Scandal

Sir?

I, Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III,

do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute

the Office of President of the United States

and will, to the best of my ability,

preserve, protect, and defend

the Constitution of the United States,

so help me, God.

I have to go.

I'm ready.

Well?

I'm done with the first half.

And?

You can cut Chapter Two.

Chapter Two is important.

Fitz gets shot in Chapter Two.

I rewrote Chapter Two.

Chapter Two is where I relate to the American people

through emotion and grief.

The American people don't care about your bromides

and talking points, Mellie.

What they do care about is you,

pulling back the mask and finally offering a real glimpse

inside the deepest, darkest corners of your soul.

That means you can cut Chapter Two... Olivia...

And replace it with the chapter on why you stayed.

What?

When you discovered that Fitz had taken up with a mistress,

you pretended not to know about it and you stayed.

Why?

That chapter is missing,

and that chapter is what the American people want to read.

It's what I want to read. It's all anyone wants to read.

Why did you stay? Why did you lie?

Was it 'cause of ambition, or was it for love?

What exactly was it about Fitz or the White House or herself

that made Mellie Grant turn a blind eye all those years?

What was running through her head?

Were you having an affair?

Did you have a side piece of your very own?

Because when Fitz was screwing another woman,

you didn't seem to care, and we want to know why.

You really can compartmentalize like nobody's business.

You asked for Olivia Pope.

You got Olivia Pope.

What year did Senator Grant graduate Yale?

Huck's on college and law school. Ask him.

He doesn't answer my questions.

He either pretends I'm invisible or growls like a dog.

That's just Huck. He growls.

That's not comforting.

Hey, what year did Senator Grant graduate Yale?

How should I know?

We're supposed to be fact-checking this book, Huck.

I am fact-checking this book, Marcus.

That's funny.

'Cause it looks a lot like you're watching a soccer game.

It's called multitasking.

Whatever. Here.

You might want to double-check your work.

Yes!

Yes.

What is this?

Your wake-up call.

"Do you consider Vice President Ross

a viable Presidential candidate?"

There's a number next to it.

93.

93%.

54% of people think you'd be the immediate front runner

for the Republican nomination, should you enter the race.

This is a poll. It's a wake-up call.

Well, this is...

It's...

Wow, 93.

That's... weird.

I already said I'm not running for President.

44.

I don't want to talk about...

The number of people who've held the Oval,

the one office in the world where you pick up the phone

and 10 minutes later, a mountain shifts.

That paper says you're one of the handful of folks on Earth

capable of doing that job.

Did you hear what I just said, Susan?

If you turn your back on this,

if you don't even explore the option,

you will regret it every day for the rest of your life.

I have a lot to say.

Good.

But I'm gonna take your advice and try to be more concise.

No.

This is a fantastic opportunity.

If we change the definition of the words "fantastic"

and "opportunity."

Lillian Forrester... Hack.

Is one of the most respected journalists in the game.

This will be big.

She did that piece on the Pope, the one you liked.

You said it was good.

It was smart, for Lillian Forrester.

The Vatican let her into its bedchamber

and she screwed them sideways.

She pillaged, she plundered.

She was fair and balanced.

She's a loaded gun.

She wants to fire at us, fine.

But to press the barrel of a gun to our temple?

My temple.

My temple.

Not ours... mine.

The election is closing in.

We're six months out from Iowa.

Now is the time to set the table for your successor.

A profile like this?

It's fine... When you're out of office.

The only thing she wants, the only thing she's interested in,

is fatally wounding you, stuffing you,

and mounting your head above her editor's desk.

Whether you want to accept it or not, Cyrus, I am on my way out.

Let's let our guard down a little.

Start shaping our legacy.

Set it up.

None of this has anything to do with my abilities as President.

You don't think so?

Why I stayed?

I shouldn't be wasting precious space on that subject.

It's inappropriate. It's irrelevant.

We need to find an answer, Mellie,

and we need to put it in your book,

because if we don't, people will speculate.

People can speculate all they want.

You realize this is the question you will get asked

at every step on your book tour, every campaign function,

every sit-down with Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters.

Trust me, you omit this part of your book,

it will only lead to more questions.

This is what they want to know.

They don't get to know.

It's none of their business.

You can't say that.

I know these are incredibly difficult questions,

but I wouldn't be helping you by avoiding them.

You got any actual food in this place?

And I mean besides cereal.

You don't know, do you?

You don't know why you stayed.

Well, do you know why you left?

I'm just asking,

'cause maybe your answer will spark something in me.

At the very least, maybe I can steal it.

I don't need to answer that question.

I'm not the one writing a book.

I'm not the one running for President.

You are.

You don't know, either, do you?

Tougher than you thought, right?

What's for lunch?

Ground rules...

If we choose to officially move forward with this article,

your questions would need to pertain

to previously agreed-upon topics only.

Those can be found on page two.

Lillian, think of these more as discussion points.

The President's past policies, his future plans,

and everything in between.

Emphasis, of course, on the between.

What we're doing in the present,

we're calling this our Year of Achievement.

Year of Achievement? Catchy.

This conversation is off the record.

I know. You're noting. There's no noting.

You don't even have the job yet.

Mr. President. How's it going in here?

Very well, sir. This is Lillian Forrester.

Mr. President. It is such an honor.

Let's hope you feel that way after these three days.

Sir, we were just going over some ground rules

for Lillian's article, should we decide it's a go.

Cy, she spent a week with Putin. I think Lillian knows the drill.

Mr. President, did you just compare yourself to Putin?

No. Mr. President did not.

I should write that down.

Do you know the meaning of "off the record"?

Of course I do.

Which is why I'm only joking.

I get it.

It's your court, your advantage.

You set the rules, I follow them.

But, frankly, I'm not interested in a heavily regulated,

closely guarded interview with the leader of the free world.

Nor is that what we want to give you.

I want a conversation with the man.

A meaningful one.

I want to know, is Fitzgerald Grant

hell-bent on making a difference

in the final days of his presidency,

or is he happy just tending the store?

I want to know if the man I voted for

thinks he succeeded or failed.