ACOSTA: Based on everything that you have seen from your uncle in the last few days, I guess the question is are you even more concerned about his mental well-being because I think what we saw yesterday in the fire house was just another example. He just can't give this up. The sore-loserism that just is blanketing his party right now.

MARY: Unfortunately, I don't think people who support him see him as being a sore loser, even though he is, of course. Because it's a lie that he won the election. He lost decisively by almost 8 million votes. The problem is that he's continuing to be supported by Republican leadership or at least not criticized by them. They are not taking a stance against his spreading the first big lie about the election. They're not taking a stance about his second big lie about the insurrection, and last I checked, nobody pushed back on the fact that on the 20th anniversary of the worst tragedy to hit this country, he was commentating a boxing match to line his own pockets.

ACOSTA: Right. I want to talk to you about that, what your uncle did last night. He gave color commentary at a pay-per-view boxing match on the 9/11 anniversary. As someone with a degree in clinical psychology, I wanted to get your take on him doing that on such a somber anniversary. This is bizarre.

MARY: But it's entirely in keeping in what Donald always does. He doesn't understand dignity. He doesn't understand tragedy. He doesn't understand anything that doesn't pertain directly to him. And he will always push the envelope as long as he's allowed to. And this is the problem here. He's always allowed to. He's always allowed to get away with it. So you and I might think it's bizarre behavior because it is for any decent human being, but one, he's not a decent human being and, two, what's the -- where's the pushback? Nobody raised their voices on his side of the aisle against that appearance so he will continue to get away with whatever he can get away with as long as they let him.

ACOSTA: Yeah, and I hate even bringing up the subject of the former guy on 9/11 anniversary weekends like this one, especially one as important as this one, but the polling showing how he is favored by so many Republicans right now is really just unbelievable. And then when you see what he said this past week about the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. We can put this up on screen. He said in Virginia, a, "Embarrassment. We are suffering because we don't have the genius of a Robert E. Lee.: he also said in a statement "Except for Gettysburg, Lee would have won the war." All of this is just rife with civil war revisionism. "If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, this disaster would have been ended in a complete and total victory many years ago." Where do you start? It's just baffling, and it's brainlessness and just craziness.

MARY: And it's dangerousness because people listen to him and, shockingly, as you say, 63% of Republicans want him to be leader of their party. He seems to forget the fact that for four years he was commander in chief and did nothing but weaken our position in Afghanistan, first of all. secondly, he clearly knows absolutely nothing about American history. Robert E. Lee was very far from being a brilliant general. And beside which, Robert E. Lee was a traitor to this country who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans which sounds very familiar so maybe that's why Donald identifies with him so much.

ACOSTA: And maybe he identifies with the fact that he's a loser. He lost -- Trump lost. They're both losers. Let me ask you about the book, Mary. You talk about trauma. This country has been through so much trauma. You discussed this moment where your uncle famously ripped off his mask during his bout with COVID. Let's talk about that. You believe he was afraid in that moment. Why?

MARY: Because he was very ill and, as somebody who had very bad asthma as a child, I know what it looks like when somebody is struggling to breathe, which he clearly was. But beyond that, in my family, showing any kind of weakness, even if it's succumbing to a virus is considered fatal. You don't ever want to admit any kind of weakness at all. And he was probably quite afraid that he was not going to be able to either to pretend that he was okay or continue to recover, which ultimately he did, but I saw a completely terrified man who didn't know what to do in that moment.

ACOSTA: And one thing you share in the book is that after you first learn your uncle had been elected president you spent a few weeks at a treatment center to figure out why his elevation to the White House had undone you. What did you learn?

MARY: I think it had mostly to do with the fact that knowing Donald as I've known him my whole life, he's a deeply unworthy person and it just felt like a lot of times in our lives the worst among us has the most success, is the person who is elevated, is the person who is allowed to get away with everything. And again, that goes back to what you said earlier about Donald's identifying with Lee as a loser. Robert E. Lee, despite what he did, was pardoned in the early 1970s by Gerald Ford, and he had a career as a college president and was not really punished for his treason. Donald is in the same boat. He has created all sorts of horrible situations for people in this country, and he continues to roam free and make things worse for people's lives because he's not being held account accountable. So this is how we wind up in these situations while the rest of us are left to flounder.