American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 38.2 Gerald Ford

Episode Date: January 1, 2023

We have covered his early life as an all American football star and war hero - now for part two where... he... erm... becomes president despite no one wanting him and he annoys everyone? Yep.

Welcome to Totalus Rankium, this week, Gerald Ford Part 2. Hello and welcome to American President's Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I am Rob and this is episode 38.2. It's the second and final part of Gerald Ford. And it's also a New Year's special. It is a New Year's special if you're listening to this when we release it. It is either the last day of 2022 or the first day of 2023 depending on how editing goes yeah i'm hoping to get it out like about tomorrow afternoon is what i'm thinking jamie the episode or something else oh no that's for the uh that's for new year's party after it's jamie I see. Anyway, before

we continue, cue the sad music, Jamie. Ah, damn it. Press play on it. Oh. Okay. Well, if you listened to Ford when it came out, like the day it came out,

you will have noticed there was a massive mistake at the end. If you listen to it since, you won't, because I went back and I edited it because it was just such a stupid mistake. I just cut it. But for those of you who did notice it, I, for some reason, just said he became the speaker

at the end of the episode. I have no idea why I said that. It was almost like a throwaway. It's like, yeah, and then he became the speaker. He didn't become the speaker at no point did he become the speaker. I said that. It was almost like a throwaway. It's like, yeah. And then he became the speaker. He didn't become the speaker at no point did he become the speaker. I knew that. I have no idea why I said it or why I missed the edit. I've tried to explain it to myself

and I think it can only be described as my brain just doing one of those things. Yeah, I think that's the safest way. I mean, even I knew he wasn't the speaker, Rob. Why would you say that? What a foolish thing. Anyway, so I've cut it from the episode. He obviously didn't become the speaker.

But if you downloaded it though, at the time, you probably got a super rare edition of the episode. Yes, yes. So keep hold of that. That'll be worth something. Yeah, hence. One day. If NFTs can be worth something, Jamieie i don't see why that can't

um right okay so that's that um so sad music over let's continue shall we so let's have an introduction how are we going to start today let's start with one of those massive explosions you see in like a really ridiculous 80s action films like a whole factory just go exploding massive fills up the whole screen just just huge debris flying everywhere yeah full 80s yeah fire smoke sparks sparks fire smoke all sorts uh you can't tell what's going on around it it just looks all very dark but you can tell there's an explosion. It just starts with the ignition of an explosion and it just fills the screen. Yeah. Do we have to take this out of the budget for the episode? Is this a budget heavy episode because we've put that scene in?

No, don't worry. There's not much going on budget wise in this episode, so we can afford this. Okay, excellent. Especially when you see what I'm about to do. So start panning out. What you thought was just a sort of night sky dark background, you soon start realising on the edges of this explosion that that darkness actually looks like black rather than darkness.

There's a difference. In fact, it looks surprisingly like black material. It's almost as if this explosion has taken place in front of some black material. It's a bit strange. And then your perception shifts like things do in these cases. You think you're looking at one thing, but it's actually another. What you thought was a massive explosion far away is actually a quite small explosion really close. And as you pan out, you realise... Like cows! A bit like cows. You realise that this explosion is taking place in front of fabric, not just any fabric, but the fabric of a pair of

trousers. And you realise that you're on a really, really tight shot of someone's crotch, Jamie. Exploding? Yes. Oh! Yes. And this explosion, it's a very small, impactful explosion directly in someone's crotch. And you pan out, you pan out, you pan out, and you just see a man in his mid-40s just collapse to the floor, holding on to himself, and that's when all the screams come in. Yeah. Some of the shrapnel hits the screen and scratches across the lens.

Just the word Ford Part 2. What the hell? That's right, Jeremy. We've got exploding groins in this episode. Wow. Actually, I should rephrase that. I can guarantee you one exploding groin. Okay.

Any others, I can't guarantee. Purely incidental. Yes. Okay. Oh, I'm hooked. Good. There we go. The intro has worked. Okay, so here we go. Ford, like I say, he's not the majority leader. He's not the Speaker of the House. He's the minority leader, obviously. That's where we're going to start, because if you remember, Nixon has just become President, and Ford is very disappointed that he's not the speaker but hopefully having a friendly colleague in the white house would be good for a change he's used to being the minority leader with a democrat in charge so do you think ford went into the house or the senate wherever he is and just kind of was silent for about six months. And people got very worried about him. It's like, why aren't you speaking?

He's like, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. It's like, no, you're not the Speaker, but you can speak, Ford. Yeah, that definitely happened. Yeah. That's why he's disappointed. He'd been silent for quite some time because he'd not been the Speaker for a while. Does that mean everyone, everyone in Congress is not allowed to speak apart from the Speaker?

Yes, that's now the rule. Cool. Okay, then. That sounds that sounds that's us law excellent right well things don't start off great apart from the fact that he doesn't speak because despite the fact that nixon's his sort of chum and he's in the white house as we covered in his episode nixon's not really want to play by the rules got a bit of a reputation for that if you remember did he oh yeah yeah and uh ford was a bit of a stickler for the old rules, he was. So there's probably going to be a bit of friction coming up. One of Nixon's aides noted, and I quote here,

I discovered Ford, when he disagreed with Nixon's policies or programs, just didn't work our bills. Madness. Well, essentially, Ford was finding that Nixon didn't have much time for Congress. He wanted to run the government through the executive branch and just ignore the legislative branch entirely. And in fact, he wanted the minority leader to act more like a smear campaign arm for his administration. So, for example, if Nixon disagreed with anyone, which he often did, he saw it as Ford's job to publicly denounce that man on the Congress floor.

Ooh. Yeah. Even if what they're saying is factually true. Yes, exactly. It was all partisan politics for Nixon. Ford wasn't too happy with this. In fact, Nixon went as far as instructing Ford to start impeachment proceedings on a Supreme Court judge.

Now, Ford later said that he did this anyway for his own reasons, not because he was instructed to by Nixon or his advisers. Honest, honest, honest! Don't forget, we've got a lot of recordings of what happened in the Nixon administration. And yeah, Ford was definitely asked to do this and Ford did it, even though he said later on that it was his own decision. But either way, Ford decides, okay, I don't want to fight partisan battles in the house. That's my house. But the Supreme Court, yeah, okay, then that's a better place to fight our partisan battles. So he goes for it. Now, this is quite a long and convoluted story, so I'm just going to cut it very short.

It went nowhere, and Ford ended up looking a bit silly. He went after Supreme Judge. It was very obviously partisan. The whole thing fell apart. Ah, wonderful. Now, usually Ford was seen as being a very sensible politician who wouldn't get up to this kind of nonsense. So he damages his reputation slightly here.

That's unfortunate. Yeah. Now, by the time the midterms come along, things were looking even worse for Ford because the Republicans lost even more seats, which is typical for the party in the White House. So his dream job as Speaker seems further away than ever. He speaks even less for a while. He puts another bandage over his mouth. Yeah. while he puts another bandage over his mouth.

Many in the GOP pointed towards Nixon as the reason they were not doing well. It didn't help that Nixon's administration was pulling away from the GOP. Again, as covered, Nixon was a law to himself. He didn't care that much about the party. I will do my own thing. Yes, that's what he said, repetitively. And then Creep started up. You remember Creep? Yes.

The campaign. No, not already had song. The campaign to re-elect the president. Oh, yes. Crep. Crep. Oh, crept. But definitely not Creep.

Anyway, Creep starts up. This was all Nixon's men, remember? Not party men. This was Nixon's men. And as much as I'd love to go into all the nonsense of Creep starts up. This was all Nixon's men, remember? Not party men. This was Nixon's men. And as much as I'd love to go into all the nonsense of creep again, because it was ridiculous, this is not Nixon's episode. We saw how well that went. Anyway, shortly after all this, whilst riding his car,

Ford heard something over the radio. Somebody had broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Breaking news! Someone had broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Breaking news! Someone had broken into the Democratic National Party thing in the hotel, at the Watergate Hotel. Terrible news! Yeah, that's a good clip from YouTube you managed to find very quickly there. Yeah, it's pretty good.

They're very professional about that. They were. Yeah. They didn't even use scripts, did you not know that? No, no, they didn't. They didn't use scripts know that no no they didn't they just just went for it uh yeah that that came on over the news and ford a little bit shocked i mean he assumed this was the work of freelance renegades of course yeah i'm quoting that i love the idea of freelance renegades just rushing around washington trying to make some extra cash by digging up the dirt yes oh just standing up with big placards on the side of the street

freelance renegade open for business twelve dollars an hour get your dirt get your dirt on the politicians yeah this was someone looking to make money using information, thought Ford. There's no way politicians would take such a stupid risk for such a small payout. Of course not. Politicians are representative of the people. They are impeachable in their character and their actions. Exactly. And even if politicians are a bit dodgy, they're not stupid. They wouldn't risk everything on a stupid break-in

that wouldn't actually gain them much, surely, thought Ford. No. So when more information came out, Ford later described himself, and I'll quote here, as flabbergasted. I have not the slightest idea why anyone would undertake such a stupid action. Yes, his ghast was well and truly flabbered.

Just why? Why would anyone do this, he thought. Literally shot himself in the foot. Yep. Both feet with a rifle. But of course, Ford is now one of the leading members of the GOP. And rumour was circulating that the president actually was in on this. No, I would be flabbergasted if that was the case.

No, apparently the rumour is the president not only knew about it, but was actually like orchestrating stuff like this. But we are representatives of the people. We were voted in. That would never happen, surely. Well, Ford went to the ex-attorney general who we came across in Nixon's episode. This is the friend of Nixon, John Mitchell. Ford looked Mitchell directly in the eye and asked him, has the president got anything to do with this? Mitchell looked right back in Ford's face and said, no. Nothing at all. Nixon is innocent.

I was hoping you'd do like the guilty puppy thing, looking everywhere but at Ford. It's like, look at the floor, look at the floor. No, innocent! No, if we can believe Ford's account, Mitchell was very believable in his outright lie at this point. Now, I'm not going to retread Watergate again. We spent long enough on it.

And Ford didn't really get involved. He kept out of the way of the investigations which is a sensible political move yes when scandals are starting to pile up you don't want to get in the way and after all he had been assured by those in the know that nixon was clean so he could just occasionally say things like i support the president knowing that that's clean but get out of all the murk and the mess that was going on. Yeah. So yeah, he just didn't say much on the subject.

He towed the party line. He minimalised any investigations or inquiries, et cetera, et cetera. He did do a couple of things, though. As minority leader, he was active in squashing right Patman's committee into the break-in, which I mentioned briefly. This is one of the early committees that looked into Watergate that didn't go anywhere, mainly because of political pressure from people like Ford. As we saw, come the next election, despite the Watergate scandal bubbling along, albeit

under most people's radar, Nixon did incredibly well. This is the one where he absolutely stormed it. Best election results of any president, bar Washington and his doesn't count. Yes! He said. Yes, if you remember, the Southern strategy had worked. Southern strategy being,

let's pander to the racists. Modern! But also, not only that, his diplomatic work with China and Russia seemed to work as well. The public liked what they saw. There's a man I can trust. They said in unison every time he walked past them.

It was weird. So with one of the most decisive victories ever by a president, surely the Republicans also finally won the Congress. Yeah? No. No. No, they lost seats in the Congress. Yeah? No. No. Oh. No, they lost seats in the Senate.

Damn. Yes. A side note here, though, by the way, this is the election that Joe Biden gets his Senate seat. Really? Oh, that's weird. Yeah, that's really weird, isn't it? That's really weird.

No, that's weird. No, he's too old. Yeah, I had one of those little kind of hang on moments whilst I was doing my research and quickly looked up a date and went, oh, wow, no, this is, isn't it? That's insane. So, yes, the current president, time of recording, joins the... He's important, Jamie.

Joins the Senate at this point. He's far too old to be president. He is far, far too old. Oh, well, never mind, eh? Yeah. So, they lose seats in the Senate and they only gain 12 seats in the House, which is nowhere near enough for the Republicans to win. So, yeah, it was a popularity victory for Nixon

and it did not spread to the rest of the Republicans. Ford, once again, denied the role of Speaker. It's just happening over and over again. did not spread to the rest of the Republicans. Ford, once again, denied the role of Speaker. It's just happening over and over again. And if he can't win when the Republican presidential nominee wins in a landslide, is it ever going to happen? He'd been in the House now for over two decades. He had done pretty much whatever the administration had asked him to do,

and he wasn't seeing any reward. Rewarded by who, though? Because surely they're voted in. Well, rewarded by the public. He's doing his job. Yeah, but so is a clothesline. Doesn't mean I'm going to elect a Speaker of the House. True.

But as you can imagine, it is very frustrating. He is one step away, one election away. I pay my dues. Yeah, and this is something that traditionally pendulums from side to side. So in theory, it's a matter of time, and yet it's just not working. So he decides to quit. Oh. Sorry. Maybe that's why we've still got an episode.

Maybe no one heard him. Ah, yeah, probably. Yeah. No, it's because he didn't quit immediately. He told Betty, remember that's his wife, that he was going to see out this term as minority leader, then do one more term not as leader, and then leave Washington in 1977.

That's the idea. He's going to retire from politics. Good year, though, because he can chill out to some Led Zeppelin. Yeah, exactly. I think that was his plan. Yeah. There's an up-and-coming band in the UK. It'd be good to listen, check them out.

Oh, Queen as well. Oh, come on, Jamie. Led Zeppelin passed their peak and released all their good albums by this point. I know, but they're across the pond, so either they're patours and... But if you think about it, Ford won't have known that Led Zeppelin have passed their peak by this point, so maybe he's hoping they're going to go on to Best Strings.

Yeah. Anyway. Good point. Now, as we obviously know, the idea of quitting never does pan out, but why not? Well, this is largely due to the unravelling of the activities of Creep and the Watergate scandal and all the stuff we talked about in Nixon's episodes.

More and more evidence starts coming out against Nixon. More of the GOP starts speaking out against the President. It was becoming clear to the party that Nixon wasn't doing them any good. Yes, he won on a landslide, but what's he done for us? That popularity is not passing on to us. And in fact, he's starting to look corrupt. And that will pass on to us. Yeah. Ford, however, stayed loyal. Now, he later claims in a biography that this is because he still had the personal assurance of John Mitchell that Nixon knew nothing. So he was personally convinced that Nixon was innocent. That John Mitchell stared him right in the eye, he did.

Right in the eye, shook his hand. Do you think he's still doing it? Just followed Ford around, just staring. He's innocent. Whispering as he sleeps the word innocent over and over again. Innocent. Yeah. Now, this is not actually very likely.

Not the weird stalking thing. That's not likely either. But no, it's not likely that Ford actually thought Nixon was innocent by this point. It was becoming very obvious that he wasn't innocent. The tapes, the video, the people, the fact he's in front of Gerald Ford. Yeah. Whilst in the Oval Office. I'll do it again the moment your back is turned.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, more likely Ford realised that it would not help him to pile on nixon right now if he's retiring soon he'd have an easier few years towing the party line rather than being a rebel it's not is it really being rebellious if you're denouncing a corrupt president um yes to begin with eventually the tide will turn uh but it hadn't yet by this point. So he wasn't going to be one of the first to throw his hat into the Nixon's actually bad ring. Hedges bets, fair enough.

Yeah. And then something happened that would change his life forever. Struck by lightning. Yes. Brilliant. And from that point on, he had magical powers. Oh, so cool. Not really good ones, though.

He's like, he could telepathically move objects objects but only a hand's distance away yeah and only objects that were not in his line of sight yes which i mean is practically useless pretty much yeah yeah yeah but he could do that but also same night uh the vice president agnew came under investigation for bribery which i briefly covered in nixon's episode yes not just bribery sorry bribery conspiracy and tax evasion uh this yeah remember this was completely separate from watergate and all the other problems surrounding the president this was the vice president was equally corrupt in his own way. Now, Agnew was up to his eyeballs in crime, swimming around in the crime he was,

loving every moment of it. He was taking kickbacks, he was avoiding tax like no one's business, and he was caught dead to rights. As much as Agnew proclaimed his innocence, just incidentally, as the president was doing, Baltimore prosecutors had done their homework and they had all the evidence that they needed.

And this did not look good for Nixon. Well, if the vice president is lying through his teeth, maybe Nixon is. So, no. Well, the administration did very little to help, understandably. A deal was worked out, however. Agnew would pay a fine of $10,000

and resign from public office but no jail time because huzzah yeah democracy yeah um so there you go october 73 agnew resigns in utter disgrace and nixon needs to choose a new vice president and he knew he had to choose carefully here the party were turning on him and his seemingly infectious corruption and for the last five years since the 25th amendment kicked in congress had also had the power to confirm the choice of an appointment of vice president oh really uh, yeah, Nixon wasn't going to be able to just ram someone through here. It's going to go through Congress as well. Now, Nixon wisely went to the party and asked who they wanted. He asked all GOP members of Congress, all GOP governors

and state party chairs to make a list of three choices, put them in a sealed envelope and send them to him. And I can only imagine he had a jolly evening one day opening all his posts and creating a spreadsheet. And soon there was an obvious split because post-Eisenhower Republicans had split into two factions by this point. There was the more liberal wing of the party. They threw their weight behind Nelson Rockefeller from New York. Yes, the incredibly rich liberal. Well, more liberal than the conservative wing.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And remember, this is back when the GOP weren't solely conservatives and even more right-wing conservatives. There was definitely more of a spread back uh at this time but yes there was the more conservative faction and they were throwing their weight behind a man called ronald reagan who you might want to put a box around he'll he'll never achieve anything he's just an actor exactly oh come on well um these two came in roughly joint first.

There was a big split between them. Yeah. Yeah. Understandably, because they were the two main factions in the party at the time. However, who's this in third place, thought Nixon. Well, actually, it's the person I want to be my vice president. It was a Democrat who had only recently turned Republican the year before. Very few trusted him.

He only came third due to Nixon putting pressure on people. And Nixon realised that actually this wasn't going to fly. However, who's this in fourth place? It's none other than Gerald Ford. That's right. When his party was asked who should lead us, not even lead us, when his party was asked who should be vice president,

he came in fourth place. But because of this, not even lead us, when his party was asked who should be vice president, he came in fourth place. But because of this, as you will see, he will soon be the president of the United States. I'm guessing they want to choose somebody that will bring both sides together. Exactly. He was a compromise choice. Yeah, that's the word. He didn't want to choose one of the leaders of two factions.

He couldn't choose his pal, the Democrat. So he goes to the only man that everyone thought was fine. No one really wanted Ford, but no one didn't want Ford. And that meant he was the man for the job. That's almost insultingly depressing. Yes. It's like, like yeah he'll be fine yeah exactly he'll do be fine um people who didn't not want him also included the democrats the uh speaker of the house let nixon know uh by the. President, the only man on that list that you're going to be able to get past Congress easily is Ford. We don't want anyone else.

And remember, the Democrats own Congress at this point. So, yeah, there you go then. He's the only safe choice in a turbulent time. So on October 73, Gerald Ford was invited to the White House and became the Vice President of the United States of America. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I think I've done enough. I think he's allowed to speak now, because Vice President is above speaker.

Oh, rip the scream. Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, it's a good job he can speak, because he makes a speech. Ford, to make sure to temper expectations, shall we say, delivers this rousing speech, which I'll quote, Imagine the national anthem's blaring, the jets are hovering in the background. Flags waving.

Flags are waving. Fireworks. The aliens have surrendered and have just given up and gone home everyone just a crash sphere in the background for independence day yeah and he stands up and he says i am a ford not a lincoln i am proud to be one of 200 million americans i promise my fellow citizens only this to uphold the constitution to do what is right as God gives me to see right, and, within the limited powers and duties of the Vice Presidency, to do the very best I can do for America. Then someone comes out with a kazoo and plays the National Anthem.

The aliens, they put away their white flag, they're not surrendering anymore. The aliens, they put away their white flag. They're not surrendering anymore. Yeah, I just love the, I promise to do the best I can do within the limited powers and duties of the vice presidency. Ford knows that he's got no power. He's not going to be able to do anything. But don't say that in your speech, Ford.

Yeah. So there you go. He's vice president. What does the vice president do, Jamie? Don't they sit in Congress and determine if there's a split? If there's a tiebreak. There's not going to be a tiebreak. The Democrats own Congress.

Oh, in that case, nothing. Yeah. He gets an office in the White House. He gets a little room. Well, he's got a lot of spare time. So what's he going to do? He is going to do the job that Nixon gives him. Go and campaign on my behalf.

Convince everyone i'm innocent are you no less i mean yes after all mitchell had said that he's innocent so ford spends the next eight months flying to and fro across america appearing in 40 states and making over 500 appearances at various dinners and lunches that's a lot not just dinners and lunches by the way because you're probably imagining like grand affairs and hotels and three-course meals and are we talking cafes and greasy diners oh yes yes we are um one event he turned up to was the opening of a container wharf that was was exciting. And this one, this was another lunch, but it was a group

of seventh graders. Oh, I suppose it's a little table with a sandwich. Yeah, exactly. The press soon started to joke that if you couldn't get

the local chief of police to appear at an event, you could always ask the vice president of America. And he definitely turned up. Oh, that's quite cutting. It's wonderful.

Yes. Yeah, so he went around the country essentially telling everyone that Nixon's all right, don't you know? Yeah, completely innocent. Yes. I know that because Mitchell told me so. Yeah. His other job was to take over from the old vice president and what his role was. Now, Agnew's role was spitting vitriol at the left, something that Agnew did naturally.

He did not like those damn lefties, and he let everyone know. He had a way with words, did Agnew, shall we say. And yeah, Ford, could you carry on doing what Agnew was doing, please? So Ford starts to give some very unusual for him speeches. These were speeches that had been written for Agnew and in no way adapted for Ford. So he just suddenly starts sounding like a different person. Were they just really awkward and kind of just had to...

Is that the right word? It was just full of name-calling and baseless accusations, essentially. I don't know if you could imagine such a time in politics where people would just... No. The left are poo-poo heads, and they smell like cheese that's been left out on a playground. That's what it would have been had they ever adapted it to Ford. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. You got the idea there. Yeah, as you can imagine, these actions put Ford firmly in the pro-Nixon camp, whereas before he was seen as a fairly non-partisan politician when it came to national defence and a loyal Republican when it came to everything else,

but generally a sensible man in Washington. Now he's started to come across as a stooge for Nixon. He started talking about massive propaganda campaigns trying to bring down Nixon. The problem with the administration was, in fact, due to external pressure groups from the left. Nothing to do with Nixon. It's amazing. That's even done now. It's ridiculous.

Oh, yeah, definitely. The president was innocent, damn it. And everyone would soon see, he said loudly one day. This was all a witch hunt, he said very enthusiastically. Sharp cut. later that day five minutes later pretty much yes it was later the very day that he he declared all this was a witch hunt and everyone would soon realize that nixon was innocent that it was found that the white house had purposely deleted an 18 minute conversation from those tapes that were recorded

in the oval office that we talked about in nixon's episode. Nixon was guilty as sin and everyone knew it. The only ones defending him by this point were those too deep to pull themselves out. Ford was very much one of these. He was aware that his job was to defend Nixon, so he got on with it. Eventually, his friends start to intervene. Seriously, Gerald, call it with the rhetoric slightly. This is not going to end well. Just tone it down a little bit. Seriously. But I have a speech to read.

It's here, look. Stop saying he's the most innocent man since Jesus. I mean, it's not going down well. Him hiding or holding a Bible is not proof of anything. I mean, it was upside down. Well, Ford continues to defend Nixon. He did, to be fair, tone down the rhetoric somewhat, but he kept up his tour of the country.

One reporter wrote at the time, someone ought to do Jerry Ford a favour and take his airplane away from him. Yeah. Shortly after this, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to hand over the rest of the tapes and the noose tightened around the president. Ford continued his tour of innocence. Many started to think of him as a foolish puppet. He was flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. Nixon, however, wrote to him, thanking him for support, telling Ford that history was going to see him as one of the most,

and I quote here, capable, courageous, and honourable vice presidents in the history of America. We'll be the judge of that. Yes, we will. It then became clear that the House was going to impeach. Now, as we covered, this is it. It's over for Nixon. Yeah. Nixon knows it. Everyone knows it. The entire world knows it. It's just over. He's done. Asked comment, Ford declared that

as every Democrat on the committee had voted for impeachment, this was clearly a partisan attack. It's nothing to do with Nixon's guilt or innocence. This is just the Democrats playing politics. Of course, that's what it always is. Well, he did then have to add onto this statement, I assume through gritted teeth, and I'll quote here, even though some Republicans

also voted for it. So it was entirely partisan, apart from those Republicans who also voted Yeah But they're false They're lefty socialists Probably

He then said that Nixon Simply had to indicate that he was innocent And everything would be fine Yeah Meanwhile Nixon was privately deciding he had to resign This is late July, early August. And now we introduce a man named Haig. Haig is Nixon's new chief of staff.

His last chief of staff had to resign in disgust. Wow. Yes. So Haig, the new chief of staff, met with the vice president on the 1st of August. Haig went over the contents of the smoking gun tape. So, Ford, we're going to be handing over this tape soon, and this tape proves that Nixon has been lying through his teeth the entire time, to the public and to you. He also mentioned something else in this meeting, though. According to the legal boffins, said Haig, and I'm paraphrasing here, Nixon might be able to pardon himself before he leaves office.

Could you imagine that? That doesn't sound good, does it? No. But if Nixon can't do that, if that doesn't fly, then, well, the next president definitely could pardon him. And we don't know what happens in that conversation. Ah. Yes. Ford forever maintained that no deal was ever made at this point. But it would appear that this is the first time that a pardon is mentioned.

We know that Ford went back to his office afterwards and talked to his advisors, and then very shortly after that, called Haig and clarified that he wanted no part in Nixon's resignation and they could count on him for nothing to do with any pardons. La la la, shortly after that, called Haig and clarified that he wanted no part in Nixon's resignation and they could count on him for nothing to do with any pardons. La la la, wrong call, wrong caller. I don't know who you are. Puts the phone down. So he distanced himself immediately, but we don't know what conversation actually took place in the meeting. I might be missing, you might want to cut this out because it might spoil what's coming up, but I'm pretty sure Nixon got pardoned, didn't he?

We'll get to it, Jamie, don't worry. Okay. So as soon as he tries to distance himself from the idea of any pardon, he then goes and tells reporters that he still thought the president was innocent of any impeachable offence. Did the press just laugh? Probably. And just to really make this clear, he has just been told by Haig that Nixon is guilty. And after that, he is still saying to the public

that he thinks Nixon's innocent. So he is just now out and out lying. He can't even claim plausible liability anymore. But I mean, at least he's loyal. Yeah, there is that. Maybe he'll get some points for that. Maybe. Yeah.

Anyway, the transcript was released of the smoking gum tape. The world saw that Nixon was doing what pretty much everyone knew he was doing, lying through his teeth. And Ford finally gives up the act. He admitted that the public interest was no longer being served by his insistence of the innocence of the presidency, which is a very convoluted way of saying, yeah, maybe you did it. He also, however, highlighted that he'd not heard the tape or read the transcript,

so he couldn't really comment on it. Absolutely not. Maybe there is something. Maybe it's not. I've not read it. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, this is ridiculous. Obviously, the smoking gun transcript was read by everyone. You couldn't avoid it. The idea that the vice president hadn't read it was ludicrous.

But this will be very familiar to anyone who saw any member of Congress being interviewed during Trump's presidency. This is a tactic that is still being used to this day of, oh dear, I don't want to comment on that. I'll pretend I don't know about it. Anyway, Ford then goes and meets with Nixon. Apparently it was a bit of a tense meeting. Nixon looked very ashen and unwell.

It was agreed that Nixon was going to resign, but Kissinger needs to stay in place. Just don't get rid of him. But yeah, I'm going to go. And Ford, you're going to be president. And that's what happened. Ford is sworn in. The first president never to have been even elected as vice president. No one has chosen Ford.

He's there because he came fourth in an internal GOP poll. A bit like Rishi Sunak. Oh yeah, very much like that. Yeah. Anyway, he addressed this in his inaugural address. He wasn't blind to the problem here. I'll quote him. I am acutely aware that you have not elected me

as your president by your ballots. And so I ask you to confirm me as your president in your prayers. I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. That's when the jets rise up

and the National Anthem plays. Ah, aliens crash land. Yeah, there we go. They surrender again. Yeah, it's great. Excellent. The nightmare's over. It's all over.

It's great. Hooray. Ford's in charge now. The hope of Ford. It's all over. It's great. Hooray. Ford's in charge now. The hope of Ford was that he would be able to heal the wounds that the corruption of Nixon had brought on the government of the United States and, in particular, the Republican Party. I don't know. Can you heal?

Can you really? Like, if you get cut on your jugular, can you heal that easily? Oh, we'll see. To begin with, no one seemed to pay him any attention i mean he made that speech and he had all these hopes and everything but everyone was just watching nixon giving his tearful goodbyes and getting on air force one leaving in disgrace no one really cared what this new guy was doing i imagine ford was sat in the oval office at a desk on his own, just wondering why there was a little lemon there with his own little desk.

Oh, I forgot the lemon. Oh, yeah, Lionel's definitely there. He's looking very kind of hard-skinned now. Lionel just looks up, turns to Ford, and just goes, Is he gone? Yes, he is gone. It's fine. I'll look after you.

Ford, though, realises that he wants to distance himself from Nixon, so he puts Lionel in his own little drawer in the Resolute desk so no one knows he's there. And he stays there. Oh, yeah, yeah. He gives advice to everyone. Yes, he does. You hear about presidents leaving letters to new presidents when they leave.

Do they sign underneath the desk? They all sit right under the desk, don't they? Well, that's a lie. What they actually do is they just give a message to Lionel and Lionel repeats it. Let's pass this on. Anyway, so the world's watching Nixon and Nixon's humiliation. Ford, meanwhile, and his team get to work. First of all, like I say, they need to

not look like Nixon. That is number one on the list of things to do. Transparency. Take away the walls of the Oval Office. Not quite that, but yes, pretty much. Redecorate the Oval Office. Move pictures around. Make it look different immediately. Let's make it square. Yes. Make it look different immediately. Let's make it square. Yes. It'd be so much easier to wallpaper. Well, Ford heads to the press room within an hour of being sworn in and told the press that they would have the same rapport and friendship

that they'd always had. Just because he was president now and not the minority leader or the vice president didn't mean anything had to change. No hiding from the press from him. Oh, no. See? Not like Nixon. No. Yeah. Now, him. Oh, no. See? Not like Nixon. No.

Yeah. Now, to begin with, Ford kept Nixon's cabinet. In particular, like I said, Kissinger stayed, as did the chief of staff, Haig, who, in his own words, had been running the country for the last 10 months. But over his period of being the president, Ford slowly gets rid of all of Nixon's people

and brings in his own, which causes friction in the background, but nothing hugely major that but yes no that's that's what he does uh most important though is his vice president choice he brings in rockefeller oh the liberal billionaire yes conservative wing of the party not happy about this but there's not really much anyone can do at the moment the republican party isn isn't shattered. I mean, okay, that's happening, is it? And the public, according to the polls, were very, very happy with their new president.

Because a lot of them had looked at him and realised quite quickly, to give them credit, that he wasn't Nixon. Yeah. That's quite an astute thing to recognise. And that was good. People liked that. Him not being Nixon,

ooh, he got some good polling numbers for not being Nixon. It was great. And then things improved even more when Ford overturns a Nixon policy because he decided that a conditional amnesty should take place for draft dodgers of the Vietnam War. He said those Americans who had fled to Canada to avoid the draft could come back, work two years in a public service job, and all will be forgiven.

So that was good. That went down well with the public as well. The honeymoon period for Ford continues. But then everything falls apart. It's almost a month to the day after Nixon resigned in disgrace, and Ford announces that he's going to make an announcement. On Sunday morning, on the 8th of September, he appeared on national television. And I'm just going to play you a clip. Oh, brilliant. As president, my primary concern must always be the greatest good of all the people of the United States, whose servant I am. As a man, my first consideration is to be true to my own convictions and my own conscience. My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as president, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book.

My conscience tells me it is my duty not merely to proclaim domestic tranquility, but to use every means that I have to ensure it. to ensure it. I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right. I do believe that right makes might, and that if I am wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

I do believe with all my heart and mind and spirit that I, not as president, but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy. Finally, I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will

continue to suffer no matter what I do, no matter what we as a great and good nation, can do together to make his goal of peace come true. Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution, have granted, and by these presents do grant, a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States, which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period

from July 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974. Oh. So that happened. Yeah, it did. That's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, this came as a bit of a shock to many. Yeah, it's like, yeah, but he committed a crime, lots of crimes. Yeah, after months and months of Watergate becoming the only thing anyone was talking about,

and the president finally being caught out lying and being forced to resign, and then, what? He just gets away with it? Is that what's going to happen? Yep. Now, many reporters in Washington had heard rumours that Ford would do a pardon, but everyone assumed it was going to be like a limited pardon. It was going to be something like, anything from a certain time up until this point in regards to this, we're going to shut down. But as you heard, that was literally anything he did or may have done at all in the period of almost five years.

That's it. I can only imagine Nixon was listening to that, gleeful, but also possibly slightly sad that he didn't commit a couple of armed robberies. I don't know, just murdered a few people he didn't like during that time. I could have done so much more. I could have razed Los Angeles to the ground. So there you go. I mean, that's it. Full, full, complete pardon for everything.

Completely gets away. But how do you think that goes down? I'm guessing, because it's been in the mind of so many people that just wanted justice. I think a lot of disappointment, a lot of like, well, screw you. Yeah, overnight, the press and a huge portion of the population turn on Ford completely. And a huge portion of the population turn on Ford completely. Headlines came out calling Ford as blundering, stating that all his credibility had gone.

The Boston Globe even said that this was an abuse of presidential power. Well, it technically wasn't. But you can see where they're coming from. 60% of people polled disapproved of the move, which doesn't sound like a huge amount, but there'll be lots in there that just didn't have an opinion hundreds of letters of protests came flooding into the white house the switchboard was full of calls of complaint um and it wasn't just the public uh judges who presided over cases about Watergate so far, they were livid because they had sent men to prison for this. There were men in prison right now because of Watergate.

And what, Nixon just gets to walk? Oh, yeah, the problem is he's been furious. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hang on! And also, there are a lot of people, not just Nixon, there are a lot of people in the administration who are also guilty of sin. And they realise that if Nixon's pardoned, then the wind's going to go out the sail of the prosecution,

and they probably won't be got either. But anyone who has already been convicted, that's it. They're screwed. But if you survived up to the pardon, oh look, it's magic. Huzzah. Democracy. Hooray! Yeah.

So this goes down about as well as you can imagine, really. Far from putting Watergate to bed, it just seemed to many as a continuation of the corruption of the government. Ford's supporters, to be fair, denied that the pardon was part of any deal, by the way, because there was rumours that this was a deal. No, of course not. Yeah, no. Ford was vice-president when the smoking gun

was discovered, so he was going to be president regardless. Nixon and Haig had nothing to give Ford, so why would there have been a deal? And it would appear that Ford decided to pardon Nixon all on his own. His opponents, however, argued that Nixon had probably said to Haig

to relay this message. And this is going back to this meeting that I said we don't know what was said. The argument is that Haig said to Ford, unless you pardon him, Nixon won't resign and he will drag the Republican Party through the mud. He will fight tooth and nail until there's nothing but ashes. Unless you give him a full and complete pardon as soon as you're

president. Now, there's no way of knowing whether that's what happened or not. It could be that Ford genuinely thought that this was the best way to put the whole Watergate thing to bed. Either way, it doesn't look good, does it? No, it's got very bad optics. Yeah, I mean, we are talking one of the, if not the most corrupt presidents in the history of America,

and what, just nothing. He gets away with it. So a lot of people just assumed that there was a corrupt bargain made. Whether there was or not, we don't know, but that's what people thought. Now, Ford is no fool. He realised that this isn't going to go down well, so he did attempt to sweeten the pill slightly. There'd been a lot of looking into the legality of pardons by the lawyers at the White House, understandably, and it was decided that a pardon didn't mean that the person was innocent. Now, apparently, this was the common thought at the time.

Now, because we've lived through the Trump era, we have heard time and again that pardons don't mean innocence. But back at this time, the pardon wasn't used quite so often, at least not so publicly. So people assumed that a pardon meant the person was innocent. But oh no, no, said the lawyers and then Ford very loudly. A pardon was an admission of guilt with no punishment. Ford really wanted to hammer that point home. Yes, I'm pardoning Nixon, but that, that means he's guilty. Legally, look everyone, who, all of you, who wanted him to go to trial. Well, you win. You didn't even have to go to trial.

He's guilty. Hooray. Justice is done. Huzzah. Yeah, yeah, just didn't work. It's a ridiculously bad argument. So the day after the pardon, Ford went to Pittsburgh, and during a speech on inflation, a chant started up. Jail Ford. Jail Ford. Ooh. A placard was raised that simply read, Up Yours.

As you can see, public not happy. The day after this, the Senate passed a resolution urging Ford not to pardon the president. It passed 55 to 24, but, I mean, it just didn't do anything, though, did it? Almost overnight, Ford's approval rating dropped from an astounding 71 all the way down to a 50. Still higher than Trump's. Well, it's higher than Trump ever got,

but it's higher than I believe Biden's got. It might not be quite true. I mean, in our very highly partisan politics that we have today, opinion polls of 71 are utterly unheard of. Yeah. Yeah. Dropping 21 points overnight. That's quite a...

Yeah. Yeah, that's huge. Criticism came thick and fast against the president, but he wouldn't budge. Not at all. In fact, he even agreed a month later to appear in front of a public hearing by the House Judiciary Committee. Now, he didn't need to do this. This was almost unheard of.

The last president to do such a thing was Abraham Lincoln. But he thought this is important. No one elected me. I made a huge decision. I should have to go in front of a committee and explain myself. That's quite respectable. Well, I mean, dodgy reasons for doing it, but it takes guts to do that as a politician.

Well, yeah, he didn't need to do it, and he did it. So I think he does deserve credit there. For two hours, he was questioned. All of this was live on TV, by the way. It wasn't behind closed doors. Ford gave a strong performance. He insisted that what he did was nothing to do with Nixon or its crimes, but because he was the president

and he needed to get the country to move on as quickly as possible. If everyone was obsessed with Watergate still, nothing else would get done. And believe me, there's a lot of stuff we need to get done in this country. That's a good argument. It was a convincing argument. At one point, he was accused of making the deal that I've talked about, and he banged his fist on the table and loudly declared there was no deal, period.

But nothing came from the committee, as you can imagine. The thing had no teeth. If Ford was hoping his opinion polls would go up after his appearance, however, he was disappointed. Everyone's made their mind up. Well, yeah, a lot of people thought it was an awful decision, and they stuck to that. So Ford goes on to try and focus on running the country and not worrying about Watergate. Because, yep, there's stuff to do. There's labour disputes going on.

There's an agricultural shortfall going on. Also, somewhat mysteriously and worryingly uh unemployment was rising at the same time as inflation oh that's weird well the this this was stumping the experts i mean usually usually you got one or the other the two were meant to be uh mutually exclusive if unemployment was rising inflation was meant to come down and vice versa so So what's going on here? This has never happened before. Inflation meant the economy was running ahead arguably too quickly, but that usually meant more jobs were being provided. So unemployment comes down. What's going on?

It wasn't just in America this was happening. Obviously, global economy and all that. A conservative politician in Britain stood up in the House of Commons and dubbed it a stagflation, and the name caught on. So that's what it was called. It was called a stagflation. The economists attempted to figure out what was going on, but Ford needed to actually tackle the problem. He couldn't wait.

So he went direct to the public. He had a genius idea. The plan's very simple. He was going to tackle the inflation side of things. If he, he figured, just told everyone to stop spending so much, that would lessen inflation. Okay. Yeah. Whip inflation now, it was called.

Or the acronym of WIN. There were buttons made up and everything. Little pin badges that were made and sent out to people. It was all very exciting he let the public know that if everyone drove five percent fewer miles then the country would save a quarter of a million barrels of oil a day which sounds good yeah your your reaction sums it all up you're just looking mildly confused um that everyone was just mildly confused by this and no one was listening um yes the economy was stagnating but it wasn't in dire straits enough that people actually found the need to change

their lifestyles so if people had the money they were going to spend the money they're not going to just stop buying things because the politicians told them not to and given them a badge uh win became a bit of a joke to many. Yeah, because even, you know, I think most people in the UK are now criticised by government, but one thing they did during the pandemic was very much, you know, go out and spend because that will help.

Just spend, don't hoard it, spend it because that just keeps money going. Ah, but this was a different problem. Well, yeah, I guess so. Because business was ticking over fine, which is, in fact, quickly, which is why inflation was going up. But employment was also going up, which just made no sense. That's true.

The idea was to deal with inflation in a way that just slowed the economy down slightly. Now, fortunately, Ford didn't just work on making badges. Ford didn't just work on making badges. He also put in place a 10-point plan to deal with the problems of the economy that was based more on acronyms and goodwill. The main one is, let's actually get some money out of the mega-rich. Let's raise taxes. Is he turning into a socialist? Well, I mean, taxes were raised on everyone,

but yeah, it's going to hit the rich more um it was one way of dealing with the the situation yeah it is going to help uh if you were only tackling the one thing that wasn't an unusual economic situation um but you can guess how this goes down with many pull the funding from the gop well i mean especially in america uh they have a a thing about taxation in america they don't like it are they they really don't so this did not go down well after the pardon and the tax hike and the stupid pin badges ford's popularity was plummeting even quicker and the midterms were upon them. The Republicans suffered, as everyone knew they would. They lost five more seats in the Senate and nearly 50 in the House.

50? Yeah. The Democrats, who already really controlled Congress before this, now had a ridiculous majority. So much, in fact, they now had enough to override even the president's veto oh wow yeah which is almost unheard of uh ford was utterly powerless and he knew it he's lost all his power there's no way he is ever getting anything through congress and he can't even veto stuff anymore he's now just a named upup president. Yeah, very much so. Then things get worse in December. A story broke that the CIA, apparently,

had been illegally wiretapping more than 10,000 US citizens. What? No! No, not the CIA. Absolutely not. Yeah, this had been part of the CIA trying to crack down on anti-war messaging, but as you can imagine, this had just turned into the CIA spying on whoever they wanted, for whatever reason at all. Most of them were civil rights activists and anti-war activists, but it's just whoever they wanted. It was the CIA.

This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg, because in January of 75, three commissions were set up to investigate the various goings-on in the CIA after this revelation came out. And soon enough, all sorts started coming out. Did you know the CIA had attempted to assassinate, on more than one occasion, a foreign leader? What? I know. I know, Jamie. No!

Yeah, including Castro, don't you know? And also, they were involved in all these economic coups in South America. In fact, if you've really got down to it, you could make an argument that the CIA were up to some dodgy stuff. Dodgy? That's a brave... Yeah. Dodgy stuff. I can only assume back then it was a bit more of a shock than it is to us now.

Because obviously we know how awful the CIA have been throughout history. We just go, well, of course. Yes, of course. It's fine. That's just the CIA, isn't it? That's what they do. Anyway, Ford's able to keep his distance from this, fortunately for him. After all, most of these revelations coming out all took place under Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

Nothing to do with me, Gov, he said. I imagine some people said things like, weren't you for a very long time like one of the overseers to the finance of the CIA? Didn't you spend years in a locked room discussing exactly what the CIA got up to with their money? Isn't that like the committee where no notes are ever taken and no staff are ever in there? No? Yeah, so there's no evidence of it ever happening at all. Anyway, with the country not liking him, the opposition accusing him of making corrupt deals, and his own party blaming him for the midterms, Ford decides to go on a tour of Asia, get out of the country for a bit. Yeah.

Yeah. So he visits many countries, and he was in fact the first sitting president to visit Japan. Ah. He also went to South Korea, and then it was up to Asian Russia to meet with the Soviet Premier Brezhnev. The two of them got on quite well personally both like sports and the outdoors and stuff so that was a a good in but they weren't there to talk about sports obviously they were there to talk about the nuclear weapons that they owned and the strategic arm limitation talks or salt which

i've mentioned a couple of times before yes but this is what kissinger and nixon have been working on and actually to their credit had actually made some progress on. The negotiations were struggling along, shall we say. It's all very technical. I'm not going to bore you with the details. But the problem is that the US and the USSR had, by this point, deviated a fair bit in their nuclear weapons arsenal. Because disarmament sounds simple. Let's say if two countries have five nukes each, I'll tell you what, we'll disarm one of ours and you disarm one sounds simple. Let's say if two countries have five nukes each,

we'll tell you what, we'll disarm one of ours and you disarm one of yours. And then once we've checked, we've both done that, we'll both disarm the next one. You go first. You go first. Yeah, so I'm about to do it. As soon as you just put your finger on the delete button of a nuclear weapon, I will do the same.

After three, we're done on three. So, yeah, and just take it in turns and just reduce one after another yeah that makes sense doesn't it trouble is real life is more complex than that how do you do it when you're not talking about two countries with five nuclear weapons you're talking about two countries with a vast plethora of nuclear weapons that all look very different. Was, for example, a backfire bomber equal to a Tomahawk cruise missile? All right. Yeah, said the people in the meeting. Yeah.

How do we reduce this? If we reduce, I don't know, it's just messy, isn't it? So there was a lot of talk going on. Thought continued in the talks. Concessions were given on both sides uh salt too looked like it was underway and ford was quite proud of himself he figured he'd done a good job he was expecting to get home to not a hero's welcome but at least acknowledgement that he had done a good job towards world peace. Yeah. No, no, not at all.

Hawks in Congress were loudly claiming that the talks favoured Russia far more than the United States. That is debatable, but the Hawks definitely thought so. But more troubling was the fact that the public had reached that point that no politician wants the public to get to. Revolution!

Yes. No, not quite that bad. We want a monarchy! No, the public to get to revolution yes no not quite a monarchy no uh the public had got to that point where they were just looking for things to pick at because they decided they don't like him uh this trip was full of photos of him drinking vodka with russians and shaking hands with the japanese sympathizer yeah well didn't he know that the economy was in trouble at home and you're off swanning around Asia having a jolly while we're struggling at home? Ooh, that president.

He's awful. And to be fair to the public, the economy was in trouble. Recession was looming. It was here that Ford decides to take some action. He does need to focus on this now. He abandoned the previously announced rise in taxes. Instead, everyone's going to get a tax cut. Ooh.

Yeah. Okay, that's a shift in policy. That was a bit of a U-turn, screeching halt and then... Handbrake on, turning the wheel. A car flips a couple of times, but it lands on its wheels, so it's fine.

Yeah, but okay, well, how are you going to raise money then? You can't just do that and hope things are going to be well. That's fine. I'm going to put a windfall tax on the oil companies because they're rolling in it at the moment. Yeah, it is a completely different and brand new direction. It is. Economy, very complex.

And we're not going to get into whether raising taxes or lowering taxes with a windfall tax was the right choice to make. All we need to know is that he was criticised for those who didn't like the windfall tax because he flip-flopped. And those that did like the windfall tax just saw him as weak because he flip-flopped. Yeah, he does not come out of this looking good. No one thinks he's made a good decision. Even those that kind of think he made a good decision think that he just doesn't really know what he's doing because he's all over the map. It happened in our country about six months ago. Oh, yeah, definitely.

Our government decided to do a windfall tax after one of the parties the opposition had said do it do it and they finally did but i probably said oh you're just doing a u-turn yeah exactly yeah but it's kind of what you want it's yeah so that exactly it reminded me heavily of that um now uh he is receiving criticism from all over the place, but no more than the right of his own party. By this point, firmly led by Ronald Reagan. They'd had enough of Ford. They saw him as weak and pandering to the Democrats. Yes, the Democrats controlled Congress so much that they could practically undercut anything Ford did.

So Ford therefore had to work with them. But that didn't mean anything. That wasn't the point. Ford should be standing up to them, not to work with them. But that didn't mean anything. That wasn't the point. Ford should be standing up to them, not pandering to them. What was even worse, according to the Conservatives and the GOP, his wife Betty was saying some truly horrifying things. Betty had said that her and Gerald's teenage daughter had probably tried marijuana at some point.

Oh my goodness. Because who hadn't it's the 70s in america she also said that her daughter might well have pre-marital sex at some point well no one did that before 1970 whatever it is yeah um betty didn't say that she had it's just it could be something that could happen. But this wasn't the worst that Betty had said. She had not long ago said that the recent Roe v. Wade ruling was, and I quote here, a great, great decision. Ooh.

Yeah. As you can imagine, these comments, and ones like them, led the Conservatives and the GOP to come to one conclusion. Ford had to go. However, Ford's too busy with the biggest problem, having faced the previous two presidents, to fight his own party at this time. That obviously is Vietnam, because it's still there. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, quick recap. After years of a grinding war that was going nowhere and killing countless people, the Paris Peace Accord took place in 1973. A ceasefire would take place, the United States would start withdrawing troops,

prisoners of war would be released, and North and South Vietnam would remain as North and South Vietnam. In other words, everything would remain the same as at the start of the war, it's just there now be a lot of very sad people, and very dead people. Huzzah. Far more graveyards than there used to be.

Better than that, it's the same. Now, by this point it was clear to pretty much everyone the United States had lost. But no one's going to go around and say things like that, certainly not in America. America doesn't lose wars uh this was a strategic withdrawal yes the north had promised not to invade the south and that's what we were fighting for after all we were protecting the south and the north just said they're not going to invade the south so therefore uh this is a victory well

victory it's a draw it's a draw that's it is. It's a maintaining of standards that was already there. Now, no one believed this, obviously. No one believed this. But a lot of people pretended it was true. But one person who couldn't pretend it was true, obviously, was the president of South Vietnam. Because he had not been part of the peace talks. The peace talks had been between the united states and north vietnam

yeah so he had angrily mentioned this to nixon it's like you're supposed to be defending us and helping us why wasn't i at the peace talks oh sorry my invite must got lost in the mail well nixon had sent uh the president of south vietnam a, in secret, promising that if the North broke the accord and invaded the South, the United States would be right back in the fight, don't you worry. No one knew about these letters. That Nixon was good at being president, wasn't he? He was brilliant. Anyway, Ford's now in charge, and he is a Republican president who needs to appease

the Democrats in Congress in order to get anything done. Ford realises, okay, one way of getting the Democrats to look on me favourably is getting out of Vietnam as quickly and painlessly as possible. It's ongoing anyway, let's just get on with it. Let's stick with this. That's not to say that Ford was all for peace at any cost. If you remember, the last episode, his time in the military and his work on the Appropriations Committee for the military had led him to be seen as

a hawk during the Vietnam War. He was very much pro-war. But getting out with dignity was really the only option left. It was time to do it. But then, North Vietnam in January of 75 invaded South Vietnam. And captured a South Vietnamese city.

Obviously, in clear violation of the Paris Accord. But we told you not to! Well, Ford's initial response was, we need to do something about this. This isn't leaving with dignity. This looks suspiciously like we've lost. But again, he was powerless. Congress had the power at this time to limit the president's use of troops abroad

up to 70 days without congressional approval. Oh, wow. Which he would not get. So there's no point trying to start anything with the military. The North realised this, so they start pouring into the South. The president of South Vietnam

then released the nixon letters oh you guys promised you would help you said you'd come back and fight if this would happen as you can imagine this puts ford in a huge bind yeah should he do what he deep down probably wanted to do which is get back involved in the fight once more. He didn't want to lose face. Or should he do what was politically inevitable, according to most, and just let the South fall? You're asking me? Yeah, what's he going to do? I think he'll let it fall.

He hasn't got the power to do anything. Like 70 days, you can't... Yeah, I mean, to begin with... You can't put something in there and just take it out. It's like, sorry, it's halftime. Well, to begin with, when pressed by the press about the letters, he fell back on the old what letters. He claimed he'd not read these letters that were now publicly available

and in all the news articles and over the radio and on the TV. Why on earth would the president have read those letters? Anyway, he said, oh, I don't know, I've not read those. Anyway, the United States why on earth would the president have read those letters? Anyway, he said, oh, I don't know. I've not read those. Anyway, the United States is going to follow the Paris Accord and so should North Vietnam. So essentially, I'm not going to do anything. Feeling the guilt and frustration, however, he did try and drum up support in Congress to send financial aid to South Vietnam. That's better than nothing, I guess. Well, yeah. I mean, he knows that this is going to extend the war.

He knows that it could even drag America back into the war, but he's going to do it anyway. But it doesn't go anywhere. The South starts to fall rapidly. Ford was informed that the country would be taken within four weeks. The president of South Vietnam resigned, gave a speech blaming the United States for selling them out, and then fled to Switzerland.

In a speech Ford gave in trying to raise money to help aid Saigon's caretaker government, he stated, and I'll quote him here, Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam, but it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished, as far as America is concerned. refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned. What was not planned here is the crowd, mostly made up of students, heard the phrase

a war that is finished and all started cheering wildly seeing it as a victory. It's like huge cheers. The war's over. It's not quite what Ford meant by this, but that's how everyone took it. The war is over. over i mean not in a

literal sense the war is very much not over in fact the war is currently being lost as much as you can lose a war the north is pouring into the south and the united states were fleeing but it was over for the american public who had grown to despise their government sending their men halfway across the world to die for a reason that they struggled to understand do you think um Ford had that on purpose well deliberate misunderstanding was all kind of um it's it's hard to be sure I've not put this in my notes because I thought it'd be uh get a bit too convoluted but it definitely annoyed Kissinger um because Kissinger wasn't expecting the president to say the war was finished at this time. And there was a bit of an argument based around that.

But yeah, what follows this is a frantic, a messy withdrawal from Saigon. Thousands of US men were still in the fallen capital, not just soldiers, but also diplomats and just people who were over there working there. Many had been there for years, had families in the city. So Ford approves the evacuation efforts. Thousands were flown out in planes, but the planes started to be shot at by the North Vietnamese. So then helicopters were sent in. It got to the point where helicopter after helicopter was airlifting people off the roof of the American embassy.

This is really last days in Saigon. Oh, yeah, that's where that comes from, isn't it? It is literally the last days of Saigon. That is what it is. All a bit messy. He also made it clear that any fleeing South Vietnam were welcome in the United States. If you're a citizen of South Vietnam and you were fleeing the North, come to America.

After all, we've failed you. I'm going to say that part very quietly because we didn't lose. But come to the United States. This did not go down well with many in the country, but equally, many in the country saw it as a very humane thing to do. And Ford was praised for it.

I'm guessing it's what side of the spectrum you're on. Yes, that very much was a divisive move. Anyway, Vietnam falls. Well, South Vietnam falls, obviously, and North Vietnam just becomes Vietnam. And also soon after this, Cambodia falls as well and becomes Cambodia. But they're now being held by the commies, Jamie.

Damn it. Yes. Dirty reds. The United States have lost power in Southeast Asia. And almost immediately after this, there's a crisis in the area. An American ship, just a sort of shipping container ship that was in international waters was seized by the new Cambodian government.

They claimed it was a spy ship. The people on the ship went, no, we're not. What, all this satellite equipment? No! Yeah, well, unfortunately, this is one of these things where it's quite hard to be sure, but it would appear that it actually wasn't a spy ship, but who knows. Anyway, the fact is you've

got some American crew being held by the hostile Cambodian government. Ford decides to act very quickly, still hurting over the look of losing in Vietnam. I mean, drawing, drawing strategic withdrawal. He decides to act with force. Ships, aircrafts, and over a thousand marines were sent to the region where the boat and its crew were being held and four bombing strikes on the mainland were ordered. This was a huge Wow, yeah, that's the big step Huge response

Kissinger all behind this many of the other advisors going this might be a bit too much of an escalation we've literally only just got out of the area which we've been trying to do for years and you want to start a bombing campaign again, do you? In fact, the 1,000 Marines are just terrified. They're still PTSD.

Just cry with them. We're going back! It's a good idea. Anyway, the Marines land on the island, on the wrong side of the island, incidentally, and met fierce resistance from Cambodian troops that they were not expecting. One of their helicopters gets shot down.

It's all a bit of a mess. There's a lot of fighting going on. Over 100 men died, roughly equal casualties on either side. Meanwhile, by the way, the crew of the ship had been released. With cards and apologies. Pretty much. The Cambodian government realised they didn't need the heat. I mean, you could argue that they were released because Ford put the pressure on,

but they had been released and the Marines were still fighting on the island to try and rescue them. Oh. Yeah, so American troops were dying to try and save the lives of people who had already been released. It was a little bit of a mess up, to say the least.

They were back on the boat eating cake, so, oh, no, we're fine, yeah, we're fine. The general on the ship, oh, no, we're fine. Yeah, we're fine. The general on the ship. Oh, no. Oh, dear. Who's going to ring the president? Not me. Well, back home, it was spun as a success.

Yes, over 40 US Marines had died, but the crew had survived, and that was the point. And the United States had proven they could not be pushed around, damn it. And this actually works. For the first time, Ford gets a boost in the polls. Back home, people do see it as a win. A small issue of those bombing raids.

They hadn't happened. Ford had ordered four bombing raids, and they did not happen. A break in the chain of command had occurred, and Ford didn't know why. Now, you could argue that this was a very sensible breaking command, because the bombing would have been excessive at this point. I was going to say, that's probably a good thing. Yeah, and in fact, as time went on, it became more and more obvious that this likely was actually just an accident by the new Cambodian government. This wasn't a Soviet plot or anything. uh bombing really would have been

an extreme escalation uh so the bombing not happening was ultimately a good thing but is it good that the president ordered a bombing and someone in the pentagon clearly went not doing that it takes one person to kind of go i don't think that's a good thing i mean the president is the commander-in-chief right of, of the army and all the armed forces. But it doesn't mean they're qualified to make good decisions. That's what I have advisors say. Yeah, it's one of those things where if, in this case, a very good call.

Yeah. Times in the past where people have gone, no, I'm not pushing that nuclear button, a very good call. Happened in Russia, didn't it? Apparently so, yes. But if you've got an army, you need chain of command, and it not being followed, it does kind of point to the fact that Ford was seen as weak and you didn't need to follow him. So seizing this modest boost in the polls,

Ford chose this time to announce that he was going to be running for the next election. Yeah. Time to really stamp down his authority. Yeah, he figured he wasn't going to get a better time. Yeah, the right of his party still hated him, but that was only one faction. And also, they were going to moan anyway when he did what he was about to do, which was go to Finland. Of course. Yes, he was off to Finland to take place in the Helsinki Accords, or the Conference on

Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the CSCE, or the SCF. Yeah, this was the largest meeting of European leaders since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, don't you know, Jamie? Wow. I was going to say, is it the one since 1815? Yes, yes. Yeah, well, it totally is. This is all existing European countries bar Andorra and Albania. Wow. Yeah, they didn't turn up.

So pretty much every European country and the United States and Canada for reasons. Now, I won't go into details in fear of getting bogged down in European politics. And everyone knows European politics can get dry. But essentially, the idea is that everyone is going to get together in one place and try and get along. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to think everyone turned up, was issued with a little name badge.

With a flag on the side. Yeah. A little icebreaker question. Could I go and ask someone else? So what do you do? Yes. Little party hats. They played charades.

I think they had crackers. They probably had crackers. It was all very nice. Yeah. They settled down. They had talks. Everyone was going to agree, right? Get this.

Not to kill one another anymore. Yeah, sounds good. Everyone was also going to agree to some basic human rights, and everyone was going to respect each other's boundaries. Yeah. Not in a respect each other's boundaries. Yeah. Not in a respect my boundaries man kind of way, but in a literally on a map. Yeah.

We're going to respect our boundaries. Yeah. Now, back in the United States, the conservative faction of the GOP were not happy with this. Cookot. Okay, we can accept the not killing each other part, but what's this about human rights and acceptance of borders? No, no, no,

no, no. The Helsinki Accords, by the way, had no teeth. Nothing was set to enforce it. It was just an agreement, a get-together. Cheese and nibbles whilst everyone tried to be polite kind of thing. But it would be the United States putting in writing for the first time that citizens

of the Eastern Bloc had human rights as Soviet citizens. Oh, that's a big thing. It would be the first time that the United States were accepting in any way that Soviet Russia had a right to rule over East Europe. Yeah, that's quite a big compromise. Yeah, well, this is exactly what, isn't it? Well, I don't know if compromise is the right word, but... This is exactly what the right of the GOP said. This is appeasement. We're giving away too much here.

And for what? Just some vague sort of, oh, well, we'll make sure we have human rights promise from Russia. That's all they're saying, and we are acknowledging their rule in Eastern Europe. This is awful.

In fact, it soon wasn't only the far right of the GOP who were complaining, because then the press started to complain, the United States and the public started to complain. No one really liked this. But Ford didn't see it that way. He claimed he saw the bigger picture. If you've got all of Europe and Russia agreeing to this, and by agreeing to this, this is a message of peace and human rights, it's not a great look if the United States is on the side saying,

no, we don't agree with peace and human rights. Doesn't look great, does it? Well, yeah. Yeah. This is actually a massive accomplishment. Yeah. Well, you can see both sides of the argument. Well, yeah. Yeah. This is actually a massive accomplishment. Yeah. Well, you can see both sides

of the argument to a point, although we'll see how it goes. Ford takes another huge popularity hit for this because he does go over.

He is seen as being weak on Russia. It didn't help that being sat in alphabetical order it meant he was sat between Russia and East Germany.

So it's sandwiched between them. just didn't look good so uh but but he did it he went over he signed up many in the united states thought the united states got nothing from this whatsoever and russia now could claim the united states agreed that they could be in eastern europe did ford say but it's about Europe? No, well, we'll kind of get into that when we're judging him. Anyway, Ford gets home. He was met with news that it was very likely Jimmy Carter who was going to be running next time for the Democrats. This Jimmy Carter guy wasn't hugely well known,

but it was going to be a problem because Ford's biggest asset, that he was Gerald Ford, average Joe, an honest bloke. You could get a beer with him. Trouble was you didn't get more honest and folksy and regular than Jimmy Carter. I mean, he still builds houses for homeless today. Yes. And he's 104. Is he?

No, no. He's 104. He is in his 90s, though. So that wasn't good. And also Reagan's breathing down his neck still. No, no. He is in his 90s, though. So that wasn't good. And also, Reagan's breathing down his neck still. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Ford decides he's going to have to deal with Reagan first,

so he starts to try to appeal to the right of the GOP. But the thing is, Reagan is just an axer, so he won't be a... Don't worry about it. It's just he won't be a problem. Well, he is a bit worried. He hires a man named Calloway to read his campaign. And Calloway knew what the right wanted. So he plotted to give it to them. To begin with, they hated the vice president, Rockefeller.

That rich liberal. Calloway started disparaging the vice president in public. Everyone knew that he was hired by Ford, and he started saying things like, that vice president, he's a bit rubbish, isn't he? This delighted the right of the party. This was fantastic. Ford, reluctantly realising this was part of his strategy, did nothing to help the man that he had put in place, and also recently had said was the best appointment he had ever made in his career. So he just abandons Rockefeller.

The right were very happy, but many pointed out that this just seems a bit weak from Ford. Yeah. Ford also distanced himself from the remarks that his wife had said. Remember those awful, terrible things that she had said? Well, Ford publicly said they did not reflect his own views. Again, the right were happy. A lot of people went, it's a little bit weak. Just sort of abandoning your wife there,

letting her flap in the breeze. Okay. Very conservative, is it? Well, he carries on touring the country, trying to drum up support against the attack from the right. And then in California, in September of 75, he was shaking hands with the public when a woman suddenly pulled out a gun and fired. Satirical attempt.

Oh, yes. Probably would have worked, but she had not loaded the gun correctly. She didn't put a bullet in the chamber. So the first time she fired, it did nothing. By the time she went to fire again, the Secret Service were on top of her. Ford was hustled away and the 26-year-old woman was understandably arrested very quickly. Turned out, she was part of Charles Manson's cult. Ah, but they were gone, weren't they? Well, she wasn't.

No, well, clearly not. Yeah, she was off the deep end, she was. Yeah, oh, that's weird. I wouldn't expect that in the mid-70s. Well, she claimed she was doing it to raise environmental awareness, but she was just doing it because she was part of a

cult and had been brainwashed into doing such things. I mean, she tried to poison people with LSD who were involved in the case against Manson and all sorts. She was not a nice person. Anyway, Ford carries on the day against Manson and all sorts. She was not a nice person. Anyway, Ford carries on the day as planned, giving his speech. Excellent.

Back in Washington, one Republican said on the floor, and I quote, I think the record should show that for the first time since McKinley, we have a Republican president worth shooting. Oh. Oh, it's just one of those remarks. It's like, yay, bravado. He survived the assassination attempt. I can say this now. This won't age incredibly badly, incredibly quickly.

Surely. Surely. Yeah. Two weeks later, still in California, Ford was walking to his waiting limo when a woman pulled a gun out and shot. Oh, my. Oh. Yeah. when a woman pulled a gun out and shot. Oh my... Yeah, this time the gun was loaded correctly, but the woman was standing about 40 feet away. So missed her target by inches, passing by Fort's head.

Oh my goodness. Bystander, a man named Oliver Sipple, jumped on the would-be assassin. And then, I've read two different accounts, either the woman let off another shot, or it's the first bullet that did a ricochet, but the bullet hits several walls and the stairs, and then we get to our introduction, Jamie.

So are you on bullet camp? Yeah. Yes. So the bullet has left the gun yeah it flies by in ultra slow motion a shot looking forward it hits a nearby wall it hits the ground it flings up into the nearby hotel lobby where there is a taxi driver who was just standing watching the proceedings. So just follow that bullet, Jamie. Where's it going? Can you remember?

I can remember. I imagine the taxi driver's got a big smile on his face. Oh, I'm near the president. This is great. What a lovely day. I couldn't imagine a better day than this. Something to tell the grandchildren when I have grandchildren, probably. Yeah.

Now, bullets go fast. But a bullet that's so i've heard yeah yeah but a bullet that's ricocheted off a couple of uh surfaces certainly slow down quite a lot oh it's yeah it tends to malform and yeah so by the time that it connects with this man's groin it's no longer going fast enough to penetrate any skin so it just really hits this taxi driver in the nets at quite some speed yeah because the bullet works on being sharp and pointy so it pierces things yeah it's been very blunted it's just yeah it's now just a a fast but not speeding bullet kind of hunk of metal that just whacks into the poor guy. Yeah. Stay in slow motion, pan up to his face,

and just watch as it slowly changes. Look of confusion. He heard a loud pop and then suddenly... Why am I bleeding? The most excruciating pain starts radiating from his groin. You'd be pleased to know he survived. Like I say, it didn't even break the skin. It was just...

Oh, it's... Oh, that's even worse in a way. Apparently he just really, really bruised him. Oh. Yeah. Oh, the swelling. He got a letter from the president at some point. Oh, that makes it all okay then.

Yeah, he sold it for 100 quid later on in his life and then regretted it. But yeah, as for sipple remember the guy who actually jumped on the assassin yeah he was regarded as a national hero he'd saved the life of the president amazing the press interviewed him everyone thought he was amazing what's this he's a gay man oh good god he was outed and his life was ruined. Oh. So that's fun. Short biography of Oliver Sipple for you there. 1970s.

Anyway, meanwhile, Ford, he is bundled into his limousine. I mean, this is the second assassination attempt in two weeks. So he's bumbled into the limousine. He lays under two security men and Donald Rumsfeld, who was there as well. And apparently from under the pile, he asked whether the air conditioning could be turned on because things were getting a bit stuffy. Yeah. He didn't want to change any of his plans, but he was kind of forced to reduce some of his appearances.

This is getting silly. All the women in America seem to want to shoot you. And you're going to have to start wearing a vest, which he does. But, bright bright side think about that boost in the polls he's gonna get not one assassination attempt but two everyone knows an assassination attempt hugely improves your poll numbers yeah no no no it did very little no one liked ford by this point uh meanwhile, Reagan's campaigning. He's going to run against him at the convention. He formally announces it. Ford, in an attempt to appease the

right even more, stood aside as they went after Rockefeller. It got to the point where Ford told his vice president, perhaps it would be best if you step down. Rockefeller does. So he just gives up his vice president. Doesn't really do much. In fact, it gave many the impression that Reagan's now in control of the party. And for a while, it did look like it. Reagan was able to win several primaries, but ultimately, the party largely remained loyal to their president. It was close, but... No cigar. Well, Ford wins the convention, and he's going to go on to fight in the election. However, there was a problem. In order to fight Reagan, Ford had had to appeal to the right of the party.

He had started delivering speeches with a right lean that was not really where his natural politics lay. So when Reagan dropped out and Ford won his primary, he realised the rug had been pulled from under him, because by pandering to the right, it was now going to be very hard to pivot and gain central and left-leaning voters. They were all going to go to Carter. Now, considering how unliked Ford was, he actually does quite well in the election. He attempted to portray himself as an experienced statesman compared to the relatively unknown

Carter. Carter, however, simply was able to just sort of point at the Republican Party and the mess. Look, just, just, I'm able to just sort of point at the Republican Party and the mess. Look, just, I'm not giving a speech. Just remember the last few years. Just do that for me. And some of you still want to vote for them. Are you mad? Are you mad?

Yeah, it was pretty much all he had to do. And Ford loses. Surprisingly close. Yeah, Carter gets 50.1% of the national vote. Ford gets 48-something. So it's only a couple of percentage points in it, and it's not too far off in the National College either, but Ford does indeed lose.

He is no longer president. Incidentally, a little addendum, though. Carter, when he becomes president, keeps Ford in touch with what's going on in the politics of the country, giving him monthly updates. And when Carter stops being president, the two of them actually end up being really close friends, regularly going to go around each other's houses for visits and stuff.

So, yeah, that's nice, isn't it? That's positive. Anyway, Ford, do you want to guess when he died? Was it like three months after? Oh, no, because Carter left. I don't know. Like four years after. 2006.

What? Yeah, aged 93. No. Yeah. That's, wow. Okay. So, there you go. That's Ford.

Incidentally, Carter turned 98 in October. Yes, and is still alive at point of recording. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, any thoughts on Ford before we rate him? I think he came across as somebody like, I'm not into corruption, blah, blah, blah. But he, nah. Yeah.

It's all about holding, it's all about holding powers. You know, since Nixon, it's all been modern politics, hasn't it, really? Yeah. Well, let's go into it, shall we? Okay, this is definitely the round where i have the most to say uh let's start with good shall we okay i'm going to start with the hausinki accord which we started talking about yes and you you said you could understand why he was criticized for it but you could also understand why he did it i was i was i was leaning more towards the

i think he was more correct than not correct, but I do understand why. Yeah, I can see that. He was hauled over the coals for going over to Helsinki and saying, yes, people have human rights and we will no longer contest borders in Europe. Yeah, you can see that many in America thought that this was the US giving up a lot. It was accepting Soviet Russia in Eastern Europe. However, the reason why this is firmly in the good column, history proves Ford right here. Hugely so. Short term, he managed to keep Europe happy with the United States,

as I said in the main section. I mean, it wouldn't have looked good if the United States went, no, we're not joining him. But far more important than this, the human rights aspect of the Helsinki Accord ends up morphing and becoming very important. Eventually, the United States were able to use it to repeatedly beat the Russians with whenever the Russians violated human rights. So hang on, you signed up for this. Yeah, we said you have your borders and everything, and you said you do the human rights stuff, and you're not doing it. Ooh, those bad Russians. Look, Walt, aren't the Russians bad? Also, inside Soviet Russia, it started to feed the idea to many people that actually they were being mistreated. It started to give an idea that citizens maybe could do something about this. They had rights, damn it.

Some historians have gone as far to say that the hausinki accords were a key factor in bringing down soviet russia if not the key factor now i'm not sure i fully agree with that but it's certainly involved you can see we're a re one one of many yes the fall of soviet russia is hugely complex like the fall of the roman empire but yeah this is definitely a part of it and uh i think history definitely says that ford was on the right side here so i think he could get a tick in the wing column for this i agree other ticks that he can get he got the united states out of vietnam yes kennedy couldn't do it johnson couldn't do it nixon couldn't do it he got them out now that is that is uh that's a very simplistic way of putting it,

and you can say he deserves a tick in the wind column. However, if we actually scratch the surface here, really, does he deserve a tick in the wind column here? Let's face it, it was actually the work of Nixon or his administration that did most of the legwork here, and Ford actively tried to slow it down in some places. Now, some historians argue that he wouldn't have tried to slow down the withdrawal out of Vietnam had he thought he could have succeeded. He was doing it for show,

to save face. But who knows? So yeah, I mean, technically the withdrawal out of Vietnam was under him, but I don't know if he hugely deserves a lot of credit for it. It certainly wasn't him coming and saving the day. It was him reluctantly accepting the fact that the United States had lost and finally pulling that last bit of a plaster off. But he could have been really resilient and said, no, we're just going to keep doing it. Well, you could argue he was, and it was Congress that went,

we owe you. So, yeah. So does he deserve points there? Maybe. Here's one he deserves points for. He wasn't corrupt, sort of. I was going to say. Let's put aside the pardon deal for a moment

because we're going to talk about that in a moment. But everything else, compared to nixon compared to agnew compared to all the corruption that had been going on in the republican party he was a straight shooter he wasn't hugely corrupt he just was getting on with the job that's what the republican party needed for this time and it was what america needed for this time uh so i don't think you should get a huge amount of points for not being hideously corrupt but following nixon it kind of it was useful okay let's move on to definite pads shall we the pardon of richard nixon yeah that almost set a precedent in a way but maybe not not for the next couple of decades, but...

Yeah, well, I mean, this is, in my opinion, political cowardness. He was essentially being used as Nixon's stooge as vice president, and then he continued after he got the top job. Nixon broke the law. He was corrupt. Don't even need to, like, put that in allegations or anything. He did do it. He broke the law. He lied about it. He caused disgrace to the office of the president. Was he the first? No.

But he got caught red-handed, and therefore some consequences should have happened. And the idea that pardoning him meant the country would just be able to move on is a very, it's a very poor argument, that, in my opinion. What Ford actually meant, although he didn't say it, was, if I pardon him, Republicans can move on. We can pretend that never happened. But if politicians are not held to account, then what hope is there? The country would have been able to move on

had Nixon faced consequences. Yes, it would have damaged the Republican Party more, but that's because they should have faced those consequences. It was Nixon and his party who were being hideously corrupt. And you could argue it had probably a better impact on the future. Well, yes. For both parties, in a way, just like be more accountable. Yeah, definitely.

This sets a huge precedent. This said, a president can now do what they like because they'll get pardoned. This will only lead to corruption and potentially worse in the future. This was just an awful, awful decision, in my opinion. And yes, some historians have argued

that it was a sensible move, that it drew a line under the situation. But I just don't buy it. I don't agree. I think Ford should be hugely criticised for this move. Absolutely. And then finally, the economy. It's always a hard one to judge. I mean, despite the fact everyone seems to know that the president has little impact on the wider economy, especially in their first term, People still judge a president on it. The economy was not great under Ford, but that was more Nixon's policies than anyone else's fault. And arguably,

it was more wider global issues than anything that Nixon did. Yes, you can argue that Ford flip-flopped a bit on his decisions on how to deal with the economy. But the economy did start to turn around under his administration. I personally don't think there's any reason to give or take points away here. I agree. It's hard to tell. Yeah. There we go.

Reasonable one with the Helsinki Accord. Yeah. Huge problem with the pardoning of Nixon. I'm also just going to point out, he's just weak. He just comes across as a very weak politician yeah he does he's doing the more modern thing of this will boost my ratings rather than this is good for just pretending that he's not seen things that he's obviously seen and just avoid

yeah it's it's not great no i've so i started at a certain number i've just gone down from it i started at five i thought that I've just gone down from it. I started at five. I thought that's probably fair. Yeah, okay. But then, so actually, but there is that, but there is a big thing. It's like, you could argue him and Nixon have put US politics where it is now.

Yeah. So I've given him a three. Yeah. I'm even now debating whether that's true. No, no, I was thinking around three. He's not awful, awful. So I'm thinking now debating whether that's true. No, no, I was thinking around three. He's not awful, awful. So I'm thinking about five, but that pardoning of Nixon just pulls him down a little bit more.

Yeah, okay then. So that's a total of six for this round. Okay, if the last round was a large one, this one's a teeny tiny round. I've got nothing, Jamie. And it's not very often that happens. He was a likeable guy, according to everyone. He got on with people.

A lot of people said he was a little bit dim, but he got on with the job. He was a hard worker. As far as I can tell, there were no major personal scandals in his life. At least nothing that jumped out. If you're looking for scandals, everything points towards the pardoning of Nixon, but that is definitely

statesmanship, not disgrace gate. He would, as I just said, sorry, he is, as I just said, I would argue a weak politician. Yes. And you could argue that that is part of his character. I think another thing that struck me, but I don't know whether it is statesmanship, I guess not. I don't know. It's when he disagreed with his wife and his daughter. Yeah, exactly. This is what I mean. He was a weak politician. He bent to the whims of factions in his party. He didn't stick

to his beliefs. And you need better than that. Is that disgrace gate worthy? Certainly nothing more than a token point, I don't think. I will give him minus one. Yeah, I'm going to give him a point in this round. That's it.

So that's a total of minus two, which takes the score to four. Silver screen. Okay, silver screen. Tale of two halves, Jamie. It really is. We get a dramatic opening with his abusive millionaire father, his mum fleeing for her life and then making a modest life for herself with the paint shop owner.

He goes to school and he becomes a football hero this alone gets him through education so he's able to scrape his way to becoming a lawyer this is american dream stuff then the war breaks out he signs up he joins the navy damn it he rises through the ranks slightly he sees his fair share of action and yeah i mean so far this is textbook biofilm material i could just i can imagine watching a film of an all-american boy that was made in the 50s or the 60s and this would be the plot you got tragedy at birth and then you got him rising pulling himself up from his bootstraps he's got a square jaw he's playing football oh it's all good isn't it he even remember had his coca-cola model girlfriend so you can yeah he went off to manhattan for a bit so you can just do stuff there i mean that the first half of this is going to be great then he catches the politics book you can argue

his early campaigns were exciting if you remember last, he hired the parking space to put up his campaign tent outside the party boss's headquarters just to annoy the man. That's a good story. You could definitely get something from there. But then he goes to Congress. He spends over two decades doing nothing but working in Congress, slowly making his way up the ladder. For a lot of it, he worked in a room where no one was allowed

to see what he did so we've got literally nothing there's just nothing there i mean eventually like stuff like the watergate stuff happens but he's not involved in it he keeps his distance so the one thing we do have he was on the warren commission remember so after kennedy's assassination we'd get some of that going on uh see what what would make a good film there's like all the cia stuff going on the background even though we might not have the details for it you could infer a lot and but by the background would it just be slightly out of shot out of focus as he's slowly eating a pork chop yeah well while signing off uh yeah you can spend that yeah you just you just just see a foreign dictator being assassinated in the background,

slightly out of focus, and then Kennedy's... Cost $20,000. Yeah. But it's just, you don't see much. And then, obviously, he becomes vice president by coming forth in an internal poll, and then he becomes president by default, and then the events of this episode play out.

Not much of it is hugely film worthy apart from arguably the pardon of nixon but that's that's got to just be the epilogue of nixon's film surely uh so um it starts very strong it just falls apart you're going to struggle if you're going to make a tv series or a film about ford you are stopping after the war you'd call it the early knife life of ford yeah giving him three again i'm gonna go higher because the first half is so strong i'm gonna give him five five yeah because that first half is really strong and then there's nothing so i think half marks is uh is fine all right yeah okay that's eight for this round which takes him up to a total of 12.

Okay. So here you go. Here's the official portrait of Ford. I quite like that. I like that. It's quite lively because it's not that real. Well, it's realistic, but it's not hyper realistic. Yeah, it's not photorealistic.

It's detailed, but it's a nice painted style, which I do like. It reminds me in some ways of the Kennedy portrait, which was also like that. He's sat in what looks slightly like an abandoned room, but I'm assuming it's not meant to be. And he doesn't look much like him, though. That's my biggest criticism. They've made it probably look a bit better. Yeah, I've seen many photos of Ford.

Some of that shape of his head seems slightly different here. He's holding a pipe. He's sat down. He's looking quite happy. He's wearing a pinstripe suit. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the pipe. But I do actually quite like that portrait.

I quite like it. It seems lively and nice. Yeah. I like the way the light's done. You've got the window, but then you've got the lights bouncing off the wall behind him. It's bright. It's very different to those early ones, which was, here's a dark room. Ooh, Rome.

And it's not a dark suit either. Yeah. Well, I'm imagining probably it's grey, but it looks nice and green. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. I just like the pipe. I'm going it probably is grey, but it looks nice and green. Yeah. I like it. Yeah, I just like the pipe. I'm going fairly high for this. I'm going to say that's worthy of a seven.

I'm going to match you. 2.5. Terms. Zero. He did not serve a full term. No. No. Assassination.

Ooh, we've got a question here. Something that did not occur to me and there's oh this first time this has come up obviously he's getting a point because someone tried to kill him you get a point if someone tries to kill you you get two points if someone does kill you oh yeah 1.5 oh do we go 1.5 because going to have to, because they didn't quite kill him, but it was two assassination attempts. It is multiple assassination attempts that were completely separate from each other. I think 1.5 is fair. No, I'm willing to break that precedent.

Let's do it. Let's go for it. That's a 1.5 for assassination. And election. Now, in election, if you average out your elections and you win in a landslide, that is 70% or more of the electoral college, you get two points. If you merely win, you get one point. If you win but actually

lose the popular vote, you don't get anything. Yeah. But what do you get, Jamie? Oh no. If no one ever voted for you at all. Because the only election he had was the one he'd lost. Yeah.

I think we need to... Can we break precedent again? 0.5? Minus 0.5? Oh, minus 0.5. I was going to say 0.5 because he... Yeah, but he lost. He didn't win an election.

He completely lost. Minus one then. Because he lost an election. Minus one for not even being in an election. I don't know. it just seems slightly harsh. It wasn't his fault. I think it's got to be a zero, hasn't it? It's just got to be a straight up zero.

Yeah, just give him a zero. Yeah, he had no elections. That's a zero. Okay, so how's he done, Jamie? 17. That is a total of 17 points. 17 points. That puts him slightly below John Adams.

It puts him 0.25 below Van Buren. It puts him on par with Taylor. So, yeah, that's nice. Yeah, I think this is about right. He's very much an also-ran president, really, isn't he? Which leads us to the question. American or American? No.

No, definitely not. Definitely not. No. Bad Ford for pardoning Nixon. i mean it was just yeah what the hell was that i've done it yeah and that that's the main thing that i'm thinking about generally i'd say the kind of politician you want working in washington he just gets on with the job but not necessarily the kind of person you want in charge because he just wasn't strong enough is what I would argue. That's a very fair point. But then,

compared to what we've just gone through, improvement. So... Well, yeah. Okay, so that's a no. That's an Americant for Ford. And now, Jamie, next time,

we're going to be covering someone who's still alive. I know. We have literally never done that in all the time that we have been doing episodes on people. However, something I need to announce, I've not even shared with you yet, Jamie, but I've decided it whilst doing my research.

So this is a small announcement on what's going to happen with Totalus Rangium in the upcoming couple of months or so because we are now getting very modern with the presidents and i always realized that the last few presidents were going to be much harder than any other president to cover there's just so much you've said that since the beginning and we're really starting to hit it in my head i thought by roughly the time we hit reagan we will be finished with the Roman series. And that should have happened. However, due to various reasons I'm not going to get into now,

making episodes became much harder for a while, and we fell behind schedule, and things changed. We are about seven episodes away from finishing our Roman series, and there is a very complex civil war going on. Yeah. So trying to wrap up the Roman series at the same time as dealing with these tricky Americans is making my head hurt. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a brief hiatus on the American series,

whilst I focus solely on finishing up the biography episodes of the Romans. Get up to Constantine XI. This, in theory, shouldn't take too long. If I can focus only on Romans for a while, should be able to get that done in about two to three months. And then we'll be finished with the Romans. Then we'll hop back onto the Americans, and I can focus solely on the Americans

whilst doing the rounds for the Romans, which is a bit easier to do. So we are going to have a bit of a break from the presidents for a couple of months, but then we will be back because believe me, we are finishing these presidents. We are so close, Jamie. Yeah. But I think I just need a bit more headspace to cover those late ones because things get very complex.

a bit more headspace to cover those late ones because things get very complex. So Carter is on its way, but it might be about March before Carter turns up. Okay. So anything else you need to add, Jamie? No, just thanks for listening. Thanks for downloading. And I hope you don't mind this British take on American history.

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay then. Thank you very much for listening. And all that needs to be said is... Goodbye. Goodbye.

And so, in conclusion, I would like to say that the current president is completely innocent. And that is it on this matter. Any questions? Yes, you at the front. Bill Snoops, Boston Globe. Obviously, I will get on to the evidence that you seem to blindly be ignoring in a moment. But just before I do, in your speech just now, you compared Nixon to Jesus, Mother Teresa, and a small poppy he once

opened that looked at you with such, and I quote, innocent eyes. Well, yes, when I spoke to the president, he had such a glowing innocence in his eyes. And he is so much like Mother Teresa. He went to an orphanage the other week and saved so many children by adopting them all into the White House. And yes, thank you. Thank you. Well, my actual question then. You say he's innocent. Are you aware that whilst you were speaking, he has released a statement saying that he is going to be releasing the smoking gun transcript? I have no, as I was speaking, I have no idea what you are talking about.

I am sure these are... You have no idea? It's the transcript where he admits that he did the crimes no i have i have no knowledge of such documents i wouldn't say anything like that interesting you say that because i have a photo here of you holding the documents and reading them i have no knowledge of this. Clearly, it's a different document, because as you can see from the photograph, it's very indistinct. It could be it was Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre from the 17-somethings.

There is a thought bubble coming out of your head, and it reads, and I quote, wow, this makes him seem very guilty. I have seen a doctor for that. That was a symptom of a disease that I caught in Saigon, but is no longer with me. I now produce no thought bubbles or thoughts at all. Okay, well, we'll leave the smoking gun transcript to one side. What about the actual smoking gun in the corner of the room there?

What smoking gun? I can't see it. That actual gun, literal gun with the smoke coming out, forming the words he is guilty well because would you care to comment yes because i'm facing the other side of the room i cannot see the smoking gun it i i've no idea what you are talking about okay well that's hard to believe um but what about i may press this, the fact that two minutes before you came on, Nixon stood where you are and said, and I quote, I'm guilty. I did it. I'm glad I did it. And I would do it again the moment your backs are turned.

I was at the bar at the time. I did not hear such a speech. I was making my way through a Tom Collins delicious drink. Bit of lime, bit of whiskey. You might not have heard it, but he said it. In fact, if you're quiet, you can hear him repeating it in the corridor right now. I can't hear a thing. I can't hear what he's saying because I'm talking to you. If I stop talking to you, that means I can hear what he's saying. But I can't hear what he's saying.

Fine, fine.