While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of America's Shadow Government (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Doomsday & The President - full transcript
How the president got the power to rip up the Constitution and blow up the world.
[ Explosion ]
[ People shouting ]
-2020 has just been
one of the worst years
of American history.
It's tragic.
It's absolutely tragic what
has happened to this country.
-Americans have never felt
so afraid and vulnerable.
-We have kind of
lost the ability
there's something new.
-Who do you serve?!
Who do you protect?!
-Do something!
with no one in charge
planning to help us?
our leaders have told us one
thing under the bright lights.
-The protection of the lives
and property of Americans
is the responsibility
of all public officials.
-Government's first duty
is to protect the people.
-I care.
We're trying.
-The country stands with you.
We'll do all
in our power to help.
-But America's shadow government
has spent trillions of dollars
on secret plans.
That serve one premise...
we're on our own.
-I have nothing.
Nothing.
the U.S. government invested
trillions of dollars
in a secret plan to save itself
while the rest of us die.
♪♪
♪♪
-The most important decisions
being made about the future
of the United States
and the fate of the Earth
are being made in secret
by a small elite.
-Engineers too sick to maintain
the power grid?
The government's elite
have massive generators.
Cellphone system craps out?
They've got their own
secure network.
Supermarket shelves empty?
They've stockpiled
enough food for years.
And don't get us
started on toilet paper.
They've got a forest's
worth stashed away.
-It's this massive
secret project
that funneled unbelievable
amounts of money
towards the survival
of the president
and officials of government
and away from the betterment
of American citizens' lives.
♪♪
-I would like to begin
by announcing
some important developments
in our war
against the Chinese virus.
2020.
President Trump holds
a press conference
to propose an end date
for the growing global crisis.
-Easter is our timeline.
What a great timeline
that would be.
you have
two doctors on stage with you.
Have either of them told you
that's a realistic timeline?
but I just think it would be
a beautiful timeline.
Joe?
-But even as the President
downplays the pandemic
publicly...
♪♪
-It's going to disappear.
it's like a miracle.
It will disappear.
-Trump knows something
that most Americans don't.
to be evacuated
to secure facilities
designed to withstand
Armageddon.
-Thank you very much.
Thank you.
-On the very same day
that Trump was telling
the American people the pandemic
600 miles away,
a military team is settling
into life underground.
-Cheyenne Mountain is one of
the U.S. government's
three main doomsday bunkers.
-Garrett Graff is an historian
and journalist.
"Raven Rock,"
was the first in-depth look at
the government's secret bunkers.
the U.S. government hid a team
of military commanders.
Their mission...
To man the nation's defense
if it goes full zombie
apocalypse aboveground.
It's all part of a plan
that was hatched 70 years ago.
the government
came up with plans
you know,
a few hundred staff members
not only could take shelter
but also could direct
a nuclear war.
or COG.
we could see
thousands of members
a shadow government,
that is ready to take over
at a moment's notice.
♪♪
[ Explosion ]
-These weren't just
run-of-the-mill bunkers.
Some of them were entire
hollowed-out mountains
with small freestanding cities
that could support a population
of even a thousand people
for a month or longer.
♪♪
-The bunker system
remained a secret
until 1974
when a commercial airliner
crashed into the side
of a mountain in Virginia.
♪♪
The crash revealed a massive
secret installation
known as Mount Weather.
♪♪
-Mount Weather is now
an unclassified facility.
Everybody knows about it.
it was highly secret.
It was heavily guarded.
And it's where a continuity team
would go in the event
of a nuclear war.
and they would be able
to operate the government
even when almost everything else
had been wiped off the planet.
the Pentagon, CIA,
and domestic agencies.
-Top civilian officials would
hide away in Mount Weather.
But few knew
there was another secret bunker.
♪♪
you bump up against
Continuity of Government plans.
Sometimes you would
spot helicopters
practicing for evacuations
in the skies over the city.
in a bar,
an official would talk about
the secret facilities
that they were whisked off to.
and the most secret
happened by accident.
-A colleague of mine found
a government-intelligence
I.D. badge
on the floor
of a parking garage.
On the back were directions.
[ Engine starts ]
"What else is out there?"
So that launched me
on this journey
to try to map
this secret world out there
that I didn't realize
ever existed.
And the biggest thing I found
was the doomsday facility
known as Raven Rock.
like Area 51,
remains one of
the U.S. government's
most classified installations.
Could you describe
Raven Rock to me?
what it is
and what it's for?
-No.
-Raven Rock is an underground
backup Pentagon.
-It's the most unbelievable
place you can imagine.
You're 768 feet
below the surface.
-Don Cammel spent 3 1/2 years
at Raven Rock
as part of the president's
communication team.
He's never spoken
on camera before
about his time
working in the secret bunker.
they carved out
a city underground
that could survive a direct hit
from a nuclear blast.
you walk in,
and it's basically
an underground tunnel.
There's a glass door
that was 3 1/2-foot thick
that weighed 30 tons.
like,
an airlock,
and they had two of those doors.
you walk
another half a mile.
-A half mile deeper into the
mountain is the bunker itself.
-And you're going
past five buildings.
Those represent the five rings
of the Pentagon.
and they probably have 50
to 80 offices per floor.
-The buildings
are mounted on springs
to survive the shock waves
from a nuclear blast.
-There's a common cafeteria
000 people
three meals a day
for 30 days on lockdown.
They had a barbershop in there
with one chair.
generators,
if needed,
medical facilities,
and emergency command
and communication links
to the U.S. military
all around the world.
the presidential suite.
-The presidential suite
is a very secure area.
they had no access.
very curious
as far as
what was behind the door.
of course, a king-size bed,
and then there was a separate
kitchen set up in our suite
to feed 30 or 40 people.
which had the same display
that was a duplicate
of what they had
in the Pentagon.
and, of course, they'd look up,
and they couldn't see
through the glass
'cause it was a one-way glass.
you have to rewind to the 1950s.
♪♪
it was America's golden age.
But it was also the dawn
of a ruthless fight
for global supremacy...
-The United States
and the Soviet Union
stand on the verge of direct
military confrontation.
- in which both sides
built up an arsenal
of spectacularly
powerful weapons...
♪♪
that meant the next world war
would not last years
but minutes.
-There might be as little
as 15 minutes' notice
of an attack that could wipe out
much of civilization
as we know it.
And so the Eisenhower
administration began
an elaborate process
of contingency planning.
then they didn't want to have
any sort of layers
of review or approval
that would slow down the process
of responding
to a major emergency.
the U.S. government created
a nationwide
civil-defense program.
-We all know the atomic bomb
is very dangerous.
we must get ready for it.
there were fallout shelters,
places where you would go
if the nuclear war occurred.
there was water.
There were prescription drugs.
The notion really was that
you could go there and survive.
-The government starts
telling Americans that
but they could go
on living their lives
as long as they come together
in an unquestioning mass.
[ Explosion ]
-Duck and cover!
This family knows
that even a thin cloth
helps protect them.
Even a newspaper
can save you from a bad burn.
-But while the public was
being told to build shelters
the government elite were going
to hide under tons of rock
and reinforced concrete.
-There was an awareness
at the highest level
of the American government
that these civil-defense drills
were really window dressing.
massive propaganda effort
that bore almost no relationship
to reality whatsoever.
President Eisenhower knew
that this was all bullshit.
"If nuclear war comes,
there aren't going to be
enough bulldozers
to scrape the bodies
off the streets.
[ Explosion ]
♪♪
everyone was going to die.
that is,
but the chosen few.
The president
and the government elite
would ride out Armageddon in
massive nuclear-proof bunkers...
♪♪
while American citizens
died in the millions.
And while the average American
it was famously mocked.
"
the Kubrick film,
does an amazing job of parodying
the whole notion
of a nuclear bunker
and decisions being made
by a small elite.
it would be absolutely vital
that our top government
and military men be included.
It will foster and impart
the required principles
of leadership and tradition.
[ Grunts ]
-But the truth is
even stranger than fiction.
The bunkers are
just the beginning.
a secret monetary system,
and a classified plan
to suspend democracy itself.
And it all still exists
and could be put
into action right now.
♪♪
-The U.S. government spent
billions of dollars
to build a secret bunker system
to save themselves
in the case of nuclear war.
One thing the system lacks
is how to restrain
an out-of-control president
with his finger on the button
from starting that war
in the first place.
♪♪
July 2017...
Kim Jong-un's regime
test-fires an intercontinental
ballistic missile
capable of hitting
the United States.
President Trump counters
with a barrage of his own.
-North Korea best not
make any more threats
to the United States.
They will be met
with fire and fury
like the world has never seen.
-And a war of words
quickly escalates
into a full-blown crisis.
we will have no choice
but to totally destroy
North Korea.
-Meanwhile...
North Korea's propaganda machine
goes into overdrive.
While Trump's late-night tweets
caused many to fear
the United States
is 140 characters away from war.
♪♪
without questioning,
which is a completely
unprecedented
and disturbing development
for an executive branch
which has grown
in power and scope.
-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
and Homeland Security Secretary
John Kelly
made a pact at the beginning
of the Trump administration
to ensure that one of them
was always available
to clarify any orders
coming out of the White House.
ready for action
in a moment's notice.
But there's little they
or any other top officials
can do to stop the president
if he wants to launch
a nuclear strike.
willing, and able.
Rocket Man is on
a suicide mission
for himself and for his regime.
-We have a president
who is so dangerous
because this is a person who not
only has unilateral authority
to use nuclear weapons
but has multiple times now
and repeatedly shown
a desire to do so.
he actually
considered the idea
that a nuclear weapon
could destroy a hurricane.
-If North Korea's Rocket Man
actually launched
a secret evacuation plan
would have kicked into gear.
To get the president
and his shadow government
a vast secret transportation
network was created.
the helicopter that
takes Trump golfing.
-Everyone sees us land
on the White House lawn.
Shiny green-and-white helicopter
takes the president
back and forth
to help him fulfill his
executive agenda for that day.
-But Marine One
is part of a fleet
of highly specialized aircraft
that have a much
more serious function.
and we've hardened it
against all kinds of threats.
The real bread and butter
comes from
the communication equipment.
Our president can pick up
that phone inside Marine One
any combatant commander.
He can go through the Pentagon
and talk to
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
an entire
secret air force exists
to provide sanctuary
in the skies.
at this exact moment,
it's fully staffed.
It could be airborne
in less than 15 minutes.
they're known as the president's
doomsday planes.
-They've been modified so much
that the price tag on them
is about 10 times
the normal cost
of a regular commercial 747.
000 square feet
of conference rooms,
and private quarters.
To ensure electronics
aren't fried
the planes are covered
in wire mesh.
it's a flying
battle station.
The president can use it
in times of war
to fight back
against any adversary.
the president would turn to the
world's most powerful briefcase.
the physical manifestation
of all of the president's
vast powers is embodied
in the black briefcase
that is never more than a few
steps away from the president.
♪♪
-The so-called
nuclear football briefcase
is the closest thing
to the mythical
and often misunderstood "button"
the president can push
to unleash Armageddon.
8 minutes to make a decision
about whether to retaliate
and about what form
of retaliation to order.
there'd be a black book,
and the black book
has visual representations
maybe like the menu
at restaurants
that show you the pictures
of what you're going to order.
first of all,
authenticating
himself with an elaborate code,
and then he would communicate
the option he had chosen.
8, 7, 6...
the first missiles
will leave their silos
four minutes later.
♪♪
-And that decision would kill
hundreds of millions of people.
And perhaps put the earth
into a nuclear winter
destroying civilization.
He has to make that decision
in a matter of minutes.
That's almost
an impossible decision
for any human being to make.
-The nuclear football
is based in trust.
It's the idea that the president
that the president
is the most logical
and calculating thinker
that you can imagine.
All of that begins to fall apart
if the president himself
is the threat to the nation.
-This wasn't the first time
a seemingly unstable president
pushed the limits
of America's doomsday machine.
-Nixon took the country
and the world
to the brink of nuclear war
for no reason other
than politics.
[ Cheers and applause ]
1969.
Hippies dancing in the street
are oblivious to the fact
President Richard Nixon,
has just ordered
18 nuclear-armed B-52 bombers
to take off and head
towards the Soviet Union.
♪♪
-We want Nixon!
We want Nixon!
Nixon had run
as the law-and-order candidate.
He also claimed to have
a secret plan
to end the Vietnam War.
we haven't had
a moment of peace abroad.
we haven't had
a moment of peace at home.
when it goes that
far, it's time to make a change.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But now the country and the war
are spiraling out of control.
And the newly elected president
is desperate.
♪♪
-Nixon decides to start acting
in a completely
unpredictable manner.
He wants not just
the Soviet Union
but the people of Vietnam
to believe that he could unleash
the power of the nuclear bomb
at any moment.
-He began loading up
nuclear weapons on B-52s
and flying them in a way
that suggested
that he was
crazy enough to use them.
President Nixon believed that
he could persuade the Soviets
that it might lead to a peaceful
conclusion of the war.
-The challenge with that
was that the other side
might believe that
you would actually start a war.
♪♪
-Any miscalculation
by the Soviets might have easily
tipped the world
into a nuclear exchange.
And if the Soviets had believed
Nixon was crazy enough
they would have begun to unleash
their vast nuclear arsenal.
♪♪
-Nuclear war is basically like
a shootout in the Old West.
♪♪
Whoever shoots first...
has a better chance of survival.
[ Explosion ]
the American people would pay
a heavy price
for Nixon
poking the Soviet bear.
Los Angeles.
and there was no way
that we could prevent that.
♪♪
[ Explosion ]
♪♪
led by Carl Sagan,
determined that a full-scale
nuclear war
using hundreds or thousands
of nuclear weapons
couldn't be fought
without effectively
destroying civilization
and perhaps destroying
humanity as a species.
The survivors
would envy the dead.
-The American people didn't know
just how close
they came to Armageddon
in October 1969.
The Soviets called Nixon's bluff
and didn't cave in
to his provocation.
-It was a tactic
that didn't work.
But the fact that he could
do it at all is unbelievable.
Nixon would've turned
to the secret instruction manual
for handling such a massive
national emergency
that would give him the right
to rip up the Constitution
and throw away your rights.
And a version is still
on the books
and available for our current
president to use.
the authority is total.
But I have the right
to do a lot of things
that people
don't even know about.
The president of the
United States calls the shots.
Most Americans don't realize
the secret laws
and secret authorities
that have built up
around the presidency.
the American presidency
in ways that the founders never
could have possibly imagined.
but I don't even
talk about that.
-I can't think of any president
who has ever claimed
that Article II
of the Constitution
gives him the power
to do whatever he wants.
he has the ability
known as Presidential
Emergency Action Documents.
-The little-known Presidential
Emergency Action Documents
sweeping powers in the case
of a national emergency.
-These Presidential Emergency
Action Documents
are sort of like a loaded weapon
that has never actually
been deployed.
proclamations, and directives
that are drafted in anticipation
ready for the president's
signature in the event
that one of those scenarios
were to come to pass.
What's extraordinary
about these Presidential
Emergency Action Documents
is that none of them has ever
been released or even leaked.
even though they go to the heart
of the government's plans
for responding
to a major emergency.
and we don't know
what American democracy
would look like afterward.
-We have much less information
about the contents of current
but we do know what was in
some of these
up through the early 1970s.
the roundup and detention
of people listed
on an index
of so-called subversives
censorship of the press,
as provided in the Constitution,
which basically means
that people could be imprisoned
without judicial review.
and we know that there
were 56 of them in 2018.
They are periodically
revised and updated
to address current threats.
a cyber attack, pandemics.
And it's not as if nuclear
warheads have gone away.
We also know that
the purpose of them
is to imagine the outer limits
of how far the president
might possibly need to go
and to prepare
for that scenario.
-With the power of life
and death over the entire planet
and the ability
to kick in secret laws
the office of the president
of the United States
has been imbued
with almost godlike powers.
To ensure there's always
someone to wield
a vast system of presidential
succession has been created.
somewhere,
was always ready to step
into the presidency.
The president may die.
The presidency always lives.
♪♪
-And having someone ready
is never more important
than on the day all of
the nation's elected officials
gather for the peaceful transfer
of presidential power.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear
I would've become the president.
♪♪
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear..."
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear...
-"...that I will
faithfully execute..."
- that I will
faithfully execute...
-"...the office of president
of the United States."
- the office of president
of the United States.
2017.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Donald J. Trump is sworn in
as the 45th president
after a campaign
that divided the nation.
-So help me God.
-Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
far from the Capitol.
Homeland Security Secretary
Jeh Johnson
ready to take over if something
terrible happens in Washington.
officials picked in advance
in the presidential line
of succession
at high-profile events,
there's always one person
ready to step in
if the unthinkable happens.
Jeh Johnson,
was once one of the federal
lawyers who signed off
on the assassination of
Osama bin Laden.
2017,
I actually had a fantasy
about how that day
was going to go for me.
I was very much looking forward
to leaving office
with the rest
of the Obama administration.
And I actually had
an app on my phone
hours, minutes
2017, at noon.
I was asked to be
the designated survivor.
-The idea
of the designated survivor
is a relatively
recent invention.
The recognition that the speed
and terror of nuclear weapons
in the modern age
requires the ability
to hand off the presidency
in a matter of minutes.
somewhere,
was always ready
to step into the presidency.
-Thank you.
in the event all the others
-The line of succession
moves down through the cabinet
in the order in which
the cabinet departments
beginning with
the Secretary of State.
And it goes through all
the federal departments
until it gets to the Secretary
of Homeland Security.
[ Cheers and applause ]
had catastrophe struck...
-What a great honor
to be able to introduce
anywhere, the 45th president
Donald J...
- I would've become
the president.
-While the American people
the president
of the United States
would've been a Democrat
and a man
who never attempted
to run for president.
But while
the designated survivor
is a publicly known plan
there's another secret plan
that goes even further.
-The Continuity of Government
plans
ensured the line of presidential
succession in a way
that would be unrecognizable
to most Americans.
-The idea was that the scale
of damage could be so great
that everybody
in the constitutional
and they would have
to reach way beyond
the constitutional
order of succession.
-In the event of a surprise
catastrophic attack
a host of officials
far from the Capitol
would suddenly raise their hands
and announce themselves
as the country's new leadership.
like United States attorney
but you would never imagine
that that person
would be president
of the United States.
there was an entire government
that was built separate
and apart
from what's contemplated
in the Constitution.
-Whether you come to office
because of the death
of the president
or the resignation
of the president
the authority,
including being
the commander-in-chief
of the armed forces.
and authority
even after losing an election.
the man once rated
the most popular
United States president
in history conceded defeat.
-The United States is unusual
in having
a particularly long period
between the election
of one president
and the departure
of another president.
It's about 2 1/2 months.
you have
a commander in chief
who may have been rejected
by the American people
has tremendous power.
-America might face one of
the most perilous chapters
of its history
as a man who has shown
no respect for democracy
or our democratic institutions
faces a lame-duck period
where he has all of
the authority of the office
and none of the sense
of responsibility.
-Will you pledge tonight that
you will not declare victory
until the election has been
independently certified?
I can't go along with that.
♪♪
-Donald Trump may end up
losing the election.
a president
of the United States retains
all the vast powers
the office has accumulated
over the last 70 years.
♪♪
there is this period
of three months
during which a president
who has been defeated
nonetheless is in charge
of the military.
Let's imagine a scenario
where a president
loses his bid for re-election
in part
because of some previously
existing mental problem.
He loses control.
If a president rolled out of bed
on a Monday
our hope would be
that the military officers
receiving the go codes
Mr. President,
that is not a legal order."
they don't have to.
they're supposed to go.
-We've seen so many
of the institutions
of the United States buckle
the Senate,
the Justice Department.
but the military seems to be
one of the last institutions
that he hasn't
managed to corrupt.
-It wouldn't be the first time
that a president's ability
to unleash America's nukes
was restrained.
Watergate
has dominated the news media.
It is my
constitutional responsibility
to defend the integrity
of this great office
against false charges.
Richard Nixon began to unravel.
His drinking was out of control.
talking to the portraits
and talking to himself
and talking to God.
He would talk about picking up
a phone and bombing his enemies.
-So Secretary of Defense
James Schlesinger
let it be known
to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
that any order to use
nuclear weapons by Nixon
had to go through him.
technically, if Schlesinger
had overruled Nixon
it would have been
an act of mutiny.
But he was sufficiently
concerned about Nixon's
mental health that he
wanted to make sure
there wouldn't be a catastrophe.
♪♪
-Who do you protect?!
Who do you protect?!
-But even if nuclear war
can be averted
by clearheaded officials...
-We step back!
Now you step back!
- all lame-duck presidents
have the ability to invoke
the top-secret Presidential
Emergency Action Documents.
-We know that
the Department of Justice
was in the process
of updating these documents
as recently as 2018.
what does
the Trump administration view
as the outer limits
of presidential power?
the authority is total.
And that's the way
it's got to be.
- Your authority's total?
- Total.
-That is not true.
Who told you the president
has the total authority?
-Enough?
-Trump has repeatedly hinted
about the secret powers
and the unimaginable
capabilities
that he could have
in an emergency.
we don't
literally know what those are.
-The worst-case scenario
is if this president
were to exploit the actual
emergency presented by COVID-19
maybe by provoking violence
in relation
to some of the protests
around police brutality
and to use those situations as
a pretext to deploy the military
or to engage in other extreme
uses of emergency powers
in a way that could undermine
a fair and free election
and undermine our democracy.
-They say that they're
going to threaten riots
if they lose on Election Night.
What are you going to do?
-We'll put them down
very quickly if they do that.
- How you gonna do that?
- We have the right to do that.
We have the power
to do that if we want.
it's called insurrection.
and we do it very easy.
what you're looking at
is a democracy
turning into an autocracy.
-We're entering a very perilous
chapter of American history...
-You're disrespecting the flag!
- when you can't trust
that the president
is acting in the nation's
best interests.
[ Explosion ]
would ultimately fail,
but I could imagine the arrest
of key members of Congress
or leading figures
in the United States
that would profoundly harm
our democratic systems
even more severely
than they are right now.
-Jews will not replace us!
Jews will not replace us!
I can't even
[bleep] believe
that we're talking
about these scenarios.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
We're talking about a scenario
of a president
imposing martial law.
The fact that this conversation
is even happening
is a sign of how bad things are
in the United States right now.
-We need to look at how
presidents can be restrained
because here
we have a president...
unstable, healthy individual.
-These plans and powers enable
the president to cause
the rest of us are left to die.
decisions of incredibly
profound importance
have been made by a small number
of policy makers
D.C.,
mainly in secret.
And it's really important
that the American people
and be part of the process
of debating them
because the consequences
of these decisions
are almost unimaginable.
♪♪
-2020 is the beginning
of the age of catastrophe.
It's kind of the future
warning us.
-All we want is justice!
We can't get justice?!
discontent, fear.
[ Explosion ]
-The apocalypse is sort of
closing in on us from all sides.
-It turns out none of the plans
that we had developed
during the Cold War would work.
-Everybody out!
shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.
hurricanes, and now a pandemic
just how wide the chasm is
between the powerful
and the rest of us.
-It is fascinating
how this disaster
seemed to disproportionately
affect poor black people.
you could see America
would do well
in the first 7 to 10 days.
-End the shutdown now!
-Then you're going to
immediately fall into chaos.
[ Glass shatters ]
-Back up!
Back up!
-The world is kind of on fire.
And the elites
are retreating into bunkers.
♪♪
[ People shouting ]
-2020 has just been
one of the worst years
of American history.
It's tragic.
It's absolutely tragic what
has happened to this country.
-Americans have never felt
so afraid and vulnerable.
-We have kind of
lost the ability
there's something new.
-Who do you serve?!
Who do you protect?!
-Do something!
with no one in charge
planning to help us?
our leaders have told us one
thing under the bright lights.
-The protection of the lives
and property of Americans
is the responsibility
of all public officials.
-Government's first duty
is to protect the people.
-I care.
We're trying.
-The country stands with you.
We'll do all
in our power to help.
-But America's shadow government
has spent trillions of dollars
on secret plans.
That serve one premise...
we're on our own.
-I have nothing.
Nothing.
the U.S. government invested
trillions of dollars
in a secret plan to save itself
while the rest of us die.
♪♪
♪♪
-The most important decisions
being made about the future
of the United States
and the fate of the Earth
are being made in secret
by a small elite.
-Engineers too sick to maintain
the power grid?
The government's elite
have massive generators.
Cellphone system craps out?
They've got their own
secure network.
Supermarket shelves empty?
They've stockpiled
enough food for years.
And don't get us
started on toilet paper.
They've got a forest's
worth stashed away.
-It's this massive
secret project
that funneled unbelievable
amounts of money
towards the survival
of the president
and officials of government
and away from the betterment
of American citizens' lives.
♪♪
-I would like to begin
by announcing
some important developments
in our war
against the Chinese virus.
2020.
President Trump holds
a press conference
to propose an end date
for the growing global crisis.
-Easter is our timeline.
What a great timeline
that would be.
you have
two doctors on stage with you.
Have either of them told you
that's a realistic timeline?
but I just think it would be
a beautiful timeline.
Joe?
-But even as the President
downplays the pandemic
publicly...
♪♪
-It's going to disappear.
it's like a miracle.
It will disappear.
-Trump knows something
that most Americans don't.
to be evacuated
to secure facilities
designed to withstand
Armageddon.
-Thank you very much.
Thank you.
-On the very same day
that Trump was telling
the American people the pandemic
600 miles away,
a military team is settling
into life underground.
-Cheyenne Mountain is one of
the U.S. government's
three main doomsday bunkers.
-Garrett Graff is an historian
and journalist.
"Raven Rock,"
was the first in-depth look at
the government's secret bunkers.
the U.S. government hid a team
of military commanders.
Their mission...
To man the nation's defense
if it goes full zombie
apocalypse aboveground.
It's all part of a plan
that was hatched 70 years ago.
the government
came up with plans
you know,
a few hundred staff members
not only could take shelter
but also could direct
a nuclear war.
or COG.
we could see
thousands of members
a shadow government,
that is ready to take over
at a moment's notice.
♪♪
[ Explosion ]
-These weren't just
run-of-the-mill bunkers.
Some of them were entire
hollowed-out mountains
with small freestanding cities
that could support a population
of even a thousand people
for a month or longer.
♪♪
-The bunker system
remained a secret
until 1974
when a commercial airliner
crashed into the side
of a mountain in Virginia.
♪♪
The crash revealed a massive
secret installation
known as Mount Weather.
♪♪
-Mount Weather is now
an unclassified facility.
Everybody knows about it.
it was highly secret.
It was heavily guarded.
And it's where a continuity team
would go in the event
of a nuclear war.
and they would be able
to operate the government
even when almost everything else
had been wiped off the planet.
the Pentagon, CIA,
and domestic agencies.
-Top civilian officials would
hide away in Mount Weather.
But few knew
there was another secret bunker.
♪♪
you bump up against
Continuity of Government plans.
Sometimes you would
spot helicopters
practicing for evacuations
in the skies over the city.
in a bar,
an official would talk about
the secret facilities
that they were whisked off to.
and the most secret
happened by accident.
-A colleague of mine found
a government-intelligence
I.D. badge
on the floor
of a parking garage.
On the back were directions.
[ Engine starts ]
"What else is out there?"
So that launched me
on this journey
to try to map
this secret world out there
that I didn't realize
ever existed.
And the biggest thing I found
was the doomsday facility
known as Raven Rock.
like Area 51,
remains one of
the U.S. government's
most classified installations.
Could you describe
Raven Rock to me?
what it is
and what it's for?
-No.
-Raven Rock is an underground
backup Pentagon.
-It's the most unbelievable
place you can imagine.
You're 768 feet
below the surface.
-Don Cammel spent 3 1/2 years
at Raven Rock
as part of the president's
communication team.
He's never spoken
on camera before
about his time
working in the secret bunker.
they carved out
a city underground
that could survive a direct hit
from a nuclear blast.
you walk in,
and it's basically
an underground tunnel.
There's a glass door
that was 3 1/2-foot thick
that weighed 30 tons.
like,
an airlock,
and they had two of those doors.
you walk
another half a mile.
-A half mile deeper into the
mountain is the bunker itself.
-And you're going
past five buildings.
Those represent the five rings
of the Pentagon.
and they probably have 50
to 80 offices per floor.
-The buildings
are mounted on springs
to survive the shock waves
from a nuclear blast.
-There's a common cafeteria
000 people
three meals a day
for 30 days on lockdown.
They had a barbershop in there
with one chair.
generators,
if needed,
medical facilities,
and emergency command
and communication links
to the U.S. military
all around the world.
the presidential suite.
-The presidential suite
is a very secure area.
they had no access.
very curious
as far as
what was behind the door.
of course, a king-size bed,
and then there was a separate
kitchen set up in our suite
to feed 30 or 40 people.
which had the same display
that was a duplicate
of what they had
in the Pentagon.
and, of course, they'd look up,
and they couldn't see
through the glass
'cause it was a one-way glass.
you have to rewind to the 1950s.
♪♪
it was America's golden age.
But it was also the dawn
of a ruthless fight
for global supremacy...
-The United States
and the Soviet Union
stand on the verge of direct
military confrontation.
- in which both sides
built up an arsenal
of spectacularly
powerful weapons...
♪♪
that meant the next world war
would not last years
but minutes.
-There might be as little
as 15 minutes' notice
of an attack that could wipe out
much of civilization
as we know it.
And so the Eisenhower
administration began
an elaborate process
of contingency planning.
then they didn't want to have
any sort of layers
of review or approval
that would slow down the process
of responding
to a major emergency.
the U.S. government created
a nationwide
civil-defense program.
-We all know the atomic bomb
is very dangerous.
we must get ready for it.
there were fallout shelters,
places where you would go
if the nuclear war occurred.
there was water.
There were prescription drugs.
The notion really was that
you could go there and survive.
-The government starts
telling Americans that
but they could go
on living their lives
as long as they come together
in an unquestioning mass.
[ Explosion ]
-Duck and cover!
This family knows
that even a thin cloth
helps protect them.
Even a newspaper
can save you from a bad burn.
-But while the public was
being told to build shelters
the government elite were going
to hide under tons of rock
and reinforced concrete.
-There was an awareness
at the highest level
of the American government
that these civil-defense drills
were really window dressing.
massive propaganda effort
that bore almost no relationship
to reality whatsoever.
President Eisenhower knew
that this was all bullshit.
"If nuclear war comes,
there aren't going to be
enough bulldozers
to scrape the bodies
off the streets.
[ Explosion ]
♪♪
everyone was going to die.
that is,
but the chosen few.
The president
and the government elite
would ride out Armageddon in
massive nuclear-proof bunkers...
♪♪
while American citizens
died in the millions.
And while the average American
it was famously mocked.
"
the Kubrick film,
does an amazing job of parodying
the whole notion
of a nuclear bunker
and decisions being made
by a small elite.
it would be absolutely vital
that our top government
and military men be included.
It will foster and impart
the required principles
of leadership and tradition.
[ Grunts ]
-But the truth is
even stranger than fiction.
The bunkers are
just the beginning.
a secret monetary system,
and a classified plan
to suspend democracy itself.
And it all still exists
and could be put
into action right now.
♪♪
-The U.S. government spent
billions of dollars
to build a secret bunker system
to save themselves
in the case of nuclear war.
One thing the system lacks
is how to restrain
an out-of-control president
with his finger on the button
from starting that war
in the first place.
♪♪
July 2017...
Kim Jong-un's regime
test-fires an intercontinental
ballistic missile
capable of hitting
the United States.
President Trump counters
with a barrage of his own.
-North Korea best not
make any more threats
to the United States.
They will be met
with fire and fury
like the world has never seen.
-And a war of words
quickly escalates
into a full-blown crisis.
we will have no choice
but to totally destroy
North Korea.
-Meanwhile...
North Korea's propaganda machine
goes into overdrive.
While Trump's late-night tweets
caused many to fear
the United States
is 140 characters away from war.
♪♪
without questioning,
which is a completely
unprecedented
and disturbing development
for an executive branch
which has grown
in power and scope.
-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
and Homeland Security Secretary
John Kelly
made a pact at the beginning
of the Trump administration
to ensure that one of them
was always available
to clarify any orders
coming out of the White House.
ready for action
in a moment's notice.
But there's little they
or any other top officials
can do to stop the president
if he wants to launch
a nuclear strike.
willing, and able.
Rocket Man is on
a suicide mission
for himself and for his regime.
-We have a president
who is so dangerous
because this is a person who not
only has unilateral authority
to use nuclear weapons
but has multiple times now
and repeatedly shown
a desire to do so.
he actually
considered the idea
that a nuclear weapon
could destroy a hurricane.
-If North Korea's Rocket Man
actually launched
a secret evacuation plan
would have kicked into gear.
To get the president
and his shadow government
a vast secret transportation
network was created.
the helicopter that
takes Trump golfing.
-Everyone sees us land
on the White House lawn.
Shiny green-and-white helicopter
takes the president
back and forth
to help him fulfill his
executive agenda for that day.
-But Marine One
is part of a fleet
of highly specialized aircraft
that have a much
more serious function.
and we've hardened it
against all kinds of threats.
The real bread and butter
comes from
the communication equipment.
Our president can pick up
that phone inside Marine One
any combatant commander.
He can go through the Pentagon
and talk to
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
an entire
secret air force exists
to provide sanctuary
in the skies.
at this exact moment,
it's fully staffed.
It could be airborne
in less than 15 minutes.
they're known as the president's
doomsday planes.
-They've been modified so much
that the price tag on them
is about 10 times
the normal cost
of a regular commercial 747.
000 square feet
of conference rooms,
and private quarters.
To ensure electronics
aren't fried
the planes are covered
in wire mesh.
it's a flying
battle station.
The president can use it
in times of war
to fight back
against any adversary.
the president would turn to the
world's most powerful briefcase.
the physical manifestation
of all of the president's
vast powers is embodied
in the black briefcase
that is never more than a few
steps away from the president.
♪♪
-The so-called
nuclear football briefcase
is the closest thing
to the mythical
and often misunderstood "button"
the president can push
to unleash Armageddon.
8 minutes to make a decision
about whether to retaliate
and about what form
of retaliation to order.
there'd be a black book,
and the black book
has visual representations
maybe like the menu
at restaurants
that show you the pictures
of what you're going to order.
first of all,
authenticating
himself with an elaborate code,
and then he would communicate
the option he had chosen.
8, 7, 6...
the first missiles
will leave their silos
four minutes later.
♪♪
-And that decision would kill
hundreds of millions of people.
And perhaps put the earth
into a nuclear winter
destroying civilization.
He has to make that decision
in a matter of minutes.
That's almost
an impossible decision
for any human being to make.
-The nuclear football
is based in trust.
It's the idea that the president
that the president
is the most logical
and calculating thinker
that you can imagine.
All of that begins to fall apart
if the president himself
is the threat to the nation.
-This wasn't the first time
a seemingly unstable president
pushed the limits
of America's doomsday machine.
-Nixon took the country
and the world
to the brink of nuclear war
for no reason other
than politics.
[ Cheers and applause ]
1969.
Hippies dancing in the street
are oblivious to the fact
President Richard Nixon,
has just ordered
18 nuclear-armed B-52 bombers
to take off and head
towards the Soviet Union.
♪♪
-We want Nixon!
We want Nixon!
Nixon had run
as the law-and-order candidate.
He also claimed to have
a secret plan
to end the Vietnam War.
we haven't had
a moment of peace abroad.
we haven't had
a moment of peace at home.
when it goes that
far, it's time to make a change.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But now the country and the war
are spiraling out of control.
And the newly elected president
is desperate.
♪♪
-Nixon decides to start acting
in a completely
unpredictable manner.
He wants not just
the Soviet Union
but the people of Vietnam
to believe that he could unleash
the power of the nuclear bomb
at any moment.
-He began loading up
nuclear weapons on B-52s
and flying them in a way
that suggested
that he was
crazy enough to use them.
President Nixon believed that
he could persuade the Soviets
that it might lead to a peaceful
conclusion of the war.
-The challenge with that
was that the other side
might believe that
you would actually start a war.
♪♪
-Any miscalculation
by the Soviets might have easily
tipped the world
into a nuclear exchange.
And if the Soviets had believed
Nixon was crazy enough
they would have begun to unleash
their vast nuclear arsenal.
♪♪
-Nuclear war is basically like
a shootout in the Old West.
♪♪
Whoever shoots first...
has a better chance of survival.
[ Explosion ]
the American people would pay
a heavy price
for Nixon
poking the Soviet bear.
Los Angeles.
and there was no way
that we could prevent that.
♪♪
[ Explosion ]
♪♪
led by Carl Sagan,
determined that a full-scale
nuclear war
using hundreds or thousands
of nuclear weapons
couldn't be fought
without effectively
destroying civilization
and perhaps destroying
humanity as a species.
The survivors
would envy the dead.
-The American people didn't know
just how close
they came to Armageddon
in October 1969.
The Soviets called Nixon's bluff
and didn't cave in
to his provocation.
-It was a tactic
that didn't work.
But the fact that he could
do it at all is unbelievable.
Nixon would've turned
to the secret instruction manual
for handling such a massive
national emergency
that would give him the right
to rip up the Constitution
and throw away your rights.
And a version is still
on the books
and available for our current
president to use.
the authority is total.
But I have the right
to do a lot of things
that people
don't even know about.
The president of the
United States calls the shots.
Most Americans don't realize
the secret laws
and secret authorities
that have built up
around the presidency.
the American presidency
in ways that the founders never
could have possibly imagined.
but I don't even
talk about that.
-I can't think of any president
who has ever claimed
that Article II
of the Constitution
gives him the power
to do whatever he wants.
he has the ability
known as Presidential
Emergency Action Documents.
-The little-known Presidential
Emergency Action Documents
sweeping powers in the case
of a national emergency.
-These Presidential Emergency
Action Documents
are sort of like a loaded weapon
that has never actually
been deployed.
proclamations, and directives
that are drafted in anticipation
ready for the president's
signature in the event
that one of those scenarios
were to come to pass.
What's extraordinary
about these Presidential
Emergency Action Documents
is that none of them has ever
been released or even leaked.
even though they go to the heart
of the government's plans
for responding
to a major emergency.
and we don't know
what American democracy
would look like afterward.
-We have much less information
about the contents of current
but we do know what was in
some of these
up through the early 1970s.
the roundup and detention
of people listed
on an index
of so-called subversives
censorship of the press,
as provided in the Constitution,
which basically means
that people could be imprisoned
without judicial review.
and we know that there
were 56 of them in 2018.
They are periodically
revised and updated
to address current threats.
a cyber attack, pandemics.
And it's not as if nuclear
warheads have gone away.
We also know that
the purpose of them
is to imagine the outer limits
of how far the president
might possibly need to go
and to prepare
for that scenario.
-With the power of life
and death over the entire planet
and the ability
to kick in secret laws
the office of the president
of the United States
has been imbued
with almost godlike powers.
To ensure there's always
someone to wield
a vast system of presidential
succession has been created.
somewhere,
was always ready to step
into the presidency.
The president may die.
The presidency always lives.
♪♪
-And having someone ready
is never more important
than on the day all of
the nation's elected officials
gather for the peaceful transfer
of presidential power.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear
I would've become the president.
♪♪
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear..."
Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear...
-"...that I will
faithfully execute..."
- that I will
faithfully execute...
-"...the office of president
of the United States."
- the office of president
of the United States.
2017.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Donald J. Trump is sworn in
as the 45th president
after a campaign
that divided the nation.
-So help me God.
-Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
far from the Capitol.
Homeland Security Secretary
Jeh Johnson
ready to take over if something
terrible happens in Washington.
officials picked in advance
in the presidential line
of succession
at high-profile events,
there's always one person
ready to step in
if the unthinkable happens.
Jeh Johnson,
was once one of the federal
lawyers who signed off
on the assassination of
Osama bin Laden.
2017,
I actually had a fantasy
about how that day
was going to go for me.
I was very much looking forward
to leaving office
with the rest
of the Obama administration.
And I actually had
an app on my phone
hours, minutes
2017, at noon.
I was asked to be
the designated survivor.
-The idea
of the designated survivor
is a relatively
recent invention.
The recognition that the speed
and terror of nuclear weapons
in the modern age
requires the ability
to hand off the presidency
in a matter of minutes.
somewhere,
was always ready
to step into the presidency.
-Thank you.
in the event all the others
-The line of succession
moves down through the cabinet
in the order in which
the cabinet departments
beginning with
the Secretary of State.
And it goes through all
the federal departments
until it gets to the Secretary
of Homeland Security.
[ Cheers and applause ]
had catastrophe struck...
-What a great honor
to be able to introduce
anywhere, the 45th president
Donald J...
- I would've become
the president.
-While the American people
the president
of the United States
would've been a Democrat
and a man
who never attempted
to run for president.
But while
the designated survivor
is a publicly known plan
there's another secret plan
that goes even further.
-The Continuity of Government
plans
ensured the line of presidential
succession in a way
that would be unrecognizable
to most Americans.
-The idea was that the scale
of damage could be so great
that everybody
in the constitutional
and they would have
to reach way beyond
the constitutional
order of succession.
-In the event of a surprise
catastrophic attack
a host of officials
far from the Capitol
would suddenly raise their hands
and announce themselves
as the country's new leadership.
like United States attorney
but you would never imagine
that that person
would be president
of the United States.
there was an entire government
that was built separate
and apart
from what's contemplated
in the Constitution.
-Whether you come to office
because of the death
of the president
or the resignation
of the president
the authority,
including being
the commander-in-chief
of the armed forces.
and authority
even after losing an election.
the man once rated
the most popular
United States president
in history conceded defeat.
-The United States is unusual
in having
a particularly long period
between the election
of one president
and the departure
of another president.
It's about 2 1/2 months.
you have
a commander in chief
who may have been rejected
by the American people
has tremendous power.
-America might face one of
the most perilous chapters
of its history
as a man who has shown
no respect for democracy
or our democratic institutions
faces a lame-duck period
where he has all of
the authority of the office
and none of the sense
of responsibility.
-Will you pledge tonight that
you will not declare victory
until the election has been
independently certified?
I can't go along with that.
♪♪
-Donald Trump may end up
losing the election.
a president
of the United States retains
all the vast powers
the office has accumulated
over the last 70 years.
♪♪
there is this period
of three months
during which a president
who has been defeated
nonetheless is in charge
of the military.
Let's imagine a scenario
where a president
loses his bid for re-election
in part
because of some previously
existing mental problem.
He loses control.
If a president rolled out of bed
on a Monday
our hope would be
that the military officers
receiving the go codes
Mr. President,
that is not a legal order."
they don't have to.
they're supposed to go.
-We've seen so many
of the institutions
of the United States buckle
the Senate,
the Justice Department.
but the military seems to be
one of the last institutions
that he hasn't
managed to corrupt.
-It wouldn't be the first time
that a president's ability
to unleash America's nukes
was restrained.
Watergate
has dominated the news media.
It is my
constitutional responsibility
to defend the integrity
of this great office
against false charges.
Richard Nixon began to unravel.
His drinking was out of control.
talking to the portraits
and talking to himself
and talking to God.
He would talk about picking up
a phone and bombing his enemies.
-So Secretary of Defense
James Schlesinger
let it be known
to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
that any order to use
nuclear weapons by Nixon
had to go through him.
technically, if Schlesinger
had overruled Nixon
it would have been
an act of mutiny.
But he was sufficiently
concerned about Nixon's
mental health that he
wanted to make sure
there wouldn't be a catastrophe.
♪♪
-Who do you protect?!
Who do you protect?!
-But even if nuclear war
can be averted
by clearheaded officials...
-We step back!
Now you step back!
- all lame-duck presidents
have the ability to invoke
the top-secret Presidential
Emergency Action Documents.
-We know that
the Department of Justice
was in the process
of updating these documents
as recently as 2018.
what does
the Trump administration view
as the outer limits
of presidential power?
the authority is total.
And that's the way
it's got to be.
- Your authority's total?
- Total.
-That is not true.
Who told you the president
has the total authority?
-Enough?
-Trump has repeatedly hinted
about the secret powers
and the unimaginable
capabilities
that he could have
in an emergency.
we don't
literally know what those are.
-The worst-case scenario
is if this president
were to exploit the actual
emergency presented by COVID-19
maybe by provoking violence
in relation
to some of the protests
around police brutality
and to use those situations as
a pretext to deploy the military
or to engage in other extreme
uses of emergency powers
in a way that could undermine
a fair and free election
and undermine our democracy.
-They say that they're
going to threaten riots
if they lose on Election Night.
What are you going to do?
-We'll put them down
very quickly if they do that.
- How you gonna do that?
- We have the right to do that.
We have the power
to do that if we want.
it's called insurrection.
and we do it very easy.
what you're looking at
is a democracy
turning into an autocracy.
-We're entering a very perilous
chapter of American history...
-You're disrespecting the flag!
- when you can't trust
that the president
is acting in the nation's
best interests.
[ Explosion ]
would ultimately fail,
but I could imagine the arrest
of key members of Congress
or leading figures
in the United States
that would profoundly harm
our democratic systems
even more severely
than they are right now.
-Jews will not replace us!
Jews will not replace us!
I can't even
[bleep] believe
that we're talking
about these scenarios.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
We're talking about a scenario
of a president
imposing martial law.
The fact that this conversation
is even happening
is a sign of how bad things are
in the United States right now.
-We need to look at how
presidents can be restrained
because here
we have a president...
unstable, healthy individual.
-These plans and powers enable
the president to cause
the rest of us are left to die.
decisions of incredibly
profound importance
have been made by a small number
of policy makers
D.C.,
mainly in secret.
And it's really important
that the American people
and be part of the process
of debating them
because the consequences
of these decisions
are almost unimaginable.
♪♪
-2020 is the beginning
of the age of catastrophe.
It's kind of the future
warning us.
-All we want is justice!
We can't get justice?!
discontent, fear.
[ Explosion ]
-The apocalypse is sort of
closing in on us from all sides.
-It turns out none of the plans
that we had developed
during the Cold War would work.
-Everybody out!
shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.
hurricanes, and now a pandemic
just how wide the chasm is
between the powerful
and the rest of us.
-It is fascinating
how this disaster
seemed to disproportionately
affect poor black people.
you could see America
would do well
in the first 7 to 10 days.
-End the shutdown now!
-Then you're going to
immediately fall into chaos.
[ Glass shatters ]
-Back up!
Back up!
-The world is kind of on fire.
And the elites
are retreating into bunkers.
♪♪