E8: America's Great Divide

FRONTLINE: Film Audio Track | PBS

FRONTLINE

Documentaries, Frontline, Wgbh, Pbs, Tv & Film

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

FRONTLINE begins its 2020 election year coverage with a two-part, four-hour documentary series investigating America’s increasingly bitter, divided and toxic politics. From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump draws on revelatory new interviews with key political and cultural figures, as well as an unparalleled archive of in-depth broadcast reporting across two presidential administrations, to offer crucial context for the current moment. Part One traces how Barack Obama’s promise of unity collapsed as increasing racial, cultural and political divisions laid the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump. Part Two examines how Trump’s campaign exploited the country’s divisions, how his presidency has unleashed anger on both sides of the divide, and what America’s polarization could mean for the country’s future.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the audio version of the frontline documentary,
0:03.4	America's Great Divide, from Obama to Trump.
0:07.0	Here is the eighth and final episode.
0:10.4	Trump had brought divisive politics to the presidency,
0:13.9	the Congress, and it would even extend to the Supreme Court.
0:18.5	It is my honor and privilege to announce that I will nominate
0:22.5	Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.
0:27.2	Supreme Court showed down as Democrats are promising to fight
0:30.4	presidents from the battle is off.
0:32.0	Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh made the rounds of
0:34.4	them. Now is the time to fight.
0:36.9	Now some Democrats have already come out in total oppositions.
0:40.2	You don't belong in this building as a justice.
0:45.4	Pay attention to this guy's pay attention.
0:48.0	George W. Bush's solicitor General Ted Olsen.
0:51.2	He's confirmed he'll be on the court for 25 to 30 years.
0:54.5	That's six presidential terms. That is a key vote.
0:59.4	Peter Baker in the U.S.
1:01.6	Trump sees courts as just another political body.
1:04.4	You know, he prefers judges. He refers to an Obama judge or a Bush judge or a
1:08.4	Trump judge. You know, he might as well put a D or an R after their names.
1:12.1	He doesn't see judges as being independent figures.
	...

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