to talk more about the mercers, we're joined now by jane mayer, staff writer at "the new yorker." her latest piece is headlined, "the reclusive hedge-fund tycoon behind the trump presidency: how robert mercer exploited america's populist insurgency." jane is also author of "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right," which has just come out in paperback. welcome back to democracy now! the beginning of the peace talks about a former colleague of mercer's saying "in my view, trump would not be president if not for bob." explained who robert mercer is. >> well, as you mentioned, he is a new york hedge fund tycoon. he is a computer scientist, kind rd a math genius and uber ne who figured out how to games by using math. calleda fund that is renaissance technologies. he is the co-ceo. it just mints money. he is enormously wealthy. what he has done is he has tried to take this fortune and reshape , first, the republican party, and then at america along his own lines. his ideology is extreme. he is way far on the right. he hates government. acc

amy: today, jane mayer on robert mercer, the reclusive hedge fund billionaire who helped trump

. >> joining me now, national security reporter at "the new york times," jane mayer, staff writer at "the new yorker" and michael isikoff, chief correspondent for yahoo news. michael, let me start with you. it was remarkable to have this thing reported, anonymous leaks being confirmed on the record by the director of the fbi, both that it's happening and that it started in july. >> exactly. look, it is extraordinary to have the fbi director confirm that there is an active investigation of the campaign of the sitting president over questions of collusion with a foreign power. that in itself is stunning. we knew the fbi was up to something. they were investigating aspects of this. to have comey directly say it's about possible coordination was something i don't think anybody was expecting. also, the fact that this began late july -- >> oh, my goodness, yeah. >> -- more than three months before the election was something i don't think any of us realized in their full dimensions. a couple things worth pointing out, as we reported tonight on yahoo news, this was just a few weeks after chr

joining me now is jane mayer, author of "dark money, the hidden history of the billionairesehind the dical right." jane, thanks for being here. >> so glad to be with you. >> let's go through the mercer clan and talk about the father first, robert mercer. who is he, where did he come from and where did he get all his money? >> well, he made his money on wall street in a -- he's a hedge fund manager of a company called renaissance technologies that's considered one of the most secretive and successful hedge funds in the world. and he is a computer scientist and something of a math genius. but he's also really reclusive. he has said he'd be happy to go through his life speaking to no one and he'd rather talk to cats and spend his time with cats than people. so he's an unusual character to be so important in our country, because most people have no idea who he is. >> he and his daughter, rebecca, incredibly influential over donald trump. are the people behind them hiring steve bannon and kellyanne conway, big funders of breitbart. but his own personal views, you write about his racial vie