But Biden isn’t the primary to apply the presidential artwork of punching down. Plenty of presidents — Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama — have thrown decorum out the window to insult their enemies, media moguls and even their very own generals whereas serving as commander in chief. From hindquarters to soccer helmets, these eight govt put-downs ended many debates — and typically began new ones:
“He’s got his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, disenchanted by the sluggish progress of the Union military, sacked General George McClellan in November of 1862. “If you don’t want to use the army,” Lincoln wrote to General McClellan, “I should like to borrow it for a while.” The alternative didn’t fulfill him both. Upon assuming his new job, General Joseph Hooker wrote a dispatch titled “Headquarters in the Saddle” to exhibit that he was a person of motion. Apparently, the president was not impressed: “The trouble with Hooker,” Lincoln said, “is he’s got his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.”
“Too small game to shoot twice.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Roosevelt’s love of looking received him right into a literary debate in June 1907, when he disagreed with how naturalist author William J. Long portrayed wolves. Long believed they may kill with only one chew, which Roosevelt known as a “mathematical impossibility.” Long responded by calling him a “slayer, not lover of animals,” and the president dropped the matter, calling the writer “too small game to shoot twice.” It took Roosevelt one other few months to come back again with a meager insult: “nature faker.”
“No use for their heads except to serve as a knot to keep their bodies from unraveling.”
Woodrow Wilson, November 1919
After World War I, Woodrow Wilson believed the League of Nations would assist international locations keep away from wars, however the Senate thwarted his proposal for the U.S. to affix on a 39-55 vote in 1919. Some senators feared membership would power the U.S. to interact in undesirable conflicts. After the vote, Wilson repeatedly said, “The senators of the United States have no use for their heads, except to serve as a knot to keep their bodies from unraveling.”
“Tell Bert McCormick he is seeing things under the bed.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, October 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed newspaper house owners like Bert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune for working “colored news stories” he seen as slanted towards New Deal insurance policies. He additionally opposed newspapers’ exemption from rules on collective bargaining, minimal wage and antitrust, all of which he repealed when he signed the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933. McCormick and plenty of of his Tribune reporters thought of this a breach of media autonomy and First Amendment rights. When a Tribune reporter requested Roosevelt about it, the president advised the journalist to “tell Bert McCormick he is seeing things under the bed.”
“The General doesn’t know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.”
Harry S. Truman, 1952
Harry S. Truman opted out from working once more in 1952 attributable to his low recognition, however that didn’t cease him from attacking Dwight Eisenhower, the GOP candidate who had previously served as his high common. Responding to assaults that Democratic administrations had been “soft on communism,” Truman shot back that Eisenhower, who’d later win the election, “doesn’t know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.”
“He’s a nice guy, but he played too much football with his helmet off.”
Lyndon B. Johnson, late Sixties
Lyndon B. Johnson was already pissed off with stalemates in Vietnam and a brutal midterm defeat in 1966 when then-House Minority Leader Gerald Ford blocked key laws for his landmark Great Society program. Irked by the previous faculty athlete’s obstruction, Johnson took this dig at his intelligence.
“I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience”
Ronald ReAgan, 1984
During the presidential debate of his 1984 reelection bid, Ronald Reagan obtained a query from Baltimore Sun journalist Henry Trewhitt, who doubted Reagan’s means to serve within the time of nice nationwide safety menace attributable to his previous age. “I recall yet that President Kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Trewhitt said. “Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?” Reagan, 73, replied, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The viewers — together with his Democratic opponent Walter Mondale — burst into laughter.
“You’re tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day.”
Barack Obama, 2011
Journalists might hear by way of open microphones the non-public dialog between President Obama and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on the G-20 Summit in 2011. “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar,” Sarkozy said of Benjamin Netanyahu, then prime minister of Israel. Since assuming workplace, Obama had disagreed with the Israeli chief on a number of fronts, from the main points of the Iran nuclear deal to placing a moratorium on the enlargement of Israeli settlements within the West Bank. “You’re tired of him; what about me?” Obama replied to Sarkozy. “I have to deal with him every day.”
