heard of presidents doing, before. >> reporter: and demolishing expectations in behavior for a president of the united states. >> does working for president trump, ultimately, mean you have to agree with him, all the time? if you want to keep your job? a president, who seems to thrive in division. whether those who hate him or celebrate him. a look, now, at the moments that defined president donald j. trump's first term. the issues he vowed to tackle. >> build that wall. >> repeal and replace obamacare. >> these massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. get ready because you're going to be working your asses off. all right? >> reporter: the crises he has

faced. >> we will defeat the virus, and emerge stronger than ever before. >> reporter: hear from the people who were there. >> i was in the early meetings in the oval office. >> reporter: in the rooms, where it happened. why does he seem to like putin? this is a cnn special report. "fight for the white house, donald trump's presidency." >> together, we will crush the virus. >> reporter: against the backdrop of a global pandemic, president trump was making his case for a second term. and, from the looks of it, no real concerns about an extremely contagious and deadly virus. >> what the white house was trying to do was say, look, we believe that covid's gone, and

we want you to believe that, too. >> you saw donald trump try to sort of put lipstick on a pig last night with regard to the trump administration's response to covid. >> we will defeat the virus and the pandemic, and emerge stronger than ever before. >> i have witnessed him make some of the most difficult decisions of his life. >> reporter: but there might have been an accidental clue that this was not the whole story. >> thanks to advances, we have pioneered the fatality rate. >> reporter: pioneered the fatality rate? in fact, president trump and his administration have been pioneers of a mishandled response and flawed leadership, from the very beginning. >> new details on the deadly coronavirus outbreak in china, and spreading across the globe. >> reporter: as early as january, president trump was warned, during more than a dozen daily classified-intelligence briefings, about the novel coronavirus, according to "the

washington post." public-health officials were, also, briefing the president. "washington post" white house reporter and cnn contributor, josh dawsey. >> alex azar called the president and they talked about it briefly. and the president, soon, moved the conversation to vaping. and azar said to others that he was quite frustrated. >> i was in the early meetings in the oval office. >> kellyanne conway, however, tells a different story. >> he banned travel from china in january. >> nobody thought we should do it. zero cases. zero deaths. >> reporter: it was not a full ban on travel from china. tens of thousands of people were allowed to travel to the u.s., even after it was ordered. perhaps, more importantly, president trump was publicly dismissing the threat. with cdc efforts to come up with a test, botched. and no comprehensive effort to isolate the virus, nationwide. still, the president would continue to point to partial travel bans, to argue that he

was on the case. cnn's white house correspondent, kaitlan collins. >> if you talk to experts, by the time that the president put those in place, the virus was already circulating inside the united states. >> reporter: all of this was accompanied by a nearly-daily barrage of presidential lies. >> we have it totally under control. it's one person, coming in from china. >> we think we have it, very well, under control. >> the consensus among the -- his own health experts was that we needed to shift to a strategy of trying to limit the number of illnesses and deaths, instead of just trying to block it from entering the united states. >> according to "new york times" investigative reporter, eric lipton, february was a lost month. >> trump was unwilling to accept that advice. >> it will go away. just stay calm. it will go away. >> reporter: a message at odds with health experts. cases kept increasing and increasing. >> a coronavirus death toll that jumped, again, today. >> reporter: finally, on march 11th, the day tom hafrpnks and wife rita wilson became the

first high-profile americans to announce they tested positive, and the nba shut down its season. trump set out to reassure a very nervous nation. >> my fellow americans. >> the president was uncomfortable heading into it. >> "new york times" white house correspondent and cnn political analyst, maggie haberman. >> the president looked unfamiliar with the material, as he was reading it. it contained at least three errors. >> that speech was probably the single-most important moment in the u.s. response to the coronavirus. but for all the wrong reasons. >> reporter: cnn's abby phillip. >> it really highlighted that the administration was not prepared to deal with the crisis. >> reporter: it was an historic day on wall street. >> reporter: the next day, the new york stock exchange halted trading for 15 minutes, after the s&p 500 fell 7% on its way to a 10% loss, in one day. the white house scrambled to try to fix the errors. correcting the omission, that the ban trump announced on

anything coming from europe, actually, did not apply to american citizens or legal residents. and would not apply to goods. also, he was forced to clarify that insurance companies would waive co-payments for coronavirus testing, only, not treatments, as he had said. the next day. >> today, i am officially declaring a national emergency. >> reporter: the country had lost two months, really, to ramp up testing and production of key supplies, such as ppe or ventilators. >> he had that at his fingertips. >> reporter: president trump says presidential historian tim neftali could have nationalized the response and invoked the defense-production act to immediately force companies to manufacture what was needed. >> he had an opportunity, with covid-19, to use the enormous power of the presidency, in a moment of national crisis. >> reporter: governors were left to fend for their states. >> it was just mass pandemonium.

>> reporter: maryland republican governor, larry hogan. >> it was a 50-state strategy. some states, doing better than others. and really, a mad scramble to try to find these things. >> reporter: hogan secretly sourced half a million tests for his state from south korea. >> i asked the president about that at a briefing we had. >> could've saved a lot of money but that's okay. >> go to south korea for this? >> no, i don't think he needed to go to south korea. i think he needed to get a little knowledge would have been helpful. >> he assured me that testing was amazing in the united states. and the question was, well, if that's true, then, why is the governor of maryland having to go to another country? >> reporter: testing was lagging far behind, despite the president's spin. >> anybody that wants a test, can get a test. that's what the bottom line is. >> reporter: that was a lie. experts agree one of the singular reasons that we still have so many cases and so many deaths is because the u.s. lagged in its ability to identify the virus, through testing, and isolate it.

>> i said, earlier today, that i hope we can do this by easter. >> reporter: trump, then, tried to pressure governors to open up their states and economies. >> i really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states. >> what mistakes do you think have been made by the president? >> allowing some of the governors to make decisions and mayors to make decisions about whether and when to lock down and how to lock down. also, made this more fraught. >> it was not a health strategy. it was a political strategy. allowing the white house to blame the governors, no matter what, and accept zero responsibility. this, while the president, also, sought to undermine the nation's leading infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, for telling the truth. including, acknowledging the fact that the president's delay in action cost lives. >> obviously, you could logically say that, if you had a process that was ongoing, and you started mitigation earlier, you could've saved lives. obviously, no one is going to deny that.

>> reporter: the president tried to control the message. something that led to serious communication failures, such as minimizing the risk. >> young people are almost immune to this disease. >> reporter: pushing unproven, potentially dangerous, drugs to treat covid-19, such as high o hydroxychloroquine. >> what do you have to lose? say it again. what do you have to lose? take it. >> or this jaw-dropping moment. >> i see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. one minute. and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or -- or almost a cleaning? >> reporter: the president's briefings ended for a while, and he let the experts take the lead. he pushed guidelines on social distancing and wearing a mask. and he finally wore a mask, himself. the trump administration did, eventually, invoke the dpa for key supplies, such as testing swabs. progress has been made, when it comes to treatments. and the trump administration is

optimistic about developing a vaccine. >> dr. frances collins who spent decades at nih alongside anthony fauci. jake has said he's never seen therapeutics come together, so quickly, in the way that they are. >> reporter: but the facts sadly speak for themselves. the u.s., with less than 5% of the world's population, has a much higher case count and death count than the rest of the western world. the worst response, of any western, wealthy nation, according to this data. and it's not even close. and recently, the president seems to be back to undermining efforts to save lives. whether it's holding events with seemingly no social distancing or required mask wearing, or even mocking joe biden for wearing a mask, again. >> did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? >> reporter: we wanted to ask president trump about all of this, and more. but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. >> he views this virus as

standing in the way of him being re-elected. >> covid-19 was not of his making but covid-19 was his opportunity to be a great president. he looked at covid-19, and backed away, not wanting to take a chance. >> reporter: the quality donald trump values, perhaps, the most. that, when we come back.

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people have like a 10% loyalty. meaning, if they sneeze in the wrong direction, they're gone. loyalty. >> good morning, welcome to your new day. it is monday, december 19th. >> texas electors sealing the deal for donald trump. >> to make donald trump's victory official, today. >> reporter: it was the day trump's win was officially certified by the electoral college. the president elect was reportedly celebrating with top aides at his private club in palm beach, florida. the conversation turned to whom he should hire. >> they focused on campaign

advisers and supporters, who had been loyal to him during the 2016 campaign. at a time when most republicans were trying to distance themselves from him. >> that dinner's certainly been consistent with everything we have seen from this president. he has been obsessed. >> reporter: obsessed with loyalty. he always has been. here he is, in 1980. >> i learned that they were some great, loyal people. and i learned that there were some people that could have been more loyal, and those people, i have discarded totally. >> reporter: and once donald trump became president, he didn't just look for it, he demanded it. >> it's a tradition that presidents bring a little clique with them. whether it's the georgia mafia, jimmy carter. >> loyalty is not new in the white house. >> reporter: but trump's brand of loyalty was new. >> the trump people said,

essentially, if we can ever find that you publicly posted something negative about the president, you are very unlikely to get a position. >> i have never heard of that kind of vetting of people, for negative comments about the president in their past lives. >> reporter: his early hires were loyalists, throughout the campaign and in the early months of the presidency. he did hire a few one-time opponents, who had been loyal since. >> thank you, mr. president. >> including, secretary of housing and urban development, ben carson. >> our president, donald j. trump, he makes promises and he keeps them. >> reporter: and secretary of energy, former governor, rick perry. >> mr. president, i know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one. and you were. >> reporter: but it would not take long for president trump to learn others' loyalty was fleeting. >> very, very good idea who the leakers are. who the senior leakers are in

the white house. >> reporter: former white house communications director, anthony scaramucci, was hired six months into trump's presidency, to weed out disloyal leakers. >> there were three or four people that were probably the biggest leakers, and he wanted them gone. so the loyalty goes one way towards him. >> reporter: this demand for loyalty could be a problem, when it seemed to supersede ethics. >> loyalty means you do what i need you to do, even if it's unethical. you work for me. that may be a good strategy, if you run a small, private business. but it's absolutely unacceptable for a constitutional officer in a republic. >> he immediately tests you to see if you were going to be on his side or if you were going to be his enemy. >> reporter: it was an unfamiliar situation for someone such as andy mccabe, then-acting director of the fbi.

he had served four administrations at the fbi, for both republican and democratic presidents. >> as career government servants, dedicated, first and foremost, to the constitution and to the rule of law. those folks are not going to, simply, exceed to the president's will. >> does working for president trump, ultimately, mean you have to agree with him, all the time, if you want to keep your job? >> yeah, i think that's the case. they're going to do what they think is their job. and that is a very tough decision for people to make. and it's one that will, likely, bring you great, personal pain and sacrifice. and so, if you are committed to doing that work, you're likely going to run, headlong, into a conflict with president trump. >> i have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or

future investigations of any matter relating, in any way, to the campaign for president of the united states. >> reporter: for instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy. but, made one decision, you know, complying with ethics suggestions from doj and that's it. he's dead to president trump. >> he could run you over with a steamroller, at any time. i need you to do things, and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. >> reporter: perhaps, contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89% of his senior staff, trump's a-team, have left. that's more turnover than all of the past five presidents had in their entire first terms. and one more number. trump has had 40% of his top positions replaced, more than once. former white house press secretary, sean spicer.

>> there were some people that weren't qualified but they had been loyal to the president. >> reporter: and when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against president trump. >> it was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't read briefing reports. >> the only person in the military that mr. trump doesn't think is overrated is colonel sanders. >> reporter: the ultimate betrayal for trump, who resorted to name calling. former national security adviser, john bolton, a wacko. jim mattis, the world's most overrated general. rex tillerson, dumb as a rock. >> he had turn on them, in a really aggressive way. in a way, that i've never seen or heard of presidents doing, before. >> i think, you know, turnover

is natural in any white house. >> former trump adviser, david urban. >> i think this administration may be more high pressure, more issues that are -- are pressing. >> reporter: a demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win. repealing and replacing obamacare. >> we have so many unbelievable alternatives. much less expensive. >> i think donald trump believed that his iron grip on republican voters would get him all republican votes. >> reporter: two months after the trump inauguration, the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. and while the bill did make it through the house, the senate posed some issues. >> i think the bill would have to be fundamentally changed. >> reporter: the senate bill was known as skinny repeal, going into that vote in july 2017.

trump's hopes for success rested with arizona republican senator, john mccain. whom trump had attacked, for years. >> he's not a war hero. >> he's a war hero. >> he is a war hero. he is a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. >> senator mccain was sick, and he was heading out to arizona. i made the suggestion, maybe, we should go out there and see him on one of these trips that we were making. and president did not want to do that. >> reporter: in the early hours of july 28th, 2017, mccain arrived to vote. a singular motion, that left the senate chamber aghast and the white house reeling. >> it was incredibly personal. president trump holds on to grudges, and like he wants loyalty, he probably will never let that moment go.

>> reporter: for the rest of mccain's life, and long after his death, trump would attack him. >> i was never a fan of john mccain, and i never will be. >> reporter: something that trump would do to any republican that turned against him. >> well, jeb bush is a puppet to his donors. >> reporter: he has effectively chased many of his critics out of the republican party. >> the president has defied political wisdom, in bringing the party along with virtually everything that he has done for over four years, now, since he was a candidate. and he requires that loyalty. >> reporter: loyalty that would carry trump through many issues and crises in his first term. >> we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. >> reporter: from tax reform to judicial appointments to impeachment. >> the only good headline i've

ever had in "the washington post." >> reporter: more on those, later. but, first, when we come back, trump's economy. when the world gets complicated,

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we need a leader that wrote the art of the deal. >> reporter: donald trump came to washington, based on a promise. >> i'm a great dealmaker. that's what i do. i make a lot of money. i'm going to give it my best. >> i mean, we really haven't seen a whole lot of deals. he's actually, frankly, been more likely to walk away from deals or threaten to walk away from deals. >> that's charlie dent, who resigned in 2018, and in 2020, endorsed joe biden for president. >> i'm not blaming the president for this. this is congress's fault, in some respects. i never thought we should have left off with healthcare. >> the amendment is not agreed to. >> it's just the healthcare piece never really materialized, he was frustrated, and that's why he was returning back to his campaign-instinct mode. >> we want lower taxes, bigger

paychecks. >> reporter: the president was determined to strike a deal on tax cuts, by the end of his first year in office. >> there's never been tax cuts like what we're talking about. >> reporter: democrats railed against republicans for rushing a complicated overhaul of the tax system, through congress. >> it is about 500 pages, and they want us to vote on this thing in about an hour. an hour. >> reporter: some republicans, such as senator jeff flake of arizona, worried that a radical tax cut might inflate the national debt. >> at first, you were a holdout. one of the two key holdouts. what were your concerns? >> i would have felt it was a better option simply to lower the corporate tax, and leave individual rates as they were. but mine was not a popular opinion. >> reporter: at the 11th hour, senator flake reversed course, siding with president trump. >> in the end, as a whole, i thought it was a good package. >> reporter: the tax cuts and jobs act, the first major tax overhaul in more than three decades, passed the house, then

the senate, in late december, 2017. the bill promised to slash individual and corporate tax rates, increase wages, and boost business spending. >> these massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. >> reporter: some of that did happen. >> most americans saw a small increase in their take-home pay. some of them ended up with big tax bills, at the end of the year. and many americans felt that they just didn't get a tax cut. >> i can think of no better christmas present for the american people. >> reporter: experts say the tax bill was a much bigger present for companies. the corporate tax rate was slashed, from 35, to 21%. >> rana is cnn's global economic analyst. >> he sold this idea that, hey, these companies are going to bring back investment, now, from overseas. we are going to see new

factories. we're going to see hiring. well, some money did come back. about 700 billion or so. but the majority of it went into share buybacks. when companies go into the market and buy their own shares so it's great for the top 10%. but it doesn't change the story on main street. >> i would respond with a lot of disagreement. >> white house economic adviser, larry kudlow. >> the biggest beneficiaries of that 2017 bill, whose centerpiece was the business tax cuts, were actually middle-income, blue-collar workers, main street folks. they had the largest gains in wages. >> reporter: economists say the bill probably did help lift wage growth for many americans. overall momentum, that began under president obama. but the bulk of the trump tax bill benefit went to the rich. adding to that success, trump supporters say, near-record low unemployment. >> we are in the midst of the most positive job growth streak in history. >> and a booming stock market. >> the nasdaq has hit 9,000, for

the first time, ever. >> reporter: all true, for a while. >> there was a period, i think, if you were to interview the average corporate executive in the united states, where they felt more confident in their ability to make investments in the united states, as a result of trump. >> reporter: the dow jones hit more than 100 new highs between the 2016 election and the end of 2019. with the dow peaking at a record-breaking high of 29,551 points on february 12th, 2020, right before the coronavirus outbreak froze the u.s. >> the president lives and dies by the market. and so, anytime there's bad economic news, he does whatever he can to try and goose things. and he's done that by tax cuts. he's done it by trying to encourage interest rates to be kept low. pushing the fed around that. >> we've accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions. >> reporter: in september, 2018, president trump emboldened by america's economic growth and china's economic slowdown, ramped up his trade war with

beijing. imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of chinese goods entering the u.s. >> there was a need, certainly, to right size the relationship with the united states. but what the president did was he disavowed the strategies that were put forth by trade experts. >> the tariffs are not being paid for by our people. it's being paid for by china. >> no, the tariffs are being paid by american consumers, who have higher prices on consumer goods, that are being essentially taxed as they enter the united states. >> in retaliation? >> the chinese put pressure on iowa and nebraska. >> by placing tariffs on hundreds of american products, such as soybeans, hurting american farmers. >> this great dealmaker undermines american farmers, by going after the chinese. and in the end, has to get congress to send financial assistance to farmers. >> i think that the chinese were, at certain points, ready to come to the table. and actually, make some changes.

but oftentimes, right when a true deal might have been about to be cut, you'd see the president really ramping up that -- that really inflammatory rhetoric. >> it's got all different names. wuhan. kung flu. yeah. >> reporter: the president escalated his tariff roulette with china. >> well, it's a tricky business. we're very cross at them about denying the freedoms in hong kong, and breaking that long-standing treaty. president's cross with them, with respect to their lack of human rights and uighur problem. we're holding them accountable. >> reporter: but former national security adviser, john bolton, says president trump's recent sanctions on chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of uighur muslims contradicts his earlier stance. bolton, in his new book, alleges that during a meeting with president xi in japan, last year, president trump said, quote, xi should go ahead with building the camps. which bolton writes, trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. president trump denied that

accusation. >> i can't make sense of our policy where we're rhetorically tough on china, we're intermittently tough. >> richard haass under president george w. bush. he is now the president of the council on foreign relations. >> but in many areas, where we've been missing in action and we' we've sent inconsistent or weak signals. more significantly, we didn't join the trans-pacific partnership. if we want to put pressure on china, what better way than to join with all of our asia-pacific trading partners? >> to say foreign policies with china are working. >> there is a widespread belief that many, many reforms need to be made in china, in terms of technology transfer. in terms of theft of intellectual property. that this president concessions were able to get with president xi and the chinese, by imposing tariffs. the long-term legacy of this president, similar to nixon, will be china. >> reporter: that's a harder

case to make during a global health crisis. >> we're already in a recession. in fact, we're already in a depression, you know, technically. and the numbers are that bad. when you layer the problems of the pandemic on an economy that already had all these structural weaknesses, that doesn't add up to any kind of a good picture. >> reporter: but during his acceptance speech at the republican national convention, president trump was painting a rosy picture. >> over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that's a record in the history of our country. >> reporter: what the president failed to mention, those gains followed a record 22 million job loss over the previous two months. something else the president didn't cover. the enormous economic toll caused by his bungled pandemic response. >> we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major, western nation. >> reporter: the economy has been president trump's calling card his entire first term. >> goodness. look at those numbers there. down 7%. >> reporter: even as the shock

waves of the covid crisis hit wall street in march 2020. >> we are going to see a spread of economic start and stops. >> i do think, once we get rid of the virus, i think we're going to have a boom economy. >> the covid crash on wall street is officially over. >> reporter: yet, even as the virus continues to grip the country, it has not stopped the stock market from surging. >> the s&p 500 closed at a record-high, tuesday, for the first time since the pandemic began. >> it is the best time to talk about the economy. folks at the low end of the socioeconomic end of the spectrum need to know there's somebody that's going to focus on rebuilding the economy. this president's done it once and he will do it again, if re-elected. >> we will make america great, again. you've heard that before. >> reporter: up next. the reshaping of the federal judiciary. (upbeat music) - [narrator] this is kate.

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i've always heard, actually, that when you become president, the most single most important thing you can do is federal

judges. >> the court became an issue. it became a flash point. republican candidates have run against the supreme court. saying we want to roll back the liberalism of prior years. and donald trump went along for that ride. >> all right. i have some very sad news. united states supreme court justi justice scalia has died. >> he served on the court since 1986, and it looks like president barack obama is going to appoint a new member of the court, which would tip the liberal balance, for the first time in years, to the liberal side. >> reporter: cnn legal analyst. >> but what happens that actual night sets in motion, a series of dominos that produced the court we have today. >> reporter: though, leading in the polls trump was still considered a long shot.

but he knew the world would be watching later that night, as the gop presidential debate took center stage. so, he called his friend and legal adviser, don mcgahn. >> don mcgahn suggests some names that he could mention during the debate. most of them are veteran u.s. appeals court judges who, again, would be chosen by any republican president as potential candidates. >> a moment of silence for justice antonin scalia. >> it might seal the deal with conservatives. >> we could have a diane sykes or you could have a bill pryor. we have some fantastic people. >> you're okay with the president nominating somebody. >> i think he's going to do it, whether i'm okay with it, or not. i think it's up to mitch mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. it's called delay, delay, delay. >> that very first night, mitch mcconnell threw up a roadblock that stayed up and, frankly, even got taller. >> this nomination should not be

filled by this lame-duck president. >> barack obama had nearly 11 months left on his term. >> thanks, everybody. >> we're going to hold this seat hostage, and mitch mcconnell pulled it off. >> reporter: president obama's nominee, u.s. court of appeals chief judge garland, never even got a single hearing. >> outside adviser to the president for selection, leonard leo. >> leonard leo, co-chair of the conservative federalist society joined trump's team. >> he wanted to put out a list of individuals for the u.s. supreme court. >> one of the most important things we'll be doing, whoever the next president is, is naming judges. >> he wanted, first, someone who was, in his words, not weak. what that did was it basically said to the american people, this is what i, donald trump, stand for, in terms of judicial selection.

>> reporter: many felt that judicial selection campaign helped pave trump's path to the white house. with trump, now, in office and a republican-held congress, the small team of mcgahn, leo, and mcconnell, wasted little time. >> today, i am nominating judge neil gorsuch. >> reporter: the momentum did not stop there. when moderate republican and longtime jurist, anthony kennedy, retired in 2018. trump nominated young, conservative brett kavanaugh. to try to swing the court even further to the right but he was not expecting this. >> federal investigators will now be looking into a matter connected with federal judge brett kavanaugh's u.s. supreme court nomination. >> started off rather predictably. but then, woman by the name of christine ford came forward. >> i told leader mcconnell and others that i wouldn't vote to

advance his nomination, unless we heard from dr. ford. >> i believed he was going to rape me. i tried to yell for help. >> reporter: former arizona senator, jeff flake. >> brett kavanaugh. he acted as if, i think, i would have acted, had i felt that i'd been unjustly accused. >> i'm here today to tell the truth. i've never sexually assaulted anyone. >> reporter: down the street, at the white house, trump fired off a shot of his own. >> this is a big con job. and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing, how they fooled you all. >> reporter: following a week-long investigation, that critics of kavanaugh thought was too brief. >> charade. >> sham. >> bullies. >> reporter: kavanaugh was confirmed to the u.s. supreme court by a two-vote margin. >> the nomination of brett m. kavanaugh is confirmed. >> reporter: another victory for trump. another justice on the bench.

>> false charges. false accusations. and he toughed it out. >> reporter: while the supreme court confirmations grabbed headlines, something else was happening that, largely, went unnoticed by the public. >> district courts and the circuit courts. you know, it's one of those quiet things that focus across america don't, perhaps, grasp. the gravity of these courts all interpret the laws of our country, every day, in so many different ways. >> they identified 40 something, you know, conservative judges, and they jammed them through the senate, with incredible speed. >> reporter: speed and strategy. because mcconnell blocked so many obama nominees, trump inherited 103 vacancies. astoundingly, the president has appointed almost one-third of all current appellate court judges. >> much of the law in america is set by the federal courts of appeals. >> that is probably one of the very few things that helps republicans justify why they

support him. is that he got the judges they wanted confirmed and put in place. >> reporter: that means controversial issues, such as abortion, gun control, healthcare, immigration, and racial and same-sex discrimination, cases that could very likely be ruled on by trump appointees. largely, young, white, male, conservative judges. serving lifetime appointments. but perhaps, none of those issues will have the global impact, such as the rulings we will see dealing with the environment. >> farmers, get ready, because you're going to be working your asses off. all right? >> reporter: a long-held republican belief. the message was clear. trump was going to roll back environmental regulations that, he said, hurt businesses. >> i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy. and to cancel job-killing regulations. >> it was considered a slap in the face. >> reporter: former epa director, betsy sutherland,

remembers trump signing an executive order to dismantle obama's signature clean power plan, signed at the epa. >> it was, absolutely, a display of sheer contempt for all the scientists, engineers, and economists that have worked on that rule for years and years. >> reporter: trump's newly appointed epa administrator, scott pruitt, was full steam ahead. >> the war on coal is done. it's over. >> and this would be just the beginning. >> the united states will withdraw. >> reporter: i was surprised we stepped away. >> former epa director christine todd whitman. >> it was in sync with his total denial. it was a hoax, yet in his mind, everybody can see it. we all see it, the changes in the environment. >> reporter: warning shots to

environmental agencies everywhere, deregulation had arrived. >> you can have clean air, clean water, safe skies but do it in a way that does not strangle businesses. >> every single man, woman, child in this country has threatened drinking water, threatened fisheries, threatened air quality and more contaminated land because of this administration. >> donald trump's administration really doesn't want regulators in your life, in my life, in anybody's life, so their philosophy is to diminish regulations. >> reporter: trump is banking on voters agreeing with that philosophy when they cast their ballots in november, a philosophy and legacy that could very well be defined by the legacy of the judges he is appointi appointing. >> i don't think any doubt he will be seen by the judges he

appointed. >> they're likely to affect the law in america for our children and our grandchildren long after donald trump is gone from this earth. >> reporter: coming up, trump's divisive stand on immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists. - hey, can i... - safe drivers save 40%!!!

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we are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. >> reporter: long before the rally chants in the 2016 campaign -- >> build that wall, build that wall, build that wall. >> reporter: donald trump believed immigration was the issue that would help land a republican back in the white house. >> they've lost on immigration. they have to do something on immigration because, you know, our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. we'll see what happens. >> reporter: what happened three years later? donald trump entered with a

harsh if not blatantly racist stand on illegal immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists and some, i assume, are good people. it was an unscripted moment says the author of "border wars." >> businesses started dumping trump. nbc dropped him from the apprentice, macy's stopped selling his men's wear. >> it's a shock to many meshes and frankly republicans. >> reporter: solidifying a base especially energized to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out. candidate trump proposed one of the most shockingly bigoted policies, stark discrimination based upon religious observance.

unconstitutional and hate filled. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> reporter: and trump was clear once he got into the united states he would not back down. >> we've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own. >> he signed this executive order which was a travel ban on these roughly half a dozen muslim majority countries and the idea was basically to catch people by surprise, to basically create confusion, to create mayhem. >> reporter: chaos has of course rippled across the country. sean spicer was kpleecomplainint members of the media was unfairly using the word ban. >> not everyone was on board and that makes it challenging in the communique why you're doing it. >> after many months of revising they did put in effect stricter

vetting procedures for a large number of countries so i think they saw it as sort of a qualified success. >> reporter: what was seen as an unqualified failure, the trump administration's family separation policy. >> if you cross the border unlawfully, even a first offense, we're going to prosecute you. if you're smuggling a child, we're going to prosecute you and that child will be separated from you probably as required by law. >> reporter: a zero tolerance policy enforcing a law that had long been on the books but had never been enforced in a widespread manner. >> children are being held on the border with mexico. >> reporter: it led to thousands of children being separated from their families. nonstop horrors stories of children crying for their parents alone and scared. >> immigrants are welcome here. >> when trump first started to hear the stories, he didn't want

to be seen as the monster who would take children away from their parents. >> reporter: almost two months after it began trump ended his own policy, one that his own white house pushed with an executive order. >> ivanka feels very strongly, my wife feels very strongly about it. i feel very strongly about it. >> reporter: a lot of trump supporters think that was one of the lower moments of his presidency. >> well, look, i think as a nation we can do far better, we owe people as human beings a better shake than they got. >> reporter: in the wake of this crisis trump was looking for a way to turn the page and rally his base as he headed into the mid term elections. >> they marched for miles, thousands of migrants in a massive caravan. >> reporter: it was the summer of 2018 and the president's hard lined policies alone had failed to prevent undocumented immigrants from coming to the southern border. >> we're getting prepared for the caravan, folks. you don't have to worry about that. they've got a lot of rough

people in those caravans. >> reporter: he lashed out at officials for not stemming the tide. >> he saw this as potentially fatal for them. >> the president went out and barn burned for republicans on caravans and immigration and the result would show that maybe backfired. they lost the house overwhelmingly. >> reporter: the hype and lies about the caravan led into a deranged antithey the particular problem about the jews. 11 lives were lost. it also brought violence to a walmart in el paso where 20 people were killed and more than two dozen injured by a man whose racist hatred was aimed at immigrants and latinos. president trump said ending daca

would threaten the livelihood of the dreamers. >> i will immediately terminate president obama's illegal executive order on immigration. >> reporter: but after the inauguration he seemed to soften. >> he was getting a lot of private counsel that ending daca would be a total disaster. >> daca is a very, very difficult subject for me, i will tell you. >> reporter: as early as january 9th, 2018, president trump had an opening during a bipartisan meeting on immigration. >> we're here today to advance bipartisan immigration reform. >> reporter: democratic senator dick durbin was seated next to the president. >> he was saying things that did not fit into the republican platform when it came to immigration. >> republicans were not going to vote for a bill that simply gave legal status to the dreamers without something in exchange. >> i'll take the heat. send me a bipartisan bill.

>> reporter: that's what they did but when they presented it to trump two days later at the white house, everything changed. >> they get to the point where it comes to talking about parts of africa, trump stops the conversation and says, why do we want all of these people here from shithole countries. >> that was the end of the conversation. >> reporter: ultimately when it came to the president and immigration, the hard line views went out. so is the zero tolerance policy many thought were done. according to miles taylor, the former chief of staff at the department of homeland security under trump, the president wanted to reinstate the zero tolerance policy. >> he said he wanted to go further and have a deliberate policy of ripping children away from their parents to show those parents they shouldn't come to the border in the first place.

>> reporter: something chad wolf denies. >> i think most reasonable americans understands what that is. it's politics and nothing more. >> reporter: there's no debate that as he approaches the 2020 election, he still has hard lined policies on legal and illegal immigration. he's still selling the wall that he said mexicans would pay for. >> we're up to 122 miles. >> reporter: only five miles of wall has been built where no wall existed before. the rest is replacement wall. no, mexico is not paying for it. it's been paid for by congress and reallocating military funds. ken cuccinelli. looking back on it, how has president trump delivered on this important pledge of his to his voters. >> he has delivered on that promise, whether it's building hundreds of miles of the wall system that has proven effective where it's been built. that continues at an ever

accelerating pace or whether it is applying our laws across the border to degree of consistency and with a strength that just really hasn't happened in the past. >> reporter: if any president could achieve a real comprehensive immigration solution combining border security and dealing with undocumented immigrants in the u.s., it would be president trump but he has chosen to focus on the divisions and not a solution. >> found a way to divide america, to appeal to fear and hate and to create images of people coming to this country which were totally untrue and unfair. >> reporter: trump the divider goes international when we come back. supplements... neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory... focus... accuracy... learning and concentration. try it today with our money-back guarantee! we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation.

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>> momentarily the president-elect, donald trump, will be arriving here at the white house. >> it's assumed that the president and his team will help give their successors a good start. >> try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful. >> reporter: from the get-go president-elect trump was warned by the outgoing president that north korea was going to be a major headache for him. >> and he was agitated about how to handle it and so you would see him lashing out because of that anxiety. >> breaking news this hour. just hours ago north korea launched another missile. >> north korea's nuclear ambitions are becoming more dangerous by the day. >> the president is at his new jersey club. typically when we go with the president to his golf club on

the weekend, he doesn't hold an event unless something big has happened. so they invite reporters in to see the president. he is asked about north korea. >> north korea best not make anymore threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> reporter: these were not pre-planned remarks and you can kind of see the looks on the faces of the people next to them. not just melania trump but also kellyanne conway and the other officials, they're kind of like -- and i'm not sure even his own staff knew what to say. >> i thought initially it was pursuant to a strategy and unlike the obama administration which after eight years of strategic patience had left north korea much closer to achieving its objective of deliverable nuclear weapons. what i found when i arrived at the white house, it wasn't part of any strategy at all.

it was just the way he felt on the days he made those remarks. >> reporter: trump sooned upped the ante in his first speech at the united nations. >> if it is forced to defend itself for its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. >> well, there is something to what was referred to here in the nixon era as the madman theory. >> let's talk about north korea. >> you can gain strategic advantage by being seen as a madman and for them not to know what you're going to do next. >> the folks at foggy bottom who are there for eons prefer to go very, very slowly, steadily. >> reporter: the idea that president trump has been unpredictable, a lot of long-time diplomats obviously are not a fan of it.

>> they take him much more seriously because he does things that others talked about but never do. >> there's no comparing how trump operates to any other president. it is completely disruptive and different than anything you've ever seen before. >> reporter: such as in israel, first moving the embassy to jerusalem and thus recognizing it as the capital. >> administration after administration after administration pledged to do that. you had a president who was able to do that because he was not con strantd and bound by the more traditional norms of if you do that, our adversaries are going to be upset. the president said, so what, we're going to do it because it's the right thing to do. >> reporter: that's not all he was able to accomplish. >> we've finalized a peace deal between israel and the united arab emirates. >> how important do you think this is? >> the israeli uae agreement is the first agreement of its kind

in 26 years. due to the president's leadership and patience and vigilance in changing the dynamic, instead of talking about age-old conflicts, what he's trying to do is do things other presidents haven't done. >> reporter: the theory goes might disrupting the status quo work for the north korean dictator? >> he wanted to get into a room with kim jong-un and negotiate. >> i thought it was a bad idea. it provided kim jong-un visibili visibility, legitimacy. >> reporter: they met three times and exchanged letters. >> he wrote me beautiful letters. they were great letters. we fell in love. >> they got straight into donald trump's brain and he's convinced they were friends. >> there are people who are commentators, former officials who thought everything else has been tried, let's give this a

shot. >> there he is on north korean soil. >> we gave north korea 2 1/2 more years to achieve success. >> the president yanked rug out in part under our south korean ally by among other things unilaterally agreeing to the suspension of large u.s./south korean military exercises. >> north korea may have doubled its arsenal during the trump presidency. >> all in all north korea looks at these four years and goes, not bad at all. >> reporter: particularly with the damaged relationship of u.s. allies. >> it upset our allies. >> i don't think it's much of an exaggeration that the president gets it upside down and backwards. >> justin trudeau, nice guy, but they've taken advantage of us for so many years. >> the european allies seems so

nice, but they are brutal. >> reporter: whether it's bullying or back gerg allies or pulling out of long standing trade agreements -- >> we just officially terminated tpp. >> i just got us out of the disgusting iran nuclear deal. >> we will be terminating our relationship with the world health organization. >> reporter: even hinting that he might pull the u.s. out of nato if allies do not pay their fair share. >> what this misses more than anything else, jake, is the strategic advantage of american foreign policy. we get up every day and what we have are dozens and dozens of allies and partners in europe, asia and around the world. >> reporter: allies president trump has neglected and in some cases abandoning. >> we are going to be leaving and bringing our soldiers back home. >> reporter: such as u.s. troops in northern syria. >> we're policing.

we're not fighting, we're policing. we're in the a police force. >> reporter: in the face of widespread criticism that he abandoned a reliable u.s. ally, the kurds -- >> america first. the president looks out what's in the best interest of our country. it doesn't mean america alone -- >> the president took office in early 2017. the situation he inherited was daunting. american foreign policy had made mistakes. all of that is true, but before you tear things up, before you disrupt them, you have to be sure you have something better. >> reporter: and in some cases trump did get something better, such as replacing nafta with a new trade deal between the u.s., dan and mexico. >> the usmca is the largest, most fair, most balanced trade agreement ever achieved. >> even nancy pelosi agreed. >> there is 2340 doubt this is

much better than nafta. >> reporter: when it comes to nato. >> we're also getting our allies, finally, to help pay their fair share. >> why did all these presidents, you ask, promise to make the nato countries pay more for the common defense and he's the one, president trump is the one that has $130 billion more from those countries to provide for the common defense? >> might not have been pretty, made us any friends but it benefitted the country and the workers, so i think there's a balance. >> but it's a balance that some worry might swing in the wrong direction. >> president trump if re-elected will be one of the most consequential presidents in american history and he will have done more than most of his predecessors to have changed the world and as a result to have changed the united states and my fear is that it will be largely for the worst. time will tell trump's legacy and the u.s.'s new standing in the world. one issue that continues to

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after three years of lies, smears and slappeder, the russia hoax is finally dead. >> reporter: but the russia story has never really died. >> the collusion delusion is over. >> reporter: we know now that was not what the muller report had concluded. the special counsel was not able to find any prosecutable evidence proving conspiracy, but the white house has continued to misrepresent the finding to the public. >> it was an illegal witch hunt. i call it the russian hoax. >> reporter: it was not a hoax. before election day 2016, this just into cnn, russian hackers -- russia infiltrated the democratic national committee's computer program and the email account of john podesta. back then trump cheered on the hackers. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the

30,000 emails that are missing. >> reporter: lodge ger stone hinted that he had advance knowledge of the email releases raising questions of possible cooperation between trump associates and russia. >> there's no telling what the october surprise may be. >> reporter: indeed, october 7th, 2016, the same day another story broke. >> hello. how are you? hi. >> reporter: the infamous ""access hollywood"" tape caught on a hot mic making crude, vile comments about women had surfaced. minutes after that news -- >> any drip of stolen emails being released. >> reporter: reports of another bombshell. wikileaks published the emails stolen. >> first time we've ever seen anything like that. there was plenty of evidence linking trump allies and moscow. >> reporter: the release of an

email chain between donald trump jr. and this man. >> reporter: during the 2016 campaign, donald trump jr., jared kushner and others met with a russian lawyer at trump tower. >> the russian lawyer was offering dirt on hillary clinton and junior said, if it was what you say it is, i love this. it was not, i don't want to hear this. >> reporter: they say that trump campaign chairman paul manafort was a grave counter intelligence threat and had shared inside information with a russian agent. >> during the transition the president began discussing his first meeting with vladimir putin and two of his officials around him were concerned. they just interfered in the election. you don't go and meet with the russians early in the presidency. >> reporter: we wanted to ask president trump about his relationship with president putin but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. >> then what happened with general flynn was troubling as well. >> reporter: just three weeks

after entering office, talk of russia intensified when the president fired national security advisor michael flynn. flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about the nature of his contacts with russia but later claimed he had been pressured into a plea deal by prosecutors. in may 2017 fbi director james comey, who was leading the investigation into moscow meddling -- >> there's james. >> reporter: -- was fired by president trump. >> he's become more famous than me. >> reporter: comey had not seen it coming. >> welcome to donald trump. he changes his mind. >> reporter: the president had blindsided his own press secretary at the time, sean spicer. >> let's just relax, enjoy the night. we rushed it out. we had no one to back it up. we didn't have a strategy to do it in a way that was effective and it showed. >> all of a sudden, bang, now we're wide awake. that made inevitable some kind of independent inquiry. >> reporter: inquiry to consider

whether president trump's behavior constituted a possible threat to national security and whether the president might be secretly working on behalf of moscow and president putin. that spark'd the appointment of special counsel robert mueller. >> he said, i've heard you were part of the resistance. >> reporter: andrew mccabe replaced james comey. i said, i'm not sure what you were talking about. i heard, you were one of the people that didn't agree with jim comey. no, that was not true. he was looking for me to adopt his false narrative. >> reporter: the president's false narrative that comey was fired for mishandling the clinton email probe. >> we have to consider was he truly fired because the president didn't want us to continue investigating this idea of russian collusion. >> reporter: investigators felt confident of that after president trump said this on primetime tv. >> in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia

thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. >> it's ridiculous. it's ridiculous. >> reporter: a ridiculous probe the president attempted to discredit in an extraordinary moment. >> mr. president, i'll give this ball to you and now the ball is in your court. >> it was july 16th, 2018. >> being in helsinki for president trump's press conference with vladimir putin is one thing i will never forget for the rest of my life when he says that he talked to vladimir putin, that he believed him. >> he just said, it's not russia. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> vladimir putin, former kgb agent, for the president who take his word like that was so stunning. >> why does he seem to like putin despite the fact that putin is perhaps the primary enemy of the united states? >> i think the president repeatedly confuses having good personal relationships with

foreign leaders with having good overall bilateral relationships between the two countries. >> reporter: trump's public allegiance to president putin, according to former national security advisor john bolton, has led the president to resist intelligence warnings about russia. >> reporter: what was it like briefing snim. >> it was clear he wasn't reading much of the material sent so i tried to be opportunistic in finding circumstances where i could convey information i felt that he needed, but i don't think that proved very successful. >> i've been in briefings many times where the president is being briefed on everything from national issues, security issues. he's a listener. people miss how patient he is. i think that comes from being a deal maker. >> reporter: bolton left the white house last september but the aversion of negative news to russia caused an issue this year after reports surfaced that he had ignored intelligence that he

may have paid bounties to taliban terrorists to kill members in afghanistan. >> it never reached my desk. >> reporter: president trump has denied that over and over and when pressed about it again in july, he said he did not raise the topic during a recent call with president putin. >> did you bring up that issue? >> no, that was a phone call to discuss other things and, frankly, that's an issue that many people said was fake news. >> reporter: although there continues to be disagreement within the intelligence community on this matter, some experts saying it is likely very zbleel what's not plausible is that the president was not briefed on this or that a senior lieu ten nentsz, national security advisor and others, they were clearly briefed on this and that they wouldn't have talked about it with the president. i think what this does is highlight a pattern, unwillingness to confront russia. >> trump supporters say critics are ignoring the president's military efforts to deter

russian aggression. >> 750 million marines on permanent rotation in norway for the first time since world war ii. the expanded military operations in the arctic challenging russians there. the projection of force into poland. >> the fact that in certain areas administration policy is more robust, i applaud. let's not overlook the bottom line, that in many areas this administration has essentially given mr. putin way too much of a free hand. here you have a russia that is violating american sovereignty not with bombs, not with missiles, but through the digital space. >> reporter: in january 2019 roger stone was indicted for his dealings with the hacked emails, charged with lying to congress and witness tampering. stone was, months later, convicted by a federal jury on seven counts. after a nearly two-year investigation, the muller report was released in april 2019

netting dozens more criminal charges and indictments. >> one of the biggest take aways was just how many of the president's allies got swept up in these probes. >> reporter: including former trump campaign chair paul manafort who was convicted on eight counts of campaign fraud and george papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. the muller team found evidence of at least ten potential instances of trump himself obstructing justice yet the special counsel could not find prosecutable evidence of conspiracy with russia. >> no obstruction, no collusion, no nothing. >> reporter: a false trump mantra. coming up, another white house issue. >> i'm the first president to ever get impeached for no crime. >> and the russian mantra. it removes up to 95% of surface stains.

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i'm the first person to ever get impeached. there's no crime. they call it impeachment light.

>> reporter: this is a matter of history but it was anything but light. >> oh, was it ever a big deal. >> reporter: yet this was no watergate. >> i was appalled. >> richard nixon tried to make his defense, i didn't participate in a coverup. that's what got him. >> here is a president waving good-bye. >> there was no question about the illegal activity. donald trump tried to make this issue moot. >> reporter: the president and attorney general bill barr hammered that in an attempt to unravel the muller report even though that is not what the special counsel reported and now came ukraine. >> my phone call was perfecto. it was totally appropriate. >> reporter: that call ultimately led to his impeachment. >> tonight the white house whistle-blower. >> reporter: a whistle-blower's report alleged that in a phone call with the ukrainian president, president trump pressured the foreign leader to

announce an investigation into his likely democratic opponent, joe biden. >> it really seems to lay out a quid pro quo. >> the whistle-blower got it all wrong. >> reporter: also in that report, president trump pressuring ze lynn ski to look into a bogus theory. >> it's an honor to be with you. >> reporter: it is such a plain abuse of presidential power. nancy pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry. >> the house will be in order. >> reporter: in december 2019 the house ganim peachment hearings focused on ukraine unveiling two charges against president trump, abuse of power and the obstruction of congress. >> speaker pelosi knew that there was no way that donald trump was going to be convicted. no president has ever been convicted because the bar in the senate is so high. >> reporter: a string of witnesses testified. many of them foreign service

officials, diplomats who corroborated the whistle-blower complaint. >> was there a quid pro quo. >> they got the u.s. ambassador to the european union. the answer is yes. >> do you swear or affirm -- >> fiona hill was with the national security council before she stepped down. >> she really laid out how the president was being driven by conspiracy theories. >> reporter: democrats had many solid witnesses but they failed to land the testimony on the pivotal quid pro quo question from john bolton. >> that was a big thing because the question was are there enough firsthand witnesses to the president's behavior. >> the ayes are 230 -- >> reporter: a week before christmas the house impeached the president on both articles. >> article one is adopted.

>> reporter: it was a historic time. >> fair process drew a sharp contrast. the unfair inquiry that was carried on. >> the senate majority went into this ready to end it almost as soon as it began. >> reporter: the senate impeachment trial began on january 16th, 2020, lasting two weeks. >> donald trump's legal team was very effective. >> you are being asked to remove a duly elected president of the united states, to do it in an election year, in an election year. >> the ayes are 49, the nays are 51. >> all but two senate republicans blocked a dramatic vote to call witnesses. it helped pave the way. john bolton, who had been criticized by democrats for not testifying willingly in the house impeachment hearings, spoke out months later in a scathing tell all that confirmed

the basics of the democrat's impeachment case. >> most of us understood there was a quid pro quo when gordon sand land testified. >> everyone was in the loop? >> i think that's right. some of us were trying to stop it and mark esper, the secretary, mike pompeo were all trying to get trump to release the security assistance to ukraine. we probably tried eight or ten different meetings with the president to do that. one such conversation i had with him and that was the point where he made the clearest statement that i heard that describes a quid pro quo. >> you said if you were a republican senator you would have voted to convict? >> on that basis, yes. >> mr. scott of florida, not guilty. >> reporter: on february 5th senators voted 48 to 52 on the abuse of power charges and 47 to 53 on obstruction of congress, far below the necessary

threshold for removing the president. >> my fate is at the heart of who i am. >> senator mitt romney was the only republican to break ranks and vote to convict on abuse of power. still, the president was acquitted. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> reporter: the day after the president's acquittal. >> this is what the end result is. >> he acted like someone who was further emboldened in everything we have seen of him since. >> reporter: the president began escalating his attacks against investigators. >> it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars and this should never, ever happen to another president ever. >> reporter: no, it was not. it was his own behavior that got him in trouble. he ramped up dismissals firing lieutenant colonel alexander vin man and gordon sandland.

then president trump began challenging the rule of law to help his convicted friends. >> i'm actually i guess the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> reporter: five days after his acquittal the president publicly berated a sitting judge. >> this is unprecedented to have the president talk about this. >> reporter: stone had been convicted of seven felony crimes in the russian probe. his sentencing played out. attorney general william barr accused of doing trump's bidding when he overruled his own justice department prosecutors pushing a lighter sentence for roger stone. >> and that's what you did. >> no. >> roger stone was treated horribly. >> reporter: then president trump using the power of his office commuted roger stone's sentence altogether. >> the attorney general just weeks before that said he believed the prosecution was

righteous and the sentencing was fair. >> stone had just been days away from beginning a 40 month prison sentence. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you for saving my life. >> reporter: it wasn't the first time the president had intervened to help a convicted ally. early in his term, he fired michael flynn for lying about his contacts with russia. >> he had not only lied to the fbi agents but he also lied to the vice president, mike pence, and then of course he pleads guilty to precisely just that. >> reporter: months before he was acquitted he reversed course accusing the fbi of framing flynn. >> they treated him very unfairly is so striking given that mike flynn lied to mike pence's face. >> reporter: even more striking, the justice department under the direction of bill barr filed a motion to drop the criminal

charges against mike flynn. >> you had this outside pressure campaign. >> reporter: flynn's case is in the hands of the washington, d.c., circuit court of appeals. >> in your book you talk about it as obstruction of justice as a way of life. >> right. that's why i discussed what i knew. >> reporter: such as, bolton alleges, another shocking instance of a quid pro quo. this time with china. >> you say that he also asked president xi for help in getting re-elected? >> right. to purchase agricultural products from the farm states whose electoral votes that we needed, and that happened on a couple of occasions. all of which he said i did him a favor. firing him like the sick puppy he is. bolton left after working for a president he ultimately deemed

unfit. >> every president takes decision making into their own hands. the problem is, he crossed a line that i never thought was going to happen in american history. coming up, how will history judge this president? grandfathe, leading armies to battle? was that your great-aunt, keeping armies alive? drafting the plans. taking the pictures. was it your family members? who flew. who fixed. who fought. who rose to the occasion. when the world needed them most. (♪) find and honor your ancestors who servered in world war ii. their stories live on at ancestry. we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go.

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no. no, i'm not a racist. i am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. >> good evening. i'm alice johnson. i was once told that the only way i would ever be reunited with my family would be at the cross. >> reporter: it was an emotional and memorable moment at the republican national convention. >> i'm going to sign it right now. >> reporter: johnson was pardoned by president trump after serving 21 years after a first time nonviolent drug trafficking charge. >> six months after president trump granted me a second chance he signed the first step act into law. it was real justice reform. >> reporter: that moment was an opportunity to showcase an

important accomplishment but also an effort to get people to forget the many things that president trump has said and done that have stoked divisions, including racial divisions in the u.s. such as on the first monday in june, 2020. >> in some ways that afternoon shaped up to be one of the more iconic images of the presidency. >> reporter: president trump had spent the weekend watching non-stop news coverage of the protests following the killing of george floyd by a minneapolis police officer. >> when the protests got underway two nights ago, the president was taken down to an underground bunker in the united states. >> the president was so irritated by that reporting because he feared it made him look weak. >> the streets of washington were becoming, in his mind,

increasingly embarrassing for him. >> reporter: so monday morning president trump crashed vice president pence's weekly coronavirus call with the governors. >> you have to dominate. if you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. they're going to run over you. you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. >> it was a stunning moment. he used this as some kind of call to action. >> if they were not going to dominate, trump would. >> his advisers hatch an idea. there was a fire that started in the basement of st. john's church right across the street from the white house. >> st. john's church is on fire. >> they decide they will have the president go to this church. >> he came out to the rose garden and gave this fiery speech. >> in recent days our nation has been gripped by arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, antifa and others. >> black lives matter. >> reporter: in the background, mostly peaceful protestors.

they were being forcibly, sometimes violently removed from nearby lafayette park. >> our initial thinking was that they had moved the protesters from out in front so you could not hear them in the rose garden. then you see him leave the white house surrounded by his aides and military leaders. >> president trump now walked across the street. >> gets in front of a church and he holds up a bible, doesn't pray, doesn't tour the church. it was such a mesmerizing political moment. >> saying like i am on god's side. god is on my side. i am in the right here. >> i am outraged. >> reporter: few agreed. >> this was a charade. >> this is james mattis just a little while ago. donald trump is the first

president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the american people. >> i should not have been there. >> thank you very much, everybody. keep it nice and safe. >> was it worth the blowback, do you think ultimately? >> i want to go back to what the original intent was. he wanted to go there and take a stand. >> reporter: a stand that would become more and more disconnected from the pain and furor that had grown since floyd's murder. >> thank you very much. it's a very big day for our country. >> reporter: june 5th in the rose garden announcing a comeback and announcing equal treatment for every american. >> hopefully george is looking down saying this is a great thing happening for our country. >> reporter: hours later retweeting a post saying the fact that floyd has been held up as a martyr sickens me. >> instead of trying to lean into wanting to unify the country or bring in a more

diverse constituency to his base. he leaned in in the upper direction. >> reporter: most people believe this remains a big problem in the u.s., donald trump went on offense in a way many found offensive. reminiscent of five years prior when he said many mexicans were rapists and criminals. >> they're rapists. it's 1:00 in the morning and a very tough ombre is breaking into the window of a young woman. >> not unlike when he refused to condemn all of those marching at the unite the right rally in charlottesville in 2017. >> very fine people on both sides. >> reporter: prompting his top economic advisor at the white house, gary cohn to say, quote, this administration can and must do better in consistently and

unequivocally condemning these groups and now also attacking the movement to remove confederate statues. >> reporter: also this, at a time when asian-americans are being unfairly attacked because of the coronavirus pandemic. >> kung flu. >> it's hard to believe there is an american president who pushes the envelope at every opportunity in the racist. >> incendiary language. he's scaring americans about other americans. >> reporter: even retweeting a white nationalist's video of a white man violently shoving a white woman. former trump homeland security official elizabeth knew man. >> white nationalism, anti-government, extremist ideas have been growing for quite some time in this country and his

divisive rhetoric is fuel on that fire and it makes us less safe. >> reporter: trump would declare himself the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> i am your president of law and order. >> he deployed federal officers around the nation, often in conflict with local law enforcement, especially in states run by democratic governors. >> this is obviously a move that has prompted criticism not just from the nancy pelosi's and chuck schumers of the world, but from former dhs secretaries. were do this? >> the president has never objected to protesters and demonstrators. the objection is to those who riot, loot and commit violence. >> in reality the president thinks that there is an advantage to him highlighting conflicts, showing a force of strength by law enforcement against protesters. he believes this is going to help them. >> reporter: help him win.

president trump has survived and even thrived by spreading distrust and insighting division, even racism. he has gone largely unchecked by his party. >> i love you all. god bless you. >> reporter: republicans happy with so many of the policies and afraid of his wrath seem to almost expect and accept this from president trump. >> the president is not responsible for systemic racism, but he has thrown accelerant on all the factors in society that have had the potential to explode for a long time. >> reporter: this is something that he and his close advisers dispute on the record. >> i have never, ever heard that man say anything untoward based on race in my experience. >> reporter: yet it seems in stark contrast to a well-established pattern we have all witnessed throughout his presidency. >> he says things and tweets things that you would never even think about for a congresswoman

in the united states, three of them, telling them to go back where they came from and fix those countries even though they're all-american citizens and three are born here. i could go on and on but i won't. he hurts himself when he does these things, doesn't he? >> i understand when he sees that. you need to tweet like we eat which is about better choices. sometimes i have a kale salad, sometimes i have the brownies, it all balances out. >> reporter: but does it? racism is not brownies. white supremacy is not dessert. donald trump is not a private businessman or a reality television star anymore, he's president of the united states of america. every move he makes watched, analyz analyzed. every comment does matter. his words do matter and it will be those words and those deeds that will ultimately be the true

legacy of president donald j. trump. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm robyn curnow. 0% contained. raging wildfires trapped hikers on a mountain. we'll have updates from a fire official on the ground. also, back to school for millions of american students. we'll tell you what scientists know about the covid risks to children as parents make choices between the education. president trump is accusing military leaders of wagging war.