Trump documentary exposes family divisions over
Capitol attack
Alex Holder’s Unprecedented shows ex-president
perpetuating big lie about voter fraud – but his children are much less
forthcoming
David Smith
Washington bureau chief
@smithinamerica
Sun 10 Jul
2022 11.00 BST
A
documentary film scrutinised by the congressional January 6 committee exposes
divisions between the former US president Donald Trump and his children over
the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.
Released to
the public on Sunday, Unprecedented portrays Trump’s 2020 election campaign as
a family affair and features interviews with him and his inner circle before,
during and after the vote.
British
film-maker Alex Holder gives plenty of airtime to the ex-president and his
offspring lavishing praise on one another – material that is not likely to
interest the committee – but also asks their views on the fateful events of
January 6.
Trump
reverts to his lies about widespread voter fraud: “Well, it was a sad day but
it was a day where there was great anger in our country,” he says. “The people
went to Washington primarily because they were angry with an election that they
think was rigged.
“A very
small portion, as you know, went down to the Capitol and then a very small
portion of them went in. But I will tell you, they were angry from the
standpoint of what happened in the election and because they’re smart and they
see and they saw what happened. And I believe that was a big part of what
happened on January 6.”
But when
Holder then puts the same question to three of Trump’s children, they are less
forthcoming. His son Eric says: “Yeah, let’s skip the 6th.” Son Don Jr and
daughter Ivanka also decline to comment on the incendiary subject, as does
vice-president Mike Pence.
Ivanka’s
silence is perhaps the least surprising. The film recalls how, at a campaign
rally in Georgia on 4 January, Ivanka swerved past the election fraud conspiracy,
allowing Don Jr to seize the opportunity to outflank her and impress his
father. The January 6 committee has also heard Ivanka testify that she accepted
attorney general William Barr’s assessment that the election was free and fair.
Ivanka is
less forthright in Unprecedented when she carefully states: “As the president
has said, every single vote needs to be counted and needs to be heard. And he
campaigned for the voiceless.”
Author and
journalist Philip Rucker comments in the film: “She was very uncomfortable with
the president’s lie after the election but she would never utter anything
herself to establish that disagreement.”
Holder
recently testified to the House of Representatives panel investigating the
January 6 attack for around four hours behind closed doors about his
approximately 100 hours of footage. He turned over segments of the footage
demanded in a subpoena requiring his cooperation.
The
film-maker has also been subpoenaed to testify in a Georgia investigation into
whether Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the
state.
Holder
conducted three sit-down interviews with Trump, and the film is punctuated by
out-takes of the president expressing concern about camera angles, lighting and
objects spoiling the shot (“Can we get the orange out please? It’s very
orangey”). Trump is also seen proudly watching videos of his children on the
campaign trail.
The
interview with Pence – whom Trump pressured to overturn the election result,
even though he had no such power – took place on 12 January.
Pence is
seen reacting to an email which the documentary says is a congressional draft
resolution demanding that he invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution to
remove Trump from office. Pence’s office has insisted it was in fact
confirmation that his letter had been sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
rejecting her request to invoke the 25th amendment.
During the
interview, Pence says: “I’m always hopeful about America. I always believe that
America’s best days are yet to come. I still believe that.”
Earlier,
the vice-president recalls happier times when he and his family were invited to
Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to discuss becoming his running
mate in 2016. “I did play golf,” he says. “Not the way he does.”
By January
6 2021, Trump was assailing Pence via Twitter and, the House committee has
heard, raising no objection to the notion of his deputy being hanged by the
mob. The documentary features Trump saying: “I think I treat people well, unless
they don’t treat me well, in which case you go to war.”
It shows
the Trump clan inside a bubble where they speak at huge rallies, are told by
aides that the president is on course for re-election and come to think that
defeat is unthinkable. At one point Ivanka remarks: “I’ve been in four states
in the last two days and the energy and excitement for the president surpasses
that in 2016.”
Speaking to
the Guardian earlier this month, Holder said he went into the interviews with
Trump and his children with open-ended questions and a deferential approach to
avoid the exchanges coming off as confrontational.
At one
point Holder asks Ivanka: “What’s your first memory of your father?” She
replies: “He used to sing to me when I was little, and nobody knew this except
me and him until my mom caught him on the baby monitor, which I cannot imagine
him doing now.”
Holder then
asks Trump if he remembers that story. He replies: “I do, sure, I used to sing
to all my kids a little bit. When I say sing, not sing with any ideas for
myself to go to Carnegie Hall someday. Just, you know, I love my kids. I’ve
been, I think, a very good father. It’s been very important to me.”
In another
segment, Ivanka comments: “Well, arguably, nobody takes more incoming than the
president. I mean, most people would be under their desk in a fetal position
sucking their thumb crying. And most politicians don’t have the strength or the
conviction to withstand that pushback. This president does and I think our
whole family does.”
Her
husband, Jared Kushner, also speaks in glowing terms about his father-in-law.
But the
three-part documentary, streaming on Discovery+, also contains raw footage of
the Capitol attack recorded by Holder’s director of photography, Michael
Crommett, and multiple critical voices from academics, authors and journalists.
Princeton
University’s Eddie Glaude, a professor of African American studies, comments
about January 6: “If the kindling is just sitting there and no one throws the
match on it, it’s just going to sit there. Trump threw the match so he’s
responsible. All of the folks around him are responsible because they threw the
damn match.”
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