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Speaker 1: Well, Monday is inauguration Day. Donald Trump, of course, got

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Speaker 1: elected to a second term, separated from the first by

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Speaker 1: President Biden's four years in office. But you know what,

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Speaker 1: He's not the first president to win two non consecutive terms.

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Speaker 1: There was just one other, Grover Cleveland, and he was

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Speaker 1: another my way or the highway kind of guy. What

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Speaker 1: makes you vote somebody in and then vote him out

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Speaker 1: and then decide you want to vote him back. Well,

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Speaker 1: there were some similarities between these two. Both didn't really

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Speaker 1: care what people thought of them, and both had beautiful

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Speaker 1: younger wives. I'm Patty Steele. Second guessing your vote and

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Speaker 1: then second guessing your second guessing. That's next on the backstory.

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Speaker 1: The backstory is back. Presidential inauguration Day in America has

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Speaker 1: been on January twentieth since nineteen thirty seven, unless it

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Speaker 1: fell on a Sunday, then it was moved to Monday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty first. This year, the inauguration happens this Monday

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Speaker 1: the twentieth. That's when Donald Trump gets his second term

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Speaker 1: in the Oval office. But what makes it unusual is

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Speaker 1: the four year separation between terms. Only one other president

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Speaker 1: had two non consecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland,

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Speaker 1: who was elected in eighteen eighty four, given the boot

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty eight, and then re elected in eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two. So what do these two men have in common?

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Speaker 1: A little more than you would think. As for their

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Speaker 1: personal lives, both had Gorgeo's younger wives. Cleveland was the

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Speaker 1: first president to get married while in office. He was

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Speaker 1: forty nine years old, and his new bride, Francis or

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Speaker 1: Frankie as she was called, was just twenty one, twenty

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Speaker 1: eight years younger than him. She was the daughter of

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Speaker 1: Grover's law partner. In fact, Grover had actually given the

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Speaker 1: family Frankie's baby carriage when she was born. Grover watched

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Speaker 1: over her after her father died when she was eleven,

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Speaker 1: and while president he kept an eye on her education

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Speaker 1: and financial well being, and eventual romance blossomed. Like Trump,

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Speaker 1: Grover also had some nasty press written about his sex life.

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Speaker 1: His scandal involved a child born to Maria Halpin, a

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Speaker 1: woman he had dated ten years before his first White

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Speaker 1: House run. She claimed he'd raped her. He denied it

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Speaker 1: and later accused Maria of being an alcoholic, and had

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Speaker 1: the little boy taken to an orphanage, which he paid for,

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Speaker 1: but he also had Maria sent to an insane asylum.

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Speaker 1: She was released after just five days because she simply

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Speaker 1: wasn't insane. Cleveland got away with all of this because

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Speaker 1: he owned up to the story and was taking care

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Speaker 1: of little Oscar financially as well as supporting a new

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Speaker 1: business venture for Maria, and it was a different time.

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Speaker 1: When asked if he was the father of Oscar Cleveland

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Speaker 1: by the press, he said it's possible, but the baby

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Speaker 1: daddy also could have been his law partner, Oscar Folsom,

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Speaker 1: his future wife's dead father. Confusing, right, talk about a

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Speaker 1: soap opera. Anyway, Grover won the election by an incredibly

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Speaker 1: narrow margin despite the scandal, much like the stories that

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Speaker 1: have followed President Trump through both elections. So why did

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Speaker 1: Grover Cleveland get voted out after his first term. Well,

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Speaker 1: it seems he made some unpopular decisions. He fought against

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Speaker 1: any financial favors to folks like aging Civil War vets

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Speaker 1: and farmers struggling due to drought. Plus, he reclaimed eighty

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Speaker 1: one million acres of land granted to various railroads, and

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Speaker 1: he also tried to regulate the railroads. Politicians needed to

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Speaker 1: be friends with the railroad industry in those days, and

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Speaker 1: he wasn't His own Democratic Party said he was giving

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Speaker 1: the eighteen eighty eight election away to the Republicans, But

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Speaker 1: he said, what's the use of being elected or reelected

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Speaker 1: unless you stand for something that does make sense. He

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Speaker 1: didn't care if he made friends in Washington. He lost

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Speaker 1: the election of eighteen eighty eight to the GOP. Then

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Speaker 1: he decided to come back and try to finish his job,

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Speaker 1: and the election of eighteen ninety two. People had been

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Speaker 1: somewhat unhappy with the Republican president and welcomed Cleveland back

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Speaker 1: with a popular and electoral win. But it didn't last.

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Speaker 1: He ran into some bad luck. First off, he didn't

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Speaker 1: have a lot of friends left in DC to support him.

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Speaker 1: Plus the country had slipped into a financial depression he

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Speaker 1: wasn't able to handle quickly enough. He could have run

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Speaker 1: for a third term in eighteen ninety six, since there

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Speaker 1: wasn't the term limits we have today, But even he

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Speaker 1: wasn't enjoying the job, and so for two years leading

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Speaker 1: up to the eighteen ninety six election, he was basically

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Speaker 1: friendless in Washington. No senators would talk to him. It

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Speaker 1: seemed like he was a complete outsider with his own party,

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Speaker 1: saying he would never step foot in the White House again.

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Speaker 1: He seemed to inspire hatred, said one senior senator. I

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Speaker 1: hate the very ground that man walks on, and a

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Speaker 1: Democrat running for the Senator in South Carolina that when

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Speaker 1: he won, he would quote stick a pitchfork in that

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Speaker 1: fat bag of beef in the White House. Wow, said another.

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Speaker 1: I detest him so much. I don't even think his

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Speaker 1: wife is beautiful. That was a huge statement, by the way,

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Speaker 1: considering her beauty, intelligence, and her status as a fan

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Speaker 1: favorite with the public when it came to political wives.

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Speaker 1: What's interesting is Grover Cleveland had a lot of baggage

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Speaker 1: between unpopular political decisions and kind of a sketchy sex life,

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Speaker 1: but in that time and place, he pretty much got

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Speaker 1: away with it, and that actually turns out to be

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Speaker 1: true for a whole lot of US presidents. At the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, folks in the Oval office can

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Speaker 1: sink or swim with all kinds of baggage, but with

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Speaker 1: the right personality they can be Teflon. Hope you're enjoying

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Speaker 1: the backstory with Patty Steele, Follow or subscribe for free

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Speaker 1: to get new episodes delivered automatically and feel free to

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Speaker 1: if you have a story you'd like me to cover.

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Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the

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Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.