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Speaker 1: He literally got an entire herd of cattle at one

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Speaker 1: point from one of these tycoons.

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Speaker 2: You gotta start asking questions. I mean, it's gonna raise

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Speaker 2: a couple of questions.

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Speaker 3: You show up at the cabinet meeting and there's four

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Speaker 3: hundred cattle there? Where do you get things like? Don't

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Speaker 3: worry about it?

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Speaker 2: Why do you smell like like cowshit? It's these layers.

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Speaker 2: I have to wear all these layers. What am I

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Speaker 2: gonna do? I wear these layers.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Snapoo, a show about history's greatest screw ups.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host ed helms, and this week I am

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Speaker 1: talking to an Emmy winning comedian, writer, producer, and contributor

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Speaker 1: and co host of the Daily Show. Ladies and gentlemen,

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Speaker 1: please welcome the amazing, insightful and dare I say delightful

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Speaker 1: Jordan Klepper.

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Speaker 3: Welcome, Jordan, Oh, thank you? Dare you say it? I'm

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Speaker 3: glad you said it?

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Speaker 2: I dare you?

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Speaker 3: Dare you took the swing? Everybody wondered. They were all wondered,

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Speaker 3: is he gonna? Is he across the rubicon? And stay delightful?

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Speaker 3: He did it right.

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Speaker 2: Off the bat.

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Speaker 1: Don't don't make me a liar. I know this does

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Speaker 1: I was gonna say I had since a hotbar. I

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Speaker 1: was going to take you down today, and I have.

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Speaker 3: I have just a stack of information about you and

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Speaker 3: about your past that I was going to use against you,

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Speaker 3: wield it with certainty and aggression. But now that you've

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Speaker 3: labeled me as delightful, I'm going to set it aside

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Speaker 3: and I'm gonna be.

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Speaker 1: Kind delight me Jordan, all right, now, before we get

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Speaker 1: into today's snap who, I'm just curious a little bit

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Speaker 1: about your background.

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Speaker 2: We've known each other a while.

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Speaker 1: We obviously share the Daily Show, as I was on

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Speaker 1: the show back in the early two thousands, a long

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Speaker 1: time ago. I'm curious sort of what your path to

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Speaker 1: the Daily Show was.

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Speaker 2: You know, the Daily Show. I was. I was a

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Speaker 2: fan of The Daily Show.

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Speaker 3: I remember in college watching it, watching John I was

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Speaker 3: like my first into giving a shit about politics in

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Speaker 3: the world around me. Up until that point, I was

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Speaker 3: sort of just a kid in Kalazoo, Michigan and only

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Speaker 3: cared about what was happening with a two mile radius,

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Speaker 3: which in Kalamazoo, Michigan was not a lot. It was

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Speaker 3: mostly it was mostly Little League and people talking about

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Speaker 3: Derek Jeter.

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Speaker 1: Can I say anybody from Kalamazoo, Michigan. You have to

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Speaker 1: say their full name and from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and you

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Speaker 1: immediately sound like a depression era business mogul Jordan Klapper

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Speaker 1: from Kalamazoo, Michigan. It just is, It's got such a

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Speaker 1: great zinger vibe to it.

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Speaker 3: It sounds like a Doctor Seuss town. In fact, the

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Speaker 3: buttons in Kalamazoo, Michigan say, yes, there really is a Kalamazoo.

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Speaker 3: You approach Kalamazoo with a disbelief that it actually exists,

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Speaker 3: and the people there will will sell you a button

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Speaker 3: to try to prove we are a real thing. We

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Speaker 3: are a small town in southwest Michigan. Embrace the weirdness

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Speaker 3: of it all.

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Speaker 1: So you're in Kalamazoo, Michigan and you're just a comedy fan.

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Speaker 3: I'm that comedy Yeah, I think basically, I'm a whose

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Speaker 3: line is it anyway?

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Speaker 2: Improv guy in high school?

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Speaker 3: But am I'm a nerd who gets a math scholarship

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Speaker 3: to go to the tiny liberal arts college Kalamazoo College

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Speaker 3: as a math major with eyes towards finding something that's

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Speaker 3: inspiring to me. And I find comedy. I find improv.

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Speaker 3: I finally got on stage in my college life did

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Speaker 3: some improv jokes and people thought I was funny, and

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Speaker 3: that drug sent me to Chicago and on a path

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Speaker 3: to kind of find and forge this comedy career which

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Speaker 3: for the longest time, which was like nine years in

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Speaker 3: Chicago learning improv, touring with the Second City, takes me

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Speaker 3: to New York where I start doing stuff with the

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Speaker 3: Upright Citizens Brigade and a lot of comedy. And you know,

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Speaker 3: like the New York life was writing gigs for MTV shows,

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Speaker 3: It was creating my own little videos and trying to

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Speaker 3: get whatever I could out there, finding a little bit

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Speaker 3: of success. But it's like fourteen years ten in Chicago

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Speaker 3: and then I'm in New York for four years and

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Speaker 3: the Daily Show comes to knock in when John Oliver

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Speaker 3: steps aside.

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Speaker 1: Now, did you always have an inkling towards sort of

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Speaker 1: commentary or satire or political engagement of any kind or

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Speaker 1: was that really a product of joining the Daily Show?

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Speaker 3: For me, it was always exciting to do shows that

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Speaker 3: were commenting on something that was happening. You jump into

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Speaker 3: the Daily Show and that just gets bumped up tenfold

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Speaker 3: and at my reading level, which I thought in Chicago

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Speaker 3: and in New York was a pretty good I was like,

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Speaker 3: I'm pretty well informed. I like walk into those offices

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Speaker 3: at the Daily Show and CRIMEA was invaded. The first

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Speaker 3: day I walked in and John wanted to do a

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Speaker 3: peace on crime and I'm like, I don't know where

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Speaker 3: CRIMEA is. I don't know, I thought, I you know,

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Speaker 3: I skim a couple of New York Times articles every day,

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Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh shit, I'm so bhind. Somebody get me.

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Speaker 3: Somebody get me a map and a tutor. I can't

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Speaker 3: do this job, you know what.

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Speaker 1: I will say, That's something I miss from my years

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Speaker 1: on the Daily Show. I could, like, like a couple

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Speaker 1: of years into the Daily Show, I could step into

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Speaker 1: any like topical conversation about politics or sort of current

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Speaker 1: events and just be on fire, like I had everything

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Speaker 1: at random access, because you're just steeped in it day

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Speaker 1: after day. You're studying it, your you know, you're you're

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Speaker 1: engaged in policy discussions like whatever is going on, you

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Speaker 1: know everyone's names in Congress, You've gone to the conventions,

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Speaker 1: You've it's just like it's really fun. It feels like

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Speaker 1: you're kind of near the uh, the sort of like

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Speaker 1: burning hot sun of American sort of political current events. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's a very very cool job. You are obviously crushing

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Speaker 1: it and have been for a very long time. Keep

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Speaker 1: up the great work. Let's get into today's snap Who

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Speaker 1: shall we?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I love it all right?

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Speaker 1: Well, given your day job involves a gosh darn lot

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Speaker 1: of keeping up with political dramas, I thought it would

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Speaker 1: be perfect to journey into a snap foo today involving

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Speaker 1: one of the wildest early political scandals our country has

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Speaker 1: ever seen. In fact, before Watergate, it might have been

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Speaker 1: the biggest most sensational scandal America had even been through,

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Speaker 1: filled with all kinds of presidential corruption and bribery, which

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Speaker 1: will surely remind you of absolutely nothing going on right now?

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Speaker 3: Do you want me to connect this to anything? Because

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Speaker 3: it feels like sci fi?

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Speaker 2: Right now? What you're pitching me?

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Speaker 1: Ed? Right?

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Speaker 2: Are you ready? I'm ready? Let's jump in?

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Speaker 3: All right?

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Speaker 2: Great?

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Speaker 1: We begin our journey in nineteen twenty alongside a man

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Speaker 1: who several contemporaneous publications described as quote milk toast. This description,

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Speaker 1: of course, refers to a man of weak character who

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Speaker 1: is indecisive and or easily influenced, all of which will

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Speaker 1: come into play very shortly. Milk toast is kind of

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Speaker 1: a rude nickname. Did you have any nicknames, Jordan Klepper.

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Speaker 3: You know, milktos would have been a fine one for me.

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Speaker 3: I would have accepted milk toast. I think I've been

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Speaker 3: as pale as what I could imagine the delicacy of

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Speaker 3: milk toast is. I was jordy Bean to begin with,

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Speaker 3: Jordy Bean, jordy Bean because I was thin as a

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Speaker 3: string bean. I have this weird long head, so that

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Speaker 3: became the case. And then when I got into an

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Speaker 3: improv group, I gave myself a nickname Truck, which was

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Speaker 3: absurd to the people there, and I was called out

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Speaker 3: for the absurdity of giving yourself a nickname.

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Speaker 2: Can't give yourself a nickname. That's illegal, that was the argument.

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Speaker 3: And yet that becomes in and of itself a bit

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Speaker 3: about giving yourself a nickname. And now fast forward fifteen

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Speaker 3: years later, I'm Truck to a small group of people

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Speaker 3: in Chicago, and I proudly I probably did it myself.

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Speaker 1: That's a very cool nickname. That's the problem with nicknames

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Speaker 1: you pick yourself. Is like they're too cool, the truful. Hey,

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Speaker 1: here comes old truck. What'd he go to?

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Speaker 2: He's got some good improv up his leaves, has got

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Speaker 2: great improv.

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Speaker 3: And truck, of course, was somebody who who at that

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Speaker 3: time drove his parents dodge intrepid. So I've gotten nowhere

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Speaker 3: near a truck.

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Speaker 2: Sure, but you hauled good improv skills. I ain't that

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Speaker 2: the true it's sixty wheels baby.

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Speaker 1: Well, underneath the feeble exterior of this particular person was

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Speaker 1: a sexual miscreant with a penchant for scandal. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he's on record having told the press quote it's a

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Speaker 1: good thing I'm not a woman. I would always be pregnant.

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Speaker 1: I can't say no this guy, that's a fun guy

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Speaker 1: to hang out with. I guess, I guess. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's just sort of like a yes man. All right,

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Speaker 1: I'm in whatever you.

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Speaker 2: Got, you know what.

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Speaker 3: Honestly, in the nineteen twenties, for a phrase that starts

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Speaker 3: it's a good thing of not a woman dot dot dot,

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Speaker 3: that was probably that. That's probably the nicest answer you're

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Speaker 3: going to find.

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Speaker 2: I guess. So that's what that's a modern man right there.

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Speaker 3: Lovely, he didn't bring in any other minorities to make

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Speaker 3: fun of or hound. Perhaps that comes later in the story.

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Speaker 3: Right now, that's a that's a that's a PG answer

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Speaker 3: for nineteen twenty all right.

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Speaker 2: Any guess who we're talking about? Oh God, I no,

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Speaker 2: I'm at a loss.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's the twenty ninth President of the United States,

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Speaker 1: Warren G.

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Speaker 2: Harding. It's Harding, that's who. It's Harding. We're talking about Harding.

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Speaker 2: It's classic. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: His wife's biographer pegged his number of mistresses at seven,

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Speaker 1: including the wife of one of his best friends. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the steamy affair was so problematic, none other than the

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Speaker 1: Republican National Committee paid the woman a two thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: monthly stipend on top of a twenty five thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: trip to Japan and China, just so she'd be far

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Speaker 1: out of the spotlight while our mister milk Toast campaigned

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Speaker 1: for the American presidency.

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Speaker 2: We were doing that back then.

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Speaker 3: We were sending we were sending women who were having

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Speaker 3: affairs to Japan. I mean that's a long trip. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: that's a very long trip.

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Speaker 1: Also, like kind of a nice little silver lining to

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Speaker 1: an affair. Likely, yes, get a trip to China.

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Speaker 3: You know, you know, it was hard enough and so

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Speaker 3: expensive to see any other culture at that day and age.

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Speaker 3: Probably your most effective bet was to sleep with the

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Speaker 3: president and see if the government would pay for it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go, twenty five thousand dollars trip to

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Speaker 1: China and Japan. That was the cheapest rate you could

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Speaker 1: get at the time. A lot of powerful men have affairs.

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Speaker 3: Here we go, and I told you we can't talk

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Speaker 3: about this, and we can't talk about this. Okay, don't

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Speaker 3: put this on me, he said, We're just gonna talk history.

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Speaker 3: We're going to talk history. We can't go into all

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Speaker 3: of my infidelities at please, it's dangling right in front

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Speaker 3: of us. You're you are known for having thousands of affairs. No,

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Speaker 3: but honestly, it's well into the summer of nineteen twenty

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Speaker 3: three and we're and Harding is nearing the end of

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Speaker 3: his first term. All those twirling allegations of misconduct are

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Speaker 3: starting to threaten his re election. So he and the

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Speaker 3: first lady, Florence Harding. Isn't that like a fairy tale name?

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Speaker 2: I love that. That's Florence flow hard He had to

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Speaker 2: be a flow, right, you take flow? Yeah? At that time.

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Speaker 2: Of course, she's a flow. You go with flow, You

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Speaker 2: go with the flow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So Warren and Flow set off on a two

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Speaker 1: month adventure to show some serious leadership and earn back

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Speaker 1: voters trust. Face to face, there's any even a semi

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Speaker 1: wholesome photo of Harding at the helm of a locomotive

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Speaker 1: in Alaska. Here do we have that photo, handy? Can

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Speaker 1: we take a look?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Was that? I guess he's in there? He was, like,

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Speaker 2: he's hanging out the window there.

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Speaker 3: I mean, they might not have had zoom technology, but

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Speaker 3: the photographer could have walked up a little closer. Correct, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: this I assumed this wasn't a movie locomotive.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I I think you're right.

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Speaker 3: Although I tell you, I tell you, and you zoom

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Speaker 3: in on this right now, and I look and I'm like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 3: that guy fox right right? I mean, yeah, you see that.

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Speaker 3: You look at that? Look at that glove.

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Speaker 1: Look at that that the creepy glove that he's wearing.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, he's a he's kind of a lot going

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Speaker 1: on there.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: So he called this giant pr stunt the Voyage of Understanding,

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Speaker 1: and it surprisingly held some historical significance. It was the

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Speaker 1: first ever instance of a sitting president visiting the remote

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Speaker 1: regions of Alaska as well as Canada. How are we

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Speaker 1: doing with Canada right now?

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Speaker 2: Do you think?

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Speaker 1: Do you think relationshis are better or worse than they

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Speaker 1: were back in nineteen twenty three?

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Speaker 2: Oh God, I will yeah.

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Speaker 3: I hate to say it. I think we're on a

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Speaker 3: downward spiral with Canada.

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Speaker 2: I don't know why. It's so random, and it is.

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Speaker 2: It's so random.

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Speaker 1: It is like, why the hate Canada? Why are you

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Speaker 1: coming at us with so day?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 3: So what we talk about making you the fifty first

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Speaker 3: saint or throw of you?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we're the fun older brother who's ribbing you right now.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy it. You're part of the conversation. Welcome.

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Speaker 1: So throughout this tour it wasn't just the scandalous affairs

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Speaker 1: that were weighing on Old Warren G.

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Speaker 2: Harding.

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Speaker 1: There was also something else going on, something way worse.

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Speaker 1: During the boat ride in Alaska, Harding anxiously asked his

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Speaker 1: Commerce secretary Herbert Hoover.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that Hoover for.

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Speaker 1: Advice, he said, and I quote, if you knew of

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Speaker 1: a great scandal in your administration, would you for the

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Speaker 1: good of the country and the party, expose it publicly,

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Speaker 1: or would you bury it? Jordan, what's the right answer here?

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Speaker 1: You know what, I think we all know.

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Speaker 3: You bury that thing so deep, so deep you try to.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you try to find a cave and fill it

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Speaker 1: with concrete.

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Speaker 3: Fill it, fill it with concrete, and then and then

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Speaker 3: you blame whatever remnants on whoever you want to go down,

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Speaker 3: whoever you're running against next.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the right advice, obviously, Yes, that's the American advice.

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Speaker 1: So well, Hoover emphatically said, you gotta you gotta tell

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Speaker 1: the American people they deserve to know. But to your point,

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Speaker 1: Harding ignored this sage wisdom and tried to keep this

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Speaker 1: mysterious scandal under wraps. It wouldn't stay hidden for very long,

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Speaker 1: as massive political scandals tend to do. It started to emerge.

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Speaker 1: There was a dark cloud forming over Harding's presidency, and

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Speaker 1: this cloud was very much in the shape.

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Speaker 2: Of a teapot.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, Jordan Klepper, Do you know much about

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Speaker 1: the teapot dome scandal?

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Speaker 2: The teapot dome scandal.

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Speaker 3: I'd like to say that rings a bell, but I

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Speaker 3: don't think I know a thing about it.

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Speaker 2: It's like a great history.

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Speaker 1: It just has like like I can picture sort of

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Speaker 1: like political cartoons of the time of the day with

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Speaker 1: like a teapot, of which there were many, but it

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Speaker 1: feels evocative.

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Speaker 2: I remember before.

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Speaker 1: Digging into this, I was like, yeah, what exactly is that?

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Speaker 2: Well it is.

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Speaker 1: It is one of the biggest scandals in American political history.

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Speaker 1: So let's rewind a bit. So he's on this tour

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty three to sort of bolster his reelection.

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Speaker 1: But now let's go back to nineteen twenty one. What

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Speaker 1: exactly was Teapot Dome. Well, first off, Teapot Dome is

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Speaker 1: a real place. It's a landmark rock formation in Wyoming

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Speaker 1: that sort of resembles a teapot. The specific location was

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Speaker 1: one of three major oil reserves designated by the US

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Speaker 1: government in the early nineteen hundreds as emergency oil supplies

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Speaker 1: for the Navy. Now, I think we have a photo

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Speaker 1: of this teapot formation, and can we take a look.

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Speaker 2: Oh wait, is this that's Teapot Dome.

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Speaker 1: I think this is a modern photo. This is teapot

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Speaker 1: this is there's actually there are old photos of Teapot

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Speaker 1: Dome where the spout is still intact. The spout was

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Speaker 1: knocked off by a tornado in nineteen sixty two. But this, uh,

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Speaker 1: and I think this is this is after that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you got it without a spout, yeah, I

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Speaker 3: mean we're just talking. We're talking crackles. I'm seeing, I'm

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Speaker 3: seeing castle. Yeah, I'm seeing I'm seeing some phallic representation there.

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Speaker 2: I mean, but you have to admit.

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Speaker 1: You have to admit it does also look short and stout,

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Speaker 1: you know what.

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Speaker 3: I do have to admit that, you know what it Frankly,

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Speaker 3: it looks tall to me. Everything around it makes it

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Speaker 3: look tunny.

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Speaker 2: Not sure.

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Speaker 1: Here is its handle, here is its spout? But there

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Speaker 1: is no I know you're right, it's not. I'm supposed

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Speaker 1: to trust you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you've already instilled that there's more information that being

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Speaker 3: hidden away, and now I have to trust you about

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Speaker 3: this so called spout and handle on this rock formation.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty one, the newly elected Harding made an

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Speaker 1: interesting move. He shifted control of these oil reserves from

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Speaker 1: the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Now why

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Speaker 1: in the hell would he want to do that? Mind you,

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Speaker 1: this was a time when there was a lot of

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Speaker 1: debate on whether to conserve the country's natural resources or

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Speaker 1: to allow private industry to take hold of these resources

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Speaker 1: and milk America Drive for the benefit of Yes, you

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Speaker 1: guessed it, private industry. Now enter a character named Albert B. Fall,

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Speaker 1: Harding's new Secretary of the Interior and a four fall guy.

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Speaker 2: Does he become the fall guy? Is this one of

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Speaker 2: those American stories? This is great? My name is Mud

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Speaker 2: kind of situation.

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Speaker 1: Kind of this is and this is a point of contention.

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Speaker 1: So Fall actually does become the fall guy of this story.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people think that that is the

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Speaker 1: origin of the term fall guy. That is disputed. It

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Speaker 1: is apparently not the origin, but it's awfully convenient. He's

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Speaker 1: Harding's new Secretary of the Interior and a former senator

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Speaker 1: from New Mexico. Fall was also a rancher, lawyer, and

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Speaker 1: poker addict. I wasn't everybody in the twenties who downed

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Speaker 1: plenty of whiskey, didn't everybody in the twenties in the.

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Speaker 2: Midst of prohibition. He was a man in the twenties, Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: He was just a dude in the twenties. Now we've

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Speaker 1: got a photo of him Ooh.

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Speaker 2: I like this.

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Speaker 1: He's very scandalous. Doesn't it look like he's holding something creepy,

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Speaker 1: whether it's his genitals or like there's he looks like

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Speaker 1: he's hiding something.

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Speaker 3: He looks I mean, well, the handlebar mustache definitely alludes

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Speaker 3: to a man who is hiding something. Although the quality

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Speaker 3: of that coat, I always, I'm always it's amazing the

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Speaker 3: quality of the clothing of that time.

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Speaker 2: I agree from right, Look how thick that coat is.

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Speaker 1: But no crazy thing is like every but he wore

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Speaker 1: a suit all the time in the twenties, Like even

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Speaker 1: you would see even like like a dirt poor farmer,

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Speaker 1: like out working in the fields, like they're wearing a

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Speaker 1: suit for some reason, or like you know, like beggars

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Speaker 1: on the street of New York City, they're wearing suits like.

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Speaker 2: Everybody holds suits.

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Speaker 3: And the sweat got the smell of the twenties. It

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Speaker 3: feels like that's something you can't encapsulate. They could only

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Speaker 3: imagine if everybody's wearing three piece suits.

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Speaker 2: Wools and child washing.

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Speaker 3: The dry cleaning industry had not come into full fruition.

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Speaker 3: Oh they didn't, chemicals, No, so they're they're just they're

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Speaker 3: sweating away and the smells of.

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Speaker 2: This man, this this Fall guy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I can only imagine.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Harding had campaigned on a slogan of return to normalcy.

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Speaker 1: Fall was not on board with normal sea. It turns

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Speaker 1: out he really coveted power and wealth and to get

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Speaker 1: it he needed access to those reserves. Almost immediately he

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Speaker 1: uh secretly commenced his money grubbing intentions. He leased the

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Speaker 1: navel oil reserves at Teapot Dome and also a place

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Speaker 1: called Elk Hills and Buena Vista, California, to two private

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Speaker 1: oil tycoons, Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil and Edward L.

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Speaker 1: Doheny of Pan American Petroleum. Now you may know the

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Speaker 1: name Doheny from Doheny Drive here in Los Angeles. It

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Speaker 1: is the same Doheny uh, and it's just a couple

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Speaker 1: of blocks away from me right now, which is just

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Speaker 1: a meaningless factoid.

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Speaker 3: Does anybody know that? As I'm in New York? Would

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Speaker 3: I have known that? Would people who live on Doheny

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Speaker 3: Drive know that?

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Speaker 1: They probably don't know for whom Doheiny Drive is named,

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Speaker 1: But now they do.

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Speaker 2: And they really are provided service? Ed Are you really

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Speaker 2: they're thrilled?

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Speaker 1: This is really the point of this podcast is just

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Speaker 1: to give people useless information.

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Speaker 3: Can you tell me why why Third Avenue is called

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Speaker 3: Third Avenue? Is there a story behind that here in Brooklyn?

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Speaker 1: That one's tricky. Yeah, there was a There was an

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Speaker 1: Arnold j Third was a.

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Speaker 3: Local bridge building tycoon. No, it was a poker offiicionado

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Speaker 3: if I recall, of course.

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Speaker 1: So these deals that are our dear friend Albert B.

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Speaker 1: Fall made with Sinclair and Doheny, these deals were made

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Speaker 1: without competitive bidding, and Fall justified this by saying it

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Speaker 1: was quote for the public good and national security. But

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Speaker 1: then all of a sudden a weird thing started to happen,

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Speaker 1: which is that his bank account started looking very shall

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Speaker 1: we say well oiled?

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Speaker 2: We should say that that's the yeah, exactly, thank you.

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Speaker 1: At the time, Harding doesn't know his secretary of the

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Speaker 1: interior is being like shady as hell.

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Speaker 2: Do you do you believe that?

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Speaker 1: Do you think he was totally oblivious or do you

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Speaker 1: think he was just turning a blind eye?

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Speaker 3: I you know, I gotta believe it's blind. I'm often

431
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,640
Speaker 3: confused about how people communicated pre cell phone era, So

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Speaker 3: the fact that they had no easy way to communicate.

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Speaker 3: I'll give him little leeway. I don't know how fast

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Speaker 3: these horses are. Back of those days, that train looked

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Speaker 3: like it wasn't moving very fast either. So you know,

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Speaker 3: I'll give him perhaps he's not up to the moment informed,

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Speaker 3: but I don't know. You've given me very little, little

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Speaker 3: to rest my head when terms in terms of trusting

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Speaker 3: Warren Garding.

440
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,680
Speaker 1: Well, it turns out there's actually a good reason to

441
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,159
Speaker 1: believe that Harding was relatively unaware.

442
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 2: At this time.

443
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,560
Speaker 1: President Harding was quite busy dealing with the extensive aftermath

444
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,840
Speaker 1: of World War One, jostling through labor disputes, and flirting

445
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:42,280
Speaker 1: with women not named Florence. Still, you'd think he might

446
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 1: have noticed when Fall started receiving gifts and loans totaling

447
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:51,040
Speaker 1: over four hundred thousand dollars, which in today's dollars would

448
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: be a little over seven million dollars. He literally got

449
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: an entire herd of cattle at one point from one

450
00:21:58,800 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 1: of these tycoons.

451
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 2: So, yeah, you gotta start asking questions. I mean, it's

452
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 2: gonna raise a couple of questions.

453
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 3: You show up at the cabinet meeting and there's four

454
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,640
Speaker 3: hundred cattle there, Why do you stink?

455
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 1: Why do you smell like like cowshit. Just be honest,

456
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,679
Speaker 1: weall like these layers. I have to wear all these layers.

457
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:18,200
Speaker 2: What am I gonna do? I wear these layers? I

458
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 2: guess we all stink a little bit, right, It's we're

459
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:21,840
Speaker 2: wearing woolf. Okay.

460
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,640
Speaker 1: But it's not just how much money he was receiving,

461
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: it was how obvious he was about it. I mean,

462
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 1: the guy was living large in DC, buying up ranches,

463
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,199
Speaker 1: handing out cash, strutting around like a gilded age Gordon

464
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: get Go with a bolo tie. Now are you a

465
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: frugal guy? Like if you fell into this kind of money,

466
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 1: would you be chill about it? Or would you be

467
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: like putting on like a suit and hit in the nightclubs?

468
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:50,679
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, see, I don't think I'm creative enough to

469
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 3: spend money like that. My mom told me when I

470
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 3: when I got I got a show after the Daily

471
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,360
Speaker 3: Show and I got a I was.

472
00:22:58,280 --> 00:22:59,919
Speaker 2: Like, oh my god, I got a TV show. What

473
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 2: I do with this? Mama?

474
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 3: I was like, you need a good chair? She goes,

475
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 3: what I would buy would be an EMS chair, and

476
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't even know what an EMS

477
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 3: chair is. And then I googled it, and for the

478
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 3: next two weeks all I thought about was ems chairs

479
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 3: and that was the thing I bought. I was like, oh,

480
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:13,760
Speaker 3: you know what I will buy. I'll buy a chair

481
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:15,159
Speaker 3: that I'll have for the rest of my life. So

482
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,440
Speaker 3: that's that's the one fancy thing that.

483
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: Advice I love because it's just sort of like, yes,

484
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 1: like little creature comforts, they're important and they kind of

485
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 1: make there's these little things that just make your life

486
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:25,920
Speaker 1: experience nice.

487
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 2: All right.

488
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: So now speaking of making instant millions, According to a

489
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 1: Senate survey, the three reserves, these big oil reserves held

490
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,080
Speaker 1: an estimated four hundred and thirty five million barrels of oil,

491
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 1: which at the time would have been equivalent to the

492
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,119
Speaker 1: amount of oil produced by the country as a whole

493
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: up to that point in time. Now, crazy fact, that

494
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,160
Speaker 1: number was well under the actual amount of oil that

495
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 1: was dredged up eventually from those sites. Elk Kills alone

496
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,679
Speaker 1: has produced more than one billion barrels and it's one

497
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: hundred years of existence. Meanwhile, whispers began reaching Congress of

498
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: some shady stuff going on. On April fourteenth, nineteen twenty two,

499
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,760
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal broke the news of the teapot

500
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 1: dome as a few local Wyoming boys noticed trucks with

501
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:22,879
Speaker 1: the Sinclair logo roaming about. Yeah, so I don't know.

502
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand the power of branding, but maybe

503
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 1: you don't put your logos on your shady truck deliveries

504
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 1: or yeah, when you get your shady oil pickups.

505
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:34,959
Speaker 2: That's what gets it.

506
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 3: Nine times out of ten, it's that person who wants

507
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 3: to strut struck, you know, don't do it. Don't wear

508
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 3: that fancy don't wear that fancy suit. I think that's

509
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 3: like a plot in The Godfather What are the Godfathers?

510
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:49,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, weirdly, I think that the flagrancy of like using

511
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,399
Speaker 1: your Sinclair trucks to transport sort of it'll be gotten

512
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: oil speaks to the fact that they didn't think there

513
00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: was any risk here. Like it was like almost like

514
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 1: a cold thing. It's like, yeah, yeah, we're just doing

515
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: shady business and then everybody knows it.

516
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:05,760
Speaker 2: Who cares?

517
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:09,360
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it speaks to one of the truest thing.

518
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 3: Not to bring up mister Donald J. Trump, but if

519
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,360
Speaker 3: we're connected to comments like when when Trump got called

520
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 3: out for not paying taxes, you know, he holds it

521
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 3: up to like, yeah, because I'm smart. Right, There's always

522
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 3: been an idea with the billionaire class that like proof

523
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 3: of my expertise and acumen come in the fact that

524
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 3: I get away with shits.

525
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so you see.

526
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 3: That there, it's like, oh my god, how'd you get

527
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,240
Speaker 3: away with that? It's like, I'm smart. So this this

528
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 3: is what I get for being so smart.

529
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,679
Speaker 1: Yeah, just let's not even bother asking the questions of

530
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: character about any of that stuff. Buddy, that's a black

531
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: hole that we could go down, but I'm gonna keep

532
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: going one. Wyoming Senator John B. Kendrick was pestered with

533
00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: questions from other local oil men, mostly as to why

534
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: they never had a shot at least sing the land

535
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: the teapot dome. Suspicions kept growing, they grew and grew.

536
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: The Denver Post followed soon after with a front page

537
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,160
Speaker 1: expose calling the events quote one of the baldest public

538
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 1: land grabs in history. Finally, the floodgates were opening, which

539
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: led to a congressional investigation that took over two years. Now,

540
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: I find congressional investigations like this seriously badass, at least

541
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:27,479
Speaker 1: when they're like well intentioned and well executed. Do you

542
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: do you have a favorite congressional investigation? Oh my god,

543
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: this is this is a very nerdy question.

544
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 3: But the way they're framed, I mean, you think about Watergate,

545
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,399
Speaker 3: you think about uh uh, you know, the what was

546
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 3: the the Oppenheimer when when he was investigated, and I

547
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 3: think all that red scare stuff, they're not always used

548
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 3: in the best of best of ways. And I think

549
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 3: like the Mueller investigation was such a you know, I

550
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 3: think that's the the or the January sixth investigation sure

551
00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 3: slash presentation. Congressional hearings felt like such a such a

552
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:04,439
Speaker 3: I think they were framed as such a partisan affair, right,

553
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 3: such theater that you almost forget the functionality of them all.

554
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty heartbreaking when that happens. I agree, there

555
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: was one. One of my favorites is definitely We covered

556
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 1: it in SNAFU season two. Frank Church, a senator from Idaho,

557
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: led the investigation into co Intel pro and all of

558
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,640
Speaker 1: the malfeasans of Jadgear Hoover and how sort of corrupt

559
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: the FBI had become at that time, and it he

560
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: just was so had so much sort of integrity and

561
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 1: character and was so respected in the Senate, and he

562
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 1: had an incredible staff and the people that were working

563
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,160
Speaker 1: for him on that investigation, and it really, it really

564
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: accomplished a lot, and it was perceived as nonpartisan at

565
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,919
Speaker 1: the time, and it's became the only reason that we

566
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 1: have any congressional oversight over the FBI, the CIA, the NSA,

567
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 1: all of these inteligence institutions that up to that point

568
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:07,679
Speaker 1: had been operating in total secrecy, which also basically total

569
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: impunity for for whatever corrupt practices were going on. And uh,

570
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: and it's it's really cool, like like people like Frank

571
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:21,119
Speaker 1: Church there, they seem hard to come by these days.

572
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 3: To go full circle on this, I told you how

573
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,679
Speaker 3: I got into the world of improv and comedy, and

574
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 3: it was doing improv and my roommate fellow improviser in

575
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 3: college was Frank Church, the grandson of Senator Frank Church.

576
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 2: Way one hundred percent so cool. Are you still in touch?

577
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 2: I am still? And he grew up in Idaho. He

578
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 2: grew up in New York.

579
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 3: Because if if I don't want to bastardize Frank's life,

580
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 3: but I feel like, uh, Frank Church was such a

581
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 3: hero in Idaho and and ran for I think ran

582
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 3: for president as well, or attempted to. And then his son,

583
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 3: my Frank's father became came a large priest, cut into

584
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 3: the stars in.

585
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 2: New York and so fascinating.

586
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so Frank, my Frank grew up and grew

587
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 3: up in New York and then came to Kalma Zoo.

588
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 2: That's that's so wild. That is wild.

589
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 3: I'm realizing now I have I have newfound guilt for

590
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 3: the lack of respect I gave my friend Frank Church

591
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 3: back in time.

592
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,479
Speaker 2: Did you bully a young Frank Church? Oh? Yeah, Oh,

593
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 2: your family was important. Yeah.

594
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: Why haven't I ever heard of him? All right, sorry

595
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:29,959
Speaker 1: for all the wedgies, Frankie. Why are we now just

596
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 1: like denigrating this poor guy.

597
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 2: I think we're celebrating.

598
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 3: We're celebrating Frank Church, the history of my Frank Church,

599
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 3: your Frank Church, all.

600
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: Frank Church, all the Frank Churches.

601
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: Diving back in Albert, Fall had actually already stepped down

602
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 1: as Secretary of the Interior in January of nineteen twenty three,

603
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 1: so you know he could enjoy his new ranch as

604
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: well as help Sinclair and doheany with other oil deals abroad. Clearly,

605
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: Fall had pulled some corrupt shiit. It might be worth

606
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: mentioning here that President Harding was really feeling the heat

607
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 1: by this point in his presidency, particularly relating to a

608
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: few crooked folks he had appointed in his administration. Now,

609
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of Harding's Ohio Gang? No? All right?

610
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:16,920
Speaker 2: Should I have no?

611
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 3: As a Michigan boy, As a Michigan boy, don't. We

612
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 3: don't give much respect to anybody from Ohio. So perhaps

613
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:24,680
Speaker 3: it's not my own ignorance, it's just my own prejudice.

614
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 2: H there you go.

615
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this was the nickname for some of Harding's appointees,

616
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: basically because he'd hired or appointed so many of his

617
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 1: buddies from his days in Ohio, and a lot of

618
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: them were ruffling feathers and drumming up scandals from all angles,

619
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: from influence pedaling to selling illegal permits for confiscated government alcohol.

620
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: These dudes were just awful basically. So it kind of

621
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: makes sense that Albert Fall and his oily mustache twirling

622
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 1: fit right in. And yes, if you recall the photo earlier,

623
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 1: Fall had a big old snot mop.

624
00:30:57,880 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 2: O handlebar.

625
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, even if we're besmirching the guy, I

626
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 3: don't think we want that image in our head.

627
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny, but it's gross.

628
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 3: It's funny, but yeah, it's it's one of those things.

629
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 3: It's like moist. You're like, Okay, that might be the

630
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 3: right word, but I don't want to hear it.

631
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,640
Speaker 1: So President Harding said at the time, I have no

632
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies,

633
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: all right. But my damn friends, my goddamn friends, they're

634
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: the ones who keep me walking the floor nights. Now.

635
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: That's very godfathery, that is I tho you really leaned

636
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: into it too in the performance that it was nice.

637
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, my friends just when I think out, they pulled

638
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: me back in who the Ohio game? Thought clear.

639
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: I do wonder though, like someone you know, you look

640
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: at these presidents, whether it's a Trump or a Barack

641
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: Obama or somebody, You're like, how many good, like close

642
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 1: friends are they able to maintain at that At that point,

643
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: I would think someone like Trump is like so hard

644
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: to get close to and so hard to sort of

645
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,680
Speaker 1: like feel a sense of trust with, even if you're

646
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: if you match his core values whatever they are, like,

647
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 1: it just seems I don't know, they're so their their

648
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: life is so public and it's so committed to the

649
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 1: public eye.

650
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think, like, yeah, the usage of

651
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 3: a friend as somebody who you could truly be honest

652
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 3: with and empathize with and you could like be vulnerable with.

653
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,800
Speaker 3: I see people like Trump who sees almost everybody as

654
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 3: like a means to an end. Everything has a loyalty test, right,

655
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 3: and even things you know, not to smirch any relationships,

656
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,720
Speaker 3: but those don't seem to be the most friendly and open.

657
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 3: Those seem transactional as well. And you're like, oh, what

658
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 3: happens to a human who doesn't have a like an

659
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 3: emotional sounding board or compatriot that isn't tied up into

660
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 3: your own personal success?

661
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 2: Are you expressing it?

662
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: Are are you starting to express some some deep compassion

663
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: for Donald Trump?

664
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I've stumbled done it.

665
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 3: We've created a monster and I just want to give

666
00:32:58,600 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 3: him a hut.

667
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 2: That's what probably all he needs. Jordan didn't give a hug. Yeah,

668
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 2: group lug, I want on that. Come on, let's do it.

669
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 2: Let's let's break through that. Oh god, you could be

670
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 2: a better person.

671
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 1: At this point in our tail, we're sort of we're

672
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: coming full circle. So, as you recall, we sort of

673
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: started with this this voyage of understanding, and then we

674
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: jumped in nineteen twenty three. Then we jumped back to

675
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one and sort of told the unfolding of

676
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: the teapot Dome scandal under Harding's administration. Now now we're back.

677
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: We're back on the trip with President Harding. And suddenly

678
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: he began complaining of shortness of breath, and then suddenly

679
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 1: he was just gone. A surprise heart attack took him

680
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 1: very swiftly in August of nineteen twenty three, at the

681
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 1: ripe young age of fifty seven.

682
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 2: So there would be.

683
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: No re election for mister Harding after all. Now, what

684
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: do you think happened to the teep Dome scandal in

685
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: light of Harding's passing.

686
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 2: Boy, that is a great question.

687
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 3: My guess is the fall guy rides away any to

688
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,880
Speaker 3: a very successful life and the story moves on to

689
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 3: other more pressing things. Yeah, as there's never accountability, I

690
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,720
Speaker 3: guess that's what I've learned to believe in American politics.

691
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 2: So that accountability is a rare, rare mineral. It's very elusive.

692
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: You're largely correct here, there was a whole lot of

693
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: legal wrangling over the course of several years, and at

694
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 1: long last, the Supreme Court ruled in nineteen twenty seven

695
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 1: that the leases had been illegal, and all of the

696
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 1: oil reserves were returned to government control. In nineteen twenty nine,

697
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 1: Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes from Sinclair and

698
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,560
Speaker 1: served one year in prison, which sounds light until you

699
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: consider this was completely unprecedented at the time. Fall was

700
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: the first cabinet member in US history to go to

701
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: prison for crimes committed in office. Also, I can only

702
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: imagine a year in prison in nineteen twenty three is

703
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 1: pretty bleak.

704
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't imagine there's making a lot of

705
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,919
Speaker 3: space for rec time or rehabilitation.

706
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

707
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: Now, one nice thing about this was that it's sort

708
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,040
Speaker 1: of set the standard that even cabinet members aren't above

709
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:24,240
Speaker 1: the law, and I truly hope that Ethos carries through.

710
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,880
Speaker 1: I think it's a little wishy washy at times, but

711
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 1: it's nice to see some little measure of accountability, even

712
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: if it feels small. Now, Sinclair and Doheny were totally

713
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 1: acquitted of their charges of conspiracy to defraud the government,

714
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:41,720
Speaker 1: although Sinclair did end up serving six months in prison

715
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: for contempt of court and contempt of Congress. Why because

716
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,800
Speaker 1: he hired private investigators to follow and intimidate the jury

717
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 1: during his trial. These guys just had they feel like

718
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: they're just like they can do anything like that.

719
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 2: Come on, oil man, Yeah, mud relaxed, you got the win.

720
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the golden age of oil barons where

721
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: they can just do whatever the fuck they want. I mean,

722
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,239
Speaker 1: they're just they're all the elon musks of their day.

723
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah. One.

724
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: So, needless to say, damage was irrevocably done. Public trust

725
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:22,320
Speaker 1: in the government tanked Harding's legacy. Despite dying a quite

726
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 1: popular president, his legacy was permanently stained. In nineteen forty eight,

727
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,920
Speaker 1: Arthur M. Schlessinger, a Harvard historian, put out a poll

728
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,240
Speaker 1: amongst fellow historians and government officials to assess the greatest

729
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 1: and worst presidents up to that point. Harding landed dead

730
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 1: last and continues to place near the bottom of the

731
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: barrel in annual polls to this day. And Teapot Dome

732
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 1: became shorthand for political corruption ever more, which is kind

733
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: of funny. It's like, I like, how scandals ever since Watergate,

734
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 1: every scandal. You just add the word gait the end

735
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 1: of it and it becomes like that's the scandal. But

736
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 1: I wonder if before Watergate it was like, you know,

737
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: it was like the firehouse dome scandal, like everyone just

738
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: added the word dome to stuff.

739
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 3: Now now I feel like katari jet is just so

740
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 3: much cleaner.

741
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 1: Oh god, that's a good one.

742
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, although that's not a scandle, that's not a scan.

743
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 2: It's literally not a scandal. I'm honestly, you are right.

744
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,359
Speaker 3: Yes, there has been no kerfuffle on the other side

745
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 3: of it. We're just we're just moving up.

746
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're just moving on. It's kind of refreshing. There's

747
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:33,880
Speaker 1: no such thing as a scandal anymore.

748
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,800
Speaker 3: It's just like, that's why why we're gonna waste time

749
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 3: by everybody spending years looking into this.

750
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 2: Just keep moving on.

751
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: Well, this does lead me to my favorite portion of

752
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,800
Speaker 1: this this podcast, which is the sort of reflection here

753
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: Jordan and I'm curious, what are your takeaways. Have we

754
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 1: learned any lessons or are there lessons we still need

755
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: to learn from a teapot dome type scandal? Are there

756
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 1: any parallel to the modern moment we've touched on a

757
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 1: few throughout the episode. What jumps to mind, Well.

758
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:10,319
Speaker 3: I mean, frankly, I was shocked that there was some

759
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:13,800
Speaker 3: amount of accountability. It's right, it's humorous that the oil

760
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 3: barons get off scott free, except for trying to intimidate witnesses.

761
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 2: Which is which is hilarious.

762
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,879
Speaker 3: But the fact that like there was sustained pressure and

763
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,960
Speaker 3: a governmental organization that continued to stay on it to

764
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 3: punish somebody for for abusing the public trust is refreshing

765
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 3: to hear. But I think so sad in the light

766
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:38,920
Speaker 3: of what we are seeing right now. It seems as

767
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 3: if like, oh, there's there's no appetite for that, there's

768
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:45,319
Speaker 3: no bipartisan appetite for come up and for somebody abusing this,

769
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:46,840
Speaker 3: and like you said, you s doubled on it with

770
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:50,839
Speaker 3: the Katari jet. It's like, we have such obvious examples

771
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 3: of corruption, and there's also you know Donald Trump's personal

772
00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 3: was it cryptocurrency as a form in which people are

773
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 3: paying our government. These are scandalous things. I think back

774
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 3: in that time period like we are, it's a barrage

775
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 3: of information that things are getting washed out with new information,

776
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 3: new information, new information, and just a wash of devices

777
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,800
Speaker 3: that in our pockets that make us forget the things

778
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:18,960
Speaker 3: that we perhaps could be or should be outraged by.

779
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 3: I look back at that time and I'm like, oh,

780
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:22,320
Speaker 3: I feel like they were able.

781
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 2: To stick with stings. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's a great question.

782
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're raising a really a really meaningful

783
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:35,919
Speaker 1: question about contemporary mores, which is like, has our sort

784
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 1: of ethical or moral compass degraded in recent time? Or

785
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:44,800
Speaker 1: are we just too overwhelmed to actually compute these things

786
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: as they happen. And I can say honestly like I

787
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: think exasperation is working in corruption's favor. There are a

788
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: few points that that I think Teapot Dome raises, For example,

789
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 1: federal resources quietly getting funneled to private interests. What's happening

790
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: now in this big, beautiful bill is this idea to

791
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: literally just sell publicly owned land to private interests. And

792
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: of course those private interests won't be local ranchers or

793
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: farmers or people who want to build their homes and

794
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:26,240
Speaker 1: live there. They will be these massive real estate conglomerates

795
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:30,759
Speaker 1: and or mining interests, or you know, the people that

796
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: can afford to buy huge swaths of land. And it's

797
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 1: so it's far more permanent than a sort of lease arrangement.

798
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:42,240
Speaker 1: And and it's really interesting that that one's an interesting

799
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 1: one because it's starting. It really is fracturing a lot

800
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 1: of Trump supporters. I think a lot of conservative folks

801
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: are like, oh, hold on this publicly owned land. This

802
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:55,919
Speaker 1: is land that we all own and that we all

803
00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:00,239
Speaker 1: benefit from. You know, there's a there's a there's an

804
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: impulse i think on the right to vilify government and

805
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: vilify the sort of scale of government. And there's some

806
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 1: good reasons for that, of course, but we forget, or

807
00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times someone with a right

808
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: leaning mindset might forget that government and the government ownership

809
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:22,080
Speaker 1: of things is actually public. It means that it's all

810
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 1: of us. It means that we all are owners, are

811
00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 1: sharing this thing. And when it comes to two huge

812
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: amounts of natural resources and or just beautiful public land

813
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: like Yellowstone or all of our national parks, our state

814
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 1: parks like that is that's publicly owned, and.

815
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 2: It's amazing.

816
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: These are incredible resources for all of us.

817
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 3: There's conversations about where those lines are being drawn and

818
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 3: be curious where the ramifications of something like the big

819
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 3: beautiful Bill and how that affects people like that who

820
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 3: are using this public land in those ways, aren't.

821
00:41:57,320 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 2: Going to see the kickbacks. I worry.

822
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,759
Speaker 3: That's what we talked about, is it's so hard for

823
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 3: us to have sustained attention on anything that isn't completely outrageous.

824
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jordan Klepper, what are you up to? What can

825
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,799
Speaker 1: you tell us about us? Obviously you're still crushing it

826
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 1: on the Daily Show? What else do you have going on?

827
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 3: That's that takes up a lovelier part of my time.

828
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 3: And then when I have free weekends, I hit the

829
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 3: road and I do a show called Suffering Fools, which

830
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 3: is part stand up, part ted talk. I got a

831
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 3: bunch of slides and trying to make sense from some

832
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:30,839
Speaker 3: of these stories I've got from being out on the road.

833
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,279
Speaker 3: So that's that's a fun time to get out into

834
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:35,800
Speaker 3: all over America and tell some war stories.

835
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 2: I love it. I really, I really want to see

836
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 2: that show.

837
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 1: And if you're out there, anyone we're in America, go

838
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: see Jordan Klepper the guys. He's yeah, he's funny, he's smart.

839
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:51,760
Speaker 1: And I will say, you delivered undlightful.

840
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 2: Pretty delightful thing. I mean, you were kind of delightful.

841
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 2: I feel like I carried a lot of the delightfulness.

842
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 2: You were very delightful, yes, but you met it.

843
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,160
Speaker 1: You met the standard, and I appreciate it.

844
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 2: Well. Thanks for having me. And you know what, I

845
00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 2: learned something.

846
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 3: I don't know if I like harding any more than

847
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 3: I did coming in and out, but I understand the

848
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 3: man more. Yeah, I'm more confused about fall guy, but

849
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 3: I'm glad to see a little bit of a moment

850
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:15,319
Speaker 3: of accountability.

851
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:15,920
Speaker 2: So thank you for that.

852
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:18,760
Speaker 1: So glad to have you on the pod. Jordan Klepper,

853
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 1: all my best buddy. Thanks v Snapoo is a production

854
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:27,319
Speaker 1: of iHeart Podcasts and Snapfoo Media, a partnership between Film

855
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,280
Speaker 1: Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Our post production

856
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: studio is Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me Ed Helms,

857
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:40,760
Speaker 1: Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim Whitney, Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan.

858
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:44,720
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tory Smith.

859
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 1: Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering

860
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo

861
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 1: and branding by the Collected Works. Legal review from Dan Welsh,

862
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,879
Speaker 1: Meghan Halson and Caroline Johnson. Thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn,

863
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:06,600
Speaker 1: Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson,

864
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 1: Kerry Lieberman, Nikki Etor, Nathan Otowski and Alex Corral. While

865
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:14,720
Speaker 1: I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy

866
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: of my book, Snaffoo, The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest

867
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 1: screw Ups. It's available now from any book retailer.

868
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 2: Just go to.

869
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 1: Snaffoo dashbook dot com.

870
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:28,839
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and see you next week.