You think trump's going to win here?
Is that a serious question?
Joe Biden will drive this country into the ground.
You guys voting Biden?
Ah, yeah!
How'd you like trying to find things in the grocery store? Because that is socialism, my dear.
Get out of our country!
Those are American voters there.
Obviously they aren't like our country.
They're American voters, they are Americans ...
That's OK. I'll tell any American, I don't care who you are.
This is going to be one of the most bitterly fought and divisive elections
in American history and I think we just saw a symbol for that right here.
American society feels like it's coming apart at the seams.
'This is the most important election in the history of our country.'
It's the most divided era in generations.
'History will be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight.'
And for many people it's not just partisan politics at stake now
but the nation's democracy itself.
Donald Trump's first term in office has been marked by civil unrest, nativist immigration policy,
nods to white supremacy and by countless political scandals,
impeachment and a public health catastrophe that has seen
over 200 000 Americans lose their lives.
He now faces his hardest task of the past four years: winning re-election at a moment of
national crisis.
'We will make America great again.'
With six weeks until the election, I'm traveling in the US to understand how
Trump's presidency has changed this country
and how its people are responding.
Pinellas county is a bellwether county in the swing state of Florida.
Donald Trump won here by a razor thin margin in 2016
and polls indicate it could go down to the wire here again.
I've come to meet democratic congressman Charlie Crist
who is fighting for re-election here.
So, did you play sports yourself?
This neighborhood was hard hit by the pandemic and covid19 is at the forefront
of most people's minds.
How are you all doing?
I'm Charlie Crist.
I think um the pandemic was here long before the new year
and the fact that he kept saying that it was a hoax ...
He didn't pay any attention.
We lost at least what? 60% of our income.
Even when we came back.
I noticed that you didn't want to say Donald Trump's name is that because you
think he's doing a bad job handling this?
We thought George Bush was a joke.
Oh my God! George Bush is a great president
compared to that thing that's in the White House.
Crist is the former republican governor of this state who switched to the
Democrats in 2012.
'I heard this criticism that he used to be a republican, he left ...
He didn't leave the republican, it left him.
This ain't your father's republican party.'
He was one of the first people in Congress to endorse Joe Biden for president.
And in many ways, he's the embodiment of the centrist politics Biden is pushing.
I think the world of former vice president Biden, he's got a real heart, he's good soul,
he's exactly what we need in contrast to what we have now.
They're thirsting for change and decency and kindness and goodness to come back
in to the politics of America and the current occupant has taken that away.
Are you seeing many former republicans like yourself who maybe voted for Trump
in 2016 changing their minds this time around?
I've heard a lot of that, yeah, you know, a number of people that I
spoke to right after the 2016 election, said that they voted for Trump because
they wanted change and radical change and then they would say to me but
not this radical, this is out of control.
Despite what Crist is saying, it's very difficult to find people
who have changed their mind about Donald Trump.
And the most prominent displays of politics here are very obviously
Conservative.
The Conservative grounds coffee shop is a newly opened business
designed to push the president's agenda and bring the conservative grassroots together.
Cliff Gephart is the co-owner.
This isn't busy. — No, this isn't busy. Is this busy?
On our grand opening day, we had a thousand people here.
This place is not being run by the Republican establishment
but by Conservative activists and has become a major base for Trump's
re-election in Pinellas county.
What's the red button for?
Well, you can push the red button.
'I will be the greatest president that
God ever created.'
MLK with a maga hat on.
I know that's a little controversial.
I was going to say I think there might be quite a few people who would be a bit offended by that maybe.
You know, everything offends everybody these days.
Are you guys with right side broadcasting?
No, they're The Guardian.
Are you talking to these guys?
We can talk to everybody, yes.
Don't you like The Guardian?
Well, if it was honest, they'd be different but since you broadcast
your fake news, what do you want?
Tough crowd sometimes, right? — It is.
Many people here do not identify as party Republicans but
are drawn into the Conservative movement by Trump himself.
This is Trump's party now.
It's absolutely Trump's party, I mean, that's obvious you know?
You know, there's never been another person a party, even if it were Reagan or anybody
that could get people to come to rallies, that could get people to wait out
in the snow, walk, you know, seven miles, you know to go sit inside of an
auditorium for an hour and listen to a man
speak who's not playing a musical instrument or anything like that you know,
What do you guys make of the fact that
he's quite far behind in the polling here at the moment?
Where was he behind when he was running against Hillary?
Six or seven points, OK? It's going to be worse this time than it was in 2016.
You did so awesome that I'm giving you this bottle of Trump wine.
Wow!
And I'm just thanking you for everything you do here.
Do I know you?
Oh, you are Holly!
Show me other coffee shop where this would happen.
Do you think this guy has become a power player in local
Republican politics?
Oh my Gosh, please, Trump would be so proud.
On some evenings, the coffee shop offers firearm training to his customers
but I'd noticed that no one here was bothering to social distance or wear masks.
Before the class started, I asked a few questions.
Does Donald Trump bear any
responsibility for the fact that almost 200.000 people have died in this country from covid?
It's a lie, we don't ...
I think he's done a tremendous job in managing
the China virus, as we call it here in America.
I think that we've all been scammed and I'll tell you,
here's my mask.
'This mask is useless.'
This mask is useless, yes!
So what do you think? Because you haven't spoken yet. What do you think about it?
Do you agree what everybody here is saying?
I think it's like the flu, I think that
it's all about herd mentality, survival of the fittest.
Donald Trump won Florida in 2016 by turning out older white voters in droves.
So we've come to a retirement community a hundred miles inland called the Villages.
It's home to 120.000 people and 98% of them are white.
The villagers voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016
but if even a small percentage of this demographic abandoned him,
he could be in major trouble here.
The Village has became an emblem of Donald Trump's divisiveness earlier this year
after the president retweeted footage of a Trump campaigner shouting 'white power'
during confrontation with Biden supporters.
White power! White power!
This is quite a quite ... quite an entourage you have here.
That is a ... work of art.
We met with a group of democrats who despite being vastly outnumbered,
are doing their best to get the message out.
But here, it's not always easy to show your politics, especially if you don't
belong to Trump's party.
It's gotten to the point where it's divided, Republicans stay with Republicans,
and Democrats stay with Democrats ... It's been tough.
Most people don't dare to say who they're for if they're not for Trump.
You know, people you think are friends, maybe you learn we're more just
acquaintances when you actually say who you're for.
You sound like genuinely moved and a bit emotional about it.
Yeah.
Is it taking a toll on you?
Yes. — I would say so.
It's sad to watch, they advertise the Village as the friendliest hometown, right?
And it used to be like 13 ... I've been here 13 years
and I've seen a lot of changes and mostly ...
And mostly it's been the last three and a half years.
I feel like Trump's made it more hateful that's what I feel like.
Just like in Pinellas county, we struggled to find any former Trump
voters who had changed their minds.
Local democrats even told us that promises of anonymity weren't enough to get people talking.
But hidden amongst those biting campaigners, we met Dan Gert
who was open about changing his mind.
I will not be voting for Trump this time.
I think what he's done, his four years in office,
he's accomplished very little, he's lied, he's cheated ...
I just can't vote for him. The country needs a change, we need to get back to
our moral values and he's not the guy to do it in my opinion.
Is Joe Biden the guy to do it? — I believe he is, I believe he is.
Trump 2020 right there.
Go Trump, go Trump!
No way, no way!
It's quite a brave thing that you're doing, talking to us and saying that
you're changing your vote just in the context of what's happening, do you feel
like you're being brave?
No, I don't, I mean, it's my option. I can vote for who I want to vote for and
if people don't like who I'm voting for, that's up to them, I really don't care.
I don't have to vote for a dictator.
That evening the group which held that now infamous golf cart rally was putting
on a theme Hawaiian night.
Just like the coffee shop in Pinellas, this is a grassroots group not affiliated with the local Republican party
but deeply loyal to Donald Trump and again no one seemed particularly
bothered by the pandemic as conservative radio host Malcolm Out Loud
spread misinformation about the virus during a keynote speech.
Nobody knew how dangerous this virus was, well I've got information here
from CDC and others that say this was never any more dangerous than any virus.
So 94% had other problems, whether it be heart,
cancer, diabetes, whatever it is.
Many of those people died from three or four things and what did the hospital do?
Quickly give me a pen cover: covid!
This thing has been politicized for obvious reasons
so that they can retake their power and reclaim the White House
and you know what has their goal been since the escalator, what's their goal then?
To get Donald Trump out of office.
Saying pretty controversial and dangerous things about this pandemic,
suggesting that CDC numbers have been inflated, that less people have died as a result of this virus ...
It's in front of a crowd of mostly over 65 year olds,
not wearing masks ... Do you feel comfortable giving that sort of message
to people who are at risk? — Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
So you have to figure that this isn't what I said, it's the CDC that said it.
But they were all still killed by covid.
Well, we don't know that.
You're incorrect, I would disagree with you, we don't know that.
No, we do know that, that's the official number
and that is what Dr Fauci and every single other public health expert in this country have said.
I think he's a fraud, absolutely, and I'm not a fan.
I think this entire pandemic has been a setup.
180.000 people in this country have died, that is objective science that is confirmed by
objective experts who are trained in this over many years
of their career and you have told a crowd of over 65 year olds
that they are at less risk of this virus by peddling a conspiracy theory.
We can agree to disagree.
I've said what I've said already.
Nice to meet you!
This is terrifying.
This place is now a divided, troubled community.
And while democrats might hope that enough voters abandon the president,
the race in this vital swing state is getting closer by the day
and I haven't met many people changing their minds.
Donald Trump's presidency has become a lightning rod for misinformation on public health
that is now mainstream in conservative circles.
These days, even scientific facts have
been politicized and during my trip through Florida,
I felt more and more like people were living in two different worlds.