This is the President

This is one of the saddest stories in the history of Presidential impressions. At the end of 1962, comedian Vaughn Meader was flying high off the success of the smash hit comedy album The First Family. Produced by former radio DJ Bob Booker, The First Family Album provided a comic look at the adventures of the Kennedy clan and their New Frontiersman in the 1960s White House. And then, in November 1963, tragedy struck - not only for the young President and his family, but to the career of Vaughn Meader. Special thanks to Bob Booker for taking the time to talk to us over the phone.

On January 2, Trump held a conference call with the Georgia Secretary of State and other officials about alleged irregulariets in the November elections. On the call, the president pressured the officials into coming up with election numbers that would flip the result of Georgia’s vote count and give Trump a victory and Georgias votes in the electoral college. Ok, sure - that’s bad enough - but did the president make it worse by cutting the cheese? Have a listen for youself. Will Fartgate prove to be the final undoing of Trump?

Although Nixon barely squeaked into office in 1968, the election of 1972 wasn't quite the same. Some people might use the term "blowout" - especially when Nixon won every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Ouch. But that doesn't mean Nixon turned into a sore winner. On the contrary, in this video he and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger exchange some choice words about the concession speech of Nixon's opponent in 1972, Senator George McGovern. Also - be sure to keep your eyes open by the cameo from a certain candidate in the 2020 election.

It was a picture that sent shockwaves around the United States when it was first splashed across the front page of newspapers from coast to coast on the morning of April 28, 1964. Before Watergate, there was Beaglegate - the time that President Johnson picked up his 10 month old beagle pups by the ears to "hear them yelp". But was this an act of animal cruelty? Or simply a proud doggy dad showing off? Using unearthed presidential documents, never before seen photos and - of course - plenty of LBJ phone calls - This is the President is here to dive into the real story on the day that LBJ picked up his dog by the ears.

It was a crisp fall night way back when in October 1969 in South Georgia. Future President Jimmy Carter, then a district Governor of the Lion’s Club, was about to give a speech to a group of local businessmen when he saw a strange shape approaching out of the sky to the west. It didn’t look like any type of plane that Carter had seen before, and it was too bright to be a star. So what was it? Carter had no choice but to believe - he was having his first UFO encounter. Rather than forgetting about his sighting, the - then Georgia Governor - did what any responsible citizen would do - he reported the sighting to the authorities. What followed on that chilly October night in 1969 would change his life and - quite possibly - the future of the United States of America forever.

Man oh man, who doesn’t love a good Top 5 list? Everyone else does it, so we here at This is the President thought it was time we jumped on the bandwagon as well. After a carefully hand-selected team of This is the President interns spent weeks combing through the JFK archives, these are the top 5 JFK phone calls that they emerged with. And good for them, because if they weren’t digging up some JFK gold, they weren’t coming back at all. We kid. We love our TITP interns. Anyhooo, since the tile of the post and episode pretty much says it all, we’ll keep the introductions to a minimum. You might have heard a couple of these calls before - especially any Silly Bastard fans out there - but there are also a couple of new tidbits. I found…I mean, the TITP Intern Team found, the call about JFK and the American Supersonic Transport pretty fascinating. I had always wondered that to myself - where the hell was the good old USA version of the Concorde? So as you’ll hear in the episode, we tried something a little different - releasing the podcast AND a video. There are a few extra easter eggs in the video, so be sure to give it a watch. And - hey - if you’re over by our YouTube channel - why not subscribe? Why do you hate us?

“God, please look over and protect P:resident Trump!” Never thought you’d ever hear those words did you? How about if you heard them uttered in the White House - before a cabinet meeting. But, of course, when President Trump is on the scene, disruption is the name of the game and - separation of Church and State be damned - he’s going to pray in the White House. Now how much of this whole born again evangelican business Trump really believes in - and how much of it is a show to get more votes - is something that His Orange Highness will ever know. But, just in case you needed reminding that there’s some prayer meetings going on in the White House, This is the President is here to explain it all to you. Along with Trump’s new found sense of Christianity (remember this is the guy who was stealing money from his own charities and grabbing the ladies by the pussy), we briefly touch on Trump’s connections with Pastor Kenneth Copeland, a member of Trump’s semi-secret evangelical advisory council who - no joke - claims that he personally talks to god and that Jesus Christ himself has blessed the Untied States of America. We know we don’t have to say it, but we will anyway - we promise that this episode is 100% Corona virus free! This episode also brought to you in part by our pals over at Stitcher Premium. Use the code PRESIDENT to get a FREE month of Stitcher Premium on us! That’s right your very own FREE Abe Lincoln from us at This is the President. Enjoy This is the President? Then have a listen to our other podcast , Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

Ok, remember in our other episodes where we talked about a drunk President Nixon? This time we really mean it. We’re 99% sure he’s sloshed in this episode. “So what,” you say. “What does this have to do with what’s going on today?” Fair enough, but the reason that the president was getting loaded, my dear listener, is because he was under investigation about a little thing called Watergate. We thought it would be the perfect pairing to start of with the beginning of President Trump’s impeachment trial in the good old US of A. The date was April 30, 1973. Nixon had just broadcast a nationwide address declaring that he had fired two of his most trusted advisors and was getting to the bottom of all this Watergate hoo-haw. After the speech, Nixon sat waiting for the calls of well wishers. Which didn’t really happen, because he had told the White House switchboard not to put any calls through. Or did he tell them to put calls through? Even the President himself didn’t know. In today’s call, President Nixon recieves praise from none other than Hobart D. Lewis, the Chief Executive of Reader’s Digest and dammit Nixon’s “god bless America” added to the end of the speech was just ok by him. During their conversation, Nixon also takes some time to wax emotional about the Watergate break in and what happened - or, more precisely, what didn’t happen there. Was the president drunk? You make the call! Also in the episode, Harmon and Scott make their Trump impeachment trial predictions (HINT: He’ll get away with it) and Harmon returns with his Congressional impressions.

In the immortal words of David Byrne - “Well, how did we get here?” This week, in a historic vote, the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump. But guess everyone already knew that, huh? Still, we wouldn’t let the moment go by without putting our very own This is the President spin on the moment. Tune in to hear Scott and Harmon discuss the House vote, listen in to Harmon do his latest impressions of House Republicans AND - stop the presses - Harmon reads the personal email he got from President Trump just a few hours after the vote. And let’s not forget the Presidential tapes! As you might have guessed from the title of the episode, our special guest this week is none other than President Richard M. Nixon, who, himself was nearly impeached as well. Nearly, because he saw the writing on the wall and got out of office while the getting was good - complete with his presidential pension in tact. And today’s tape is just one of the many reasons why Nixon knew it was time to go. In this tape, from March 21, 1973, you can listen in as the president discusses paying off blackmail with White House Counsel John Dean. No quid pro quo here!

And the hits keep on comin’! It’s almost like we can’t keep up with the Impeachment Circus that President Trump has brought to the stage in Washington, DC. And that’s ok - because, as you know by now, here at This is the President, we’re all about looking to the past - never forward. Well, maybe forward, just a little bit. Or backward. It gets a little confusing in this episode. We start out simply enough, with a little bit of a visit to the videotaped deposition by President William Jefferson Clinton way back in 1999. Diiizzzammm. That was 20 years ago! But we don’t just stop there. Oh no. It just so happens we stumbled upon a very interesting interview from that very same year from a failed business and bankrupt casino owner by the name of Donald J. Trump. And what does Mr. Trump have to say to the (then) sitting President Clinton? Well, let’s just say that he has a few choice words of lawyerly advice for the cigar lovin’ former Arkansas governor. But don’t just take our word for it - tune in! This episode also brought to you in part by our other podcast Comedy History 101. Check out our latest episode on the History of the Oldest Jokes in the World! Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

Ahhh, the 80s. The days of neon, Rambo movies, big suspenders, bigger hair and back when you could buy good old fashioned crack across the street from the White House. So, President George HW Bush would have you believe back in September of 1989. That was when the Prez held up a big back of crack - “as innocent as candy” - in front of a nationally televised audience to announce his version of the War on Drugs. But what they never mentioned at the time was that the dealer behind the sale was an 18 year old high school student (African-American, of course) who had to be lured to Layfayette Park, across the street from the White House, in order to make the sale. Now, we’ve covered this Bush Crack speech before here on TITP, but I discovered a new twist. I’ve usually only watched the first part of the speech. So, one day while nosing around, I played this video and let it keep running. That’s when I noticed that the Democratic response to the President’s speech was none other than one of our current candidates for the 2020 election, Senator Smokin’ Joe Biden. And - it turns out - Senator Biden has a bit of personal familiarity with crack. This episode also brought to you in part by our other podcast Comedy History 101. Check out our latest multi-part episode all on Dolemite! Like This is the President? Why not subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

Something sneaky is going on in sneakytown. At least that’s what the head of the newly established Peace Corps, Sargent Shriver, informs President Kennedy in this episode’s phone call from April 2, 1963. JFK established the Peace Corps as one of his highlights of his New Frontier program. The idea was that young and idealistic Americans would travel around the world, helping out upcoming economies and cultures with good old fashioned American knowhow and - at the same time - spreading a little of those wholesome American vibes at the height of the Cold War. Only problem? Certain other US government agencies - some of which may or may not have had to do something to do with the President’s death - were trying to use the Peace Corps for nerfarious purposes. What does JFK have to say about this? Tune in to find out! ALSO ON THE SHOW We analyze some of the meaning in Trump’s letter to the President of Turkey, Harmon reviews the new Joker movie and also introduces a new nickname for his penis.

Man oh man, things just aren’t looking good for the President, are they? Impeachment is looming, his trusted legal advisors are deserting or getting fired in droves, and all he’s left with is the support of his trusted base. Trump 2019? Sure. But also, Nixon circa April1973. We’ve already briefly touched on these tapes in our First Impeachment Special, but these phones calls are the gift that keeps on giving, so we wanted to make a return visit. The background: On April 30, 1973, in light of the looming Watergate investigation, Nixon fires two chief aides, Haldeman and Erlichman. He then goes on national television to plead his case and tells the American people that he’ll get to the bottom of this Watergate business. Afterwards, Nixon fields phone calls from a number of supporters, congradulating him for his performance. Nixon decides to celebrate the occasion by - what it sounds like - having a drink. Well, more than one drink. In fact, towards the end of night in this series of calls, he’s slurring his words and - as you’ll hear in this tape - noisily chewing the ice in his glass. At least that’s our take on this. What do you think? ALSO ON THE SHOW Harmon disloses what object in the Smithsonian almost brought a tear to his eye and we review more Trump products in our segment Trump in the Amazon! Hey - also, we’ve revamped the This is the President YouTube channel and we’re starting to stock it up with lots of presidential goodness. So be sure to head over there and click the SUBSCRIBE button so you get updates about the latest presidential goodness.

April 30, 1973 was a busy day for President Nixon. First he had to fight off a looming impeachment by broadcasting a heartfelt speech to the “real” people who supported him. Then he had to take phone calls from well wishers. A lot of phone calls. Oh yea, and let’s not forget to mention the scotch. Plenty of scotch. As a matter of fact, there’s going to be so much scotch in this episode, you’re almost going to be able to taste it. In today’s call, we’ll hear President Nixon talking to future President George H W Bush, so this is like our version of a presidential two-fer Tuesday. ALSO ON THE SHOW Harmon discusses some of the discoveries he made on his recent trip to Washington, DC and we continue with the battle of the robot voices. Hey - also, we’ve revamped the This is the President YouTube channel and we’re starting to stock it up with lots of presidential goodness. So be sure to head over there and click the SUBSCRIBE button so you get updates about the latest presidential goodness.

Oh man - JFK has been dead for a while now but he keeps bringing the hits - as least presidentially phone call wise! The date is March 13, 1963. After reading about the devastating loss of the US Hockey Team to that most neutral of countries, Sweden, JFK picks up the phone and dials his good friend David L. Hackett, who is in charge of all things sporty for the president. JFK goes off about the loss of the hockey team in a most politically incorrect and - let’s face it , “unwoke” - way as possible. But you didn’t come to hear us write about this - why don’t you have a listen for yourself? Hey - also, we’ve revamped the This is the President YouTube channel and we’re starting to stock it up with lots of presidential goodness. So be sure to head over there and click the SUBSCRIBE button so you get updates about the latest presidential goodness. This episode also brought to you in part by our other podcast Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

We’re always happy when presidential tapes get a bit of play in the news. Unfortunately, it seems that whenever a new presidential tape is discovered, the president in question doesn’t always have the nicest things to say. Which is exactly what happened just a few days ago when a recorded phone conversation between President Nixon and then Governor of California Ronald Reagan was released by the National Archives. And it wasn’t too pretty. The story got quite a lot of play in the national news media so, of course, we here at TITP felt like we had to cover it. We’ve tried to give you a little bit more background of the call and play more than just “those” sound bites that you’ve already heard a thousand times. And - if by some chance, you haven’t heard the clip yet - get ready for a doozy. Sure, we might not be hitting the heights of the president talking to an Aquanaut on helium gas, but - as far as racist presidential phone calls go - this one is right there at the top. ALSO ON THE SHOW - Harmon and Scott discuss the current “least racist president ever” and they both come to an agreement that watching the Democratic debates is a waste of time .

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t think we’re overstating that today we’ll be presenting you with one of he greatest presidential phone calls of all time. And believe, me, we’ve listened to a lot of them. Sure - even as we point out here on the show - they can’t all be winners. When you’re dealing with United States presidents and found audio, you never know what you’re going to get. But we think you’ll be pleasantly suprised by todays call - and it might even merit a relisten or two. Even more interesting, the phone call in this episode is the polar opposite from our last episode. While last week we tuned into President Nixon calling the astronauts on the moon, this week we have President Johnson calling aquanaut Scott Carpenter at the bottom of the ocean, some two hundred feet down! The date? September 26, 1965. The occassion? Aquanaut Carpenter had just broken a record for being submerged the longest with the Navy’s underwater experimental laboratory, Sealab II. The thing is, though, the aquanauts in Sealab II were breathing a very special mixture of air to help with conditioning themselves to the underwater conditions and dives. Their atmosphere was composed of a large part of the gas Helium. And if you’ve ever sucked up a balloon to make yourself talk funny, I think you can see where this is going…. So grab a balloon, take a deep breath and hit that play button!

Fifty years ago today was a glorious day for all mankind. Sure, we put some guys on the moon. That was kinda cool. But for listeners of This is the President, it’s an even more special day. Because once man had landed on the moon and walked on the surface, what was the next step? A phone call from the president, of course! Which, naturally, leads us to the most long distance presidential telephone call in history. It all happened on July 20, 1969, a few minutes before 12AM Eastern Daylight Time. Nixon was introduced to the astronauts by CAPCOM (Capsule Commander - like the NASA terms?) Bruce McCandless II. The call was short and, in all honesty, not the most exciting call we’ve ever had on the show but for the sake of history and completeness, we feel like it had to be done. As we mention in the podcast, there was a “contingency plan” prepared in case the astronauts never made it back from the moon. First they would call the astronaut’s wives, then NASA would shut off all the communications to the trapped astronauts and then the president would read a speech written by White House staffer William Safire that you can hear in the video on our site. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the longest distance presidential telephone call you will ever hear. ALSO ON THE SHOW - Harmon and Scott discuss some of the latest diatribes from the current president, Harmon revisits his Trump impression and a plane tries to land on Harmon’s balcony.

We’re quite sure what the crossover between This is the President listeners and the Alex Jones Show audience is, but it’s a pretty good bet that if you fall into one of those demographics, you probably know what a False Flag attack is. Sure, we all know how batshit crazy Alex Jones is, but sometimes - SOMETIMES - he does bring up an interesting tidbit or two. A False Flag attack, for those of you not in the know, is when a government either launches an attack on its own forces or simply invents an attack, all the while claiming it was done by another country. For example, famous examples in America include (at least to the False Flag theorists) the explosion of the USS Maine (Spanish-American War), the Lusitania torpedoing (WWI) and Pearl Harbor (WWII).; Lumped in with all the above was the Gulf of Tonkin incident (1964), which lead to the widening of the Vietnam conflict into a full scale war. It all began on August 2, when a number of North Vietnamese patrol boats launched torpedos at United States Navy destroyers. The conflict further escalated on August 4, when more North Vietnamese patrol boats engaged the US forces…or, at least that’s how the story goes. In this episodes phone call, we’ll listen in on President Johnson as he gets the latest news from the front on August 4, 1964. Were US forces really attacked? YOU make the call!

it’s just like Mad Men but with Roanld Reagan instead of Don Draper! Because on this episode of This is the President, we delve into an entirely new collection of presidential recordings - the Ronald Reagan Dictaphone Library. For the kids out there, a dictaphone was a device that you’d use to record letters so your secretary would type them while you were drinking highballs with the newest steno pool employee on your lap. Except not in Reagan’s case. Maybe while Emmanuel Lewis was sitting in Nancy’s lap. But we digress…. On the morning of March 3, 1981, a newly inagurated Ronald Reagan was recording a number of letters to supporters and well-wishers. One of these well wishers was Buddy Ebsen, better known as Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies - and a long time Republican. But Buddy wasn’t just wishing his pal Ronald Reagan have a great presidency - no there was more on Jed Clampett’s agenda. You see, Mr. Ebsen had just produced his first big time play, “Turn to the Left.” And was inviting the President and Nancy to the opening in California. So, what starts out as a normal letter dictated by Roanld Reagan on March 3, 1981, soon takes a turn, as we discover that shortly after writing ths letter, Reagan tried to pull a few strings for his old friend Jed.

Remember that time when President Reagan joked about bombing the Soviet Union and almost started a global thermonuclear war? Well, if you don’t, you will after you listen to our first remote edition of TITP, broadcasting at you all the way from the land of the Twin Cities - Minnesota! That’s right, Harmon was on vacation, but was so excited to do a TITP episode that we called on the TITP tech team to put their heads together to figure out how we could make this work. And they did it! On this episode, Harmon and I will talk about the aforementioned Reagan “joke”, the difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the current goings on in Washington, DC.

“Station, this is your President, do you hear me?” Thus begins one of the most historic telephone calls to space (as trumpeted by the Trump White House) as President Trump (still painful to say that) has a teleconference with US astronauts in April 2017 to congradulate them on their record setting space stay. But that’s not all Trump has to say in this phone call, oh no. He also uses the opportunity to talk about great American made products, dealing with politicisna and, of course, the role of his daughter Invanka, as handbag - we mean - sceience advisor. So pop open a pack of freeze tried ice cream and a tall glass of Tang and settle down to hear this historic phone call for yourself. Sponsoring this episode is the book Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America by New York Times best selling Author Box Brown. Pick up a copy at Amazon or whereever your buy your favorite books. This episode also brought to you in part by our other podcast Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

You wanna be starting something? Then get this Thriller - it’s the Gipper and Michael Jackson appearing together for the very first time on stage. The date: May 14, 1984 The cause: President Reagan awarded The Gloved One an award for his work on a national campaign against drunk driving If the thought of President Reagan making a bunch of Michael Jackson references is your bag, then this episode of This is the President is going to be right up your alley. Of course, there’s a lot of Reagan’s speech that kind of comes of creepy here in 2019 after the revelations of Leaving Neverland. Nonetheless, there’s a job that needs to be done, and Harmon and I are here to do it, as we listen to Reagan’s speech and weigh in with our own interpretations. This, of course, naturally leading to us scouring the internet during the episode for the best (and worst) Michael Jackson jokes.

Happy President’s Day everyone! I know what you’re thinking - isn’t EVERY DAY President’s Day? I mean, they get to be the leader of the Free World, they can sign all sorts of bills, they can even declare national emergencies if they don’t get their way. It might seem great, what with all that free Executive Time, but being the President of the United States is tough work. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. Let’s take meet and greets, for example. Most Presidents have a meet and greet time slotted into their daily schedules. This is when they get to meet with foreign dignitaries, members of congress, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the board members of the National Tuirkey Federation - EVERYONE. Sometimes the President even has to meet with people from the other side of the ideological spectrum. This was the case in point on November 12, 1987 when President Ronald Reagan welcomed the new spokesmen for the Christmas Seals Foundation into his office. All in a day’s work, right? But the irony is that the new spokespeople for Christmas Seals were not other than those 1960s iconoclasts and flaming liberals, The Smothers Brothers! What happened when the former Governor of California meets his political opposites? Download this episode and see!

Walls. Seems like people can’t get enough of them. So in this weeks episode, we’re going to talk about them. This time, however, we’re going to be talking about a wall that’s no longer around - the Berlin Wall. Well, parts of it are still around and covered with colorful drawings that make it much less frightening than when it was first erected in 1961. Two years later, President John F. Kennedy made a visit to Berlin and delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. But, since then, rumours have been circulating as to the real meaning of the speech. The urban legend has it that what Kennedy actually said was “I am a jelly donut”, as the Berliner was the name given to a local pastry. So was it true? In order to help get to the bottom of this mystery, our special guest on this episode is comedian Sandy Wieding, a fourth generation Berlin native and former East German. We’ll talk about the real meaning of “Ich bin ein Berliner”, what type of donuts Germans like and what it was like to grow up as a child in East Berlin.

Don’t think that “Fake News” is solely President Trump’s domain. Oh no…. As we listen in to this weeks phone call, you’ll hear TITP fave President Lyndon B. Johnson bitching about news coverage - even suggesting that a reporter be taken out and shot at one point. Granted, Johnson was having a pretty tough week. This phone call, taken from February 5, 1968, was recorded during a time when Johnson was under a bit of stress. Just a few weeks prior, the USS Pueblo, and all it’s crew, were captured in the waters off North Korea (yean, that North Korea) and accused of spying. Then, just a few days before this phone call, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, immediately dismissing any notion that the end of the war was anywhere near. This episode is brought to you in part by Blinkist.  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  And last, but not least, this episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

June 12, 1985 was vice presidents George H.W. Bush’s special day. He was turning 61 years young, so the White House staff decided to suprise him with a cake and a couple of special presents. Which unfortunately didn’t include the bag of crack that President Bush would so proudly hold up to American’s TV screens just a few short years later. Those are just a couple of the memories that Harmon and I unleash when we talk about our newest dead president, George Herbert Walker Bush. But that’s not all, in this episode, we also bring back a couple of favorite bits, Harmon’s Presidential Impressions and, of course, we go shopping for Trump products in the Amazon. This episode is brought to you in part by Blinkist.  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  And last, but not least, this episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101.

It was a fine spring day in May of 1988 when country music (and just plain music in general) legend stopped by the White House to pay his respects to President Ronald Reagan - on their agenda: drugs. Not the taking, as Johnny points out in this conversation, but rather the stopping thereof. And that’s only one of the few small conversation nuggets you’ll find in our presidential appearance this week. Johnny didn’t come alone - no, he brought June Carter Cash with him as well. But what’s surprising is who WASN’T able to make the photo session. Be sure to listen to the podcast to find out who could have made photo history with Reagan in the White House. Also in this episode, Harmon and I continue our feature “Trump in the Amazon” where we read Amazon reviews and questions about Donald Trump products on Amazon. Up this time - and we swear we didn’t know this was “a thing” before we did this - the Trumpy Bear This episode is brought to you in part by Blinkist.  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  And last, but not least, this episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing! !

Did you vote? No? Then what the hell is wrong with you! Go now! Then, once you’re done voting you can settle back and listen in to the glorious sounds of our Election 2018 special! Harmon did an excellent job of piloting the Presidential Time Portal (tm) to take us back to December of 1983 when two great titans of statesmanship met for the first time - President Ronald Reagan and Rocky III/The A Team star, Mr. T! Yes, this really happened! Mr. T was at the White House playing - believe it or not - Santa and helping out First Lady Nancy Reagan with her Just Say No to Drugs campaign (of course, this was at the same time when the US Government was importing cocaine from South America but we’ll leave that for another podcast). So step into the voting booth and back out again into the world of 1983 with today’s edition of This is the President. Harmon and I will also be discussing some of our predictions for the election and what the outcome could mean for the future of the United States - and the world, the inner workings of the Mr. T doll by Galoob, Rocky III vs. Rocky IV, and, in keeping with the spirit of election day, reading reviews of Trump products on Amazon. This episode is brought to you in part by Blinkist.  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  This episode also brought to you in part by Plowdypod - the think tank that answers the questions that nobody asked, like “Would you rather be Trump’s wife or Putin’s mistress?” Check it out and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. And last, but not least, this episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

It’s that time of year, everyone - there’s a brisk wind in the air, the leaves are changing colors, pumpkins sprout on every porch and something batshit crazy happens during the elections. I’m talking, of course, about the dreaded October Surprise! The odd thing is that we had cut this episode together BEFORE the recent events in the United States - so we’re going to have to talk about that insanity in the next episode. This time, however, Harmon sets the Presidential Time Portal (tm) for 1964, the year of LBJ’s first “official” presidential election. That year, the White House was rocked by the Walter Jenkins scandal, where one of LBJ’s most trusted aides was arrested by the Washington, DC police force while trying to “make friends” in a YMCA bathroom. We’ve covered this story in a previous podcast, but without Harmon, so I wanted to get his whole take on these events. We’ll also discuss the meaning of Rocktober and why Metallica is mandatory.

Especially after the events of the past few days, it’s hard to believe that there are people who are paid to make the president funny. Does the current White House resident, for example, really need people to write jokes for him when he’s hanging out with Kanye? It turns out sometimes they do. Which brings us to this weeks episode. This time around, we interview David Litt. Mr. Litt was a head speechwriter for the Obama White House and charged with the task of making the president a funny man. He’s recently written a memoir of his White House years, Thanks Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years and shared some of his thoughts on the challenges of writing for Kanye’s newest BFF. But that’s not all! Oh no. Harmon and Scott will also analyze the Trump Kayne summit, Harmon expresses his love for Steely Dan and Scott helps to correct the historical record on the drunkenness of General (and later President) Grant.

Well, well….and how was YOUR weekend? Our long national nightmare is now over and we’ve got a shiny new Bro-Judge installed on the Supreme Court. A “non-partisan” judge who starts waving around conspiracy theories at the drop of a hat (ie: let’s all blame the Clintons). Well, this is going to be fun. But don’t worry - we here at This is the President will be right here by your side. In today’s episode, we wanted to take a look at another controversial Supreme Court appointment - this one from 50 years ago. It was the summer of 1968 when President Johnson decided to throw his weight behind nominating his pal Abe Fortas as the Head Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Let’s just say that the Senate was not amused - so much so to the point that they forced Fortas to testify before them. The first time in history that a judge from the Supreme Court was called in this manner - sound familiar? Download this episode to listen in on Fortas advising President Johnson on exactly what type of book he needed to take his oath of office on and how the Johnson’s walked away with a little souvenir after that fateful day in Dallas, Texas in November, 1963. We’ll also hear from Senator Strom Thurmond with his opinions on Fortas and discuss the Abe Fortas Film Festival that Thurmond threw on the floor of the Senate. ALSO - Check out our newest segment - Amazon Reviews of Donald Trump products!

As Harmon so eloquently puts it in this episode - hard to believe that so many bat-shit crazy things happened this week WITHOUT Trump. Indeed, my friend, indeed. The major batshit crazy thing that happened last week was, of course, the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings in Washington, DC. In just a few short hours, “Renate Alumnus”, “Devil’s Triangle” and “I like beer” soon became catchphrases around The Swamp. Scott and Harmon take the time to discuss their impressions of what President Trump called a “trauma” and add in their thoughts, and try to come up with some catchprases of their own. For comparison with the “trauma” of the Kavanaugh hearings, Harmon and Scott dial the Presidential Time Portal (tm) back to 1971, to listen in to a phone call between Richard Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell. In this (surprisingly good quality) phone call, Nixon and Mitchell as they discuss their current pick for the vacant Supreme Court seat - Senator Howard Baker. Is Baker up to the task? Or is he just a playboy with a jackass record? Listen in and decide for yourself!

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder. One week we’ve got a description of the president’s penis from a porn star, the next we’ve got a Texas candidate for Senate referencing the Clash. As the Chinese saying goes, “May you live in interesting times.” And an interesting time indeed is what Harmon and Scott have on this latest episode of This is the President. We’ll touch on the highlight from the Texas senate debates, the onset of fall, the ubiquity of “Getting the Led Out” across the globe and wrap it all up with a look back at some recently unearthed Nixon conversations from 1972 where the president is discussing his vaunted debating skills. Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  This episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

So legendary reporter Bob Woodward’s book about the Trump presidency is released on September 11 - do you think they’re trying to tell us something? I didn’t ever thank we’d get an actual President Trump phone call on this podcast - at least, not while he was in office, but, sometimes history works in mysterious ways. In this episode of This is the President, Harmon and I will be discussing some of the best parts of the recent Bob Woodward/President Trump tape that was released recently. We’re almost on top of the news cycle! But presidential hatred of reporters and The Washington Post is nothing new, as you’ll hear when we listen in on what President Nixon has to say about journalists as we take the Presidential Time Portal back to 1972. We’ve even updated our opening song with brand, spanking new Trump sound bites. This is one episode you don’t want to miss! This episode is brought to you by Blinkist.  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books anddistils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them inunder 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  This episode is also sponsored by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Like This is the President? Why not  subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! Hey - and while you’re there, leave us a comment or rate us! Don’t cost nothing!

Hey everyone, we're back! What'd we miss? Anything? lol.  Well, turns out we did miss only one of the first times that President Trump has been actually recorded on tape,, which is kind of the premise of this here podcast. Whoops.  So we're playing catch up now, which is why we've brought you an episode packed with nothing but Omarosa goodness. Things are really starting to get ugly in the Trump White House, as everyone  has turned to covertly taping each other in order to save their own asses. Really, who could blame them?   Also, Harmon and Scott discuss the state of the missing presidential portraits at the US border and attempt to do English/Scottish accents.  This episode is brought to you by Blinkist,  Blinkist is the only app that takes thousands of the best-selling nonfiction books and distils them down to their most impactful elements, so you can read or listen to them in under 15 minutes, all on your phone. Get started with a FREE seven day trial. along with a 25% discount, for Blinkist today, by clicking here!  We'd also like to welcome another sponsor, Words Over Chair - a full service creative agency with offices in Brooklyn and Berlin. 

I think we're now through the looking glass people. We've now got the "President" on tape talking to his personal lawyer about funneling cash money into a private corporation to buy someone's silence. And the worst part? Nobody seems to care. The even worse part? THIS EXACT SAME THING HAS HAPPENED BEFORE. Nearly 50 years ago, President Nixon was discussion the very same issue with his own personal lawyer, John Dean. Only this time an actual amount of money was mentioned - $1,000,000 in 1972 dollars, which is almost $6,000,000 today. Whew. That's a lot of greenbacks. And we all know, they are only two organizations who routinely turn to cash to organize their business transactions: the mafia and drug lords. Which one was Nixon and which one is Trump. Listen to the tape and YOU make the call. In addition, Harmon and I will be discussing the brutal heat of a New York summer and Harmon will also give details of where you can see him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival throughout August. This episode is brought to you by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes!

This past week, President Trump finally had his day in the diplomatic spotlight when he hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un  and declared that North Korea was "no longer a nuclear threat." Of course, there was no verifiable proof that the North Koreans had done anything along those lines, but really that's no longer a surprise coming from the Commander in Cheeto.  So we thought this was a perfect opportunity here at This is the President to look at a similar moment in history - when President Nixon announced on July 15, 1971 that he would be scheduling a meeting with the leaders of the People's Republic of China to normalise relations between the two countries.  But this wasn't a sudden event from out of the blue. Nixon's team had been working on this proposal for months. In addition, the Ping Pong Diplomacy incident helped move detente between the two nations quickly forward. This episode features a pair of Nixon phone calls from April, 1971, including one where Nixon mentions the Ping Pong incident, and another from the same day between Henry Kissenger and Nixon where they discuss the China diplomatic moves and Nixon's love of classical music is on full display.  Harmon and Scott also discuss some of the motivations behind North Korea's appearance at the bargaining table and how the Master of the Deal might be getting mastered behind his back and the 1980s.   This episode is brought to you by Words Over Chair Productions and Comedy History 101.

Did you ever record your own family while they sat down to dinner to eat? It was kind of a thing in the 1970s. It was also kind of a thing back in the 1960s as well. But, in this case, this wasn't an ordinary family dinner.  That's because this dinner was held at then Senator John F. Kennedy's house in Washington, DC. The occasion for this January 5, 1960 dinner? A sort of celebration and look forward to the 1960 presidential campaign, for which JFK had just declared himself a candidate. In addition to the Kennedys, the party featured Washington Post honco Ben Bradlee, his wife Toni Bradlee and James Cannon, a reporter for Newsweek magazine.  Luckily for history (and This is the President), Cannon brought along a portable tape recorder and recorded the dinner conversation for posterity. There's a few interesting tidbits here, including Kennedy's take on his role in politics and a denial of having Addison's Disease (which he did, in fact, have).  In addition, of course, there's lots of other goodness from Scott and Harmon, including their takes on the Korea talks, the Royal Marriage Conspiracy and the Oldest Pub in London. 

Once upon a time we had a singing dog in the White House. No, we're not talking about the current occupant - the singing dog in question was named Yuki and he was owned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.  Yuki, a terrier mix, was found by the president's daughter in Johnson City, Texas on Thanksgiving Day in 1966. LBJ's daughter, Luci, presented Yuki to the president as a a gift and the two became inseparable. LBJ danced with Yuki at his daughter's wedding and even wanted to include him in family photos, before the first lady put her foot down.  The excerpt of LBJ and Yuki singing comes from an odd record entitled "Dogs Have Always Been My Friends" an album full of dog stories from LBJ.  Also in this episode, Harmon and I discuss our Rosanne Barr conspiracy theories, the lack of presidential portraits at the US border and Donald Trump's lack of a diaper changing partner. 

She said what? Oh no she didn't!  As the opinions continue to roll in about Michelle Wolf's appearance at this years White House Correspondents Dinner - amid calls to drop the whole ceremony entirely - we take a look at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Beginning in 1920, right up to the Trump jokes of 2018, we'll run through the entertainment and delve into some of the traditions of the WHCD. 

To put it mildly, 1968 was a bad year for LBJ. The Tet Offensive, the North Korean seizure of the USS Pueblo, assassinations of MLK and RFK, a supreme court battle, riots in the streets during the 1968 Democratic convention and a duplicitous Richard Nixon were just among the few issues he faced in that fateful year.  In this special episode, we're joined by noted scholar and author Kyle Longley, author of LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval to discuss what made 1968 such a not-that-great of a year.  We'll touch on all of the bad points of LBJ's 1968, Kyle's pick for best LBJ phone call and what LBJ and the current president have in common.  Harmon is out in New Zealand, but you can still to pick up a copy of Harmon's new book, Meet the Deplorables, now available on Amazon.  This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights. Get started with a FREE trial today.  Be sure to subscribe to the podcast over at iTunes! 

Jimmy Carter, the first Social Media President? Sure, why not? Because on March 5, 1977 Jimmy Carter did something that no other Chief Executive had done before him: host his own Ask Me Anything.  With CBS commentator and anchorman Walter Cronkite sitting next to him, President Carter fielded 42 questions (selected from over 9 million calls) from United States citizens ranging from the gasoline tax to Uganda to the Yankees playing an exhibition match in Cuba - with no screening and no prepared notes.  It was a one of a kind event, as Walter Cronkite noted in his introduction:  This is a unique occasion, in the sense that it marks a new approach to communication between the President and the people of the United States. It is indeed historic--unique, historic--and we must also say an experiment since the President has never taken part before in this sort of a broadcast. The event was so unique, in fact, that it never happened again. Which is kind of a shame because it seemed like a good idea. Such a good idea, in fact, that Reddit would popularize this type of Q&A session over 40 years later. 

Do you remember where you were when the Miracle on Ice happened? Were you even alive? Jiminy Xmas - it was thirty friggin eight years ago. But, for those of you who were around, it was a moment you're never going to forget. It was February 22, 1980 in Lake Placid, New York that the underdog USA Olympic hockey team, comprised mostly of amateur players, beat the seasoned and professional Russian hockey team. Take that commies!  In today's previously unreleased phone call, we get to listen in as President James Carter phones up to the locker room in Lake Placid to congratulate the team and invite them down to the White House. And the best part? Not only did the US of A win, but so did our way of life.  In addition, Harmon and Scott return with their first "Whether or Not Weather Update" for the first time in over a year, we go through a few classic US hockey team coach Herb Brooks "Brooksisms", and you'll feel the thrill and excitement of being a real New Yorker when you hear the construction outside Harmon's apartment.  

Super Bowl Sunday is this week! So we decided to get into the spirit by taking the Presidential Time Portal back to 1973 to hear President Nixon's predictions about the impending match up between the Washington Redskins and the undefeated Miami Dolphins.  In our phone call this week, the president talks about the upcoming Super Bowl VII - as well as his 60th birthday - with Laugh In hosts Dan Martin and Dick Rowan. Just a little over four years before this phone call, Nixon appeared on Martin and Rowan's show and uttered the show's catchphrase "Sock it to me", for which he received a sum of $210 dollars (Almost $1500 in 2017 dollars) which went straight into the Elect Nixon fund. 

Have you ever heard the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid"? Do you know where it comes from? Do you really? It's an image that few Americans who were around at the time can forget: bodies - some piled on top of each other - sprawled around a crude tin-roofed building in the middle of the South American jungle. A mass suicide of over 900 church members who willingly (and some not so willingly) drank cyanide laced punch at the request of their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones.  The place was officially known as the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project or, as most people called it, Jonestown.  The evening news of November 18, 1978 carried the shocking images around the globe and soon Americans began asking themselves the familiar question - how could this have happened? In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the background to the Jonestown Massacre and, as this is a podcast called "The is the President", the US President's response to tragedy. In this case, a press briefing from President James "Jimmy" Carter on November 30, 1978. We'll also play a portion of what is known as the "Jonestown Death Tape", a harrowing real-time recording taken by Jonestown leader Jim Jones as he exhorted his followers to their deaths. And we'll try to set the record straight on the drink involved - despite the ubiquity of the phrase, the drink mix used in Jonestown was actually "Flavor Aid" and not "Kool Aid."  If you'd like to read more about the goings on in the Guyanese jungle, Jonestown, the Rev. Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, there's an excellent website maintained by San Diego State University that contains pictures, recordings, and a treasure trove of primary source documents. On a lighter note, Harmon and Scott also discuss the merits of Philadelphia's cheese steaks, the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," and the possibility of President Oprah.   WARNING: This episode contains graphic audio of people in extreme distress.  In addition, we're welcoming a new sponsor onboard - Dennis Miller. Yes, THAT Dennis Miller. Maybe you’ve seen him on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Perhaps you remember him from his days as an anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live.”  So wherever you may know him from, now you’ll have the chance to see Dennis Miller live at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018. Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased at the Silver Legacy web site. Enjoy 20 percent off a hotel room on the night of the show with the purchase of a show ticket. What a great Valentines Day idea!  Use offer code TIX18 when purchasing. This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights. Get started with a FREE trial today. 

In this week's episode, we'll delve into the real story behind one of the most famous political photographs of all time, which you can see over there to the right. A pictures that does such an amazing job of catching a specific moment in time that it is now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The place is Amarillo, Texas and the time is November 3, 1960 - just a few short days before the 1960 presidential elections. US presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and his running mate Lyndon Johnson make a brief touchdown in the Texas panhandle on a whirlwind campaign stop. They'll be speaking briefly at the Amarillo airport before jetting off to their next engagement. The Kennedy campaign team, always planning ahead, ensured that flight traffic would be stopped long enough for the candidates to make their brief speeches. What they didn't realize, however, was that some of the pilots of the waiting planes weren't exactly the biggest Kennedy fans. So they made their displeasure known and tried to harass the candidates with the loudest tools at their disposal - their jet engines The result? Well, you'll be able to hear for yourself when you listen to our episode where you can hear - for the first time ever - just how loud those engines were! Also - Harmon brings us the latest Trump news from that famous shithole, Brooklyn, and tells us about his latest book, Meet the Deplorables, now on Amazon. In addition, we're welcoming a new sponsor onboard - Dennis Miller. Yes, THAT Dennis Miller. Maybe you’ve seen him on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Perhaps you remember him from his days as an anchor of the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live.” So wherever you may know him from, now you’ll have the chance to see Dennis Miller live at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018. Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased at the Silver Legacy web site. Enjoy 20 percent off a hotel room on the night of the show with the purchase of a show ticket. What a great Valentines Day idea! Use offer code TIX18 when purchasing. This episode is also sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights. Get started with a FREE trial today.

Merry Christmas everyone!  Wait - can we say that? Well, maybe not now, but back in 1985 - hell yeah! Not only could you say Merry Christmas until you vomited red and white, but you could sing about Santa AND Baby Jesus on prime time TV. Damn! Those were the days.  Sound intriguing? Hold on - what if we threw in a Russian defector, Pat Boone and Emmanuel Lewis into the mix. Holy Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer - that's a hell of a special. It's our first ever Christmas special and you're not going to want to miss this one. PLUS - Harmon and Scott discuss the Judge Roy Moore election, Trump craziness and who - exactly - is a puppet. And to top it all off, we plug Harmon's just published book Meet the Deplorables, now available on Amazon.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wishing all of our listeners the best this holiday season. Actually just listeners in the US, because in the rest of the world there is no Thanksgiving and today is just a normal day.  But we're not letting that stop us in bringing you the very best in US presidential holiday spirit! So we dug into the archives to find today's presidential tape from November 18, 1981 - President Reagan's first Thanksgiving in office.  Today's tape captures the traditional ceremony as the leaders of the National Turkey Federation presented President Reagan with a holiday gobbler, an occasion that stretches back into the Eisenhower presidency.  In our special holiday episode we delve into the White House Turkey Presentation and how the tradition of pardoning the presidential turkeys started, get the latest updates on the current president's latest Twitter battle, discuss the merits of various Tom Hanks movies and plug Trumpcon in NYC - a festival of YUGE - proportions. 

If you had to pick the beginning of the end for President Nixon, the date of June 13, 1971 might be the front running candidate. That was the day that the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamera in 1967 which basically said that the US had f**ked up in Vietnam. And badly.  After the story about the Papers broke, Nixon became very concerned about leaks coming out of his administration. Which, in turn, led to him creating the Plumbers unit to stop the leaks (get it?). The Plumbers eventually became frustrated with the lack of action and began to pester the Nixon White House for more jobs to do. One of the last jobs assigned to the Plumbers was to plant listening devices into the Democratic headquarters, located in the Watergate Hotel, almost exactly a year later in June, 1972.  In this episode's phone call, a nonplussed Nixon gets word about the Pentagon Papers from General Alexander Haig. But is it really possible the president wasn't aware of the impact of the New York Times story? Or was he lying?  That's what Harmon and Scott will be discussing in this episode. We'll also touch on how this reflects on President Trump and what the recent arrests mean for the Trump White House.  Also in this episode: the World Series, New York City open container laws, 80s sitcom starrs and Scott learns that there is a bona fide cast member from The Apprentice in Trump's White House Staff.  This episode sponsored by BLACKBX. Running a restaurant, bar, pub or retail business? Offer your customers fast, free and secure wireless while gaining awesome customer insights. Get started with a FREE trial today.