The Entanglements of the Mega Rich: Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller | The Oval Office
Whistlestop: Presidential History and Trivia
Slate Podcasts
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2017
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Host John Dickerson visits January 11, 2017 and also the campaign of Gerald R. Ford and Nelson Rockefeller. With it came along concerns of economic entanglements that a rich family might not be able to untangle.
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Whistlestop is Slate’s podcast about presidential history. Hosted by political correspondent and Political Gabfest panelist John Dickerson, each installment revisits memorable (or even forgotten) moments from America's presidential carnival.
Podcast production and edit by Jocelyn Frank. Research by Brian Rosenwald.
Email: whistlestop@slate.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, formerly a podcast of presidential campaign curiosities, now a curious podcast about the presidency. |
| 0:08.8 | I'm John Dickerson of Face the Nation. |
| 0:12.9 | What happens when a fabulously wealthy sion of a wealthy family comes to Washington with a rich man's portfolio. Fort polio. That's not to be |
| 0:24.8 | confused with portfolio. Full of switchbacks and puzzlers and confusing private dealings. |
| 0:29.9 | A fellow who has family wealth entanglements also. One of two things happens. Either the politician |
| 0:36.7 | is given a thorough teeth cleaning by lawmakers |
| 0:39.2 | in Congress and responds with a full hangout, providing all the information in minute detail, |
| 0:45.9 | tax returns, financial details, going back dozens of years, and is then allowed to serve after |
| 0:53.0 | putting all of that forward, or the good citizens' |
| 0:55.6 | private affairs are met with very little interest. No scrutiny and everyone goes back to that |
| 1:00.4 | novel they were enjoying. No big deal at all. One of these things happened to Nelson Rockefeller |
| 1:06.5 | when he was named Ford's vice president in 1974. According to Sherry Dylan, it was the latter. |
| 1:12.7 | No one much cared about Nelson Rockefeller's finances when he became vice president. It was a big |
| 1:18.0 | yawner. But Sherry Dylan is wrong. Who's Sherry Dylan and why does it matter? Our whistle stop |
| 1:23.8 | today is January 11, 2017 and Donald Trump, the current president, President |
| 1:29.0 | Donald Trump, then President-elect Trump, is announcing his plans to disconnect himself from his |
| 1:34.1 | vast Trump holdings. He doesn't have to do anything, the President-elect tells the audience, |
| 1:40.4 | because he's going to be the president, and the president doesn't have any conflict of interest |
| 1:43.7 | rules. But he's going to go above and beyond, anyway, and he's going to be the president and the president doesn't have any conflict of interest rules, but he's going to go above and beyond anyway, and he's going to announce a new set |
| 1:48.8 | of rules disconnecting himself from his companies. To explain what's going on, he calls forward his |
| 1:54.4 | lawyer, Sherry Dillon, who opens her remarks with this historical point. As you know, the business |
| 2:00.5 | empire built by President |
... |
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