WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:08.245 --> 00:00:10.247 - When I first became aware that Donald Trump 00:00:10.247 --> 00:00:12.209 was actually running for president, 00:00:12.209 --> 00:00:14.840 my thought was, this can't possibly be happening. 00:00:14.840 --> 00:00:19.676 - Basically for 25 years Donald Trump had been flirting 00:00:19.676 --> 00:00:21.534 with the idea of running for president. 00:00:21.534 --> 00:00:23.621 It was basically a way for him to get a bunch of attention. 00:00:23.621 --> 00:00:27.014 - The combination of a clearly undisciplined candidate 00:00:27.014 --> 00:00:30.909 like Donald Trump and a handful of incompetent, 00:00:30.909 --> 00:00:33.991 republicans are seemingly competent republicans, 00:00:33.991 --> 00:00:38.490 suggested a repeat of the cycle we saw on 2012. 00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:39.823 - You know, a lot of news outlets 00:00:39.823 --> 00:00:42.360 had already put their best reports on Jeb Bush, 00:00:42.360 --> 00:00:45.127 he was supposed to be the front runner at the, sort of, 00:00:45.127 --> 00:00:49.033 presumed Republican nominee at, you know, a year out. 00:00:49.033 --> 00:00:51.010 - I guess I really didn't take it as seriously as 00:00:51.010 --> 00:00:53.448 I could have or should have. 00:00:53.448 --> 00:00:55.818 - It's hard to actually think that this person, 00:00:55.818 --> 00:00:57.652 who's a showman, is going to launch 00:00:57.652 --> 00:01:00.735 this credible campaign for president. 00:01:06.611 --> 00:01:10.778 - Yeah, so, early 2014 I arranged to interview Donald Trump 00:01:12.953 --> 00:01:16.620 on his plane, so I spent two days with Trump 00:01:17.612 --> 00:01:21.618 down at his kind of beach side compound in Palm Beach, 00:01:21.618 --> 00:01:23.500 interviewing him, getting to know him. 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:27.132 The piece that I wrote, kind of, called him out 00:01:27.132 --> 00:01:31.132 for 25 years of pretending to run for president, 00:01:32.057 --> 00:01:33.775 just to kind of get attention. 00:01:33.775 --> 00:01:35.125 I predicted quite confidently 00:01:35.125 --> 00:01:39.042 that he never would actually run for president. 00:01:41.708 --> 00:01:45.644 - Yeah, so when Trump announced he was running for president 00:01:45.644 --> 00:01:50.115 he came down with his wife on this escalator in Trump Tower. 00:01:50.115 --> 00:01:51.326 - Coming down the escalator, 00:01:51.326 --> 00:01:53.158 I think that few of us will forget that image. 00:01:53.158 --> 00:01:54.600 - With the escalator, I think, 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:57.222 the mood was sort of, jolly about it. 00:01:57.222 --> 00:01:59.509 I mean, I think that goes for a lot of newsrooms. 00:01:59.509 --> 00:02:01.690 - I was actually up in New Hampshire 00:02:01.690 --> 00:02:04.279 covering a Jeb Bush campaign rally. 00:02:04.279 --> 00:02:08.143 And I remember just sitting in this like town hall 00:02:08.143 --> 00:02:11.487 in New Hampshire like watching the tweets come in 00:02:11.487 --> 00:02:13.411 about Trump's announcement 00:02:13.411 --> 00:02:15.602 and I remember, I think I tweeted something like, 00:02:15.602 --> 00:02:18.019 I feel like I'm being punk'd. 00:02:23.809 --> 00:02:27.483 - When I first saw a Trump event in person, 00:02:27.483 --> 00:02:29.798 I think that's when it all sort of came together. 00:02:29.798 --> 00:02:31.302 It was just that kind of political event 00:02:31.302 --> 00:02:32.488 I'd never seen before. 00:02:32.488 --> 00:02:34.819 - When I was in a cab ride back to my hotel 00:02:34.819 --> 00:02:37.232 and I was on the phone with my editor, 00:02:37.232 --> 00:02:39.956 kind of giving my read out of what had happened 00:02:39.956 --> 00:02:42.904 and kind of talking about insider political analysis 00:02:42.904 --> 00:02:47.034 and I remember all of a sudden the cab driver 00:02:47.034 --> 00:02:49.726 just like, was obviously eavesdropping on me. 00:02:49.726 --> 00:02:51.861 The cab driver barked something like, 00:02:51.861 --> 00:02:55.184 "Trump is winning cause he understands real Americans". 00:02:55.184 --> 00:02:56.651 I remember just getting out of the cab 00:02:56.651 --> 00:02:59.960 and being like, okay, this is probably happening. 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.360 - When he went after John McCain 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:05.688 for having being captured as a prisoner of war 00:03:05.688 --> 00:03:07.333 and there was all this condemnation 00:03:07.340 --> 00:03:08.997 that came from the Republican Party. 00:03:08.997 --> 00:03:12.212 For him to be able to say what he said, 00:03:12.212 --> 00:03:13.776 which was actually in many ways, 00:03:13.776 --> 00:03:15.517 a criticism of all prisoners of war, 00:03:15.517 --> 00:03:17.820 and to not have it affect his support whatsoever, 00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:19.707 that was that moment where I thought, 00:03:19.707 --> 00:03:22.474 this isn't just your average Kennedy. 00:03:22.474 --> 00:03:26.529 - I would say that my own feeling about this really turned 00:03:26.529 --> 00:03:28.296 around the time of the Paris attacks. 00:03:28.296 --> 00:03:30.432 And Trump's ability to capitalize from the Paris attacks 00:03:30.432 --> 00:03:32.618 and kind of open up a new front, 00:03:32.620 --> 00:03:35.293 policy front which is the ban on Muslims 00:03:35.293 --> 00:03:38.331 into the United States, his vote share like went up. 00:03:38.331 --> 00:03:39.641 So I kinda had two conclusions. 00:03:39.641 --> 00:03:43.999 First, the Republican base is really eating 00:03:43.999 --> 00:03:46.618 whatever Trump is cooking with regards to 00:03:46.618 --> 00:03:48.676 bigotry and nativism. 00:03:48.700 --> 00:03:51.229 And second, I don't think the Republican Party 00:03:51.229 --> 00:03:53.945 institutionally is equipped to deal with it. 00:03:53.945 --> 00:03:55.325 And if it's not equipped to deal with it, 00:03:55.325 --> 00:03:57.898 then I'm not sure how they're going to stop it. 00:03:57.898 --> 00:03:59.882 - The thing that I realized is that 00:03:59.882 --> 00:04:02.418 I underestimated Trump because I thought 00:04:02.418 --> 00:04:04.055 that all he wanted was attention. 00:04:04.055 --> 00:04:08.142 And what I think he really wanted was respect. 00:04:08.142 --> 00:04:11.177 And that's more deeply rooted than I ever realized. 00:04:11.177 --> 00:04:13.288 It goes all the way back to when he was kind of 00:04:13.288 --> 00:04:17.301 this outsider kid in Queens, who wanted to live in Manhattan 00:04:17.301 --> 00:04:20.890 and be accepted as a true Manhattan elite. 00:04:20.890 --> 00:04:24.493 And he's kind of had this outsider status anxiety 00:04:24.493 --> 00:04:27.203 his entire life and I think that I didn't realize 00:04:27.203 --> 00:04:30.884 how deeply he felt that and how that would fuel him 00:04:30.884 --> 00:04:33.347 to do something so kind of outlandish 00:04:33.347 --> 00:04:35.847 as actually run for president.