breaking news police and emergency responders are on the scene and [1:32:11] what police confirm is a shooting inside the shooting had taken place at the emmanuel ame church in [1:32:16] charleston south carolina are still looking for the gunman the shooter had entered a bible study group [1:32:23] he was a white supremacist the police found a journal the event that truly awakened me was the [1:32:30] trayvon martin case how could the news be blowing up the trayvon martin case while hundreds of these [1:32:36] black on white murders got ignored he thought that this country was being seized and taken away that [1:32:41] this was the rise of black and brown people that you've got a black president no one doing anything but [1:32:46] talking on the internet well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world and i guess [1:32:52] that has to be me by 9 15 eight parishioners and their minister were shot to death he went into the [1:33:01] church he said you people are taking over who he's speaking about obama that's the president of the [1:33:07] united states of america he's unconsciously to a certain degree and perhaps consciously got obama in [1:33:13] the crosshairs but he can't shoot obama he can't assassinate him so vulnerable black people become [1:33:19] the proxies for a president obama again faced a decision the charleston moment is so vitally [1:33:27] important in the obama presidency because it speaks to these two intractable issues of his presidency [1:33:34] mass shootings and and race and these racial incidents the president decided to attend the [1:33:42] funeral for the slain pastor in charleston that massacre in south carolina let obama finally know [1:33:50] but black americans are the proxies for me and i think that he was aware of the fact that he had to [1:33:57] address this he could no longer avoid this that this was something that we as a nation must grapple [1:34:02] with on the way to charleston sitting with michelle obama and his top aide valerie jarrett the [1:34:09] president posed a question he told valerie jarrett on the way down as he was flying he was thinking [1:34:15] about singing amazing grace we mentioned it to me and to the first lady and he said there's a moment [1:34:21] in my eulogy where i think i might sing and i said don't sing don't sing and he goes i think i'm gonna [1:34:26] sing she wasn't sure it was a good idea she remembered that he had once uh sang in public [1:34:31] before and it hadn't gone over very well that the president of the united states of america the [1:34:37] honorable barack obama will come at this time what you see is the president coming into a black space [1:34:45] and you see him not attempting to play the politics of the nation not attempting to be this steady hand [1:34:53] assuring everyone that everything is okay it will be okay to a mostly black audience he would be moved [1:35:02] to speak in a way that he had never done as president as a nation out of this terrible tragedy god has [1:35:13] visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind if we can tap that grace [1:35:32] everything can change amazing grace amazing grace he paused and i remember thinking is he thinking am [1:35:48] i gonna sing or am i not gonna sing sing great how sweet the sound that say grace cynthia hurd found that [1:37:07] grace finally on this day when he gave voice to singing and naming the names of the people who had [1:37:14] fallen doctor found that grace he was as beautiful and as black as he had ever been and as american as he [1:37:24] had ever been and there was no contradiction in any of them his blackness didn't qualify his american [1:37:29] identity his american identity didn't qualify his black identity they were seamlessly brought together [1:37:35] in a holistic expression of empathy and grief and determination to move the nation forward may grace [1:37:43] now lead them home may god continue to shed his grace on the united states of america he wasn't attempting to [1:37:53] be all things to all people he was attempting to be the thing he needed to be to black america that day [1:38:00] i don't know that there's been a moment in the obama presidency that has more encapsulated both [1:38:06] how far we have come on race and yet how far we still have to go by that fall speaker of the house john [1:38:33] boehner was facing his own moment of truth a devout catholic he waited to meet pope francis [1:38:41] it was a capstone to his career that as a catholic it was it was personally powerful and meaningful [1:38:52] to him and he helped he helped make it happen it was the first time a pope had visited the united [1:38:58] states congress there's this incredible confluence of events in his life where he's got the pope he's [1:39:11] brought the pope to washington to the house of representatives at the same time he's trying to fend [1:39:15] off this budding rebellion against his leadership the visit came just as the republican civil war was [1:39:22] entering a new phase nine of us got together and we said enough is enough let's start a group that [1:39:28] actually listens to the people back home that actually has a good feeling for what the people [1:39:33] back home want to do there was a new tea party offshoot they call themselves the freedom caucus [1:39:40] and their ranks quickly grew the freedom caucus was a group of about 30 40 members of hardliners and [1:39:46] they didn't really have anything that united them beyond being hardline in opposition to the republican [1:39:51] leadership eric kantor had already been taken out now the insurgents had their sights set on speaker [1:39:57] john boehner now they actually have a structure that they can use to exact concessions from boehner [1:40:04] or punish him or even launch a challenge to his speakership and it just becomes even even more [1:40:08] ungovernable caucus for boehner it was becoming clear i mean by the month that john boehner had you know [1:40:17] increasingly less control over his caucus there was a big element of his caucus that was the anarchy [1:40:23] caucus they didn't care what the consequences were as far as they were concerned government was bad [1:40:30] and doing anything government related was bad is it time for new leadership in the house if you're [1:40:36] gonna shoot the king yeah you better kill the king speaks to the increasing political polarization [1:40:41] at every turn john boehner was reminded that he had very little power you want to know the wrath of [1:40:46] the conservatives they're gonna get what they wish for you know there's like these pop-up rebellions [1:40:50] happening all the time um that were just you know further evidence of kind of the humiliation [1:40:56] of the power structure and in particular of john boehner but he has no one to blame but himself [1:41:02] i mean i'm not gonna sit over we i'm not gonna do the waterworks of john boehner they're not gonna take [1:41:06] john boehner's crap sitting down anymore the insurgent members were threatening a vote to [1:41:11] remove him as speaker speaker boehner unfortunately didn't listen when you campaign one way and the [1:41:16] freedom caucus very ingeniously knows that if that vote is called the outside groups the conservative [1:41:23] groups conservative talk radio the freedom caucus members themselves they will turn the vote for john [1:41:28] boehner into a conservative litmus test issue if you call yourself a conservative why be here [1:41:34] if you're not going to fight he was gone anytime a vote would have taken place he would have been [1:41:38] removed and if there's one thing john boehner could do was count votes but he woke up one morning says [1:41:44] my gosh i don't have the votes anymore as he stood with the pope boehner's days were numbered he's weeping [1:41:56] uh as he stood there with the uh with the pope there on stage i always thought of john boehner as [1:42:05] as the loneliest man in american politics caress him for me to pray for me the tea party hated him the [1:42:14] democrats didn't like him very much either the visit had been a high point but now reality set [1:42:23] in i'm one of two reporters outside of boehner's office the night the pope is in washington boehner [1:42:29] starts to walk away and i say mr speaker are you going to resign you're going to step down he just [1:42:33] shrugs off the question and walks out the very next day oh my what a wonderful day [1:42:42] nice to sing that on my way to work in the morning it's become clear to me that this prolonged [1:42:49] leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution so this morning i informed my [1:42:57] colleagues that i would resign from the speakership and resign from congress at the end of october i'm [1:43:03] proud of what we've accomplished especially proud of my team i'm doing this today for the right reasons [1:43:11] and you know what the right things will happen as a result thanks on capitol hill the insurgents [1:43:18] celebrated freedom caucus member tim hills camp was one of them i remember walking down the hallway [1:43:25] and democrats come up to me democrats says well they started calling me speaker slayer you know and [1:43:29] i didn't assume that title that's what they they had given to me but it was it was just this [1:43:34] frustration with washington you know in a way that you think for the establishment probably thought [1:43:40] john boehner will be the the scalp and move on but then the next here comes donald trump donald trump is [1:43:46] back on the road campaigning in iowa three campaign events in iowa today trump's campaign blitz in [1:43:51] iowa the republican that winter trump traveled the country in pursuit of the republican nomination [1:43:58] and waged his own war with the republican establishment trump is driving the republican party [1:44:04] elders not the electorate the elders nuts thank you for what you're doing because of his ideological [1:44:12] inconsistency because of his thousands and thousands of contradictions because of his wing [1:44:21] it as you go his lack of reliance on the party elders the endorsement provides mr trump with a [1:44:27] potentially significant in the cruise team's view donald trump is simply not conservative the [1:44:32] establishment largely shunned him he received one key endorsement from one of the party's first [1:44:39] insurgents sarah palin special special person thank you great to be an iron just thawing out lending our [1:44:53] support for the next president of our great united states of america donald j trump palin is absolutely [1:45:01] emblematic of conservative populism that was unleashed on the right heads are spinning media heads are [1:45:07] spinning it became the tea party that i think you know is somewhat of a piece to to what donald trump has [1:45:13] been able to do they stomp on our neck and then they tell us just chill okay just yeah just relax well look [1:45:22] we are mad and we've been had they need to get used to it what palin and trump managed to tap into [1:45:31] is that a yawning gap opened up between the the agenda of the grassroots of the republican party and [1:45:39] the elites in the republican party that is what donald trump took advantage of being here tonight [1:45:45] supporting the right man who will allow you to make america great again god bless you bless the [1:45:53] united states of america our next president of the united states donald j trump donald trump is running [1:46:00] against the establishment republican party better the establishment was furious here's what i know [1:46:06] donald trump is a phony a fraud his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university [1:46:12] mitt romney had once courted trump's endorsement he's playing the members of the american public [1:46:17] for suckers but now romney became the face of the establishment opposition he gets a free ride to the [1:46:22] white house and all we get is a lousy hat but it didn't matter riding a wave of anti-washington anti-elite [1:46:30] fervor trump took on and defeated 16 republican candidates bush is failing highly low energy he [1:46:39] really is he's low including jeb bush the establishment front runner but he's a nice person and even ted [1:46:46] cruz lying ted the bible held high he puts it down and then he lies the people decided to completely reject [1:46:56] the republican party not even ted cruz if you think about it ted cruz is one of us ted cruz is a [1:47:01] conservative person who came to washington dc to change and the party felt that even he was too [1:47:08] tainted because he was a sitting senator that the party was so bad that they wanted a complete outsider [1:47:15] with 18 days to go before this election day it appears the race is about to get even uglier [1:47:21] it's absolute doggies for president sinking deeper into the gutter now barack obama knew his legacy was on [1:47:27] the line from health reform to those executive actions but he believed the stakes were even [1:47:33] bigger and the nominees are neck and neck with a little more than two weeks until election day [1:47:37] donald trump is the representation of the anti-obama to embrace donald trump is a direct repudiation [1:47:46] of the universe that barack obama set in order if you wanted the exact opposite of barack obama [1:47:53] it's donald trump obama was cool trump is hot obama was cerebral and laid back trump is rough and in [1:48:02] your face obama's mr teleprompter donald trump is is a no card and no limits no boundaries no editing [1:48:14] obama's intellectual trump is emotional he has done such a lousy job as president i think he's the worst [1:48:23] president maybe in the history of our country i think he's been a disaster he's been weak he's [1:48:28] been ineffective the president decided to take trump on he headed out of the white house and onto the [1:48:35] campaign trail on behalf of hillary clinton is honoring president in the final weeks of the campaign [1:48:41] obama was very clear about what the stakes were he didn't mince words and he said that his entire [1:48:47] legacy was on the ballot what we've seen this election is a dark pessimistic vision of a country [1:48:56] where we turn against each other donald trump is uniquely unqualified to be president temperamentally [1:49:04] unfit to be commander-in-chief there's a lot of pretty harsh stuff that presidents and presidential [1:49:12] candidates say about one another but rarely do you hear them just out outright say he's a threat [1:49:19] to america and i don't think obama was being hyperbolic i think he believed that they're just [1:49:26] fanning resentment and blame and anger and hate and that is not the america we know that's not the [1:49:34] america i know the great irony of the obama presidency right as someone who came on the mandate [1:49:40] of changing washington as we know it someone who came on the mandate of ending this gridlock and this [1:49:46] polarization by his very presence and by his very humanity who he was the color of his skin the sound [1:49:53] of his name forced more polarization and gridlock than we had seen in the eight years prior today is [1:49:59] finally the day the presidential nominees have made their we're coming down to the first poll closings [1:50:04] right now and as we after a long contentious presidential race we are near the end you know [1:50:09] it's such a close race you just cannot call it right this night is turning out to be a real [1:50:14] nailed by donald trump is currently leading then on election night the president watched the votes [1:50:19] come in i wouldn't call anything encouraging for hillary clinton at the moment the clinton campaign [1:50:24] believed they had a lock on this i assume what what was going through the president's mind on election [1:50:28] night was shock surprise as it was throughout the democratic world and the clinton campaign and all [1:50:35] of her allies but for him it's very personal cnn projects donald trump wins the presidency donald trump [1:50:43] will be the 45th by daybreak the results were one of the largest upsets in u.s political history it had [1:50:50] been a clean sweep for republicans the house of representatives the senate and the white house [1:50:57] we've got republicans winning all three branches of government the white house senate and the house [1:51:01] so which the president's staff gathered to hear a statement good afternoon everybody it is no secret [1:51:08] that the president-elect and i have some pretty significant differences he obviously despised trump [1:51:14] i'm sure he was devastated if you saw the faces of the white house staff they were crushed and i had [1:51:19] a chance to invite him to come to the white house tomorrow to talk about making sure that there is a [1:51:25] successful transition between our presidencies all right thank you very much everybody barack obama was [1:51:33] elected on a promise to change washington and bridge divisions now he turns over the white house to a [1:51:40] new president promising his own change and hands over a country not more unified but increasingly more [1:51:49] divided more on this and other frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org slash frontline and divided [1:52:41] states of america is available on dvd to order visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs frontline is also available for download on itunes