A Busy Day for President Ford
Gerald Ford entered the White House under some of the most unusual circumstances in the history of the nation. After President Richard Nixon’s vice-president, Spiro Agnew, resigned, House Minority Leader Ford was nominated to take his place. Little did he know that he’d soon be assuming the presidency as well. With so many tasks before him, large and small, here’s a look back at one day 50 years ago where the new president had to fill some jobs, including his old one.
On August 1, 1974, Ford received some startling information from President Nixon’s chief of staff, Alexander Haig. Haig let Ford know that a damning recording related to the Watergate scandal would soon become public. It was apparent that the only two courses of action within the government were going to be an impeachment or a resignation, and either way, Ford should be ready to ascend to the presidency under the 25th Amendment. The tape went public on August 5; Nixon gave a televised speech to the nation on August 8 in which he announced his resignation, effective the next day. Ford assumed the presidency on August 9; he was sworn in with the oath of office in the East Room of the White House with Chief Justice Warren Burger presiding.
The situation was already rife with historic import. Ford was president, but hadn’t been elected to either the vice presidency or the presidency. That was the first (and thus far only) time that’s happened in the history of the United States. However, it was a brilliant demonstration of the system actually working. The 25th Amendment had codified how presidential and vice presidential replacements worked, and it was followed to the letter without unrest. Ford, ironically, by not being elected, became one of the best examples that democracy worked.
As the new guy in the big chair, Ford had to set about a number of important pieces of business. The major question, of course, was: Who would be his vice-president? Within the Republican party, there was a clear consensus. The majority wanted George H.W. Bush. A decorated pilot, a former member of the House of Representatives, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Bush had more bona fides that just about anyone else. However, there was also support for former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller had also served in the administrations of FDR and Dwight Eisenhower and campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination on three occasions. If you look at Rockefeller’s list of positions, particularly on the environment, he’d probably be considered left-leaning by the standards of today.
On August 20, 1974, Ford opted to nominate Rockefeller for the vice presidency and offered Bush a role as chief of the U.S. liaison office in the People’s Republic of China. That essentially made Bush the U.S. ambassador to China (formal ambassadorship would resume in 1979). Bush accepted, and would later serve as Ford’s director of the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1976. Rockefeller’s nomination to the vice presidency was approved and confirmed by Congress, and he assumed the role on December 19.
The other significant move that Ford made on August 20, 1974, was an ambassadorial appointment. It became a subject of national interest because the appointee had been perhaps the most famous child star in American history. For the post of ambassador to Ghana, Ford nominated Shirley Temple Black. Known for her prodigious film and television career that began when she signed her first deal at age 4 in 1932, Shirley Temple sang, danced, and acted her way through shorts, films, and radio until her formal film retirement in 1950. That was the same year she married her second husband, businessman Charles Alden Black. She continued to work in TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Later in the 1960s, Shirley Temple Black got active in California politics, running unsuccessfully for Congress in 1967. President Nixon appointed her as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly in 1969. She had already impressed the administration, including Henry Kissinger, with her knowledge of West Africa. For Ford, it was an easy choice, even if some Americans had a hard time squaring the image of the curly-haired girl with the sharply intelligent diplomat she’d become.
As it turned out, Ford’s appointments, and presidency overall, didn’t last that long. He was defeated in the 1976 election by Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. However, his legacy remained as a person who was instrumental in maintaining the balance of power in the United States in a time of great turmoil. And while Bush may not have made it to the second-highest office in the land in 1974, he would get there in 1980 (as running mate to Ronald Reagan) before winning the presidency himself in 1988. Sometimes even busy historical days are also just history deferred.
How to Become President without Being Elected
The early 1970s were some of the most tumultuous years in U.S. presidential politics. After the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in October 1973, Speaker of the House Gerald Ford ascended to the role of vice president. When President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974, Ford was sworn in as president. This is part of a chain of firsts; Ford is the only president to have not been elected to the position of president, or even vice president. He’s also the first person to become vice president after the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which provides for the filling of such a vacancy. As Ford’s vice presidency bid was confirmed by the Senate 45 years ago today, it’s the perfect time to look at both the circumstances surrounding this complicated switch, and what the 25th Amendment provides in the way of a mechanism to replace both the vice president and the president.
The 25th Amendment was one of the two most recent additions to the Constitution at the time of the Agnew resignation. (The 26th Amendment, which fixed the voting age at 18, was ratified in 1971.) The 25th Amendment was submitted to the states in 1965 and ratified in 1967. It’s a four-section document with fairly direct language. Section 1 is one simple sentence: “In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.” Likewise, Section 2 is equally simple: “Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.”
The remainder of the amendment requires a little more explanation. Section 3 provides for the vice president to step in as acting president if the president submits a written declaration to the “President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives” that states that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The president would have to notify the same parties when able to take those responsibilities back. This portion has been invoked three times: in 1985, 2002, and 2007. In all three instances, the president (Ronald Reagan in 1985; George W. Bush in the other two cases) underwent a colonoscopy and transferred power for a matter of hours. It might also sound familiar if you’re a fan of The West Wing; the issue came into play during the story arc involving the kidnapping of Zoey Bartlet (though power went to the speaker of the house as the vice president had resigned). If you’re wondering about what happened when Reagan was shot in 1981, that’s covered by Section 4.
Section 4 holds a lot of potential for conflict, but it’s also a safety valve of sorts. The vice president, with a plurality of the cabinet and/or Congress, may declare to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives that president is unfit, allowing the vice president to become acting president. The second paragraph covers what would happen if the president disagrees; at that point, a two-thirds vote of Congress would be necessary to keep the vice president installed as acting president. When Reagan was shot, he was obviously not in a position to invoke Section 3. Vice President George H.W. Bush was on a flight at the time of the shooting, and not able to invoke Section 4. President Reagan was out of surgery by the time that the plane landed; therefore, no invocation of Section 4 occurred.
However, that doesn’t mean that other discussions of Section 4 haven’t taken place. Reagan’s third chief of staff, Howard Baker, had been approached by worried staff members regarding Regan’s competence after Baker became chief of staff in 1987. President Reagan’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease was not publicly disclosed until 1994, five years after he left office, and there’s no hard public evidence that he was dealing with the disease while president. Critics of Donald Trump have also called for invoking the 25th Amendment, with a number of outlets also reporting on talks among his staff or offering speculation on the topic when the president says something outrageous (which is, admittedly, common).
Spiro Agnew resigns.
But back in 1973, the use of the amendment wasn’t a tool for partisan threats or West Wing handwringing; it was a rulebook for averting a Constitutional crisis. Agnew resigned after being investigated for tax fraud and corruption. On October 9 of that year, Agnew informed Nixon of this plans to resign; the following day, he pled no contest on a charge of tax evasion and submitted his formal letter of resignation. Nixon invoked Section 2 and nominated Ford for vice president on October 12. The Senate voted for confirmation on November 27, with the House of Representatives following suit on December 6, 1973; Ford was sworn in just one hour later. The great irony, of course, is that Nixon would resign after the Watergate scandal in 1974, leading to Ford’s ascension to office. Ford lost the 1976 presidential race to Jimmy Carter and would become the only U.S. president and vice president to serve without being elected as such.
Gerald Ford sworn in as vice president.
Regardless of where the winds of political and historical fate send the presidency today, these situations underscore what a durable instrument that the United State Constitution is. Benjamin Franklin, who holds the distinction of having signed the Declaration of Independence, the 1781 Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution, urged his fellows in the Constitutional Convention to sign the document; as transcribed by James Madison, Franklin said, “I hope therefore that for our own Sakes, as a Part of the People, and for the sake of our Posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future Thoughts and Endeavours to the Means of having it well administered.“ Franklin would no doubt be encouraged that it’s worked pretty well so far.