BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play – Open
Preview: 5/20/2025 | 1m 9sVideo has Closed Captions
Experts clash in a hypothetical power story of executive power. Watch a preview.
Watch a preview for BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play sparks civil dialogue in polarized times. Guided by UC Davis Law Professor Aaron Tang, a diverse panel explores ethical dilemmas in a fictional tale of executive power—told through two fictional U.S. Presidents from opposing parties. Complex, timely, and thought-provoking.
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Location furnished by The New York Historical. Funding for BREAKING the DEADLOCK was made possible in part by PBS viewers.
BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play – Open
Preview: 5/20/2025 | 1m 9sVideo has Closed Captions
Watch a preview for BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play sparks civil dialogue in polarized times. Guided by UC Davis Law Professor Aaron Tang, a diverse panel explores ethical dilemmas in a fictional tale of executive power—told through two fictional U.S. Presidents from opposing parties. Complex, timely, and thought-provoking.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch DEADLOCK
DEADLOCK is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- If you don't reign in executive power when it's your guy in office, then we're just on this never ending cycle.
- Right now we have a system that's selecting performance artists into highest levels of government.
We need leaders with guts.
- Can does not mean should.
- I've been in the Oval Office before with a resignation letter in my pocket.
It's not easy.
- Don't you have a responsibility to hold up your institution?
- Just do proximate justice.
Just try to get in the ballpark.
- The oath that I took, put my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, not to any one particular elected president.
- I am salivating at the subpoena power.
(group laughing) - Consider your political position before you step out here and cause a problem for yourself or the president.
- Criticism is legitimate, threats are not.
I've had death threats.
- Power is so intoxicating.
- You've gotta start talking to one another and you've gotta develop trust and you use the Constitution as the foundation for moving forward.
(upbeat music)
BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play – Preview
Video has Closed Captions
Preview: 5/20/2025 | 33s | Experts clash in a hypothetical power story of executive power. Watch a preview. (33s)
Chris Christie: Oath Over Orders
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Clip: 5/20/2025 | 3m 14s | Chris Christie questions executive power in this clip from BREAKING the DEADLOCK: A Power Play. (3m 14s)
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Clip: 5/20/2025 | 2m 41s | This BREAKING the DEADLOCK clip explores how a pardon debate tests justice, politics, and power. (2m 41s)
Power and Loyalty in the Balance
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Clip: 5/20/2025 | 4m 11s | Campaign finance issues test justice and loyalty, in this clip from BREAKING the DEADLOCK. (4m 11s)
Power to the People: Reclaiming Democracy
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Clip: 5/20/2025 | 4m 40s | How does America move towards a more perfect union? Watch this clip from BREAKING the DEADLOCK. (4m 40s)
Supreme Showdown: Courts vs. the Presidency
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Clip: 5/20/2025 | 3m 5s | A scene from BREAKING the DEADLOCK explores the courts’ role in checking presidential power. (3m 5s)
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Location furnished by The New York Historical. Funding for BREAKING the DEADLOCK was made possible in part by PBS viewers.