"Abraham Lincoln was the greatest president America ever had." "He was earnest, he was a bit socially awkward, but he was visionary and he was heroic and he earned the respect of the world." "Where are the heroes now?" "Whatever happens in November's presidential election, the winner will be one of the two least popular candidates of all time." "What on earth has happened to a truly great democracy that the choice is so awful?" " 5 trillion to the debt." " But you have no plan!" " Educate..." "Oh, I do!" "In fact, I have..." " You have no plans!" "The supporters of Clinton and Trump agree on only one thing - how unspeakable the other candidate is." "I think that Hillary Clinton is a terribly dangerous person." "He should never be entrusted with the button." "One is alleged to have risked national security..." "The FBI said that there were 110 classified e-mails that were exchanged, eight of which were top-secret." "..the other is accused of multiple sexual assaults." "You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals." " That is sexual assault." " Is either of them fit for office?" "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of" "Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country." "Because you'd be in jail." "CHEERING" "This year's presidential election has shaped up rather like a reality television contest, so has something gone seriously wrong with American politics?" "Could a Donald Trump presidency really happen?" "I hope, for God's sake for my country, that he's not the President of the United States, but I'm not going to sit on national television, telling you he can't." "Under President Trump, here's what would happen." "On November 8th, the people of America get to decide who's fired and who's hired for the White House." "How has it come to this and what does the choice they're being offered tell us about the state of the most powerful nation on earth?" "It's a contest for the biggest job in the world, so you wouldn't expect THIS to happen." " DONALD TRUMP:" " I'd better use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her..." "The world was revolted and yet, the Donald is still in the race." "I was getting beaten up for 72 hours on all the networks." "If they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things." "Hillary Clinton's been mistrusted for years..." "And you can tell the Egyptian Prime Minister it's a terrorist attack but you can't tell your own people?" "..not to mention being the first female serious contender AND married to a man who was almost thrown out of the White House in a sex scandal." "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." "How things have changed in just eight years." "Remember when Obama was a rock star, singing a song of hope?" "At this defining moment, change has come to America." "CHEERING AND APPLAUSE" "So how has this whole mess happened?" "There's a man in Washington who knows how presidents are made." "He got Obama into the White House not once but twice and helped" "David Cameron win a surprise Conservative victory last year." "Jim Messina is one of America's most savvy strategists." "This is a very unusual campaign, isn't it?" "Yeah, it's an unprecedented campaign." "You know, when we elected President Obama in 2008, we thought that was the most unbelievable campaign anyone had ever seen, and this has broken all sort of typical norms that you would expect from a political campaign." "No-one thought, a year ago, that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee to the White House." "I spent two years of my life praying for him to become the Republican nominee and..." "Because that's the person you want as your enemy?" "Absolutely, cos I thought he was the single easiest person to beat, and we're about to find out whether that's true." "Turned out that getting and maintaining a lead over Trump has been harder than expected." " NEWSREADER:" " Donald Trump taking the lead in some swing state polls." "It should have been easy for Hillary." "Why has he controlled so much of the narrative?" "He's the single best social media campaigner of a generation." "And he controlled the narrative on Twitter and on social media and by having absolute mastery of the press." "He ran his own reality show for years." "He understands how to do this in a way that's unprecedented." "Well, the press has been largely hostile, hasn't it?" " Oh, give me a break!" " Come on!" " They love him." "At the beginning, it was just great fun." "He was a reality show, he was the only interesting thing." "He was running against a bunch of not very exciting characters and sometimes, being the tallest dwarf's OK." "But the problem is, what if, actually, the tallest dwarf gets elected President of the United States?" "CLAPPING" "So if you could please give a round of applause to our two nominees " "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump!" "And opposing the tallest dwarf for the job of the world's most powerful human is a woman her critics call an establishment puppet." "This election is ripe for parody, as the makers of the much-loved musical Avenue Q have discovered." "I don't know why people are so interested in my e-mails." "Now, you see, that's the problem, that's the problem." "She says one thing and then she says another thing, she flip-flops, she's a flip-flopper, she's a liar." "You're crooked, you're a liar, you're a liar." "Jen Bender directed the show." "When we were coming up for the script for this event," "Trump is so easy to parody because he's like a puppet himself, he just says what he thinks, he's got so many things that are so easy to grab onto like, "It's huge, it's fabulous."" "It's huge, it's huge." "I'm wondering, uh, what is your stance on gay marriage?" "Well, Rod, uh, it took me some time to get there, but I am all for same-sex marriages." "And I hope every one of your gay fantasies come true!" "Hillary was definitely harder because she doesn't have the sort of go-to..." "You know, she doesn't have a Sarah Palin voice that can be easily mimicked." "Donald Trump just gives it all to us." "Marriage should be between a man and a woman - a beautiful, younger woman, usually with an accent." "Thank you so much." "Thank you so much." "Thank you for coming." "So what was the start of this race to the bottom... sorry, to the White House?" "This, the Federal Election Commission headquarters, is where the race officially began." "On June 22nd last year, someone handed in a paper in the name of candidate P 8000-1571, Donald J Trump." "Hillary Clinton had filed her application two months previously." "They joined a list of hundreds of other names." "Amazingly, Trump's wasn't the most ridiculous." "There's a whole raft of attention-seeking halfwits who thought they could become President of the United States." "They include Ghost Of Macho Man Randy Savage, Moose The Dog," "Bippy The Clown, Sydney's Voluptuous Buttocks and" "The Right Honourable Boris De Pfeffel Johnson MP, whose slogan was, apparently, Let's Make America Great..." "Britain Again." "Neither candidate was fresh to the fight." "Hillary threw her hat into the ring in 2008 when Barack Obama beat her to the nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate." "I endorse him and throw my full support behind him." "The Donald first considered running back in 1988." "Then he thought, if that's the right word, about it again in 1999 when, in true Trump style, he announced it live on a chat show." "So I am going to form a presidential exploratory committee." "I might as well announce it on your show." "Everyone else does." "He was talked about as a Republican candidate for 2012, but Obama slapped him down at a Washington gala and Trump took his ambitions no further." "All kidding aside, obviously we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience." " Um..." " LAUGHTER" "Say what you will about Mr Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House." "Let's see what we've got up there." "Back then, it was a gag in an after-dinner speech, but no-one's laughing now at the idea of a Donald Trump White House." "Of course, there has been a celebrity in the Oval Office before." " Would you come and meet my father, Captain?" " I'd be delighted." "Is he in the government service?" "Yes, but I think he'll lose his job in the next election." "Oh, that's too bad." "Say, he should be in the army." "Politics don't bother us." "Ronald Reagan was a winning combination of Hollywood glamour and eight years of experience as Governor of California." "In 1980, he won the presidency by a landslide, elected on a rather familiar slogan." "We will make America great again." " CHEERING" " Thank you very much." "And he became a hero to the American right." "He was a lot more moderate and more of a pragmatist than a lot of people gave him credit for." "The former Senate Majority Leader, the Republican Trent Lott, was at Reagan's side." "He had a different background." "He was sneered at by the media and by the establishment, you know, this movie star from California." "He could never be president of America." "Probably one of the best presidents, top five, in the history of this country." "Do you think that Donald Trump has the ability to be a Ronald Reagan?" "I don't know if anybody could be a Ronald Reagan." "Is there a similarity with Trump?" "How would he really perform?" "Does he have credentials that maybe are the right ones for the moment?" " Are you even sure that Trump's a Republican?" " No." "How has he got the Republican nomination?" "Because he has a message that has tapped into the concerns, fears and anger of the American people." " So, you'll vote Trump?" " I'm for Trump, yeah, sure." " And, look..." " As the lesser of two evils?" "I hate to put it that way but, you know, neither one of them are very popular." "Ronald Reagan walked off the silver screen and into the White House." "Donald Trump descended his golden escalator in the modestly named Trump Tower." "But while Reagan launched a charm offensive," "Trump was just, well, offensive." "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people." "Businesses and organisations cut ties with him and it seemed his campaign might be over before it had even began." "The Republican establishment kept its distance." "Trump didn't care." "He was paying his own way." "I'm using my own money." "I'm not using the lobbyists, I'm not using donors." "I don't care." "I'm really rich, I'll show you that in a second." "And then something that no-one expected to happen did." "The man who started out as the jackass candidate began drawing the crowds." "Turns out not being a politician wasn't a problem." "It was his best asset." "I am so tired of this politically correct crap." "CHEERING" "Larry Pratt is a conservative activist and heads the Gun Owners Of America lobby group." "What is it that Trump has put his finger upon that makes him electable, potentially?" "The political class does seem to operate apart from the rest of the country, and I believe that's what he may be playing into and why, with all his gaffes and with all the other problems attendant with his campaign," "he seems to be continuing to march towards victory." "One of his more spectacular gaffes, when he seemed to suggest that supporters of the Second Amendment - that's gun lovers - take a pot shot at Hillary Clinton." "If she gets to pick her judges... ..nothing you can do, folks." "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." "But isn't it embarrassing when you can get someone who's running for president using the sort of language that he has used, for example, the implied threat, it is said, to the life of Hillary Clinton?" "Well, if we were concerned about being embarrassed, we wouldn't be involved with politics." "I don't think Donald Trump... implied or was thinking about any personal threat to Hillary Clinton, although I realise for her, losing the election is the same as dying." "Who do you want to win?" "Well, of the two, I would prefer Donald Trump." "I'm not enthusiastic about him, but I'm reminded of the cowboy legend that when you're fighting off a wild dog and all you've got available is a crooked stick to use, you grab the crooked stick." "Trump began as the rank - very rank - outsider for the Republican nomination." "He faced 16 rivals, but he dispatched them with withering put-downs, especially "low energy" Jeb Bush, presumed heir to the political dynasty, who didn't even make it into the final four." " The simple fact is..." " Excuse me." "One second." " No." " I didn't..." " The simple fact is, Donald..." "More energy tonight." "I like that." "Many conservatives still thought he was a spiv wearing spray tan republicanism, but his showmanship won over the primary voters, who handed Trump the nomination." "And it is my honour to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight." "Congratulations, Dad." "We love you." "Over the top indeed." "Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was struggling." "She'd acquired a Trump nickname of her own" " Crooked Hillary." "But her immediate problem was an elderly socialist, Bernie Sanders." "It's Crooked Hillary Clinton against a communist." "Who the hell...?" "I mean, this guy's crazy." "The Bern wants to abolish the death penalty and believes that climate change causes terrorism." "His main pitch to voters was to soak the rich." "Pinkos like that don't normally stand a chance in the US, but Hillary managed to make him hard to beat." " REPORTER:" " But her left-wing rival, Bernie Sanders, inflicted a shock defeat in Michigan, supposedly a Clinton stronghold." "Was there a candidate at any point in this presidential campaign that you felt you could identify with?" "Absolutely" " Bernie Sanders." "'Cassandra Fairbanks is a social media journalist, 'one of a new generation 'for whom policies and personalities are more important than parties.'" "Bernie Sanders didn't get the nomination, of course." " No, he did not." "Tragically." " He was far too left-wing for mainstream politics in this country, wasn't he?" "Tragic." "He would have been wonderful." "So, who are you going to vote for?" "I'm going to be voting for Donald Trump." " You're going to vote for Donald Trump?" " I am." "Er, yeah, OK, there's a term for people like you." "It's "mad"." "Well, I think that Hillary Clinton is a terribly dangerous person." "I think that the Clinton Foundation and a lot of the deals that were made during her time at the State Department are..." "..deserving of side-eye at best and terrifying at worst." "It says something about Hillary Clinton when Bernie supporters would rather switch to the Donald than to her." "Clinton's unpopularity sometimes baffles the British, but Hillary haters have plenty to point to." "You know, to just be grossly generalistic... ..you could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables." "LAUGHTER" "Right?" "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic..." "You name it." "They claim she's cold, untrustworthy, elitist, warmongering and, above all, power hungry." "Clinton wants to be powerful, Trump wants to be popular, and because he wants to be popular," "I think that he'll do things that have popular support over necessarily going with his party." "Are there lots of people who feel like you?" "People aren't sticking to party lines the way that they did before." "I think people want more options." "I mean, we have 51 candidates for Miss America and then we have two choices for president." "It's a terrible choice." "It may be, but unfortunately, we only have two terrible choices." "I mean, our third parties aren't even that great." "We have Jill Stein, who will probably try and heal the economy with crystals and is pulling worse than a dead gorilla, and then we have Gary Johnson, who said that nobody got hurt in the bombing the other day" "and didn't know what Aleppo was." "I mean, we're out of good options." "Scepticism about the calibre of politicians is nothing new." "Among the thousands who've turned to dust in this Baltimore cemetery lies one of the most peppery journalists America ever produced " "HL Mencken." "He's a bit of a personal hero." "Mencken watched plenty of presidential races and observed that, "One great and glorious day," ""the plain folks of America will reach their hearts' desire" ""and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."" "He thought he was joking, but if you listen very carefully, down there you can hear something spinning." "Mencken spoke those words a century ago, so why is it now that they could come true?" "Jocelyn Kiley is a top poll analyst with some answers." "One of the questions that we ask, and have asked fairly regularly in our polling, is whether you're satisfied with the choice of candidates, and we've tracked near record low levels of satisfaction with the two candidates." "What we find is that many, many Americans say that the candidates would make poor or terrible presidents, and few Americans would say that either candidate would make a good or a great president." "The researchers don't just ask what people think and how they'll vote." "They want to know how they look at the world, and that's thrown up one profound difference between Trump and Clinton voters." "One of the questions we ask is about whether life is better for people like you than it was 50 years ago, and the clear majority, 60%, of Clinton supporters, say it is better, and 81% of Trump supporters say that life is worse today" "than it was for people like them 50 years ago." "You do see this evidence that perhaps Clinton and Trump voters not just have different policy preferences but also have very different visions of America today," "America in the past, America in the future." "The question of what or who is America lies at the heart of this election." "This is still the richest economy in the world, and yet many Americans feel they're barely making ends meet." "Furthermore, they think the political elite not only doesn't care about them but doesn't even understand them." "That's making their loyalties hard to predict." "Jobs are going overseas." "This is nuts." "I'm a college student." "That's, like, one of my biggest worries, you know," " that there won't be any jobs." " Right." " Right." "This is the state of Virginia." "In the last four presidential elections, it's gone Republican twice and Democrat twice." "If Trump can't win here, he's in big trouble." "In 2012, the Democrats won Virginia with 51.16% of the vote, and they did that by having four times as much voter contact." "That means door-to-door." "All of us doing this at the same time all across Virginia, this is how we win, so remember that and we'll see you back here around 1.30." "You'd think these campaigners would be die-hard Trump supporters, but it's not that straightforward." "I don't like either candidate." "In the past, I volunteered for Hillary Clinton and worked her '08 campaigns." "But I'm very... right now, very saddened about her." "The bell rang." "The bell rang on... whatever that statement was later in this week, that deplorable statement." " I want to get America back again." " SHE CHUCKLES" "Armed with a campaign phone app to track their progress, trainer John and his new recruit, Rose, set out to gather information." "Can I ask who you'd vote for if the election was today?" " I don't want to say who I'm voting for." " Yeah." " I'm more a Democrat voter right now." " Sure." "But to be honest with you, I don't want neither one of them!" "THEY LAUGH" "Give them one more knock." "Click on "Antonio". "No answer at door"." "And we go back in, cos there were two targeted voters." "We click on "Amanda Omer". "No answer at door."" "Now there's that check mark right there by the house." "And we proceed to the next one." "Looks like it's going to be across the street - number five." "Go get 'em." "Go ahead." "I mean, I think we know what his answer's going to be, but..." "Yeah, but still." "This is a middle-class, racially diverse neighbourhood and, perhaps surprisingly, many of its residents are giving Trump's message a hearing." "The people who are leaning, it's astonishing." "I didn't expect that." "Most people, they're afraid to admit they're for Trump." "Our next president, do you believe they should go in the same direction as Barack Obama or change course?" " Change course." " I tend to agree." "If the presidential election was held today," " would you be more likely to vote for Republican Donald...?" " Trump." "Fair enough." "All right, man." "Trump has quiet supporters here." "Some think their backing could yet help him take the White House." "I have three four-year degrees, and two of them are in the field of business and economics, and I'm really liking what he's offering." "He's coming on board with a lot of things." "I like his economic policy." "Rose isn't alone in admiring Donald Trump's business savvy, and he's put it front and centre in his pitch for the presidency." "I have a great company, I have a tremendous income, and the reason I say that is not in a braggadocious way." "It's because it's about time that this country had somebody running it that has an idea about money." "Property is the cornerstone of the Trump myth." "He owns Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel," "Trump Palace, The Trump Building on Wall Street, Trump Place..." "You get the idea." "Robin, let 'em in." "His mogul reputation brought TV producers knocking, and with The Apprentice, a legend was born." "You're all fired." "All four are fired." "Go home." "Go home." "But that wasn't the first time" "Trump got to sound off about his business brilliance." "Before the TV show, there was the book." "The Art Of The Deal appeared in 1987, after Trump Tower was completed." "It spent a year on the best seller list." "It's got some terrific lines." ""Controversy sells."" ""The way I promote is bravado."" ""I play to people's fantasies."" ""A little hyperbole never hurts."" "And then, prophetically, "My time will come."" "But my favourite line of all is that of the Washington Post reviewer, who said," ""The man's lack of taste" ""is as vast as his lack of shame."" "Trump's ego may be tremendous, but his critics say his tax bill certainly isn't." "He's the only presidential candidate for four decades not to release his tax returns." "Maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities" "when he was trying to get a casino licence, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax." " So if he's paid zero..." " That makes me smart." "That line would finish off any regular politician." "Not the Donald." "But his tax bill isn't the only thing that's being questioned." "Rumours also swirl about how good a businessman he really is." "Trump started out backed by family money." "Through the '80s, he amassed a high-rolling real estate empire, and in 1990, he opened his most ambitious venture yet - the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City." " REPORTER:" " Donald Trump gave Michael Jackson a personal tour of his 1.2 billion extravaganza." "To have Michael at the Taj Mahal..." "He's my friend, he's a tremendous talent, and it's really my honour." "With revenue topping 37 million a month," "Donald's biggest gamble is turning up aces." "But the gamble Trump took in Atlantic City was riskier than anyone realised." "It wasn't long before he defaulted on his loans, and took corporate bankruptcy four times." "Workers were laid off, contractors went unpaid." "Yet Trump did make a lot of money... for himself." "If he had reinvested in the city, then I think everyone would be touting his good name, but he didn't." "He took the money and he made lots of money for himself." "And, listen, he had no reason or obligation to spend it in Atlantic City, but as we look at the long-term picture," "Donald Trump has not been good for Atlantic City." "As other gambling hot spots sprang up," "Atlantic City lost its lustre." "Today, it's struggling." "Republican Don Guardian is mayor." "If the question you're asking is," ""Do I want the United States to be, after a Donald Trump presidency," ""Atlantic City after Donald Trump ownership of casinos?", the answer's absolutely not." "Trump wasn't the first and won't be the last property developer to claim strategic bankruptcy, but he's surely the only person ever to have insisted that defaulting on vast loans is a qualification for the job of US president." "I made a lot of money in Atlantic City, and I'm very proud of it." "Very, very proud of it." "By the way, this country, right now, owes 19 trillion, and they need somebody like me to straighten out that mess." "CHEERING" "This was vintage Trump." "The Donald is smart." "Bad times, bad things, are for losers." "Trump is a winner, and his supporters love him for it." "But this election isn't just about personality." "It's about America's anger with its political class, and Hillary Clinton is the one paying the price." "The reason for that is that Hillary reeks of Washington, and Washington is the problem." " Senator, you know Hillary Clinton." " I do." " What's she like?" "I found her to be very bright, engaging, and a good person." "I have served with her in the Senate for a number of years." "When she was Secretary of State, her approval numbers went through the roof, and when you think about where she was in the minds of most Americans then and where she is now, what a sharp contrast." "Senator Dick Durbin is one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress." "Why has she failed to cut through?" "A variety of reasons, and some of it has to do with personality, but also, she brings with her the Clinton dynasty baggage." "That baggage comes from decades within a barely functional government." "Many Americans believe the whole political system is broken." ""America's headed in the wrong direction."" ""Washington doesn't work for me and my family."" "You know, and I think you'll find across the world that kind of comment being made by people who are victimised by a lot of things." "Trump has tapped into it." "But when Trump says Washington doesn't work, he's sometimes even literally true." "Sometimes Washington doesn't work." " Nothing happens." " Of course it doesn't." "There are failures in the human endeavour, and they happen every day, and when it comes to government, we ought to be honest about it, forthright about it, and change it - that's our job." "The one thing the parties can agree on is their increasing inability to agree." "The Democrats and the Republicans don't always talk to each other." "That means they're not producing legislation or administrative activities that are actually dealing with some of the things that we need to do in America." "Why have relations between the parties become so much more poisonous than they used to be?" "Over the years, the Democratic Party has moved steadily, steadily, steadily further and further to the left, towards socialism." "The Republican Party has been infiltrated by Southerners, like me, and has not only become a conservative party, we have moved far to the right, leaving nothing in the middle, and as a great poet, Yeats, would say, the middle will not hold." "The US political system is designed to work with both parties pulling together." "When that doesn't happen, Washington grinds to a halt." " REPORTER:" " Good evening." "This government shutdown is now in its ninth day..." "The result is a system that feels like it's been gridlocked for years." "Trump knows who he's blaming." "I've heard Hillary complaining about so many different things over the years." "But she's been there..." "For 30 years, she's been doing this stuff." "She never changed, and she never will change." "She never will change." "Whoever becomes president, they'll need the cooperation of Congress to get Washington working again, but the more toxic this election becomes, the harder that will be." "With America more divided than ever, it's not just the two candidates casting an unsparing eye over their opponent." "We had to make a couple of turns the hard way, it took a half-hour to get him up here, but it was worth the wait." "We were kitting up somewhat of a life-size Donald Trump." "He's a little taller, he's a little heavier, he's a lot lighter, but he's got about the same hair mass to him, which is full of nothing." "The protest art collective Indecline titillated America when their life-size naked statues of Donald Trump appeared overnight in parks and streets." "There are some liberties taken, of course." "The hair... ..the gut, and other extremities." "All of the statues vanished the same day, but now, thanks to art curator Stanley Sudol, one more has found a home in New Jersey." "It delights thousands each day as they commute into Manhattan." "People laughing as they were driving by is the overall response that we got from this." "Essentially, this piece is a perfect metaphor for the way we see, from our side, Donald Trump's campaign." "It's off-colour, it's abstract, and it's a complete joke." "There you go." "Whatever you think of his body," "Trump's critics say his politics are even uglier." "His views on Islam and immigration have come in for harsh criticism." "America is a melting pot, everybody's from somewhere, and God bless America - this is the beauty of it." "Sajid Tarar runs a non-profit that cares for the elderly and disabled." "He's a Muslim and, back in July, he delivered the closing prayer at his party's national convention, but it's not the party you're maybe thinking." "I am Republican, and I came as a law student..." " From where?" "From Pakistan?" " From Pakistan." "And the thing is," "I'm seeing democracy continuously mostly going down." "How about the First World War," "Second World War, and the Korean War, we fought against expansion of socialism, and today we are becoming socialist?" "I'm not here for that." "I didn't come here for entitlements." "I bought an American dream and freedom, and we are losing that - both of them." "Fewer than one in ten American Muslims supports Donald Trump." "Many now find even that paltry figure unbelievable, given Trump's statements on Muslim immigration." "Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on." "Trump's trying to woo angry white voters by fuelling immigration fears, but he also needs the support of minorities if he's to win." "To most of us, that sounds like an impossible balance to strike." "Here you are, a Muslim supporter of a man who proposes a ban on Muslims entering the United States." " That's pretty strange." " He's not anti-Muslim." "He's anti-troublemakers." "He's anti-jihadist." "He is anti-terrorism." "That's what he is talking about." "His whole campaign is, America first." "Safe America." "Making America rich again." "Look at this" " Syrian refugees, they want to come here in hundreds and thousands without any documentation." "We don't know what their objectives are." "You sound incredibly hard-hearted." "The reason why I'm so hard is because I have four kids." "This is my kids' country." "And plus, we don't want to see this country as a Europe." "You guys are suffering." "Look at France, what is going on." "Look at Belgium, what is going on." "I don't want to see that." "This is my home, and I love this country." "'I met Sajid the day after he'd been campaigning with Trump.'" " This is only yesterday, is it?" " It was only yesterday." "At ten o'clock, we were together." "I have seen 15,000, 20,000 people in his rallies." "It's just..." "It's a piece of cake." "You know, people are behind him, but the liberal media is still hesitant to show that." " You both look very pleased with yourself." " Thank you so much!" "Thank you so much." "I'm very excited." "I'm very excited to see him in the White House and, God willing, it's going to happen." "O, God, our nation is in need... ..of a new leader, a commander..." "..who will guide America along a path of righteousness." "It's no wonder that Trump is so keen to have a man like Sajid backing him." "..make America great again." "Amen." "Trump, though, won't be able to win" " by appealing to disaffected white voters, will he?" " No." " He can't..." " He has to appeal to some minorities." "Republicans have now run two consecutive elections, both times against Barack Obama, saying they could just jack up the white vote and it would be OK." "The math doesn't work any more to just jack the white vote up for the Republicans." "Nearly 50 years on from the murder of Martin Luther King, this is no longer a majority white Christian country, and if Donald Trump thinks he can win the White House just by appealing to that sector of American society, he is mistaken." "So can he do it in 2016?" "He'd need to double his popularity with the fastest growing part of the US population" " Latinos." "But if that's what he's trying to do, he's going about it in a very strange way." "We'll do the wall." "Don't worry, we're going to do the wall." "CHEERING" "We're going to do the wall and, by the way, who's going to pay for the wall?" " CROWD:" " Mexico." "Mexico's going to pay for the wall." "But there is one demographic group he's having an even harder time with" " African-Americans." "In order to win, especially with the popular vote, you've got to increase your margin in independents, in Hispanics and in African-Americans, so he doesn't have to get 30% African-American, he just has to have enough in each of these states," "in each of these targets states, to increase that number, to win." "But most minorities aren't buying it." "The Republican Party has struggled for decades to win the black vote, but Trump's ratings are a new low." "Some polls have put his support at zero." "Which means Paris Dennard has one of the hardest jobs in America - wooing African-Americans for Trump." "I can wholeheartedly say with some degree of experience and authority that Donald J Trump's policies will not only help my community but he is not somebody who's going to hurt our community." "But isn't Donald Trump a racist?" "It's classic Clinton Democrat playbook." "The easiest thing to do is label somebody a racist to deter people from voting for him." "She has to convince black folks that he's a racist, and she also has to convince independents and moderates that he's a racist, because nobody wants to vote for a racist, nobody wants to support a racist." "Of course, many people do think Trump's a racist, for any number of reasons." "My fellow Americans..." "Like the years he spent denying that Obama was born in America." "He recently tried to blame that rumour on Hillary Clinton." "You're the one that sent the pictures around your campaign, sent the pictures around with President Obama in a certain garb." "That was long before I was ever involved, so you actually owe an apology." "But Dennard maintains that black would-be Trump voters aren't deterred." "Maybe like the Tory voters who delivered Cameron's unexpected 2015 victory, they're just shy." "When you say to African-Americans," ""You should think about voting for Donald Trump," what do they say?" "There's a growing sense that I have that there's a lot of blacks are going to say," ""I may not say I'm going to vote for him," ""but when I go to the polling booth, I'll vote for Donald J Trump."" "Trump knows he needs these groups to win." "I want to do things that haven't been done, including fixing and making our inner cities better for the African-American citizens that are so great, and for the Latinos, the Hispanics, and I look forward to doing..." "It's called "Make America Great Again"." "Thank you, Mr Trump." "And here's the reason he needs them - the unique way America chooses its president." "Politics may be showbiz for ugly people, but sometimes it's just showbiz." "In the theatre behind me is one of the most unlikely smash hits of Broadway." "It's a rap retelling of the story of one of the Founding Fathers, and a central scene is set inside a presidential election." "# I'm past patiently waiting" "# I'm passionately smashing every expectation" "# Every action's an act of creation" "# I'm laughing in the face of casualties and sorrow" "# For the first time I'm thinking past tomorrow... #" "This show is the story of Alexander Hamilton, a trusted aide of George Washington." "Rather than have a direct nationwide vote for president, a straightforward popularity contest," "Hamilton and Co wanted each state to have a voice, so they created the electoral college." "Each state has a set number of votes in the so-called electoral college, determined according to the state's population." "In most cases, the candidate first past the post in a state takes all its votes." "So the nominee that wins California gets 55 electoral college votes, but North Dakota or Vermont only bag a measly three." "And the person with the majority of the electoral college votes becomes president." "The magic number of college votes needed to take the presidency is 270, just over half, giving a clear endorsement to one candidate." "So it's not just about winning lots of states." "It's winning the states with big numbers of votes, and right now, Hillary Clinton holds the upper hand." "Democrats start out with 247 electoral votes that they've now won six consecutive presidential elections and basically can't lose," "Republicans start off at 191, and we fight over the rest." "Do you think he can do it?" "The math says he can't, but the math also says he couldn't win the Republican primary, and so I expect that he will not be the president of the United States," "I hope for God's sake, for my country, that he's not the president of the United States, but I'm not going to sit on national television telling you he can't." "So in the final stages of this campaign, the candidates face very different challenges." "Hillary Clinton ought to be miles ahead, instead of which she has to be sure that her supporters will turn out for her." "As for Donald Trump, well, he has somehow to broaden his appeal beyond angry white men." "Three head-to-head debates are where they get to pitch to the nation, watched by the world." "..What kind of country we want to be and what kind of future we'll build together." "These debates are crucial." "Sometimes they turn the tide of opinion, like Kennedy versus Nixon in 1960." "But one thing is for sure." "While the pretence is that the debates focus on policy, actually, they're all about personality." "Chris Matthews is the veteran host of the talk show Hardball." "Hillary's going to try to get him upset, angry." "She'll be like a mosquito at him, you know." "I think Donald just criticised me for preparing for this debate." "And, yes, I did." "And you know what else I prepared for?" "I prepared to be president, and I think that's a good thing." "And the question is, can he swat that mosquito without looking bad?" "I don't know who you were talking to, Secretary Clinton, but you were totally out of control." "I said, "There's a person with a temperament that got a problem."" " Secretary Clinton." " Whew, OK!" "RIPPLE OF LAUGHTER" "Hillary Clinton emerged the victor." "I have a feeling that by the end of this evening," "I'm going to be blamed for everything that's ever happened." " Why not?" " Why not, yeah." " Why not." " LAUGHTER" "You know, just join... join the debate by saying more crazy things." "But Donald Trump kept the wheels on his campaign." "What came next, though, was all hell breaking loose... ..when THAT recording of Trump made in 2005 surfaced just days before the second debate." "We received a lot of questions online, Mr Trump, about the tape that was released on Friday, as you can imagine." "You called what you said "locker room banter"." "You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals." "That is sexual assault." "You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women." "Do you understand that?" "Trump's response to this grave charge made less than no sense at all." "Yes, I'm very embarrassed by it, I hate it, but it's locker room talk, and it's one of those things." "I will knock the hell out of Isis, we're going to defeat Isis." "Isis happened a number of years ago" " in a vacuum that was left..." " So..." " ..because of bad judgment, and I will tell you, I will take care of Isis." "Senior Republicans queued up to disown him, but he could still count on one loyal friend." "It's the kind of thing, if we're being honest, that men do." "They sit round and have a drink and they talk like this." "And, by the way, quite a lot of women say things amongst themselves that they would not want to see on Fox News or the front page of newspapers." "Thank you very much indeed." "The UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been on the stump with Trump in Mississippi and at the second debate in Missouri." "But now he's back in his favourite place in the world" " Brussels." "Is he seeing things a little differently?" "There is no question that this recent tape, you know, ugly as it is, has really hurt him badly, of course." "What did he mean by talking about grabbing women's pussies?" "I don't know, but I..." "You know, I just saw this whole thing as sort of an extreme form of alpha male boasting, as the kind of boasting that some men do, it doesn't mean they actually do it." "Oh, so he was lying, was he?" "Doesn't it slightly turn your stomach to be in effective alliance with a man who behaves and thinks and perhaps lies about that sort of thing?" "Look, it's not just that, is it?" "I mean, there were the comments about Mexicans." "Equally, there was the idea that you have a total ban on anybody coming into America from one particular religion." "There are lots of things in this campaign that I couldn't support in any way at all, and nor do I." "'Which sounds like a change of heart, if ever I heard one." "'But if Farage has decided HE doesn't like the Donald's policies, 'he thinks Trump's followers are as enraptured as ever.'" "But I spoke to people who were Trump voters, going to vote Trump in this election, and do you know what?" "They couldn't care less." "They couldn't give a damn what Trump says, who he offends, because they see him as being their weapon against the establishment and they see Hillary as being the epitome of that establishment." "So they don't care if a cruel, crude, vulgar bombast occupies the White House?" "I think what we're seeing in the States and, actually, across a fair bit of the Western world, are the little people saying," ""We've had enough and we want a change" ""and we don't care if that change causes a rupture,"" "and I think that is a lot of what's behind the Trump phenomenon." "With just weeks to go, the question is whether Trump still has a chance." "This is the thing." "His supporters are pinning their hopes on the vast pool of undeclared voters whom they believe secretly favour their man." "A crucial group is younger voters." "There are loads of them." "Anyone who believes that is insane." "I think a lot of young people feel a little jaded about the state of America, and I can see why that speaks to a lot of Trump supporters as well." "They feel like, "Oh, America's not in a great condition,"" "because they feel like their personal conditions aren't what they would like it to be." "When Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again, that's just what you want to hear, isn't it?" "What's "again"?" "My problem is, make America great "again", and when was it great before, and what was great about it?" "Because America needs to be a lot better, but the whole great "again" thing..." "What makes you pause when you think about Hillary?" "Probably the fact that she's so unrelatable and has been so entangled in the Clinton name." "She's..." "Her..." "Like Trump, they're both brands." "Like, they feel like political brands." "They don't feel like people that you can actually relate to." "'These reluctant Hillary supporters 'prefer a candidate out of the Washington Tupperware catalogue 'to an alternative they think rotten.'" "It's the lesser of the two evils, but right now, it's like the choice between, like," "Hillary Clinton, who obviously has a bad reputation, and Donald Trump, I guess, like, fascism, in its current form." "And it sucks, it does, but, I mean, do we really have a choice?" "But I think the most important thing right now is that my generation votes." "'But they're not entirely despairing of the future." "'This year's dismal election may, they hope, 'prove a kind of watershed.'" "Everybody seems to be talking about the way in which American politics has become polarised between two very, very solid positions - the Republicans and the Democrats." "Is it going to stay like that, do you think?" "I hope this is sort of the fever pitch of that trend and this is the peak moment of fractionalisation, but I also think that there's a chance we could keep going from here and just become even more polarised, and that's my biggest fear." "America has been deeply divided before." "Gettysburg, in 1863, saw the mightiest clash between the forces of North and South, Union and Confederate." "The Union ultimately triumphed, the country held together by that awkward visionary." "When Abraham Lincoln stood on this blood-soaked battlefield, he pledged that, "Government by the people," ""of the people, for the people, shall not perish,"" "and it hasn't, but many of those who make the effort to vote in this presidential election will do so holding their noses, which ought to tell us, perhaps, that something has gone wrong with Lincoln's dream." "Both candidates have waged divisive campaigns." "You could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables." "We have a divided nation because of people like her, and believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart, and when she said "deplorables", she meant it." "The question now is, what next?" "Can Washington be made to work again?" "All the problems in Washington are solvable very easily by one word." " What's that?" " One word." "Leadership." "Or is the party system irreparably broken?" " NIGEL FARAGE:" " And I think we're going to see a very different Republican Party whatever happens on November 8th." "So much is at stake on election night." "Those two competing narratives are going, you know, head-to-head." "I think what is true, though, in the end, is America has changed greatly." "For now, Hillary looks set to win, but as Brexit showed, the unexpected can happen." "This race won't be over till it's over, and maybe not even then, if there are legal challenges or the loser refuses to concede." "It's been a dirty fight so far, and it could still end messily." "Will whoever wins be able to unite America?" "Or will this bitter election leave this great democracy even more divided than it is now?"