All language subtitles for Theodore.Roosevelt.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

- Sir, nice to meet you.

Ma'am how are you doing?

[gun fires]

[dramatic music]

- Vice president.

- What is it, papa?

- The president's been shot.

[dramatic music]

- [Kathleen] Everything
can change in a moment.

Theodore Roosevelt did
everything he could

to be ready for that moment.

- [Clay] Theodore Roosevelt
is born into privilege

and great wealth.

- [Brands] A very sickly child,

so he had to put up
his dukes and fight.

- Roosevelt saw himself as
the embodiment of America.

- [Doris] He was the exemplar
of the strenuous life.

- He suffers loss.
He suffers grief.

- [Susan] Here's a man
who had everything;

Education, wealth,
opportunities.

- But he felt all
of that must be used

to help the lives
of the unfortunate.

- [Khalil] Fairness, just
as equity is what drove him.

- He woke up every day of
his life saying, bring it on.

- [Douglas] He was the
first celebrity president.

- [Leroy] There were
thousands of people

yelling and screaming
like he's a rockstar.

- [Cecil] He grasped

the power of the
presidency with both hands.

- He had so much energy.
He's always on his feet.

- He gave an 84 minute address
bleeding from a chest wound.

- [Jared] He
becomes a folk hero.

- [Douglas] On the
side of the underdog.

- [Tweed] He was multifaceted.

- He was America as
a singular figure.

He wanted to change the country.

- He makes the United
States a global power.

- And he's propelling
America's best ideas.

- [Douglas] He dragged America,

kicking and screaming
into the 20th century.

- [Stacy] He was always moving
forward to change things,

to make his mark on the world.

[dramatic music]
[horses trotting]

[horse carriage rattling]

- It's been confirmed,

President McKinley died
this morning at 2:15 AM.

The tracks have been cleared,

the train will take you
wherever you wanna go.

- Direct this train to Buffalo.

I must pay my respects.

[dramatic music]

- Theodore Roosevelt
becomes, at 42 years old,

the youngest president of
the United States in history.

- Roosevelt could never have
walked in the front door

of The White House.

The Republicans never would
have nominated him for president

- One of McKinley's closest
advisers, Mark Hanna,

thinks T.R is an
absolute maniac.

- Something has to be done.

We cannot have this cowboy
running our country.

It was a mistake to push for
him to be vice president.

- [Man 1] That's better

than giving him another
term in New York.

- He will prove to be
a bigger embarrassment

than any of us could
ever have imagined.

- Gentlemen,

[suspenseful music]

I realize I'm not
your ideal choice

of successor, Senator Hanna.

But I need you to realize

that I do not undertake
this responsibility lightly.

- Good.

And I need you to realize,

that this administration will
remain loyal to McKinley.

We will not tolerate
any changes.

- The wounds are still fresh.

- Indeed they are.

- I should take
the oath at once.

I wanna say one thing.

In this hour, in our terrible
national bereavement,

I wish to state that it is
my aim to continue unbroken

the policies of
President McKinley,

for the peace,
prosperity, and the honor

of our beloved country.

[dramatic music]

- He said that he would

carry out the policies

of deceased President McKinley,

but he carried them out the way
people carry out the garbage

- Theodore Roosevelt
becomes President

on September 14th, 1901.

It's the first year
of a new century,

and there's tremendous
optimism all across the nation.

- Roosevelt becomes president

after 40 years of
unbelievable economic growth,

urban growth, population growth.

It's the number one industrial
economy in the world.

- This was the great
era of immigration.

1 million European immigrants

were arriving in the
United States every year.

- The United States goes from
a rather insular growing power

in the Western hemisphere

to now being a global power.

- There's a new
spirit in the land

and there's a new spirit
in the White House.

Then Roosevelt calls
it the White House.

It had been the Executive
Mansion before that,

but suddenly he named
it The White House

on a piece of stationary,

and The White House it became.

People in the country feel
there's life and energy

in this new youngest president.

[bright upbeat music]

- Go, go, go, go.

- Hey, papa.

- Good book?

- [Doris] You've now got

six boisterous kids
in the White House.

- Oh, look at this. Look at you.

- [Doris] Making lots of
noise, having lots of fun.

- Beautiful!

Mwah!

Mwah!

- [Doris] Roller
skating on the floors,

bringing ponies up on elevators,

putting snakes in the couches.

[Roosevelt grunts]

- Come on, come on.

- T.R was unlike people
of his generation,

he was very interested
in his children

and he allowed them
to come running in

in the middle of
whatever he was doing.

- [Doris] He had so much
energy. He's always on his feet.

He meets sometimes
hundreds of people a day.

- He set the world's record

for the number of hands
shaken on a single day

in the White House,
it was 8000 something.

- He reads a book a day.

I mean, even as a president,
he reads a book a day.

- It's part of the
golden age of journalism

that writers are taking on the
social problems of the day.

And he reads these
things like catnip,

and then the next
thing you know,

those people are
in the White House.

Then he has two hours every
afternoon where he's exercising.

It could be a wrestling
match, a boxing match,

a hike in Rock Creek Park.

- He was the first really
celebrity president

of the United States.

Newspapers couldn't get enough

of what his daughter
Alice was wearing,

or the pets that they were
keeping in the White House.

- His oldest daughter, Alice,

was a teenager in
the White House.

And she was a darling
of the people,

they called her Princess Alice.

[door closes]

- Alice, what are those?

[Alice scoffs]

- I'll wear what I want.

- Theodore, we need to do
something about your daughter.

- Edith, I can run the country,

or I can run my
daughter's affairs.

I cannot possibly do both.

Mwah!

- Mr. President.

- Hm-hmm.

- Senator Hanna is at 10:00,
not 11:00, and then Mr. Hay.

There's trouble with the
coal miners in Pennsylvania,

so Attorney General Knox has
been added into this afternoon.

You also have a meeting
with Booker T Washington.

- Make that dinner, with
Booker T. Washington.

- Yes, sir.

- When Roosevelt was president,

I think we have to remember

how profoundly racist
this country was.

There were black
codes, Jim Crow,

the fundamental suppression
of the black people

and the black vote,

and demonizing and belittling
of African-Americans

in every possible way.

There were still more than
140 lynchings per year

in the United States.

- One of the first
things he does,

which in hindsight
is quite remarkable,

is he invites the most
prominent African-American

at the time, Booker
T. Washington,

to have dinner with
him at the White House.

Roosevelt sees this as a moment

to put his own mark
on the race question,

by bucking the orthodoxies
of white political leaders,

both Republican and Democrat.

- Booker T Washington
had a very large network

of black Republicans
who could deliver votes,

and T.R had federal jobs he
could give to those people.

So let's make a deal.

Let's work together to keep
blacks in the Republican party

and to do what we can to treat
these people respectfully.

- Have you given more thought
to Tyrell's appointment?

- It won't be easy getting
a colored judge through.

- He'd be good for the city.

- Eh, you gotta
pick your battles.

- Well, now that I'm here,

there are a few men
we need to replace.

- You mean, Democrats.

- Can't you find anyone less
inclined to look the other way

when men are being lynched?

- You know my feelings
on the subject.

There's no excuse for it.

[dramatic music]

- They just burned a
man alive in Tennessee.

No one lifted a finger.

I have a list here;

Reasonable white Democrats,
moderate white Republicans.

I need more seats at the table,

and you're the only one
that could make that happen.

At least consider
my suggestions.

- I will.

Should we go in?

- Are you sure about this?

- Of course.

- The next day, the south
castigated Roosevelt

with very mean-spirited
political cartoons.

In the south, a black person

sitting down with a
white person at dinner,

that was unheard of.

- Roosevelt had
violated a key principle

of the racial etiquette of
white supremacy and Jim Crow.

And the blow back
was just tremendous.

Senator Ben Tillman of Georgia

said, "Roosevelt has
weakened white supremacy

and we're gonna have to
lynch 1000 black people

in order to re-establish it."

- [Theodore] "As
things have turned out,

I'm very glad that I asked him.

For the clamor
aroused by the act

makes me feel as if
the act was necessary."

- Now Roosevelt said, ah, I'll
invite Booker T. Washington

anytime I want to.

Well, he never
invited him again.

Roosevelt understood
he would get reelected

by making sure whites know

that he knew what
the hierarchy was.

- We can't let him off the hook

for simply saying that he
didn't want to sacrifice

the party's ability
to get support from

whites in the south.

This was a tricky balancing act,

that many white
people north and south

did not want more in the way
of addressing race inequality,

but wanted more from
the Republican party

in the way of addressing
class inequalities.

- There were tremendous
class divisions

in society at the time.

And there was serious
discontent that people felt

as a result of
getting left behind.

- And this was a
time when business

got beyond the
control of government,

and Roosevelt thought that
needed to be rectified.

So he said, if
business is up here

and government is down here,

let's make government bigger

so it can basically duke
it out with business

on its own level.

- So just two months after
Roosevelt took office,

JP Morgan announces the
creation of a railroad trust

called Northern Securities.

It was a combination

of three railroad
lines in the Northwest

that covered an incredibly
important part of the country.

- So trust is a monopoly
that can dictate terms,

that can dictate prices,

and Roosevelt felt they
weren't being fair.

- Mr. Morgan, I was
not expecting you.

- Well, you are suing me.

- To be clear, sir, I am
not personally suing you.

It's the United
States government.

- If there was something
you didn't like

about my railroad
deal, Roosevelt,

you should have sent
your men to see my men,

and that's how it's done.

- Well, that would
be preferential

treatment, wouldn't it?

- You forget I was a
friend of your father's.

- My father taught
me everything I know,

including that every
man, woman and child

deserves a fair shake.

- Do you intend going after
my steel company next?

- Things have
gotten out of hand,

law is here to
restore a balance.

I'm merely enforcing the law.

- Spare me the lecture.

All I know is you're making
my life a lot harder.

- Mr. Morgan, you're gonna
have to play by the rules.

- The case makes its
way to the Supreme Court

and Roosevelt wins.

It is the first
time that a company

as prominent as
Northern Securities,

a person as privileged
as Morgan, has been

held to account.

It was really the first time

that people felt like
the president would

not automatically

take the side of business, of
the capitalists, of the rich.

- But still tensions
are very high.

It was so clear to
working class people

that they were not sharing in
the vast wealth being made.

So they started to take action.

- There was a sense that workers
should be treated fairly.

Unions had been
growing in power.

And in the first year of
Roosevelt's presidency,

almost 150,000 coal
miners go on strike.

- The nation in
1902 runs on coal,

and so if coal suddenly
becomes unavailable,

the economy comes
screeching to a halt

and in wintertime
people literally suffer.

And so when they do go on
strike in the spring of 1902,

the owners won't even meet
with the union representatives.

So there's a real standoff.

And as winter looms
into the fall,

Roosevelt realizes he has
to tackle these problems.

It's a different world,

and we need to make very
significant adjustments

to that new world,

or our democracy is
gonna go over a cliff.

- Let him pass.

- In the summer of 1902,

almost 150,000 coal
miners go on strike.

And they're being
met with silence

from the owners
of the coal mines.

- In 1902, the coal industry
was the biggest industry

fueling the economy of America.

The owners of the mines
became rich beyond belief,

but coal miners were
living in poverty.

There were no laws to
protect against child labor,

they were getting
sick from black lung,

being killed in
astronomical numbers.

So many miners wanted to change

what was going on
in these mines.

- While Roosevelt is
trying to decide what to do

about the coal strike.

He goes on a speaking
tour in Massachusetts

to campaign for his
fellow Republicans.

- In September of 1902,

as he's driving through
Pittsfield, Massachusetts,

a trolley tumbles into his
horse drawn carriage full speed.

T.R is flown about 30
to 40 feet in the air

and lands face
down on the ground.

Everybody who's watching this
assumes the president is dead.

- One of his secret
service men is killed.

Roosevelt's bruised,
his glasses are broken

and his leg is
very badly damaged.

He has serious surgery.

- While he's sitting there

recovering from the
carriage accident,

the need for some sort of a
solution to the coal strike

is becoming really urgent.

The weather is beginning to
get cold and there's no coal

that's been stored up for homes.

Hospitals and schools
are closing down,

there are riots in the streets
commandeering coal carts.

There's real panic in the air,

but there was no precedent for
a president getting involved

in a strike of this magnitude,

no constitutional
right to do so.

He was told by his advisors,

if you get involved and you
fail as you are likely to fail,

then the responsibility
will be yours.

But he could not sit
on the sidelines.

- Roosevelt has to do something,

and so he decides
in early October

to do what no president
has done before,

which is to say, look

rational people can
come to rational agreements.

So I'm gonna bring in

the union representatives
to the White House

and the coal mine owners
to the White House,

and we're gonna hash it out.

- In that room, you
have John Mitchell,

president of the United Mine
Workers speaking for the union.

Mitchell started working
in the mines himself

at around 10 years old.

Then you have George
Baer, President of

the Reading Railroad
speaking for the industry.

Baer actually said that
God had appointed him

and people like him

to determine the
destination of our country,

and unions were unnecessary.

- [Susan] When Roosevelt
started the meeting,

he said, "Is it all right

if I have a stenographer
take notes?"

And they all said, yes.

- Well, the way I see it,

there are three main
parties involved;

The operators, the
miners, and the public,

and I'm on the
side of the public.

So let's come to an agreement
for the sake of the country.

- Sir, the union would abide
by a presidential commission

to decide what's fair.

We wanna work.

- No commission is needed
to get these mines running.

We've got 20,000 honest workers

glad to work for what we pay,

but they're intimidated
by him and his lies.

- Our union only
wants fair wages

and fair hours, nothing more.

- If you want the mines to run,

you must arrest those
that are responsible

for the intimidation and murder.

- My men have been
pushed to their limits

and they've made some mistakes,
but they're not murderers.

- Let them rot in prison
where they belong.

- It's your company police
who start the trouble.

- We'll not listen to your lies.

- Gentlemen!

- Mr. President, I've
told you my position.

It's up to them.

- We will never
accept a proposal

with the union at the table.

- Never, you must!

- We will not let our
business be dictated by a mob.

I would've thought a
man of your breeding

would have known that.

You've wasted our time.

[door closes]

- Time is running
out, Mr. President,

and I tried to do
the right thing.

- Well, now I know
what we're up against.

Did you get all that?

Good.

- The meeting ends
in terrible failure,

and Roosevelt's
very disappointed.

However, he reads the notes

and he realized that the
attitude of the coal barons

was obstinate and the
attitude of the union guy

was willing to come forth
to some sort of solution,

that if he made it public,

then there'd be a
demand for action.

So he sends the transcript

to the government
printing office,

turning the stenos
notes into a pamphlet,

which is then ready by midnight

to give to the press
the next morning

so that it can be in
all their newspapers.

And it changes the public mood.

Now they felt much more
sympathy for the strikers,

they felt angry at the arrogance

on the part of the
coal operators.

- Coal and iron police private
guards came to the scene

and there was essentially
a kind of a melee

of rock and stone
throwing, shots fired.

[dramatic music]

[men laughing]

[dramatic music]

- Dirty scabs!

[men clamoring]

[guns firing]

[gunshot fires]

- A guard shot another striker
in Shenandoah last night,

killed him.

America needs its coal.

- We've received letters from
100 mayors, they need help.

- We've gotta end the strike.

- Yes, but how do we do that?

- Well, I've spoken to
many mine owners myself,

they suggest military action.

- Military action?

- Yeah, you order the army
to disband the strikers,

and then you get the non-union
miners who wanna work in,

the union will fold.

Call in the army.

- Can we do that?

- Yes, bring in the army.

But, but not to
disband the strikers.

If the owners won't negotiate

then we'll just use the army

to take control and run
the mines ourselves,

that'll bring back to the table.

- That's not what I meant.

- And I'm not sure that's legal.

We can't simply interfere with
private property like that.

- I have been reading
John's biography of Lincoln.

Now there were times
where he suspended the law

to get results, right?

- But Mr. President, those
were different times,

we can't just-
- We were at war.

- So are we.

[dramatic music]

- Lincoln really
was for T.R, a hero.

And in the biggest crisis
of his own presidency,

the coal strike,

Roosevelt's somehow
managed to read

this multi-volume work
by Nicolay and Hay

on Abraham Lincoln.

And he took solace
from the notion

that there were times when
Lincoln had to break precedent,

where he had to act without
the law being on his side.

And it was necessary

because he had to be a
steward of the people.

And so Roosevelt decides

I'm gonna send troops in
to take over the mines

and operate them on
behalf of the people.

I think he could say to
himself, "Lincoln would do this,

if he needed to."

- Lincoln, did what it
took to save the union,

including at times
strain the constitution

to a breaking point.

That was Roosevelt's philosophy.

It's important to
have a constitution,

but he always said
the constitution

is not as important
as the people.

A lot of his negotiations
involve a thread

that's either implied
or specifically stated.

And in this case, he
specifically stated it.

He said, if you all don't agree,

well then maybe the
federal government

is gonna have to
nationalize the mines

and force the workers
back as federal employees.

- But before he put
those plans in motion,

he knew he had one other option.

And that was to turn to
John Pierpont Morgan,

the man who he was
fighting in the courts,

but also the only man
really who had any influence

over the coal mine owners.

- In Pennsylvania, the Reading
Railroad owned the mines,

and guess who owned
the Reading Railroad?

JP Morgan.

So he had the authority
to help settle the strike.

- Morgan was starting
to understand

that there could be unrest,
that there could be disorder,

that there could be chaos,

and that that would
be bad for business

and bad for the country.

So Roosevelt sent
Elihu Root to New York,

and onboard Morgan's yacht
they drafted an agreement

that created an
independent commission

to mediate a settlement
to the strike.

- The owners agreed to it.
The union agrees to it.

They come to a settlement
that settles both sides

and the coal strike
comes to an end.

The hospitals open again,
the schools are open,

people have warmth for the
winter and the country loves it.

They love the idea that their
president has intervened

on behalf of the
people, and he's a hero.

In 1903, building on his
success in the coal strike,

he decides to take
on big business again

and create a government
agency that will have powers

to look into the books
of private industry

so that he will understand
if there are corporations

that are not playing by
the rules of the game,

that are violating antitrust.

This is a big deal.

- Theodore Roosevelt
always maintained

that they were good
businesses and bad businesses,

who used terrible
anti-competitive tactics.

John D Rockefeller
was one of the worst,

most ruthless businessmen.

His company Standard Oil
had accrued an empire

by literally burning
the competitors down

or by buying them out,
or running them out.

- [Theodore] "I am amused
at the shortsighted folly

of the very wealthy men.

And I am deeply
concerned to find out

how large a proportion of them

stand for what is fundamentally
corrupt and dishonest."

- Roosevelt's a fighter.
He's always a fighter.

Now the fight is escalating.

He had taken on
J.P Morgan earlier,

now he's taking on
J.D Rockefeller,

perhaps the biggest
character in this battle,

the Goliath to David.

- One of the reasons

why Roosevelt says these
powerful people are dangerous,

is they are meddling
in politics.

They have the power and the
money to buy state legislators,

to buy senators.

And so Roosevelt
at a certain point,

learns that John D. Rockefeller
is allegedly doing just that

he's using his
power and his wealth

to influence
members of Congress.

Roosevelt tries to expose
Rockefeller's shenanigans

in order to illustrate

that this is the
undemocratic activities

that unchecked big
business is capable of.

- As Congress was
discussing the bill

Roosevelt was getting
pretty frustrated.

But Roosevelt was masterful
when it came to the press.

He was friends with
lots of journalists

and he would invite a
few selected reporters

in for a kind of
strange ritual he had,

to talk while he
was being shaved.

- Reporters are outside. They
want a response to Rockefeller.

- So do I.

Of course, I can't
get my bill passed.

Rockefeller's so rich,

he can pay senators
off with spare change.

- If only you could
prove it, sir.

- Maybe I don't
have to prove it,

just get people to believe it.

Bring them in,

let's see if Rockefeller's
up for a fight.

[door opens]
[horse neighs]

- Mr. President.

- Gentlemen.

- It looks like Rockefeller
has gotten you bottled up,

you're gonna give up

in that bureau of
corporations legislation?

- Since you can't the votes.

- I might have to,

it's easy for Rockefeller to
win when he cheats the system.

- Cheats the system? How?

- Americans in the
late 19th century

grow increasingly worried about
the power of big business.

People like John D. Rockefeller,
J.P Morgan, Andrew Carnegie

and many of these
other industrialists.

Critics called
them robber barons.

They're seen as really
dangerous people

because of the power
that they possess.

And so when Roosevelt
comes to office,

he's aware of this
growing concern

and he decides to do
something about it.

- In 1903, Roosevelt has
a bill before the Congress

to create a bureau
of corporations,

which will have the power
to regulate big business.

He wasn't against big business.

He was simply
against big business

if it didn't play by
the rules of the game.

But there's a huge outcry
on the part of business.

The corporations start
sending telegrams

to the Republican senators;

"Kill this bill. You
must do that, you owe us.

You are our party."

So Roosevelt uses Rockefeller
as the symbol of big business.

- Well, I've heard
that Rockefeller

has been telegramming
certain senators

telling them that he owns
the Republican Party,

and demanding that they
kill my legislation.

- So you think these
senators are gonna cave in

because Rockefeller is
twisting their arms?

- Well, you know, when they
call the roll at Senate,

certain senators don't know

whether to answer
present or not guilty.

[all laugh]

- So which senators
did he lean on?

- How many? Is he bribing them?

- What are you
gonna do to stop it?

- Oh, what can I possibly do,

Rockefeller is a
very powerful man.

[dramatic music]

- There's a story here.

- Do you really think there is?

- This could end up
on the front page,

but I need some details.

- Oh, well, I guess I
could give you a few names.

You didn't hear
it from me though.

[dramatic music]

- So the story comes out and
then no self-respecting Senator

is able to vote
against that bill

fearing that they're gonna look
like they're just slavishly

under the control
J.D Rockefeller,

so they vote for the
bill and it passes.

- Roosevelt has this vision

that government needs to
act as a regulatory agent,

as an agent that will
make sure that businesses

do what businesses
are supposed to do.

- Roosevelt's understands
that he has to educate

and shape public opinion.

He uses the bully
pulpit, which he names.

He's the first one to
call it the bully pulpit.

You know, and bully
doesn't mean bully, mean,

it means wonderful,
splendid, a great platform

that the president has.

- Roosevelt used it
to get his message out

that the presidency and
the federal government

is about ensuring that
people have a fair shot.

- The sea change in the idea

that yes, the federal
government is responsible

for the individual
American citizen,

that is a vast change from
only a few years before.

And he changed American
foreign policy as well.

- Roosevelt felt Britain,
France, the United States,

the great powers of the world,

should divide up taking
care of the world.

And for America,
having a passageway

from the Atlantic ocean
to the Pacific ocean

was of paramount importance.

- The Panama canal was a
priority for Theodore Roosevelt

for military reasons.

Secondly, it would be incredible
for American commerce.

You wouldn't have to
go all the way around,

it was a shortcut.

- Just travel between

the Eastern coast

and the Western coast

of the United States

would be cut by 8000 miles

Literally cutting a
month off a travel time,

had major national security
implications for a young nation

that's just stepped on the
scene as a world power.

Now the French had tried
to dig up Panama canal

from 1881 to 1889, and
it's an abject failure.

So it sits there,

just a ruined shell of
what could have been.

For Theodore Roosevelt
this is an opportunity.

- Panama at the time was
not an independent country,

Panama was part of Colombia.

The Panamanians
had risen in revolt

every few years against
Colombian dominance.

So to build a canal,

you had to conclude the
treaty with Colombia.

But Colombia understood

that this was its greatest
asset in the world,

how much is the United States
willing to pay for this?

So Colombia
rejects the treaty,

Roosevelt goes ballistic.

They are highway men,
they are bandits.

- So he has a meeting
with the French ambassador

to the United States,
Jules Jusserand,

and Philippe Bunau-Varilla,

the kind of lobbyists for
the French Canal company.

He often took diplomats and
others to Rock Creek Park

to get some strenuous adventure.

And he took these
stuffy French diplomats

to see if they could find
a way to build the canal.

- I understand your thoughts
about canal zone rights.

- Why don't we get Colombia
out of the equation altogether?

- How?

- A revolution is
coming to Panama.

- There's always a
revolution coming to Panama.

- This time it's different.

It could be the
opportunity you need.

- I wish to make it clear
that the United States

does not meddle in the
affairs of sovereign nations.

- Of course not.

I'm simply letting you know

that a new independent
nation of Panama,

- In need of cash,

- Would be much more open
to negotiations for a canal,

than a corrupt
nation like Colombia.

- Well, obviously I need to
send my own men down there

to confirm what you're saying.

- Of course.

- Theodore, what do you think?

- I think it is a
fine day for a swim.

[dramatic music]

[bright upbeat music]

- Roosevelt's interest in
the Panama canal is twofold.

One is, it's a
monumental undertaking.

20 years earlier, the French
had tried to build the canal

and had failed,

but for Roosevelt and his
sense of American destiny,

said, we have to
build the canal.

And this also fit into
his geopolitical vision,

which is that his
presidency would be the one

that would announce to
the world and make it real

that America was not
just an Atlantic power,

it is both an Atlantic
and now a Pacific power.

- Roosevelt wants
to get this done

with one eye on
the 1904 election.

Panamanians had risen in
revolt every few years

against Colombian dominance.

Now a plan is hatched

that Panama will once again
declare its independence,

will rise up and revolt
against Bogota in Colombia,

the USS Nashville will
be sent down to prevent

any Colombian troops from
interfering in the uprising.

The Panamanians declare
their independence,

about one hour
after that's done,

the United States
recognizes Panama

as an independent Republic.

- And then they turned
around and signed a deal,

granting the United
States control

of this Panama canal zone,
and construction got underway.

And one of the Theodore
Roosevelt's proudest moments,

and one of the greatest
pictures that he loves,

is he's sitting in this
white linen tropical suit,

but at the controls of
one of the steam shovels

digging the canal.

Now, in fact it took 11 years
until the canal was opened,

and Roosevelt was long out
of the White House by then,

but he still
considered it his baby.

- The building of
the Panama canal

is one of the most
extraordinary, technological,

and engineering achievements
of the early 20th century.

It touts some of the
great innovations

of the industrial revolution,

and he really chose to make
this a pillar and anchor

of his foreign policy,

to have the US be
the sole country

to assert influence in
the Western hemisphere.

The canal is absolutely
integral to that.

- It is the fulfillment
of the United States

becoming a global power.

Theodore Roosevelt builds it

and then ensures that it's
under United States control,

knowing that he has a
world-class Navy to enforce it.

Diplomacy is made possible

because you are
strong and powerful.

Speak softly and
carry a big stick,

this is Theodore
Roosevelt's foreign policy.

And if we look at how
world events play out

for the next century,

the Panama canal is still
a key piece of terrain,

of global terrain, and
he makes that happen.

It's an amazing meetup
of man and moment.

Roosevelt has a very
different vision

of what the president should
do, what the president can do.

And that's really gonna
mark his presidency.

[train chuffing]

- So before the 1904 election,

Roosevelt wants to take the
pulse of the American people,

not simply to produce
a majority for him,

but to help him knit
the country together.

And what that meant

was that he wanted to
listen to their concerns.

And how does he do that?

He takes a nine week
transcontinental train trip.

- He goes on the most ambitious

presidential tour in
history up to that time.

He went 14,000
miles to 26 states.

He gave hundreds of speeches.

He had a seven
car special train,

it was kind of like the Air
Force One on railroad wheels.

- And everywhere he stops,

he listens to the
local reporters,

to the local officials.

What's bothering
you? What can I do?

What should we do differently?

And then he also
wants to talk to them.

This is where he's
using the bully pulpit

to give the same message
every stop along the way.

These train trips were his
way to bring people together

on the basis of
fundamental fairness

for the rich and the poor,

for the capitalist and the
wage worker, the square deal.

- We should treat each man on
his worth and merits as a man.

And we should see that
each is given a square deal

because he is
entitled to know more,

and because he deserves no less.

The working men should
be treated as partners

by the large corporations,

and they should come together.

- [Hull] Socialist!

- They should come together

to make this country
a good place to live!

- [Hull] You'll destroy us!

- Who said that?

Show yourself!

- I said it.

- Why?

- Business buys our produce.

- Tell me your name.

- Hal Peters.

- Hello, Hal Peters.

What do you grow?

- Corn mostly.

- Corn, bully! Heart of America.

Let me ask you, Hal.

How much does a bushel
of corn costs these days?

- About $0.79.

- $0.79. How much does a
railroad take to ship your corn?

- $0.60 a bush.

- Well, that leaves
just $0.19 for you.

That's not much.

Where do you think the
rest is going, Hal?

All right, let me
put it another way.

Your wife-

- I'm not married!

- Well, get married!

[crowd laughs]

- All right, all right.

Your mother bakes a pie

and you sell it at the
county fair for $0.10,

you pocket $0.09, and you
give a $0.01 to your mother.

- It's not fair. She's
the one who baked the pie.

- And there you have it.

You're giving your hard earned
profits to the railroad.

I mean, these folks
at the railroad

they're not smarter than you,

they're not more
talented than you.

They're just greedier than you.

[pensive music]

And I'm gonna do
something about it,

I'm gonna get justice
for the working man.

All I'm asking is a
square deal for every man!

- Yes!
[all clapping]

[dramatic music]

- Thousands of people
yelling and screaming

like he's a rockstar.

The actual notion
of the president

as a steward of the
American people,

that was new then.

When Roosevelt's talked
about his square deal,

he meant this;

The government will ensure

that the cards you're
dealt are fair.

It's up to you to play them
to the best of your ability.

[bright upbeat music]

- [Jared] When T.R wins
his victory in 1904,

it's not just a victory.

It's a decisive victory.

- He won the largest
popular majority

in American history till then.

He is absolutely elated

because he can now say I won
the mandate of the people,

a great endorsement
of my first term,

and now I'm really president
of the United States.

[glass clinking]

- To President Roosevelt,
he swept the country.

Four more years.

[all clap]

- And I need you to
keep me out of trouble.

- No doubt.

- Congratulations, Mr.
President. How do you feel, sir?

- I got something for you.

People have placed
their trust in me,

so I'm gonna put everything I
got into the next four years.

But after that,

well, I'll take a page out
of George Washington's book,

I'm not running
for a third term.

- [Journalist]
Can we print that?

- Absolutely.

- Theodore, are you
sure about this?

Think about it, please.

- I'm no king.

- He just blurts it out,

he's not gonna seek
reelection in 1908.

People can't believe he said it.

Reporters can't
believe he said it.

Edith can't believe he said it.

Republicans can't
believe he said it.

- It was an impulsive gesture

on the night that
he won the election.

He made a mistake, perhaps
the biggest of his career.

Boy, did he come to regret it.

[workers cough]

- Roosevelt came
to the presidency

at a time when corporations

operated with no
apparent concern

for the health and safety
of the American people.

There's a big expose in
the early 20th century,

the book is called, "The
Jungle", by Upton Sinclair,

an investigative journalist.

And exposes the horrors
of the meat industry,

the exploitation of workers,

but also the horrible product.

The dangerous poisonous product

that meat packers are
selling to the public,

and untold, thousands of
Americans are dying of diseases

brought about by
this poisonous meat.

- Roosevelt reads the book,

so he has Sinclair
come to see him.

- "The Jungle" was
a work of fiction,

but Sinclair had
lived in Chicago.

He had essentially
gone undercover

in the meat packing plants.

- Sinclair describes
in the book,

how they take scraps
of diseased meat,

meat that's been on the floor,
that's been eaten by rats,

and put it into the vat.

But he doesn't
know whether or not

Sinclair may have been
exaggerating the facts.

So what he does is to launch
his own investigation.

- You men will be
my eyes and ears.

- But it's a book, the guy,
Sinclair, probably made it up.

- Ah, sure it's fiction.

Sinclair has an axe to grind.

- All writers do.

- But there's always
truth in fiction.

When I was in Cuba, I
saw what bad canned beef

could to a person.

- But it's meat,

shouldn't this go to the
department of agriculture?

- Have either of
you men ever been

to one of these meat
processing factories?

- No.
- No.

- Good, then you're the
right men for the job.

You're independent, you'll
command complete autonomy.

- If they know we're coming
they'll clean things up.

- Right, so you
go in unannounced.

Your job is to go where
they don't want you to go.

- See what they
don't want us to see.

- I need facts.

Facts I can make change.

Don't let me down now.

- No, sir.
- We won't, sir.

[dramatic music]

- What are you doing here?

And who the hell let you in?

- I'm inspecting this plant.

- Nobody said you was coming.

- The investigators
go out to the plants

and he finds out the
conditions are even worse

than what Sinclair had posited.

Roosevelt then has a
bill before the Congress

to force the meat packing
plants to clean up their act

and to label their food.

And they of course
respond obstinately.

- Well, gentlemen, I
believe it is our duty

to see that the pure food
and meat inspection bills

are passed at once.

- Mr. President, these bills
would ruin the food industry.

- Oh, I'm sure you have your
reasons for thinking that.

[Roosevelt chuckles]

Won't we begin?

[plates clinking]

- I'm with Aldrich,

having to inspect and date meat

which is being shipped
across state lines,

that'd be too time
consuming, expensive.

- Well, you know, I
sent investigators

to observe meat
packing practices.

Now, Senator Aldrich,

I wonder if you
would do us the honor

of reading an excerpt
from the report.

- Certainly.

- Just the underlined
section, there.

- "We saw meat shoveled from
the filthy wooden floors

piled on tables barely washed,

pushed from room to room
in rotten box carts.

In all of which process
it was gathering dirt,

splinters, floor filth,

and the expectoration
is tuberculosis

from diseased workers.

- [Cecil] He publishes a
small part of this report,

and finally that's enough.

And he gets this
meatpacking bill.

- And for the first time,

the government begins to inspect

what comes out of these
food processing plants.

He believed that the only agency

that could stand up for the
interest, for the safety,

for the health of
the American people

was the national government.

- [Cecil] What's
really happening here

is that Roosevelt is
creating a new relationship

between government
and the people.

He as President, is
steward of the people.

He represents the
public interests.

- But Roosevelt has a
real problem on his hands

because the only way that
he can be the president

of the little person and
protecting a square deal

on the basis of class
and economic inequality

was to somehow figure out
how to deal with racism.

Many historians see Roosevelt
as not only deeply conflicted

about how to make sense
of black people's role

in American society,

but profoundly contradictory

in his commitment to fairness
and justice for them.

- Roosevelt's legacy
on race is quite mixed.

On the one hand he
does symbolic things

like invite Booker T. Washington
to dine in the White House,

he appoints a lot
of African-Americans

to low level positions
throughout the

federal government,

which were actually
very significant

relative to his predecessors.

On the other hand, there are
other things that offset that;

Like the Brownsville
incident in 1906.

- In 19O6, the 25th
infantry of black soldiers

was stationed in
Brownsville, Texas.

And this was a source of
enormous racial tension

in the community.

There was kind of a riot and
one white person was wounded,

another one killed.

- There was a report
that those black soldiers

may have shot up the town.

But the evidence
that was gathered

showed that that's
probably not what happened.

- The black soldiers
said, we did not do it,

we were in our barracks,
we were where we should be.

This is a segregated military,

so they're under white officers.

The white officers said, "Yes,

all of our black soldiers
were in their beds,

in their barracks, when
that shooting took place.

They were not
responsible for it."

And Roosevelt
doesn't believe them.

And so after a short
period of time,

Roosevelt summarily discharges

all 167 of these black soldiers.

- Roosevelt started
his investigation

by believing that the
soldiers were guilty,

he ended his investigation

by believing that the
soldiers were guilty.

He did not take into account
the fact finding mission.

It was a case of
Theodore Roosevelt

having a very closed
mind about this.

- [Susan] The black press said,
"This is a terrible betrayal

from somebody we
thought was our friend."

- It shows that the
system of justice

isn't gonna work for blacks.

And so a lot of black leaders
said, "Enough with you.

I'd rather give up
being a Republican."

- He wants equity,

but he also understands
somebody has to be on top,

and that's whites.

For African-Americans, he
defended some of their rights

but he didn't do
anything to expand them.

- He talked about
making the country

a good place for everybody,

but his notion of
who everybody is

was obviously very limited.

- At the same time,

all kinds of other
things are percolating;

Middle-class voters in
particular want reform,

and they want the government
to do things for them.

- [Doris] Toward the
end of his second term,

he's thinking about the future.

So he's got a sense of
urgency to get things done

before he leaves the presidency.

- In his second term,

he wanted to create millions
of acres of forest reserves.

- This is a president

that will say natural
resource management

is the number one
job of any president.

He is the only
politician of that era

that saw the world as one
pulsing biological organism.

And he was able now to see,

wow, this is the big
issue of our time.

- [Theodore] Conservation
of natural resources

is the fundamental problem.

Unless we solve that problem,

it will avail us little
to solve all others.

- Roosevelt was able
to explain to people

that if you allow
unregulated strip mining,

or you allow loggers
to just dynamite trees

so that they can get to
better trees in the interior.

If you allow that you are
risking the future of America.

- Congress is filled with people

that have no problem
with private interests

in big business

carving up forests and strip
mining mountains and so forth.

And so he begins to look
around and ask his advisors,

what power do I have?

What authority do I have
to save the wilderness?

- T.R realized he
had executive power

to do all kinds of things

that he didn't need
congressional approval.

And he was one of
the first presidents

to use the executive
power in imaginative ways.

- It is such a wonderful idea

to want to save
these natural spaces.

And Teddy Roosevelt,
I think did more

than any other president
to make that happen.

He used his executive
power in extraordinary ways

to save more than
230 million acres

of American land
in different forms.

But the great irony of that
is that in order to do that

Roosevelt and other
presidents took that land away

from indigenous peoples,
its rightful owners

who had been responsible
stewards of the land

for thousands of years.

- Toward the end of his second
term, because he had said,

"I'm not going to run
for a third term."

Roosevelt started thinking,
I need a successor,

someone who can carry on
the Roosevelt tradition.

[knocking on door]

- Come in!

- You wanted to see me.

- Taft.

[Roosevelt grunts]

- I can come back.

- No, it's fine. Stay.

William, you're my
most trusted advisor.

- I appreciate the confidence.

- And that's why you're gonna
be the Republican nominee

for president in 08.

[dramatic music]

- Theodore, you
should just run again.

I'm much more
suited to the bench.

I'm not a fighter like you.

- Nonsense, you're a lawyer.
Lawyers are trained to fight.

- I'm not the right
man and you know it.

- All you have to do
is follow my advice.

Do what I do.

Now, look at all the progress

I made for this
country with your help.

Now you'll be doing
it with my help.

- All right, Theodore. I'll run.

- Now, first of all never
let them see you play golf.

It's a dudes game.

[dramatic music]

- Roosevelt
absolutely loves Taft.

He thinks Taft is
a wonderful person.

They have a very
close relationship.

- T.R handed Taft this
nomination in 1908,

thinking, oh, this is mini-me,

I'm gonna set him up for
continuing my policy.

Well, that was a
mistake. A big mistake.

- Part of this was
Roosevelt fooling himself

and thinking that he
was more persuasive

than he actually was.

Part of it was Taft
being cannily silent

and letting Roosevelt project
on him Roosevelt's own ideas.

And because this was an era
of Republican dominance,

whoever got the Republican
nomination was gonna win.

So in 1908, Taft won.

- When Roosevelt
leaves office in 1909,

he's riding high and wherever
he goes, he draws a crowd.

But this is another one of
these moments of despair.

Like when his father died,
when his wife and mother died,

he's kind of crushed
by this new reality.

He's only 50 years old.

What is he gonna do with
the rest of his life?

He's closed off the opportunity
to run for another term.

- Once again, when
there's a feeling of loss

in this case, the loss of the
presidency that he had loved,

he has to do something
with great forward motion

that will engulf him and take
up every hour of every day

so he won't think about
the loss that he sustained.

So he travels to these
unexplored regions in Africa.

- His trip to Africa was so
celebrated around the world.

Everybody was following him,

magazines were seeing
everything that he did,

photographs were coming out.

It was a big deal.

And he got to then go to Europe

and give big speeches
and get honorary degrees,

and it was a way of making
himself a global president.

- Roosevelt comes
back in June of 1910,

and it's like when the
astronauts came back.

There were ticker-tape parades,

there was more confetti than
had ever been seen before.

Whole sets of battleships
were in the harbor.

- They're hanging teddy
bears on the windows

and there's banners,

and they're all there
waiting for him to be home.

It's really hard for him
to damp down that desire

that I should never
have left public life.

It's what I'm meant for,
it's what I was born for,

it's what I wanna be.

- He came back to
the United States

and didn't like the fact
that he really had no power.

So celebrity ex-president,
and Taft seemed to be ignoring

some of his
preferences in policy.

- A strong case can be
made that Taft had not done

what Taft had promised
that he would do.

Roosevelt truly believed

that Taft had
disappointed progressives,

and further, had disappointed
the American people

as a president.

- [Theodore] I
finally had to admit

that he had gone wrong
on certain points.

And I then also had
to admit to myself,

that deep down I had all
along known he was wrong.

- Taft invites him to spend
the weekend in the White House,

and Teddy rejects
that invitation.

It's really hurtful to Taft,

and the beginning
of Taft realizing

that something's happening
between the two men.

And then more and more
progressives go to Teddy,

they go out to Sagamore Hill

to tell him you've got
to get into this fight.

We need you in this fight
because we're losing this fight.

- So he gives the
speaking tour in 1910

during an off year election,

and he goes all
over the country.

And one of the speeches he
gave was at Osawatomie Kansas,

and the crowd is so gigantic

that they bring
out a wooden table

and T.R steps up onto the table

and gives this new
nationalism speech,

which is widely regarded
as the most radical speech

by a major player
in American history.

He's actually becoming
to a certain extent,

a radical progressive
at this point,

he's really moving, what
we would call to the left.

The eight hour workday,
workman's compensation,

old age insurance,
health insurance,

or health access for
all, child labor laws,

in some ways suffrage for women.

But he had developed this
really strong package of reforms

that pushed beyond anything
that he had done before.

- The nation is moving forward

in a more progressive direction.

T.R is leading that charge and
keeping up with that charge,

Taft is not.

So the nation is more with
T.R in terms of its feelings

than it is with Taft
at this moment in time.

And then he goes to Washington

and he decides to go
to the White House,

even though he had refused to go

when he was invited by Taft,

knowing that Taft
is out of town.

- [Man 2] They're calling
it the oval office, sir.

- Oval office.

- [Man 2] Just finished.

- What happened to tennis court?

- [Man 2] You're standing on it.

- Oh.

- Everyone misses you
and Mrs. Roosevelt.

- Thank you. The
feeling is mutual.

- [Man 2] Thank you, sir.

[pensive music]

- T.R is thinking, what
do I do with myself?

The Osawatomie speech,
the new nationalism,

is really a call to
political change.

It's saying we need reform,

we need to look forward

and have a new sense
of national purpose.

Taft's not dealing with
the big issues at all.

So people knew what to
read in that speech.

It was maybe he's
feeling his oats again,

and maybe T.R is back.

[door opens]

- Oh, you're back. Did you
get that out of your system?

- He's wrecking everything
I've worked for.

[door opens]

What's all that?

- There are three more
bags at the station.

- From Texas.

- You're going to run
again, aren't you?

You promised me a
quiet life from now on.

- Edith, I can't very
well tell the public

not to write me letters.

People need me.

- They need you, that may be,

but I think you need them more.

If you must jump back
in, jump with both feet.

[dramatic music]

- So as Roosevelt is
touring the country,

drumming up support in 1910,

he is constantly thinking about
why did he cut himself off

from the presidency?

And could he find his way back?

He grows increasingly angry

and frustrated with his
successor, William Howard Taft,

who kind of begins to undo

some of Roosevelt's
accomplishments.

So Roosevelt feels betrayed

and slowly but surely
he begins to develop

the idea that he can run
for president in 1912,

and that he must run
for president in 1912.

- T.R was like a
warhorse smelling battle.

Once you get that thunderous
realization from the crowd

and you know that you're driving

the progressive
movement forward,

he feels like he has
to run for this time.

Even if it's running
against his old friend Taft.

Even if it might split the
Republican party in two.

He has this hope that there
was a progressive majority

in the people as a whole.

- So finally, in the
early spring of 1912

he announces by using,

for the first time
in American history,

the phrase, "My hat
is in the ring."

- Theodore Roosevelt
got started late.

He didn't have as much money.

He did not control the
Republican apparatus.

So while he had fame and the
love of Americans on his side,

he didn't have the
political operation

that he needed to have in place.

- There were contested
primaries. It was bitter.

They got into baseball bat
fights in some of the states.

- As the convention nears, the
fight becomes more personal.

Roosevelt calls Taft a fat
head, a puzzlewit, a traitor.

Taft then replies that if
Roosevelt wants this third term,

why not want a fourth
term? Why not a fifth term?

He'll stay in for
the rest of his life.

The argument becomes so heated

that the New York Times
writes an editorial.

They say, " This is
not a rational argument

between the two
sides, this is a mob."

- So the Republican
national convention

convenes in Chicago
in June of 1912.

Up to that point Roosevelt has
competed for the nomination

in all the states
that have primary,

and Roosevelt does
extremely well.

He runs away with it,

including in William
Howard Taft's, Ohio.

And so he fully expects
that he is deserving of

and going to get the nomination.

[dramatic music]

[phones ringing]

- Massachusets went for Taft!

- It's rigged!

- You're a traitor!

- And you're a pack of thieves!

- Colonel, the phone line's
hooked up.

[suspenseful music]

[people clamoring]
[blows landing]

[phone ringing]

- The results are coming in.

- Connecticut for Taft.

- Taft got Connecticut.

- Probably if there
had been real democracy

in the Republican Party he
would have won the nomination

because he was still just
wildly loved across the nation.

But the way the
apparatus was set up,

even though he won
most of the primaries,

he did not get the nomination.

And Roosevelt felt
that decisions

were made by the chairman
of the Republican Party

that were deliberately
undercutting his chances.

And in a fair fight, he would
have gotten the nomination.

[phone ringing]

- Yeah?

[door opens]

- What happened?

- It's over. They stole it.

- What's our next move?

- We could just leave the party.

- Today did not go
as we had hoped,

but, we're not gonna
let it beat us.

I plan to listen to the people,

they are looking for progress.

So I'm gonna...

I'm gonna form a new party.

[dramatic music]

A progressive party.

Now, I don't expect any
of you to follow me,

you've already done more
than I could ever ask.

But if you're ready, I will
welcome you with open arms.

- I'm with you.

- Me too.

- His supporters storm
out of the convention,

chanting, "Thou shall not
steal, thou shall not steal."

It's a very dramatic moment.

And that night they
meet in a hotel

and draw up the blueprint
for a new party,

the progressive party.

- He bolted and helped to
form the progressive party,

which almost
immediately became known

as the Bull Moose Party.

Because of course they asked
him if he were up to it

and he said that he felt
as strong as a bull moose.

The progressive party

was not like anything
else that existed.

It's mostly middle-class
people from around the country,

idealists and feminists who
had nowhere else to turn.

And all these people gathered
in Chicago a second time

at the Bull Moose
Party convention.

- There were more women
there than ever before

at a convention, it's called
the petticoat convention.

Jane Adams is there, women's
suffragettes are there,

'cause women's suffrage
is one of the planks

of the new party.

- This was a group of people

who had been dreaming
all of their lives

of a gentler, juster,
more equalitarian,

a more progressive nation.

People who wanted reform in
every possible way in life,

in our factories, in the way
that healthcare was delivered,

and child labor,
and you name it.

- When T.R gets to the
progressive party convention,

and there's this extraordinary
thunderous response.

[audience applauds]

- But a controversy emerged

when in the south
whites came together

in a segregationist delegation,

which excluded black people.

- He was a very
pragmatic politician.

He needed to pull
progressive voters

from among the
Southern Democrats,

and racist white Southern
Democrats at that time

would not have come along had
he seated the black delegates.

- It was a betrayal from the
perspective of black leaders,

north and south,

the black community
couldn't trust

the Republican party any longer

and particularly
couldn't trust Roosevelt.

Meanwhile, in the democratic
race, Woodrow Wilson,

who had been governor
of New Jersey,

as well as president
of Princeton University

came into the election of 1912

and quickly became the
popular front runner.

- Wilson is probably the worst
hand that T.R could be dealt

because Wilson's running

as an even more
extreme progressive.

- Wilson was eloquent
and idealistic,

his dad was a
Presbyterian minister.

So he could preach to people

about, you know, the
best in human character

rising up to the government.

He was really quite
a good campaigner.

But T.R is scrappier,
and he was a fighter.

He was like, "We're
going to do this,

we're gonna do that."

And it's much earthier.

- Taft doesn't give
very many speeches,

clearly the battle in 1912 is
now between Teddy and Wilson.

- T.R campaigns harder in 1912,

than probably all of
his campaigns combined.

He couldn't help it.

He had an insatiable appetite
to put on a performance

and you see him doing this
in the most trying times.

He just had an incredible
sense of the moment,

and had to make
something of the moment.

He does his whistle stop
tours, he lambasts Taft.

He's the best
version of himself.

- And drew wild, crazy, adoring
crowds all over the country.

At the end of this very
exhausting campaign,

they get to Milwaukee
where he's gonna give

this major speech that night.

He's tired, his
voice has given out.

- That's him, isn't it?

- It's time, Colonel.

- Car here?

- Outside, sir.

- Good.

[pensive music]

[dramatic music]

[audience clapping]

[Crowd chanting]

- How are you feeling, Teddy?

- Fit as a bull moose.

[suspenseful music]

[crowd cheering]

[dramatic music]

- Oh my God.

- Let's go to the
nearest hospital!

- Wait, wait, wait.

[Roosevelt coughs]

There's no blood,
there's no blood.

If the bullet had pierced
the lung there'd be blood.

I'm good as new.
Get me to the hall.

- You have to see a doctor, sir.

- I said, drive!

If I'm gonna die, I'd
rather have my boots on.

- John Schrank had been stalking
Teddy for several months,

following Roosevelt
around the country,

looking for an opportunity
to assassinate him.

John Schrank had a dream
when McKinley died,

that Roosevelt was responsible

and McKinley had appeared
to him in his bed

saying, "You must
avenge my murder."

[audience cheers]
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy,

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy!

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy,

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy!

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy,

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy!

- Friends, I will ask you to
remain as quiet as possible.

I've, um...

I've just been shot.

It'll take more than a
bullet to kill a bull moose.

[audience clapping and chanting]
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy!

- Bleeding from a chest wound,
he gives an 84 minute speech.

His life was saved by
his steel spectacles case

and his 50 page speech
which was folded up.

And the bullet went
through the speech,

some pieces of it still exists.

And then Roosevelt was giving
those away as souvenirs

to people in the front rows

because they would
always be sacred relics

of the day that
Roosevelt was shot.

It's impossible to
imagine this happening

to anyone else in
American history.

- One democratic supporter said

"The bullet that lodges
in Roosevelt's chest

may have won the
election for Roosevelt."

The dramatic incident
and his response to it

had recreated that sense of
magic that Roosevelt had.

- [Theodore] Win or lose,
we shall not falter.

The movement itself
will not stop.

We stand at Armageddon,
and we battle for the Lord!

[crowd cheers]

- When T.R bolted
from the convention

and started the
progressive party,

the Republicans of
course were horrified,

and they saw what was happening.

They knew they were split.

They knew they're probably
gonna lose the White House.

Their only hope was
to somehow stop it,

but T.R was such a
volcano of energy

and there was little
chance they could do it.

- One senator put
it very concisely.

He said, "Now the only
question is which corpse,

Taft or Roosevelt,
gets the most flowers?"

Clearly nobody now
had the chance to win

with the Republican
party split in two.

- In the election of 1912

we have the first
and perhaps the last

of the great presidential races

for independent third party
politics in American history.

And in the end Wilson
wins by a landslide.

- Taft came in third,
Roosevelt came in second.

He got the largest third-party
vote in American history.

- At first, T.R was proud

of the numbers that
had voted for him.

But then when he realized
that Progressives had lost

in city and state elections
all across the country,

the regret was that he had
hurt the progressive cause

by his decision to run in 1912.

- Democrats take both
the house and the Senate.

So it's a devastating blow
to the Republican party

and they are not gonna
forgive Roosevelt.

And that hurts.

- He wasn't a man who
typically lost at things,

he thinks this
might be it for him.

So he gets very depressed,

and what does T.R do
when he gets depressed?

He retreats to some
version of the wilderness,

testing his body,
testing his mind,

and doing something
really brash.

He decides to head to Brazil.

- He'd been invited to
give a series of speeches

and he wanted to make something
of an adventure of it.

So he decided he would do
some kind of river trip

in the Amazon.

And his first idea was
to travel down a river

called the Tapajos, which was
a fairly well-traveled river.

But when he got to Brazil,

the Brazilian foreign
minister asked him

if he would like to
go on an expedition

with a fellow named
Colonel Rondon,

the Brazilian Lewis and Clark.

- There is a tributary
in the Amazon nicknamed,

"The River Of Doubt" that
had recently been discovered,

and he decides that
he's gonna navigate it.

- And Edith said to Kermit,

"Go on this journey,
watch over your father.

He needs your help now."

Edith understood that T.R
was overweight, out of shape,

and that he hadn't
prepared for this journey.

You have to be spiritually
ready for something like this.

And he wasn't.

- T.R's trips to the wilderness,

whether it's the bad lands,

whether it's just a hunting
trip in new England,

in African safari, there's
always something about it

that is about reinvention
and rediscovery.

He has to almost kill himself

in order to re-imagine himself.

- 100% humidity, starving,
worried all the time

that they would be attacked.

They knew they
were being watched.

The indigenous people would
leave out little messages

like a severed monkey's head
in a path around the rapids.

- He and Kermit both
contract malaria.

There's these massive waterfalls

and they have to
carry the canoes down.

And one of the canoes is stuck.

- This enormous current is
forcing it into the rocks.

- T.R's leg was
crushed against a rock

and this became septic,
he became delirious.

- As the wound grows worse,

he becomes more and
more of a liability

to the traveling party.

The problem is if you're
Theodore Roosevelt,

nobody's gonna leave you behind.

[indistinct delerious jibberish]

- Go to my bag, the side pocket.

- What is it?

- It's morphine,
it's a lethal dose.

I knew there was a chance

that this would be
my final adventure.

- Papa.

- I refuse to slow
this expedition down.

Every day you spend
in this jungle,

is one day closer to your death.

- I respect your wishes.

But you've also got
to respect mine,

and you've gotta know
that if you die out here

I'll bring your body
back to Sagamore Hill.

You're coming out of this
jungle one way or another,

and it'll be a heck
of a lot easier

if you were alive to help.

[somber music]

- The River of Doubt, it was
discovered it went 850 miles

through very, very wild country,

with some extraordinarily
difficult and dangerous rapids.

But eventually it flattened out.

When they got close
to the bottom,

Rondon called everybody
together for a little ceremony

where he officially
renamed the river

from the Duvida to
the Rio Roosevelt,

which is what it is today.

- It's the exact opposite
of the Badlands trip.

When he goes to the Badlands,
he bulks up, he toughens up,

he builds more resilience.

By the time he comes
back from the Amazon,

I mean, he's a really
sickly looking man.

- He was 55 pounds lighter

and suffering a great deal
from the infection of his leg.

His medical record was
an extraordinary series

of accidents and problems.

T.R once said that he wanted
to wear out, not rust out.

- [Doris] But when he
returns from the Amazon

the world changed completely.

- In June of 1914,
Archduke Ferdinand,

heir to the
Austrian-Hungarian empire

is assassinated by a Serbian
nationalist in Montenegro.

This will light a crisis
that becomes World War I.

[dramatic music]

By the winter of 1914, 1915,

there are already a
million French men dead,

there are already a
million Germans dead.

And there's already
18 nations involved.

This is not some small affair,

and Theodore Roosevelt
is able to see

that ultimately the United
States can not stay out.

- When the great war started,

Woodrow Wilson said that
it was a European issue,

the United States
should stay out of it.

- I know that you
are depending on me

to keep this nation out of war.

So far, I have done so,
and I pledge you my word

that God helping me, I will,

if it is possible.

- Woodrow Wilson in many ways

embodies everything
Roosevelt hates,

Wilson, in his eyes is
effete and equivocating,

and doesn't have that sort of
sense of moral righteousness

and that warrior mentality.

So he's railing against Wilson

and saying, we need at
the very least to prepare,

we need to be drafting people,
building up our military.

So Roosevelt again
is outside of power,

but using his influence
to try to push the nation

towards a firmer footing

when it comes to being
ready for the war.

- It is inconceivable to me,

the we should refrain
from taking action.

We owe it not only to humanity,

but to our own
national self respect.

- At the start of World War I,

German submarines were
roaming the Atlantic

and picking off British ships.

They warned this British
liner, the Lusitania,

we know that you're
transporting guns to the war

and we might sink you.

And they put ads in
the New York papers

and said, "Don't travel
on the Lusitania."

But Americans rode
the Lusitania anyway,

and the Germans sank it.

So T.R said it was
murder on the high seas,

"Are you gonna stand up
for us, Woodrow Wilson?

Well, probably not."

- Roosevelt would see that as
someone has taken U.S lives.

They knew there were
U.S lives on there,

and it's part of a
president's responsibility

to protect United
States citizens

no matter where
on earth they are.

That's an act of war.

- [Theodore] If a
nation will not protect

its women and children,

if it will not at once go to war

rather than submit
to their murder,

it occupies a position of
unspeakable degradation.

- After the outcry owed to
sinking of the Lusitania,

Wilson got an agreement
from the Germans

that they would suspend
unrestricted submarine warfare.

But by 1917 Germans
aren't doing well,

so they have to roll the dice,

starting unrestricted
submarine warfare again.

Wilson had said that
would be the straw

that breaks the camel's back.

- And now he will ask
for a declaration of war.

[dramatic music]

- T.R had believed all his life
that if you took a position,

you had to stand up to it.

If the position was that
you should go to war,

you should be willing to fight
in it if you possibly could.

When the first World
War came around,

of course he tried to get in.

He asked Wilson to
allow him to create

another cavalry and
go over to Europe.

- Thank you for seeing me

on such short notice,
Mr. President.

- Of course.

- Well, I'll cut to the chase,

General Wood and I are
training troops for battle,

preparing our countrymen.

- I'm aware of your efforts.

- I would like permission to
raise a volunteer cavalry.

Now, if pressure on the allies

prompts an early
expeditionary force,

I will personally
escort a unit overseas.

- Unfortunately, what
you ask is impossible.

- I beg your pardon.

- If we have to send an
expeditionary force to France,

the command positions
will be taken

by professional officers.

- Mr. President, you forget
that I commanded troops

in the most important
battle ever fought.

- I hear congratulations
are in order.

- I beg your pardon?

- Your son, he's
getting married.

- Yes, Archibald.

- I have three girls.

I love them, but they will
not carry on the family name.

You're lucky to
have so many sons.

[dramatic music]

- Roosevelt is in
his 50s by this time,

he is blind in one eye, he's
got gout, he's got rheumatism.

He's had a bullet in him.

He's basically a physical wreck.

And the last time he
was on a battlefield,

the cavalry was still
horses, not tanks.

- But Roosevelt
still always kept

a kind of romantic
idea about warfare.

Again, the father not
serving in the civil war

while for the rest
of Roosevelt's life,

the American soldiers
who did serve

in the civil war
were ubiquitous.

And so this is why
Roosevelt absolutely

had to enter the war in Cuba,

and it's also why
he pushed his sons

to enter the first World War.

- And certainly the
four Roosevelt boys

know exactly what
they have to do.

And one of them even says,

"it's time for us to practice
what father preaches."

So father is not gonna be
able to put on a uniform.

He's been denied that
opportunity, but we can.

And so all four of
them head off to war.

Teddy Roosevelt
Jr will be gassed,

he'll be shot in the foot,

he'll never have feeling
in his left heel again.

Archie will be wounded,

his kneecaps will be
shattered, 100% disability.

Kermit is actually gonna get
sent over to Mesopotamia,

and that's where he
is gonna contribute.

And his youngest son, Quentin,
he wants to be a pilot.

He's got bad eyesight, so
he memorizes the eye chart.

He's got back problems,
he lies about that,

and becomes an aviator.

- Quentin was the
youngest and the favorite,

Little Quenty-kins,
T.R called him.

And he fought dog
fights in France.

And T.R was thrilled
when he got a council,

how he had gone into a dog fight

and shot down a German plane

and had survived attack
by other German planes.

- [Theodore] Dear Quentin,

I don't believe in
all the United States

there is any father who has
quite the same right that I have

to be proud of his sons.

These men who are going
abroad in their millions

are sacrificing everything
for the sake of a great ideal.

And when these men come home,
they will demand a just life,

a just life.

[knocking on door]

Go, go, go.

- Here's the papers.

- Thank you, Edie.

[suspenseful music]

- [Edith] What is it?

- It's Quentin.

He's been reported missing.

[Roosevelt clears throat]

He um...

Um...

He could still be alive.

A, uh, prisoner.

- His plane was seen
falling from the sky.

[somber music]

- It's my fault.

My sons wanted to be
brave because of me,

take chances they don't have to.

[Edith cries]

It's my fault.

[Edith crying]

- When the Germans
came across Quentin

and they saw that it was the
son of Theodore Roosevelt,

they held a full military
funeral with honor.

- [Theodore] There is no
use writing about Quentin,

for I should
breakdown if I tried.

[dramatic music]

- When the war was
coming to an end,

there was this desire on
the part of the people

to make sure that the soldiers

and the country that they came
back to was a better place.

T.R was exactly the
right spokesman.

- [Theodore] When
these men come home,

I believe that they will demand,

and I know that they ought to
demand, a juster type of life.

They will demand
a loftier idealism

in both our public
and private affairs.

- He's talking about giving land

and jobs to returning soldiers.

He wants old age pensions.

He's talking about women's
suffrage and women's rights,

social welfare programs,
national service.

So much of what would
be in FDR's presidency,

he is outlining right here,
right now, for the country.

- My old friend.

- William.

- I'm glad to see you.

- Sit down.

[drink pouring]

- I was so very sorry
to hear about Quentin.

I always thought
he took after you.

- Thank you.

- I hear the Republicans
wanna draft you

for Governor of New
York, everyone's onboard.

What do you think?

- Well, I'm saving my strength.

I'm running in 20.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

- Roosevelt never
gives up on the dream

of reacquiring his position
in the White House,

despite incredible
sacrifice and tragedy

and physical ill health,

he is laying the groundwork
for the nomination in 1920.

- He was so active in
that period after the war

that he became once again the
most popular man in America.

And I think that public
sentiment toward him

made him realize that the
kaleidoscope had shifted.

And yes indeed, he
possibly could run again

and had a really
good shot this time.

- Even though he was
in miserable shape,

he still charged on in
typical T.R fashion.

He was correcting proofs
to his latest book,

he was concerned about
various policy issues.

He was preparing for speeches
he was going to give.

- You never stop, do you?

- Listen to this.

"There is no good reason why
we should fear the future,

but there's every reason
why we should face it.

To do so we must show
the power of devotion

to a lofty ideal,

which made great men who
preserved the Republic

in the days of Abraham Lincoln."

- You have my vote.

[Theodore groans]

- Theodore?

- It's nothing, just
a strange feeling.

- Should I call the doctor?

- No, no. No, I'm just tired.

- I'll get an extra blanket.

- Would you mind?

[calm music]

Would you turn off the light?

Thank you.

[pensive music]

- He died on January 6th
of 1919, just 60 years old,

of an embolism.

- Somebody quipped,

"Death had to come to
T.R when he was asleep,

otherwise he would
have put up a fight."

- He created himself
as an endearing

and irrepressible character
every step along the way.

And for people all
over the country,

they had lived with him
through all of his adventures.

They had gone with
him along every step,

and now he was suddenly gone.

- There was tremendous
outpouring of sorrow.

He was somehow impervious

to the things that
harmed you and I,

and even the family
had a hard time

understanding that T.R was gone.

- Roosevelt's son, Archie,

sent a telegram to his brothers
who were still in Europe.

And he said, "The
old lion is dead."

[pensive music]

There are two types
of presidents;

There are caretaker presidents,

which is almost all of them,

and then there are

presidents who define America

and help to move America
in a new direction.

And Roosevelt is
certainly one of those.

- Roosevelt said, there's
this one great ideal

that we revere, individualism,

but he says, you know,
there's another virtue

that we always forget about,
and that's the common good.

We're all in this together.

- Roosevelt used
the bully pulpit

to steward the
soul of the country

and to tell people to
follow their better selves.

Fairness, justice,
equity is what drove him.

- The core values

that Roosevelt's
expressed most of his life

really went back to his
father, and Abraham Lincoln.

Essentially it's the idea

that every man
should have a chance

to rise to the level of
their talent and discipline.

He said he wanted the farmer's
son and the mechanic's son

to have the same chance
as a son of privilege.

- The greatest thing that
Theodore Roosevelt did

was to understand the
imbalance of power

between the common
people and the elite.

I think that involved Roosevelt,

having to step outside
of his own upbringing,

to look with sympathy or empathy
on those who had so little.

That to me, that's heroic.

- I think if we could
point to a president

who's coming of age story
in the late 19th century

represents someone who
could literally grab

the reins of power and shake
up the rest of the world,

he was America as
a singular figure.

- There's not another figure

in American history
like Roosevelt.

That he almost did nothing in
the whole course of his life

that wasn't somehow the
basis of great stories,

great adventures, great
revelations of his integrity

and his outsized
heroic personality.

There's nobody else like him.

- T.R loved being president,

there wasn't anybody who had
more exuberance, more fun,

really enjoyed himself in
the White House than T.R.

- He was more than a president,

he was the most
interesting man in America.

- [Theodore] It is not
the critic who counts,

not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles,

or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better,

the credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena.