When a President Drops Out: What Biden Can Learn from 1968 (From the Honestly Archives)

Summary

Breaking History: When a President Drops Out – What Biden Can Learn from 1968

Release Date: January 14, 2025
Host: The Free Press - Eli Lake

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Introduction: Drawing Parallels Between Past and Present

In the episode titled "When a President Drops Out: What Biden Can Learn from 1968", Eli Lake delves deep into the tumultuous year of 1968, focusing on President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) and the seismic political and social upheavals of the time. The episode meticulously parallels these historical events with the contemporary political landscape, particularly President Joe Biden’s current challenges.

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1. The Turbulent Landscape of 1968

The year 1968 was marked by intense social strife, escalating the Vietnam War, and significant civil rights movements. Eli Lake sets the stage by contrasting the "Summer of Love"—a period symbolizing peace and counterculture—with the harsh realities of ongoing violence and war.

Notable Quote:
"America's prevailing emotion was not love at all." [05:42]

Vietnam War Escalation:
The war intensified, with significant casualties reported within weeks. Drafts were enforced, and the American public grew increasingly disillusioned, recognizing the conflict as a lost cause. This growing disenchantment set the stage for political dissent.

Racial Tensions:
Despite legislative victories like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, racial tensions remained high. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, further inflamed tensions, leading to widespread riots and a sense of despair among marginalized communities.

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2. LBJ’s Political Struggles and the Decision to Step Down

LBJ, despite his significant achievements in civil rights and poverty alleviation, found his presidency undermined by the Vietnam War. The mounting pressure from anti-war factions and declining public support forced him to make a pivotal decision.

Notable Quote:
"A lot of young women are being raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters..." [00:45]

Polls and Public Perception:
A CBS poll revealed that 72% of registered voters doubted Johnson's cognitive ability to continue as president following a poor debate performance. This loss of confidence mirrored earlier doubts cast on Donald Trump during his presidency.

The Turning Point:
On March 31, 1968, LBJ announced he would not seek re-election, a move aimed at preserving national unity. This decision was met with mixed reactions, but it ultimately failed to stem the chaos engulfing the nation.

Notable Quote:
"I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office..." [14:26]

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3. The Democratic Convention Chaos

The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago became a symbol of the party's internal disarray and the nation's unrest. The convention was marred by violent clashes between protesters and police, leading to widespread media coverage and national disillusionment.

Protests and Police Brutality:
Anti-war activists, students, and radicals converged in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War and demand political change. These demonstrations often turned violent, with significant injuries and arrests.

Notable Quote:
"Please stop." [30:09]
This recurring plea highlights the chaos and desperation during the confrontations.

Media and Public Perception:
Graphic footage of police brutality broadcasted across the nation painted a grim picture of the Democratic Party's inability to maintain order, severely damaging candidate Hubert Humphrey’s campaign.

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4. The Aftermath and Nixon’s Rise

The chaotic conventions and the inability of the Democratic Party to present a unified front paved the way for Richard Milhouse Nixon's emergence as a formidable candidate. Nixon capitalized on the public's desire for "law and order," contrasting sharply with the perceived disorder within the Democrats.

Election Outcome:
Despite LBJ's significant legislative accomplishments, his tarnished reputation from the Vietnam debacle led to Nixon's victory. The upheaval of 1968 left deep scars on American politics, setting the stage for future unrest and political cynicism.

Notable Quote:
"Despite LBJ's efforts to unify the country, the country did not appreciate his efforts and instead elected Richard Nixon, a man as hated by liberals then as Trump is now." [35:43]

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5. Parallels to Joe Biden’s Presidency

Eli Lake draws direct comparisons between LBJ’s 1968 predicament and President Joe Biden’s current challenges. Both presidents face immense pressure from multiple fronts and have been criticized for their handling of national crises.

Public Perception and Criticism:
Like LBJ, Biden is grappling with declining public support amidst ongoing issues. The historical context suggests that holding onto power in the face of overwhelming opposition may lead to a similar legacy of controversy and diminished effectiveness.

Notable Quote:
"Biden and his team now say there are no plans to step down. He is asking the American people to overlook the evidence of his decline that's right in front of their nose." [35:43]

Potential Legacy:
The episode posits that Biden’s refusal to step aside, despite evident challenges, may mirror LBJ’s miscalculations, potentially leading to a tarnished legacy and further political division.

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Conclusion: Learning from History

Eli Lake emphasizes the critical lesson that failing to heed historical precedents can lead to detrimental outcomes. By examining LBJ’s experiences, Biden and contemporary leaders can navigate current political turmoil more effectively.

Final Reflection:
"We will learn in November if Biden's lie about his own capabilities. We'll doom his legacy and elect his nemesis." [35:43]

This episode serves as a poignant reminder of the cyclical nature of history and the importance of leadership decisions during times of crisis. By resisting the repetition of past mistakes, current and future leaders can aspire to create more stable and unified governance.

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Thank you for exploring this rich and insightful episode of "Breaking History" with The Free Press. By mining the depths of the past, we gain clarity on the present and guidance for the future.

Transcript

[Analyst]

Everybody, these are violent criminals, so they're not gonna go down easy.

[Eli Lake]

ABC Tuesdays cops. Let's get this done.

[Historical Narrator]

The rookie is back.

[Eli Lake]

We have two new rookies starting today.

[Historical Narrator]

Howdy.

[Analyst]

Being a cop is stressful.

[Eli Lake]

24, 7.

[Analyst]

Every year on the job is different.

[Eli Lake]

And training day, we have a serial killer at large. Never ends.

[Analyst]

We need an ambulance.

[Eli Lake]

The rookie. All new Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu.

[Activist]

Look, there's so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered and he went to the funeral.

[Eli Lake]

On our nation's 248th birthday, Joe Biden faces the wrath of 1,000 pundits.

[Analyst]

A lot of young women are being raped by their in laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by.

[Eli Lake]

It's just ridiculous.

[Activist]

And they can do nothing about it.

[Eli Lake]

And they try to arrest him when.

[Analyst]

They cross state lines.

[Activist]

Thank you.

[Eli Lake]

The whole world watched the elected leader of the world's oldest republic befogged, slack jawed and mentally vacant in a debate he had to win. A recent poll from CBS showed that after Biden's performance last week, 72% of registered voters believed the man lacked the cognitive ability to be president. Even his closest friends and sycophants.

[Analyst]

I think we have to ask the same questions of him that we have asked of Donald Trump since 2016. And that is, if he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him.

[Eli Lake]

On as CEO, are pleading for the old man to hang it up. The New York Times editorial board, former advisors to Barack Obama, even Biden's personal friend and columnist Tom Friedman said he wept in a hotel room in Portugal while watching the debate. They've seen enough time to step aside and yet Biden's White House is shrugging it off.

[Analyst]

So I'm not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I've been watching the last three and a half years of performance.

[Eli Lake]

It was just a debate, they tell.

[Activist]

Us, with the COVID excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if we finally beat Medicare.

[Analyst]

Thank you, President, President Trump.

[Eli Lake]

But it was not just a debate. It was indelible and undeniable proof that the leader of the free world lacks the stamina and acuity, do the job for four more months, let alone four more years. Despite the White House spin, the noise from the sidelines is clear. Joe Biden, for the good of your country, stepped down. But as Biden weighs that decision, he may well think Back to when he was a young man and the American President was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson found himself in a similar position. Johnson was losing support from the country and in the middle of the primary, he decided to shock the world and bow out.

[Analyst]

I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office, the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not see and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

[Eli Lake]

From the Free Press, this is honestly. I'm Eli Lake. And today I'm going to bring you a special episode about what happened in 1968 when President Johnson decided he was not fit for the job of reapplying for his job. He listened to critics and backed away from the White House, allowing the Democrats the opportunity to stage an open convention to choose their next candidate. So why did Johnson bow out and how did this seismic decision work out? It's a tale of murder, war and riots that culminated in the most explosive convention in the history of America. We'll be right back. The summer of 1967 was the summer of love. An iconic moment you could say in American history. All you need is love by the Beatles was its anthem. Long haired hippies were turning on, tuning in and dropping out. They were pea snicks, but they weren't going to physically fight for it. The hippies would never throw Molotovs at the man. Instead they were taking acid, enjoying free love and placing flowers in the rifles of National Guardsmen. But this was false advertising.

[Analyst]

The new communist campaign in Vietnam continues. Just after midnight their time, a band of Viet Cong raiders blew up a power installation and attacked two police stations inside. Other small bands still roam the city. The Viet Cong are reported to be.

[Eli Lake]

America's prevailing emotion was not love at all.

[Analyst]

232 GIs killed and 900 wounded makes one of the heaviest weeks of the Vietnam War. And it is not a week, it is just over two days. The past two days.

[Eli Lake]

At the time, the war in Vietnam was getting bloodier and America's young were being drafted against their will to fly out and fight. Despite landmark legislation that enshrined legal equality and voting rights for black Americans, racial tensions in the country were boiling. By October 1967, the summer of love had ended and a new violent season began when anti war groups organized a protest march on the Pentagon. And it got ugly.

[Analyst]

More than 50,000 persons took part and thousands of them marched on the Pentagon to protest the War.

[Eli Lake]

First there was the attempt by a gang of ambitious hippies to levitate the Pentagon. But when that didn't work, reality dawned. And with it came the military police. A massive fight broke out. 50 people were injured and nearly 700 arrested. It was this battle that set the template for 1968.

[Analyst]

We're living in the middle of a beast. Lyndon Johnson is a common murderer and he should be arrested for murder.

[Eli Lake]

This is Jerry Rubin, co founder of the Youth International party known as the Yippees.

[Activist]

I think the peace movement should have.

[Analyst]

The anger of a Vietnamese woman whose child was burned by napalm dropped by.

[Eli Lake]

American planes way up there in the sky.

[Analyst]

That's the anger the peace movement should reflect.

[Eli Lake]

Rubin may be speaking from the radical end of the spectrum, and he certainly was. But the anti war agenda was becoming mainstream. A little more than a month after the PENTAGON March, Eugene McCarthy, the Democratic senator from Minnesota, launched his campaign for the presidency against the leader of his own party and the current president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

[Analyst]

I'm concerned that the administration seems to.

[Historical Narrator]

Have set no limit to the price which it's willing to pay for a military victory.

[Eli Lake]

McCarthy was a one issue candidate. End the war in Vietnam.

[Analyst]

If you love your country, the things for which it stands.

[Eli Lake]

Culturally, McCarthy was a square. One of the requirements for campaign volunteers was to go clean for gene, meaning they had to shave their beards, cut their hair and dress like a Bible salesman. But McCarthy's followers were as angry as the radicals about the meat grinder in Vietnam. And the focus of that rage in beginning of 1968 was one man, McCarthy's opponent in the Democratic primary elections.

[Analyst]

LBJ, since I reported to you last January, three elections have been held in Vietnam. In the midst of war and under the constant threat of violence, a president, a vice president, a house, a Senate and village officials have been chosen by popular contested ballot.

[Eli Lake]

This is Lyndon Johnson speaking at his 1968 State of the Union address updating America on the war in Vietnam.

[Analyst]

The number of South Vietnamese living in areas under government protection tonight has grown by more than a million since January of last year. And these are all marks of progress.

[Eli Lake]

The problem here was that none of what he was saying was true. South Vietnam did not really have competitive politics. It had corrupt military rule. What's more, any battlefield success, well, it was coming at just an intolerable human cost. The war in Vietnam was fought with a huge conscripted American army. Most Americans knew someone, a brother, a dad, a son who was fighting over there and they knew Johnson was wrong. They knew that the war was a lost cause. Eugene McCarthy's run for president represented their.

[Analyst]

Voice, for it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.

[Eli Lake]

On February 27, 1968, even CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, the voice of middle America, could not see how America could win the war in Vietnam.

[Analyst]

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could.

[Eli Lake]

Two weeks after Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, made that statement on primetime evening news for nearly 30 million Americans came the first in the nation New Hampshire Democratic primaries. Democrats would be asked to vote on whether they agreed with Johnson, who insisted that the war was going well, or McCarthy, who said it was time to bring the war to a close. And so, on March 12, 1968, McCarthy staged a coup. Well, nearly. He didn't beat the sitting president, but he almost did, winning 42% of the vote to Johnson's 49. But the perception was that Johnson had suffered a major defeat.

[Analyst]

By any political measure, President Johnson has suffered a major psychological setback.

[Eli Lake]

In New Hampshire, most pollsters and analysts had predicted McCarthy would barely get 20% of the vote. But Johnson, probably the greatest political strategist of his generation, understood what had happened. He remarked in private to one of his aides, every son of a bitch in New Hampshire who's mad at his wife or the postman or anybody is going to vote for Gene McCarthy. He understood the mood of the country was boiling. It's hard to overstate how big this was. Johnson had been in power for five years, assuming office after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Johnson had shepherded in the Civil Rights act and the Voting Rights act into law. He had declared a war on poverty and had expanded the welfare state. By all rights, he should have been safe from the party's progressive flank. But his record in Vietnam was toxic. It was going to get worse for the president. Four days after the vote in New Hampshire, a far more formidable challenger entered the fray.

[Analyst]

I run for the presidency because I want the Democratic party and the United States of America to stand for hope.

[Eli Lake]

Robert F. Kennedy, instead of despair, for.

[Analyst]

Reconciliation of men, instead of the growing.

[Eli Lake]

Risk of world war, better known as Bobby, a true political beast, Eugene McCarthy's anti war position, well, it weakened LBJ, no doubt. But Bobby was a far more dangerous threat to Johnson's presidency. But not only was he the brother of a beloved, tragically slain president, but he was also the Attorney General and a senator in his own right. He was only 42 years old, young, and full of Kennedy charisma. This was also personal for lbj. Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson despised one another. When Lyndon Johnson was Vice President to John F. Kennedy, he was mercilessly teased and mocked behind his back. In the smart set which Bobby Kennedy was the leader of in the Kennedy years, Lyndon Johnson was called Rufus Corn Pone. He was mocked oftentimes behind his back when various aides to the Kennedys would use an exaggerated Southern accent to portray the Vice President as some kind of hayseed while Johnson seethed. And when John F. Kennedy was tragically slain, it was very tense, the relationship between the Attorney General and the new president until the two men came to an agreement. Bobby Kennedy would leave his post at the Justice Department and run for Senate in New York State. And LYNDON JOHNSON In 1964, during his own election campaign, would back him to the hilt. Even though LBJ hated Kennedy, he was a realist. He understood that he risked personal humiliation and a civil war inside the Democratic Party if he ran so exhausted and vexed by the war that had consumed him. On March 31, 1968, Lyndon Johnson shocked the world.

[Analyst]

I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties otherwise than the awesome duties of this office, the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

[Eli Lake]

Most of LBJ's political advisors oppose this decision. But one of his most trusted aides, speechwriter Horace Busby, along with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, quietly urged Johnson to take the plunge. This was a chance to secure his legacy. If Johnson could find a way towards peace with honor, a phrase that Johnson coined about Vietnam, then he would go down as one of the greats. But there were other factors as well. In 1955, LBJ had suffered a debilitating heart attack and became obsessed with his own mortality. He. He sincerely believed that he would be dead by the age of 60. His father, Samuel Early Johnson, died at that age. And it just so happened that Johnson's 60th birthday, Aug. 27, landed smack in the middle of the Democratic convention in Chicago. In his 1971 memoir, Vantage Point, Johnson wrote, I did not fear death so much as disability. Whenever I walked through the Red Room and saw a portrait of Woodrow Wilson hanging there, I thought of him Stretched out upstairs in the White House, powerless to move with the machinery of the American government in disarray around him. The immediate response to Johnson's decision not to seek re election was universally positive. The Washington Post editorial, for example, said that Johnson had, quote, made a personal sacrifice in the name of national unity that entitles him to a very special place in the annals of American history. Sound familiar? By bowing out, Johnson had hoped to calm the country. He would not be running for re election. Instead, he would be devoting his time and energies to ending the Vietnam War. And it seemed to work for a bit. A Harris poll conducted after his announcement found that Johnson now had a 57% approval rating compared to a 57% disapproval rating before the big speech. For four days after that speech, things went to plan. It looked like Johnson's presidency and the country were on the mend. But then came disaster.

[Analyst]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil rights leader and Nobel Prize winner, was shot and killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

[Eli Lake]

The killing of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, 6:05pm on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, threw the country into chaos. Most American cities erupted in riots.

[Analyst]

7Th street from the air looked like a row of snow smoking chimney pots. An isolated area of trouble. But even then the trouble was spreading. And Mayor Walter Washington clamped on a curfew while officials canceled the Cherry Blossom festival scheduled for this weekend. That was Washington by.

[Eli Lake]

It was a horrible moment. King was a national hero. He had managed to lead a movement that secured legal equality for black citizens and ended Jim Crow without firing a shot. But Dr. King, the preacher of nonviolent resistance, had been gunned down. A message. Perhaps that peaceful protest did not work. A radicalizing message that America heard loud and clear in 1968.

[Activist]

Compassion and mercy for what white people had done. When white America killed Dr. King last night, she declared war on us. There will be no crying. There will be no funerals. The rebellions that have been occurring around the cities of this country is just light stuff to what is about to happen. We have to retaliate for the death of our leaders. The execution of those deaths will not be so.

[Eli Lake]

This is activist Stokely Carmichael, a man who marched with Dr. King. And here he is blaming all of white America for Dr. Martin Luther King's death. Others called for calm. One of those voices was Bobby Kennedy.

[Analyst]

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart, the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

[Eli Lake]

Speaking at a campaign stop in Indianapolis, Kennedy broke the horrible news to the largely black audience. It was his finest hour. Before this, Bobby was largely known as an anti communist crusader and tormentor of unions. After this, he was a progressive icon. The Democratic primary campaign was at this point a three person race between Gene McCarthy, Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. The pundits were largely in agreement. Bobby Kennedy, it seemed, was the frontrunner. It seemed like he would be named the Democratic candidate for president. In 1968, a Kennedy would once again lead America. All eyes were now on the June 4 primary in California.

[Analyst]

California is Senator Kennedy's key state. He must win it big this June to become a presidential contender.

[Eli Lake]

Final days of campaigning. Bobby did a whirlwind tour of the state, campaigning in the major cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego to large and adoring crowds. On the evening of June 4th, as the California primary results came in, Bobby won a squeaker, besting McCarthy by four and a half points to win the state's delegates. He addressed his supporters shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. But just as he was leaving the hotel, shots were fired.

[Analyst]

Senator Kennedy has been shot. Is that possible? Is that possible? Ladies and gentlemen, it is possible he has not only Senator Kennedy.

[Historical Narrator]

Oh my God.

[Analyst]

Senator Kennedy has been shot. And another man.

[Eli Lake]

As we would soon come to learn, Bobby Kennedy had been shot three times by a 24 year old Palestinian Jordanian named Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later in the hospital. This was only two months after King was slain by an assassin and five years after Bobby's brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated by a lone gunman while riding in his motorcade. Rfk too was cut down in his prime. America was staring into the abyss. And this was the backdrop to the Democratic Convention of 1968 in Chicago. Assassinations, riots, political and student unrest. It wasn't going to be pretty. We'll be right back.

[Analyst]

Good evening from Chicago. The Democratic Convention begins in this International.

[Eli Lake]

Amphitheater in August 1968. The buses streaming into Chicago came from all over the country. There were of course, student protestors. There were anti war activists who were part of the National Mobilization Committee or the mobe. Intellectuals and artists also descended on Chicago. Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Terry Southard and Norman Mailer were all there. The Democratic VIPs were staying at the Conrad Hilton on Michigan Avenue. The mood was tense. The politicians had been warned that agitators were coming to incite violence. The radicals were told it would be a week long party. But the cops may be a problem. On Monday, August 26, the politicians and party hacks arrived at Chicago Amphitheater in the city's meatpacking district. Smelled of urine, feces and blood. The convention was supposed to have been hosted in the McCormick Convention center but it burned down the year before. An omen of sorts. Senator George McGovern from South Dakota was now a stand in for Bobby Kennedy. Eugene McCarthy had his delegates and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had not even campaigned in the primaries, was now the frontrunner. It's important here to note that the 68 convention was unlike conventions today, which are little more than political infomercials. Back then the stakes were real. By late August, the Democrats still hadn't chosen a nominee. They would be choosing one at the convention. The party was in such a mess that President Johnson seriously believed he was going to be asked to run again. Poetically, the convention fell on LBJ's birthday. He genuinely hoped that the Democrats would.

[Historical Narrator]

Call him to Chicago to try to.

[Activist]

Create a piece or maybe even offer.

[Eli Lake]

Him the nomination which he said he would turn down. This is Kyle Longley, the author of LBJ's 1968. He sits there on his birthday and realizes Democratic party wants nothing to do with him or the majority of the Democratic Party. He's not going to get the invitation.

[Historical Narrator]

He'S not going to walk in as the savior.

[Eli Lake]

And it is genuinely sad to watch the depths that he has sunk to by this point. Point the Democrats and the world had moved on from Lyndon Baines Johnson outside the new world announced its presence loudly.

[Activist]

The police, I guess on the Saturday or the Sunday before the demonstrations, the police cleared the park in a fairly casual, non threatening violent way. And some people were hit. But mostly it was the cops moving through the park. Some degree of damage was done to people who didn't want to leave.

[Eli Lake]

This is Lee Weiner, one of the organizers and a member of the infamous Chicago Seven who were prosecuted for inciting riots after the convention but were never actually convicted. I spoke to him about what he remembers when the fights began to break out outside the convention.

[Activist]

But that first night the cops stopped at the at the edge of the park. Nobody was followed onto the street. That wasn't true the second night. The second night when the police moved against folks, it was much more violent and they followed people out onto the street, beat the shit out of people. Cops were assaulting newspaper Photographers, newspaper reporters. It was exciting.

[Eli Lake]

After the first escalation from the cops, the radicals built a makeshift barricade of park benches and whatever they could find. It looked in some ways like the preparation for an unorganized field battle. Some young men showed up in fencing jackets, football helmets, hockey pads, ready for war with the cops. And then the cops screamed in. The kids threw bottles and rocks at the police. Here's how the Washington Post described the rivulets of running people came out of the woods, across the lawn area, the parking lots, toward Clark Street. Next, the cops burst out of the woods in selective pursuit of news photographers. Pictures are unanswerable. Evidence in court. They'd taken off their badges, their nameplates, even the unit patches on their shoulders to become a mob of identical, unidentifiable club swingers.

[Activist]

Once you're being assaulted by two or three police officers with clubs and you're on your knees, you aren't fighting back.

[Eli Lake]

Moral.

[Activist]

You're basically trying to avoid having the.

[Eli Lake]

Club scrape your head open again. Lee Weiner.

[Activist]

Now, were people throwing rocks and fighting back against cops? Of course they were.

[Eli Lake]

Can you kind of describe your emotions as things became more violent?

[Activist]

Angry. Very, very angry. Very, very determined to fight back, Information.

[Eli Lake]

Trickled into the convention hall slowly. You have to remember that in 1968, there were no cell phones. But when reports of these melees reached the convention, many delegates were horrified.

[Analyst]

He is a candidate, my fellow Democrats, not of the clubhouse, but of the classroom, not of City hall, but of the people.

[Eli Lake]

This is Frank Mankiewicz, who was Bobby Kennedy's press secretary. And he was furious about the violence happening outside, speaking to the delegates about George McGovern, who he saw as the viable heir to Kennedy's candidacy and legacy.

[Analyst]

Not of nightsticks and tear gas and the mindless brutality we have seen on our television screens tonight and on this convention floor. And with George McGovern as president of the United States, we wouldn't have to have Gestapo's tactics in the streets of Chicago.

[Eli Lake]

And that was Senator Abe Ribicoff calling for the Democratic Party to distance themselves from the long hair bashing cops.

[Analyst]

George McGovern. We wouldn't have a National Guard.

[Eli Lake]

As he gave that speech, the cameras turned to Chicago's mayor. Daleyza was caught jeering the senator. The mood inside the building was as boiling as it was wild outside. The party was ripping itself apart. One group loathed the assault on the protesters. The other group just loathed the protesters. Then the convention's most defining moment, the battle of Michigan avenue. On Thursday, August 28, just outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel, where Humphrey and McCarthy were staying, the radical protesters gathered. The police and some members of the National Guard were there as well. A war was on, or as Lee Weiner told me, a revolution.

[Activist]

When the cops moved against folks on the street. I was on the east side of the street and towards the front near Hilton, so I managed to avoid getting trapped by the cops at that moment. I was hit a couple of times, but got away. And then I walked a block or two down, if you can add any of the steps of the Chicago Art Institute. And I lit a cigarette and I watched the surge of people on the street fighting against the police and the police fighting against demonstrators. And literally for that moment, I believe for the only time in my life, and maybe a revolution in the United States was possible. It's a brief moment, one that I remember still.

[Eli Lake]

Please stop.

[Analyst]

Please stop.

[Eli Lake]

Please stop.

[Analyst]

Please stop.

[Eli Lake]

News cameras were there, and while the footage was not live, the scenes of police beating protesters were eventually beamed all over the world. The scent of tear gas was so strong that it wafted into the hotel room of Vice President Humphrey, who was looking on at the scene from his hotel suite several floors above. Ted Van Dyke, Vice President Humphrey's speechwriter, told me about that moment.

[Historical Narrator]

I went down to ground level to take a look and stepped outside the lobby into the street, and a policeman grabbed me and tried to throw me a paddy wagon. I resisted, pushed away, and got back into the lobby, but I never felt endangered. But I watched people being beat up and brutalized and realized the extent of it down at ground level. But I never was fearful for myself.

[Eli Lake]

What did you tell Humphrey when you got back up?

[Historical Narrator]

I told him what I had seen. Of course, he heard it all from the suite upstairs. I went to the McCarthy floor also and visited some of the McCarthy workers who had been beaten on the ground and were being treated medically. It was just a terrible feeling. You know, we could feel everything falling away from us, and Humphrey was powerless to do anything about it. Warren Christopher, who was at that time deputy at the Justice Department, was there a convention that asked me to get Humphrey to intervene and denounce the violence. And I said, look, there's nothing we can do about it. I said, we don't control the mayor. We don't control the demonstrators. Humphrey would just look weak, powerless. I said, there's nothing Humphrey can do but soldier on and try to make the best of it.

[Eli Lake]

The nation was watching. The convention was a disaster on its Last day, August 29, Humphrey accepted his party's nomination. But it was a bittersweet moment for the Vice President. It felt like defeat.

[Analyst]

This moment, this moment is one of personal pride and gratification. Yet one cannot help but reflect.

[Historical Narrator]

The.

[Analyst]

Deep sadness that we feel over the troubles and the violence which have erupted regrettably and tragically in the streets of this great city. And for the personal injuries which have occurred.

[Eli Lake]

Humphrey was never able to shed the stigma of the chaos and violence of the convention.

[Historical Narrator]

We spent the rest of the campaign trying to shed the feeling of Chicago which really influenced voters and they associated.

[Eli Lake]

Democrats with disorder again, speechwriter Ted Van Dyke.

[Historical Narrator]

Nixon, of course, ran as the candidate of law and order, pledging to put an end to all that. But it was just a painful ordeal. And when it was over, Humphrey had the nomination. But we were way behind in the polls and the country and the party were divided. It was just a terrible feeling. Chicago was just a terrible experience.

[Eli Lake]

The State of the Union was divided. At the Democratic convention, a veil of order had been lifted and the tension within the country laid bare. LBJ's Vietnam had ripped the country apart and his party bore the responsibility. The price would be high. Three months later, Americans elected the Republican nominee, Richard Milhouse Nixon, and the trouble was condemned to continue. The Vietnam War did not end until 1975. The country became more lawless and disordered under Richard Nixon. In an 18 month period between 1971 and 1972, the FBI recorded 2,500 domestic terror bombings in America. The lawlessness, of course, covered a wide spectrum. Nixon was himself forced to resign in disgrace in 1974 because his own campaign had illegally spied on its opposition. Meanwhile, LBJ didn't exactly ride into the sunset the way he had hoped. Johnson did, however, live past the age of 60, but not by much. After leaving office, he wrote his memoir and died four years later in 1972 at his ranch in Texas. His reputation never really recovered. He was despised by Democrats. By the end of 1968, even his relationship with his own Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, was ruined.

[Historical Narrator]

There was one showdown meeting. It was the weekend before the election and the polls then showed Humphrey leading by three points. And there was a last rally in Prince George's county outside D.C. and I had called Jim Jones, Johnson's chief of staff, asking that Humphrey meet with Johnson to get his own candid view of what was happening in Vietnam. And Jim said, well, Humphrey must be here at noon sharp because President Johnson's going to Camp David, but he must be here at noon sharp. So I said, well, he. He will be there. It was a turnout. He got there two minutes after noon. He'd come from the rally and stopped at his apartment to change his shirt. And he got there two minutes afternoon, went to the Oval Office, and Jim stood in the door and said the President would not see him.

[Eli Lake]

Oh, my.

[Historical Narrator]

And Johnson said, well. Humphrey said, well, is that right? He said, well, he can just cram it, you know where. And that was the end of their relationship.

[Eli Lake]

So let's go back to where we began. President Joe Biden, and the widespread calls from both the left and the right for him to step aside. Why hasn't Joe Biden announced that he would be pulling out of the race? Well, if Biden is looking at history as a guide, it may explain why he's so desperate to hold on. Johnson was briefly celebrated for declining to run for reelection, but ultimately it did nothing to stem the chaos that year, and it certainly didn't help Democrats win the election. Despite LBJ's efforts to unify the country, the country did not appreciate his efforts and instead elected Richard Nixon, a man as hated by liberals then as Trump is now. And on a personal level, well, think of Johnson sitting by the phone as the convention went on, desperate to get a call on his birthday. Maybe Biden is terrified of such a feeling and is willing to hold on for dear life. In his lucid moments, Biden perhaps understands that deep down, Americans hate a quitter. A quitter is weak. And when the leader of a country declines to seek re election, his weakness invites contempt. The anger at Johnson stemmed from his lies about Vietnam. The anger at Biden is that he and his inner circle have. Have insisted that a president in his senescence was actually not. That, as we all saw at last week's debate, was also a lie. Biden and his team now say there are no plans to step down. He is asking the American people to overlook the evidence of his decline that's right in front of their nose. He is hoping that the voters will prefer an enfeebled president to an insane one. The problem, though, for Biden is that, like Johnson, he is crippled by a big lie exposed. So when you hear Biden and his surrogates tell you about all of his accomplishments as president, from infrastructure to NATO, remember the fate of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who accomplished more than any other president in the 20th century, with the exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Despite that record, Johnson was undone by a big lie. We will learn in November if Biden's lie about his own capabilities. We'll doom his legacy and elect his nemesis. This is Eli Lake of the Free Press for Honestly, thanks for listening.