Gerald Ford: America’s Only Unelected President

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for a new vice president barely had he settled on ford then nixon himself was toppled by the watergate scandal thrashed into the white house ford took over a bitterly divided nation that was tearing at the seams his attempts to fix it would have consequences to this very day [Music] as a congressman gerald ford was famous among his colleagues for his genial disposition for never seeming to be phased by anything but there was one subject that caused ford visible discomfort one topic he would try to avoid for the rest of his life his father born leslie lynch king jr in omaha on the 14th of july 1913 ford spent the first two miserable years of his life carrying his hated par's name leslie king was a mean drunk who regularly beat ford's mother dorothy when she finally fled his toxic grasp in 1915 for the safety of grand rapids michigan the wealthy leslie refused to send a penny in child support perhaps it's no wonder that dorothy re-christened her little boy jerry after a new husband gerald rudolph ford a midwesterner to his core gerald was a paint salesman who believed in virtues like hard work patriotism and loyalty he also believed in family in 1916 he officially adopted young jerry raising the boy as his own he clearly made a big impression as a teenager ford idolized his stepfather tried to emulate him in every way as soon as he was old enough he legally changed his own name to gerald ford but the similarities with his stepdad went beyond just his name like gerald ford believed in loyalty to your kin when the great depression threatened to kill his stepdad's business ford worked long hours waiting tables to help pay the bills much later he'd say that the experience had taught him one essential truth the harder you work the luckier you are i worked like hell yes it would be while working that ford suffered one of the nastiest shocks of his life by now a strapping lad of 17 ford was clearing tables one day when he saw a customer looking at him strangely at first the future president thought nothing of it but then that customer stood up came over and said leslie i'm your father. that star wars moment was one of the few events that ever threw ford off balance he later told people he felt like this monster was trying to intrude on his happy family life to destroy the relationship it forged with his stepdad after that meeting he'd never speak to his biological father again still such painful moments were rare in the life of jerry ford by senior year he was a star football player who'd be voted most popular in his class still even at this tender age he couldn't translate being well liked into electoral success that year he ran for class president on the progressive tickets and in a nice bit of foreshadowing he lost not that this bothered jerry at the time awarded a football scholarship to the university of michigan he excelled so well on the team that both the detroit lions and the green bay packers nangled contracts before him but ford could never quite trust that his dream career might work out instead he took a job coaching football at yale and after three years pestering the faculty was allowed to enroll in law classes the dual workload of training and studying was crushing but if there's one thing ford never lacked it was work ethic he graduated in january 1941 in the top third of his class back in grand rapids he opened a law firm with an old friend and began to flirt with republican politics like everyone in the community ford in 1941 was a staunch isolationist one who felt that the united states should stay aloof from the cares of the world but something was about to happen that would completely transform the young man's perspective setting him on the path to washington gerald ford was about to go to war [Music] on december the 7th 1941 america's isolationists found themselves catapulted into a terrifying new reality images of fire engulfing ships at pearl harbor dominated the newspapers in the wake of the atrocity gerald ford enlisted in the navy because of his background the navy assigned him a post putting new recruits through a grueling fitness program screw that ford basically said i want to go to fight it took forever but at last after enough pestering the navy was like fine god damn it you go to the pacific assigned to the uss monterey ford at last saw the action that he craved over the course of the war he'd earned himself 10 battle stars it also come within an inch of losing his life not via a japanese bullet but by a typhoon that almost swept him overboard by the time ford last returned to grand rapids in the fall of 1945 he was changed man the war had transformed him into an ardent internationalist certain that america needed to take its place on the world stage it had also turned his interest in republican politics into an obsession for the first three years after returning to michigan ford lived a regular middle class life working in a law firm making money playing golf he even found time to woo betty ann bloomer a former dancer that he adored beneath this comfortable surface though something was awakening an ambition ford never knew he harbored ford wanted to get into politics at the time michigan's reliably republican fifth district was represented by an ardent isolationist this bothered ford just as it bothered plenty of other young republicans together they decided to primary the incumbent it was an audacious move one ford quietly told betty that he thought would fail still he brought his tireless work ethic to the task canvassing all up and down the district going door to door talking to any voter who'd listen it was a tactic that worked ford won his primary by 10 000 votes in such a red-leaning district that could only mean one thing gerald ford let's go to washington in fall 1948 ford and betty married just months later the pair moved to dc and ford entered the house for the first of 12 consecutive terms not that he'd get very far at first ford's political progress was less like someone riding a rocket ship to the top and more like a balloon lazily rising into the afternoon sky for his first two terms the new representative did almost nothing of note aside from making friends with a promising young lawmaker from california named richard nixon it was only in 1953 by which time his californian friend had already risen to vice president that ford joined a subcommittee for the next eight years ford slowly built a reputation based on three things fiscal conservatism anti-communism and a borderline insane loyalty towards nixon even though he was only vp at this stage dick nixon was already living up to his nickname forging a reputation as an unstable vindictive sociopath yet ford defended his old buddy unconditionally even if his buddy seemed to have more or less completely forgotten that he existed one ungrateful aside though ford was doing pretty well well enough that he began to nurture a new dream to become speaker of the house it was a hell of an ambition starting in 1954 the house saw a democrat winning streak that would last clear until bill freaking clinton was in the oval office even before this the house had only gone republican twice since herbert hoover had been voted out for a republican like ford dreaming of becoming speaker was a little bit like uri dreaming of becoming america's next top model still ford tried his damnedest joining forces with the gop faction that called themselves the young turks he managed to topple the republican old guard after the party's dismal 1964 election becoming minority speaker now all he needed was one big republican win in the house and he'd fulfill his dream of holding the speaker's gavel sadly for ford that win would never come but that didn't mean his career was destined to stall out as minority speaker in just nine years he would go from historical also ran to president of the united states and hey if you're looking for success beyond your wildest dreams in your next 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seemingly having passed his career high watermark in 1968 it watched as house republicans came within an inch of a majority only to just fall short still he'd returned to congress full of hope his old california buddy was now president and he felt sure nixon would work closely with him on passing legislation in reality nixon's team thought ford was a clown of the highest order in private they agreed with lyndon johnson's withering assessment that jerry ford is so dumb that he can't fart and chew gum at the same time as nixon was re-elected in 1972 ford privately began to admit to betty that he was getting worn out that being minority leader wasn't cutting it anymore he promised her he'd take just one more shot at the speaker's gavel in the 1974 midterms and if that failed well he would bow to politics knowing that he'd tried his best in the end though ford would never compete in the midterms that's because the biggest scandal of the 20th century was about to blow through washington like a sleazy hurricane back in 1972 people connected to nixon's campaign to re-elect the president pleasingly abbreviated to creep were caught burglarizing the democratic national committee's officers in the watergate building days after the story broke ford sought out nixon's advisers to ask if the president was involved they told him no presumably while crossing their fingers super hard behind their backs because nixon was already up to his neck in watergate and it wasn't the only scandal rocking his administration on the 10th of october 1973 vice president spyro agnew appeared in court to answer corruption charges before giving testimony he resigned his post that evening ford was at home trying to unwind after a stressful day just as he was thinking about heading to bed he got a call a white house aide was on the other end hal the aide asked would ford feel about becoming vice president i suspect if i was asked ford replied characteristically calm i would accept it knowing what we do today the phone call can seem inevitable just one more step on the 38th president's path to office but the reality is that it only happened due to a kaleidoscope of coincidences the first of these is that nixon needed a new vice president at all just a decade earlier the u.s had been without a veep for over a year after johnson took over from kennedy for ages there had been no mechanism to actually replace a fallen vp it had only been since 1967 that the 25th amendment allowed presidents to nominate a new veep in emergencies ford was the first person ever nominated in this way the second factor was the lack of other candidates although nixon had presented a list he was told that none would be confirmed by the democratic congress the genial ford was just about the only republican who would a want the job and b survived the nomination process bird and finally there was watergate itself there's evidence nixon could see impeachment coming and wanted to make sure the alternative was even worse than letting him stay in office by offering a choice between removing him from power and getting president khan phantom shoe or just allowing nixon to stay on tricky dick was banking on congress choosing the devil they knew on december 6 1973 gerald ford became vice president of the united states he told betty the post would be a nice conclusion to his career in his first speech he indicated he would simply serve out the rest of agnew's term then leave alongside nixon in january of 1977 but that wasn't how history was going to roll in less than a year nixon would be gone and ford would be making history our long national nightmare is over before vp ford had even been confirmed the wheels were coming off the nixon administration the saturday night massacre on october 20th 1973 saw nixon fire the special prosecutor investigating watergate setting off the mother of all storms in d.c by the summer of 1974 the supreme court was ordering him to turn over the tapes he'd recorded of private conversations related to the scandal it was closing time on the nixon presidency yet even now ford didn't seem to grasp the enormity of what was happening as solid and reliable as ever the new vp simply continued to defend his old friend even as the red flags transformed into urgent semaphore screaming do not trust this dude it was only when the audio transcript showing nixon's involvement in the watergate cover-up was released the ford finally heeded them on august 6 1974 nixon called cabinet meeting to declare that he'd never resign if helen ford took his old pal in the eye and tell him the cabinet could no longer defend him by now it's almost certain ford had realized that he was going to be president there was no way nixon could remain in power until january 77. but even ford didn't realize how soon tricky dick would be gone on august 8th nixon abruptly went on tv to announce his resignation effective noon the next day it was all the warning ford got to prepare himself for the presidency the very next day richard nixon clambered into a helicopter and flew off into ignominy as he vanished over the horizon the accidental vice president took the oath of office and became the accidental president addressing the cameras ford still looking like he couldn't quite believe what was happening declared my fellow americans our long national nightmare is over our constitution works our great republic is a government of laws and not of men here the people rule it was a nice sentiment well expressed in response ford's approval rating soared it would be the only time america ever fully supported its new leader one month later on september the 8th president ford issued perhaps the most infamous pardon in u.s history absolving nixon of any crimes he may have committed ford intended to draw a line under watergate to let the nation move on with the healing instead he pressed the self-destruct button on his own presidency in the media ford was accused of making a corrupt bargain with nixon he was called testify before a house committee his poll numbers crated it was the sharpest drop in public opinion since polling began less than a month into his first term gerald ford had already torpedoed any chance he had at re-election remember donald trump once saying that he could shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue and still not lose any votes well the opposite was now true for ford he could be caught on film running into a burning orphanage to save a basket of puppies and america would still treat him like the guy who farted at a funeral but while ford was toast there was still another two years until americans could deliver their verdict at the ballot box two years in which ford would stumble on wounded hemorrhaging support trying to make his mark in the face of a hostile congress as we're about to see it was not going to be a pretty sight [Music] the presidency ford inherited was the ultimate poison chalice inflation unemployment was soaring oil prices were high there were riots in big cities nyc was about to go bust and america was just months away from comprehensively losing the vietnam war but even given the mess nixon left him it'd be hard to say jerry ford rose to the challenge take the economic nightmare known as stagflation in the fight against inflation and unemployment ford's advisers initially convinced him to tackle inflation in fall of 1974 the white house printed 12 million badges bearing the acronym win for whip inflation now part of a drive to hike taxes and slash government spending but barely had the first 100 000 badges been distributed then ford discovered the u.s was in recession and immediately pulled a massive u-turn by instead cutting taxes the whiplash was jarring and became even more so when the democrat-controlled congress forced through government spending increases but while the economy would eventually improve under ford it never really felt like it in spring of 1975 for example new york city went bust although the gop's moderate wing urged ford to bail out the nation's largest city the fiscally conservative forward just couldn't bring himself to do it the result the infamous newspaper headline ford to city dropped dead eventually after months of wrangling ford did agree to release federal funds but this was just as bad having alienated moderate republicans before now he severely pissed off the conservative wing by caving to public pressure then there was bussing lost in the bombshell of nixon's resignation had been the order of a boston judge to use bussing to desegregate the city's schools this had led to riots black kids had been surrounded spat on a called racial slurs one white kid had been stabbed sadly ford once again found himself falling into the crack between his party's two wings having been to an integrated high school fault was all in favor but as a small government conservative he couldn't abide a judge forcing integration to happen the result was a flip-flopping on the issue that again angered everyone all while boston burned the tragedy of ford's character is that what appeared to be indecisiveness actually came from a core set of beliefs deep within his soul at heart ford was still a typical midwesterner he believed in hard work and neighborliness in a decent world where people would choose to be decent of their own accord without the government needing to step in these are not bad values to hold but at a time when left and right were both diverging they simply didn't match the mood maybe if ford could have positioned himself firmly in either camp he would have won another term maybe he could have succeeded as a rockefeller moderate or a reagan before bregen alas before it couldn't be either of those things in his first days in office ford had tried to reach across the aisle offering the post of national security adviser to a conservative democrat if nothing else it would have been interesting a sign of a leader taking his party in a new direction but ford wasn't a natural leader he wavered at the last second then withdrew the offer just as he wavered expelling members of nixon's cabinet there's a reason jerry ford only became president by accident a reason he never desired the oval office perhaps deep down he simply knew that he wouldn't be very good at it [Music] despite usually showing up in the lower half of presidential rankings gerald ford's tenure wasn't a complete car crash he wasn't corrupt he didn't start a civil war or in sight insurrection occasionally he even managed to pull out a win the fall of saigon in april 1975 was an epic humiliation for the united states one ford couldn't have stopped but he was able to shape the nation's response to that humiliation and he managed to do so with a humanitarian touch championing a bill that allowed special status to those fleeing communist regimes in vietnam lao and cambodia ford helped get 130 000 refugees quickly resettled in the usa it was a gesture that won him no friends on his party's right but it did send a very clear signal under jerry ford america would no longer abandon those who'd helped her a slightly more gung-ho pr win came a month later after kaima rouge forces captured the u.s vessel maegers ford ordered a commando team to liberate the ship although 40 americans died in the fire fight the vessel was secured in the wake ford saw his poll numbers saw still they weren't good enough to guarantee re-election and now he'd had a taste of the presidency ford no longer wanted to just step down in january 77. so he set out on a cross-country tour to convince voters to give him a second term instead it almost got him killed within the space of 17 days in september 1975 ford narrowly survived two assassination attempts the first was at the hands of immense and cult member lynette squeaky from who pointed a pistol at ford but was tackled by the secret service the second call was closer a mentally unstable accountant sarah jane moore managed to get off a shot at the president before a bystander disarmed her yet ford managed to shake off these two near-misses with comparative ease far harder to shake off was the electorate's image of him as a total buffoon this was the early era of saturday night live when its sketches set the tone for the national conversation every week chevy chase was playing forward as a graceless klutz who blew his nose with his tie fell over everything and couldn't say a straight sentence however unfair it was an image of ford that stuck in everyone's mind so when a charismatic conservative former film star announced that he was going to run against the president in the republican primaries it was clear ford was going to be fighting an uphill battle ronald reagan's 1976 primary campaign was almost good enough to unseat the 38th president in a sign of how the times were changing his message resonated so much with the gop's right that ford barely scraped his party's nomination but the real danger in 76 wasn't from the reagan right but from a one-term governor and former peanut farmer on the left jimmy carter was a political novice with low name recognition but post-watergate that outsider status helped him win voter's trust as the man who'd pardoned nixon how could ford ever compete on the 2nd of november 1976 gerald ford faced the national electorate for the first time in his life while he outperformed his polls it wasn't enough to net him a second term geraldford departed the white house in january 1977 convinced this wasn't the end convinced he'd run again in 1980 and become president with a real mandate this time but by now his party was desperate for change ford didn't even compete against reagan in the 1980 primaries nonetheless reagan offered him the vp slot on his ticket a graceful olive branch for his former rival but having been president once ford could not go back to being just the vp again in the wake of reagan's blowout victory ford faded from public imagination a relic of a bygone more complicated time he had a pleasant retirement playing golf and giving speeches but turning down reagan's vp pick was the last time he made any mark on history jerry ford died on december 26 2006 at the age of 93. he was buried in his beloved grand rapids if ford reflected on his legacy in his last few days it's curious to wonder what he felt to his credit most today believe pardoning nixon was the right move helping to draw a line under a sordid episode in us history ford's own character too helped restore some dignity to a white house that had been badly tarnished but these are mostly abstract achievements tiny stars amid a glowing constellation of indifference yeah maybe that's the wrong way to look at things gerald ford may have left a lot to be desired as a president but it's worth remembering that the post is one he never sought one he fell into by accident like his snl caricature plunging headfirst off a stage for a former house minority speaker who should have faded into comfortable obscurity the fact that we're talking about him at all is kind of an achievement the fluke that made ford presidents may have been a one-off born of a strange era in american politics but it does mean that history will now always remember jerry ford the friendly hardworking boy from michigan who grew up to briefly lead the free world so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe also please do check out our friends squarespace there's a link below and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 496,901

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: 1OTMgcrUzlw

Length: 24min 16sec (1456 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021