2008 Election: Emotionally, it will just be hard on us, on everybody. Mitt, Jenn Romney at family meeting to discuss potential presidency bid, Netflix 2014
We just brutalize whoever loses. ibid. Mitt
In which case I think I’m a flawed candidate. ibid.
We won one. Nice job. ibid.
We hit him [John McCain] with everything we’ve got. He ran a smart campaign. ibid.
2012: My entire life has been devoted 100% to the people. ibid.
For eight years you’ve been a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. A loyal vice-president. Biding your time. Waiting your turn. You know the path to power. And you think you know the rules. But what happens when you discover you don’t even know how to play the game? Race for the White House s1e1: John F Kennedy & Richard Nixon, CNN 2016
1960 America, land of the free, is terrified of the Red Menace. ibid.
Kennedy does have one advantage being a candidate: his father Joseph, rich, powerful and the former ambassador to Great Britain has always wanted a son as president. ibid.
Glamour, showbizzness and family – who can compete with that? ibid.
Kennedy’s illness is never mentioned again. It’s a victory for JFK’s team if not for truth. ibid.
Nixon In Hospital: Knee Infection Sidelines Vice President. ibid. Newsreel, commentary Peter Roberts
Nixon is exhausted, haggard, trailing in the polls, but then there is a ray of hope – the first ever television presidential debate. ibid.
Nixon has one last card to play – his old boss, ex-general and president Dwight D Eisenhower. ibid.
You know you’ll have to play dirty and devious to become president. Race for the White House s1e2: Abraham Lincoln v Stephen Douglas
Illinois: They’ve come to hear Abraham Lincoln confront Stephen A Douglas on the issue that threatens to tear America apart: slavery. ibid.
Lincoln has assembled a prize team to take on the favourites. ibid.
So, you want to be the most powerful man in the world. How far are you prepared to go. Will you turn friends into enemies? Will you break your own rules? If you want to be the most powerful man in the world, do the ends ever justify the means? Race for the White House s1e3: George H W Bush v Michael Dukakis
In the fall of 1986 the White House is mired in scandal. America’s most dangerous enemy Iran. With the profits diverted illegally to fund a right-wing guerrilla group in Nicaragua, the Contras. Bad news for Reagan but worse for his loyal deputy George Bush. Iran/Contra could kill his own presidential plans. ibid.
Dukakis v Biden 1988: Biden finds himself under the microscope like a pinned bug ... It’s not a sex tape: it’s worse than that … ‘Here is Joe Biden giving a speech: it’s almost word for word what British Labour party leader Neil Kinnock had said … More and more plagiarism.’ ibid. journalist
Whilst Dukakis is dismantling his team, Bush is assembling a gang of political hard men. ibid.
Iowa: Bush is hammered into third place behind television preacher Pat Robertson and senate majority leader Bob Dole. ibid.
George Bush takes New Hampshire with close to a ten point lead: Dole just got [Lee] Atwater. ibid.
Also taking New Hampshire is the new Democratic front-runner Governor Michael Dukakis. Ten points ahead, Michael Dukakis seems untouchable. ibid.
To show he’s a real man, Dukakis is going to sit in a tank: what could possibly go wrong? ibid.
By late September Dukakis’s lead is like mist in the sun. Can things get any worse for him? Of course they can. ibid.
‘The ‘revolving door’ ad accomplished what Lee Atwater said was his goal – which was to make Willie Horton into Dukakis’s running mate.’ ibid. Susan Estrich, Dukakis’ campaign manager
George H W Bush thunders home with almost 80% of the electoral college votes. ibid.
You’re the president nobody wanted. In office by default. Now you’re the candidate nobody believes in. In a race you’re expected to lose. Do you have the guts? The political cunning? The sheer determination to prove your enemies wrong? Race for the White House s1e4: Harry Truman v Thomas Dewey
Truman may be America’s post-war president but there’s no peace for him. American veterans are coming home to a land not fit for heroes. A tidal-wave of strikes overwhelms the country. ibid.
Galvanised, the Republicans now target the White House. Their candidate is tough, slick and camera savvy. ibid.
Truman’ and Dewey’s trains criss-crossed the country eating up the miles in search of votes. ibid.
Dewey is set for the White House. ibid.
Truman has achieved the unthinkable. ibid.
If you think the presidency has been stolen from you and democracy is dead, do you retreat or do you fight? What will sustain you through the battles ahead? Truth? Justice? Or vengeance? Race for the White House s1e5: Andrew Jackson v John Quincy Adams
It’s only been fifty years since the Revolution and America is about to select its sixth president. There’s a new contender in the race: he comes all the way to Washington from Tennessee. He may be an outsider but he has the people’s vote. His name: General Andrew Jackson. General Jackson is a national hero. Jackson’s rival has a perfect presidential resume. His name: John Quincy Adams. ibid.
The votes are counted and the man from Tennessee surprises everyone. But not enough to win an absolute majority. Instead, Congress will choose America’s next president. ibid.
John Quincy Adams becomes the sixth president of the United States. ibid.
Once more Jackson will face Adams for the presidency but this time [Martin] van Buren is on board. ibid.
Four years after his first bitter loss, Andrew Jackson is now elected as America’s seventh president. ibid.
You’re under attack labelled a draft dodger, a womaniser. Your presidential campaign is collapsing. Dreams of the White House recede. Who can you trust? Friends? Family? Strategists? When you’re on the edge of the political abyss, how do you fight back? Race for the White House s1e6: Bill Clinton v George H W Bush
Bush Betrayed Our Trust: He Raised Our Taxes. ibid. television advert
Bush drags behind Clinton by more than twenty points. The Republican convention is his chance to scramble back. ibid.
Of the 435 members of Congress, more than 100 actually live in the building. The Swamp, Gaetz, Sky Documentaries 2020
This guy [Trump] has got some rough edges … He could be a change agent. ibid.
We are going to drain the swamp of Washington. ibid. Trump
If people are going to drain the swamp like the president wants to do, they need better information about how this place is broken, and that’s my mission in Congress. ibid. Massie
Ken Buck: Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse that You Think. ibid.
He [Newt Gingrich] has changed the agenda, changed the culture, changed the language and changed the dialogue … ibid. television interviewer
A lot of people would be surprised to find out that members of Congress are expected to pay their party for their committee assignments. ibid. Massie
As a member of the clergy so eloquently said – As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore. ibid. Barbara Lee
CNN: As I wrote this, the US Capitol building was being stormed by right-wing protesters trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
This was an attempted coup, encouraged by the President of the United States, in an attempt to derail today’s congressional certification of the electoral vote that will lead to Joe Biden’s inauguration in two weeks.
Donald Trump’s legacy is American carnage. Our country is far more divided and violent and deluded than before he entered office. His misrule has led to this moment, but it is not his responsibility alone. Trump’s fear-fuelled lies and extremism and conspiracy theories have been indulged for too long by partisans. His rhetoric has directly led to death threats against election officials who have done their job honestly and independently. Now we are all reaping what they’ve sown, as the President watches it all burn from within the White House. But then, there are some men who want to ruin if they cannot rule.
Make no mistake: this is sedition. And it’s coming at the hands of self-styled super-patriots who have been amped up by the President’s lies about non-existent mass voter fraud to excuse losing a free and fair election by a large margin.
They are not conservatives – they are radicals. Because patriots don’t break the windows of the US Capitol building and storm inside when they lose an election. No hostile foreign power has done more damage to what President-elect Joe Biden called ‘the citadel of our democracy’ since an invading British army burned down the Capitol in the war of 1812. But certainly, the enemies of democracy have taken great comfort from their actions today.