1 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:10,200 ♪ ♪ 2 00:00:15,466 --> 00:00:18,000 NARRATOR: In the nation's capital 3 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,533 during the middle decades of the 20th century, 4 00:00:20,533 --> 00:00:23,133 a joke was making the rounds 5 00:00:23,133 --> 00:00:27,166 about a luckless mother who had two grown sons, 6 00:00:27,166 --> 00:00:30,566   neither of whom was ever heard from again. 7 00:00:30,566 --> 00:00:32,933 One was lost at sea. 8 00:00:32,933 --> 00:00:36,166 The other became vice president. 9 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:40,700 ♪ ♪ 10 00:00:40,700 --> 00:00:43,700 It's this weird situation with the vice presidency, 11 00:00:43,700 --> 00:00:45,733 where you're the running mate, 12 00:00:45,733 --> 00:00:48,233 you're the other face on the political campaign button, 13 00:00:48,233 --> 00:00:50,066 but unless the president of the United States 14 00:00:50,066 --> 00:00:51,633 wants to give you something to do, 15 00:00:51,633 --> 00:00:55,700 you can basically sit around twiddling your thumbs. 16 00:00:55,700 --> 00:00:59,766 It's historically seen as a political death sentence. 17 00:00:59,766 --> 00:01:02,400 RACHEL MADDOW (chuckling): Nobody in the history of America, 18 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:03,933 nobody in the history of the world, 19 00:01:03,933 --> 00:01:08,033 has ever looked at themselves in the mirror and said, 20 00:01:08,033 --> 00:01:12,500 "If I do everything right, someday I'll be vice president." 21 00:01:13,866 --> 00:01:15,800 NARRATOR: And yet 22 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,333 the vice president has been key to the continuity of government 23 00:01:19,333 --> 00:01:22,466 since the early years of the republic. 24 00:01:22,466 --> 00:01:24,600 And were a bookie to calculate the odds 25 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,466 of a vice president succeeding to the presidency, 26 00:01:27,466 --> 00:01:30,000 rather than being elected to it, 27 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,833 they would shake out at roughly one in five. 28 00:01:33,833 --> 00:01:35,966 JARED COHEN: Eight times in history, 29 00:01:35,966 --> 00:01:37,733 a U.S. president has died in office. 30 00:01:37,733 --> 00:01:40,733 One time in history, a president has resigned. 31 00:01:40,733 --> 00:01:43,466 There were at least 19 times in history 32 00:01:43,466 --> 00:01:45,066 where the president of the United States 33 00:01:45,066 --> 00:01:46,666 was almost assassinated, 34 00:01:46,666 --> 00:01:49,833 almost died of illness, and almost died due to accident. 35 00:01:49,833 --> 00:01:54,766 So it's sort of shocking to me that, despite that history, 36 00:01:54,766 --> 00:01:59,233 we don't pay more attention to the seriousness of the office. 37 00:02:08,266 --> 00:02:11,800 ♪ ♪ 38 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:21,300 NARRATOR: When the clock started 39 00:02:21,300 --> 00:02:25,900 on that infamous Friday, the 22nd of November 1963, 40 00:02:25,900 --> 00:02:29,433 no one could see what was coming 41 00:02:29,433 --> 00:02:33,333 or the way the events of that morning would focus attention 42 00:02:33,333 --> 00:02:36,166 on the American vice presidency. 43 00:02:36,166 --> 00:02:39,166 But in the recollection of Lady Bird Johnson, 44 00:02:39,166 --> 00:02:44,233 the vice president's wife, it began with the clouds parting. 45 00:02:45,666 --> 00:02:48,666 LADY BIRD JOHNSON: After a drizzle in the morning, 46 00:02:48,666 --> 00:02:53,900 the sun came out bright and beautiful. 47 00:02:53,900 --> 00:02:55,833 We were going into Dallas. 48 00:02:55,833 --> 00:02:59,433 REPORTER: The president's plane now touching down, 49 00:02:59,433 --> 00:03:01,600 and the president and Mrs. Kennedy have arrived 50 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:03,600 at Dallas Love Field. 51 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:05,166 (crowd cheering) 52 00:03:05,166 --> 00:03:07,833 Vice President and Mrs. Johnson 53 00:03:07,833 --> 00:03:09,733 are stepping to the foot of the ladder. 54 00:03:09,733 --> 00:03:11,033 A reception line has formed, 55 00:03:11,033 --> 00:03:13,000 and there is Mrs. Kennedy. 56 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,266 The first lady is stepping from the plane. 57 00:03:17,266 --> 00:03:21,966 LADY BIRD JOHNSON: In the lead car, President and Mrs. Kennedy. 58 00:03:23,666 --> 00:03:26,633 And then a Secret Service car full of men. 59 00:03:27,966 --> 00:03:30,533 And then our car. 60 00:03:30,533 --> 00:03:34,700 REPORTER: There are hardly any clouds in the northern skies, 61 00:03:34,700 --> 00:03:39,000 and the president will be riding in the open. 62 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,866 LADY BIRD JOHNSON: The streets were lined with people, 63 00:03:42,866 --> 00:03:46,866 lots and lots of children, all smiling. 64 00:03:46,866 --> 00:03:49,833 We were rounding a curve, 65 00:03:49,833 --> 00:03:52,166 going down a hill. 66 00:03:54,066 --> 00:03:57,333 Suddenly, there was a sharp, 67 00:03:57,333 --> 00:04:00,000 loud report. 68 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,233 A shot. 69 00:04:01,233 --> 00:04:04,333 And then two more. 70 00:04:04,333 --> 00:04:08,433 ♪ ♪ 71 00:04:08,433 --> 00:04:11,133 I heard over the radio system, 72 00:04:11,133 --> 00:04:14,133 "Let's get out of here." 73 00:04:14,133 --> 00:04:17,333 (sirens blaring) 74 00:04:17,333 --> 00:04:20,233 And our Secret Service man who was with us 75 00:04:20,233 --> 00:04:24,100 vaulted over the front seat 76 00:04:24,100 --> 00:04:28,600 on top of Lyndon, threw him to the floor, 77 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:33,200 and said, "Get down." 78 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:37,433 ♪ ♪ 79 00:04:37,433 --> 00:04:39,600 NARRATOR: Pinned down in the back seat, 80 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,033 Vice President Lyndon Johnson had no visual 81 00:04:43,033 --> 00:04:45,466 of what was happening, 82 00:04:45,466 --> 00:04:49,366 only the sensation of picking up speed. 83 00:04:51,533 --> 00:04:53,566 REPORTER: It appears as though something has happened 84 00:04:53,566 --> 00:04:55,366 in the motorcade group. 85 00:04:55,366 --> 00:04:58,433 Stand by just a moment, please. 86 00:04:58,433 --> 00:05:00,800 There has been a shooting, I repeat, a shooting 87 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:02,400 in the motorcade in the downtown area. 88 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,133 Parkland Hospital has been advised 89 00:05:05,133 --> 00:05:08,333 to stand by for a severe gunshot wound. 90 00:05:08,333 --> 00:05:10,433 REPORTER 2: And the first unconfirmed reports say 91 00:05:10,433 --> 00:05:11,766 the president was hit in the head. 92 00:05:11,766 --> 00:05:13,066 REPORTER 3: A priest has been ordered; 93 00:05:13,066 --> 00:05:14,600 emergency supplies of blood 94 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,166 also being rushed to the hospital. 95 00:05:16,166 --> 00:05:19,500 ♪ ♪ 96 00:05:19,500 --> 00:05:21,266 NARRATOR: As of that grim morning, 97 00:05:21,266 --> 00:05:24,233 Johnson had been vice president of the United States 98 00:05:24,233 --> 00:05:27,300 for two years, ten months, and two days, 99 00:05:27,300 --> 00:05:32,400 and by his own account, he had "detested every minute of it." 100 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:36,333 President Johnson was what he'd had in mind-- 101 00:05:36,333 --> 00:05:39,733 an ambition first announced at 17 or so, 102 00:05:39,733 --> 00:05:43,333 then doggedly pursued straight into the halls of Congress. 103 00:05:43,333 --> 00:05:47,166 He'd been elected Senate minority leader at 46 104 00:05:47,166 --> 00:05:49,800 and majority leader the following year, 105 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,333 the youngest man ever 106 00:05:52,333 --> 00:05:53,766 to hold that post. 107 00:05:53,766 --> 00:05:57,633 By 1960, he wielded so much power in Washington 108 00:05:57,633 --> 00:06:00,133 that he'd waited until the very last minute 109 00:06:00,133 --> 00:06:02,566 to declare his candidacy for president, 110 00:06:02,566 --> 00:06:06,500 expecting to best the primary favorite, John Kennedy, 111 00:06:06,500 --> 00:06:09,566 in the backrooms at the Democratic National Convention. 112 00:06:09,566 --> 00:06:11,033 (crowd cheering) 113 00:06:11,033 --> 00:06:14,133 But that had proved a serious miscalculation. 114 00:06:14,133 --> 00:06:17,433 REPORTER: And on the balloting, it's a Kennedy landslide. 115 00:06:17,433 --> 00:06:20,733 MAN: Mr. Chairman, Wyoming's vote 116 00:06:20,733 --> 00:06:24,366 will make a majority for Senator Kennedy. 117 00:06:24,366 --> 00:06:26,466 (crowd cheering) 118 00:06:26,466 --> 00:06:28,333 NARRATOR: With no shot at the top of the ticket, 119 00:06:28,333 --> 00:06:31,366 Johnson had settled for running mate, 120 00:06:31,366 --> 00:06:32,566 persuaded the Democrats 121 00:06:32,566 --> 00:06:34,400 could not win the election without him. 122 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,333 ♪ ♪ 123 00:06:36,333 --> 00:06:38,833 The vice presidency was for Johnson, 124 00:06:38,833 --> 00:06:42,466 as for so many who had held the office before him, 125 00:06:42,466 --> 00:06:47,566 a consolation prize without consolation. 126 00:06:47,566 --> 00:06:49,933 Denied an office in the West Wing 127 00:06:49,933 --> 00:06:51,733 and a seat on Air Force One, 128 00:06:51,733 --> 00:06:55,066 disdained by Kennedy's urbane inner circle, 129 00:06:55,066 --> 00:06:58,833 who snidely referred to the Texas-born VP and his wife 130 00:06:58,833 --> 00:07:02,033 as "Uncle Cornpone and his Little Lamb Chop," 131 00:07:02,033 --> 00:07:05,533 Johnson had become, as one observer put it, 132 00:07:05,533 --> 00:07:07,200 "a man without a purpose; 133 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,766 a great horse in a very small corral." 134 00:07:10,766 --> 00:07:12,900 Are you familiar with the name Lyndon Johnson? 135 00:07:12,900 --> 00:07:14,300 No. Pardon me? 136 00:07:14,300 --> 00:07:15,666 No. No? 137 00:07:15,666 --> 00:07:16,766 No. 138 00:07:16,766 --> 00:07:19,566 No, sir. No? 139 00:07:19,566 --> 00:07:22,700 He's not president. 140 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:25,733 JAMES HITE: John Kennedy knew 141 00:07:25,733 --> 00:07:27,900 Johnson was a restless person, 142 00:07:27,900 --> 00:07:30,500 and he assigned him 143 00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:32,100 to some, you know, 144 00:07:32,100 --> 00:07:33,233 sort of mediocre commissions 145 00:07:33,233 --> 00:07:34,466 and different things, you know, 146 00:07:34,466 --> 00:07:35,866 just to kind of keep him busy. 147 00:07:35,866 --> 00:07:40,233 And he also turned Johnson into a roving diplomat, 148 00:07:40,233 --> 00:07:43,566 traveling around the world and meeting with world leaders. 149 00:07:43,566 --> 00:07:45,066 I think Kennedy's attitude 150 00:07:45,066 --> 00:07:48,200 was that he didn't really need the vice president nearby. 151 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,366 He didn't need the vice president involved 152 00:07:51,366 --> 00:07:54,833 in the day-to-day business of the administration. 153 00:07:54,833 --> 00:07:57,000 NARRATOR: If Johnson gamely played his part, 154 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,100 he did so knowing it was only a show. 155 00:08:00,100 --> 00:08:01,366 "The vice presidency 156 00:08:01,366 --> 00:08:02,833 is filled with trips around the world, 157 00:08:02,833 --> 00:08:06,500 "chauffeurs, men saluting, people clapping, 158 00:08:06,500 --> 00:08:09,500 chairmanships of councils," he once said. 159 00:08:09,500 --> 00:08:12,466 "But in the end, it is nothing." 160 00:08:14,633 --> 00:08:16,866 Standing with his wife now, though, 161 00:08:16,866 --> 00:08:21,066 in a close, curtained-off room at Dallas's Parkland Hospital, 162 00:08:21,066 --> 00:08:25,433 his office suddenly took on a new cast. 163 00:08:25,433 --> 00:08:30,666 LADY BIRD JOHNSON: I think it was from Kenny O'Donnell 164 00:08:30,666 --> 00:08:35,466 that I first heard the words, "The president is dead." 165 00:08:38,100 --> 00:08:43,366 COHEN: I think LBJ is contemplating and trying to make sense 166 00:08:43,366 --> 00:08:47,266 of a lot of things that are happening very fast. 167 00:08:47,266 --> 00:08:48,500 He's about to get the job 168 00:08:48,500 --> 00:08:49,500 that he's always wanted, 169 00:08:49,500 --> 00:08:51,333 but this isn't how he wants it. 170 00:08:51,333 --> 00:08:54,733 From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: 171 00:08:54,733 --> 00:08:57,233 President Kennedy died at 172 00:08:57,233 --> 00:09:00,466 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, 173 00:09:00,466 --> 00:09:03,500 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, 174 00:09:03,500 --> 00:09:05,733 some 38 minutes ago. 175 00:09:05,733 --> 00:09:09,266 Vice President, either soon-to-be or already President 176 00:09:09,266 --> 00:09:11,100 of the United States Lyndon Johnson 177 00:09:11,100 --> 00:09:13,566 was at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas 178 00:09:13,566 --> 00:09:16,733 at the time or near the time of the official announcement 179 00:09:16,733 --> 00:09:19,233 of the death of the 35th president of this country, 180 00:09:19,233 --> 00:09:20,366 John F. Kennedy. 181 00:09:20,366 --> 00:09:22,566 The Secret Service at this moment, 182 00:09:22,566 --> 00:09:24,233 or as of a few moments ago, 183 00:09:24,233 --> 00:09:26,600 was saying that Mr. Johnson's whereabouts 184 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:29,000 would not be revealed for security reasons. 185 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:30,566 SARAH T. HUGHES: ...I do solemnly swear... 186 00:09:30,566 --> 00:09:32,000 LYNDON JOHNSON: ...I do solemnly swear... 187 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:33,933 HUGHES: ...that I will faithfully execute... 188 00:09:33,933 --> 00:09:35,666 LYNDON JOHNSON: ...that I will faithfully execute... 189 00:09:35,666 --> 00:09:38,933 NARRATOR: "I knew it was imperative that I grasp the reins of power 190 00:09:38,933 --> 00:09:43,366 and do so without delay," Johnson remembered. 191 00:09:43,366 --> 00:09:46,500 "The nation was in a state of shock and grief. 192 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:50,366 "The entire world was watching us through a magnifying glass. 193 00:09:50,366 --> 00:09:52,500 I had to prove myself." 194 00:09:52,500 --> 00:09:55,600 I will do my best. 195 00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:00,033 That is all I can do. 196 00:10:00,033 --> 00:10:05,366 I ask for your help and God's. 197 00:10:05,366 --> 00:10:07,633 ♪ ♪ 198 00:10:07,633 --> 00:10:10,633 NARRATOR: It was a paradox of the vice presidency 199 00:10:10,633 --> 00:10:14,000 that the first to hold the office, John Adams, 200 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,700 had been quick to grasp. 201 00:10:15,700 --> 00:10:19,466 As he had put it: "I am the vice president. 202 00:10:19,466 --> 00:10:21,966 "In this, I am nothing. 203 00:10:21,966 --> 00:10:24,633 But I may be everything." 204 00:10:29,133 --> 00:10:30,900 Good evening. 205 00:10:30,900 --> 00:10:33,100 History has been trying to tell us something 206 00:10:33,100 --> 00:10:34,933 about the vice presidency. 207 00:10:34,933 --> 00:10:36,900 The office was added as an afterthought 208 00:10:36,900 --> 00:10:38,066 to the Constitution, 209 00:10:38,066 --> 00:10:40,066 which as a document has been called 210 00:10:40,066 --> 00:10:42,100 the most wonderful work ever struck off 211 00:10:42,100 --> 00:10:43,933 by the brain and purpose of man. 212 00:10:45,700 --> 00:10:47,300 But by the time the founding fathers 213 00:10:47,300 --> 00:10:49,000 got around to the vice presidency, 214 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:50,833 they were weary and impatient. 215 00:10:50,833 --> 00:10:53,933 And the flaws of their haste have haunted us ever since. 216 00:10:55,633 --> 00:11:00,133 NARRATOR: The U.S. Constitution assigned precisely two responsibilities 217 00:11:00,133 --> 00:11:03,666 to the vice president, a job description so slight 218 00:11:03,666 --> 00:11:05,566 that a member of the first Congress 219 00:11:05,566 --> 00:11:11,266 suggested the position be compensated on a per diem basis. 220 00:11:11,266 --> 00:11:15,033 KATE ANDERSEN BROWER: The vice president really has two roles: 221 00:11:15,033 --> 00:11:16,366 to be there in case something 222 00:11:16,366 --> 00:11:17,766 happens to the president, 223 00:11:17,766 --> 00:11:18,933 to stand in for him, 224 00:11:18,933 --> 00:11:20,266 take his place, 225 00:11:20,266 --> 00:11:24,000 or, uh, cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. 226 00:11:25,500 --> 00:11:27,833 The founding fathers really didn't give 227 00:11:27,833 --> 00:11:31,366 the vice presidency much thought. 228 00:11:31,366 --> 00:11:34,100 COHEN: They thought even less about succession. 229 00:11:34,100 --> 00:11:35,533 I think that's fascinating, 230 00:11:35,533 --> 00:11:38,933 because people didn't live that long back then. 231 00:11:38,933 --> 00:11:42,933 The Constitution said, "In case of the removal of the president 232 00:11:42,933 --> 00:11:46,133 "or his death, resignation, or inability 233 00:11:46,133 --> 00:11:48,366 "to discharge the duties of said office, 234 00:11:48,366 --> 00:11:53,166 the same shall devolve on the vice president." 235 00:11:53,166 --> 00:11:55,733 They left it very vague what "devolve" meant 236 00:11:55,733 --> 00:11:58,533 and what "same" meant, what they meant by 237 00:11:58,533 --> 00:12:01,200 "inability to discharge the duties." 238 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:02,800 They didn't leave much of a blueprint. 239 00:12:04,033 --> 00:12:06,766 NARRATOR: Under the framers' original scheme of election, 240 00:12:06,766 --> 00:12:10,100 the vice president was to be the literal runner-up, 241 00:12:10,100 --> 00:12:14,766 the winner of the second-most electoral votes for president. 242 00:12:14,766 --> 00:12:16,866 But the rise of political parties 243 00:12:16,866 --> 00:12:20,800 and the prospect of ideological opponents serving in tandem 244 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:23,100 made that approach untenable, 245 00:12:23,100 --> 00:12:27,500 and in 1804 helped to spur the 12th Amendment. 246 00:12:27,500 --> 00:12:30,033 HITE: What the 12th Amendment did is 247 00:12:30,033 --> 00:12:32,900 it created a method whereby 248 00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:35,866 electors were to cast separate votes for president 249 00:12:35,866 --> 00:12:37,766 and separate votes for vice president. 250 00:12:37,766 --> 00:12:42,600 Under the original method, you had a field of candidates 251 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:44,933 who were generally of presidential caliber. 252 00:12:44,933 --> 00:12:46,966 You, you were taking a shot, 253 00:12:46,966 --> 00:12:49,366 and there was a good chance that you could end up president. 254 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:54,000 After the 12th Amendment, 255 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,766 because the vice presidency lacked any substantive powers, 256 00:12:57,766 --> 00:13:01,833 there began to be a decline 257 00:13:01,833 --> 00:13:04,266 in the number of and the quality of candidates 258 00:13:04,266 --> 00:13:07,500 who would stand for vice president. 259 00:13:07,500 --> 00:13:11,233 You would be hard-pressed to find very many Americans 260 00:13:11,233 --> 00:13:16,366 who could name vice presidents from the 19th century. 261 00:13:16,366 --> 00:13:19,433 RAMESH PONNURU: Vice presidents were really chosen 262 00:13:19,433 --> 00:13:22,033 by political party organizations. 263 00:13:22,033 --> 00:13:25,000 Many times, the president was chosen 264 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:26,966 because he was part of the winning faction, 265 00:13:26,966 --> 00:13:31,266 and the minority faction was given the vice presidency often 266 00:13:31,266 --> 00:13:34,500 as a way of keeping the party together. 267 00:13:34,500 --> 00:13:37,400 That tradition continued 268 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:39,966 even after it became much more 269 00:13:39,966 --> 00:13:42,333 of a presidentially selected position, 270 00:13:42,333 --> 00:13:44,966 because those presidential candidates themselves 271 00:13:44,966 --> 00:13:49,000 had an interest in some kind of balance. 272 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,700 NARRATOR: During the first half-century of the new republic, 273 00:13:51,700 --> 00:13:53,466 no president died in office, 274 00:13:53,466 --> 00:13:57,066 and the succession clause went untested. 275 00:13:57,066 --> 00:14:00,766 Then, in 1841, the ninth commander-in-chief, 276 00:14:00,766 --> 00:14:03,800 William Henry Harrison, succumbed to pneumonia 277 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:06,866 barely a month after his inauguration, 278 00:14:06,866 --> 00:14:10,633 and Vice President John Tyler stepped into the breach, 279 00:14:10,633 --> 00:14:15,466 boldly declaring himself president of the United States. 280 00:14:15,466 --> 00:14:17,033 JOEL K. GOLDSTEIN: His claim was controversial, 281 00:14:17,033 --> 00:14:19,800 because many people read the Constitution, 282 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:24,500 which was ambiguous, to say that if the president died, 283 00:14:24,500 --> 00:14:28,466 the vice president simply acted as president, 284 00:14:28,466 --> 00:14:31,266 that he simply exercised the powers and duties 285 00:14:31,266 --> 00:14:34,166 of the presidency while remaining vice president. 286 00:14:35,366 --> 00:14:38,466 But Tyler insisted that he was president, 287 00:14:38,466 --> 00:14:42,100 refused to be dealt with on any other basis. 288 00:14:42,100 --> 00:14:44,166 COHEN: He was subsequently referred to 289 00:14:44,166 --> 00:14:47,200 as "His Accidency," "The Great Usurper"... 290 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:48,900 You know, the press had a field day with it. 291 00:14:48,900 --> 00:14:50,533 He would often get mail 292 00:14:50,533 --> 00:14:52,400 addressed to "John Tyler," 293 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:54,633 comma, "acting president of the United States." 294 00:14:54,633 --> 00:14:55,933 And he had a rule of thumb 295 00:14:55,933 --> 00:14:57,600 that he would return those unopened 296 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,233 regardless of who they came from. 297 00:15:00,233 --> 00:15:01,566 ♪ ♪ 298 00:15:01,566 --> 00:15:04,066 The Tyler Precedent took care of what happens 299 00:15:04,066 --> 00:15:05,633 when the president dies in office, 300 00:15:05,633 --> 00:15:08,700 albeit not formalized by the Constitution. 301 00:15:08,700 --> 00:15:10,866 Seven subsequent presidents 302 00:15:10,866 --> 00:15:12,766 became president of the United States 303 00:15:12,766 --> 00:15:15,066 because of that precedent: 304 00:15:15,066 --> 00:15:16,100 Millard Fillmore, 305 00:15:16,100 --> 00:15:17,533 Andrew Johnson, 306 00:15:17,533 --> 00:15:18,800 Chester Arthur, 307 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:20,233 Theodore Roosevelt, 308 00:15:20,233 --> 00:15:21,533 Calvin Coolidge, 309 00:15:21,533 --> 00:15:23,633 Harry Truman, 310 00:15:23,633 --> 00:15:25,266 and Lyndon Johnson. 311 00:15:26,666 --> 00:15:28,633 NARRATOR: The vice presidency, meanwhile, 312 00:15:28,633 --> 00:15:32,500 would remain vacant in each case for the duration of the term, 313 00:15:32,500 --> 00:15:34,933 there being no constitutional mechanism 314 00:15:34,933 --> 00:15:37,200 for filling such a vacancy. 315 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:41,800 Twice between 1842 and 1963, 316 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,766 Congress revised constitutional provisions 317 00:15:44,766 --> 00:15:46,700 that extended the line of succession 318 00:15:46,700 --> 00:15:48,866 beyond the vice presidency. 319 00:15:48,866 --> 00:15:52,233 But the man first in that line, the vice president, 320 00:15:52,233 --> 00:15:54,166 remained a kind of appendage, 321 00:15:54,166 --> 00:15:56,466 his prerogatives shrouded in mystery 322 00:15:56,466 --> 00:15:59,000 so long as the president was alive. 323 00:16:00,500 --> 00:16:04,666 In 1881, after President James Garfield was struck 324 00:16:04,666 --> 00:16:07,000 by a would-be assassin's bullet, 325 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,100 he clung to life for an agonizing 88 days, 326 00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:13,733 while Vice President Chester A. Arthur 327 00:16:13,733 --> 00:16:15,266 hovered on the sidelines, 328 00:16:15,266 --> 00:16:17,900 unsure of his authority to step in. 329 00:16:19,300 --> 00:16:20,733 GOLDSTEIN: There was a concern 330 00:16:20,733 --> 00:16:22,266 that if anyone acted 331 00:16:22,266 --> 00:16:25,433 to transfer power to Vice President Arthur, 332 00:16:25,433 --> 00:16:29,000 that it would displace Garfield from the presidency 333 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,233 because Arthur, like Tyler, would become president. 334 00:16:33,233 --> 00:16:37,466 And since the Constitution only envisions one president, 335 00:16:37,466 --> 00:16:40,400 that would mean that Garfield would be ousted. 336 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,400 So this became sort of a cloud 337 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,600 that hung over, um, the country, really, 338 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,866 whenever there was a presidential inability. 339 00:16:50,933 --> 00:16:54,900 NARRATOR: When Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919, 340 00:16:54,900 --> 00:16:56,866 his VP, Thomas Marshall, 341 00:16:56,866 --> 00:16:59,466 likewise refused to appear the usurper, 342 00:16:59,466 --> 00:17:03,233 and stood aside as Wilson's wife and his secretary 343 00:17:03,233 --> 00:17:05,933 kept the president's condition a secret 344 00:17:05,933 --> 00:17:08,100 for more than six months. 345 00:17:09,266 --> 00:17:11,300 And then there was Richard Nixon, 346 00:17:11,300 --> 00:17:14,366 vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 347 00:17:14,366 --> 00:17:18,866 who spent much of his presidency in and out of the hospital. 348 00:17:18,866 --> 00:17:20,366 MADDOW: So in 1955, 349 00:17:20,366 --> 00:17:22,766 General Eisenhower is very, very popular as a president, 350 00:17:22,766 --> 00:17:24,600 but he has a massive heart attack, 351 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:26,766 which requires a very long convalescence. 352 00:17:26,766 --> 00:17:30,466 Then in 1956, as he is standing for reelection, 353 00:17:30,466 --> 00:17:32,266 he has emergency surgery, 354 00:17:32,266 --> 00:17:34,833 which also requires a very long convalescence. 355 00:17:34,833 --> 00:17:37,566 And it opens up discussion 356 00:17:37,566 --> 00:17:40,033 around this black box, which was who was running the presidency 357 00:17:40,033 --> 00:17:42,333 while Ike was convalescing 358 00:17:42,333 --> 00:17:45,900 after his multiple serious health problems. 359 00:17:45,900 --> 00:17:48,433 COHEN: There was no provision in the Constitution 360 00:17:48,433 --> 00:17:53,433 for dealing with a situation where the president is disabled. 361 00:17:53,433 --> 00:17:55,300 There's actually no formal mechanism 362 00:17:55,300 --> 00:17:58,366 for discharging the duties of the president 363 00:17:58,366 --> 00:18:00,600 to an acting president, even the vice president. 364 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,600 There was no clarity around 365 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,400 who's in charge. 366 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,033 ♪ ♪ 367 00:18:07,033 --> 00:18:09,433 GOLDSTEIN: People increasingly looked to the president 368 00:18:09,433 --> 00:18:13,800 to address both domestic and international problems 369 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:18,500 and to handle an increasingly complicated global situation 370 00:18:18,500 --> 00:18:19,733 in a nuclear age. 371 00:18:19,733 --> 00:18:22,700 I expect to be back at my accustomed duties, 372 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:25,366 although they say I must ease my way into 'em, 373 00:18:25,366 --> 00:18:27,200 and not bulldoze my way into 'em. 374 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:31,200 GOLDSTEIN: It made the president more powerful, more significant. 375 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,166 And that meant that the vice president 376 00:18:33,166 --> 00:18:34,700 became more significant. 377 00:18:34,700 --> 00:18:37,700 And so ultimately, the vice presidency 378 00:18:37,700 --> 00:18:40,766 gets pulled from Capitol Hill, 379 00:18:40,766 --> 00:18:43,500 where the vice presidents had presided over the Senate 380 00:18:43,500 --> 00:18:45,466 and done really little else, 381 00:18:45,466 --> 00:18:49,033 down Pennsylvania Avenue to the executive branch. 382 00:18:51,100 --> 00:18:53,600 President Eisenhower was cognizant 383 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,166 and very transparent, really, that he had health issues. 384 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:02,400 He had concerns about the lack of clarity in the Constitution 385 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,266 in terms of inability, 386 00:19:04,266 --> 00:19:06,533 or presidents being incapacitated 387 00:19:06,533 --> 00:19:08,833 for some period of time. 388 00:19:08,833 --> 00:19:11,933 And so he gave himself the authority 389 00:19:11,933 --> 00:19:16,400 to decide when an inability existed. 390 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:19,033 And even more important than that, 391 00:19:19,033 --> 00:19:20,400 this same directive, 392 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,433 he gave that authority to Vice President Nixon 393 00:19:23,433 --> 00:19:26,733 to decide if the president was incapacitated 394 00:19:26,733 --> 00:19:30,400 or unable to fulfill the duties of the office. 395 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,733 But it didn't have the force of law. 396 00:19:32,733 --> 00:19:35,566 MADDOW: It was polite and unstressful, apparently, between them, 397 00:19:35,566 --> 00:19:37,500 but it was really precarious for the country. 398 00:19:38,733 --> 00:19:40,566 What if there had been a dispute 399 00:19:40,566 --> 00:19:44,800 as to whether or not the president was disabled 400 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,900 and the vice president thereby enabled? 401 00:19:47,900 --> 00:19:50,200 What if the president and the vice president 402 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,033 disagreed about that? 403 00:19:53,033 --> 00:19:57,933 It did put the issue of when and how and whether 404 00:19:57,933 --> 00:20:01,300 the vice president is running the country front of mind. 405 00:20:01,300 --> 00:20:04,200 ♪ ♪ 406 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:09,300 NARRATOR: The gentlemen's agreement made between Eisenhower and Nixon 407 00:20:09,300 --> 00:20:13,400 had been replicated by John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. 408 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:14,666 But there was little reason to think 409 00:20:14,666 --> 00:20:16,900 they would need to invoke it. 410 00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:19,766 As Kennedy had put it to an aide during the campaign, 411 00:20:19,766 --> 00:20:22,300 "I'm 43 years old. 412 00:20:22,300 --> 00:20:25,066 "I'm the healthiest candidate for president. 413 00:20:25,066 --> 00:20:28,766 And I'm not going to die in office." 414 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:35,466 JOHN D. FEERICK: In 1963, I was a young lawyer. 415 00:20:35,466 --> 00:20:36,933 I had spent 416 00:20:36,933 --> 00:20:38,266 the previous two years 417 00:20:38,266 --> 00:20:39,666 writing an article 418 00:20:39,666 --> 00:20:41,166 for the "Fordham Law Review." 419 00:20:41,166 --> 00:20:45,666 I started when I saw newspaper articles about disability 420 00:20:45,666 --> 00:20:48,833 during the Eisenhower administration, 421 00:20:48,833 --> 00:20:51,433 and I took that on as my topic. 422 00:20:51,433 --> 00:20:53,033 And it was published a month 423 00:20:53,033 --> 00:20:56,066 before President Kennedy's assassination. 424 00:20:56,066 --> 00:20:58,666 And I figured, well, it's probably going to go 425 00:20:58,666 --> 00:21:02,700 on a library shelf somewhere, but it's an important subject. 426 00:21:02,700 --> 00:21:04,833 ♪ ♪ 427 00:21:04,833 --> 00:21:06,833 When President Kennedy was assassinated, 428 00:21:06,833 --> 00:21:10,466 all of a sudden, I got all kinds of calls: 429 00:21:10,466 --> 00:21:13,100 Can we get your article? 430 00:21:13,100 --> 00:21:16,433 Would you be on a program? 431 00:21:16,433 --> 00:21:19,766 Now therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, 432 00:21:19,766 --> 00:21:22,733 president of the United States of America, 433 00:21:22,733 --> 00:21:26,866 do appoint Monday next, November 25, 434 00:21:26,866 --> 00:21:30,166 the day of the funeral service of President Kennedy, 435 00:21:30,166 --> 00:21:35,766 to be a national day of mourning throughout the United States. 436 00:21:35,766 --> 00:21:38,700 COHEN: The assassination of John F. Kennedy 437 00:21:38,700 --> 00:21:40,400 and the subsequent elevation of Lyndon Johnson 438 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:42,433 was different than any of the seven 439 00:21:42,433 --> 00:21:44,833 deaths in office that had happened before, 440 00:21:44,833 --> 00:21:47,666 in part because it was so dramatic. 441 00:21:47,666 --> 00:21:49,466 The president of the United States was shot 442 00:21:49,466 --> 00:21:50,566 on live TV. 443 00:21:50,566 --> 00:21:52,533 And then the alleged assassin 444 00:21:52,533 --> 00:21:56,666 was shot just a couple days later, also on live television. 445 00:21:58,166 --> 00:22:01,133 It traumatized an entire generation. 446 00:22:03,133 --> 00:22:05,533 MADDOW: President Kennedy was shot in the head. 447 00:22:05,533 --> 00:22:09,500 Had he survived but been disabled, 448 00:22:09,500 --> 00:22:11,666 was the country comfortable 449 00:22:11,666 --> 00:22:13,866 leaving it up to one man's say-so, 450 00:22:13,866 --> 00:22:16,133 to his vice president, Johnson's say-so, 451 00:22:16,133 --> 00:22:18,300 as to whether or not President Kennedy 452 00:22:18,300 --> 00:22:22,133 was able to continue in the office of the presidency? 453 00:22:23,466 --> 00:22:27,333 ♪ ♪ 454 00:22:27,333 --> 00:22:30,700 COHEN: Back in the late 1700s and early 1800s, 455 00:22:30,700 --> 00:22:33,066 perhaps the question of succession 456 00:22:33,066 --> 00:22:36,800 didn't matter as much as it does in the age of nuclear weapons. 457 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,733 But we're in the height of the Cold War. 458 00:22:39,733 --> 00:22:41,466 The Cuban Missile Crisis has happened. 459 00:22:41,466 --> 00:22:43,733 Um, you just can't live in a world 460 00:22:43,733 --> 00:22:45,900 with ambiguity around succession. 461 00:22:45,900 --> 00:22:47,666 ♪ ♪ 462 00:22:47,666 --> 00:22:49,500 HITE: Vietnam was moving forward. 463 00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:51,100 There were civil rights protests. 464 00:22:51,100 --> 00:22:54,233 You had civil rights leaders being assassinated. 465 00:22:55,833 --> 00:22:58,033 And so there was a growing awareness, like, 466 00:22:58,033 --> 00:22:59,733 this is a dangerous world, 467 00:22:59,733 --> 00:23:04,466 and mortality is a major factor here for presidents. 468 00:23:04,466 --> 00:23:06,600 This is real, this happens, 469 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:08,300 and it happens pretty frequently. 470 00:23:08,300 --> 00:23:11,300 All I have 471 00:23:11,300 --> 00:23:15,333 I would have given gladly 472 00:23:15,333 --> 00:23:18,533 not to be standing here today. 473 00:23:18,533 --> 00:23:21,333 NARRATOR: When President Johnson delivered his special message 474 00:23:21,333 --> 00:23:24,333 to Congress on November 27, 1963, 475 00:23:24,333 --> 00:23:27,900 five days after the assassination, 476 00:23:27,900 --> 00:23:30,966 there was more than usual interest in the politicians 477 00:23:30,966 --> 00:23:33,733 seated behind him on the dais: 478 00:23:33,733 --> 00:23:37,033 to the left, the Speaker of the House, 479 00:23:37,033 --> 00:23:40,233 a 72-year-old with very little international experience, 480 00:23:40,233 --> 00:23:43,433 and the 86-year-old president pro tem 481 00:23:43,433 --> 00:23:45,700 of the Senate on the right. 482 00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:48,966 Should something untoward happen to the president now, 483 00:23:48,966 --> 00:23:51,733 these men were the next in line. 484 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,300 The constitutional flaw that had gone unmended 485 00:23:56,300 --> 00:23:58,133 for nearly two centuries 486 00:23:58,133 --> 00:23:59,766 was suddenly now at 487 00:23:59,766 --> 00:24:01,933 the top of the national agenda. 488 00:24:01,933 --> 00:24:03,400 ANNOUNCER: "CBS Reports: 489 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,066 The Crisis of Presidential Succession." 490 00:24:06,066 --> 00:24:08,166 I think that now is the time to, 491 00:24:08,166 --> 00:24:11,600 for all of us to study it very intensively. 492 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,800 We've just had this great tragedy. 493 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:19,633 We came out of our state possibly of shocked disbelief. 494 00:24:19,633 --> 00:24:21,933 But now it is time to do something 495 00:24:21,933 --> 00:24:23,433 that common sense determines 496 00:24:23,433 --> 00:24:26,500 is the best way to keep our government functioning 497 00:24:26,500 --> 00:24:29,900 without the possibility of great, great confusion 498 00:24:29,900 --> 00:24:31,166 right in the point of crisis. 499 00:24:31,166 --> 00:24:34,466 (plane engine roars) 500 00:24:34,466 --> 00:24:36,766 NARRATOR: It was while taxiing toward the terminal 501 00:24:36,766 --> 00:24:38,166 at Chicago's O'Hare 502 00:24:38,166 --> 00:24:40,066 that Birch Bayh, 503 00:24:40,066 --> 00:24:42,033 the freshman senator from Indiana, 504 00:24:42,033 --> 00:24:44,533 first heard that Kennedy had been shot. 505 00:24:45,933 --> 00:24:48,700 The pilot had come over the intercom. 506 00:24:48,700 --> 00:24:52,666 Later, Bayh would recall that as his taxi crawled 507 00:24:52,666 --> 00:24:54,866 through the city's streets that evening, 508 00:24:54,866 --> 00:24:57,200 "bleak with rain and sorrow," he said, 509 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,600 his thoughts had gone to Lyndon Johnson, 510 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,433 to the counsel he'd been so well-suited to provide 511 00:25:03,433 --> 00:25:05,133 as vice president, 512 00:25:05,133 --> 00:25:09,533 and the counsel he surely would need from his VP in turn. 513 00:25:10,533 --> 00:25:13,533 "But there I sat up sharply," Bayh remembered. 514 00:25:13,533 --> 00:25:18,066 "There was no vice president now." 515 00:25:18,066 --> 00:25:20,533 In fact, as of that moment, 516 00:25:20,533 --> 00:25:23,100 the nation had been without a vice president 517 00:25:23,100 --> 00:25:27,166 for a cumulative total of more than 36 years. 518 00:25:27,166 --> 00:25:30,800 COHEN: The fact that we had so many moments in history 519 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,766 where there was a vacancy in the vice presidency 520 00:25:34,766 --> 00:25:36,533 tells you how little we thought 521 00:25:36,533 --> 00:25:39,533 about the importance of the vice presidency. 522 00:25:39,533 --> 00:25:41,000 But to not have a provision 523 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:42,800 to replace the vice president 524 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:44,766 creates a significant break 525 00:25:44,766 --> 00:25:47,000 in the line of succession. 526 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,066 ♪ ♪ 527 00:25:49,066 --> 00:25:51,333 NARRATOR: As it happened, Senator Bayh recently had been made 528 00:25:51,333 --> 00:25:54,900 chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, 529 00:25:54,900 --> 00:25:59,066 an appointment now ripe with purpose. 530 00:25:59,066 --> 00:26:01,900 Just 20 days after Kennedy's assassination, 531 00:26:01,900 --> 00:26:05,033 Bayh announced that his subcommittee would hold hearings 532 00:26:05,033 --> 00:26:06,700 on the twinned problems 533 00:26:06,700 --> 00:26:09,700 of presidential succession and inability, 534 00:26:09,700 --> 00:26:12,533 and proposed a constitutional amendment, 535 00:26:12,533 --> 00:26:17,600 Senate Joint Resolution 139, meant to address both. 536 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,900 The American Bar Association played a very important role 537 00:26:20,900 --> 00:26:22,833 in the creation of the amendment, 538 00:26:22,833 --> 00:26:26,433 and I was given an opportunity to participate in that. 539 00:26:26,433 --> 00:26:30,166 The issue boiled down to, how do we deal with 540 00:26:30,166 --> 00:26:31,900 an involuntary inability? 541 00:26:31,900 --> 00:26:35,066 That the president is... there's something wrong. 542 00:26:35,066 --> 00:26:39,866 We have to address it, and what should those provisions be? 543 00:26:39,866 --> 00:26:44,766 NARRATOR: Presidential inability had been a preoccupation on Capitol Hill 544 00:26:44,766 --> 00:26:48,066 at least since the Eisenhower administration. 545 00:26:48,066 --> 00:26:52,400 A raft of remedies had been proposed and hearings held, 546 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,933 but consensus proved elusive. 547 00:26:55,933 --> 00:26:57,966 As the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, 548 00:26:57,966 --> 00:26:59,300 Emanuel Celler, put it, 549 00:26:59,300 --> 00:27:01,900 "When you had three congressmen discussing 550 00:27:01,900 --> 00:27:05,866 inability, you had 17 different opinions." 551 00:27:05,866 --> 00:27:09,200 MADDOW: When they were debating the circumstances in which 552 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,033 a vice president would take over 553 00:27:11,033 --> 00:27:13,433 and become, effectively, acting president, 554 00:27:13,433 --> 00:27:17,366 it was like an imagination debate. 555 00:27:17,366 --> 00:27:20,933 Imagine all of the crazy things that might befall a president. 556 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,900 And once you start talking about things in those terms, 557 00:27:26,900 --> 00:27:28,266 you're unlikely at any point 558 00:27:28,266 --> 00:27:30,766 for everybody to arrive at an idea 559 00:27:30,766 --> 00:27:32,866 that seems like something to handle all contingencies. 560 00:27:32,866 --> 00:27:37,400 NARRATOR: It took Bayh 18 months to push his resolution 561 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:39,533 through both houses of Congress 562 00:27:39,533 --> 00:27:44,200 and another 16 for it to be ratified by the states, 563 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,733 before it was finally and formally proclaimed 564 00:27:46,733 --> 00:27:50,333 the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 565 00:27:50,333 --> 00:27:53,233 I think it's a happy announcement that 566 00:27:53,233 --> 00:27:56,866 today, on the tenth day of February 1967, 567 00:27:56,866 --> 00:27:58,200 we can announce 568 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,933 the consummation of efforts to find a solution 569 00:28:01,933 --> 00:28:04,166 to a constitutional gap 570 00:28:04,166 --> 00:28:06,066 which has existed for 571 00:28:06,066 --> 00:28:07,900 the best part of two centuries. 572 00:28:07,900 --> 00:28:11,400 NARRATOR: Broad consensus at last had emerged 573 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:13,866 on one crucial point: 574 00:28:13,866 --> 00:28:17,400 the nation needed a vice president at all times. 575 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,666 Today, in this crisis-ridden era, 576 00:28:20,666 --> 00:28:23,733 there is no margin for delay, 577 00:28:23,733 --> 00:28:27,566 no possible justification for ever permitting a vacuum 578 00:28:27,566 --> 00:28:29,566 in our national leadership. 579 00:28:29,566 --> 00:28:32,966 And now, at last, through the 25th Amendment, 580 00:28:32,966 --> 00:28:35,800 we have the means of responding 581 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,666 to these crises of responsibility. 582 00:28:38,666 --> 00:28:44,200 GOLDSTEIN: The 25th Amendment created a means of filling 583 00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,533 a vice presidential vacancy during a presidential term. 584 00:28:47,533 --> 00:28:50,800 ♪ ♪ 585 00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,933 Also to transfer power to the vice president 586 00:28:54,933 --> 00:28:58,400 on a temporary basis if the president was unable 587 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:02,100 to exercise presidential power. 588 00:29:02,100 --> 00:29:04,800 It really reflected a new vision 589 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,533 of the vice presidency 590 00:29:06,533 --> 00:29:09,133 as a important officer 591 00:29:09,133 --> 00:29:11,066 in the executive branch, 592 00:29:11,066 --> 00:29:14,066 a close and compatible colleague 593 00:29:14,066 --> 00:29:15,366 of the president, 594 00:29:15,366 --> 00:29:17,566 someone who was familiar 595 00:29:17,566 --> 00:29:20,800 with the policy and committed to the policies 596 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:22,566 of the administration 597 00:29:22,566 --> 00:29:25,733 so that a transfer of power would go smoothly. 598 00:29:25,733 --> 00:29:27,533 (applauding) 599 00:29:27,533 --> 00:29:32,233 FEERICK: Even if a president had to have a one-hour operation, 600 00:29:32,233 --> 00:29:34,700 as Senator Bayh would say, 601 00:29:34,700 --> 00:29:37,533 if missiles were flying at America at that point, 602 00:29:37,533 --> 00:29:40,900 you want to be sure that there's no gap in terms 603 00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:42,500 of where the executive power is, 604 00:29:42,500 --> 00:29:46,266 and the person that we have to look to 605 00:29:46,266 --> 00:29:48,900 in that situation is the vice president. 606 00:29:48,900 --> 00:29:51,233 ♪ ♪ 607 00:29:51,233 --> 00:29:53,966 NARRATOR: Few observers thought the amendment perfect, 608 00:29:53,966 --> 00:29:55,700 but most agreed it was flexible enough 609 00:29:55,700 --> 00:29:59,300 to cover all manner of contingencies. 610 00:29:59,300 --> 00:30:04,500 What no one could have guessed was just how, and how often, 611 00:30:04,500 --> 00:30:07,466 it soon would be called into play. 612 00:30:07,466 --> 00:30:09,433 They were trying to imagine everything, 613 00:30:09,433 --> 00:30:12,566 but truth is always stranger than fiction, right? 614 00:30:12,566 --> 00:30:15,533   The, the real circumstances of how things come to pass 615 00:30:15,533 --> 00:30:19,333 are always wilder than the hypotheticals that you imagine. 616 00:30:19,333 --> 00:30:21,733 And so it was with the vice presidency, 617 00:30:21,733 --> 00:30:23,500 and so it was with the 25th Amendment. 618 00:30:23,500 --> 00:30:25,833 ♪ ♪ 619 00:30:25,833 --> 00:30:29,833 NARRATOR: When it was first reported in the late summer of 1972, 620 00:30:29,833 --> 00:30:33,900 the Watergate story might easily have escaped notice: 621 00:30:33,900 --> 00:30:36,300 an odd break-in at the headquarters 622 00:30:36,300 --> 00:30:38,666 of the Democratic National Committee 623 00:30:38,666 --> 00:30:40,233 involving five men, 624 00:30:40,233 --> 00:30:43,633 a bagful of sophisticated surveillance devices, 625 00:30:43,633 --> 00:30:48,300 and 230 crisp $100 bills. 626 00:30:48,300 --> 00:30:52,066 Then it became clear that one of the Watergate burglars 627 00:30:52,066 --> 00:30:54,433 had ties to the reelection campaign 628 00:30:54,433 --> 00:30:56,900 of President Richard M. Nixon, 629 00:30:56,900 --> 00:31:00,466 and the nation's attention was riveted as, month by month, 630 00:31:00,466 --> 00:31:05,000 evidence mounted of a White House conspiracy and cover-up. 631 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,600 By the middle of July 1973, 632 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,033 investigators were focused on tape recordings 633 00:31:11,033 --> 00:31:14,400 of conversations had in Nixon's offices-- 634 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,733 recordings that Nixon patently refused to release 635 00:31:17,733 --> 00:31:21,533 on the grounds of executive privilege. 636 00:31:21,533 --> 00:31:24,833 The Senate Watergate Committee met and unanimously voted 637 00:31:24,833 --> 00:31:26,366 to subpoena the tapes. 638 00:31:26,366 --> 00:31:31,033 MADDOW: So in 1973, 639 00:31:31,033 --> 00:31:34,433 the Watergate political crisis is in full flower. 640 00:31:34,433 --> 00:31:36,533 The attorney general, Elliot Richardson, is worried 641 00:31:36,533 --> 00:31:39,933 not only that the president might have committed crimes, 642 00:31:39,933 --> 00:31:41,533 that the president might be removed from office, 643 00:31:41,533 --> 00:31:43,133 he's worried that the president might die, 644 00:31:43,133 --> 00:31:45,266 he's under so much stress. 645 00:31:45,266 --> 00:31:48,800 And at the same time, in the summer of 1973, 646 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,766 this U.S. attorney's office in Maryland keeps calling 647 00:31:51,766 --> 00:31:53,433 and asking for a meeting. 648 00:31:53,433 --> 00:31:56,300 And they finally get the news through to him 649 00:31:56,300 --> 00:31:58,466 that this little public corruption investigation 650 00:31:58,466 --> 00:32:01,066 that they've been working on in Maryland has produced 651 00:32:01,066 --> 00:32:03,933 very good evidence that Vice President Agnew 652 00:32:03,933 --> 00:32:07,233 has been committing extortion and taking cash bribes 653 00:32:07,233 --> 00:32:09,133 in the White House. 654 00:32:09,133 --> 00:32:11,866 Washington was stunned today by the disclosure 655 00:32:11,866 --> 00:32:14,800 that Vice President Agnew is under criminal investigation 656 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,700 by federal authorities in his home state of Maryland. 657 00:32:18,700 --> 00:32:21,800 MADDOW: Imagine you're Richard Nixon in this moment. 658 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:24,700 Watergate is spiraling and spiraling, 659 00:32:24,700 --> 00:32:26,433 and getting worse and worse, 660 00:32:26,433 --> 00:32:29,500 and threatening you more and more with each passing day. 661 00:32:29,500 --> 00:32:32,800 Now, here's your vice president taking bribes, 662 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,200 taking envelopes stuffed with $100 bills 663 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,300 during the time he was vice president. 664 00:32:38,300 --> 00:32:40,333 I will fight to prove my innocence 665 00:32:40,333 --> 00:32:43,700 and that I intend to remain in the high office 666 00:32:43,700 --> 00:32:45,466 to which I have been twice elected. 667 00:32:45,466 --> 00:32:47,866 (cheering and applauding) 668 00:32:49,266 --> 00:32:52,266 MADDOW: Spiro Agnew was chosen by Richard Nixon 669 00:32:52,266 --> 00:32:54,000 as his running mate in 1968, 670 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,900 and it was a bewildering choice to most observers. 671 00:32:58,900 --> 00:33:00,800 Spiro Agnew was the governor of Maryland 672 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,800 and he was not a high-profile member 673 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:05,766 of the Republican establishment in any way. 674 00:33:05,766 --> 00:33:08,766 That said, during his vice presidency, 675 00:33:08,766 --> 00:33:10,400 he really established himself 676 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,000 as a political force, 677 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,266 as a divisive, rabble-rousing figure 678 00:33:15,266 --> 00:33:16,766 who antagonized the press, 679 00:33:16,766 --> 00:33:20,133 who excited the right-wing base of the Republican Party. 680 00:33:20,133 --> 00:33:22,933 (chanting, clapping) 681 00:33:22,933 --> 00:33:26,233 MADDOW: When Nixon and Agnew ran for reelection in 1972, 682 00:33:26,233 --> 00:33:28,166 that proved to be a really winning combination. 683 00:33:28,166 --> 00:33:30,700 It was a landslide when they won in '72. 684 00:33:30,700 --> 00:33:36,700 NARRATOR: But Agnew had never been invited into Nixon's inner circle. 685 00:33:36,700 --> 00:33:39,700 Though he'd been given an office in the West Wing-- 686 00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:42,766 the first vice president to be so situated-- 687 00:33:42,766 --> 00:33:46,233 he'd been made to understand that his proximity to the Oval 688 00:33:46,233 --> 00:33:47,966 was purely symbolic. 689 00:33:47,966 --> 00:33:50,100 "A little over a week ago, 690 00:33:50,100 --> 00:33:53,133 I took a rather unusual step for a vice president," 691 00:33:53,133 --> 00:33:55,333 Agnew complained in his memoir. 692 00:33:55,333 --> 00:33:57,100 "I said something." 693 00:33:57,100 --> 00:34:01,766 Before very long, his West Wing perch had been repossessed. 694 00:34:01,766 --> 00:34:05,366 Then came the glare of simultaneous scandals 695 00:34:05,366 --> 00:34:07,900 in the executive branch. 696 00:34:07,900 --> 00:34:09,500 REPORTER: "Time" magazine today quotes officials 697 00:34:09,500 --> 00:34:11,066 in the Department of Justice as saying 698 00:34:11,066 --> 00:34:13,200 that the case against Vice President Agnew 699 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:14,800 is growing steadily stronger 700 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,233 and that an indictment appears inevitable. 701 00:34:17,233 --> 00:34:19,866 ♪ ♪ 702 00:34:19,866 --> 00:34:23,400 HITE: Nixon refused to support Agnew or defend Agnew in any way. 703 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:28,333 He knew it was likely that he himself would be impeached 704 00:34:28,333 --> 00:34:30,466 or forced to resign, 705 00:34:30,466 --> 00:34:35,033 knew that it would be a disaster if Agnew were to succeed 706 00:34:35,033 --> 00:34:37,066 to the presidency. 707 00:34:37,066 --> 00:34:41,233 So Nixon's Justice Department was actively pursuing 708 00:34:41,233 --> 00:34:43,466 forcing Agnew from office. 709 00:34:44,866 --> 00:34:47,633 AGNEW: I will not resign if indicted. 710 00:34:47,633 --> 00:34:50,333 I will not resign if indicted. 711 00:34:50,333 --> 00:34:52,500 (cheering and applauding) 712 00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:54,800 I intend to stay and fight. 713 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:57,300 (crowd cheers and applauds) 714 00:34:57,300 --> 00:34:59,533 MADDOW: What Attorney General Elliot Richardson decided to do 715 00:34:59,533 --> 00:35:01,900 was allow these federal prosecutors 716 00:35:01,900 --> 00:35:05,766 to go ahead with the plan to bring federal criminal charges, 717 00:35:05,766 --> 00:35:07,466 dozens of felony charges, 718 00:35:07,466 --> 00:35:09,700 against the sitting vice president of the United States. 719 00:35:09,700 --> 00:35:15,000 And when Vice President Agnew was informed that that was 720 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:16,666 what was going to happen to him, 721 00:35:16,666 --> 00:35:20,033 he entered into a plea deal discussion. 722 00:35:20,033 --> 00:35:22,866 Very unusually, it was supervised by the judge himself. 723 00:35:22,866 --> 00:35:25,566 Even more unusually, the judge supervised 724 00:35:25,566 --> 00:35:28,533 the plea deal discussions at a motel. 725 00:35:28,533 --> 00:35:29,833 I don't know. 726 00:35:29,833 --> 00:35:32,266 That's what they did-- they met at a motel. 727 00:35:32,266 --> 00:35:34,500 The two sides sat on opposite twin beds in a motel room 728 00:35:34,500 --> 00:35:35,500 with a judge. 729 00:35:35,500 --> 00:35:36,900 They worked it out. 730 00:35:36,900 --> 00:35:40,966 And what they worked out was that Vice President Agnew 731 00:35:40,966 --> 00:35:42,400 would not go to prison. 732 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:45,433 He would be assured that he would not go to prison. 733 00:35:45,433 --> 00:35:48,200 He would have to plead, essentially, no contest 734 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,900 to at least one charge, 735 00:35:50,900 --> 00:35:52,766 but, as part of the agreement, 736 00:35:52,766 --> 00:35:54,266 he would resign the vice presidency. 737 00:35:54,266 --> 00:35:57,966 Vice President Agnew, burying himself as a tax cheat, 738 00:35:57,966 --> 00:36:00,933 resigned today under an agreement which protects him 739 00:36:00,933 --> 00:36:03,500 from prosecution on charges of grafting. 740 00:36:03,500 --> 00:36:05,566 The big question tonight, 741 00:36:05,566 --> 00:36:08,333 who will succeed Spiro Agnew as vice president? 742 00:36:08,333 --> 00:36:11,666 REPORTER: We're talking about the 25th Amendment. 743 00:36:11,666 --> 00:36:15,100 The Constitution providing that a vacancy in office 744 00:36:15,100 --> 00:36:17,800 is to be filled by a nominee proposed by the president, 745 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,766 ratified by the Congress. 746 00:36:19,766 --> 00:36:22,266 How is this thing going to work? 747 00:36:22,266 --> 00:36:24,366 MAX ROBINSON: There are some questions to be answered, 748 00:36:24,366 --> 00:36:26,500 but I think we are extremely fortunate 749 00:36:26,500 --> 00:36:28,733 that there is the 25th Amendment to work with. 750 00:36:28,733 --> 00:36:32,766 MADDOW: The existence of the 25th Amendment, 751 00:36:32,766 --> 00:36:36,666 and the clarity around how a vacancy 752 00:36:36,666 --> 00:36:39,666 in the vice presidency is filled, 753 00:36:39,666 --> 00:36:45,100 was, I think, part of the reason that Agnew's resignation 754 00:36:45,100 --> 00:36:47,833 was sort of an okay resolution to this crisis. 755 00:36:47,833 --> 00:36:50,100 ♪ ♪ 756 00:36:50,100 --> 00:36:53,533 NARRATOR: With the Watergate tapes still hostage to the president's claim 757 00:36:53,533 --> 00:36:56,800 of executive privilege, some in Congress now balked 758 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:58,833 at the 25th Amendment 759 00:36:58,833 --> 00:37:00,633 and the prospect of having to confirm 760 00:37:00,633 --> 00:37:04,166 a vice president of Nixon's choice. 761 00:37:04,166 --> 00:37:07,200 "So long as the president himself is so clearly 762 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,933 under the cloud of possible disclosures on the tapes," 763 00:37:10,933 --> 00:37:13,133 insisted Senator Edward Kennedy, 764 00:37:13,133 --> 00:37:16,133 "grave questions exist as to the propriety 765 00:37:16,133 --> 00:37:21,066 of the president's choosing his own successor." 766 00:37:21,066 --> 00:37:23,533 HITE: Richard Nixon was an embattled president, 767 00:37:23,533 --> 00:37:27,433 and yet, the authority given to him in the 25th Amendment 768 00:37:27,433 --> 00:37:31,566 allowed him to exercise considerable influence 769 00:37:31,566 --> 00:37:34,433 on the political landscape. 770 00:37:34,433 --> 00:37:37,800 And so he immediately started looking for someone 771 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,533 to fill the vacancy. 772 00:37:40,533 --> 00:37:43,600 NARRATOR: In the end, his selection was a calculated one: 773 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:47,466 the less overtly presidential the nominee, Nixon reasoned, 774 00:37:47,466 --> 00:37:49,333 the less controversial, 775 00:37:49,333 --> 00:37:54,400 the more likely a speedy confirmation by Congress. 776 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,566 I proudly present to you the man whose name I will submit 777 00:37:59,566 --> 00:38:02,466 to the Congress of the United States 778 00:38:02,466 --> 00:38:05,633 for confirmation as 779 00:38:05,633 --> 00:38:07,533 the vice president of the United States, 780 00:38:07,533 --> 00:38:09,933 Congressman Gerald Ford of Michigan. 781 00:38:09,933 --> 00:38:12,166 (audience cheers and applauds) 782 00:38:12,166 --> 00:38:14,566 BROWER: He picks Gerald Ford, 783 00:38:14,566 --> 00:38:16,966 this ex-football player, 784 00:38:16,966 --> 00:38:19,200 very affable, very likable, 785 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,533 but not somebody who was going to run for president. 786 00:38:22,533 --> 00:38:24,200 He was actually thinking of retiring. 787 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:25,400 He was going to run 788 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:26,733 one more time, he told his wife, 789 00:38:26,733 --> 00:38:28,633 and then hang it up. 790 00:38:28,633 --> 00:38:32,500   COHEN: Gerald Ford was a obscure congressman from Michigan. 791 00:38:32,500 --> 00:38:36,233 Richard Nixon offered him an opportunity to have 792 00:38:36,233 --> 00:38:39,200 the second-most powerful job in the country. 793 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,700 There's not a lot of instances where somebody might view 794 00:38:41,700 --> 00:38:43,433 the vice presidency as an upgrade, 795 00:38:43,433 --> 00:38:45,133 but from Michigan's fifth district, 796 00:38:45,133 --> 00:38:46,233 I'd say it's an upgrade. 797 00:38:46,233 --> 00:38:49,166 ♪ ♪ 798 00:38:49,166 --> 00:38:51,300 RON ZIEGLER: I know many of you are on deadline, 799 00:38:51,300 --> 00:38:55,533 so I have a brief statement to give you at this time 800 00:38:55,533 --> 00:38:58,933 relating to action which President Nixon 801 00:38:58,933 --> 00:39:00,600 has taken tonight. 802 00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,433 ♪ ♪ 803 00:39:02,433 --> 00:39:04,433 President Nixon has tonight... 804 00:39:04,433 --> 00:39:06,733 NARRATOR: On October 20, 1973, 805 00:39:06,733 --> 00:39:08,966 ten days after Agnew's resignation 806 00:39:08,966 --> 00:39:12,400 and two weeks before Ford's confirmation hearings 807 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:13,866 were set to begin, 808 00:39:13,866 --> 00:39:19,200 President Nixon managed to hasten his own political demise. 809 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,266 In a fit of pique, he demanded that Archibald Cox, 810 00:39:22,266 --> 00:39:25,133 the special prosecutor investigating Watergate, 811 00:39:25,133 --> 00:39:27,833 be dismissed, his office abolished, 812 00:39:27,833 --> 00:39:29,433 and his files sealed-- 813 00:39:29,433 --> 00:39:32,700 an action that led, in turn, 814 00:39:32,700 --> 00:39:34,200 to the immediate resignation 815 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:38,433 of, first, Attorney General Richardson, then his deputy. 816 00:39:38,433 --> 00:39:42,466 The newspapers dubbed it "The Saturday Night Massacre," 817 00:39:42,466 --> 00:39:45,166 and cries for Nixon's ouster rose across the land. 818 00:39:45,166 --> 00:39:48,433 Nothing like this has ever happened before. 819 00:39:48,433 --> 00:39:51,133 And what it means is that the worst dreams of everyone 820 00:39:51,133 --> 00:39:53,533 who was worried about the president's secret tapes 821 00:39:53,533 --> 00:39:56,266 have now become true, become reality. 822 00:39:56,266 --> 00:39:59,833 NARRATOR: Western Union reported that in the following three days, 823 00:39:59,833 --> 00:40:04,666 more than 150,000 telegrams flooded Washington, 824 00:40:04,666 --> 00:40:07,800 "the heaviest concentrated volume on record." 825 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,666 As one columnist noted, "Even Congress, 826 00:40:10,666 --> 00:40:14,666 "which so often rolls on its back like a spaniel, 827 00:40:14,666 --> 00:40:17,700 is beginning to face the necessity of impeachment." 828 00:40:19,533 --> 00:40:22,066 In the Capitol Hill office of the Speaker of the House, 829 00:40:22,066 --> 00:40:25,366 the usually remote possibility of a double vacancy 830 00:40:25,366 --> 00:40:29,866 in the executive branch suddenly loomed large. 831 00:40:29,866 --> 00:40:33,200 MADDOW: Here's Carl Albert, Democratic Speaker of the House, 832 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,366 and two things land in his lap at the same time. 833 00:40:36,366 --> 00:40:40,000 First of all, the vice president has resigned, 834 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,200 which means Carl Albert has responsibility in the House 835 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,166 for confirming a new vice president. 836 00:40:45,166 --> 00:40:48,500 Simultaneously, Richard Nixon, the president, 837 00:40:48,500 --> 00:40:50,000 is going to be impeached, 838 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,433 and Carl Albert has responsibility 839 00:40:53,433 --> 00:40:56,333 for dealing with the House side of the impeachment process. 840 00:40:56,333 --> 00:40:59,000 And if there is no president and there is no vice president, 841 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,233 who becomes president? 842 00:41:01,233 --> 00:41:03,333 (laughing): Carl Albert, speaker of the House. 843 00:41:03,333 --> 00:41:09,300 So if he wanted to, if he was of that kind of a mindset, 844 00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:12,000 Carl Albert in that moment could have engineered 845 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,033 the ousting of the president of the United States, 846 00:41:15,033 --> 00:41:18,033 not filling the vice presidency of the United States, 847 00:41:18,033 --> 00:41:20,433 and thus installing himself as president. 848 00:41:20,433 --> 00:41:23,333 Which would have put the presidency in the hands 849 00:41:23,333 --> 00:41:25,233 of the Democratic Party 850 00:41:25,233 --> 00:41:28,933 just months after the entire country had chosen 851 00:41:28,933 --> 00:41:31,466 the Republican Party to lead by a landslide. 852 00:41:31,466 --> 00:41:34,766 It would've been a partisan coup. 853 00:41:34,766 --> 00:41:36,333 It would've been legal, 854 00:41:36,333 --> 00:41:37,800 it would've been procedurally sound, 855 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,333 and it would've been a revolution. 856 00:41:41,333 --> 00:41:43,533 FORD: These are not ordinary times, 857 00:41:43,533 --> 00:41:46,966 nor, I suppose, will the times ever be ordinary 858 00:41:46,966 --> 00:41:51,233 when the 25th Amendment must be invoked. 859 00:41:51,233 --> 00:41:55,233 NARRATOR: By the time Ford's confirmation hearings got underway, 860 00:41:55,233 --> 00:41:57,733 the likelihood that the vice presidential nominee 861 00:41:57,733 --> 00:42:00,100 ultimately would succeed to the presidency 862 00:42:00,100 --> 00:42:02,533 was on everyone's mind. 863 00:42:02,533 --> 00:42:05,833 Never before was a candidate for national office 864 00:42:05,833 --> 00:42:08,033 subjected to such close scrutiny. 865 00:42:08,033 --> 00:42:12,200 Some 350 FBI agents were dispatched 866 00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:14,833 from 33 different field offices 867 00:42:14,833 --> 00:42:17,733 to look into every aspect of Ford's life, 868 00:42:17,733 --> 00:42:21,633 while Ford himself patiently endured hours upon hours 869 00:42:21,633 --> 00:42:25,500 of questioning by members of both houses of Congress. 870 00:42:25,500 --> 00:42:29,566 Today, having confirmed the nomination of Gerald R. Ford, 871 00:42:29,566 --> 00:42:31,766 the proceedings required 872 00:42:31,766 --> 00:42:34,533 by Section Two of the 25th Amendment 873 00:42:34,533 --> 00:42:36,300 to the United States Constitution 874 00:42:36,300 --> 00:42:38,033 have been complied with. 875 00:42:38,033 --> 00:42:40,066 Raise your right hand, Mr. Ford. 876 00:42:40,066 --> 00:42:41,766 Put your hand on the Bible. 877 00:42:41,766 --> 00:42:44,066 NARRATOR: Confirmed swiftly and by overwhelming majority, 878 00:42:44,066 --> 00:42:48,566 Ford was sworn in on December 6, 1973, 879 00:42:48,566 --> 00:42:53,300 the 40th vice president of the United States. 880 00:42:53,300 --> 00:42:56,033 He would spend fewer than eight months in the job 881 00:42:56,033 --> 00:42:58,933 before the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the long-disputed 882 00:42:58,933 --> 00:43:00,800 White House tapes released-- 883 00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:04,133 among them, three conversations that proved Nixon 884 00:43:04,133 --> 00:43:07,166 had been party to the Watergate cover-up. 885 00:43:07,166 --> 00:43:10,166 ♪ ♪ 886 00:43:10,166 --> 00:43:13,133 A day or two later, Ford went with his wife, Betty, 887 00:43:13,133 --> 00:43:14,966 to visit what was to be their new home: 888 00:43:14,966 --> 00:43:18,766 a dwelling authorized by an act of Congress 889 00:43:18,766 --> 00:43:19,900 shortly after the passage 890 00:43:19,900 --> 00:43:21,933 of the 25th Amendment, 891 00:43:21,933 --> 00:43:24,733 the first official residence ever provided 892 00:43:24,733 --> 00:43:27,533 to the vice president of the United States. 893 00:43:27,533 --> 00:43:29,200 The Fords are the first family 894 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,100 with the opportunity to live there, 895 00:43:31,100 --> 00:43:32,333 and they get this tour, 896 00:43:32,333 --> 00:43:35,633 and Betty Ford gets to pick out the china 897 00:43:35,633 --> 00:43:38,600 for the vice president. 898 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:40,433 And Gerald Ford turns to her and says, 899 00:43:40,433 --> 00:43:43,200 "Betty, we're not going to ever live here." 900 00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:44,800 He saw the writing on the wall. 901 00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:50,000 They were going to be moving into the White House. 902 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:51,800 I have never been a quitter. 903 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:56,033 To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent 904 00:43:56,033 --> 00:43:58,933 to every instinct in my body. 905 00:43:58,933 --> 00:44:02,266 But as president, 906 00:44:02,266 --> 00:44:07,066 I must put the interests of America first. 907 00:44:08,466 --> 00:44:11,066 WALTER CRONKITE: The president of the United States leaves office, 908 00:44:11,066 --> 00:44:13,133 the first in our 189-year history 909 00:44:13,133 --> 00:44:16,566 to do so by the route of resignation. 910 00:44:16,566 --> 00:44:20,900 HITE: The transition went remarkably well. 911 00:44:20,900 --> 00:44:23,200 It was essentially seamless. 912 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,200 I think in part that is because the 25th Amendment 913 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,066 had allowed there to be a procedure for filling vacancies 914 00:44:30,066 --> 00:44:31,233 in the vice presidency. 915 00:44:31,233 --> 00:44:32,633 WARREN BURGER: Mr. Vice President, 916 00:44:32,633 --> 00:44:34,733 are you prepared to take the oath of office 917 00:44:34,733 --> 00:44:37,000 as president of the United States? I am, sir. 918 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,333 HITE: The president was able to choose someone 919 00:44:39,333 --> 00:44:41,033 from his own political party, 920 00:44:41,033 --> 00:44:43,033 so there was no conflict that way. 921 00:44:43,033 --> 00:44:45,033 Ladies and gentlemen, 922 00:44:45,033 --> 00:44:47,566 the president of the United States. 923 00:44:47,566 --> 00:44:51,400 (audience applauds) 924 00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:56,833 HITE: And at the end of the day, Ford was in fact prepared. 925 00:44:56,833 --> 00:44:58,600 He was in fact qualified. 926 00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:06,033 My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. 927 00:45:06,033 --> 00:45:09,066 Our Constitution works. 928 00:45:09,066 --> 00:45:10,933 Our great republic is a government of laws 929 00:45:10,933 --> 00:45:12,466 and not of men. 930 00:45:12,466 --> 00:45:15,800 BROWER: Ford had never been on a presidential ticket. 931 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,533 He had never run for any office 932 00:45:18,533 --> 00:45:21,666 higher than this one little district in Michigan. 933 00:45:21,666 --> 00:45:24,966 Suddenly, here he was, 934 00:45:24,966 --> 00:45:28,600 the most powerful person in the world. 935 00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:34,266 ♪ ♪ 936 00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:38,200 NARRATOR: It had all happened so quickly, 937 00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:41,300 the Nixons hadn't yet had the chance to move their belongings 938 00:45:41,300 --> 00:45:45,133 out of the White House. 939 00:45:45,133 --> 00:45:48,166 BROWER: The Fords had this very sweet, middle-class, 940 00:45:48,166 --> 00:45:51,133 colonial house in Alexandria, Virginia. 941 00:45:51,133 --> 00:45:54,800 Being the affable people they were, 942 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,300 they gave the Nixons time to get their things out 943 00:45:57,300 --> 00:45:59,966 and make the transition and move. 944 00:45:59,966 --> 00:46:01,900 And so there was a period of time there 945 00:46:01,900 --> 00:46:05,033 where the Fords were actually the president and first lady, 946 00:46:05,033 --> 00:46:08,700 living in their house in Virginia. 947 00:46:08,700 --> 00:46:12,866 This was just a mere decade after JFK had been assassinated. 948 00:46:12,866 --> 00:46:14,766 So you have this president 949 00:46:14,766 --> 00:46:19,233 living in a quiet suburban community outside of D.C. 950 00:46:19,233 --> 00:46:23,533 So they had to put bulletproof glass in the master bedroom. 951 00:46:23,533 --> 00:46:27,700 They had to reinforce the driveway with steel rods 952 00:46:27,700 --> 00:46:31,933 underneath for the president's motorcade cars to be parked. 953 00:46:31,933 --> 00:46:35,900 They had Secret Service in the garage, setting up their post. 954 00:46:35,900 --> 00:46:40,333 Ford said, "Our poor neighbors went through hell." 955 00:46:40,333 --> 00:46:42,566 (applauding) 956 00:46:42,566 --> 00:46:45,233 NARRATOR: Once again, for the second time in just over a year, 957 00:46:45,233 --> 00:46:48,400 the vice presidency stood vacant, 958 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:49,966 and the reality of the procedures 959 00:46:49,966 --> 00:46:54,200 outlined by the 25th Amendment had begun to sink in. 960 00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:58,500 As one senator had foreseen even before Nixon resigned, 961 00:46:58,500 --> 00:47:02,466 "The nation will no longer be democratically governed." 962 00:47:02,466 --> 00:47:06,733 PONNURU: Gerald Ford was the first president in U.S. history, 963 00:47:06,733 --> 00:47:09,566 and so far is the only president in U.S. history, 964 00:47:09,566 --> 00:47:11,900 to assume the office 965 00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:13,300 without having been elected 966 00:47:13,300 --> 00:47:14,833 president or vice president. 967 00:47:14,833 --> 00:47:18,666 He had never faced a national electorate before, 968 00:47:18,666 --> 00:47:21,166 and yet he became president of the United States. 969 00:47:21,166 --> 00:47:25,833 HITE: Adding even more to the whole oddness of the situation, 970 00:47:25,833 --> 00:47:29,866 if you will, was that the first task Gerald Ford had 971 00:47:29,866 --> 00:47:33,066 as president was to choose a new vice president. 972 00:47:33,066 --> 00:47:37,800 REPORTER: So he comes through the door now with his choice. 973 00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:40,433 And the choice, and this is... REPORTER 2: Nelson Rockefeller. 974 00:47:40,433 --> 00:47:42,600 REPORTER 1: It is Nelson Rockefeller, the former governor of New York, 975 00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:46,266 who was leading the list of speculation among many people. 976 00:47:46,266 --> 00:47:49,366 PONNURU: Nelson Rockefeller had been a leader 977 00:47:49,366 --> 00:47:51,966 of what was then a very strong 978 00:47:51,966 --> 00:47:55,966 liberal to moderate faction in the Republican Party. 979 00:47:55,966 --> 00:47:58,133 He made serious bids for the presidency, 980 00:47:58,133 --> 00:48:01,666 although he had not won a Republican nomination. 981 00:48:01,666 --> 00:48:05,666 And he was somebody who, as governor of New York, 982 00:48:05,666 --> 00:48:08,233 was a widely respected figure nationally. 983 00:48:08,233 --> 00:48:09,633 Mr. President, 984 00:48:09,633 --> 00:48:12,600 the vice president-designate of the United States. 985 00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:17,833 FEERICK: By the end of that year, we have two of our national officers, 986 00:48:17,833 --> 00:48:20,033 first and only time in the history of the country, 987 00:48:20,033 --> 00:48:24,933 who were appointed, so to speak, under the 25th Amendment. 988 00:48:26,833 --> 00:48:28,833 But it worked. 989 00:48:28,833 --> 00:48:32,733 I pledge myself to the fullest limit of my capacity 990 00:48:32,733 --> 00:48:37,433 to work with you, Mr. President, and the Congress 991 00:48:37,433 --> 00:48:41,600 in the great task of building the strength of America. 992 00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:44,266 ♪ ♪ 993 00:48:44,266 --> 00:48:49,200 NARRATOR: When Rockefeller took office on December 19, 1974, 994 00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,766 he assumed a position newly imbued 995 00:48:51,766 --> 00:48:53,633 with stature and significance. 996 00:48:53,633 --> 00:48:58,933 For if the 25th Amendment had sidestepped democratic ideals 997 00:48:58,933 --> 00:49:01,633 in laying a path to the office, 998 00:49:01,633 --> 00:49:03,500 it also had established-- 999 00:49:03,500 --> 00:49:05,700 constitutionally and once and for all-- 1000 00:49:05,700 --> 00:49:08,933 the importance of the second-in-command. 1001 00:49:08,933 --> 00:49:12,500 HITE: When Nelson Rockefeller assumed the vice presidency, 1002 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:14,800 it was a much-changed institution 1003 00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:20,566 even from a few years prior, let alone historically. 1004 00:49:20,566 --> 00:49:23,766 When Richard Nixon was vice president, he had a staff, 1005 00:49:23,766 --> 00:49:27,500 a small staff, and a budget of under $48,000 a year. 1006 00:49:27,500 --> 00:49:30,566 When Rockefeller became vice president, 1007 00:49:30,566 --> 00:49:34,100 he had a staff of over 70 and a budget of $2 million. 1008 00:49:34,100 --> 00:49:37,033 The office of the vice president 1009 00:49:37,033 --> 00:49:39,766 began to mirror the office of the president. 1010 00:49:39,766 --> 00:49:42,566 The vice president had special assistants 1011 00:49:42,566 --> 00:49:44,866 on domestic and foreign policy, 1012 00:49:44,866 --> 00:49:48,433 had a press secretary, had a chief of staff. 1013 00:49:48,433 --> 00:49:54,266 Those things may seem just symbolic, but they're not. 1014 00:49:54,266 --> 00:49:58,366 They imply power and they imply authority. 1015 00:49:58,366 --> 00:50:01,466 Whether the vice president then actually exercises power 1016 00:50:01,466 --> 00:50:02,966 is a whole different story. 1017 00:50:02,966 --> 00:50:05,266 ♪ ♪ 1018 00:50:05,266 --> 00:50:08,366 MADDOW: Having that new constitutional amendment 1019 00:50:08,366 --> 00:50:10,900 focused on the vice presidency, 1020 00:50:10,900 --> 00:50:12,466 both implicitly acknowledging 1021 00:50:12,466 --> 00:50:14,133 the importance of the vice presidency 1022 00:50:14,133 --> 00:50:18,733 and also systematizing, um, the nature of the office, 1023 00:50:18,733 --> 00:50:22,300 I think did underscore for the country 1024 00:50:22,300 --> 00:50:25,033 that the vice presidency is a thing. (chuckles) 1025 00:50:25,033 --> 00:50:28,300 That it's not only a contingency, 1026 00:50:28,300 --> 00:50:30,433 that it is an office that must be filled 1027 00:50:30,433 --> 00:50:33,300 and that has an important role in the country. 1028 00:50:33,300 --> 00:50:35,966 GOLDSTEIN: Vice president has been a principal part 1029 00:50:35,966 --> 00:50:37,833 of presidential decision-making 1030 00:50:37,833 --> 00:50:39,533 in virtually every administration 1031 00:50:39,533 --> 00:50:41,566 over the last 50 years. 1032 00:50:41,566 --> 00:50:46,866 Being vice president gives you opportunities to operate 1033 00:50:46,866 --> 00:50:48,900 as a governmental official in ways 1034 00:50:48,900 --> 00:50:52,433 that most high executive officials never experience. 1035 00:50:52,433 --> 00:50:54,066 ♪ ♪ 1036 00:50:54,066 --> 00:50:55,933 To take an office 1037 00:50:55,933 --> 00:50:59,233 that for most of our history has been lampooned 1038 00:50:59,233 --> 00:51:04,900 and to turn it into a consequential position 1039 00:51:04,900 --> 00:51:07,966 is really one of the great modern successes 1040 00:51:07,966 --> 00:51:10,000 of our system of government. 1041 00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,466 ♪ ♪ 1042 00:51:12,466 --> 00:51:15,066 NARRATOR: The office that Vice President John Adams occupied 1043 00:51:15,066 --> 00:51:17,066 at the dawn of American democracy 1044 00:51:17,066 --> 00:51:19,966 would be largely unrecognizable to him now. 1045 00:51:19,966 --> 00:51:23,000 More than two centuries on, 1046 00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:27,600 it can no longer credibly be described as nothing. 1047 00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:31,300 But the vice president is still and always 1048 00:51:31,300 --> 00:51:34,366 a heartbeat away from being everything. 1049 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,566 ♪ ♪ 1050 00:52:00,333 --> 00:52:03,300 ANNOUNCER: "American Experience: The American Vice President" 1051 00:52:03,300 --> 00:52:05,066 is available on DVD. 1052 00:52:05,066 --> 00:52:09,933 To order, visit ShopPBS or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1053 00:52:09,933 --> 00:52:13,266 "American Experience" is also available with PBS Passport 1054 00:52:13,266 --> 00:52:15,566 and on Amazon Prime Video. 1055 00:52:15,566 --> 00:52:18,900 ♪ ♪ 1056 00:52:28,333 --> 00:52:31,466 ♪ ♪