WEBVTT - S4E3: Jordan Klepper and Teapot Dome 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.200 He literally got an entire herd of cattle at one 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:05.960 point from one of these tycoons. 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.360 You gotta start asking questions. I mean, it's gonna raise 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:09.280 a couple of questions. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.799 You show up at the cabinet meeting and there's four 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:13.760 hundred cattle there? Where do you get things like? Don't 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:14.319 worry about it? 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.439 Why do you smell like like cowshit? It's these layers. 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:18.759 I have to wear all these layers. What am I 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.880 gonna do? I wear these layers. 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:30.160 Welcome to Snapoo, a show about history's greatest screw ups. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.640 I'm your host ed helms, and this week I am 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:40.280 talking to an Emmy winning comedian, writer, producer, and contributor 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.800 and co host of the Daily Show. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.360 please welcome the amazing, insightful and dare I say delightful 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.000 Jordan Klepper. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.479 Welcome, Jordan, Oh, thank you? Dare you say it? I'm 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:54.200 glad you said it? 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:55.400 I dare you? 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.800 Dare you took the swing? Everybody wondered. They were all wondered, 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.000 is he gonna? Is he across the rubicon? And stay delightful? 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:03.160 He did it right. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:03.520 Off the bat. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.880 Don't don't make me a liar. I know this does 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.039 I was gonna say I had since a hotbar. I 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.000 was going to take you down today, and I have. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.160 I have just a stack of information about you and 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.080 about your past that I was going to use against you, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.080 wield it with certainty and aggression. But now that you've 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:21.959 labeled me as delightful, I'm going to set it aside 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:22.520 and I'm gonna be. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.319 Kind delight me Jordan, all right, now, before we get 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.120 into today's snap who, I'm just curious a little bit 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:30.280 about your background. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:31.760 We've known each other a while. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.400 We obviously share the Daily Show, as I was on 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.640 the show back in the early two thousands, a long 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.600 time ago. I'm curious sort of what your path to 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.039 the Daily Show was. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.000 You know, the Daily Show. I was. I was a 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:47.320 fan of The Daily Show. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.920 I remember in college watching it, watching John I was 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.880 like my first into giving a shit about politics in 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.760 the world around me. Up until that point, I was 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:58.680 sort of just a kid in Kalazoo, Michigan and only 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.880 cared about what was happening with a two mile radius, 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.200 which in Kalamazoo, Michigan was not a lot. It was 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.000 mostly it was mostly Little League and people talking about 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:07.560 Derek Jeter. 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.760 Can I say anybody from Kalamazoo, Michigan. You have to 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:16.000 say their full name and from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and you 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:20.239 immediately sound like a depression era business mogul Jordan Klapper 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.360 from Kalamazoo, Michigan. It just is, It's got such a 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.600 great zinger vibe to it. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.120 It sounds like a Doctor Seuss town. In fact, the 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:32.360 buttons in Kalamazoo, Michigan say, yes, there really is a Kalamazoo. 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.920 You approach Kalamazoo with a disbelief that it actually exists, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.520 and the people there will will sell you a button 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:40.920 to try to prove we are a real thing. We 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.280 are a small town in southwest Michigan. Embrace the weirdness 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:44.680 of it all. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.240 So you're in Kalamazoo, Michigan and you're just a comedy fan. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.840 I'm that comedy Yeah, I think basically, I'm a whose 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:54.640 line is it anyway? 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.400 Improv guy in high school? 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.000 But am I'm a nerd who gets a math scholarship 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.560 to go to the tiny liberal arts college Kalamazoo College 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.000 as a math major with eyes towards finding something that's 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.840 inspiring to me. And I find comedy. I find improv. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.639 I finally got on stage in my college life did 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.000 some improv jokes and people thought I was funny, and 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.280 that drug sent me to Chicago and on a path 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.600 to kind of find and forge this comedy career which 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.640 for the longest time, which was like nine years in 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.320 Chicago learning improv, touring with the Second City, takes me 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.919 to New York where I start doing stuff with the 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.560 Upright Citizens Brigade and a lot of comedy. And you know, 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.160 like the New York life was writing gigs for MTV shows, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.040 It was creating my own little videos and trying to 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.440 get whatever I could out there, finding a little bit 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.360 of success. But it's like fourteen years ten in Chicago 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.000 and then I'm in New York for four years and 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.560 the Daily Show comes to knock in when John Oliver 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:58.720 steps aside. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.360 Now, did you always have an inkling towards sort of 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.560 commentary or satire or political engagement of any kind or 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.640 was that really a product of joining the Daily Show? 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.960 For me, it was always exciting to do shows that 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.840 were commenting on something that was happening. You jump into 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.760 the Daily Show and that just gets bumped up tenfold 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.839 and at my reading level, which I thought in Chicago 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:25.919 and in New York was a pretty good I was like, 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.880 I'm pretty well informed. I like walk into those offices 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.080 at the Daily Show and CRIMEA was invaded. The first 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:33.880 day I walked in and John wanted to do a 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:35.880 peace on crime and I'm like, I don't know where 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.479 CRIMEA is. I don't know, I thought, I you know, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.800 I skim a couple of New York Times articles every day, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.960 and I'm like, oh shit, I'm so bhind. Somebody get me. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.479 Somebody get me a map and a tutor. I can't 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:48.680 do this job, you know what. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.160 I will say, That's something I miss from my years 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.040 on the Daily Show. I could, like, like a couple 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.159 of years into the Daily Show, I could step into 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:02.080 any like topical conversation about politics or sort of current 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.120 events and just be on fire, like I had everything 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.040 at random access, because you're just steeped in it day 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.080 after day. You're studying it, your you know, you're you're 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:18.120 engaged in policy discussions like whatever is going on, you 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.960 know everyone's names in Congress, You've gone to the conventions, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.800 You've it's just like it's really fun. It feels like 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.760 you're kind of near the uh, the sort of like 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:34.320 burning hot sun of American sort of political current events. Well, 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.840 it's a very very cool job. You are obviously crushing 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.320 it and have been for a very long time. Keep 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.800 up the great work. Let's get into today's snap Who 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:45.440 shall we? 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:50.800 Oh? I love it all right? 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.240 Well, given your day job involves a gosh darn lot 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.960 of keeping up with political dramas, I thought it would 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.800 be perfect to journey into a snap foo today involving 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.520 one of the wildest early political scandals our country has 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.520 ever seen. In fact, before Watergate, it might have been 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.719 the biggest most sensational scandal America had even been through, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.960 filled with all kinds of presidential corruption and bribery, which 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.599 will surely remind you of absolutely nothing going on right now? 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:22.400 Do you want me to connect this to anything? Because 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:23.400 it feels like sci fi? 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:24.479 Right now? What you're pitching me? 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:25.200 Ed? Right? 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.200 Are you ready? I'm ready? Let's jump in? 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:29.560 All right? 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:29.800 Great? 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.200 We begin our journey in nineteen twenty alongside a man 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:38.560 who several contemporaneous publications described as quote milk toast. This description, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.320 of course, refers to a man of weak character who 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.159 is indecisive and or easily influenced, all of which will 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.880 come into play very shortly. Milk toast is kind of 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.880 a rude nickname. Did you have any nicknames, Jordan Klepper. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.000 You know, milktos would have been a fine one for me. 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.760 I would have accepted milk toast. I think I've been 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.920 as pale as what I could imagine the delicacy of 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.800 milk toast is. I was jordy Bean to begin with, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.440 Jordy Bean, jordy Bean because I was thin as a 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.640 string bean. I have this weird long head, so that 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:10.760 became the case. And then when I got into an 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.760 improv group, I gave myself a nickname Truck, which was 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.640 absurd to the people there, and I was called out 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.200 for the absurdity of giving yourself a nickname. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.200 Can't give yourself a nickname. That's illegal, that was the argument. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.480 And yet that becomes in and of itself a bit 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.000 about giving yourself a nickname. And now fast forward fifteen 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.400 years later, I'm Truck to a small group of people 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.920 in Chicago, and I proudly I probably did it myself. 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.080 That's a very cool nickname. That's the problem with nicknames 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.480 you pick yourself. Is like they're too cool, the truful. Hey, 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.760 here comes old truck. What'd he go to? 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.640 He's got some good improv up his leaves, has got 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:47.440 great improv. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.680 And truck, of course, was somebody who who at that 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:54.840 time drove his parents dodge intrepid. So I've gotten nowhere 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:55.920 near a truck. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.640 Sure, but you hauled good improv skills. I ain't that 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.200 the true it's sixty wheels baby. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.440 Well, underneath the feeble exterior of this particular person was 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.320 a sexual miscreant with a penchant for scandal. In fact, 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.880 he's on record having told the press quote it's a 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.440 good thing I'm not a woman. I would always be pregnant. 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.800 I can't say no this guy, that's a fun guy 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.960 to hang out with. I guess, I guess. So, yeah, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.560 he's just sort of like a yes man. All right, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:26.600 I'm in whatever you. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.680 Got, you know what. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.480 Honestly, in the nineteen twenties, for a phrase that starts 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:33.640 it's a good thing of not a woman dot dot dot, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:36.760 that was probably that. That's probably the nicest answer you're 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:37.440 going to find. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.480 I guess. So that's what that's a modern man right there. 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.480 Lovely, he didn't bring in any other minorities to make 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.760 fun of or hound. Perhaps that comes later in the story. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.320 Right now, that's a that's a that's a PG answer 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:50.800 for nineteen twenty all right. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.280 Any guess who we're talking about? Oh God, I no, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:56.680 I'm at a loss. 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.600 Well, it's the twenty ninth President of the United States, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:00.840 Warren G. 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.840 Harding. It's Harding, that's who. It's Harding. We're talking about Harding. 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:06.360 It's classic. Yeah. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.920 His wife's biographer pegged his number of mistresses at seven, 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.800 including the wife of one of his best friends. In fact, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.920 the steamy affair was so problematic, none other than the 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.679 Republican National Committee paid the woman a two thousand dollars 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:24.440 monthly stipend on top of a twenty five thousand dollars 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.839 trip to Japan and China, just so she'd be far 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.679 out of the spotlight while our mister milk Toast campaigned 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:33.160 for the American presidency. 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:34.839 We were doing that back then. 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.200 We were sending we were sending women who were having 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.800 affairs to Japan. I mean that's a long trip. Yeah, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.000 that's a very long trip. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:47.600 Also, like kind of a nice little silver lining to 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.960 an affair. Likely, yes, get a trip to China. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.320 You know, you know, it was hard enough and so 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.960 expensive to see any other culture at that day and age. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.760 Probably your most effective bet was to sleep with the 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:00.559 president and see if the government would pay for it. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.920 Yeah, there you go, twenty five thousand dollars trip to 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.800 China and Japan. That was the cheapest rate you could 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:10.400 get at the time. A lot of powerful men have affairs. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.520 Here we go, and I told you we can't talk 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.520 about this, and we can't talk about this. Okay, don't 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.959 put this on me, he said, We're just gonna talk history. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.040 We're going to talk history. We can't go into all 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.240 of my infidelities at please, it's dangling right in front 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:29.079 of us. You're you are known for having thousands of affairs. No, 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.720 but honestly, it's well into the summer of nineteen twenty 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.199 three and we're and Harding is nearing the end of 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.640 his first term. All those twirling allegations of misconduct are 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.960 starting to threaten his re election. So he and the 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.920 first lady, Florence Harding. Isn't that like a fairy tale name? 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.120 I love that. That's Florence flow hard He had to 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.640 be a flow, right, you take flow? Yeah? At that time. 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.240 Of course, she's a flow. You go with flow, You 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:55.040 go with the flow. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.480 Yeah, So Warren and Flow set off on a two 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.120 month adventure to show some serious leadership and earn back 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.840 voters trust. Face to face, there's any even a semi 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.520 wholesome photo of Harding at the helm of a locomotive 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.439 in Alaska. Here do we have that photo, handy? Can 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:14.000 we take a look? 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.360 Oh? Was that? I guess he's in there? He was, like, 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:20.800 he's hanging out the window there. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.560 I mean, they might not have had zoom technology, but 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.040 the photographer could have walked up a little closer. Correct, Yeah, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.679 this I assumed this wasn't a movie locomotive. 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.360 Yeah, you know, I I think you're right. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.480 Although I tell you, I tell you, and you zoom 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.440 in on this right now, and I look and I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.600 that guy fox right right? I mean, yeah, you see that. 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.800 You look at that? Look at that glove. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.040 Look at that that the creepy glove that he's wearing. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.320 I don't know, he's a he's kind of a lot going 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:50.760 on there. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:51.640 Well. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.720 So he called this giant pr stunt the Voyage of Understanding, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.080 and it surprisingly held some historical significance. It was the 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.720 first ever instance of a sitting president visiting the remote 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.880 regions of Alaska as well as Canada. How are we 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:06.240 doing with Canada right now? 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:06.559 Do you think? 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.480 Do you think relationshis are better or worse than they 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:09.840 were back in nineteen twenty three? 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:11.839 Oh God, I will yeah. 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.200 I hate to say it. I think we're on a 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:14.720 downward spiral with Canada. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.160 I don't know why. It's so random, and it is. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:17.880 It's so random. 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.000 It is like, why the hate Canada? Why are you 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:21.240 coming at us with so day? 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:22.120 Yes? 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.760 So what we talk about making you the fifty first 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:26.840 saint or throw of you? 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.400 Yes, we're the fun older brother who's ribbing you right now. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.240 Enjoy it. You're part of the conversation. Welcome. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.920 So throughout this tour it wasn't just the scandalous affairs 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:40.640 that were weighing on Old Warren G. 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:41.080 Harding. 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.440 There was also something else going on, something way worse. 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.960 During the boat ride in Alaska, Harding anxiously asked his 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.280 Commerce secretary Herbert Hoover. 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:52.160 Yes, that Hoover for. 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.760 Advice, he said, and I quote, if you knew of 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.640 a great scandal in your administration, would you for the 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.439 good of the country and the party, expose it publicly, 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.680 or would you bury it? Jordan, what's the right answer here? 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.160 You know what, I think we all know. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.920 You bury that thing so deep, so deep you try to. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.440 Yeah, you try to find a cave and fill it 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:16.800 with concrete. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.640 Fill it, fill it with concrete, and then and then 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.439 you blame whatever remnants on whoever you want to go down, 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:23.920 whoever you're running against next. 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.960 Yeah, that's the right advice, obviously, Yes, that's the American advice. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.720 So well, Hoover emphatically said, you gotta you gotta tell 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.920 the American people they deserve to know. But to your point, 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.560 Harding ignored this sage wisdom and tried to keep this 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.560 mysterious scandal under wraps. It wouldn't stay hidden for very long, 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.360 as massive political scandals tend to do. It started to emerge. 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.920 There was a dark cloud forming over Harding's presidency, and 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.280 this cloud was very much in the shape. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.400 Of a teapot. 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.680 Yes, that's right, Jordan Klepper, Do you know much about 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.760 the teapot dome scandal? 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:06.679 The teapot dome scandal. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.120 I'd like to say that rings a bell, but I 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:10.600 don't think I know a thing about it. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:11.760 It's like a great history. 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.360 It just has like like I can picture sort of 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.440 like political cartoons of the time of the day with 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:21.960 like a teapot, of which there were many, but it 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:22.920 feels evocative. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:24.000 I remember before. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.320 Digging into this, I was like, yeah, what exactly is that? 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:29.160 Well it is. 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.240 It is one of the biggest scandals in American political history. 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.240 So let's rewind a bit. So he's on this tour 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.640 in nineteen twenty three to sort of bolster his reelection. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.760 But now let's go back to nineteen twenty one. What 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.960 exactly was Teapot Dome. Well, first off, Teapot Dome is 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.520 a real place. It's a landmark rock formation in Wyoming 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.800 that sort of resembles a teapot. The specific location was 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.840 one of three major oil reserves designated by the US 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.119 government in the early nineteen hundreds as emergency oil supplies 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.320 for the Navy. Now, I think we have a photo 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:08.440 of this teapot formation, and can we take a look. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.640 Oh wait, is this that's Teapot Dome. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.120 I think this is a modern photo. This is teapot 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:19.120 this is there's actually there are old photos of Teapot 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.800 Dome where the spout is still intact. The spout was 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.720 knocked off by a tornado in nineteen sixty two. But this, uh, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.640 and I think this is this is after that. 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.840 Yeah, if you got it without a spout, yeah, I 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:33.880 mean we're just talking. We're talking crackles. I'm seeing, I'm 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.920 seeing castle. Yeah, I'm seeing I'm seeing some phallic representation there. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:39.360 I mean, but you have to admit. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.680 You have to admit it does also look short and stout, 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:45.400 you know what. 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:47.560 I do have to admit that, you know what it Frankly, 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:49.960 it looks tall to me. Everything around it makes it 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:50.520 look tunny. 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:51.000 Not sure. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.720 Here is its handle, here is its spout? But there 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.720 is no I know you're right, it's not. I'm supposed 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:57.200 to trust you. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.200 Yeah, you've already instilled that there's more information that being 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:01.920 hidden away, and now I have to trust you about 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.680 this so called spout and handle on this rock formation. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.280 In nineteen twenty one, the newly elected Harding made an 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.040 interesting move. He shifted control of these oil reserves from 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.520 the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Now why 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.760 in the hell would he want to do that? Mind you, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.640 this was a time when there was a lot of 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.600 debate on whether to conserve the country's natural resources or 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:30.000 to allow private industry to take hold of these resources 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.000 and milk America Drive for the benefit of Yes, you 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:42.600 guessed it, private industry. Now enter a character named Albert B. Fall, 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:47.040 Harding's new Secretary of the Interior and a four fall guy. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.040 Does he become the fall guy? Is this one of 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.720 those American stories? This is great? My name is Mud 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:52.520 kind of situation. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.200 Kind of this is and this is a point of contention. 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.760 So Fall actually does become the fall guy of this story. 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:02.840 And a lot of people think that that is the 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:07.639 origin of the term fall guy. That is disputed. It 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.240 is apparently not the origin, but it's awfully convenient. He's 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.040 Harding's new Secretary of the Interior and a former senator 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.680 from New Mexico. Fall was also a rancher, lawyer, and 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.040 poker addict. I wasn't everybody in the twenties who downed 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.960 plenty of whiskey, didn't everybody in the twenties in the. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.840 Midst of prohibition. He was a man in the twenties, Yeah, exactly. 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.080 He was just a dude in the twenties. Now we've 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.320 got a photo of him Ooh. 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:32.919 I like this. 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:37.080 He's very scandalous. Doesn't it look like he's holding something creepy, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.920 whether it's his genitals or like there's he looks like 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:43.840 he's hiding something. 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.160 He looks I mean, well, the handlebar mustache definitely alludes 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.840 to a man who is hiding something. Although the quality 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:54.000 of that coat, I always, I'm always it's amazing the 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:55.800 quality of the clothing of that time. 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.199 I agree from right, Look how thick that coat is. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.400 But no crazy thing is like every but he wore 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.840 a suit all the time in the twenties, Like even 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.520 you would see even like like a dirt poor farmer, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.000 like out working in the fields, like they're wearing a 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.200 suit for some reason, or like you know, like beggars 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.680 on the street of New York City, they're wearing suits like. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:15.840 Everybody holds suits. 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.520 And the sweat got the smell of the twenties. It 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.159 feels like that's something you can't encapsulate. They could only 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.360 imagine if everybody's wearing three piece suits. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.359 Wools and child washing. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.960 The dry cleaning industry had not come into full fruition. 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.520 Oh they didn't, chemicals, No, so they're they're just they're 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.480 sweating away and the smells of. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.120 This man, this this Fall guy. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:43.119 Yeah, I can only imagine. 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:43.840 Now. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.760 Harding had campaigned on a slogan of return to normalcy. 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.879 Fall was not on board with normal sea. It turns 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.520 out he really coveted power and wealth and to get 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:58.840 it he needed access to those reserves. Almost immediately he 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:04.159 uh secretly commenced his money grubbing intentions. He leased the 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.840 navel oil reserves at Teapot Dome and also a place 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:12.560 called Elk Hills and Buena Vista, California, to two private 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:18.359 oil tycoons, Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil and Edward L. 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.480 Doheny of Pan American Petroleum. Now you may know the 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.240 name Doheny from Doheny Drive here in Los Angeles. It 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:28.880 is the same Doheny uh, and it's just a couple 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.359 of blocks away from me right now, which is just 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:32.720