Trump’s Heist: The President Who Wouldn’t Lose, Channel 4
In less than two months, Americans will go to the polls to elect the next US president.
In a vote set to be watched closely around the world, the race to the White House will see either America get its first female president or a second term for Donald Trump.
Earlier this month the two candidates went head-to-head in a televised debate in Pennsylvania, watched by over 67 million people.
Snap polls released immediately after the debate found most viewers thought Harris had been the better performer, but support for Trump had been rising ahead of the pair coming up against one another.
Speaking afterwards Trump declined the offer of another debate, claiming he had beaten Harris in the first one. He’s a man who believes he is always the winner.
Rewind four years to 2020 and that winning logic Trump sees life through was evident once again as he claimed he had secured a second term in office, despite the votes saying otherwise.
Believing he had beaten Joe Biden to seal another four years as US president, in November of that year Trump set out to overturn the result of the election.
In a new two-part documentary, his efforts to undermine the American electoral process and discredit the 2020 result are revealed as beginning on election night.
Showing footage of how he was consumed by the concept of winning, he yells: “This election was rigged... we can’t let it happen.”
The episode looks at the story of what happened next, told by leading members of Trump’s party and senior figures in his administration.
It also examines how his actions on election night culminated in the events of January 6 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol Building in Washington.
Viewers hear from those who were in the Oval Office as news networks began predicting a Biden win in the crucial swing state of Arizona.
Among those interviewed is Alyssa Farah Griffith, Trump’s director of strategic communications, who describes a “very odd time”.
“My office is just right around the corner from the Oval Office,” she recalled.
“I remember popping my head in and he’s (Trump) watching Fox News and Joe Biden’s on and he says: “Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?”
But Trump failed to address defeat publicly and instead a false narrative was set in motion.
During an impromptu press conference, he declared: “This is a fraud on the American people, this is an embarrassment to our country.”
The programme looks at events in the weeks that followed as Trump tried to claim the win, with particular focus on the pressure placed on election officials in Arizona to support his claims and how they refused to surrender to his demands.
There’s footage of how officials were harassed outside county offices by Trump supporters armed with AR-15s, while the episode also looks at the media campaign spearheaded by Trump’s lawyers.
Donald Trump and his allies are frustrated when their efforts are rebuffed in Arizona and turn their attention to Georgia, where the plot takes on a desperate urgency when the President's scheme is once again thwarted. #TrumpsHeist #ThePresidentWhoWouldntLose at 9pm on @Channel4 pic.twitter.com/qIXDHyT9dI
— 4Viewers (@4Viewers) September 18, 2024
One of those who voices his criticism of Trump’s actions in the documentary is former US attorney general Bill Barr, who tells of how he had “wanted Trump to win, I supported Trump”.
“But after the election, he started spewing out all these allegations of voting fraud, so I felt I had to get on top of the main claims that were being made,” he said.
He tells of how he investigated numerous claims of fraud, including conspiracy theories about communist plots from Venezuela, but could find no evidence.
Stephanie Grisham, who worked on the Trump campaign, tells the programme Trump is “a narcissist and his ego will not accept defeat”.
“And when you have people who will so willingly come around you and tell you you didn’t lose and the things you want to hear… that enables him to double down and triple down.”
The episode ends with the events that culminated in Trump’s January 6 rally when violence erupted as a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
The question is, if Trump loses again, will he be able to accept defeat once and for all?
