Part 1 http://democracynow.org
- We look at Robert Mercer, the man who is said to have out-Koched the
Koch brothers in the 2016 election. The secretive billionaire
hedge-fund tycoon, along with his daughter Rebekah, is credited by many
with playing an instrumental role in Donald Trump’s election. "The
Mercers laid the groundwork for the Trump revolution," Trump’s chief
strategist Stephen Bannon said. "Irrefutably, when you look at donors
during the past four years, they have had the single biggest impact of
anybody, including the Kochs." Before Bannon and Kellyanne Conway joined
the Trump campaign, both worked closely with the Mercers. The Mercers
bankrolled Bannon’s Breitbart News, as well as some of Bannon’s film
projects. Conway ran a super PAC created by the Mercers to initially
back the candidacy of Ted Cruz. While the Mercers have helped reshape
the American political landscape, their work has all been done from the
shadows. To talk more about the Mercers, we speak with Jane Mayer, staff
writer at The New Yorker. Her latest piece is headlined "The Reclusive
Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer
exploited America’s populist insurgency." She is also author of "Dark
Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the
Radical Right," which just came out in paperback.