TR1

[narrator] McKinley's running mate was
none other than Theodore Roosevelt,

put there by some Republicans who wanted
to neutralize his growing power.

[march music]

The ticket won.

But very soon, a tragedy would turn
America upside-down.

In September 1901, just six months into
his second term,

William McKinley traveled to the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo,

New York to take in the sights and give
a speech.

Among the crowd of well-wishers was
Leon Czolgosz,

an unemployed factory worker and
self-described anarchist who was enraged

at the disparity between the rich and
the poor.

[Richard Brookhiser] He just went through
the receiving line and he had a bandaged

hand as if he'd hurt it, and there was a
pistol in it and he just came up to

the President and instead of shaking
his hand, he killed him.

[gunshots]

[screaming]

[narrator] Americans were aghast at
the third presidential assassination in

thirty-six years, and they deeply
mourned their fallen leader.

[upbeat piano riff]

The Republicans' worst nightmare had
come to pass.

Theodore Roosevelt was no longer just
a heartbeat from the presidency,

he was the president.

"TR," as he liked to be called, was a
complicated man,

a mass of contradictions,

and he could not be bullied.

He was a conservative, yet he fought for
reform.

He was a hunter who started the
conservation movement.

A hawk on war who won
the Nobel Peace Prize.

Perhaps the only thing that can be
easily understood about him is that

he was an original.

[Douglas Brinkley] TR never identified
himself as a Republican.

In fact, I read a letter recently that's
been unpublished that his uncle wrote

and said, "What they don't understand
about Teddy is that he's a Democrat,"

that he was both.

He never thought in terms of pure party
politics.

He thought about what was right for the
American people.

And that's a great lesson for presidents
to learn.

You don't represent your party as much as
you represent the people.

If you do what's right for the most people,
what you think's right, you're gonna be

a great president.

[Brookhiser] Teddy Roosevelt was the most
exciting man you ever met.

It didn't matter who you were.

That's just what he was like.

He was impossibly energetic.

[Brinkley] What struck people about
Theodore Roosevelt was just how much

energy he had.

He was a teetotaler, didn't drink alcohol,
but drank a gallon of coffee a day.

So he was wired, all the time.

Roosevelt was one of these
people...

who...

sucked the air

out of every room that he was in.

He exuded charisma

in a way that required everybody to
pay attention.

Theodore Roosevelt, without question,
was the most electrifying politician

of his generation.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] Roosevelt was also a shrewd
politician.

He knew politics were driven by
personality and he used the sheer force

of his personality to get what he wanted.

[Brookhiser] Every issue with Teddy
Roosevelt is affected by his personality.

I mean, maybe more than any president
we have every had,

his personality infused,

uh, his politics,

and either won him supporters or
bitter enemies.

[Brands] He believed in good and
evil.

He believed that a single individual could
have a large impact on the course of

affairs.

He had the sense that there was room
in national life, even in this modern,

industrial age, for the same kind of
selfless heroism that he had read about

in the hero stories of the past.