Scandal Speed Run

One of the interesting things with the Trump Presidency is the sheer speed at which their scandals are unravelling and coming out.  Not only are they coming out in rapid fire, but they’re coming out early in the administration as well.

It’s almost like they’re doing a speed run.  How fast can they get through all of the worst scandals in history?

I wanted to compare Trump to the 7 Worst Presidential Scandals, per U.S. News, and see where The Dotard lined up, in terms of speed, scale, and overall corruption.  And, to see if there’s anything they haven’t done yet.

 

BILL CLINTON: MONICA LEWISNKY

Short Version: Bill Clinton got a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House.  Kenneth Starr, the Special Prosecutor investigating Whitewater, heard about this and investigated it.  He subpoenaed Bill Clinton, who lied under oath about getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky.  After several years of investigation, the only thing that Starr pulled up was a perjury charge.  Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 along very partisan lines, but was not removed from office.

Time: The blowjob took place in the last year of Bill Clinton’s first term.  He was impeached in the second year of his second term.

Comparison:  This is a two-for.  We have Trump obstructing justice and paying off a porn star to keep her quiet during the election.  Just because of Watergate, I’ll use Stormy Daniels here.  It took a little over a year for his sex scandal to come to the foreground.

SEX SCANDAL LEVEL STARTED IN ONE YEAR.

 

RICHARD NIXON:  WATERGATE

Short Version: A bunch of crooks with ties to the CIA and the Republican Party broke into the headquarters for the Democratic Party, located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.  The crooks got busted, Nixon was implicated in the cover-up, and he eventually had to resign.

Time: The break-in took place in the last year of his first term, and he left office in his second year of his second term.

Comparison: Trump has already helped with a break-in into the DNC email system, and is well on his way to an Obstruction of Justice charge, which is what took Nixon down.

BREAK-IN LEVEL STARTED BEFORE TAKING OFFICE

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

 

WARREN G. HARDING: TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL

Short Version: Harding’s Secretary of the Interior used government resources to obtain oil fields in Wyoming, then awarded them to a company in a no-bid contract that had given him bribes, loans, and payoffs.  Harding’s Interior Secretary became the first Cabinet member to be indicted and convicted while in office.

Time:  The Teapot Dome scandal started in 1922, the second year of his presidency.

Comparison:  Trump’s Cabinet is corrupt AF.  His Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, has abused travel for personal use, and likely had a no-bid contract awarded to an unqualified company to provide power restoration to Puerto Rico.

TEAPOT DOME LEVEL STARTED IN NINE MONTHS

 

U. S. GRANT: THE WHISKEY RING

Short Version: In 1875, Grant’s personal secretary was implicated in a bribery and corruption scheme where Whiskey manufacturers complained about the taxes they had to pay.  It turns out that a few of them were bribing officials at the IRS and the Treasury Department, and keeping the money for themselves.

Time:  1875 was the next to last year of Grant’s presidency.

Comparison:  This one’s hard to compare.  Not for the lack of criminality, but that it required cooperation with the government.  That being said, if we’re looking for a straight bribery charge, an emoluments violation, or his staff being involved in some shady shit, we’ve had them all.  They’re close enough, I’ll count them.

BRIBERY LEVEL STARTED IN FIRST TWO MONTHS

EMOLUMENTS LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

STAFF CORRUPTION LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

 

ANDREW JOHNSON: THE FIRST IMPEACHMENT

Short Version: Andrew Johnson was a dick who only became President because Abraham Lincoln had a bad night at the theater.  Johnson was a Right Wing Democrat answering to a Left Wing Republican Congress who was trying to bring the country back together.  They passed a law saying that Johnson couldn’t fire any Cabinet members.  Johnson said “Eat a dick” and fired the Secretary of War.  The House impeached him, and he came within 1 vote of being removed from office.

Time:  Johnson was a bit of a dick from word one, but his impeachment took place in the third year of his presidency.

Comparison:  Trump has already ignored laws passed by Congress in refusing to enact the Russian sanctions.  He hasn’t been impeached for that yet, but the first Articles of Impeachment included the sanctions in it.

JOHNSON LEVEL STARTED IN EIGHT MONTHS

 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:  DIDN’T WIN THE POPULAR VOTE AND A CORRUPT BARGAIN

Short Version:  The Election of 1824 was a clusterfuck.  Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and the electoral college, but did not have a majority.  That forced the House of Representatives to vote on the Presidency between the final three candidates.  The one that missed out was Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House.  Clay also hated Andrew Jackson with a passion.  Clay struck a deal with John Quincy Adams, which became known as the “Corrupt Bargain” by Jackson’s supporters.  Clay helped create a coalition that let Adams win, and Clay was named Secretary of State.  Jackson’s supporters used this to spur him on to create his own party for the 1828 election.

Time:  The Corrupt Bargain took place at the beginning of John Quincy Adam’s first and only term, and was 4 years before Jackson took office.

Comparison:  This is a very hard one to compare to, but there are two examples I can think of that directly correlate.  The first was the Mayflower Meeting, and the second being the RNC meeting in Cleveland.  In both situations, Trump’s team asked the Russians for help.  In Cleveland, the GOP Leadership was involved.  And neither of these were a last-chance scenario like the Corrupt Bargain, but were both performed earlier in the campaign.

CORRUPT BARGAIN LEVEL STARTED MONTHS BEFORE TAKING OFFICE

 

CONCLUSION

Out of the 7 worst scandals in United States Presidential History, Donald Trump has managed to have his own version of each and every one of them, and far faster than anyone else in history.  This is a level of corruption that we’ve never seen before in this country.  Hell, most banana republic dictators are less corrupt than Donald Trump.  Of course, most of them are not neck deep in Russian Mafia, or a money laundering device for the world’s most evil and corrupt organizations.

Keep in mind, we’re only 13.2 months into the four year term.  We’re just getting started with the corruption, grift, greed, and criminality of Donald Trump.  We’re going. to find out a whole hell of a lot in the next year.

Thank you, and have a good one.