#312 America's Worst Vice President w/ Niki Hemmer
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 629 Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 2024 Presidential election is in full swing and so is the parade of personal attacks, appeals to emotion and (most important for us) grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about history. And of the many statements that fall in that last category, one stands out as both exceptionally ridiculous and a perfect setup to connect today's politics to the past: Donald Trump's claim that Kamala Harris is "considered the worst Vice President in history."
Much like Trump himself, who followed by saying "I don't know who the hell did that, if they do polls…" we couldn't find any valid ranking of all 49 Vice Presidents, let alone one that ranked Harris in last place. So we decided to take the issue on ourselves and ask you to help us elect the candidate that you think deserves the title of "America's Worst Vice President."
To help you make your choice, Vanderbilt historian and This Day in Esoteric Political History co-host Nicole Hemmer joins Ben to explain the power and responsibilities allocated to the Vice President under the Constitution, the history of the office itself, and the changes brought about by the 12th and 25th Amendments. Most importantly, however, Ben and Niki make their pitches for who they think is the worst Vice President and reach consensus on the VPs who should be in the Final Four. The rest is up to you- you just have to vote:
Click here to vote in the Final Four (Voting Closes Sunday, Sept 1st at 3pm edt)*
*We're using the polling function on our Patreon page, but you do not need to be a patron to vote in this poll- it just makes it easier for us to centralize the votes in one place!
The Finals will open at 8pm on Monday, Sept 2nd and run until Sunday, Sept 8th. Click here to follow us on socials for links to vote when they become available.
This episode was recorded in the podcast studio at Vanderbilt University's Curb Center. A special thanks to the Curb Center's David Wilson and Gina Yu for their help in arranging this recording.
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the Road to Now. |
| 0:09.4 | A very special road to now, actually, because, guys, the 2024 presidential election is in full swing. |
| 0:15.0 | And so is the parade of personal attacks, appeals to emotion, and most important for us, |
| 0:20.3 | grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about American history. |
| 0:23.6 | And we don't have time to take on all of those, but sometimes there's a very special one that comes out. |
| 0:28.6 | And this one right here couldn't help but notice it and decide we had to take it on. |
| 0:34.8 | From Donald Trump's recent attack on Kamala Harris, here we go. |
| 0:38.3 | She's considered to be the worst vice president in history. Now, I'm sure some of you guys |
| 0:44.3 | thinking, here goes the Trump Hayden. But actually, on this one, there's some parts of what Trump |
| 0:49.4 | said that we totally agree upon. So let's listen to a longer version of that quote. |
| 0:52.8 | She's considered to be the |
| 0:54.4 | worst vice president in history. I don't know who the hell did that. If they do polls and they do |
| 1:00.0 | studies, she's considered to be the worst vice president in history. So you see, we don't know who |
| 1:05.5 | the hell did that either. And honestly, I couldn't think of anybody who would be qualified to do that. |
| 1:10.4 | A brief investigation |
| 1:11.3 | into existing polls, ranking all 49 vice presidents, came up with not much. There's some |
| 1:16.0 | recent ones. So today, we're taking it on. Who is America's worst vice president? We're going |
| 1:22.3 | to find out, and we've brought in a ringer. Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt University. She's |
| 1:27.3 | the director of the Carolyn T. |
| 1:28.6 | And Robert and Rogers Center for the American Presidency. |
| 1:31.4 | They don't have a center for the American vice presidency, nor is anywhere else I can find. |
| 1:36.0 | She's also co-host of this day in esoteric political history and mind-bogglingly smart and delightful to talk to. |
... |
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