KOSTA: Every time Trump tells a lie...
I paid millions of dollars in taxes.
...the media comes at him with a raging truth boner.
We rate that as false.
This is so false, I think it's safe to say it's ridiculous.
Yeah, Trump lies.
If fried chicken isn't going in,
a lie is coming out.
But I wanted to dig a little deeper.
So, for the last presidential debate,
I gathered three professional liars:
Brett Johnson, former FBI most wanted con man;
Timon Krause, hypnotist;
and Alexis Conran, magician and deception expert.
I wanted to know, were these masters of deception impressed
by Trump's lying?
Trump's followers and listeners
are almost in a constant state of trance,
where his simple messages get through
but they're not being critically challenged.
He makes sure that the critical thinking of the listeners
is, uh, eliminated.
I would add in, what is the expectations
of the person that you're lying to?
Do they want to believe your lie?
We have this perception that the people that are followers
of Donald Trump or that fall for scams
are idiots, are stupid, are ignorant.
They're not. It's just that they're looking
to make sense out of something that doesn't make sense.
People want to be deceived,
like when my high school girlfriend told me
she was going to prom with the football captain
but just as a joke.
(chuckles) Boy.
If that poor guy only knew.
And speaking of public humiliation,
in the first debate, I thought Trump was a mess.
-Oh, really? -It's been totally... -Mr. President.
-It's totally... -Mr. President, please.
-Totally discredited. -You asked a question...
KOSTA: But these guys liked his aggressive style.
He's just showing confidence and dominance
over his opponent, over the moderator,
because what he's saying is, "I don't care about the rules."
Oh, power move. He's saying
"I got your debate rules right here."
You can't see 'cause it's on Zoom,
but I just grabbed my crotch.
Trump's style might have annoyed some voters,
but maybe he was trying to connect with another group
he could spend the next four years with.
I served seven and a half years in federal prison.
What we saw in the debate was basically a prison debate.
There's debates in prison?
Like podiums in the yard next to the bench press?
Sick.
No, no, no, no, no. This is might versus right,
loudness, just boiling over,
just steamrolling over your opponent.
Brett, you're the only one I'm talking to right now
that I can't actually see their background.
-Are you still in prison? -No.
KOSTA: And as a professional hypnotist,
Timon claims the great Trumpini was using
some of his spellbinding techniques.
Much like a skilled hypnotist,
Trump is using imagery to his advantage.
One way to put someone into hypnosis
is using sensory overload.
So I could say, "Focus on your breathing,
the rate of your blinking, my words, your heart rate,"
and then deliver a simple message like "Sleep."
And it's gonna go by unchallenged
because you're not thinking critically.
Trump does that a lot.
He says, "We need better forest management."
Then suddenly, he focuses on the clean forests
and the leaves on the floor.
At a certain point,
his audience is in an almost trance-like state.
And he delivers a simple message,
something like, "And that's why you got to vote for me."
(fingers snap)
Oh, I'm gonna vote for Trump.
That's always been my plan from day one.
In the most talked about moment of the debate,
Trump seemed to whiff on a softball question.
Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.
KOSTA: But these professional liars claim
he knocked it out of the park.
Trump almost got himself into real deep trouble there.
So then what happens is, Trump turns into a magician.
And he's asked to condemn, okay?
And he uses the word "condemn."
It's right there. He says, "Who do you want me to condemn?"
But in a split second, as if by magic, oh.
I'll do that again.
Alexis, when someone says,
"Hey, there's just two cards there, and when you hit it,
you just flit it with your finger," how do you handle that?
I say, "I don't know what you're talking about."
-Just denounce the trick, Alexis. -Nah.
KOSTA: And after Alexis finally nailed his card trick,
he talked me through how to spot a con
on both sides of the aisle.
You saw Biden at his best when he talked about the empty chair
at the dinner table because you've lost someone to COVID-19.
Now as a conman, you want to put people in a situation,
something that is gonna be familiar to them.
That is a universal image.
And I thought that was really clever.
KOSTA: Wow. These guys can see through the deception
like lines of code in the matrix.
So are they in awe of bullshit's chosen one?
Would you vote for Trump
because he's a great liar just like you three?
Or would you never vote for him
because he's horning in on what you do?
You got to hand it to him, but would I ever vote for him?
Hell, no, never.
Absolutely not.
KOSTA: Brett?
-Well, you know, felons can't vote. -Okay.
Is there respect 'cause he's in the same class as you,
or is there disrespect because he's...
he makes it look ugly, what you've done masterfully,
even though you were convicted of 39 counts?
I have no respect for a guy like that.
No way I... no way I could vote for him, no way.
You know, that's the first time I felt like
you're truly speaking from the heart.
Yeah.
KOSTA: And that's the God's honest truth.
I think.