The newest documentary by the great PBS “Frontline” outfit premieres Tuesday night at 9 p.m. It’s titled “Lies, Politics and Democracy.”
As you may have guessed from the title, it’s about Donald Trump, the biggest liar in recent (and perhaps in all of ) U.S. political history. It’s especially about his attempted despoliation of U.S. democracy in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s SOLID victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election and Trump’s efforts to overturn it (which are still going on – he’s recently called for the election to be rerun – ??? – but going nowhere).
I’ll just put this right out there. The documentary is two hours long, and a lot of it is stuff you already know, although there’s likely to be some facts or ideas in there that will be new to you.
But the film is as honest and accurate and chilling as you can imagine. If possible, we should all save a copy and rerun it in future presidential election years to make sure we remember what happened in 2020 and take measures to prevent any recurrence of this epic shit-show from threatening our little experiment in democratic self-governance again.
The film, directed by Michael Kirk, opens with footage of a long string of losing presidential candidates since the dawn of the TV age graciously conceding and congratulating their opponents, until it comes to Trump declaring of the election he had just lost that:
“This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly we did win this election…” until the narrator clarifies what you really already know, thus:
“It was the lie that sparked an insurrection. An existential threat to American Democracy.”
As recently as last week (and I don’t doubt Trump will extend his love affair with this particular pile of horse manure into next week, next month and next year) Trump still claimed to have won the 2020 election. What are the odds he’ll claim it on his deathbed?
I dunno. Maybe “existential threat” from the quote above is a bit much, but maybe not. I’m a septuagenarian, born in the second-to-last last year of Harry S Truman’s presidency, so Trump was my 13th president. I sort of thought I’d seen it all. But no.
In case you don’t recall (but “Lies, Politics and Democracy” will refresh your memory), Trump lost the first contest in the race for the 2016 Republican nomination, the Iowa caucuses. But he immediately tweeted that it had been stolen, telling interviewers: “Everything about it was disgraceful. It was a fraud as far as I’m concerned.”
But then (the film reminds you), before his ambition turned to the presidency, when his reality TV show “The Apprentice” lost an Emmy (in the stupid show category, I assume) to “The Amazing Race,” he claimed that the Emmy vote was “rigged.” I don’t think the term “poor loser” captures this guy. We need something stronger.
But wait, still more: In 2012 (this is all in the Frontline film), when Democrat-turned-Republican Trump backed Mitt Romney against Barack Obama, and although Romney graciously conceded, Trump tweeted: “This election is a total sham and travesty. We are not a democracy” (and specified, without evidence, that voting machines were programmed to switch Romney votes to Obama. Still waiting for that evidence.)
As the runner-up for the 2016 Republican nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was entitled to a speaking slot at the convention. But he told people that he would refuse to endorse the nominee, Trump, who had insulted Cruz’s wife as, let’s say, unattractive. Referring to his unwillingness to get on board, Cruz told aides, “History isn’t kind to the man who holds Mussolini’s jacket.” I’m not sure if that was original to Cruz, but I like it.
In the end, Cruz pulled his punches, saying publicly only that “we deserve leaders who stand for principle…” without specifying to whom he was referring. But even that was enough to get the Trump crowd booing and calling for him to get off the stage. And Cruz, to his eternal disgrace, later joined the campaign to elect Trump, as a surrogate speaker (but not to hold Trump’s jacket).
According to the film, Trump had been prepared (and talked about doing so) to declare in 2016, if he had lost, that the election had been rigged. But, as you know, even though he lost the popular vote (which he never acknowledged in any way) Trump won the electoral vote in 2016 and became president.
Longtime Republican and conservative pundit Bill Kristol, who ended up campaigning against Trump, says in the film that Republicans in Congress told him that they would be able to manipulate Trump so he wouldn’t do anything too weird, then adding: “But it turned out he would be the one doing the manipulating.”
The film calls the riot in Charlottesville, Virginia – where racists and anti-Semites chanted filthy, violent slogans and ended up causing three deaths, after which Trump refused to criticize them (“very fine people on both sides”) – “a moment that would foreshadow what was to come.”
Ku Klux Klan Leader David Duke, who participated in the rally/riot, later specified that Trump had told the participants to take their country back and that’s what they were doing.
According to the film, Paul Ryan, then the Republican Speaker of the House and U.S. representative from Wisconsin, told Trump he had to disavow at least the members of the crowd who were violent.
But Trump told him: “You don’t get it, Paul. These are my people.”
Journalist Jelani Cobb (who recently became Dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism) appears at that point in the film to say that “Ryan was unwilling to accept that racists were now the core of the Republican Party under Trump.”
So Ryan retired from Congress.
A Ryan adviser, Brendan Buck, says on camera that one of Ryan’s big problems with the nominee was that Trump welcomed anyone who supports him, even racists, were “OK with him in his book, no matter what they believed,” as long as they were Trumpers.
Oher commentators identified the deadly Charlottesville riots as an inflection point, where party leaders realized they could not remain relevant in the Trump-led Republican Party and continue to stand against its racist elements. Some of them left over it.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, for example, was unwilling to stand silent about Trump’s authoritarianism. He wrote a book about it, “Conscience of a Conservative.” But, the film’s narrator says, Flake “became an example of the danger of speaking out.” Realizing that Trump now spoke for the Republican base, and being unwilling to go along with what Trump and the base wanted, Flake chose not to run for another term.
Republican Congressman Mark Sanford decided to stay but not stay quiet about his opposition to Trump. Trump denounced him, and he lost in the next primary in 2018. On camera, Sanford says: “It’s not good when you’re a lowly member of Congress and a president of your own party comes out against you. It’s just not a good movie. It doesn’t work out well.”
Frank Luntz, the veteran Republican pollster, said of those who stood up to Trump: “He made fun of them, he embarrassed them, and he destroyed them.” More than three dozen Republican members of Congress chose to retire rather than sacrifice their consciences, or face the same fate as Sanford.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell chose a more complicated path to go with a more complicated agenda, the film suggests. McConnell needed Trump to sign tax cuts and nominate conservative judges, causes dear to McConnell’s heart. So he worked out a truce agreement with Trump which Susan Glasser, of the New Yorker, says went like this: “Mitch McConnell gets judges. Donald Trump gets the party. Donald Trump is now the owner, lock stock and barrel, of the Republican Party. It is under new management.”
McConnell, at a public event celebrating Trump’s victories, says in the film: “We’ve cemented the Supreme Court, right of center, for a generation.”
The U.S. House, controlled by Democrats, impeached Trump in early 2016 over his effort to extort political help from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in exchange for U.S. military aid Zelensky needed to defend Ukraine against Russia. At the impeachment trial, McConnell used his power over the Senate to refuse to allow any witnesses. On a nearly total party line vote and without hearing from witnesses, the Senate acquitted Trump.
John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser says, on camera, that after the acquittal Trump “thought he was bulletproof,” adding that “it had an effect on (Trump’s) future conduct and not a good one.”
The film covers the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and riots that followed. The narrator says, “Trump turned a moment that was about race into an opportunity to project his power,” announcing that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” by which Trump meant armed force against rioters.
Trump lost his 2020 reelection bid to Joe Biden, a fact he has never acknowledged but which everyone interviewed, including many Republicans, knows.
But U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, on camera, says McConnell has told senators not to acknowledge Biden’s victory. “Stay silent,” was his command. But, Kinzinger says silence is complicity, so he didn’t remain silent and has been active in the current House hearings. But he also announced he wouldn’t seek another term.
“Lies, Politics and Democracy,” directed by Michael Kirk, premiers Tuesday night at 8 p.m. central time on KTCA Channel 2 and other PBS stations.
Your description makes very clear that the “existential problem” is not really Trumpolini and his election lies, but what the Repub base has become. They are now demanding only Trump-like candidates.
The “conservative” movement and its Noise Machine began flirting with white nationalism in response to Obama, and Trump decided to present himself as the first white nationalist candidate since George Wallace. The Repub base now regards sympathy with white nationalism to be of much greater importance to the nation than democracy.
We are now dealing with a political minority that has rejected all reason and evidence, and that has a Noise Machine that provides them with lies about everything, 24/7. Biden is now doing what he can, finally characterizing the “MAGA Republicans” as “semi-fascist” and a clear and present danger to American constitutional democracy. As this documentary (apparently) makes clear, no elected Repub can be expected to help Biden in this struggle. (Although numerous non-elected ex-Repubs are aiding the cause, I will admit.)
The Trumpites cannot be reasoned with, they can only be defeated. The critical problem is that the courts are now stuffed with far-right extremists masquerading as judges, such this unqualified 40 year old Federalist Society Trumpite who issued the recent lawless and fact-free pro-Trump ruling in south FL. These judges are the crowning achievement of the Gravedigger of Democracy, Mitch McConnell. The rule of law is impossible with blindly partisan, ideologically-committed “judges”.
And lies are meaningless unless there is someone on the other end who will believe them. Just finishing up ‘The Storm is Upon Us” by Mike Rothschild about QANON. The crap people will believe if it fits their needs and desires is unbelievable. And if it means accepting : A. “You have been screwed and let’s get even” and B. “Hillary Clinton eats babies”. Folks are so enamored with A that if it means accepting B, no big deal.
No Ted Cruz, Hillary does not eat babies!
All McConnell needed to do, after getting his precious judges in place, was to cry alligator tears of love and affection for Trump, but, the law is the law and in the Ukraine Quid Pro Quo Trump is guilty and as much as it pains him to do so he must vote to remove. He gets the ultimate win/win/win, gets his judges, sticks it to a guy he hates in Trump and, I’m not sure if he really cares about this one, protects democracy from lunatics.
And, I’m also not sure where a bet can be placed on this one, as the classified material case move forward, Lindsey Graham will, for the third time, jump off the Trump train. Lindsey is the political equivalent of T Bone Slim, the world’s most famous train jumping Hobo.
“Journalist Jelani Cobb (who recently became Dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism) appears at that point in the film to say that “Ryan was unwilling to accept that racists were now the core of the Republican Party under Trump.”
Total nonsense. More black and brown people voted for Trump in 2020 than for any republican candidate in history.
Total nonsense. Trump received 12% of the black vote. So did Bob Dole in 1996. Nixon (15% in 1968, 13% in 1972), Ford (17%), and Reagan (14% in 1980) all did better than Trump.
When will you learn that you are being lied to?
And as though the fact that some non-white (mostly) males voted for Trump’s message of hating on the “other” in 2020 totally negates the reality of Trumpolini’s appeal to white racists. But to be a “conservative” now you have to be willing to refuse to see your hand in front of your face.
You forgot to add:
“Some of Trump’s best friends are Black”
A nice little bit of obscurity, but totally irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
Trump told us what he believes after Charlottesville:
“Very fine people on both sides”
Sorry no…
Your response may be true (I haven’t researched it), but is a fine demonstration that, if true, it’s still nonsense. The core of the current Republican Party is white, racist, nationalistic, and jingoistic. That people still go to rallies led by a demonstrated traitor whose delusions, if he actually believes what he says, are enough to get him institutionalized, is proof positive the far, far too many Republicans are drinking the Trumpian Kool-Aid. “If I lost, the election must be rigged” is paranoia. “If the President does it, it can’t be illegal” is Nixonian delusion. Both are self-serving to the core, thus perfectly fitting Mr. Trump’s personality and worldview.
That’s because there are more people of color in the country than ever before.
Oh, boy! Getting out the popcorn to see how the MAGA contingent answers this excellent summary. Not sure what the odds should be on bringing up Hunter’s laptop or Hillary’s emails since they’ve pretty much beaten all the meat off of those dead horses. Going with liberal media fallback.
As for, “I don’t think the term “poor loser” captures this guy. We need something stronger.” I could make a couple of suggestions, but they would never get printed.
It starts with the lie. The lie says that the will of the people – the people who matter, at any rate – was thwarted by some nefarious conspiracy, or evil cabal. The lie is used to build on, or create, resentment. The resentment is directed towards the “other,” meaning the conspirators or cabal who committed the treachery.
Accepting the lie depends on the listeners’ ability or willingness to reject any alternative hypothesis. To believe that the election was “stolen” from Trump one has to reject the idea that he could have lost a free, legitimate election, and that his defeat could have come about only because of the treachery. The believers in the lie have to believe that they could not be wrong.
They must also be true believers. Whether Trump and his cabal actually believe the lie (I believe Trump does; the others, I’m not sure about) is one matter, but his followers have to. It is just not possible to sustain the necessary level of outrage if one is just putting on an act. Sooner or later, those with less commitment to the charade, or who know it was just a charade, will lose interest. The true zealot, however, does not want to admit that they were just pretending all along. The insurrectionists who have been willing to go to jail because of their January 6 frolic must either reinvent themselves as martyrs or as dupes. Neither option is especially attractive.
Does trump believe the lie? Or is using it for gain? I am never sure
Evil or delusional, neither a good choice for a Prez
“Evil and delusional” is even worse.
Thanks Eric, your review of the “Frontline” documentary has made me violently ill, just what I needed a recap of how ~ 1/2 my country (of which I am a 4 year Vietnam era veteran) has turned into a mob of raving fascists following a diabolical compulsive liar, grifter, cheat, (and what ever other words are apropos). Word today is potential traitor/saboteur as well, seems a bunch of US intelligence assets (information that allegedly was in Mar-a-Lago) have been extinguished over the last 18+ months or so at a greater rate than would be expected!
The “big lie” is that Biden received 81 million legitimate votes.
Seems over 60 court cases disagree with you even his hand picked Supreme Court, but of course, you and the MAGA crew know better than the courts, and those 81+M. Perfect autocracy mentality, seems lots of Generals and admirals disagree with you as well. But hey, when people are touched they are touched, more or less unreachable with reality, you got took, but keep sending those checks, maybe the world really is flat?
Yes indeed. That’s why Trumpolini’s own deeply compromised AG told him that all the claims of election fraud were “bullshit”!
Evidence?
Prove that it’s a lie, Dennis…
Dennis you are correct, that is a lie.
President Joe Biden received just over 81,283,000 legitimate votes, compared with former President Trump who received just under 74,223,000 votes.
This is why Joe Biden is our current President.
Unless you actually have knowledge of widespread voting fraud; do you Dennis?
No one else in the country has been able to find any evidence at all. People certainly have been looking since November 2020. Still nothing.
So you think that some of those 81 million votes were fraudulent. But the only voters convicted of fraud have been Trump voters. And 60 court cases have said there was no fraud. I think someone has been telling you lies.
Right.
If it weren’t for Republican voter suppression, it would have been more like 85 million.
One more comment from a Constitution denier.
The Constitution and our judicial system provides a means to challenge any fraudulent vote and Trump failed to prove his case using these Constitutional remedies. Dennis, please trust Rudy Giuliani when he said:
“We have lots of theories, we just don’t have any evidence”
I would suggest a 2hour Frontline is inadequate to cover all trump’s lies.
At least miniseries, mist likely a season or two
Dear Dennis,
I along with the rest of America would love to see your reasoning and proof. If the election truly was corrupt where exactly did it go off the rails? It appears two years later there hasn’t been one iota of proof that’s the election was corrupted.
I remember many years ago when Mary Kiffmeyer was the Secretary of State during the Pawlenty administration. She graciously agreed to be a speaker at one of our Uptown Rotary meetings. After she spoke, I asked her point blank how secure, and fair are our elections here in Minnesota having heard stories of election shenanigans. She laughed and said you know there’s always a little bit of shenanigans from both parties during any election cycle but it’s so minimal it’s negligent in the outcome of an election. She went on to say that there are processes in place to minimize any illegal or illegitimate voting in the state of Minnesota. She said she was quite confident that the elections are fair and square. Of course, now Mary as a senator from Big Lake is speaking out the other side of her mouth about election integrity. What I find interesting is that the very people who claim the election was stolen are the people who are trying to steal elections. They claim there was fraud, yet they have no proof. You would think after two years after claiming the election was stolen that some evidence would come to light. Instead, what we have is a group of unfortunate people putting out lies and innuendo and telling people that is fact.
Look trump was never my cup of tea just because I’ve watched his actions going back over decades and how he acts and treats people. But if you can provide proof that the election was indeed stolen, and that President Biden did not legitimately receive over 81 million votes I am all ears. Instead, what I hear including from some of my own family members is a blind obedience to a documented liar and con man.
Dennis, frankly I think you’re better than this or at least I hope so. But if you’re aware of some proof that the election was corrupted it’s your patriotic duty to share it with the rest of us. I can certainly understand that you might not like Democrats which is fine. But why the blind allegiance to a man like Donald Trump? Why buy into this fantasy that the election was stolen with zero proof?
Honest question, why do you think that?
Unfortunately, I think that waiting for an answer to your question will be like Waiting for Godot.
Seriously, the Rightwing Noise Machine provides Trump enthusiasts with dozens of articles claiming there is “irrefutable evidence” that the entire margin of Biden’s win was via “illegitimate” votes. (Of course, these “illegitimate” votes are actually just votes by urban constituents.) The evidence, however, must remain secret to protect those patriots who have bravely stumbled upon The Truth…
Dennis is with Kim Crockett his Secretary of State candidate.
Current Secretary of State, Steve Simon, says based on proven claims of fraud our 2020 election was better than 99.99% accurate. This number can be legally challenged at will by the MN GOP. They failed to do it. 99.99% Stands if you believe in the Constitution.
Crockett tells us Biden’s 7% point, 235,000 vote margin is actually a Trump win, yet she is incapable of proving even .1% of voting fraud. Rationalization is the key to mental health…
The only thing I would add to this discussion is the fact that all of Trump’s lies, and those who have supported his lies, dishonesty, and criminality, regardless of the degree… constitute an ongoing threat of Fascism to our democracy. This IS an existential threat that cannot be dismissed as an historical anomaly. Trump continues to lie, and as we can see in this comment thread, his followers continue to promote his lies. This threat cannot be exaggerated.
Obviously Trump is nothing without his followers, and those who share complicity on whatever level be they McConnel or Ryan, Proud Boys, or commenters here.
I agree, Eric, it is an excellent investigative piece. The good news is that you need not save a copy. Frontline/PBS documentaries can be streamed for free online and many are available for years. But if you want to purchase it, most can be bought from the same website.
The first 10 minutes of the Frontline doc. should be broadcast on every medium we have, including Fox News. First, a string of scenes showing every losing President since the dawn of motion pictures, graciously conceding his (and the lonely her) loss. Then, a string 0f scenes going back to 2012, showing Trump attributing every loss in his life, from Emmies to primaries to the Presidency, to fraud, using precisely the same hyperbolic and evidence-free language. No one who watches this can refute the obvious conclusion—that the guy is a pathological liar and bully, far outside American political norms.
The “Frontline” documentary was, as usual, excellent journalism. I hope I’m wrong but I’m afraid the people who should view this documentary and the ones who will refuse to watch it because of their prejudice against “media bias”. But like the January 6, 2021 Commission hearings, the documentary presents facts that are damning admissions from his own mouth of his own morally depraved and corrupt character. Many politicians tell lies or “mis-speak” but what other politicians have predicted that if they lose, it’s because the election or vote was rigged? And then when he loses claims that it was “stoen”? Evidently, Tr**p even pulled this with his “Apprentice” “reality TV show when it failed to win an Emmy Award. And his followers continue to buy his Big Lie.
The program’s take-away is that Tr**p now “owns” the Republican Party and that he and his base remain an existential threat to the republic and its democratic traditions and institutions. This program is a warning which applies most emphatically to the 2022 mid-term elections and to State elections. I read this morning that Tr**p urged Massachusetts voters to elect the Republican nominee for Governor because “he will rule your state with an iron fist.” Minnesota and America: you’ve been warned.
Apparently it was only the top of the ballot that was corrupted. Now that is a magical software glitch.
Great summary. I came to realize that Republican Senators and Members of Congress feared for their lives after Jan 6. insurrection. They had experienced the terror of a mob, and this fear for their personal safety contributed to their votes against his 2nd impeachment. A clear demonstration of mob rule!
The “big lie” is that Biden got elected. Dennis must have his swimming pool filled with the koolaid…