Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Let's give it up for
Speaker 1: a one and only super producer, the Man, the Myth,
Speaker 1: the Legend, Mr Max Williams. And uh, let's also well,
Speaker 1: they called me ben. Uh. Let's also give it up
Speaker 1: for my ride or die, very good friend of mine
Speaker 1: here in spirit, Mr Noel Brown. Noel is out for
Speaker 1: a bit, but we'll be returning soon. Uh. Nevertheless, we
Speaker 1: have been speaking a lot offline and it is our
Speaker 1: fondest wish that the show go on. So we're going
Speaker 1: to have a couple of special guest host in the
Speaker 1: next few episodes. And this is where I would like
Speaker 1: to introduce our very first special guest host in this lineup. Folks,
Speaker 1: give it up for Mr Max Williams. He called that
Speaker 1: I'm slippings. You didn't know how many of us we
Speaker 1: like sight Machine great? Oh yeah, yeah. We searched long
Speaker 1: and far. We we really worked hard to find someone
Speaker 1: to come in and they all said no, so you're
Speaker 1: stuck with me. Uh well, you know, our search was assiduous.
Speaker 1: We did our do Dilon let me give you a
Speaker 1: little background on Max Williams. For anybody who is not familiar,
Speaker 1: So Max Williams, you know him, you love him from
Speaker 1: shows like Ephemeral, from shows like Ridiculous History. You may
Speaker 1: also know that he is a fan of curling, is
Speaker 1: a fan of war history. He is a fan of
Speaker 1: Star trek. Uh. He is also a fan of the
Speaker 1: phrase beef it. Yeah. If we won't explain how to
Speaker 1: air what that means that okay, yeah, oh man, we
Speaker 1: might have to fly this as an explicit if we
Speaker 1: do that, right, So okay, So in this case, then, uh,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about survival today and nowadays. I
Speaker 1: think for anybody who's a fan of presidential lore like
Speaker 1: you and myself, Max, you might be astonished to learn
Speaker 1: just how wild the lives of past US presidents were.
Speaker 1: In many ways, they have adventures that seem straight out
Speaker 1: of straight out of the big screen. You, Noel and
Speaker 1: I have talked in the past about all kinds of
Speaker 1: strange things. Most recently in US presidential lore we talked
Speaker 1: about Abraham Lincoln's former career as a trash talking wrestler
Speaker 1: straight out of w W E. Yeah, and don't forget
Speaker 1: about Ronald Reagan and throwing rocks at people while he's
Speaker 1: a lifeguard. That was a pretty strange one too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of like, you know, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to these older presidents, a lot of what
Speaker 1: we hear commonly is about like, oh, this was in
Speaker 1: an office, or this is like especially older ones who
Speaker 1: were generals like Jackson and Taylor and stuff, where these
Speaker 1: were the great battles, but a lot of times loss
Speaker 1: in history or just kind of like you know, these
Speaker 1: idiosyncrasies about them, and just also these kind of like
Speaker 1: wilder stories, and I think, uh, yeah, Andrew Jackson has
Speaker 1: a few of those himself. Not all good, of course, no, no,
Speaker 1: not all good. We have the benefit of retrospect here. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's right. What being a president requires a a certain
Speaker 1: set of skills to be a little liam Nisan about it,
Speaker 1: and it's also inherently a pretty dangerous position. You are
Speaker 1: much more likely to have people attempt to assassinate you
Speaker 1: if you are the president, then say, if you are
Speaker 1: a plumber. I believe that's true. I'm assuming they're a
Speaker 1: plumbers in the crowd right in and let us know.
Speaker 1: But today, Max, you and I are talking about a
Speaker 1: story that I think really captivated both of us. We're
Speaker 1: talking about presidents who survived assassination attempts, and we're going
Speaker 1: to have to start. We're gonna have to spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time, I think today on Gosh, Max, what
Speaker 1: would you call him? I don't know if I would
Speaker 1: call him our collective favorite president, but he's certainly a
Speaker 1: fascinating character. One and only Andrew jack Soon. I remember
Speaker 1: junior year Nerdy Max ap U S History class being
Speaker 1: taught by my ap U S History professor, Mr. Boucher,
Speaker 1: that Andrew Jackson is a very important president American history.
Speaker 1: He says like he's not a good one in many ways,
Speaker 1: but he is a very influential and I think that's
Speaker 1: probably the best way to say. There's still a lot
Speaker 1: of Jackson era stuff that still exists in America. Let's
Speaker 1: just say, I mean, he's arguably our first king. And
Speaker 1: you know, we've had a couple cents him, like like
Speaker 1: a guy who was in office for thirteen years. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's because that's before the uh that's for the
Speaker 1: Laws of the Land change restricting a president to two terms. Right,
Speaker 1: And when we talk about I'm talking about Jackson. One
Speaker 1: thing we have to mention is that he, like several
Speaker 1: other U S presidents of this era, was known for
Speaker 1: these real barn stormers of speeches. And while the transcripts
Speaker 1: of many of those speeches exist today, we as the US,
Speaker 1: did not have the technology to record the audio or
Speaker 1: the video, so a lot of it may be lost
Speaker 1: in translation through interpretation of the text. But you have
Speaker 1: to know this. Jackson is known for huge speeches. He
Speaker 1: is an orator. He fires up a crowd and he
Speaker 1: has to do this. This is like campaigning, right, This
Speaker 1: is how he keeps himself front and center in the
Speaker 1: minds of voters and opponents. So our story kind of starts. Um,
Speaker 1: you put uh, you put a lot of work in
Speaker 1: this outline. I just beefed it a little. Uh, the
Speaker 1: story starts. I'm not letting go on January eighteen thirty, Max,
Speaker 1: Can you set the scene for us? Why is this
Speaker 1: day important? So, as you said, Anuary eighteen thirty five,
Speaker 1: so this is a kind of weird day. So, as
Speaker 1: you said, like Jackson, he's a fiery speaker. He's also
Speaker 1: a war hero from the War of eighteen twelve, and
Speaker 1: his kind of politics at the time are very much
Speaker 1: like you know, DIVI divisive, like very aggressive, and so
Speaker 1: it's very rare that people in Washington are all kind
Speaker 1: of together and just like we're not fighting today, but
Speaker 1: this day they were not fighting at least at this
Speaker 1: point in time. So they're at the Capitol Building for
Speaker 1: a funeral for South Carolina Representative Warren Davis, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's a dreary, missy day onlookers look kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, it was one of those days where it's like,
Speaker 1: let's not do this today. We're gonna be respectful of
Speaker 1: the dead. We're gonna do this whole thing. Yeah, no more,
Speaker 1: he's saying, I'm not today, of all days, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put the clause back just a little. We're not
Speaker 1: doing it today. I'm not coming up. I'm hissing. We're
Speaker 1: gonna pump the brakes just for today, because this is
Speaker 1: bigger than us. Uh. This occurs about six years into
Speaker 1: his presidency, and he had already had this reputation, as
Speaker 1: as you said, for using a very very fiery polemical
Speaker 1: speeches to get support and to engage with his political opponents.
Speaker 1: He also loved the veto the guy loved, loved a veto.
Speaker 1: He loved a veto the way Garfield loves lasagna. He
Speaker 1: was all about it. Uh. At this time he was
Speaker 1: using the veto way more often than other administrations and
Speaker 1: sometimes just a straight up obstruct actions of Congress for
Speaker 1: no other reason than screw you guys, your minorities. Like
Speaker 1: that was actually not a common thing to do with.
Speaker 1: The veto was a very like selective thing to use
Speaker 1: before Jackson. He was like the first one to really
Speaker 1: use it. And I think we should talk like how
Speaker 1: like how bad this got was. So when Jackson was elected,
Speaker 1: there was like one political party in the country at
Speaker 1: the time, and like people like Henry Clay, who if
Speaker 1: you don't know who Andrew Clay is, he's another very
Speaker 1: influential person in American politics. Will people with the influential one,
Speaker 1: but like he was like in opposition, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to create a new political party of this
Speaker 1: party is of course called the Whigs, one of the
Speaker 1: best named political parties in our country history, and like
Speaker 1: their sole purpose was to like fight King Andrews. They
Speaker 1: called him, right, King Andrew Bean. Of course, Andrew Jackson,
Speaker 1: I personally would make the observation, that's starting a party
Speaker 1: without its own, without its own proactive goals. Starting a
Speaker 1: party entirely in opposition of an existing thing kind of
Speaker 1: damages your shelf life. But but as it did with
Speaker 1: the Whigs, yeah, or the what were they the know
Speaker 1: nothings or the Anti Masonic Party, I'm thinking right, because
Speaker 1: they were just there for something else. Also, what were
Speaker 1: they the no Nothing Party? K and O W they
Speaker 1: were They came around in the eighteen fifties, so a
Speaker 1: little bit after this, and they were mad at Catholic immigrants,
Speaker 1: they were mad at anybody moving in um. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then they later kind of they preceded the Temperance Party.
Speaker 1: I think hmm, sounds like lovely people. Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there are a lot of fun at parties. Uh so
Speaker 1: uh you know what would have been great though, also
Speaker 1: would have been a fun party to watch if there
Speaker 1: was c SPAN back in the eighteen thirties, man, this
Speaker 1: would have been amazing because the Senate Chamber was ground
Speaker 1: zero to reality TV level drama. The Whig Party, as
Speaker 1: he said, they were haranguing King Andrew and called him
Speaker 1: uh and they said he's corrupt, he's incompetent, He's a
Speaker 1: real piece of work. And the president came back. It
Speaker 1: was almost like a almost like a rap battle. What right,
Speaker 1: the dueling oratory uh skills here. So of course Jackson
Speaker 1: comes back and says, you know, I'm doubling down. Not
Speaker 1: only do I think the wigs are corrupt and incompetent,
Speaker 1: they don't know what they're doing. They don't know how
Speaker 1: to run a nation. Come at me physically. I will
Speaker 1: get you. Like I'm I'm being a little hyperbolic. I'm
Speaker 1: taking a lot of editorial license here. But he did
Speaker 1: physically threaten them, And this leads us to January of
Speaker 1: eight thirty five. There's a senator from South Carolina named
Speaker 1: John C. Calhoun, and he's got a personal beef I
Speaker 1: think with Jackson. Yeah. So like Calhoun, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: not very good guy just in general. But he was
Speaker 1: like he was weird. So we have to go back
Speaker 1: to the what is the election of eighteen twenty four?
Speaker 1: There was like five people running. It was a weird,
Speaker 1: crazy thing. Jackson won, but then Quincy Adams became president.
Speaker 1: That's the whole thing. We won't talk about that here.
Speaker 1: But like, so Calhoun had actually been Jackson's first VP,
Speaker 1: so like, you know, this is like Obama and Biden,
Speaker 1: um Reagan and h W like their buddies. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he's like, dude, you suck and
Speaker 1: he decides like I cannot stand for this guy. He's like,
Speaker 1: he left the VAT position to be just an opposition
Speaker 1: to join Henry Clay's party and go into the Senate
Speaker 1: and just fight this guy. Like and I think this
Speaker 1: is important that you point out where it's like Jackson
Speaker 1: was known for being really militant with his thing, I
Speaker 1: mean both like would abuse people both verbally and pretty
Speaker 1: much physically too. And the problem that happened was that
Speaker 1: was the way opposition too, was like, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go more than that, and it became this ever escalating thing,
Speaker 1: which led to Calhoun saying something that you know, probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't say. He said, Jackson was a Caesar who ought
Speaker 1: to have a brutus obviously, you know, referencing you know,
Speaker 1: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, or maybe just Julius Caesar in general,
Speaker 1: or you know, Brutus is his closest friend who you know,
Speaker 1: stabs him. And that might have riled up some people
Speaker 1: including a fellow named Richard Lawrence. Yes, okay, So Richard
Speaker 1: Lawrence is one of those guys in the history books
Speaker 1: who is mainly known for one thing. We don't know
Speaker 1: a ton about his life except for his one thing,
Speaker 1: and we'll tell you what it is and why Calhoun's
Speaker 1: statement was so inflammatory. So Lawrence was born in England.
Speaker 1: We know that he moved to d e c. In
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve. And he was not he was not this
Speaker 1: big high muckety muck in either country. You know. He
Speaker 1: wasn't a representative or a senator in the US. He
Speaker 1: painted homes for a living, and it was a good living.
Speaker 1: It's a decent living. Uh. He was known to be amicable,
Speaker 1: he had a good work ethic. But over time he
Speaker 1: started getting a little wonky in his ticker, and he
Speaker 1: started having these delusions, and he became more and more
Speaker 1: convinced that he was a long lost heir to the
Speaker 1: British throne. And this continues so eighteen twelve, this grows
Speaker 1: over a couple of decades. By eight thirty five, when
Speaker 1: this speech takes place, Richard Lawrence is pretty certain, like certain,
Speaker 1: that he's the rightful king of England and that the
Speaker 1: world will readily admit to this once they see his evidence,
Speaker 1: if only he can get Andrew Jackson, King Andrew out
Speaker 1: of the way. Rather can't be two kings. You've got
Speaker 1: to get the king who's you know, holding your money
Speaker 1: out of the way. And I but I think it's
Speaker 1: important to take a little step back here and kind
Speaker 1: of just talk about Andrew Jackson's time, because you know,
Speaker 1: we have this painting. Jackson was very much about persona,
Speaker 1: and we have kind of this image in our head
Speaker 1: of what Andrew Jackson. I mean, he was like like
Speaker 1: the hero general of the War of eighteen twelve. We
Speaker 1: think of it this this imposing, dominant figure verbally strong.
Speaker 1: This man was not this. At this point he was
Speaker 1: sixty seven years old, and we're talking eighteen thirty five
Speaker 1: sixty seven. I mean, yeah, he had had a large
Speaker 1: number of just like malady is in mishaps and being
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson. A lot of them were self cause, like
Speaker 1: he had been in like a dozen duels, including having
Speaker 1: a bullet lodged in his chest like in his lungs
Speaker 1: for thirty years. There was a British social theorist called
Speaker 1: Harriet Martineau who had like a little like she was
Speaker 1: actually around for a lot of this, so you'll hear
Speaker 1: from her a couple of times. But she says, general
Speaker 1: Jackson is extremely tall and thin, with a slight stoop,
Speaker 1: beckoning more weakness than naturally belongs to his ears. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's a tall guy, and uh, being being taller
Speaker 1: than average is actually really helpful when someone is running
Speaker 1: for the presidency. It has an unconscious effect on a
Speaker 1: lot of voters. But because he was old, and because
Speaker 1: he had such grievous wounds and and several health problems,
Speaker 1: his I kind of worked against him, and he's getting
Speaker 1: more and more scrunched up. It's kind of like, if
Speaker 1: you look, get that iconic painting of Andrew Jackson, which
Speaker 1: was actually in eighteen thirty five, was done by a
Speaker 1: guy named Ralph Alisa Whiteside Earl. Just google Andrew Jackson
Speaker 1: painting is gonna be one of the first ones that
Speaker 1: shows up. It reminds me of how you will see
Speaker 1: a celebrity's headshot and then you will see a candid
Speaker 1: photo of that that poor person just trying to get
Speaker 1: to McDonald's. You know, they're not trying to be in
Speaker 1: the movie right now, and you see those photos side
Speaker 1: by side and go wow, a lot of work went
Speaker 1: into one of these. That's kind of what the comparison
Speaker 1: of Jackson would have been like at this time. And
Speaker 1: he had other names besides King Andrew. King Andrew is
Speaker 1: a uh an insult used by his detractors. Also, jackass
Speaker 1: was common. They would call him to guess, yeah, but
Speaker 1: that's how we got the donkey. That's how the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party got the Donkey. People called him jackass so much
Speaker 1: they were like, he's like, I like that, I'm keeping
Speaker 1: that kind of own it. We're taking it back. His
Speaker 1: supporters would call him his supporters and admirers. There's a
Speaker 1: ven diagram, but they're always the same thing. His supporters
Speaker 1: called him Old Hickory because of his performance in the
Speaker 1: War of eighteen twelve. And here's where always see all
Speaker 1: these details starts commingle. Let's get back to Lawrence. He
Speaker 1: knows no, it was in his mind like that he
Speaker 1: has some sort of in controvertible proof that he is
Speaker 1: the true king. And that because Andrew Jackson in a
Speaker 1: completely different country is a president called King Andrew, that's
Speaker 1: somehow all that stopping Lawrence's ascension. So it makes sense
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, okay, yeah, man, all right, well you're
Speaker 1: the expert here, so I am right. Yeah. Did I
Speaker 1: just sound cue my own self? Yeah, I guess that's
Speaker 1: awesome and shout out of course to our very dear
Speaker 1: friend Matt Frederick. H Matt Frederick, Yeah, will be coming
Speaker 1: uh will be coming along in a later episode hopefully. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is birthday season, by the way, for uh, for
Speaker 1: the stuff they don't want you to know. Crue. So,
Speaker 1: Matt Nolan, I all of birthdays coming up. If you
Speaker 1: guys are listening to the episode Happy New Year dudes. Uh. Anyway, Lawrence, Lawrence,
Speaker 1: here's this line from Calhoun. Uh. And he was probably
Speaker 1: part of the audience and Calhoun said this in just
Speaker 1: a few days later January, Lawrence tries to take his
Speaker 1: destiny in his own hands. He decides that if fate
Speaker 1: will not intervene on his behalf, get rid of this
Speaker 1: king andrew himself. He picked a pretty good target. We
Speaker 1: have a description from a wonderful Little time dot com
Speaker 1: article by Jennifer Latson that describes Old Hickories actual physical
Speaker 1: state around this time. And I love I love a
Speaker 1: crazy laundry list. Max, can you hit us with this
Speaker 1: one and like lean into it. Old Hickory suffered from
Speaker 1: nearly every fiscal ailment of magical smallpox, asteo militis, malaria, dysentery, rheumatism,
Speaker 1: drops these, Gloria movius, a widespread intestinal inflammation, Amelo dots is,
Speaker 1: a waxy degeneration of body tissues, and bronco tassis, which
Speaker 1: is inflamed and dilated bronchial tubes. These ail means, in
Speaker 1: addition to lingering effects of injury sustaining duels, one which
Speaker 1: left the bullet permanently lodged in his lungs, meant that
Speaker 1: Jackson began his presidential term racked with pain and fainting
Speaker 1: from weakness. So, uh, you know, any any mispronunciations of
Speaker 1: those specific medical conditions fall fall on me as well,
Speaker 1: because we're looking some of these up. Uh. These are
Speaker 1: real conditions and to have all of them at once
Speaker 1: is not a walk in the park. This means that
Speaker 1: the US president could not pass that presidential fitness test
Speaker 1: some of us had to take in school. So Jackson
Speaker 1: is you know at this funeral, it's very sad occasion.
Speaker 1: We have put aside rhetoric today. I'm gonna behave myself.
Speaker 1: You're gonna behave yourself to death is bigger than all
Speaker 1: of us. It's the end of the funeral. Jackson's leaving
Speaker 1: via the East portico and Richard Lawrence comes up and starts,
Speaker 1: you know, hassling him. Security is different at this time, too, obviously,
Speaker 1: and Lawrence pulls a pistol from his jacket. It's derringer.
Speaker 1: He aims at Jackson and he fires and nothing happens. Well,
Speaker 1: something does happen, It fires, but no bullet comes out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jackson is just fine. I mean well, saying he's fine
Speaker 1: is Navy max re member. He might be sixty seven,
Speaker 1: he might be old, he might be sickly, but he's
Speaker 1: still Andrew Jackson. So so his response isn't like get
Speaker 1: behind people or get like, you know, his security take
Speaker 1: care of But he goes, oh you serious. He charges
Speaker 1: at the guy with his old hickory cane and starts
Speaker 1: clubbing Lawrence. That is his instant response is I'm gonna
Speaker 1: beat this guy up. And it gets worse because Lawrence,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, had another pistol. Yes, so so
Speaker 1: Jackson Jackson is like Wsland whip a snap out or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then he starts to go into town on him
Speaker 1: with this cane and then Lawrence is like fending it
Speaker 1: off and pulls out his second pistol, his second firearm
Speaker 1: also loaded. He pulls the trigger again. Boom, that's right,
Speaker 1: nothing nothing uh nothing not not I mean maybe like
Speaker 1: uh uh, I mean it's a dager. From the kick
Speaker 1: goes how loud do we expect this thing to be?
Speaker 1: It's like the smallest gun ever made. Not really, but
Speaker 1: it basically is. Yeah, it's it's no howardser. And by
Speaker 1: now Jackson's crew his entourage are hip to the game.
Speaker 1: So they grab Lawrence and they physically pull him away,
Speaker 1: and Jackson is unharmed. I mean, he's still racked with
Speaker 1: medical problems, but he doesn't have a gunshot to add
Speaker 1: to those. And uh, he is livid and he will
Speaker 1: be paranoid for the rest of his life. I would
Speaker 1: hate to be one of the members of his entourage
Speaker 1: and say, you know, hey, sorry, that guy slipped by
Speaker 1: you and tried to shoot you and then did it again. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, security at this time was not great. I mean,
Speaker 1: and it should be pointing out this is the first
Speaker 1: assassination attempt that we know of, at least against the
Speaker 1: sitting president in history of this country. I mean, so
Speaker 1: maybe they just didn't think about it, but it is
Speaker 1: still pretty bad. But I mean, we have to talk
Speaker 1: about the pistols. So it's just like, yeah, the thing,
Speaker 1: like were these things malfunctioning? Were they wrong? Like how
Speaker 1: did this guy because he was right next to Jackson,
Speaker 1: a boy at the point, It wasn't like he was
Speaker 1: like shooting from a long distance. How did Jackson not
Speaker 1: get shot? And we don't really know. Yes, yeah, we
Speaker 1: are not sure because both of the pistols we're working,
Speaker 1: he had loaded them. He may have beef. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: were beef. They were beat Laura Lawrence may not have
Speaker 1: been in the best mental state, but he was about
Speaker 1: his business when it came to fire our maintenance and
Speaker 1: loading these and they continue like. There was testing done
Speaker 1: on them later, and the testing found that this is
Speaker 1: per u S Senator Thomas hart Benton. The testing found
Speaker 1: that every time they tried to fire either of these
Speaker 1: pistols afterwards, they fire per normal and they could fire
Speaker 1: accurately at a distance of thirty feet or so. This
Speaker 1: is where we get to a weird lottery. This is
Speaker 1: I think the stuff. You really can't explain. The calculated
Speaker 1: likelihood of both pistols misfiring on that day in is
Speaker 1: something like a hundred and twenty five thousand to one.
Speaker 1: So Jackson won the lottery twice in a row. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like there has to have been something else
Speaker 1: that happened, but I mean, we don't know, and I
Speaker 1: mean it sounds like they just both misfired from everything
Speaker 1: we've read, and I mean, which is like, wow, Jackson, Uh, good,
Speaker 1: good on you. I guess you won the lottery. But
Speaker 1: then I want to backtrack to something Jackson actually said
Speaker 1: when he was clubbing Lawrence. It's kind of weird. It
Speaker 1: doesn't actually make a ton of sense, except if you
Speaker 1: think about it, because you mentioned the paranoia that he
Speaker 1: had after this, and probably the paranoia that he had
Speaker 1: plenty of beforehand. But so when he's like charging at Lawrence,
Speaker 1: he's clubbing him, and he's screaming, let me alone, let
Speaker 1: me alone, I know where this came from, which is
Speaker 1: a weird kind of line to be screaming. It's like,
Speaker 1: let me alone, I know where this came from. He's like,
Speaker 1: you're a whig operative or something. But he does seem Yeah,
Speaker 1: he does seem to, at least in his mind, have
Speaker 1: a an understanding of a conspiracy behind this assassination attempt.
Speaker 1: I also want to point out that you'll find some
Speaker 1: historians arguing that the humidity of the day may have
Speaker 1: may have contributed to the pistols misfiring, but that's it's
Speaker 1: still not proven. Also, just a side note, if we
Speaker 1: ever do this as a historical reenactment, other people watch
Speaker 1: Jackson beat the snot out of this guy until they
Speaker 1: thought Jackson might actually kill him. They're like, this old
Speaker 1: man is going to kill him. Davy Crockett is in
Speaker 1: the audience. Max. Davy Crockett is one of the people
Speaker 1: who says, yeah, I don't know, okay, okay, now let's
Speaker 1: separate him. It's all been fun. Yeah, big guy, you've
Speaker 1: your fine. Let's let's chill out. Let's look at your nap, buddy,
Speaker 1: Let's get you up that nap and you can go
Speaker 1: yell at I don't know, you can't yell at TV.
Speaker 1: Where would he yell at? I don't know, probably yell
Speaker 1: at some bird or something outside a bear. So we
Speaker 1: we also want to thank, by the way, Lorraine Boss,
Speaker 1: who wrote an excellent article in the Smithsonian about this
Speaker 1: attempted assassination. We're also pulling in some some other sources
Speaker 1: and observations here, like the travelogue you mentioned Max. So
Speaker 1: Jackson was convinced this attack was politically motivated. This was
Speaker 1: the first attempt to assassinate a sitting president, and the
Speaker 1: media and the public went nuts. Talk about the proliferation
Speaker 1: of speculation and conspiracy theories here. Jackson himself was certain,
Speaker 1: and he says, I know where this came from. He
Speaker 1: was certain that a rival politician named George Poindexter was
Speaker 1: behind it. He thought, point extra hired Lawrence to kill him.
Speaker 1: The problem was, Jackson's certitude didn't seem to be backed
Speaker 1: up by evidence. Yeah. No, I mean, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it would make sense considering all the visual
Speaker 1: of the time, But it also makes way more sense
Speaker 1: that this guy, as we later found was just you know,
Speaker 1: not all there say at least, But I mean, this
Speaker 1: didn't stop Jackson from you know, going out and pretty
Speaker 1: much declaring that this is fact and that all these
Speaker 1: wigs must pay. Martineau actually has an account of that
Speaker 1: night when everyone was like hanging out afterwards. Yeah, later,
Speaker 1: same day, later that night, she goes to a party.
Speaker 1: M Jackson is at this party. Before we proceed with this,
Speaker 1: what is this party for? Is this party just a
Speaker 1: part of the Hardy schedule? Is it a party like
Speaker 1: a wake party for the guy that there's there at
Speaker 1: a funeral? Or is it a party because Jackson survived
Speaker 1: someone trying to shoot him twice and then he beat
Speaker 1: the living ship it out of him? Beat me, please,
Speaker 1: max self peep. I love it. You know, that is
Speaker 1: a good question. I I'm tempted to think that it
Speaker 1: was already planned. I'm tempted to I don't know, somebody
Speaker 1: correct me on this. I'm tempted to think there was
Speaker 1: something already planned, but it became a celebration of a
Speaker 1: couple of different things, you know what I mean? Like you, uh,
Speaker 1: you have a friend whose birthdays on July five, and
Speaker 1: you were already having a July fourth party that weekend,
Speaker 1: so you know, double up, bang for your buck. So
Speaker 1: it's like it's like someone who's born in Christmas and
Speaker 1: has to celebrate their Christmas President a birthday presidents at
Speaker 1: the same time. They really get skimped out that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel for you folks. You know, um the moral
Speaker 1: fortitude that you have grown. That's the real present, is
Speaker 1: something that some other line your parents fed you. Anyway,
Speaker 1: here's what Martineau says at this at this party, right
Speaker 1: after someone tried to kill the president before two hours
Speaker 1: were over, the name of almost every eminence politician was
Speaker 1: mixed up with that of the poor maniac who caused
Speaker 1: the uproar. Jackson protested, in the presence of many strangers
Speaker 1: that there was no insanity in the case. I was silent,
Speaker 1: of course. He protested that there was a plot and
Speaker 1: that the man was a tool, and at length quoted
Speaker 1: the Attorney General as his authority. It was painful to
Speaker 1: hear a chief ruler publicly trying to persuade a foreigner
Speaker 1: that any of his constituents hated him to death. And
Speaker 1: I took the liberty of changing the subject as soon
Speaker 1: as I could. What do you change the subject to? You?
Speaker 1: Are you like? Wow? Yeah, that's crazy. So is this
Speaker 1: the Washington eggnog recipe? So tell me the story. I
Speaker 1: up that bullet in your lunge, right, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like you'd be hard person to change the
Speaker 1: subject of. It's if you change the subject, and they
Speaker 1: would listen to you change the subject, then immediately go
Speaker 1: back to what they were talking about. He seems like
Speaker 1: that type of person. And I mean what is interesting
Speaker 1: also about this is, I mean we've seen this, unfortunately
Speaker 1: with a lot of conspiracy theories and less cle of
Speaker 1: years there if you yell them loud enough, you don't
Speaker 1: actually have to put any truth behind it, and that
Speaker 1: we saw that in this case. So despite no evidence
Speaker 1: of this conspiracy, I mean, there's absolutely no connection whatsoever
Speaker 1: to the Wigs hiring Lawrence to kill Jackson, Sensationalism took
Speaker 1: over the story. It was just everywhere, absolutely And I
Speaker 1: do want to say that some conspiracy theories with the
Speaker 1: benefit of retrospect, do end up being true, just actual conspiracies,
Speaker 1: but this was definitely a blossoming of conspiracy theories where evidence,
Speaker 1: if there was any evidence, took a far back seat.
Speaker 1: A paper in Boston was saying, rumor is circulating a
Speaker 1: thousand stories. They were probably at a loss trying to
Speaker 1: figure out which to print. People were asking media questions,
Speaker 1: very valid questions. Was Richard Lawrence a hired assassin? And
Speaker 1: if so, logically who hired him? These are the things
Speaker 1: that immediately went through Jackson's mind when he realized he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to die from that first gunshot, picked up
Speaker 1: the cane and his like weird kill bill moment. Uh,
Speaker 1: he immediately, you know he I would not be surprised
Speaker 1: if in his mind at that point he's physically beating
Speaker 1: Point Dexter, you know, and that's what he's thinking of.
Speaker 1: But the two main suspects in Congress are his Jackson's
Speaker 1: former VP Calhoun, who has to go to the Senate
Speaker 1: and publicly declare his innocence, and then the President of
Speaker 1: course says it's that bastard Point Dexter, the senator from Mississippi. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's involved in this and it was never proven again,
Speaker 1: but it probably cost index or his reelection because that's
Speaker 1: some bad pr What did the Whigs do? The Whigs say,
Speaker 1: the conspiracy goes even deeper. The Whigs named Andrew Jackson
Speaker 1: as the chief conspirator in his assassination attempt. They say, look,
Speaker 1: everybody knows you're a jerk and you're trying to make
Speaker 1: America forget that and like you because you survived this
Speaker 1: fake assassination attempt. Shades of Alex Jones here. Uh, but
Speaker 1: you teased it you teased it really well, Max, Was
Speaker 1: there a conspiracy? No, Richard Lawrence was just not right.
Speaker 1: So obviously this guy tries to kill a president, he's
Speaker 1: gonna go to trial. He goes to trial, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it becomes very very evidence. So not he did the
Speaker 1: painter believe the president had killed his father. He believed
Speaker 1: that Andrew Jackson had killed Richard Lawrence's father, which no,
Speaker 1: he was also convinced he was a fifteenth century king,
Speaker 1: King Richard the third, not not a descendant. He thought
Speaker 1: he was Richard. He was Richard Lawrence the third. He
Speaker 1: thought that, and he was also I mean, so a
Speaker 1: little context right here. This is when Jackson's trying to
Speaker 1: get rid of the Bank of the United States. At
Speaker 1: this point in time, the the centralized the bank, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. That's a big thing that's going on in
Speaker 1: history here. And he's convinced that the bank is going
Speaker 1: to pay his money, and Jackson's doing that so he
Speaker 1: will not get his money, as we can see, not
Speaker 1: really all there. Yeah, but he's got he's got a lot.
Speaker 1: He's got a lot of confidence, which goes a long
Speaker 1: way in this country. Confidence. Here's one of our cinematic moments.
Speaker 1: The famous attorney Francis Scott Key is the chief prosecutor.
Speaker 1: The trial happens just a few months later in April
Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty five, and during the trial, King Richard
Speaker 1: Lawrence the third says to the jurors, it is for me, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: to pass upon you, and not you upon me. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was actually found not guilty because of because the
Speaker 1: reasons of insanity, and he was confined to a hospital
Speaker 1: for the mentally ill until his death until eighteen sixty one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he he was never convicted of his crime, though,
Speaker 1: I think about that. Yeah. Also, we have to point
Speaker 1: out that if we're being if we're being completely honest,
Speaker 1: this is a pretty harsh punishment because hospitals for the
Speaker 1: mentally ill, all all facilities for people with mental issue
Speaker 1: whose are terrible places. Well not all, that's hyperbolic, but
Speaker 1: the majority of them are very very bad places at
Speaker 1: this time in the US and in Europe. If we're
Speaker 1: being if we're being honest, So so what does Jackson think? Uh?
Speaker 1: The guy who tried to kill him twice has been
Speaker 1: ruled insane. Congress has done some investigations, The Court of
Speaker 1: public opinion, as adjourned, they found no conspiracy. Is Jackson happy?
Speaker 1: Is Old Hickory satisfied? Oh no, he's still not. Now
Speaker 1: he's uh, he's still beefing it. He is so beefed
Speaker 1: right now. This guy he thinks. He says, look, there
Speaker 1: must have been some kind of cover up, because I
Speaker 1: still think the Wigs were somehow involved the Whig Party.
Speaker 1: And in eighteen thirties Evans the end of his presidency,
Speaker 1: someone asked him if he has any regrets, And that's
Speaker 1: a question that can be tricky for a lot of
Speaker 1: public figures to navigate, and they're very rarely honest about it.
Speaker 1: So he says, yes, I regret I was unable to
Speaker 1: shoot Henry Clay or to hang John c kel who
Speaker 1: the worst enemies started friends. I guess, I guess. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think granted Henry Clay had been
Speaker 1: an opponent his for a long time, I mean, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't for Henry Clay, he would have in
Speaker 1: president in saying that's a good thing, that's a thing,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm as soupan He went to his grave
Speaker 1: believing that Richard Lawrence was hired by those guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe I'm mythologizing a bit to say
Speaker 1: that he and Calhoun were friends. Because of the way
Speaker 1: the appointment of the vice president works back in that time,
Speaker 1: it's very different from the way a vice president works today.
Speaker 1: I feel like they have changed that law by that
Speaker 1: point because a little weird history thing. It was the
Speaker 1: runner up in elections became the VP. I think they
Speaker 1: changed that after Aaron Burr became the VP, because everyone's like,
Speaker 1: Aaron burn should not be the president. They were found
Speaker 1: with Aaron Burn's the VP. But Aaron Burr nearly became
Speaker 1: president in eighteen hundred and if you've seen Hamilton's you know,
Speaker 1: Aaron Burns not a good guy in history. That's right,
Speaker 1: That's right. It's the twelfth Amendment. It was eighteen uh yeah,
Speaker 1: to be used in the A T O four election. Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: So so they probably did appear to get along at
Speaker 1: some point, but they became bitter enemies, is to take away.
Speaker 1: And now we're we've got to talk about a couple
Speaker 1: of other failed assassination attempts, just to bring some attention
Speaker 1: to these, because if you're a kid in the US,
Speaker 1: you know all the stories about the successful assassination attempts
Speaker 1: and odds are you're very aware of two, and you
Speaker 1: may not know too much about the other ones. You're
Speaker 1: aware of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at the Ford Theater,
Speaker 1: and you're aware of the assassination of John Kennedy at
Speaker 1: that motorcade in Dallas, but you might not be aware
Speaker 1: of all the other attempts to assassinate US presidents. Again,
Speaker 1: it's a very dangerous job. Sarry Ice Road Truckers. Uh.
Speaker 1: You you are statistically, I think, probably safer than a president.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is so true. To put in summary,
Speaker 1: Eight of the forty six presidents in our in our
Speaker 1: country's history have died in office. I mean four of
Speaker 1: them have been natural causes, natural causes and putting quotations.
Speaker 1: We're not sure about two of them. Yeah, but there's
Speaker 1: four that have been assassinated. Obviously, you said JFK. You
Speaker 1: you said Abraham Lincoln. Those are the two of very
Speaker 1: famous ones. But then also we have William McKinley, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was assassinated, And then we have Garfield was assassinated too,
Speaker 1: and they're not as famous. Oddly enough, McKinley is the
Speaker 1: one that surprised me because it was actually his VP
Speaker 1: became very famous, which is Theodore Roosevelt. But what gets
Speaker 1: even more mind blowing is when you see how many
Speaker 1: assassination attempts there have been, and there's a lot more
Speaker 1: in history now because you know, Secret Service have gotten
Speaker 1: more sophisticated, the classifying of documents that we know about
Speaker 1: attempts against like you know, recent presidents such as you know,
Speaker 1: Bush Obama, such as those because we just have more
Speaker 1: sophisticated technology, and then planning online. But there were some
Speaker 1: assassination attempts that were pretty pretty scary. So Ben I
Speaker 1: suggest we each do one. We just pick our favorite one.
Speaker 1: We do one, Okay, I'll play your reindeer games. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go with you know what, I'm gonna go with
Speaker 1: someone that we we should probably talk about more often
Speaker 1: on this show. I'm gonna go with William Howard Taft.
Speaker 1: That's a good one, right there. What about you? Man? Um,
Speaker 1: I'll go with FDR. It's not now actually scratch that.
Speaker 1: I'm going in Theodore Roosevelt. He wasn't technically a president
Speaker 1: at this point, but I'm gonna go with it. Perfect
Speaker 1: all right, Here we go So William Howard Taft is
Speaker 1: probably most commonly known for two things. One being president
Speaker 1: and then you know all his public service. He was
Speaker 1: a Supreme Court justice as well, and as senator. This
Speaker 1: guy went through the ranks. Um. He's also known for
Speaker 1: being stuck in a bathtub, which is those are just
Speaker 1: like two big things. So it's a it's a one
Speaker 1: and a two. Be there's no one. It's a one
Speaker 1: to be. Let's be honest about Taft. The one is
Speaker 1: he got stuck in the bath The two be so okay,
Speaker 1: So it's nine. And Taft is supposed to meet with
Speaker 1: the president in Mexico at the time, a guy named
Speaker 1: poor Feario Dias. This is going to be the first
Speaker 1: ever meeting of this sort between Mexico and the US.
Speaker 1: And additionally, it's gonna be the first time a US
Speaker 1: president has entered the has crossed the US Mexican border
Speaker 1: as it stands at that time. And in the in
Speaker 1: this article, we found by Audrey w U five infamous
Speaker 1: presidential assassinations and attempts. The news of the meeting led
Speaker 1: to a bunch of assassination threats against both the Mexican
Speaker 1: and the US president, such that multiple armed force groups,
Speaker 1: multiple intelligence groups on both sides of the border were
Speaker 1: all enlisted to try to provide security. October six, nine,
Speaker 1: day of the summit, there's a Texas ranger walking around.
Speaker 1: He gets worried that there's somebody out there with a pistol.
Speaker 1: The guys he's well, he was walking for sure, so
Speaker 1: maybe they're related and was grandfather or something great grandfather? Yes, yes, uh, okay,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta bring that one back later in
Speaker 1: a later episode. So okay, it's kind of all right.
Speaker 1: This guy Texas ranger walking not walker, is looking around
Speaker 1: because he hears that there is an individual in the
Speaker 1: crowd at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce standing armed
Speaker 1: along the route that the US and Mexican presidents are
Speaker 1: going to take justice Taft and Diaz are passing. The
Speaker 1: ranger finds the man, disarms him and restrains him. So
Speaker 1: this doesn't feel as climactic maybe as the Lawrence Jackson
Speaker 1: assassination attempt, because the firearm never like, it never got
Speaker 1: to the point necessarily of even those presidents being aware
Speaker 1: that their lives were at risk. And you have to
Speaker 1: ask yourself, Um, I asked myself this all the time.
Speaker 1: How would history have changed if water both of those
Speaker 1: men were assassinated. It's an impossible question to answer, but
Speaker 1: it is a fascinating one because if Half died that day,
Speaker 1: then all of the other influence he had on us
Speaker 1: government would have never come to pass. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: has said it's an impossible question to answer completely, so
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna really try to answer it, but it
Speaker 1: People don't think of Taft as influential as he really was.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was known like because you know, Teddy
Speaker 1: result was known for burking out the trust, but in
Speaker 1: four years, Half broke up more trust than him. And
Speaker 1: as he said, he was the chief Justice of the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court for nine years. This guy is very influential,
Speaker 1: very important. We would probably know more about him if
Speaker 1: he had a second term. And that's where we get
Speaker 1: back to Teddy Roosevelt and his assassination attempt. M hm. So,
Speaker 1: for for those who don't know this, Teddy Roosevelt was president,
Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt decided he wanted to go hunt lions in Africa.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's actually what he told people who
Speaker 1: was going to go to and so then he was like,
Speaker 1: you guys should vote for Taft. Tafts was pretty good,
Speaker 1: but then Teddy Roosevelt came back and said, I want
Speaker 1: to be president again, and they were like, we like Taft.
Speaker 1: So Terry Roosevelt was like, well, they obviously like me better.
Speaker 1: So he made his own party called the Bull Moose Party,
Speaker 1: and he ran against Taft in nineteen twelve. Oddly enough,
Speaker 1: this is how we got Woodrow Wilson, who was not
Speaker 1: a favorite. He was not considered really in competition, but
Speaker 1: because they split the vote, he got the election. But
Speaker 1: let's go to a date October fourteenth, nineteen twelve. Eddy
Speaker 1: Roosevelts getting up on a stage to give a speech.
Speaker 1: He's got this big, fifty page main script. He was
Speaker 1: known for, like Jackson, talking a lot and being very loud,
Speaker 1: and maybe not as angry and racist as Jackson, but
Speaker 1: he was known for being a very passionate speaker. But
Speaker 1: there was a gentleman in the crowd by the name
Speaker 1: of John Schrank. Mm hmm. I said that one, right, Shank,
Speaker 1: It's like a dollar store Shrek. Let's go with it.
Speaker 1: So Johnny Johnny asked, we'll call him. I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: him that he has come under the impression that I
Speaker 1: guess his favorite president, William McKinley, was secretly murdered. Remember
Speaker 1: we mentioned he was one of four presidents ssassinated by
Speaker 1: no other than Teddy Roosevelt, So Teddy Roosevelt could have
Speaker 1: sent to the role of presidency. Remember this was in
Speaker 1: one so eleven years passed by this point. But Johnny
Speaker 1: s is just waiting in there in the crowd. Roosevelt
Speaker 1: gives up there to give a speech, and he pulls
Speaker 1: out a cult revolver, a big gun, and shoots it
Speaker 1: and hits Teddy Roosevelt right in the chest. And then
Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt turns his head and looks at Johnny ass
Speaker 1: and says, don't hurt him to the crowd, what you
Speaker 1: do that for? Remember this guy who just got shot
Speaker 1: is there and he's like, what did you do that for?
Speaker 1: And Johnnys is just son. He's like huh, and then
Speaker 1: you just say. He says nothing. He's apprehended the dragon away.
Speaker 1: And then Roosevelt, being the absolute badasset he is, turns
Speaker 1: his head and he says, friends, I shall ask you
Speaker 1: to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether
Speaker 1: you fully understand it that I had just been shot,
Speaker 1: but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose,
Speaker 1: and you have buns his shirt and shows all the blood.
Speaker 1: So it turns out that he has manuscraped his glass.
Speaker 1: He had all this stuff in his breast pocket and
Speaker 1: that's where the bullet did it hit. So he still
Speaker 1: got hurt. The bullet still went through, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: as you know, deadly as you would think. So, you know,
Speaker 1: people like his aids and stuff like, okay, Mr President,
Speaker 1: we have to get the hospital. You gotta go and
Speaker 1: h No, I am, I'm here to give a speech.
Speaker 1: I'm giving my speech. Come on, come on, He said,
Speaker 1: I'll give a short one. How about that, guys, I'll
Speaker 1: give a short one. Okay. He goes on for ninety
Speaker 1: minutes because he's Teddy Roosevelt, and then he eventually leaves,
Speaker 1: goes to the doctor and what's funny enough, as they're like, well,
Speaker 1: let's just leave the bullet in there. So similar to Jackson,
Speaker 1: he just lived the rest of his life with a
Speaker 1: bullet in his chest. Did not win re election, by
Speaker 1: the way. No and Shrink ended up being found guilty
Speaker 1: of the attempt, but like Lawrence before him, he was
Speaker 1: sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an asylum.
Speaker 1: In his case, he was in the state of Wisconsin. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's strange Teddy Roosevelt goes on to live until right.
Speaker 1: I think we could we could put both of those
Speaker 1: stories in our official list of underrated assassination attempts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: most definitely. I mean there were real attempts that was
Speaker 1: both of them got fair. I mean Teddy literally got shot,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I guess we don't really know from
Speaker 1: the story who the assassin at the Taft assassination was
Speaker 1: going forward to going for tap through the Mexican president.
Speaker 1: But where was he going for both? I mean, unfortunately
Speaker 1: a lot of these stories there are multiple people wounded
Speaker 1: and killed, so, um, we don't know. But it's like
Speaker 1: these were both very very close to really changing the
Speaker 1: whole thing of history. And Ben, I'm gonna set you
Speaker 1: up for one more. I don't know if it's I
Speaker 1: would really call it an assassination attempt, but it was
Speaker 1: an assault on a sitting president. And I know talking
Speaker 1: to you off off, Mike offline, Uh, this is a
Speaker 1: personal favorite of years. So I'm just gonna let you
Speaker 1: take this one away. Oh man. Yeah, let's double dragon
Speaker 1: this one first, Uh, Max, can we can we play
Speaker 1: the clip? We'll play this for you, ridiculous history and
Speaker 1: see if you can guess what this is about. All right, well,
Speaker 1: ding ding d prize to everybody who heard that and
Speaker 1: just recalled one of the Uh. I always say hilarious,
Speaker 1: but of fascinating. It was pretty hilarious, dude. This video
Speaker 1: on the rag, Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: gone viral. Uh So it's December four. For six years,
Speaker 1: the US has been searching for weapons of mass destruction
Speaker 1: and Iraq and they're just not finding any. Then President
Speaker 1: George W. Bush visits the country before he plans to
Speaker 1: leave office, and he is there with the Prime Minister
Speaker 1: of Iraq at the time, Nori alb Meliki. Uh and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a news conference in Baghdad, and Bush says,
Speaker 1: Bush is trying to tell this crowd of people, Hey,
Speaker 1: this conflict went on longer than people wanted. You know,
Speaker 1: nobody loves a war, but this has been necessary for
Speaker 1: quote world peace. And that's where we meet our hero
Speaker 1: of the pranks today. Yes, that hero is Muntadar Alzaiety.
Speaker 1: Apologies once again for my pronunciations there. So he is
Speaker 1: a twenty eight year old journalists working for the Egyptian
Speaker 1: based television service called Al back Dotti, and he stood
Speaker 1: up and he has something he wanted to say to Mr. Bush.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just with his words. It was with
Speaker 1: this I don't know it. Would you call them his actions? Yes? Yes,
Speaker 1: So he takes off a shoe and he starts to scream,
Speaker 1: this is a gift from the iraqis this is a farewell,
Speaker 1: kiss you. Dog shouts in in Arabic, and he flings
Speaker 1: his shoe at the president who Matrix dodges it. Matrix
Speaker 1: dodges it, and I will say it w had some
Speaker 1: moves man, very quickly. This one's going straight for his head. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not the same to be said for the second shoe.
Speaker 1: So Alzaieti reaches for his other shoe, because you know,
Speaker 1: we worked two shoes, and he throws it while screaming
Speaker 1: this is for the widows, the orphans and those who
Speaker 1: were killed in Iraq. Yeah and uh, these are serious things.
Speaker 1: And this journalist, who is overcome with the with the
Speaker 1: horrors of war, has chosen not to use a firearm.
Speaker 1: I would say this means that it counts much less
Speaker 1: as an attack and much more as a protest. Right,
Speaker 1: it is a protest. You also have to know that
Speaker 1: there's a reason he's throwing shoes and not tomatoes or something.
Speaker 1: Shoes in in this part of the world can be
Speaker 1: used as great instruments of insults because the implication is
Speaker 1: that you are lower than dirt. You are beneath my feet,
Speaker 1: You are beneath the feet of this country. You monster,
Speaker 1: is basically what this journalists the same. But if you
Speaker 1: look at the video that we just played a clip from,
Speaker 1: you'll see that the four or U S President is
Speaker 1: kind of smirking after he does that first first dodge,
Speaker 1: which is objectively is a good dodge, and then he
Speaker 1: kind of tells secure secret security to stand down. Weird
Speaker 1: story in case anybody's wondering what happened to the shoe, Well,
Speaker 1: the shoes were you would naturally expect them to be
Speaker 1: booby trapped somehow, but they were not packed with explosives,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. They were regular shoes. They were this
Speaker 1: guy's shoes. He took off his shoes and threw him, uh,
Speaker 1: threw him as a protest the shoes. I heard Max
Speaker 1: that the shoes themselves after they were revealed to be
Speaker 1: just regular regular shoes. Uh, they were actually destroyed with prejudice,
Speaker 1: like exploded. Oh yeah, I mean I feel like that's
Speaker 1: if you send the president anything that he doesn't want
Speaker 1: or they think might be dangerous, I feel they just
Speaker 1: blow it up. Do you agree with that, like assessment
Speaker 1: therapet I feel like it's within your abilities and privileges
Speaker 1: as comman under in chief executive privilege there. Yeah, you could.
Speaker 1: You could just say I don't like it, blow this up, Like,
Speaker 1: but sir, it's a it's a from your child, right, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: it's a watercolor painting from the son of the ambassador.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, well I get a picture of me
Speaker 1: holding it and then blow it up, and then blow
Speaker 1: it up. It's gonna cost me nightmares. Get this out
Speaker 1: of my office. Well it's just gonna be the background
Speaker 1: of all these photos and it's just gonna it's really
Speaker 1: that's all anyone's gonna talk about it clashes, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be the watercolor president. Uh like
Speaker 1: L O L. We don't know if that actually happens,
Speaker 1: but we hope you enjoyed this. Look at failed assassination attempts,
Speaker 1: and we hope it prompts all of us to think
Speaker 1: about how history could have played out differently if any
Speaker 1: of these attempts had been successful. I want to begin
Speaker 1: the ended of our show by thanking, of course one
Speaker 1: and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. Let's also thank
Speaker 1: our special guest, Max Williams. We soak it up, man,
Speaker 1: I'm so, but let's not forget to uh thank the
Speaker 1: researcher of this article, Mr Max Williams. Yes, yes, also
Speaker 1: our research associate. Uh. And now we're done. But it's
Speaker 1: also special thanks to our amazing great research associates Jeff
Speaker 1: Bartlett and Zach Williams. They're amazing. They're the true m
Speaker 1: v p s of the show. Yeah. Gabe Bluesier also
Speaker 1: now hosting this Day in History class. I want to thank,
Speaker 1: of course, Jonathan Strickland, a K the quizt Or, Chris
Speaker 1: rossiotis Eve's Jeff co One. Thank Anna who came on
Speaker 1: recently as well. I also want to say I know
Speaker 1: where he said it, but Max, this is a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, man, and you know that. Nolan. I always
Speaker 1: love it when when you are able to come on
Speaker 1: air with us. Even just a little bit. Uh So,
Speaker 1: I hope that all of our fellow ridiculous historians out there,
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed max On as much as I did.
Speaker 1: Everybody tune in. We've got some more special guests on
Speaker 1: the way. We're going to explore some strange stories about marathons,
Speaker 1: fast food, those spoilers. Other than that, meantime, the last
Speaker 1: and most important thanks that I want to give, at
Speaker 1: least max is to our good friends write or die.
Speaker 1: Mr Noel Brown. Noel, hope it did you proud. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna end the episode the way that you always do.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.