Mona Charen is a conservative columnist and the policy editor for The Bulwark.
The following interview was conducted by the Kirk Documentary Group’s Mike Wiser for FRONTLINE on May 4, 2022. It has been edited for clarity and length.
This interview is being published as part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind our documentaries. Explore the transcript of this interview, and others, on the FRONTLINE website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview-collection/lies-politics-and-democracy/
#Frontline #Interview #MonaCharen
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CHAPTERS:
The 2020 Election and Trump’s Claims of Fraud – 0:00:00
The 2016 Election – 0:04:21
What Trump Offered Voters – 0:14:16
The Democratic Response to Trump – 0:25:17
Trump’s Early Presidency – 0:29:16
Trump and Charlottesville – 0:35:26
Trump’s Relationship with Authoritarian Leaders – 0:46:11
Liz Cheney and the First Impeachment – 0:55:14
Trump, COVID and Black Lives Matter – 1:01:40
After the 2020 Election – 1:11:14
Jan. 6 and the Aftermath – 1:20:36
source
Watch the full documentary “Lies, Politics and Democracy” here: https://youtu.be/D2eTiE3k7ds
"Trump did many grotesque and awful things in office" — Mona Charen
Yes indeed. What an excellent interview!
Funny I was watching the trump rally and the next thing I see is this bs on my screen. Man….liberals are desperate AF to push this agenda. Not working anymore.
The biggest enemy of Trump is he himself
The problem is the people who STILL vote republican!
Still talking about bullshit… geez
And Biden and Harris is somehow better
Wow. I am no conservative (at least as the GOP defines that term) but Mona Charen is impressive!
What an incredibly brave lady, Mona Charen.
he said over and over who and what he was and it was overlooked by the repubs because it meant power to them. only that matters, not democracy. VOTE BLUE
Yeap that be you guys. Lies, politics, with no democracy. It's your way or the highway. Your a 2 face far left liberal channel with one sided views
Complete garbage.
If a democratic president tried to pull off a coup being a democrat I would be asking for his head. Republicans don’t give a eff. She’s brilliant and someone you can have a honest, political conversation with. Sad the Republican Party will never return to what it was.
No one misunderstood Trump. They just outted themselves. They identified themselves.
Frontline is just another cog in the Deep State propaganda machine. "Americans" have EXACTLY the "government", "military", and "schools" they deserve/
The ENTIRE Republican Party did this. It started 30-40 years ago and Trump brought it home. They HATE America and all it stands for. They hate what the Forefathers wanted for this country.
what a load of crap
Ms. Charen suggests Democrats became anti-Russian for political reasons, failing to mention that Russia interfered significantly in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump. The degenerate, seditious, criminal 45th president ("Russia, are you listening), wittingly or unwittingly, acted in Russia's interests with our allies (shitting on them) and adversaries (riding dick) , and apologizing and supporting Russian misbehavior for four years. He showed his allegiance in Helsinki in 2018 when he disregarded U.S. Intelligence agencies in favor of the Russian analysis. Many, many more examples.
In the end it really doesn't matter what you blah blah about the voters will decided what direction they want
"… they'll have to live with (whatever) for the rest of their lives." We hear phrases such as history will judge them, yada, yada, blah blah. When will people realize that you cannot shame the shameless. The Maga Party is sliding down the hill into autocracy but they don't care. They feel when they get to the bottom of the "autocracy hill", that they will find their power.
PBS Frontline is pure Anti-Trump propaganda. Nothing but a pack of lies only fools would believe. If you need this BS to form your opions then come talk to someone like me that really knows that Democrats are either stupid or Evil because the leaders of the Democrat party are EVIL. Don't believe me look how many people they are flooding the country with look how they want to disarm law abiding citizens while they let Criminals have free reign over Democrat controlled cities. That is why new gun owners are buying guns by the millions. Democrats are destroying our country as fast as they can before you clowns wake up to what is happening to you.
Election's have consequences.
Word's matter
We most likely wouldn't be in this situation if we had real leaders running for president. We didn't have good roll models with Clinton vs. Trump or with Biden vs. Trump. Personally when you have to choose the lesser of the two evils, this is what we get. It has become a power grab of the elites and not about working for the American people. Our constitution is being destroyed by corruption within our Government. So much confusion. Term limits for all government politicians, and lobbyists should be outlawed. Politicians are suppose to work for the people doing what's in the best interests of Americans, not lining their pocket for themselves. The Reagan era was the best in my lifetime, anything after that has been chaos. So much cut throat politicians and that includes the administration we have now, it hasn't gotten any better to this day .
Truth is what it is all about…..thank you…..I still wonder how we ever got here,,,,,but I shed many tears for all the men and women who served this country to protect our constitution,,,,including my father
If I remember …..his father was a DICTOURIAL figure….HMMMMM
I'm just ashamed that their aren't any more views.
I never saw this woman before but she's good. Too bad she is not on the Dems team.
And as Mr Costa so orated that Trump groomed the worst of the worst through his fifty years of spewing his vile proclivities on national television and enchanting the dumbest and most evil among us. And may God forgive my mother who has been enchanted.
You see endorsing roy moore gave his bucktooth miscreants the worst of America to come forth these are the domestic abusers the child molesters the fraudsters the God haters as trump is a God hater a true insurrectionist Trump's insurrection goes much higher than America and the world as the Bible says he will wax worse and worse as the walls of justice close in on him. And I pity my country and the people in it.
Watch closely to who trump entraps that is a religious figure because the anti Christ comes out of the church .
Know ye not that Satan is transformed into an angel of light it is no wonder that his ministers come as ministers of righteousness.
Let's see what happens in November . Elections have consequences this is the last opportunity to stop the madness.
Just continue to ignore the facts on the ground that were widely reported! Your unwillingness to see the truth us the real danger to our country! This was not the verdict of the people!
The reason Liz Cheney and others could not convince the majority of the party that the election was not stolen is bcuz courts refused to provide the public with a full evidentiary hearing on the matter.
Of course the reason for that was not due to lack of evidence. It was bcuz the amount of evidence would have convinced the public that the election was in fact stolen.
I think the BIGTECH and MIC now realize they made a mistake for "installing" Joe Biden! They didn't realize he became a 'loose cannon' demented lunatic! True, he delivered on war with Russia but he is destroying the economy, the currency and people's standard of living with runaway inflation. Those 'computer guys' suffer from the superiority complex. They are really obtuse about anything else beside 'coding' – I know, I was a 'computer guy' myself for thirty years and that image of superiority really bothered me!'
Trump did win the election. Another traitor to America. Frontline chooses liberal idiots to interview.
Based on Mona Charen's lengthy interview without a single good thing to say about our beloved President Trump, she is obviously FILLED with covert hostility, probably bcuz she was forced out of the Republican party due to her judgmental, narrow-minded, shallow, radically contrarian, and therefore traiterous views.
Mona Charen shows that there actually are conservatives with integrity and intelligence… they did of course have to leave the Republican Party to preserve that integrity and common decency.
smashing interview Ms. Charen. Brilliant !
Delusional
In trump mine and the mine of his cult members, he is still the president and will always be the president in America.
If Liz Cheney Run in 2024 she will win by a landslide. And the GOP party will still say that the election was ridded. LOL.
Thank you Frontline, I enjoyed every minute of this interview and a conservative with sound democratic values and personal integrity. It has become so rare…
The PBS reporter does NOT speak for millions of us when he intones, " We didn't see that the forced obsequious submission show forced by Trump onto his Cabinet early in his term had any connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection riots." Is this PBS reporter an idiot or does he just think we are idiots?
This woman is insightful and brilliant
Vote blue to save our fragile democracy.
How we got there I think started with Newt Gingrich who I think is a notable hypocrite competing with the middle group of hypocrites in the Republican party now. This woman impresses me for her willingness as a conservative to look at the severe infection and it's symptoms. "Vaguely fascistic" smell and authoritarian sympathies are understatements however. Severe understand statements. Lindsey Graham has the current day award for democratic betrayal and betrayal of the conservative policy and betrayal of truth.
The evangelical vote is corrupted by a lack of separation between church and state now…even the Supreme Court and our founders KNEW from way back in English history that when church and state join up, both become corrupted. Corrupting Christianity for instance is very very very sick and dangerous…even to the point of rewriting the Bible and doctrine and emphasis surely has moved into such sick territory I think. Mike Pence as an invertebrate laying his values at the feet of the golden ox Trump. So we are wandering in the desert folks. Biden is practicing his religion, not using it to manipulate or get votes. His religion is tested by grief and I will trust that is in fact going to keep religion his private guide, not what he forces on others.