It's the President! Again!

Is it People worthy?

History class is back! Make sure to tune in Tuesday at 11am PST on KSDT. This might be a shorter one than usual only because I (as expected) did not do a great job of setting aside time to write this. I had a busy weekend. I went out on Friday, to the beach and then drove home Saturday, Mothers’ Day and a concert on Sunday, and now it’s Monday and I haven’t started writing or any of my homework so this week is off to a great start. Anyway, this idea came to me in the same way a lot of my recent historical thoughts have: the Iranian Hostage Crisis. I might end up doing another show on that because I never actually talked about the hostages I just talked about Argo. That’s for another day though. I was thinking about how Ronald Reagan had a scandal pretty much day one in office with Iran-Contra. That got me thinking about how many presidents have both political and social scandals. This week I’m going to cover some of the scandals that have come with American presidents and rating them on two scales. The first is People worthy with 1 being absolutely not and 10 being major gossip material. The second is actually bad president with 1 being “I wouldn’t really lose faith in this person as the leader of the country” and 10 being “impeach now”. As a note I will not be covering any of the Trump years. There’s too much to tackle and it’s still ongoing but just know he’s at a 10 on both scales.

Getting started with a good one, we have John F. Kennedy and his affair with Marilyn Monroe. There were a lot of rumors about this one. At JFK’s 45th birthday in 1962, she gave her infamous performance of the birthday song. She died three months later. People (which has an article about this), argues that the Kennedys were involved in her death, but that seems ridiculous.¹ The magazine also claims that JFK passed Monroe off to his brother when he got tired of her shortly after his birthday party. However, Monroe’s second husband who I just learned is Joe DiMaggio does blame the Kennedys. He apparently never liked the family and had warned Monroe about them. Shirley MacLaine claims she saw both JFK and his brother visit the same room that Monroe was in one after the other.² I think the big note here is that JFK was married. In cheating on Jackie with Marilyn, JFK had the social scandal of the early 1960s. A part of the shock was that Monroe, being a movie star, was in a very different position as JFK, the president. Rating time! Is it gross JFK cheated on his wife? Yes. Would I lose faith in him as the president? Not really.

People worthy: 10/10

actually bad president: 2/10

Continuing with the same theme, we have Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky started working as an unpaid intern at the White House as a 21-year-old in June of 1995. According to Linda Tripp, who recorded her phone calls with Lewinsky which were used as evidence, the relationship started in November of the same year. She started working for the White House under George H. W. Bush and kept her job after Clinton was elected. She was moved to the Pentagon in 1994 for some ambiguous reason. Most accounts say she just had a really bad attitude.³ Lewinsky moved up to a paid position in December of 1995. She met Tripp in 1996 after being transferred to the Pentagon for “‘inappropriate and immature behavior’”. It is in the summer of 1996 where Lewinsky tells Tripp about her relationship with Clinton. In August on 1997, Tripp witnessed Kathleen Willey leaving the Oval Office clearly “‘disheveled’”. In the fall of 1997, she began taping her conversations with Lewinsky. Paula Jones’ lawyers subpoenaed Lewinsky in a case against the president on sexual harassment charges. Lewinsky denies having a sexual relationship with Clinton on January 7, 1998. Tripp goes to lawyer Ken Starr with the Lewinsky tapes on January 12. On January 13, Tripp is wired and sent to meet with Lewinsky. With approval from the Attorney General, Starr increases his investigation. On January 17, Clinton officially denied having a relationship with Lewinsky. At this point, the scandal has made it to print. Clinton continued to deny the allegations. On January 26, he said the big “‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.’” Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed the entire scandal was a “‘cast right-wing conspiracy’” against her husband. On January 29, all evidence involving Lewinsky is taken out of the Jones case. The case runs through September. Tripp claimed that she did not trick Lewinsky while taping her. Lewinsky first appeared in court in August 6, 1998. On August 17, Clinton officially admitted that he DID have sexual relations with that woman. The House Judiciary Committee announced that it would consider impeachment on September 24.⁴ The trial was held with two articles of perjury, one for obstruction of justice, and one for abuse of office. On December 19, the House voted in favor for perjury and obstruction of justice, but not abuse of office. In the Senate trial which was early 1999, Clinton was acquitted.⁵ To recap, Clinton (who was almost 50 when Lewinsky started as an intern) had an inappropriate relationship with a 21-year-old, had similarly inappropriate relationships with other employees, denied all of them, later admitted to them, and got half impeached (not removed from office). It’s much, much grosser than JFK because it still has the cheating on wife but also so much more. I’d say it’s slightly less People worthy because it involves a lot of complicated government stuff, but still high gossip material. Would I lose faith in Clinton as the president? Definitely more so than with JFK but not completely. It’s more just like gross.

People worthy: 9/10

actually bad president: 5/10

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand the Watergate scandal until maybe last year. I went to the Nixon Library and loved it, but I got kind of bogged down with the Watergate details. I’m still a little confused, but I’ll try my best. Richard Nixon was running for reelection in 1972. Fun fact about him: he ran against JFK in 1960, but his appearance heavily led to his loss. In the new age of television, JFK looked great. Nixon, however, was rumpled and sweaty. Americans wanted charisma and JFK won. That’s not super important to this I just think it’s interesting. There was a unit in the White House called “the Plumbers” which fed a conspiracy that there was a “‘counter-government’” working against Nixon. This reminds me of things a different, more recent president has been saying of late. The Plumbers essentially made it legal to use illegal activities against the so-called enemies of the president. The biggest leak was the “Pentagon Papers” which revealed both the origins and some of the conduct of the Vietnam War. The Plumbers formed after the Pentagon Papers were released. Some of the Plumbers went to work with the Committee to Reelect the President, aptly nicknamed CREEP. CREEP members had already tapped the phones of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel before getting caught on June 7, 1972.⁶ This wasn’t actually the first time something like this has happened. Lyndon B. Johnson used both the FBI and CIA to do the same to the Republican National Committee in 1964 and 1968. So did JFK, Harry Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt. Nixon supposedly did not know of the Watergate break ins. He also won the 1972 elections. I just read maybe four different articles and I’m still confused about who got caught and where and how. Anyway, reporters for The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein found that the whole scandal went high into the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and of course the White House. This was uncovered through a secret informant known as Deep Throat who turned out to be Mark Felt who worked for the FBI from 1942 to 1973. Deep Throat was introduced to the public in All the President’s Men, the book written by Woodward and Bernstein about the scandal. The great think about television is that it really is all reaching. Once Watergate hit the news, it was everywhere. One could argue that had there not been an increase in types of media, Watergate could have been kept a secret longer. On July 24 on 1973, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to provide the Watergate tapes. Nixon wants the tapes compromised but special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox refuses. Nixon orders Cox fired. A year later on July 24, 1974, the Court again orders the tapes. The House Judiciary Committee approved the three articles of impeachment of obstruction of justice, misuse of powers, and violation of oath on top of failure to comply with House subpoenas. On August 5, the “‘smoking gun’” tape is publicized and Nixon can be heard approving the FBI dropping its investigation on the Watergate break-in. Former Nixon supporters turn on him. Four days later on August 9, Nixon formally resigns. Luckily for him, he’s pardoned by new president Gerald Ford.⁷ It’s really just like how do you make this many bad decisions in a row? People worthy is low because this is a really complicated one. If you didn’t know a lot about federal government operations, it would be hard to get through the Watergate scandal. I think it’s also hard to make this sound fun. Would I lose faith in Nixon? Definite yes. The corruption runs deep.

People worthy: 3/10

actually bad president: 7/10

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Ronald Reagan? Did you know he has his own Wikipedia page for scandals because he’s had so many? The Iran-Contra affair happened in 1986, but it covered activities beginning in 1981. Iran refers to Iran. Contra refers to the right-wing militias in Nicaragua working against the Sandinista National Liberation Front. You might be wondering what these two things have in common. The answer is guns, money, and Ronald Reagan. On October 5, 1986, a former Marine who was captured by Sandinistas admitted to delivering supplies to the Contra forces through the CIA. A month later on November 3, a Lebanese magazine found that the US had been secretly selling weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the hostages. Let’s go back. Technically, both of these return to the Iranian Revolution and subsequent Hostage Crisis. Jimmy Carter, who was unable to secure the release of the hostages, lost the 1981 election in a huge landslide. He had 49 college votes to Reagan’s 489. People lost faith in his ability. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize how bad Reagan really was. The hostages were curiously released minutes after Reagan was sworn into office. In the same year, Reagan froze aid to Nicaragua but authorized the CIA to provide resources to the Contras. Reagan’s impact in Nicaragua was publicized in 1982, and both parties approved the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983 which banned providing resources “‘for the purposed of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua’”. However, on October 3, 1984, Congress approved an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 1984 which allowed 24 million dollars to be given to the Contras with the catch that it could not be used for “‘military or paramilitary operations’”. In March of 1984, William F. Buckley CIA station chief in Lebanon, was kidnapped by Hezbollah. Six more Americans were also taken hostage. Reagan being the class act he was insisted he would NOT negotiate with terrorists. Privately, he allowed for the National Security Advisor to negotiate with Iran which was tied to Hezbollah. The plan was for Israel to sell American missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of the hostages. Iran got 96 missiles but America got no hostages. A month later, Iran got 408 more missiles, and then America got seven hostages. What a steal! Weapon sales continued with the hope that more hostages would be released. Soon, Israel was no longer used as a proxy and America made deals directly with Iran. These sales were all off book. The money from which was used to fun Contra activities. The Tower Commission was formed in response to the affair to investigate the situarion. Reagan went back and forth on admitting his involvement. The investigation took almost a year and had over one million pages of documents. It found that of the 48 million made through weapons sales to Iran, 3.8 million was sent to the Contras and 35.8 million was used for “covert operations that were not reported to Congress.” There was no definitive finding that put Reagan at the scene of the crime. There was no conclusion if Reagan knew about the funds being used for the Contras. The final decision on Reagan was just kind of shrug, but the way he talked about it made it pretty clear he was involved. The report did recognize that as the head of the country, Reagan must be in some way responsible. These were his appointed staff after all. This one is still not as social as cheating on the First Lady, but it can definitely be understood by the average person. However, even if I didn’t already hate Ronald Reagan and ignored all the other bad stuff he did by the time this came out, I’d lose pretty much all my faith in him both as a person and as a leader. God I hate Ronald Reagan. I went to the Reagan Library by the way and hated it. At least the Nixon Library recognized Watergate. The Reagan Library really wanted visitors to think Reagan was God’s gift to America. It barely even talked about “Just Say No” which is a whole other story. To summarize, Ronald Reagan was and is the worst.

People worthy: 7/10

actually bad president: 9/10

Obviously, there’s a bunch of other scandals I skipped over. It might be fun to do a continuation of this for another day. I think these just show that the president isn’t actually better than everyone else. They lie, cheat, and commit crimes just as much as a regular person! We as a country like to think we’re better than everyone else but we really aren’t. Not in any way. My overall ranking for worst to least bad scandal goes Reagan, Nixon, Clinton, JFK. I tried to build things up. Anyway, thanks for reading through another week of history class and I’ll see you next week!

1. “Happy Birthday Mr. President” by Marilyn Monroe

2. “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

3. “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” by Public Enemy

4. “Hit ‘Em Up” by 2Pac

5. “Brenda’s Got a Baby” by 2Pac

6. “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” by Beyoncé

7. “The Pill” by Loretta Lynn

8. “Fuck tha Police” by N.W.A

9. “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye

10. “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke

1. https://people.com/politics/marilyn-monroe-affair-john-f-kennedy-robert-f-kennedy/

2. https://nypost.com/2024/11/02/entertainment/shirley-maclaine-marilyn-monroe-had-both-kennedy-brothers-in-bed-on-same-night/

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/tripp020798.htm

4. https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/resources/lewinsky/timeline/

5. https://guides.loc.gov/federal-impeachment/bill-clinton

6. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/richard-nixon-and-watergate

7. https://apnews.com/article/john-dean-richard-nixon-government-and-politics-crime-c7a7b99cca7c685cfc239f5e08b53378