[narrator] The reviews are in.
Here's what Trump's own people are saying about him.
"He's a [bleep] moron."
Rex Tillerson, Trump's secretary of state.
We're lower than the world.
Lower than the world?
[narrator] "He tries to divide us."
James Mattis, Trump's secretary of defense.
You had a group on one side,
and you had a group on the other.
Very fine people on both sides.
[narrator] "He's an idiot."
John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff.
They weren't laughing at me.
[narrator] "A professional liar."
Gary Cohn, Trump's economic advisor.
There will be no lies.
[narrator] "He thinks he's God."
Barbara Res, SVP of Trump Organization.
I am the chosen one.
[narrator] "Like an 11-year-old child."
Steve Bannon, Trump's advisor.
If I don't take responsibility--
[narrator] Can America survive four more years?
[announcer] The Lincoln Project is responsible
for the content of this advertising.
[caller] So what do you think?
I love it, and it's great.
It's almost like we know what the fuck we're doing, right?
Watch the dogs.
[dogs barking]
Donald Trump has had an enormous,
transformative effect on the GOP,
and I think probably a fatal effect on the GOP.
It is a philosophy we call a turd in the punch bowl.
A phrase my grandmother used to love,
and once you've had a turd in the punch bowl,
it's not punch anymore. It's shit water.
[indistinct chatter]
Dad, can I get you a glass of wine?
Park City, Utah, for The Lincoln Project.
[Wilson] Yep. 6 a.m.
Now, listen, we have run
a psych warfare campaign on Trump
that is unprecedented in presidential elections.
Unprecedented.
No one's ever fucked with a candidate
like we fucked with a candidate.
[person] In the last 55 days,
what's the most important thing that you can do?
[Wilson] So we're gonna push to make sure
that people are motivated to vote,
and they understand the stakes of the election.
There'll be a lot of...
Look, I've been involved in conservative
Republican politics since 1987.
[person] One of the things I remember
about growing up in this house was,
I would listen to Rush Limbaugh on the way home,
and then he would turn on MSNBC.
[person] Yeah.
[person] So it was hard to tell what he agreed with.
[Wilson] Now, it's even easier than that.
It's, "You can stand with America,
or you can stay with Trump."
This fight, in a lot of weird ways,
started when I started opposing Trump in '15.
And folks, as you may be able to see,
I have my Steve Bannon painting up above my--
my rig here. [laughs]
Steve Bannon sent out an email that said,
"Go after him. Destroy him.
Business, wife, kids, everything."
And one of his writers wrote an article
making a big, old funny joke about my daughter being raped.
He thought that was hilarious,
so I made sure Steve Bannon knew.
I will fuck you, until the end of time.
Trumpism is not an ideology.
Trumpism believes in adulation of a dear leader,
and that's all it believes in.
[person] It's a cult that alt right
took notes from ISIS
- about how to do this... - [Wilson] Yes. Yes.
And how to radicalize these people, and it's true.
It is 100% true. Yeah.
These are the same fanatic movements
have used throughout history, to tell people,
"Unless you are with us, everything will be destroyed."
Look, we're running a series of ads called Radicalizer...
When we started The Lincoln Project,
our goal was to defeat Donald Trump
and Trumpism and Trump's enablers.
I don't care if you like my principles.
I don't care if you like what I believe in.
You want to win or not?
- I love you. - I love you.
See ya. - I'll see you soon.
Okay, come out to Park City.
So here we come.
Look, I've been involved in a dozen super PACs.
None of them had a mission like this.
We don't have a client.
We weren't here to move some legislative agenda item.
We're here to kick the shit out of Donald Trump.
upbeat percussive music
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
The Lincoln Project.
Steve Schmidt. Rick Wilson. Jennifer Horn.
Ron Steslow. Mike Madrid. Reed Galen.
[cheers and applause]
[Wilson] As I once was, the men and women on this stage
were the architects and operators
and storytellers of a political system
that we must acknowledge is broken.
But we have, as the great political philosopher
Liam Neeson once said,
- a particular set of skills. - [laughter]
Skills that make us a nightmare for people like Donald Trump.
[cheers and applause]
I am a Republican because I believed
that the principles upon which our party was founded,
the principles of Lincoln,
strengthened and raised up everyone in our community,
regardless of who they are or how they vote.
But this is not the Republican Party of today.
The GOP, which many of us have worked
probably collectively for hundreds of years,
just on this stage,
is a party bereft of ideological underpinnings.
[Steslow] It was difficult growing up gay,
in a conservative, evangelical home
- with pastors for parents... - [crowd murmuring]
...and going on to work in Republican politics
for 17 years.
[laughter, applause]
[Madrid] The view of Lincoln.
Bold, confident, righteous.
The view of Trump?
A call to cowardice, fear, and isolationism.
This season of malice and meanness
and indecency will pass.
[cheers and applause]
Whatever our differences may be, we are all Americans,
and we're called to do our duty to participate,
to fight,
and that's the mission of this organization.
And we look forward to fighting with you.
[Schmidt] I was coming off
the Schwarzenegger campaign in 2007,
and so I'd been asked
to run a couple of the campaigns,
and I went with John McCain.
[John McCain] Tonight, I have a privilege
given few Americans.
The privilege of accepting our party's nomination
for President of the United States.
[reporter] Steve Schmidt is the chief strategist
for the McCain-Palin campaign.
Lindsey Graham, the senior senator
from the state of South Carolina.
A very close friend of John McCain's.
- Hi, gentlemen. Good evening. - Great to see you, Kate.
Nice to see you both. Thanks for coming by.
Steve, let me start with you...
What John McCain symbolized is the Republican Party
that I believed in.
Honor. Courage. Sacrifice.
He had those virtues.
[interviewer] What is your name?
Lieutenant Commander John McCain.
[Schmidt] He was the most critically injured POW,
and they gave him the option to leave,
but honor meant something to him.
He wouldn't break the honor code
that you leave in the order that you come in on.
suspenseful music
John McCain. He's not a war hero.
- [interviewer] He's a war hero. - He's a war hero.
[interviewer] Five-and-a-half years,
he was held in captivity.
He's a war hero 'cause he was captured.
I like people that weren't captured, okay?
I hate to tell you. So he's a war hero.
[interviewer] Do you hear that?
He's a war hero because he was captured.
[Schmidt] Trump is responsible for unspeakable damage
to the national fabric.
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total
and complete shutdown of Muslims
entering the United States.
[protestors shouting]
He is, I think, the most divisive president
we've ever had in the Oval Office.
[Donald Trump] He is really very much of a leader.
I mean you can say, "Oh, isn't that a terrible thing?"
The man has very strong control over a country.
One of the things that's important to understand,
you know, at the beginning of this, right,
everyone in the Republican Party--everybody--
was opposed to Trump.
[Lindsey Graham] If we nominate Donald Trump,
and he carries the banner of the Republican Party,
we will not just lose the election.
We've lost the heart and soul of the conservative movement.
That's what's at stake.
There is no way we are going to allow a con artist
to take over the conservative movement,
and Donald Trump is a con artist.
This man is a pathological liar.
He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies.
He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth.
I will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States and will...
[person] The fact is that,
if you get on the wrong side of Donald Trump,
his power over his base is significant enough
that he can kill you.
[Schmidt] It's a remarkable thing
to watch the total surrender
to Trump, to Trumpism.
I like the President. I want to help him.
I hope he's successful. He's been a friend to me.
In 2020, Donald Trump will be overwhelmingly reelected
as President of the United States.
[cheers and applause]
[Trump] I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue,
and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?
It's, like, incredible.
[Schmidt] Ultimately, there were about
25 of us Republicans left,
and we all know each other.
So for the next 60 days, you know,
having people here at Park City,
we think our ability to work faster
and help shape the narrative of this
will be much greater with all of us together.
[Madrid] Michelangelo was asked to paint The Last Judgment
during the Reformation.
You know, in many ways,
artists were the first political consultants.
They were using these images as propaganda.
They were using these images
to teach an illiterate population
what was right and what was wrong.
And so if you choose the wrong route,
you cast yourself into eternal damnation.
If you choose the right path, there's redemption.
inquisitive music
I'm from Southern California. My people are from Mexico.
A lot of the thematics that I've been working on
are the clashing of the Latino culture
and traditional American iconographies.
When I was 26 years old, and I was a political director
of the California Republican Party,
I spent my career working on Latino voter turnout.
In 2000, I worked with the Bush administration,
and he accomplished what no Republican
had really ever accomplished before.
speaking Spanish
[Madrid] Bush got over 40% of the Hispanic vote.
speaking Spanish
[Madrid] That was the Republican Party I joined.
[Trump] When Mexico sends its people,
they're not sending their best.
They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.
They're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.
[Madrid] I was very publicly and vocally
against Donald Trump
and got a call from The Lincoln Project gang.
They said, "Hey, there's a group of us that are
thinking about doing something a little bit unique."
Rattled off the names and said,
"What do you think?"
And I immediately said, "Yeah. I'm with you. Let's go."
A little worried about how to dress for snow in Park City.
The entire party has become morally bankrupt.
[GPS] Starting route to Park City.
[Madrid] And I realized my highest and best use
was burning down something that I had helped build up
over my entire adult career.
[reporter] The Lincoln Project blasts the President
with viral ad after viral ad.
[reporter] They're able to do what Biden's campaign can't--
go a little bit low and hit Trump where it hurts.
[reporter] And the strategy appears to be working.
[reporter] He has called them losers.
He's called these Republicans human scum.
[line trilling]
[Allen] Oh, hey, Reed, it's John.
- How are you, man? - Hey, man. What's going on?
[Allen] You're pretty famous these days.
[Galen] Shit.
I leave the fame to Steve and Rick.
[Allen] I know. [laughs]
Congratulations on getting the project up and running
and well-known and well-funded.
[Galen] Yeah, well, thank the President for all that.
[Allen laughs]
[Allen] And there's the money to sustain?
Yes, and the vast majority of our money
comes not from major donors, but from individual donors.
Probably a lot of Democrats with Republicans
and independents mixed in.
I think our average contribution's, like,
you know, 50 bucks.
[Allen] And who's making the ads?
[Galen] We do 'em internal.
We have a morning meeting,
and we come up with a series of creative ideas.
Usually, it's me, Rick, and Steve.
- Hey, man. - Hey. How are you?
What's going on, dude?
[Edwards] Good to see you.
[Galen] And then we bring folks in and out as necessary.
Sarah Lenti.
Sorry. I'm so sorry about that.
[Galen] And Keith Edwards, our communications director.
- Hi, Stu. How are you? - I'm good.
[Galen] Stuart is now in the ballgame,
and we don't take days off, really.
And we launched the Radicalize one today, so--
It's out?
- Huh? - It's out?
- It's out. Yeah. - [Lenti] It's out.
[narrator] Reject the hate. Reject the violence.
America or Donald Trump. Stand up for America.
[Edwards] It has, like, half a million views.
Really?
It'll be up in the D.C. market tomorrow.
[Stevens] So isn't it time to kind of start deciding
what we're gonna prioritize? Like--
Yeah, I think we need to create
as much broadcast-ready content as soon as we can
so that when the opportunities present themselves,
that we're ready to deploy it.
[Wilson] I think we have to keep an eye
on the escalating violence
inside the right-wing crazy channel.
Right, there should be more Boogaloo Boys.
His racial animus campaign.
All right, well, if that's the case,
then let's talk about what we want to do next week.
[Wilson] Okay. Well, I--
[Schmidt] What about, like, all the Hispanic vote numbers?
So Madrid's pulling together Republican,
independent, and Democratic Latino groups,
to get out the vote, so the political team--
They're already on it.
[Madrid] But it's not enough if they can't bring
that Hispanic vote into line,
so I need some--
I need some-some voter modeling.
I need to look at the numbers.
We actually...
[Madrid] My job is to actually look at the voter segments
that we're trying to move off of Donald Trump
and towards Joe Biden.
So what I need to know is how many new Puerto Ricans
left the island after the hurricane
and are voting-eligible in that state.
Actually already got that.
[Madrid] So if we got 4% of Republicans
to move off of Donald Trump,
there's a very good chance we're gonna win this thing.
There, then we're in a very good position.
It sounds like it should be easy,
but in a hyper-partisan environment, it's-it's hard.
[interviewer] So you're the guy who posts on Twitter?
[Edwards] Yes.
I'm the only person on the Twitter.
[interviewer] What's the biggest amount
of traffic you've had in one post?
[Edwards] For a tweet?
It was, like, probably, like, around 14 million impressions.
[interviewer] Do you guys spend a lot of money on Facebook?
Yeah, we spent--probably, in the past seven days,
I think we spent $450,000.
We will probably spend 4 million to 5 million
in the next 30 days.
[interviewer] Just on Facebook?
It's our primary way of reaching people
that we know are persuadable voters
who might change their mind.
I ran a large portion of the budget
for some of the Koch Brothers' groups in 2014, but--
[Edwards] Ooh, girl. You're gonna get hate for that.
[Rogers] Well, it is what it is,
and if I hadn't done that,
I wouldn't know how to do this, so.
[interviewer] There you go.
[Edwards] No, I know. I know. I'm sorry. Just joking.
It's just like, it's very bold to admit on camera.
No, it's deserved, but I didn't support Trump.
I left the party in 2015,
and so as soon as this group sprung up,
I was just like-- [laughs]
I was like, "Hey, guys. I want to help."
[Edwards] I'm a Democrat.
[interviewer] Why did you want to work
with a bunch of Republicans?
There's just something about it that felt
like the right cause at the right moment.
[interviewer] And how did you hook up
with The Lincoln Project?
I randomly messaged
one of the founders on Twitter.
[interviewer] Which one?
John.
[interviewer] Weaver?
Literally a month without a job, and I said,
"Hey, if you know anyone looking for someone to hire,
I'm looking."
I'm delighted today to welcome to the program John Weaver.
He is a politico who needs no introduction,
but the most important thing to know about him is,
he is the founder of The Lincoln Project.
What is the foundation of The Lincoln Project?
Look, when we first decided to move forward
with The Lincoln Project,
we were increasingly alarmed at the conduct,
not only of Donald Trump--
[interviewer] And where is John Weaver?
[Schmidt] John's in the hospital.
John had a heart attack.
[interviewer] Oh, okay, so he's not coming?
He can't. Oh, my God. And it just happened? Shit.
A month. Six weeks ago.
It's important for him not to be agitated... [laughs]
...you know, with politics and all this.
[Trump] I'm running against Sleepy Joe Biden,
but I'm also running against some really stupid Republicans
that don't understand how good they had it.
I've defeated them all.
You know, they were all my opponents,
and they've never gotten over it.
Guys. Weaver and Schmidt.
All losers, and they've gone crazy.
They go out, and they tried buying commercials.
They've never gotten over losing to me.
[Galen] So that's the Park City Mountains over there,
and that canyon's where I live. It's down the way a little bit.
[Galen laughs]
[Galen] I think we wanted to have everybody
in a place where, you know,
we could reduce that friction from discussion,
to decision, to action.
When I worked for George W. Bush, right,
I was an advance guy.
It's a great gig when you're in your 20s,
and it's a lot of fun,
but, like, nobody likes advance guys, right?
Like, they show up, they make a lot of noise,
they cause a lot of trouble, they spend way too much money,
and they get to greet the airplane
and the motorcade when the president arrives,
and then they leave and go off and do it again.
So we got to sort of live on the road and by our own rules,
but nothing like this
where you actually have an organization
that you get to lead.
And I mean, look, we couldn't have done it
without Sarah Lenti.
We're all here now.
There's, like, 20 of us, so we're capping it.
[Galen] If she hadn't been here when we took off in May,
we would never have been able to scale as quickly as we did.
[Lenti] This isn't a vacation. Got shit to do.
Reed is a dear friend.
We were on the Bush campaign together,
and then we both worked for the president.
I was there 2000-2005, so when Reed called me
and told me about The Lincoln Project,
I said yes immediately
and became the executive director in April.
I lost all of my clients but two.
I also lost friends.
Yeah, it was a risk. It was a huge risk.
[Wilson] We've been talking about this idea.
I'm gonna run you through it.
So back in the '80s, there was this series of ads.
They all would make one simple accusation like,
"Buddy MacKay wants to raise your taxes through the roof."
And then every single one of them ended with,
"Hey, Buddy. You're a liberal."
I'm thinking we should do 25 ideas that all end in,
"Hey, Donald. You're a loser,"
'cause he hates being called a loser.
He hates it so much.
There's a central point about fucking with Donald Trump
and trolling Donald Trump in this campaign.
It works.
Come up with something quick.
Make it convincing. Dance, monkey, dance.
But I just like--I like calling him a loser
'cause it effs with him.
The discipline of writing a 30-second TV ad
is 70 words over and over again.
The flashy viral video ads.
They're a central tenet
of what we do at The Lincoln Project,
because it is a game of very small numbers.
We don't need to move a million votes in Michigan.
We need to peel off the narrow slices
of Republican voters living in a few small places.
Running ads can swing this election.
Yes, by the way, just as a quick aside,
I am the person who has managed to put the first dick joke
into an American political ad.
[narrator] Hey, Donald. Turnout in Tulsa?
A dud.
You've probably heard this before,
but it was smaller than we expected.
It sure wasn't as big as you promised.
upbeat percussive music
This the right way? I hope so.
Bring it in.
Ricardo.
Hail, hail. The gang's all here.
[indistinct chatter]
[nurse] All done. All done. It's over.
- [coughing] - [nurse] Aww.
[Madrid] I want us to keep looking at these numbers,
and I want to go over the raw vote numbers
that we're gonna need from the Latino
vote share to show up.
I need you to poll me a differential between 16 and 18.
The hard number.
Maricopa County specifically, okay?
Messaging for Arizona. What is moving voters?
[Madrid] We're gonna be talking about a military message
to Hispanic families specifically.
We're gonna start organizing with some of our allies,
in terms of a Geo TV effort with Latinos,
and then Conor's gonna start pounding the 65-plus group.
The Lincoln Project, it's like an iceberg.
What you're seeing at the top is the ads,
but there's a whole bulk of work underneath it
that is designed to sway voters in the right places
and with the right message.
That's what we do in the political shop.
How do we know if it's effective or not?
So we can track which ads are being viewed
the longest in which places,
even a county-by-county level, if we want to.
For example, if we saw in--
Do people really behave differently by county?
[Rogers] Very.
- [Edwards] Really? - Mm-hmm.
[Holtz] Everyone's been noticing this long-term trend
of Black and Latino voters
just skyrocketing in the South,
and that's gonna have a transformational effect
over the next forever, in the U.S.
[indistinct chatter]
[Lenti] Without the political team
and the digital team,
I think people would view us as just a group
of former Republicans who are pissed off
and creating viral ads,
and that are just going out into the ether
and doing nothing.
Look, I think we were dead-on
by saying Arizona's key to this whole thing.
[Lenti] So we want to be able to go back and say,
"No, we actually--we were in these states
with these ads moving these voters."
Because I really want Arizona off the table.
I want to strangle that side of the map.
[reporter] We begin tonight with growing outrage
in the wake of an explosive report
claiming the president insulted members of the military.
[reporter] Media outlets reporting that
President Donald Trump made disparaging comments
about America's fallen troops,
including calling U.S. Marines killed
in World War I "losers and suckers."
[Trump] It's a fake story,
and it's a disgrace that they're allowed to do,
and that somebody could say the kind of things,
and especially to me,
'cause I've done more for the military
than almost anybody else.
[reporter] Given the fact that veterans make up such
a large chunk of his base,
the White House and the campaign
are looking to put this behind them as quickly as possible.
The military stuff has put a massive dent in them
with the vets and the suburban women.
From what perspective do we want
our messaging to come from?
[Schmidt] He's faithless.
He has betrayed his duty
as the commander-in-chief.
[Horn] America's moms have given their sons and daughters
to fight and die.
That is something that Donald Trump can never understand.
[Wilson] We gotta look for the weak place
every day and attack on it.
[Horn] Yep.
- Up? - [interviewer] Yeah.
- Here? - [interviewer] There you go.
soft pensive music
Federal agent.
- How are you, sir? - Good. Good morning.
So do you have a Zoom link for them,
or what are we gonna do?
[indistinct chatter]
They're going over the script right now, Rick.
[Wilson] Good.
'Cause they don't need to act. They just need to be.
That's what I always tell people.
Don't act. Just be.
[reporter] Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman
joined the Trump administration in 2018
when he was asked to serve on the national security council.
[reporter] Now at the hearing,
Vindman raised serious concerns
about the president's phone call
with the Ukrainian president.
President Trump personally ordered the suspension
of hundreds of millions of dollars
in military aid to Ukraine
just days before he encouraged their president
to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.
My intent was to raise these concerns
because they had significant national security implications
for our country.
[Trump] First of all, he reported a false call.
What was said on the call was totally appropriate,
and I call it a perfect call.
I always will call it a perfect call.
[Vindman] My preference was actually
to not do anything with the media,
but this is still, I think, probably impactful,
so I'm prepared to do that.
[crew member] You guys ready?
I usually wear glasses,
and it might be hard for me to read.
This is American Family, take one.
[director] Action.
As a soldier, I never expected to be attacked
by my own government.
[Wilson] The Vindman ad puts the lie
to everything of Trumpism.
Speaking the truth. You fired him because of that.
When he did the right thing by reporting corruption,
I told him--I said, "They're gonna fire you,
and they're going to shit on your 21-year military career."
[crew member] American Family, take ten.
The America I served is better than that.
[Wilson] Hey, Alex.
I hear you're rocking the movie star thing, man.
Yeah, we knocked it out all in one take.
- [laughter] - That's incredible.
This is what wins it, right?
This is gonna drive him out of his goddamn mind.
Dad, do not worry.
I will be fine for telling the truth.
With Colonel Vindman, I'm not going to focus or comment
on a former junior employee.
Well, I'm not happy with it, but you'll see.
I mean, we'll see what happens.
[Rachel Cartmill] The most powerful man in the world
came after our family,
but what happened to us can happen to anyone.
[Vindman] This is America.
This is the country I've served and defended.
Here right matters.
[person] Listen, The Lincoln Project?
I've been watching them, and I really think
they are going to give the Democrats
a run for their money.
inquisitive music
[person] And if you really want to have a lovely day,
listen to The Lincoln Project commercials.
They're really excellent.
Look how good I look, just 'cause I'm happy.
[person] I'm all the way with you guys.
I've given more money to The Lincoln Project
than anything else.
[Czajkowski] Hey, everybody.
[John Leguizamo] Hey, hey. Hey, hey.
Who am I talking to?
You got Mike over here. Zack Czajkowski over here.
Mike Madrid.
[Madrid] Sí. Claro que sí. How are you?
[Leguizamo] Hey, I'm honored to be talking to you guys.
The work you're doing is incredible.
Your humor and cutting-edge commentary.
It's so exciting. It gets me pumped.
Thanks.
So we're gonna run a couple things by you.
The marquee part of our big push
on the national Latino effort.
We are concentrating specifically in Florida
and Arizona and Texas.
Texas should be Democratic.
I mean, 40% of the population is Latin.
12% of the population is Black.
It's predominantly people of color.
You're pretty good at this, man.
You might have a future in this.
- [laughter] - Whoo!
The big thing is, we need to just raise awareness
and rally people,
because the big problem with Latinos in most groups,
except for Cubans, is just awareness.
[Leguizamo] Right, right.
You know, we tune in a little bit later
or a lot later than everybody else,
- and there's all-- - Because they talk to us later.
We're always the last-minute group that they talk to,
and then we matter? That's bullshit.
Welcome to my life for the last 30 years.
That's exactly right.
That's what I've been trying to solve for.
Celebrity helps, right?
We need people that are high profile to say,
"Hey, this is going on. Pay attention."
Sure. I'm down, man.
If you have any ideas of anything.
[Madrid] We're gonna be doing this very big summit.
Sure, sure.
Having you involved with that would be fantastic.
Maybe shake the Mets hat. Maybe shake the Mets hat.
Hey, that's it. That's it. That's--
[Madrid] Got to get you on the winning side or something.
[laughter]
I just can't believe that you're Latin
and you're Republican, it's--
It's a unicorn thing.
[Leguizamo] It's not usually my genre of people.
Yeah, it's very, very, very rare,
but you know, all the good things in life are.
What flipped you, though? What flipped you?
What made you leave us?
[Madrid] I grew up in a really small town called Moor Park.
So it's southern California.
Latino family. All Democrats, except for me.
This was during the Iran hostage crisis
when Carter was president.
[Jimmy Carter] We continue to face
a grave situation in Iran
where our embassy has been seized,
and more than 60 American citizens
continue to be held as hostages.
[Madrid] And I remember feeling this overwhelming sense
that this country had America on its knees.
And I remember the unease and just the general sense
that the country felt weak.
And this politician comes onto the stage.
Reagan comes onto the stage,
and he speaks to a genuine confidence
that defined the American identity.
And I felt it.
[Ronald Reagan] I want to help Americans
of every race, creed, and heritage
keep and build that sense of community
which is at the heart of America.
[Madrid] I remember feeling very deeply that,
"I want to be with that guy.
I want to be with the strong leader."
[Edwards] And this is what I was talking about.
In 1993, Trump said that Native American reservations
operating casinos shouldn't be allowed because,
"They don't look like Indians to me."
[Stevens] What's the thing right before?
Yeah, there's video of him saying it.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying, so you put the date on that,
and then you put something recent from today.
- I think it's too old. - [laughter]
And then, in Arizona, as you guys know,
you know, I think Arizona's been,
you know, home to a lot of ex-pat Californians.
The Latino community obviously is burgeoning there,
so you know, we want to really focus on the people
we think we can move.
[interviewer] Why are African Americans still dying
at the hands of law enforcement in this country?
And so are white people. So are white people.
What is the question? Why are African-Americans...
[Edwards] Yeah.
- Still dying? - [Edwards] Just show it?
[Stevens] I would show the picture of the cop--
Kneeling on his--
- [Stevens] Yeah. - Okay.
[Stevens] It's all about race,
but the whole Republican Party's all about race now.
I mean, it's even given up pretending otherwise.
It's just all about race.
Yeah.
You know, the Republican Party's
become a white grievance party.
There has always been this element in the party.
I don't think Trump made people more racist,
but I think he made it okay to be racist.
It's the law and order stuff.
[Stevens] You know, history shows once that's validated
by a major party, it's very difficult to unwind.
You seem more troubled than normal.
No, no, no.
Just the usual campaign stretch?
Yeah.
I'd rather be us than them.
[Madrid] I'd rather be us than them.
That's all you can ask.
All right. Two polls out today.
There was a lot of naivete on my part.
A lot of choosing not to see things
as big as they clearly were.
Racism.
You know, when I was 26 years old,
I would get three, four calls a week
telling me to go back to where I came from.
As the political director
of the California Republican Party.
So you know, you just kind of blow that off.
You find a way to rationalize that
and blow that off, and say,
"Well that's, you know, just some crazies."
[narrator] Alabama, Georgia...
[Madrid] But when I look back now,
I see that, at least since the 1960s and '70s
Republicans built the Southern Strategy
by using fear and racial dog whistling.
The wave of crime is not going to be the wave of the future
in the United States of America.
[cheers and applause]
[Madrid] It was this racial underpinning
that brought white Democrats into the Republican column.
[narrator] We owe it to the decent
and law-abiding citizens of America
to take the offensive against the criminal forces
that threaten their peace and their security.
[Madrid] And it was being inflamed
and encouraged by Republicans.
Lee Atwater, he really ushered in a different type
of political consultant.
You know, the unsavory part of it.
apprehensive music
[interviewer] All right. I won't.
[narrator] Bush supports the death penalty
for first-degree murderers.
Dukakis allowed first-degree murderers
to have weekend passes from prison.
One was Willie Horton.
Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple,
stabbing the man and repeatedly
raping his girlfriend.
[interviewer] Do you think the Willie Horton commercial
gives hints of racial politics?
I ain't seen the Willie Horton commercial.
[interviewer] You don't have a Willie Horton commercial
- on the air? - No.
[interviewer] Furlough program commercial?
[Madrid] But today, what we have seen is,
the demographics we need are disproportionately represented
in Southern states, in Sun Belt states.
We've never witnessed this extraordinary
demographic transformation.
The suburbs have been changing
with the influx of larger minority communities
combined with white college-educated voters
that are rejecting the old politics of the South.
In the Southwest, it was Latinos.
In the South and up to the Mid-Atlantic states,
it was with African-Americans.
So we have created a strategy to place ads
in places like Arizona, Florida, Georgia.
We started to call this the New Southern Strategy.
It is using the racial dog-whistling of the president
to realign the South in the opposite direction.
Arizona has emerged as a surprising battleground state
in this year's presidential election.
Latinos make up a quarter of eligible voters
in the Grand Canyon state.
Polls show most supporting Biden.
No.
I haven't gotten nervous before TV for years.
All right. Let's hit it.
inquisitive music
[laughs]
[Setmayer] I actually know the Conways
through our conservative circles.
It was really through my friendship with Kellyanne,
which fell apart once she went to the Trump campaign.
That's where I actually met George.
[reporter] George Conway, the husband of top Trump aid
Kellyanne Conway, is once again taking shots
at the President's mental health.
Conway tweeted this about his wife's boss.
"You're not 'presidential' at all, period.
You're mentally unwell."
Good morning. Hope everybody...
[reporter] He just may be the biggest thorn
in Donald Trump's side.
I don't know him. He's a whack job.
There's no question about it, but I really don't know him.
[Setmayer] When The Lincoln Project was formed,
I saw that it was George and Rick,
and so I reached out to them.
[Wilson] Hey, Tara. How are you?
Greetings and salutations.
And they said, "Hey, we're gonna do a streaming channel,
and it'd be great if you joined us."
That's what I do for CNN.
[person] I'm ready to go. You guys ready to go?
Give me five more seconds. Go into the countdown.
I'll be ready by the time you're done.
[person] Four. Three. Two. One.
Coming into the funky bass intro.
[Wilson] We're building this LPTV thing.
Hit a million viewers in a week.
It's a great venue to reach voters.
funky bass music
[person] Everybody feeling good?
[Setmayer] Oh, yeah.
Hi, Rick.
[person] And then it comes back live in five.
Four, three, two, one.
[Setmayer] Hello, happy debate night,
and welcome to The Breakdown.
I am Tara Setmayer. This is the Rick Wilson.
We have a special guest with us tonight, Rick.
I'm so excited.
Co-founder of The Lincoln Project, George Conway.
- [laughs] - Welcome! Welcome.
That's great. I love that. I love that.
I had no idea what The Lincoln Project would become.
George, what's the chance that Donald Trump
just storms off the stage tonight?
You know, a meltdown is always possible with this guy.
I'm sort of proud that they feel
that I contributed something,
but now, I'm just mostly a cheerleader.
He can't take it.
He cannot take being challenged.
He cannot take being questioned.
He cannot take the criticism.
Why was it necessary that 220,000 Americans are dead now?
I really hope that Joe Biden is prepared for this.
Like, don't take any shit.
[Conway] He needs to basically ask the public,
"Haven't you had enough of this craziness?
Can't we turn the volume down?
Can't we get back together, to working together
to solve the nation's problems?"
Something like that.
Folks, the debate is starting.
We will see you back here
as soon as this crazy shit show ends.
Thanks, folks.
- Hello. - Hi. Yes.
[Wilson] How are you, gang? Hi, Sarah.
- [Lenti] Hi. - [Edwards] Hi.
So I'm going to start a rapid response.
[Wilson] Yes. #TheDebate.
You know, whatever the debate hashtag is.
[Edwards] Sure.
[moderator] No booze or other interruptions,
so we, and more importantly you,
can focus on what the candidates have to say.
[Wilson] You gotta switch to another network.
- Okay. - This is low def.
Okay.
I need to see every one of Trump's glistening pustules
and his exotic hair hat.
[moderator] As we welcome the Republican nominee,
President Trump,
and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Biden.
[Wilson] Democrats think policy makes a difference.
He walks like a centaur.
Policy never, ever, ever, ever makes a difference.
You give me a 600-page healthcare plan,
I'm gonna have some nerd go through it
and find ten things that scare the shit
out of suburban voters.
You tell me your climate plan, I'll do the same thing.
What matters is the performance and affect
of the two personalities on that stage.
We do want to get rid of it.
Chris, we want to get rid of it.
[moderator] I understand, but I have to give you
roughly equal time, please.
Trump is angry and surly.
[Trump] I'm debating you, not him, but that's okay.
I'm not surprised.
[Wilson] Guys, I think one of our themes needs
to be how angry Trump is.
He is pissy. He's small. He's bitchy.
That's the actual phrase. He's bitchy.
[Joe Biden] I want to make sure--
[Trump] You graduated last in your class,
not first in your class.
[Biden] Oh, God. I want to make sure--
[moderator] Mr. President, can you let him finish, sir?
[Biden] No, he doesn't know how to do that.
You'll be surprised. You'll be surprised.
You picked the wrong guy,
the wrong night, at the wrong time.
Ooh!
Let's hashtag it, guys,
and let's lay that into rapid response.
exciting music
[Biden] The wrong guy,
the wrong night, at the wrong time.
The wrong guy, comma, wrong night, comma, wrong time.
[Edwards] Rapid response, ideally,
we're helping pivot the narrative.
[moderator] Mr. President?
You're talking about 2 million people.
He's freaking out.
The implosion was fast, and it was furious.
When I started, we had, like, 400,000 Twitter followers.
And now we have more than the Democrats.
[Biden] Vote now. Make sure you let people know.
Your senators.
I'm not gonna answer the question because--
Why wouldn't you answer that question?
- Because the question is-- - Just as radical left--
Will you shut up, man?
[all] Oh!
Let's go, baby!
[moderator] He has ended the segment.
We're gonna move on to the second segment.
[Biden] In light of all the lies he's told--
Hey, I think our visual here is how angry Trump looks.
Let's get really close up on him.
I want to see the sweat. I want to see the pursing lips.
All the, like, grotesquery facial expressions.
The angry side-eye, et cetera.
It's crazy. He's out of control.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. Okay. Bye.
[reporter] And are you willing, tonight,
to condemn white supremacists and militia groups?
[Trump] I'm willing to do anything.
I want to see peace.
[reporter] Well, then do it, sir.
[Biden] Say it. Do it. Say it.
You want to call 'em--what do you want to call 'em?
Give me a name.
[reporter] White supremacists.
[Trump] Who would you like me to condemn?
[reporter] The Proud Boys.
[reporter] White supremacists and the Proud Boys.
[Trump] Proud Boys. Stand back, and stand by,
but I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what...
He told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by?
[Howe] That's it. Gotta get that one.
"Stand back and stand by."
Right now, right now, we gotta tweet that out from LP.
Donald Trump's signal to the Proud Boys,
telling them to "Stand back and stand by."
Prepare for violence.
But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated,
- I can't go along with that. - Here we go.
It's a fraud, and it's a shame.
The mailmen selling the ballots.
They're being dumped in rivers.
This is a horrible thing for our country.
There is no evidence of that.
This is not going to end well.
He said it's not going to end well.
He is predicating this whole fucking thing right now.
I think top of the list is the white supremacist stuff.
[person] Yep.
I think that's absolutely fucking poison.
[person] And then, Rick, I think you guys gotta
hit hard and, like, continually, sowing the seeds
of insurrection and sedition. Use it.
[Wilson] Yes. Good.
tense music
Guys, this is the new logo of the Proud Boys
that was just posted.
Just tonight. Right now.
Okay, guys, we have our first ad out of the shop.
[reporter] Are you willing, tonight,
to condemn white supremacists?
I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.
[reporter] Well, then do it, sir.
Say it. Do it. Say it.
[narrator] That was painful, Donald.
I mean, really bad.
I'm the one that brought back football.
[narrator] Your debate reviews are...
- [person] So stupid. - [narrator] Terrible.
Biden showed America you're a loser, sir.
The fact is, this man doesn't know what he's talking about.
- You have repeatedly-- - [Trump] I stated it.
[Biden] No. You've been talking--
[narrator] Not your finest hour, Donald.
[Trump] I would love to end it.
[reporter] You know, if you want to switch seats--
- [Wilson] Did you hear it? - [person] I did.
Stand back and stand by.
[narrator] You're losing, Donald.
Administration is falling apart.
[person] Falling apart.
[narrator] Your campaign is running out of cash,
and your personal finances?
[person] Falling apart. Ouch. So broke.
"So broke."
[narrator] And it just collapsed
in front of the whole world.
[person] Whole world.
[person] Awesome.
Hey, Siri. Call Ben Howe.
[line trills]
[Howe] Yeah?
I'm not sure my penis could be any more erect right now.
[laughter]
That was a land speed record, man.
I love it. All right. Give me the cleaned-up version.
We're gonna pump it out right now.
[Schmidt] And these Proud Boys
are a white supremacist, neo-Nazi group...
[person] Right.
[Schmidt] But this debate was about one thing
in the end tonight.
Donald Trump intimated and threatened violence
against this country if he loses the election.
Nobody should under-appreciate
the radicalness--
the extremeness of Trump's statements.
Our democracy is sustained by, renewed by,
predicated upon free and fair elections.
That an American president would send a signal
to the country that evaporates
their faith and belief
in the legitimacy of the American form of government
isn't just despicable; it's profoundly dangerous
for the continuation of the American experiment.
Steve, thanks very much for coming on tonight.
Coming up for us, the truth about vaccines.
All right.
Donald Trump could cancel the election and remain in power
under an emergency decree.
Lock up his opponent, close down TV stations.
I think you're smoking dope if you don't think
that he would do that.
Holy shit. It's unbelievable.
There's the one.
I'm exhausted.
You gotta get pumped up.
I always do this, like, right before doing anything.
Like just--it's, like, addictive.
[Madrid] I need a nap.
I need to incorporate a nap. Perfect.
Okay. Well, nonetheless.
[Madrid] Okay. Let's do it. Let's roll.
Bienvenidos. Estimados todos, gracias.
Thank you all for joining us tonight
for this historic event.
People that I have been working against
for the better part of 30 years
have become friends and allies
because the threat to the community
and the threat to our country is so very real.
For all of you at home,
and I definitely represent the Mexican redneck left,
I also ran Bernie Sanders' campaign.
If you believed me and Mike Madrid would be
on the same call or the same video a year ago,
I'd have told you all y'all were crazy as hell.
[Leguizamo] Well, what I wanted to say a little bit was,
watching that shit show last night,
Trump's debating, it was so painful.
How do I explain that to my children?
That the president of the United States
couldn't denounce white supremacists, QAnon,
and Proud Boys?
[person] Last night, I got an email
from my father that made me cry.
He said...
speaking Spanish
I'm gonna say it because it's just--
speaking Spanish
[person] We were missing somebody
to call somebody out to task
in a very partisan angle.
Dumping air bombs on the top of the president
in Spanish and English with TV, radio, digital, mail.
That's what's so unique in what you're seeing here
on this Zoom call.
This don't happen all the time.
I want to show a video right now.
It's one of the ads that we'll be running
in Florida, Arizona, and Texas.
[Reagan] Today, with this proclamation,
we're reminding our fellow citizens
that our Hispanic heritage
is something of which all Americans can be proud.
They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.
[Madrid] Literally, every day, we're seeing the movement
amongst the voters that we need to move.
It's working.
[person] Mike, thank you so much.
This was incredible. Yeah.
- [person] Buenos noches. - Thanks, guys.
[interviewer] Do you guys ever talk to your bosses
at Lincoln Project about
their early years and racism?
I think we just stay focused on now and November, you know.
It's all about the future, not the past.
[interviewer] Because Stuart talks a lot about it.
Stuart's an interesting guy. Really interesting guy.
He's incredibly insightful.
I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it,
but I'm sure it's fascinating.
inquisitive music
Hey, guys. We can go in.
So you come out here.
That's where the headquarters is gonna be
in the Olympic Museum.
So the way I figure it, I can ride my bike.
- [interviewer] You can what? - Ride my bike.
[interviewer] Did you bring your bike?
I brought two bikes. Mountain and road.
Stuart Stevens is a media advisor
for George W. Bush's presidential 2000 campaign.
He is a long-time Republican consultant,
as well as a novelist, a travel and television...
[Stevens] I don't think you could have found
anybody in politics more competitive than me.
But I never thought that I'd become a political consultant.
I was in film school and found out
that people would pay me to make commercials for 'em.
I was really good at political consulting.
You know, I can make a lot of money at it.
When I came up, there was a famous consultant,
Lee Atwater.
He would hire somebody like me,
I was in my 20s, to really do the races.
My first lesson in racial politics
was in the Southern Strategy.
All politics is, at least certainly in the South,
is played in the key of race.
So our path to victory
is to maximize white vote,
so I made commercials.
That was, like, my work product.
[narrator] Two million illegal aliens in California.
Twenty thousand in our prisons.
Four hundred thousand crowd our schools.
Clinton fought Prop 187.
Gave citizenship to aliens with criminal records.
We are the victims.
If Clinton wins, we lose.
It was playing the race card, if I'm honest about it,
but you're able to convince yourself
that the danger of the other side
is greater than the flaws of the side that you're for.
You know, we play too much on the dark side.
But I think pretty much everybody does.
What's the right thing to say in this moment?
Donnie, you spent a billion dollars.
- Hey, Don. - [both] You're a loser.
I think it's a great idea.
Yeah, and just let digital go crazy with it.
[narrator] For 20 years,
Barack Obama followed a preacher of hate
and said nothing as Wright raged against our country.
Not God bless America, God damn America!
The U.S. of KKK-A.
[narrator] He built his powerbase in Wright's church.
Wright was his mentor, advisor, and close friend.
Barack Obama. Too radical. Too risky.
[Stevens] I think that, in many ways,
We feel a sense of personal responsibility.
Then we'll start to leave this party.
Like, this thing that you worked in turned out to be,
to some not-insignificant degree, a force for evil.
pensive music
I can't say it's not my fault.
The firm I started was the most successful firm.
I mean, I helped elect more than anybody else.
Blame me.
I liked the combat.
I kind of got into being a gunslinger.
[person] Pull.
[Stevens] The Lincoln Project
were like a sort of rogue special forces outfit.
Can we use this stuff that we know how to do
to try to make a difference?
Wouldn't call us social justice warriors at all,
but Trump could win.
That's why I never would have thought that, like,
consultants are the ones that are trying to,
like, save the party?
We're, like, the moral voice of the party?
I mean, really?
upbeat percussive music