>> narrator: tonight-- >> this country goes into 2020s as dividit's ever been. >> nartor: from frontline's award-nning political team-- a two-night special series. crars of reporting investigating the conflicts ansing the divide. >> people were angry. >> ...cascade outrage. >> outrage machine... >> are they going to start storming the gates?ra >> nartor: frontline begins it's 2020 political coverage with the epic story of how we got re. >> the nation's first african american president... divion defined bckade of obama. >> we will change the course... >> narrator: and donald trump. >> make america great again! >> the third president in u.s. history to be impeached...

>> today there's just a lack of respect. ito assume the other sidenot just the political opponent, bu themy. >> and what this produces is two americas that are separate not only in their partisan affiliation, but in pretty much everything. >> narrator: tonight on frontline- part one of "america's great divide". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your s station from viewers like you. thank you.ra and by the coron for public broadsting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macahur foundation, committe to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. and by the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of cial change worldwide. adtional support is provided by the abrams foundation committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and

spires.si the heisinns foundation: unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from laura debonis and scott nathan. >> i remember when barack obama got the call, uh, thats going to make the keynote speech at the democraticonvention in 2004. and as soon as he hung up the phone, he turned to me and hew said, "i kat i want to say. i want to tell my story as part of the larger american story." (crowd cheering and applauding) >> narrator: he delivered the speech of his life. >> thank you. tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my prence on this stage is

pretty unlikely. my father was a foreign student, village in kenya.n a small my parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. the idea of barack obam being unique in so many ways--h unique ws funny name, unique with his skin color. or unique with his message: "look, i'm not a creature ofgt wash. i'm new. i'm just showing up. i'm willing to work across the aisle." >> there is not a libel america and a conservative america, there is the united states of america! (cheering and applauding) there is not a black america and a white america, a latinoia america, an asamerica, there's the uned states of america!

>> he was a star. lithat we hadn't seen a potician like that before, not in recent history. he's going to tell it like it is, and, you know, you can believe in what he says, and he doesn't seem to be so wrapped ui inpartisan divide. >> thank you very much, everyby, god bless you. >> he was going to be the one who was going to try to heal that wound. >> narrator: barack obam arrived with a promise of unity. >> yes, we can heal this nation. >>yarrator: but his preside would usher in an age of unprecedted anger... >> afro-leninism. >> narrator: resentment... >> i want my country back. >> narrator: pol.ical conflict >> the republicans messed up so bad... >> narrator: polarization. >> what do we want? w justice! n do we want it? >> now! >> narrator: a turning point... (crowd chanting) ...in america's great divide. >> presidential contendersl

began their fish in iowa today. b >> aause somebody stood up a few more stood up, and then a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stoop up, iowa, i need you tstand up... >> i think whaobama represented was generational change. here's younger person unburdened by some of the old fights of the past. re he obivously rnted racial change in a way that was very motivating to african americans. >> we will win this election, we will change the course of history, and the real journey to heal the nation and repair the world will have truly beguni thank yoa. >> he was also just an incredibly talenteand charismatic and inspirational politician. (crowd chanting obama)ma >> o political rise came at a time when america was increasingly divided. >> i can hear you, the rest ofwo thd hears you, and... >> narrar: at the end of

y,george w. bush's presidehe nation was reeling. >> the country had been through eight tumultuous years. >> narrator: steve schmidt was a vice president cheney.elor to >> we saw a war fought or weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. >> ...disarm iraq, to free its people. >> we saw the united states mired in a civil war in iraq. >> i opposed this war from the start... >> and what barack obama wasof ring was widely appealing. he represented generational change (crowd cheering and applauding) >> we can finally bring theo change we needshington. we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. >> narrator: in 2008, as obama ran for president, he delivere a simple messageri >> the an people are looking for change. >> there was a real ability to oject onto obama what you wanted to see. he anncouraged that, i mean, "hope and change" is not a-- it's not an agenda.,

you knope and change" doesn't mean anything. "hope and change" basically says to the public, "whatever you think 'hope and change' look like, that's what i can be." (crowd chanting "obama") >> and the nt vice president of the united states, sarah palin. >> narrator: democrats weren'tth only ones looking for a change. for republicans, sarah palin ignited a new political force. rowd chanting "sarah") >> sar palin came out and brought the house down.ec she ified that g.o.p. base like no one i had ever seen, and you recall, that was one of the times where the prompter failed and she just ad-libbed i >> i love those hockey moms. you know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? lipstick. (crowd laughs) (cheering and applauding)

>> and people loved it! she was almost a pre-trump, in e way that she just sort of had this matter-of-fact, sort of folksy, she wasn't too s high-brow, a"real americans," you know, "regular folks" could relate to her. of>> well, i'm not a membehe permanent political establishment. >> she was the beginning of the shift where the people began to lieve that they could take the power back from the elite. >> i've learned quickly these last few days that if you're not a member in good standinof the washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone, but... (crowdooing) >> she tapped into a simmeringgr vance in the country that's real. there's a rebeion that's taken

place in this country against the elites. >> thank you, and god bless erica. thank you. >> narrator: for her supporters she was heroic. >> it's saturday night live... >> narrator: but in new york she was made into a joke. >> ...governor sarah palin. >> first off i just want to say how excited i am to be in front of both the liberal elite media as well as the liberal regular media. i am looking forward ta portion of your questions, so let's get started. yes, you. >> you said that you like to visit the quote, "pro-america parts of the country". are there parts of the country that you consider un-american? >> yes, new york, new jersey, massachusetts, connecticut, delaware, california. >> when you started to see the shine come off that cathe katie couric ierview. >> what newspapers and magazines d you regularly

read before you were tapped... >> over time as the camera usually does it brings out the truth. >> um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these yrs-- i have a vast-- >> can you name a few? >> iave a vast variety of sources where we get... >> but most republicans, who y alresliked the media, blamed katie for that. >> it's kind of suggested, it seems like, "wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of washington d.c. may be thinking and doing when you live up there in alaska?" believe me, alaska is like a microcosm of america... >> most republicans looked at that and said, "she was set up, that was a gotcha' question", and stood by palin and it just made them hate the media more. .. i was reading today a copy of the new york tim (crowd booing) >> if yowant to pinpoint the moment when the right completely

rejected the left... >> we have a scarcity... >> i think it was over the sarah palin nomination. >> now, this is not a man who sees america ayou and i see america. >> and for one bef, shining moment, the right saw her as everything they were looking for. brash, tough, independent, someone who said what they meant and meant what they said, and wouldn't edit itor anyone. >> she's something else. sarah palin has completely ...nsformed republican par >> narrator: mccain and palin wouldn't prevail, but the populist fervor would grow. >> boy, were you right about this one, did you know how great she ? >> it's the inauguration day of the nation's first african-american president. >> hundreds of thousands of... >> narrator:arack obama had promised unity.

much of the country seemed to believe he could deliver it. >> i looked out, never forget,om he west front of the capitol all the way down to the monument. and i ink it's about a mile. and all you could see were people. a sea of people. the fact that our country e ected a black president is just... it was h significance. (cheering and applauding) >> the thing i remember most about that day was an older white man turning to me d my daughter and him saying to her, "young lady,ou could be up there one day. united states."esident i will never, ever forget thatme . (crowd chanting "obama") >> even americans who had been skeptical of barack obama were giving him look, listening to

what he was saying. t i thinre was just an enormous amount of good will toward him and toward the possibility of what might be under this first african-american president.io >> congratul, mr. president. (crowd cheering and applauding) >> obama led with that message of, e are now going to come together, we're going to unify this country, even if you didn't back me, i'm now goi to usher in this better part of your life." (crowd chanting "obama") >> the first couple to arrive at the neighborhood ball... >> ...the first-ever neighborhood ball open to the public. >> ♪ at last (crowd cheering) >> hseemed like a kind of redemptive vision for american politics. people on the national stage saw barack obama as a kind of man apart from the pettiness, the various kinds of ways in which

politics did not reflect the highest aspirations of theun ed states as a society. and he's black. (crowd cheering and applauding) in retrospect, it's ea to see how that was a doomed mission from the start. >> narrator: in fact, that very evening, across washington, republican leaders gathered. took meeting, a dinner place in a famous steakhouse in downtown washington. >> the room was filled. it was a who's who of ranking members who had at one point been committee chairmen, or in the majority, who now wondered out loud whether they were in the permanent minority. >> many of them had attended obama's inauguration. they had seen that breathtaking spectacle and it felt like a wholesale repudiation of the

republican party. >> narrator: as the night wore on, they talked about a plan of attack. >> the pnt i made was that we had to be prepared to run a full-court press. we had to see how obama beved and to off an alternative to what he wanted to do. wo >> narrator: thed try to block the president, fight his agenda, exploit the divide. >> i thought, he could be s feated partly by his own ideology and by n behaviors. >> bl gowns are on their way to the cleaners, the party is over for both the new president and the nation. >> now, he is facing many sobering challenges. >> the enomy, it's a frustration with the economy... >> back to the economy, then, obviously it's issue number one, it's on the front pages of every newspaper. >> the economy that barack obama inherited, i think, is thent defining ef this generation, even more so than 9/11, and it profouny reshaped american politics. >> anger from the u.s. public tords bankers is hh.

>> narrator: the economy was collapsing. >> the growing backlash against wall street... >> narrator: trillions of wall street.been u middle-class americans were angry. >> they took to the sts to express thr anger. >> frustraon with financial bigwigs continues to grow. level was that theanks,om ground the people who had created theis financial crwere being bailed out when the little guy was being screwed. s >> on the heof growing public anger aimed abanks... >. ...backlash against wall street... >> narrator: before he couldli dever on his promise of unity, obama had to confront the economic crisis. >> the banks need to be held accountable. >> we were told by our economic advisers that was a one-in-three chance that the country would slip into a second great depression. we we on a ledge and we coul fall off that ledge. >> narrator: his new secretary of the treasury was overwhelmed> e'd already thrown trillions and trillionof dollars at the problem. iti think it was, you knowas

a very perilous moment, a very istential moment at that point. >> how do you respond to that?ow not onlyo you respond to it in terms of getting the economy moving again, but how do you respond to it in holding people accountable for what happened? and that was a definition moment. >> narrator: some of his political advisers argued for what they called "old testamen justice"-- punishing the banks. >> david axelrod, obama's top political adviser, very much waed some scalps. robert gibbs, who was the press political aide, wanted scalps.or >> narrator: geithner told the president taking on the banks could make the economic crisis much worse. >> you had to make sure you kept concentrated and focused on the core basic imperative that was going to affect the fortunes of, you know, hundreds of millions of americans-- not get t wrapped up in trying to design political theater. >> narrator: in the end, the iesident would be cautious.

>> barack obama erently very conservative. and he also wants to believe the be in other people, and he really does believe that common ground and work together. i think it was a miske, off very easy.nkers really got and the public knows it. >> there was a perception that president obama flinchthat point. at that, in one way or another, he was not prepared to go there, to, to go after c.e.os., or to take people to courand to charge them with, >> narrator: anger and distrust of the government would grow. rowd chanting) >> it was deep, deeply unpopular. enand this came at a time people were losing their homes, were losing their jobs, and felt

like they had been abandoned. (tambourine banging) >> the rich and the powerful get away with anything. oops! oops! they f up and, and i havto share in the losses. and every american does. i mean, that just-- it just it is just ordinary middle-class people thinking, "i can't get away with that!" >> the government is promotingbe bavior, because we... >> narrator: and on cable television, the talk had alrdy begun of something they called "a tea party." >> ...anthink that they ought to save it. >> the word "tea party" is born in cnbc moment when rick santelli, a somewhat agited-- even under the best of circumstances-- reporter for cnbc in chicago starts to... >> this is america! how many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgag that has an exthroom and can't pay their bills?

raise their hand!s (othoing) president obama,re you listening? we're thinking of having a chicago tea party in july.ta all you casts that want to show up to lake michigan, i'm going to start organizing. >> this created a level of anger like i haven't seen since i got involved in politicse 1980s.ea people really,y resentedis resident for siding with the rich and powerful, and forgetting them. at as the onus where the tea party was created. >> you gotta be kidding me! what are we putting up with, america? >> like, that ll get the economy kicking. well, did it? no, it didn't-- $450 billion down the crapper. >> give us a trillion dollars and, oh, everything will be great. well, extly the opposite happened, so can we revoke that bailout now?

>>arrator: even as the economic crisis was roiling the country, on capitol hill, barack obama wantedo push congress to take on another divisive issue-- overhauling healthcare. h i was his politicaldviser, and i understoodow much political currency it would take to pass that law. and he said, "well, what are we supposed to do, put our approval rating on the shelf and admire it for the next eight years? or are we supposed to draw down on it to try and solve some of blthese really big, intrac problems?" >> let there be no doubt: healthcare reforcannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another yea (cheering and applauding) healthcare reform d.ord to put we can't afford to do it. it's time. >> there is nothing more fraught than healthcare, because it is

so personal and it is so intimate.po and evertical party that decides to take on healthcare in oome massive, poorly under way, reaps both the backlash and, and political retaliation. >> americans are seriously worried that this is going to destroy the healthcare their parents ge >> this has been on the left's to-do list since neither fdr or lbj got it done. they have just been waiting,in wa waiting. "when we have the presidency and both houses of congress, we are going to push this through." >> it's about too much power going to feral government. >> the whole point of this is to government healthcare plan.he >> narrator: from across the divide, sarah palin reappeared, wielding a new political weapon. >> she was aaven on facebook. the original politician who saw that you could skirt the media, and you could get the message out filtered, uncut to the public, was sarah palin. she did that with facebook. (keys clicking)

>> as more americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized healthcare plan our collective jaw is dropping, and we're saying not just no, but hell no! >> narrator: she exploited fear with a new phre that went viral-- death panels. >> the america i know and love is not one in which my parents or my babyith down syndrome will have to stand in front of obama's "death panel." >> narrator: it wasn't true. >> she is the first of a generation of politicians who live in a post-truth environment. >> narrator: steve schmidt had also been a tocampaign aide for john mccain's presidential run. he had pushed mccain to select sarah palin. >> s was, and there's no polite way to say it, but a serial liar. she would say things that are simply not true. or things that were picked up from the internet.

and this obliteration of fact from fiction, of truth from lie, has become now endemic in american politics. but it started then. >> she introduced the term "death panel" when referring to it. >> narrator: the right-wing media ran with it.ng >> and we're go have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, "you're dead." >> we now have ltist radicals in charge of your healthcare decisions rather than doctors. we're hanging by a tead. ♪ >> if you think this country is great, but oma and the tsars are marching our country right off a cliff, save your lif grab the parachute, pull.me and come follo >> narrator: glenn beck was a former top-40 disc jockey. he rose to the pinnacle of fox news during the presidency of barack obama.th >> to watccoverage from the right-wing media of the obama years now is to perience true hysteria.

sa see glenn becevery day and the things he wang about the president... >> i've got my little messiah here, my dashboard obama. i'm going to pray to him later, maybe get some universal healthcare. now, for more insanity and blood shooting out of your eyes, obama. >> you would have thought the nation was collapsing. >> president obama, why don't you just set us on fire? you doing? of pete, what are this is not the america i grew up in, or you grew up in. when we said change, we didn't mean ts! nobody meant this! >> it would never have happened without glenn beck. glenn beck was the catalyst for the uprising. >> if you want to understand barack obama... >> glenn had the perfect phraseology that took nger and channeled it into an organization that rose up from nowhere.

>> narrator: for beck and fox-- record ratings. >> glenn beck was the kind of seing of this conspiracy theory >> narrator: ben rhodes was one of obama's closest aides. >> "obama is seeking to control your lives." you know, "obama has a secret plan to do x or to do y." or, "this shadowy figure in the obama administration wo regulate every aspect of your life."of and it kintarts there. and then it, it gets darker andk . >> narrator: facebook and meetup.com welcomed beck and other angry americans. now they would organize. >> you had this vast outrage machine that arose on the right. you're talking about, you know, not just the tea party, but talk radio, fox news, really changed the nature of our politics in ways that i think we're livi

with, with today. >> we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!to >> narra the outrage machine onne. >> you want to kill my grandparts, you come through me first! >> narrator: anger on the ground. >>ou dirty thieves! >> we can't afford it! >> afro-leninism! >> there is an ugliness with these fringe people who are comparing the president to hitler. >> ts is not simply a disagreement about policy, this is a repudiation of obama and, more significantly, a repudiation of obama's race. >> his church was bad on racism. >> they're depicting obama as an ape, you know, on, on sign that they're carrying. there are pejotive stereotypes about africa and africans. >> narrator: obama's election offered hope of racial harmony. but in that first year, it was clear that race was a central part of the divide, and his presidency was a flash point.

>> obama was big symbol. you know, every time you turned on your tv, you were reminded that the country was changing in fundamental ways. , i me had had 200 years of presidents. we had never had one that looked like barack obama. and just mere presence in the white house was y reminder that this is a diffent america than many people had grown up with. and it scared the hell out of a lot people. >> prominent african-american harvard scholar henry louis gas,r.... >> narrator: one early incident enflamed both sides. >> arrested in his own home. >> h arrest is prompting outrage. the story grabbed naonal headlines because the man in question is one of the nation's most pronent african-american scholars. >>rofessor henry louis gat is arrested in his own home for trespassing. and barack obama says what virtually every black person inn the y thought. >> that the cambridge policely

acted stupn arresting somebody whethere was already proof that they were in their own home. thank you, everybody. >> all of a sudden, there's essure on the other side there are people who are saying that he's anti-cop, there's a concern that he's racist. >> this president, i think, has exposemself as a guy, over and over and oveagain, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture, i this guy is, i believe, a racist. >> people lost their minds. he had the largest drop in his polling numbers of anything th happened in the eight years of the obama presidency. >> hey. cameo appearance. >> narrator: he apologized. i >> these aues that are still very sensitive here in america. and, you know, so, to the extent that my choi of words didn't illuminate but rather

contributed to more media frenzy, i think that was unfortunate. all right? thank you, guys. >> narrator: then he went even rther: a photo op. >> obama did this very awkward thing where he called in henry louis gates and the po officer, and they had this beer summit. >> he would probably say that that was one of the ridiculous moments of his presidency. not so much that he brought a black harvard professor and a but the fact that diaogether, anointed it a "beer summit." >> narrator: it was a painful lesson. >> and the lesson he took from oat is, like, "this is a loser. if i'm weighing these racial issues, it's only going to galvanize the, the forces against me." >> what i didn't appreciate aswa mu thejust how much obama would become a symbol of

change in the country, a change from a, you know, a white m america toe diverse america. a more cosmopolitan i think he became a symbol for o segmenour country of change that they did not welcome. e >> tr a little healing he wants you to pay attention because his poll numbers are tanking. >> this is just-- folks, it is a lousy, lou image to present to america. cop as a, you know, a stooger here to make believe he did it al we are skating on very thin ice with this man in the white house, and you've only seen thnn begig of it. >> madam speaker. states.president of the united (crowd cheering and applauding) >> narrator: healthcare reform was stuck. the dide with the republicans was widening.

>> the time for bickering is over. the time for games has passed. now is the season for action! now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the american people that we can still do what we were sent here to do, now is the time to deliver on healthcare >> narrator: but at that moment, the outrage machine arrived on the floor ofongress. >> therere also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. this, too, is false.s. the refo (members murmuring) we reforms i'm proposing would not apply to tho are here illegally. >> you l! (audience exclaiming) >> it's not true. >> a member shouted, "you lie!" >> y lie! (audience exclaiming)

>> narrator: it was ican representative joe wilson from south carolina. >> well, the tea party exrience came right to the, you know, the house chamber, but to see that sort odisrespect on the floor of the house directed towards the president of the united states, i think, naused everybody's head to ng you lie! (audience exclai >> not too many years before, he would have resned in disgrace from the congress, and he would have been called upon to do so by leaders of both parties. instead, what happened? he raised a couple million dollars overnight. what's the lesson there? there's no longer a punishment for dishonesty, for aziness. it'sewarded. >> narrator: the president faced an emerging reality.

the republicans' inauguration day pledge to oppose him was coming true.ay there was noealth reform would be bipartisan. >> he wasn't going to get a republican vote for anything. if you're going to tell barack obama that you can't do anything without a republican vote, you're telling him, "you cannot do a single thing as president, that you jt... you're just going to sit there and do nothing." because the republicans weren't going to givhim votes for anything. >> barack obama came into office thinking, "well, i can reason with them. if i've got good arguments, they're reasonle people, and we'll come to some reasonable conclusion." well, he was wrong. that was not there. the republicans didn't want to give him any victory. it had nothing to do with reason or logic, theyust didn't want to give him a victory. >> narrator: he would fight back, rallying his democratic supporters-- including many young, diverse liberals.

>> do not quit! do not give up! we keep on going! we are going to t this done! we are going to make history! we are going to fix healthcareri in a with your help! united states of a!god bless the >> down tohe wire on healthcare refm. the house votes just hours from now. >> after months of rancor in the streets, the vote takes place in just a few hours. >> narrator:t had consumed the first year of his presidency. >> members will record their votes by electronic device. on this vote, the yeas are 219, the nays are 212. the motion is adopted. >> it's 219 to 212. no votes from republicans. all democrats, no republicans. >> this is a huge victory for this president. >> for decades, they've been trying to do it.ow it haseen done. >> this legislation will not fix everything that ails our healthcare system. but it moves us decisively in

the right direction. this is what change looks like. >> obamacare got shoved down our throats without majority support in the country, which was a huge thing. and people were angry. republicans were angry. and i don't think republicans have ever forgiven him for it. >> ...what many calllized medicine. >> it's the most brazen assault on a fundament aspect of our republic... >> ...every single republican senator votes consistently agait government-run healthcare should be a clear indication. >> this isoing to be the end of the economy as we know it. >> by passing a healthcare program essentially on the strength of one party, it was fated, destined to beca continuing partisan divide, part of the issues thawould come up in election after election from then on. >> ...the perfect title, "lies, damn lieat's what obamacare was all about. >> narrator: the anger directed

at obama was growing. there were even questions about who he really was from across the divide. (crowd cheering and plauding) (crowd cheering and applauding) >> the birther movement was so powerful was because it spoke to all types er anxieties that many white americanhad out barack obama. "well, he's not even from here, he's not one of us. prove it prove you were born here." >> narrator: right-wing websites picked it up. >> he won't even produce a birtt certificate, dou love that? >> narrator: talk radio joined in. president doesn't want people to see on that birth certificate. >> if you have nothing to hide, why won't you show... >> narrator: before long, it caught the attention of reality tv star donald trump. he says, "have you read this

stuff? it's very interesting, there's a lot of odd questions her" but he brings the issue into the mainstream. >> narrator: roger stone was a tlongtime political advis trump. he has since been convicted of lying to congress. >> tru understands among reblicans there's a very substantial majority who have questions about obama's origins and how he jusps up out of nowhere to become a naonal figure, and whether he was in president. >> we thought that trump needed an iss that resonates with people. the birth certificate ant a lot of different things to a lot of different pple. overall, it talked about how obama was different, he was a different kind of person, he was a manchurian-type candidate. >> ...they release the birth certificate. >> narrator: trump w of running against obama in 2012.

>> it don't matter whether i have doubts or not. >> please welcome my friend donald trump. >> narrator: he made himself the face of the birther movement. >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? i think-- i think he probably... >> why should he have to? h >> becausee to and erybody else has to, whoopi. why wouldn'te show... excuse me. no, excuse me. i really believe there's a birth certificate. why-- look, she's smiling.t why does show his birth certificate? >> i never heard any white president asked to be shown the birth certificate. >> everybody does. >> when you become a president... >> you are not allowed to be a president if you're not born in this country. he may not have been born in this country... >> that was the racist manifestation of resistance topr thident. donald trump was at the forefront of it. i think it, it rankledam president because the birther stuff was just a pure racism-slash-xenophobia, and it was based in nothing. >> more than 40% of the pulation still question whether he's actually anno american o >> narrator: obama had already

released his birth certificate during t presidential campaign. but the issue wouldn't go away. >> obama was furious. it wasn't trump. it was the media. if trump couldn't get booked on all those shows, he'd just be some, another whack job, you know, tweeting about conspiracy theories. and maybe getting booked on fox. he's a-- donald trump a creation of the american political news media. and that's what angered obama, that's what angered us in the white house. >> the great part about a guy with your resourwes that you able to deploy people to go and find out what is actually going on with barack obama's birtcertificate. what did you find? >> well, we're looking into it very, very strongly. k nobo who he is. it's very strange. the whole thing is very strange. and she was saying he was born, essentially, in kenya. and if he wasn born in this country, it's one of the greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history, period. re the go into it, the more suspect it is. >> narrator: obama reluctantly released more proof of his citizenship.as

>> nowany of you have been briefed, we provided additional of my birth.today about the site this thing just kept on going. yes, in fact, i was born in waii, august 4, 1961, in kapiolani hospital. we'vposted the certification that is given by the state of hawaii. >> narrator: three days later, it was time for payback. >> the president usethe white house correspondents' dinner that year, with donald trump in the room, to completely ridicule donald trump in front of this audience that, you know, that, you know, journalists and lobbyists and government officials. and people who, at that ti, trump wanted to have the respect of. >> all right, everybody, please have a seat. (crowd cheering and apng) donald trump is here tonight.

(cheering and applauding) no one is happier, no one is prouder, to put this birth certificatmatter to rest than the donald. and that's because hcan finally get backo focusing on the issues that matter-- like, did we fake the moon landing? (audience laughing) >> i was two tables away from trump. the conventional way in washington of absorbing a joke at the white house correspondents' dinner is to keep your chin up and at least prorend to have a sense of h about it, even if yogo cry into your pillow that night. trump was steaming. his face was all locked in-- he was not having good time. >> all kidding aside, viously, we all know abo your credentials and breadth of experience (audience laughing) for example...

no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of "celebrityce appren at the steakhouse, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from omaha steaks. and there was a lot of blame to go around. but you, mr. trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. and so ultimately you didn't blame lil' jon or meatloaf.nc (audlaughing) you fired gary busey. (audience laughing) and these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. (audience laughing) (cheering and applauding) we handled, sir. well handled.>> ut it just kept going and going and he just kept hammering him. and i thought, ", barack obama is starting something that i don't know if he'll able to finish."

>> say what you will about mr. trump, he certainly would bring some change to the whise. let's see what we've got up there. >> i think that is the night that he resolves to run for president. i think that he is kind of motivated by it. "maybe i'll just run. maybe i'll show them >> every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to president trump. it's everyone who's ever doubted donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him, it is the ultimate revenge to become universe.powerful man in the >> god bless you and may god bless the united states of america. (audience applauding) >> narrator: neither trump,e nor rther ise, were going to go away. si>> back to this birther ss for just a second.

>> obama is an unknown man, may not be a citizen, surrounded by dicals, surrounded by terrorists. >> if obama were such a shoo-in, donaldrump would not have had any jokes told about him on saturday night at the white house...e >> ...py of the new fake birth certificate. now, we've looked at it, we're going to go over whyt's fake, how it's a composite... >> democrats are nursing a major midterm hangover. >> nsense in sugarcoating >> narrator: out in the country and in washington...'s >> tuesd election was a game changer... >> nrator: the divide was growing. republicans rose up. ang >> repudiation of the president and his policies. happyat is a very electorate. >> narrator: democrats lost control of the house. >> democrats of every stripe were voted out of office last night. >> narrator: obama called it a "shellacking." >> voters, they went to the polls tonight to senssage to barack obama. >> i can tell you that, you know, some election nights are more fun than others. some are exhilarating, some are humbling. >> in 2010, it became an election very much about

president obama and about how his administration was much more liberal than what the country wanted or had voted for. it was as if, you know, "we've been betrayed, this is a president who's going take us off in a crazy dangerous direction, and we can't let at happen." >> and we won races in every corner of the nation, h a broad and wide victory, that the outcome is unprecedented. >> narrator: 87 new republicans joined what became known as the "tea party congress." >> the tea party movement has given life to the republican party. >> the washington leadership of the republican party saw energy and enthusiasm amongst the grassroots, so the leaders sought to capitalize on the energy of that movement. >> narrator: the 87 were rebels who had run on changing washington. but their first challenge was their own leader, the neshington insider john bo >> i now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes witit

to the new speaker. god bless you, speaker boehner. (members cheering) >> narrator: boehner had a reputation as a dealmaker-- someone willing to work with democrats.ne >> i didn' to be speaker because i needed a fancy title or a big office. i want to be speaki could lead an effort to deal with the serious issues that are facingur country. >> obama used to tell me, "john boehner is just li the republicans that i worked really well with in the illinois statee sea midwestern country club republican. he's not a racist, he's a good and decent man." he has serious ideological differences with obama, but they could get stuff done together, right? >> i'll be working with a bipartisan... >> narrator: and obama believe he knew just how to reach out to a country club republican: golf. >> before the golf match started, told the president, i said, "mr. president, this is about golf, not about anything else." and he and i were partners. we played wellnd we won.ar

>>tor: obama had more than golf on his mind.an hed to make a deal to solve the country's fiscal problems. >> i suggested to the president, you know, "whyon't we have a conversation?" and he agreed. >> narrator: but it would be dangerous for boehner. the tea party faction was watching him. they would have to meet in secret. >> well, that was boehner's decision, not oursobviously. it's not every day that the speaker comes to see the president quietly and says, "i'm willing to do a deal," that everybody knows is going to be dangerous for him politicay. >> narrator: the speaker racretly entered the white house through a side ee. >> because it was so difficult for john boehner to be seen as working with barack obama, he would be snuck in the back door of the white house. he'd come in on the weekends, or he'd come in at night, and kind of sneak the guy through and, negotiate or have k, obama, and

right? >> narrator: they talked of a "grand bargain," a once-in-a- neration deal to reduce the deficit. obama would agree to cut entitlements, boehner to raise taxes. >> the republican leadership was willing to make a deal. joke boehner was willing to a deal. and the president was able ff get democratic leaders in congress to signn that deal. >> narrator: but back at thehn capitol,er was confronted by resistae from his tea party mbers. >>here was support for wha was being discussed at the white house was not there in the republican confence. there was no way that a majority of republicans were going to support what the president was talking about. it just wasn't goingo happen. >> it was absolutely scuttled by boehner's own people. tt the fact was, he could get it done. he dn't have the strength or the conviction to, to have a fight out it in his own party,

and it, and it fell apart. >> it's a bad idea for speaker boehner to meet alone with president obama. >> tea party nation calling for john boehner to step down. >> ...and e screw-up is the leadership in the house of reprentatives, rather than trashing conservatives. >> boehner's a complete fraud. the tan man always claims to have the pulse of the american people... >> he never had any control of this caucus, and whenever he took anying back to his caucus, they just tore him aparv and ate him ale. they would lose their minds. and so then, we realize there ir nod bargai to be had with these people. >> i just got a call about a half-hour ago from speaker boehner. it is hard to understand why speaker boehner would walk away from this kind of deal, and frankly, i think that, you know, one of the questio that the republicanarty's going to have to ask itself is, can they say

yes to anything? can they say yes to anything? thank you very much. >> the republicans were more than happy to takehe votes of the tea party members and thefr tea parthman class. but it changed the nature of thc in fundamental ways. group of congressmen and women who were really not interested in governing. they were more interested in taking a snd, and frustrated one legislative procedure after another. >> the establishment part of the republican partyidn't understand that by allying themselves with the tea party, they were, in a sense, writing their own deatcertificate in a way that would lead to the takeover of the republican party by donald trump. >> he has no one to ame but himself. i'm not going to do the waterworks of john boehner. >> i want to salute the freedom fighters in the house of ing to take johner's they're not

crap sitting down anymore. >> ...gone along just along with president obama, like spker boehner. you kn, we need to thank them for their service, and say, "okay, time for new energy." ♪ tonight on "nightline." license to kill? it's the shooting death that's sparked an explosion of outrage. good evening, i'm terry moran. it's the story that's ignited fice passions across the nation, as allegations of racism apart a small florida town.tear >> narrator: for obama, once again, the issue of race. >> trayvon martin was walking back from a conveniestore when he was allegedly shot ba neighborhood watch...ol >> pice have the gun, they've got the shooter, but they have not arrested him. the dead man's grieving fami wants to know, "why not?" >> president obama, as the first african-american preside, had been very careful t to talk too much about race. w frustrating to some african-americans.

then trayvon martin is killed in florida, and the country gasps. the country is, is really on edge. >> here's a teenager walking through the neighborhood whereer his faives, committing no followed, confronted, and endss up in a physic altercation with a stranger ere he ends up killed. and then the person who killed him is allowed to go home that day. >> the contradiction of th happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony and intensified the pain i think people felt around this. >> african-americans who had rned out in record numbers for him, who, in some ways, obamanc owed his presito, felt as thoughe wasn't saying enough about race. "say something. are you going to say anything? you're a black man. young black boy has been murdered by a guy who's a hyped-up, you know, neighborhood

watcan. black america is traumatized by this." silence from the white house. nothing-- no leadership, no, no insight. (cameras clickin >> narrator: finally... >> good morning, everybody. h narrator: nearly a mont after the killing, the president was publicly confronted about it.>> an you comment on the trayvon martin case, sir? >> my main message is, is toe rents of trayvon martin. um... you know, if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon. and, um... you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us ase americans ing to take this with the seriousness it deservet and e're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. l right, thank you. >> it showed and it underscored the complication the

difficulties of the first black president weighing in on issues of race. that by his ry presence, by his very willingness to discuss, he himself was bringing the partisan guns to the fight. and suddenly, annnocuous statement became deeply inflammatory to half of the country. >> ...the president had a son, he wouldn't look anything likeay n martin. he'd be wearing a blazer from his prep school. he'd be driving a beamer. >> we have a president who has, who has frozen racial tension in our country instead of thawing racial tension. >> narrator: it blew up on fox. >> the president's goal is to heighten african-american rnout by stoking a feeling of victimization in the african-american cmunity. >> narrator: and it took off on an increasingly powerful new platform: breitbart. >> we were the blog kind of for the tea party. this tea party energy, you know, right after the fincial collapse.

we caught on with this kind of working -class, middle-class audience. >> narrator: they were the voice of the populist outrage sarah palin had activated, runningto stories thatd fear and division-- black-on-black crime, islamic terrorism, violence by immigrants, a culture under assault. >> "hispanic and black thugs tend to attack asians because..." >> "blacks are incapable for beg responsible..." >> narrator: breitbart's comment sections became notorious gathering places for extre viewpoints. >> "the towel heads are taking "er because we've let the >> "gayness is a cancer..." >> i mea it ads like you've walked into a hate club gathering of some kind. >> "how stupid are women? let's find out." th>> they were appealing t segment of the population that are racist, homophobic, anti-semitic-- really, the wst. among creating this congregating space everyday, where people from that worldview can go and rally around one another to find content that validates their worldview. and i think that's what theywe

building, ultimately. >> think that there was a failurto appreciate the extent to which these online communities were forand these online ecosystems were forming. that if you were someone who spent all day in your car listening to rush limbaughnd got home and watched glenn beck at night and then opened your facebook page and saw a bunch or breilinks, it didn't really matter to you "the new york times" d "the washington post" had said that birtherism wasn't true. didn't matter how many pinocchios that ctcheck had gotten of donald trump's latest talk show appearance. >> there's a story on breitbart, republican national committee declares war... >> this was provided to me by breitbart... >> breitbart breaking more stories in the past few years than most journalists who like to dust off their awards on their shelves. >> they're going to keep the race businesalive, and it's going to prosper during the obama administration, 'cause that causes more chaos. >> they want to stir up racial hatred in the country, and you know what? i'm not raid to talk about race-- let's talk about it, let's see.

♪ ma >> president oba is battling for his own second term... >> ...is in such difficult shape right now... >> president obama's approval ratings have hit an all-time low... >> ...obama out on the campaign trail today, then we saw...ar >>tor: by the time he was running for reelection in 2012... >> a difficult road ahead for the president... >> narrator: the divisiveness was rampant. he had dramatically dropped in the polls. >> president obama faces anhi battle. >> narrator: he was fighting to keep his job. >> it was a much different president obamout on the campaign trail today... >> we were in bad shape politically. nate silver wrote a piece on the cover of the "new york times magazine," and the headlinwas, "is obama toast?" t narrator: a very differ barack obama headed out to do battle with the republicans. it was not a campaign about ity. >> we knew that we had to run a very hard-edged reelection campaign that posited th

president as someone who was battling for the middle class. >> if i said, "theas blue," they said, "no." if i said, "there were fish in the sea," they said, "no." they figured, "if obama fails, then we win." >> president obama decided, "we're goi to have an argument in 2012. we're going to win that argument if we can.it and if we wiwe are then going to do what we want to do, or, or push in the directions we want to push." (crowd applauding) >> because of their policies, the republicans messed up so bad... >> he's a more scarred presiden who come himself frustrated by the way washington works, no longer quite so believing in the idea that bipartisanship is possible.it as a different message than it was in 2008. it was not a "come together" messe. it was not a "hope and change" message. it was a "stop the otheruys" message. >> it'the same agenda that

they have been pushing for years. >> narrator: as obama attacked, publicans were also at war-- with themselves. the establishment had gotten behind one of their own, wealthy businessman mitt romney. barack obama has failed america. this country we love is in peril. (crowd cheering and applauding) >> narrator: the tea party sawut him asf touch. >> he verges on hysterical. mitt romney has never done a single thing to favor conservative cause... >> i swear, every time mitt no... i think he'sngth, i have against me. >> i don't think that romney was somebody who understood the angst of the american people. d n't understand what, what, throughout the united states,, were feeling, how, how disaffected they felt. >> what does mitromney believe? >> and is he truly a conservative? >> not exactly a person of conviction, not even..

>> narrator: romney needed the tea party and its populist base. trying to win them over, he went to las vegas for anfr endorsement- the man who put the birther movement on the map. (audience applauding) >> mitt romney looks completely uncomfortable. donald trump is totally in his it's, in a curiousit's donald trump's event, not mitt romney's event.he you know, he, he commands the stage. >> is my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse mitt romney. >> it was literally one of the most bizarre political scenes i'd ever seen.th >> and bway, this is a great couple... >> mitt and ann romney were standing up there. and i kept looking at ann romney, who looked le she was using every single bit of energy she had not to startac ng up uncontrollably. at that moment, it seemed like, you know, not unlike sarah palin four years earlier, kind of a comic diversion, sething that

was different. >> so, governor romney, go out and get 'em, you can do it. >> it was hilarious; it was bizarre. in retrospect, i guess it represented some kind passingor of the. >> there are some things that you justan't imagine happening in your life. this is one of them. (crowd laughing) being in donald trump's magnificent hotel and having h endorsement is a delight. i'm, i'm so honored, and...t >> it was a tadorsement in the other direction of mitt romney to the kind of rhetoricth donald trump was vociferous in trafficking in arounds obamrth certificate-- the, the perpetrator of a blattly nativist campaign against the president of the united states. ♪ >> narrator: but on election night at romney headquarters in boston, there was noictory party. >> romney was the worst candidate. >> he got his clock cleaned. >> today i'm pissed off, and you should be, too! >> narrator: establishment republicans were reeling. >> ...especially when you look

at the turnout... >> narrator: and one particular republicanas making plans for the future. >> there's serious soul-searching going to happen in the republic part and the... >> donald trump went to boston, in fact, to be at the victory pay that never occurred. he got on his plane, turned aroundwent back to new york city, and he started tweeting. >> "this election is a total sham and a travesty. we are not a democracy!" (tweets) "we can't let this happen. we should march on washington and stop this travesty. our nation is totally divided!" (tweets) "we should have a revolution in is country." (tweets) >> narrator: it was an opening salvo in a campaign to capture the conservative base. and just six days later, trumpsi ed this trademark application for the phrase "make amica great again." om >> right aftery lost, we had a brief chat. "can hlary be beat? who else is going to run?" he's already handicapping. romney's body isn't even cold yet, and he's already

handicapping this election. it was clear to me then he was going to run. >> the president of the united states has been reelecte barack obama wins... >> ...defeating mitt romney following an often nasty... >> narrator: obama's coalition had prevailed. >> another four years forck president babama. >> narrator: now he would test whether the election had consequences >> obama gets reelected, you know, rather decisively. and, you know, he was hopeful that this fever would break. he kept saying, like, "hopefully, this bree fever." >> narrator: to win, obama had energized latino vers. republican leaders had taken note now the president hoped they rght be willing to work with him on immigratiorm. everybody understood th there was an opening, a political opening, because republicans were ready to come to the conversation.d the president's marching orders to s team were very clear: "this is a priority. i want to get it done."

>> the republicans did a sobering study of where things stood, and they realized, after 2012, that america's changing, d that if you wanted to win the white house, not just congress, you had to appeal to younger voters, latinos, andme >> "we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration. reform if we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink." ♪ >> narrator: g.o.p. power brokers like majority leader eric cantor laid out the party's problem. >> too many millennials, minorities, and others have rejected us at the polls hocause they sense that so we're not inclusive. and unless we show the american people that conservative principles actually help them in a real, and not just theory, we'll never get the majority >> today, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled a plan that... >> now republicans and democrats

set to announce a major compromise surrounding immigration. >> .isne of those issues... >> narrator: republican senator marco rubio was the face of bipartisanmmigration reform. >> (speaking spanish): >> the political class was sure going to be like falling off a log. >> narrator: even on fox news,su ort for the softer immigration approach. >>nd even people like sean hannity went on the air and said, "we need to rethink our positionn immigration. i was wrong to take such a hard line on, on immigration." >> you create a pathway for those people that are here. you don't say, "you got to go home." and that is an... a, an, a position that i've evolved on. >> narrator: sean hannity invited obama's nemesis and fox regular onto his show. and even he seemed to favor immigratioreform.

tough to win as a ican. very look, they've lost on immigration. they're going to have to do something on iigration. because,ou know, our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. so we'll see what happens. >> mr. trumpalways a pleasure. >> thank you very much. >> narrar: obama's wish in therm afh of his reelection-- seemed like it mige true.k-- but there was a new wrinkle. >> what was interesting is, the fever broke among certain repuican elites, right? the problem is, that's not where the republican voter or the majority of the republican house caucus. >> narrator: at breitbart, the chairman, steve bannon, was sowing division, rallying the populist base against the republican establishment. >> i said, "let's attack the real enemy, and the real enemy's the republican what we're going ts just go after the house leadership, we're going to go after the mitch mcconnells, we're going to

go after the donors. we're just going to goat kind of this paul ryan philosophy." >> narrator: bannon and breitbart weaponized immigration against the establishment. >> we spent a lot more time talking to t public than w spent talking to the elite. >> narrator: the issue lit up breitbart's already incendiary message boards. >> "illegals kill 12-plus people a day in this country." >> "torturous, murderous, rapists. this president calls them 'damers.'" >> "deport all of the illegal aliens." >> it is potentially, the threa of aopen borr is pretty catastrophic. immigration, to republican number-one issue, even ahead of tax cuts. >> this was some of theil ance of bannon. he recognized an anxiety that had been building in the heartland for years. the country itself felt like it was changing, and, "are these people here illegally? did they skip a step in line? did they folloall the rules?" again, the, the economy for some

manycans has still been so frustrating. so all of this is happening about their own security.est >> narrator: bannon decided it was time was for a show of force, to usimmigration to take down a ntral figure in the reblican establishment. >> and when they looked around, the guy th they thought was most vulnerable was eric cantor, the house majority leader. >> narrator: cantor was up for reelection. tea party challenger dave brat was mo than 30 points behind in the primary. i>> i... he definitely kn was coming. (stutters): that was, also happened to be my home district, but i could feel it. i knew that, that a guy like brat could... they were... they were very weak. >> cantor, can you believe this guy? can you believe ryan? >> narrator: breitbart swung behind brat. >> eric cantor, he's all in for amnesty. io narrator: they set the agenda for right-wing r >> you're a coward, eric ctor. you only... >> ...eric cantor, w wants amnestl ryanwho i... th >> anythin became talking points on conservative radio were coming from breitbart. and you d a transformation

where conservative radio hostst wereicking on drudge report on what to say, they were clicking on breitbart. >> narrator: it worked. >> history-making upset-- housey majoeader eric cantor lost... >> this was a seismic shift that took all of the establishment figures... >> narrator: cantor's defeat sent a message to republicans. >> ...a new republican party, with fresh faces... >> narrator: bipartisan immigration reform was dead. >> hou majority leader eric cantor's defeat is the end of immigration reform. >> i knew that night when i i was talking to my republican... they were, basically, "there's no reason for us to talk anymo this is not going anywhere." capitol shake.ost feel the i've never seen so many people crying with long faces, all upset on capitol hill. i mean, that's, i think, the worst drubbing the establishment has had in, in many years. >> it was the elected

republicans and talk radio realizing that the peoe who vote for them and watch their media hated their guts. absolutely hated their guts. r >> it was clat the voter base was throwing out the publican establishment's ideas on immigration. that's what that represented. s and it was stunning, it e of the biggest upsets in the history of american politics. ♪ >> narrator: president oma's advisers understood what it meant. >> the second that eric cantor is defeated in that primary was the death knell of immigration reform, and also was a signal that the republican party was no long just kind of talking publicly about obamacare and spending, and a little quietly to their base about immigration. this was going to become what racially or ethnically fueled grievances with immigration at the center.

♪ >> narrator: the divide was widening. but outse of washington, in newtown, connecticut, in one tragic event, shared national grief. >> what's your emergency? >> sandy hook school, i think there's somebody who's shooting in here. >> sandy hook elementary school, inside, i believe there's shooting at the front. >> please hurry, please hurry. >> please. (gunshots echo over phone) >> i need assistance here immediately. >> i still hear him shooting. (siren blaring) ♪ >> newtown was the worst moment of the presidency. it was unfathomable to imagine

20 children, six- and seven-year-old first-graders being gunned down in that violent and destructive y. and then six adults who were trying to help. >> i remember seei obama several times that day, and he was, like... i've never seen him as much of an emotional wreck. >> when i got a email fr the president saying, "this is the first time that i cried in the oval office." ou i mean, he was just bursting into tears throuthe day. >> he always told me that ifpp something ed to one of his kids, he didn't think he could get out of bed. and here are all these beautiful, young kids o were, were slaughtered. and he was, he was sad, and he was irate. and he kept saying, like, "all i... i, i don't think i can talk about th publicly, because the second i start talking about kiose kids, i'm just going to be thinking about m."

♪ >> the majority of those who died today were chdren, the ages of five and ten years old. they had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. as a country, we have been through this too many times. may god bless the memory of the victims, a in the words of scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bindp their

wounds. >> narrator: for obama, newtown was a test-- whether a tragedy coulbring the country together around another contentious issue-- gun control. >> he was so moved by what happened in newtown, and he thoughthe country was, as well, that this would be a chance to do something that bumocrats would have loved to have done beforenever thought was possible. >> narrato the president wanted gun legislation. but by now, he h become so polarizing, he told vice president joe bin to take the lead. a >> it was ontext of sorrow, extreme, i mean, anger can't we do something about this?""e it was, likeugh is enough is enough. put togeth something for me, joe." ♪

>> nartor: bid turned to democratic senator joe manchin toomey to draft itator pat >> we have what looks to be a model of bipartisan action. and they propose a modest change in the gun laws, but one that would begin, at least, to turn an issue that had gone entirely in one direction in a somewhat different direction. >> narrator: public support was. stro republicans were signing on. >> everyone felt like the world was going to change. everyone felt like, "this is going to bthe mass shooting that makes america really look at its gun laws and change something." >> i was optimistic. over 91% of the american people supported expanding background checks, 80% of the households that had an nra member

supported it. i e had enough of all these people, all their talk... >> narrator: then, the blowbackr tbart, talk radio. >> ...always try to hide their endas behind womennd chilen and most of all victims... >> they apparently don't believe liberty's on the line, ty apparently don't believe thend constitution ahe bill of rights are on the line... >> narrator: fox news. >> it's about the ideology. 's about stripping law-abiding american citizens from their, their legal right to have a gun. >> and they're very eager to usr whatragedy they can to advance their cause. >> their gun, gun laws are going to hurt the, the defense of the innocent. >> it's got "inside jo written all over it. >> narrator: and on the fringes, rioutrageous conspiracy th, denying the shooting had actually hpened. >> sandy hook is a synthetic, f mpletee, with actors, in my view, manufactured. people, none.faith in these you would think now, if ever,

that a so-called conrvative republican in the senate would have learned the lesson thatde this prent cannot be relied on to foll the law. >> narrator: one by one, obama watched key republicans-- and even some democrats-- back away from the bill. >> cutting deals over what? over the sond amendment? i despise these people. and the older i get,ore i despise... >> here was a moment where 80%, 90% of americans, i think, would have supported some sort of a reasonable compromist it. and yet, nothing happened. so, this is where you have the republican party held hostage by its base, and american polits held hostage by that republican party. >> r. inhofe, mr. isakson. mr. lautenberg, mr. leahy. mr. lee. mr. wyden. (gavel banging) >> the amendment is not agreed

to. >> narrator: the bill fell five votes short. >> "how could they vote that way? don't they understand what happened? how can they do that? how can this be?" i mean, it was disbeli and a sense of betrayal. that was the mood. ♪ >> it was an emotional setback for the president. it was a huge political setbackd for the prt. and, and in some ways, helped to set the tone, again, for what was going to come after, in other areas. >> narrator: obama invited the newtown families to the white house. >> daniel was a first-grader at sandy hook elementary school. i ow that he felt, he felt a sense of responsibility to us and, and to the nation and to that 90% of the country that, that wanted th. you know, i think he felt a, a

strong sense of responsibility toward that,nd his, his disgust was palpable. >> it came down to politics-- the worry that that vocalow minority of gurs would come after them in future elections. so, all in all, this was a pretty shameful dafor washington. thank you very much, everybody. n great presidents have b able to forge compromise. president obama was not able to and the reason may well be the implacability of the peopleon sittinhe other side of the table from him. sometimes, you can't get to "yes" th someone who w't say anything other than "no." ♪

>> we're supposed toelieve that if only these background checks were in place, all...ne own wouldn't have happened, none of this would have happened. >> there wasn't one part of this bill that would have stopped what happened at thaol. >> "won't you just turn your why'd you do it to him, gun owners?" listen, i didn't kill your kids. ♪ ♪ >> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news with lester ho." >> there is growing outrage tonight after an unarmed african-american teenager was shot and killed by police in thu st. louirb of ferguson, missouri. >> st. louis county police have taken over the investigation of officer that left a teenagerice dead. >> witnesses say the teen was not armed and had his hands up in the air when a police officer fatally shot him.

>> narrator: once again, race would emerge and sow division. >> ferguson becomes a tinderbox, explodes. people want an immediate reaction from barack obama and his administration. >> he ain't armed, he don't got no gun, they just killed him. his blood evywhere. >> ferguson became a metaphor for this entire comple relationships between black people and police, and the criminal-justice system. and it becomes a kind of rorschach test. michael brown is unarmed. he is fired upon by the police officer who says that heed attackim. there are varying eyewitness accounts that dispute that. what is not in dispute is that his body lays on the street where heas shot in the sweltering heat for multiple hours.

>> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> what doe want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> what do we want? >> narrator: night after night, the streets of fergusowere a war zone. (fireworks exploding) (people claming) the president remained silent. >> when ferguson blew, it exploded h inability to grapple straightforwardly with the issue of race he was contorted and tragically twoted when it came to, um, ferguson. >> the difficulty of this situation for barack obama is that it expos him, again and again and again, to the most inflammatory thing about his presidency, with, you know, the beer summit ip gates, with trayvon martin, and now with ferguson, tt he is brought again and again back to this third-rail issue of the disparities of race in this

country. >> narrator: finally, after five days... rybody. afternoon, e >> narrator: he went before the press. >> there is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. >> narrator: he chose a cautious route. >> ...hold ourselveso a high standard. so, now's the time for healing, now's the time for peace and calm on the streets of ferguson. >> he's trying to thread this needle. and feels as though both sides end up being disappointed by what does. >> thanks very much, everybody. >> i was once interviewing obama in the white house, and... i asked him a question about race. and his answer was unusually, uh... guarded. inconsequential, and, for journalistic purposes, almostus ess. n

rator: later, as remnick was leaving the interview, obama stopped him inhe hallway. >> he says to me, "you got to remember, i am the presint of the unitedtates-- i'm not theck president of bmerica. everybody knows who i am, 'cause they loo they can see me. i'm black. but anything i say on race, anything i say on race, i have be extremely careful and calibrated in what i say." (clamoring, horn honking)>> arrator: and as the anger in ferguson grew out of control, on television, obama remained careful and calibrated. >> to those in ferguson, there arways of channeling your concerns constructively and there are ways of chng

your concerns destructively. >> the split screen was the line that showed his disconnect with america. one side of the screen, you're seeing the nation's black president begging that a city do not up in flames. and the other side of the blacpeople saying, "we're done waiting. we'rnot putting up with this anymore." >> we elect a black president,s and eight yeter, we have this? >> i remember talking to activists who said, "i voted for barack obama twice, and trayvon martin's still dead, michael brown's still dead." it was this sense that simply having representation, even at the highest levels, didn't nessarily mean that these issues were going to be addressed. he was really frustrated. and, you know, we would talk. and he would just say,now, "well, cops need to stop shooting unarmed black kids." but he also recognnd wasught. very disciplined about the facts that he was ent of the united states.

>> narrator: the anger transcended ferguson. online, black lives matter emerged-- activists connecting, police shootings around thes of country. (shouting, gs firing) >> i've been recording... i've been recording. >> i can't breathe... >> get that gun off of there. >> shots fired! (radio squawking) >> oh, my god! >> and within moments, the entire world cou see it. and it forced white americans te things that their eyes never would have seen. >> black lives matter! black lives matter! black lives matter!ra >> nr: across the divide, the blowback. >> they hate police officers. >> well, they have strong feelings about... >> no, they hate them-- they want them dead.th 're a hate group, and i'm going to tell you right now, i'm going to put them out of business. >> tir agenda is, "it's okay to go ahead and kill cops." >> no, nobody said tha

>> oh, really? "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon?" when they act like that, they're criminals, and they're calling for the murder of hard-working police officers... >> don't believe that. >> we now have to counter this slime, this filth coming out of these cop-haters. >> a black lives matter protest shut down traffic in frederick, maryland. >>alack lives matter is jus mplete fraud. >> are you going to riot, loot,o roas pigs, what? >> absolutely unbelievable-- all lives matter! >> see, to me, dividing lives that matter by color sounds downright racist. no. ♪ >> republicans tore it up at the election victory, taking control of the senate. >> narrator: fall 2014. senate and now helthured the houses of congress. >> wave of voter frustrati has all but washedff the democrats. democrats in states that were

both blue and red, iluding many states that presidentn. obama .. >> all was lost. we found ourselves in the. world. congress had gone in a different direction, and, , we weren't su if we'd ever get them back on anything. >> the mood of the country was nasty, and the country took most of it out on barack obama. >> president obama was heading into a, a place where he was gointo be opposed by congress, byhe republican majorities in congress, over virtually everything he tried to do. and i think the ndwriting was on the wall that his presidency was going to come to an end with really bitter split between the two political parties, likeve nothing we hadseen >> narrator: over six years, the promise of hope, change, bipartisanship, had been confronted by fear, anger,

division. >> barack obama said he would try to bridge these divides. he couldn't. it wasn't for lack of trying. tmean, just the fact that was six years fore he really just said, "i'm going to stop trying." ♪ >> nrator: he would go aroun the republican congress, go his own way. >> the president is, is saying,g "ing to do what i'm able to do with the tools avaable to me. omi'm never going to get, republican congress, much progress on e things i think are very important." >>e wasn't satisfied to sit there and have people play "hail to the chief" when he walkedn the room. and he was determined that hes ing to use every bit of power that he could legitimately claim. >> my fellow americans, there are actions i have the legal authority to take as president. tonight, i'm announcing those actions.

>> president obama signed ala ma climate-change deal on his final trip to china today. breaking right now, executive action on gun control... >> ...change the lives of millions of undocumented bypasses congress.e move >> president obama says the keystone xl pipeline project...r >>tor: obama's actions energized his supporters, but provoked outragen the other side. >> he couldn't get anythingss through congtrue. but the congresspeoplet represe american public. what did obama do? "i take out my pen and my phone." "i'll take out my pen and my phone, i'm going to do an end around congress." meaning, "you people, i'm going to do an end around you, the american public." >> i've got a pen to take ecutive actions where congress won't, and i've got a telephone to rally folks around the country on this mission. >> he gets shellacked. he loses the senate, he shows back up, he ts smoked, he calls a press conference, and all, cnn and everybody, "new york times," "is he going to

to what the people are saying, the country going in a different direction, obama going to listen?" he gets up there and he goes, "oy, guys, here's how it i i'm president of the united states, and you're not." he gs, "here's ten executive orders i'm going to sign immediately." i'm sitting the going, "this guy's my role model." i said, "he just got smoked, and he comes out and hits you right in the mouth. this is a leader!" >> the constitution is going to cease to exist as we know it. obama is going to start shooting a bb gun at it. >> where does this end? does it ever end? at what point do we roll back this homegrown tyranny?>> ..executive order. what they are really are, are perial fiats. this is what we have to fear. >> and now he has to use very, very dangerous thing.is a i mean, i think, certainly, he could be impeached. ("for the love of money" playing) ♪ money, money, mmoney >> good morning. >> good morning. >> everybody's saying i should run for president. a let you a question-- meatloaf, should i run for

president? >> absolutely! >> now, you uld definitely vote for me. >> i would vote for you, in fact, i'll, i'll help you with your campaign. >> what do you think >> narrator: it was donald trump's mome. >> who would not vote for me? >> narrator: the reality tv star wamaking his move. >> all right, good. >> a hot hint-- don't raise your hand. >> iould say, anybody that raised their hand would immediately be fired, 'cause they're stupid. >> trump is a showman. this is tv gold, right? who would not watch this? he's interesting, and he'se dynamic, aows how to work theameras. and he's been the number-one show on nbc for all these years for a reason. >> another political story making news this morning: nald trump's growing poll numbers on a list of possible... >> donald trump's serious about a run for the white house. will... >> ...donald trumpwho may run for president in the republican primaries. >> donald actually told me in 2013 that he was going to run for president, and i thought he. was kiddin and then he argued that it was based on his twitter feed and facebook posts-- that so many people were posting on social

media that he should run, that he thought maybe he ould. rt as promised, donald trump speaking now in outh, new hampshire-- let's listen. >> you ready? >> yeah, we're ready. you get ready-- whenever you're ready, i'm okay. >> he says to me, "my effective television career, me as a television star is over, i'm running for president"-- i laughed.n looked rights face, i laughed. (phone ringing) and then he proceedeto tell me that he had a, a base of operations built in the trump towe that he had hired roger stone and sam nunberg and co lewandowski. >> you had a perfect storm. a ost 40 years in american politics, i'd never seen the voters in this bad a mood. of political institutions--ious whether it's congress, whether it's the two parties. >> narrator: trump had used the birther movement, and now seized

another hot-button issue for the consvative base-- immigratio a top aide, sanunberg, helped him package it. >> nunberg had realized that this issue of immigration has al salience with republican voters. the problem ey had was, they couldn't get trump to stay on topic-- famously short attention span. this idea, essenti came up with mnemonic device to keep trump focused on the issue of immigration. >> nexyear... >> so, i said, "well, why don't wall, because it's bigger?u' a going to build a wall. and we'll, like... and you'll gemexico to pay for it." >> narrator: trump took it on versions of the line. different >> we have to build a fence, and it's got to be a beauty. who can build better than trump? i build; it's what i do. >> he said it in iowa that day,

and the crowd went nuts. you can watch it, the owd went nuts. >> if i run, i will tell you, the king of building buildings, the king of building walls, nobody canuild them like trump. that i can promise you. (crowd cheers and applauds) i can promise you that >> he said to me, "you know what?i' talking about immigration, i feel it. sam, ts is a movement. th is a movement. they, they get it, they get it." (crowd cheering and applauding) >> narrator: obama had promised uny, but as trump announced his intentn to run, it wass clear hindidacy would be about exploitingivision. (applause continues) >>nf you look at sarah pali taing to "real americans"; tea party talking about taking the country back; the birther movement itself that launched trump; by the time he came down that escalator, he was the obvious republican front-runner.

he was the guy saying the same thing that they'd all beenan saying on foon talk radio and on breitbart for the lt six-and-a-half yea. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're not sending u, they're not sending you. they're sending people thahave lots of problems, and they're bringi those problems with us. >> when he starts doing the over-the-toptuff, and i go, i said, "youatch, they're, aney're going to bite hard they're going to bite hard and blow this up." >> they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, i assume, are good people. oh, my god, i said, "th is..." i said, "he's just, he's just buried every... they're going to go nuts. cnn is literally going to broadcast 24 hours a day." >> donald trump's comment about mexican immigran has created controversy nationwide... >> donald trump's comments have triggered outrage...>> donald trump not baing down from his controversi, some say racist, language... >> i was waiting for trump to

take it back and say, "oh, no, no, i didn't mean thato's sending rapists; they're sending rhodes scholars, they're so much better than we are." and damned if he never took it back! so, i had to say, "okay, i'm for... i'm for thiguy." >> ann, which republican candidate has the best chance of winning the general election? >> of the declared ones, right now, donald trump. (audience laughing) ♪ i said, "this is our guy. he's a very imperfect llstrument, but he's a armor-piercing s (crowd cheering) i tell the guys, "he'soing to go through this thing like a scythe through grass." >> i'll tell you what i like about him, he doesn't take any ap from obama. >> he's the leader right now of the entire conservative movement in amera... >> donald trump has changed the entire debate on immigration.

>> he might be blunt, he might wp inartful at times, but he's channeling the vnt of, i would say, the majority of republan voters. ♪ >> (on radio): i copy, several victims regarding that active shooter. ve me at least four medi units, plus two supervisors. >> all units responding, 110ou castreet. >> we have breaking news. police and emergency responders are on the sne of what police confirm is a shooting inside a church in downtown charleston, south carolina. dispatchers tell... >> nine people are dead, and there's a massive manhunt underway... >> the shooting happened at the historic emmanuel a.m.e. church-- the pastor, a... >> charleston represented a lot of things coming together. it was re, it was guns, and it was the great divide. (siren blaring, radio squawking) >> narrator: eight african- american parishioners and their minister. (siren blaring)

murdered in a church by a white supremacist. they found the shooter's journal. >> "the event that truly awakened me was the trayvon martin case. how could the news be blowing up the trayvon martin case,f while hundredsese black-on-white murders got ignored?" >> he is driven to vioby e fact that-- he says this. he says that black peoe are taking over the world. reverend pinckney was dead, in large measure, because barack oba was the president. ♪ >> that massacre in south carolina let obama finally know that "black americans are the proxies for me." and i think that he was aware of the fact that he had to address this, he could no longer avoid this, that this was mething that we as a nation must grapple with.

♪ >> narrator: he would head for charleston and the collective icgrief at the memorial se as he told valerie jarrett on the way down, hehinking about singing "amang grace."me >> well, hioned it to, to me and to the first lady, and he said, "there's a moment in my eulogy where ihink i might sing." well, and i'd said, "don't sing, don't sing." and he goes, "i think i'm going to sing." >>de'd built the speech aro this concept of grace. and he said, you know, "maybe i'll sing 'amazing grace.'" >> here was moment where the nation needed its president. and for one of the first tes in theation's history, the presidt was completely t preparprovide the comfort needed to black americans. >> the president of the united states of america, the honorable barack obama, will come at this time... (congregation cheering) ♪

>> narrator: obama would speak about race in a way he never had as president. >> it was an act that drew on ao long histobombs and arson and shots fired at churches. >> amen. >> not random, but as a means of control. >> amen. >> a way to terrorize and oppress. (congregation applauding) an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination. violence and suspicion. an act that he presumed would

deep divisions that trace back to our nation's original sin. >> the shooting in charleston was a moment for him to, to show the, the fullness of hisof feelingsis emotions, and his identification with, with his community. and to speak for them, um, in a way that he probably hadt done in his predency. >> as a nation, out of this t terribgedy, god has visited grace upons. (congregation agreeing) for he has alled us to see auere we've been blind. (congregation apng) if we can tap that grace,an

everythinghange. amazing grace. >> he paed.ce. and i remember thinking, "is he thinking, 'am i ing to sing, or am i not going to sing?'" >> ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ that saved a wretchan join in) like me i once was lost

but now i'm found was blind but now i see ♪ (organ concluding) >> it was like in those notes of "amazing grace," the entire history of the obama presidency, ,l the adversity he'd fac all the opposition he'd faced, everything he'd repressed, was coming out. >> clementa pinckney found that grace. cynthia hurd found that grace. (congregation responds) susie jackson found that grace. (congregation responds) ethel lance found that.

(congregation responds) depayne middleton doctor found that grace.nz tysanders found that grace. daniel l. simmons, sr., found that grace. sharonda coleman-singleton found that grace. myra thompson found that grace. >> i remember just sitting there and sobbing at my desk, in a way that never did, because it was, like, he's finally being his compte self in full view of the country. >> may grace now lead them homen egation agreeing) may god continue to shed his grace on the united states of americ (cheering and applauding) ♪ >> having a black president has no effect, no effect, on what's going on in some of our cities, zero. >> you know they're ramping it up for the 2016 election. every speech they've given has

fanned the flame of racial. enmi >> he'not the man of compassion and empathy that he. claims to ♪ >> the race is wl underway, with a new republican candidate... president is underen for donald trump begins flirting... >> trump's campaign blitz in iowa, promising a "big, special announcement." >> well, he says there'll be a big announcement at the last even.. >> narrator: early days on the campaign trail-- trump had plenty of money and celebrity. he wanted one more thing. ("eye of the tiger" playing) >> governor sarah palin, special, special person. thank you. >> thank you so much, it's so great be in iowa. we're here just thawing out, lending our support for the next president of our great united states of america, donald j. trump.

>> for her to endorse donald trump was a way for her to say... >> heads are spinning. media heads are spinning. this is going to be so...'s >> "he is doing the kinds of things i'd wanted to do. he is saying the kinds of thing" i wanted to sa but i think most important was, "his constituency and my constituency are, are one and the same." >> being here tonight,su orting the right man who will allow you to make america great again, god bless you, god bless the united states of america, and our next president of the united states, donald j. trump. >> donald trump is running ..ainst the establishment. >> the republican party better pay attention... >> if you wanted the exactba opposite of ck obama, it's donald trump. obama was cool, trump is hot. obama was cerebral and laid-back, trump is rough and in-your-face. obama is mr. teleprompter. donald trump is a no card and

no limits, no boundaries, no editing. >> obama is a tremendous divider-- you can't get muche. wo he's been a great, great divider.in i president obama has been the most ignorant president in our history. he will go down as one of the worst presidents in the history of our country-- iis a mess. isis is honoring presidentam he is the founder of isis. he's the founder of isis ♪ >> he just couldn't believe that the republican party would minate trump. the ideahat the american public would elect twice barack obama, first african-amecan president in history, and then turn around and pick donald p trump, wyed to racial

resentment and anxiety, it just didn't compute for president obama-- it just didn't make anyo sensim. he couldn't imagine it. ♪ >> he looks at me, and he says, "you know, what if we we wrong?" he's, like, "you know,ell, what, what if people just want to fall back into their tribe? what if people's identity, their kind of sense of racial or etic identity, is justor powerful?" >> we just have to be honest: it has been difficult to fi agreement over the last seven years. >> narrator:n his final state of the union address, he said it out loud. >> it's one of the few regrets rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. >> along the way, presidentie obama to do things that

didn't sit well with a chunk oft the american eate. we saw the, the rise of the tea part you had the birther movement. it all became angry. it becamthis sort of angry stew that dissolved into disagreement and, and worse, division. ♪ >> democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise. orhen even basic facts are contested. or when we listen only to those who agree with us. >> he meant, and he really, truly believed that he could bring about meaningful change in discourse and attitude and the politics of politicization. he became enormously frustrated,

enormously discouraged, enormously pessimistic about his prospects for doing just that over the course of his eight years. so, while he started filled with hope and filled with this enormous desire and determination to do just that, he acknowledged defeat, he acknowledged his collapse, his inability to bring his country together. and that was deey disappointing. ♪ narrator: he left with warning. >> there will be voices urging us to fall back into our respective tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us or pray like us vote like we do or share the same background. we can't afford to go down that path.

it contradicts everything that t makes envy of the world. ♪ >> donald trump will be the 45th president of the united states... >> nartor: tomorrow night, the story continues. >> whoa, everyone got this wrong and this is a huge story. r: >> narrato donald trump inherits the deeply divided country obama warned of... >> trump didn't create this, but he leaned into it and everything he has done has deepened this trench. bring the country er.lection to >> you are fake news. >> it's time to take on the elites, hit them with a blowtorch. >> i think there is blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it.ab >> it's pr the first time where the country realizes, thia is going to ge >> narrator: the conclusion of frontline's epic investigation.

>> ...a very bitterlvided america... >> no matter who is elected president, they are going to face this deep divide and that it could shape their entire presidency. >> narrator: "america's great divide". >> it's only going to get nastier. >> narrator: tomorrow night, on frontline. >> go to pbs.org/frontline for the latest frontline transparency project. see key quotes from the film in context. >> obama care goshoved down our throats. en >> thire complex of relationships between black people and police. he's a very imperfect instrument. >> connect to the frontle community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible bo ributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdanr and peaceful.

and by the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of sociale worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams undation, committed to excellence in journalism. e park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. thheising-simons foundation: unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and psibilities. and by the frontline journalism fund,up with majorrt from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from laurdebonis and scott nathan captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other "frontline" programs, visit our website at p.org/frontline.

♪ frontline's, n merica's great divide" is available on amaime video. ♪ ♪ you're wching pbs. ♪

♪ -one of my friends said, "come on, we're gonna go to wendy's for shabbat." i said, "wendy's, shabbat? i couldn't believe this.hl i said, "wendy's, shabbat? -my name is eva s. i'm actually a recording. why don't yoask me a question about auschwitz -two documentaries about tradition and history, with a 21scentury twist. "pov shorts: making memories." ♪ haajor funding for "pov" been provide♪ by...