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I'm Mr. Beat. Almost exactly two years ago, I released a video going over the top five Vice Presidents in
history, and holy crap since then 147,646 people have watched it.
Why did so many people watch that? What the heck are you all doing with your lives?
And look, there are 536 comments. Like this gem here by Robert Jr Yang.
Oh look here's another one. Thanks buddy.
Anyway, since that video did so well, now it's time for the sequel.
It's time to get negative.
Here are the top five WORST Vice Presidents in American History, in my opinion. And, similar
to my top five Vice Presidents video, I am judging them based on their actions over their
entire adult lives, not just during their time as Veep. Also, Vice Presidents who later
became Presidents are exempt from this list, as well as that Vice President that we have now, Mike Pence.
He's exempt.
#5 Dan Quayle
Quayle, who is still alive so I hope is not watching this, served as vice president with
President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, and is most famously known for saying unintelligent
things from time to time and hiding his academic records. But I’m going to forgive him for
that, since the press can be intimidating.
Quayle: And I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.
No, I mostly just think he was a backwards thinking guy. He once said that he believed
homosexuality was not only a choice, but “the wrong choice.” It was cringeworthy even
for the 1990s. But even for a young guy-Quayle was just 33 when he first entered the U.S.
Senate and 41 when he became Vice President- he had old fashioned views on a lot of things,
really out of touch with many Americans. He rode the popularity of Ronald Reagan to gain
power to begin with.
Plus, he was a chicken hawk. He was all about war, but likely used his family connections
to get into the Indiana Army National Guard to avoid being sent to Vietnam at the height
of the war.
While I agree with some of his policy proposals in Congress and appreciated how he worked
diligently on behalf of President George H.W. Bush to get the votes needed for new legislation,
he had enough misguided views on things like criminal justice and civil liberties which
kind of showed he really wasn’t that deep of a thinker.
#4 John C. Breckinridge. Do we have to put the "C" in there? Really?
Anyway, he had so much potential, but simply fell
on the wrong side of history. He was the youngest-ever vice president, serving alongside the worst
president in American history, James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861. In the position of vice
president, he actually did a decent job, even though Buchanan didn’t let him do much.
He also was actually fairly popular, especially in his home state of Kentucky. Kentucky’s
state legislature actually picked him as their new U.S. Senator while he was still Veep.
His downfall came after the Civil War began. Before that, in 1860 the Southern Democrats
nominated him for President to run against Abraham Lincoln. After losing that election,
while most of Kentucky’s state legislature wanted to stay in the union, Breckinridge
defended the Southern cause, saying “I exchange with proud satisfaction a term of six years
in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier.” He then enlisted in
the Confederate army, and the U.S. charged him with treason and the Senate kicked him
out of course, calling him a traitor.
He courageously fought in many battles for the Confederate Army throughout the war, but
once he realized the Confederates stood little chance of winning, he fled on a boat with
some of his men, eventually ending up in Cuba and later Europe. He hesitated coming back
into the United States for several years after the war. Instead, he grew a great mustache.
But he finally came back and never entered into politics again.
Ok, I’ll admit, he’s on this list because of choosing the wrong side in the Civil War
and turning his back not only on his country, but more importantly his home state of Kentucky.
Apparently I'm a dang Yankee.
#3 Spiro Agnew
One of only two vice presidents to ever resign, and the only one to resign due to being corrupt,
Spiro Agnew was Richard Nixon’s Veep from 1969 to 1973. Ten months after Agnew resigned,
Nixon famously would be the ONLY President to resign. However, Agnew had nothing to do
with Watergate. He got in trouble for taking kickbacks when he used to be Baltimore County
Executive and later when he was the Governor of Maryland. In fact, he was still getting
kickbacks when he was vice president. In 1973, after he was under investigation by the U.S.
Attorney for the District of Maryland for possible criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion,
and tax fraud charges, he at first tried to convince everyone he was innocent. Then he
argued he couldn’t be charged while he was Vice President. Well, finally he pleaded no
contest to one of the tax evasion charges. That’s when he resigned, and borrowed $200,000
from his friend Frank Sinatra to pay tax and legal bills. The next year, the Maryland Court
of Appeals said he couldn’t be a lawyer anymore, calling him “morally obtuse.”
Later, he helped sell uniforms to Saddam Hussein.
Other reasons why I dislike Spiro Agnew? Well, he was one of the most vocal and harsh critics
of the student protestors during the Vietnam War, even those at Kent State. He helped start
the War on Drugs, which would devastate American society for decades afterwards. He constantly
attacked journalists.
I mean the guy hit three different spectators with golf balls in one tournament. I’m sure it was
an accident, but still.
Overall, he was a polarizing figure that loved to blame others for problems but rarely offered
solutions to those problems. May the headless body of Agnew never rule again.
And you probably might be surprised that this next guy is #2 on my list and not #1. But...
#2 Aaron Burr Yeah, he’s just the SECOND worst, not first.
Vice President from 1801 to 1805. Actually he was almost President.
And today let's make that random call with today's $10,000 question.
It's a tough one.
Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?
Alright, let's go to the phones and see who's out there.
phone rings
Hello?
Hello, for $10,000
Who shot- Aaron Burr
Excuse me?
Aaron Burr
Hold on, let me get some milk.
Nooo!
I'm afraid your time is almost up.
Aaron Burr!
Yeah Aaron Burr today is mostly known as the guy who shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, WHILE
HE WAS IN OFFICE AS VICE PRESIDENT. Of course, President Thomas Jefferson essentially
kicked him to the curb after that, as Burr became a fugitive and his political career
ended, although he was never charged with murder. He then headed west to try to claim
a chunk of the Louisiana Purchase and Texas and create his own mini empire and possibly
start a war with Spain, but that didn’t work out. Jefferson actually had Burr arrested
and charged with treason in February 1807. Ultimately though, the charge was dropped
due to there not being much evidence, and Burr lived a surprisingly long and quiet life
afterward. When he was 77, he married a rich widow 19 years younger than him named Eliza
Jumel, and I speculate he mostly married her to pay for all his land speculation losses
over the years. The marriage lasted four months once Eliza figured out Burr was stealing her
wealth. She hired Alexander Hamilton, Jr., Alexander Hamilton’s son, as her divorce
lawyer.
If you’ve seen the musical Hamilton, you probably already know that Burr was a major
player in New York politics before he became Vice President, and was fairly respected.
Sure, the musical still makes him out to be the villain, but even it begins to show you
that it’s more complex than that. Burr was ahead of his time on many issues, especially
regarding women’s rights and abolishing slavery, and worked well with most of his
colleagues to accomplish a lot.
Still, his downfall was rooted in the fact that he often was paranoid and didn’t trust
others easily. He also did have quite the ego, and didn’t compromise much at all.
I know, I know. I had always assumed Burr would be at the top of my Worst Vice Presidents list, but recently
I went down a few rabbit holes and I learned a lot more about Burr that made me actually understand where Burr was coming
from and...you know what? Alexander Hamilton deserved to die. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I joke.
#1 Dick Cheney I guess the Bushes didn’t do that well picking
vice presidents. Serving alongside George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, Cheney is also
still alive but I really don’t care if he sees this. He was horrible, and I disagree
with him on most issues. If you’ve seen the Adam McKay movie Vice, you may not be
surprised why Dick is at the top of this list. However, I will say that while I’m a fan
of McKay, there are some historical inaccuracies in this film. Check out the Cynical Historian’s
take for a good analysis on that. The film is correct that Cheney made the Vice Presidency
a much more powerful position than ever before.
The problem is, he used his influence to push for crappy policy. Behind the scenes, he did
play a huge role escalating the War on Terrorism with reckless disregard to civil liberties.
He defended the NSA spying on Americans and defended torture. He’s always been a war
hawk. Actually, like Quayle, he’s a chicken hawk. He’s fine with perpetual war, but
failed to serve in the military himself, getting five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.
Despite no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11 or al-Qaeda,
Cheney kept linking the two anyway and was one of the most vocal supporters of toppling
Hussein and going to war in Iraq. He was single handedly the biggest reason why Americans
believed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when he did not. Oh, and he indirectly made
money from the Iraq War, perhaps as much as tens of millions of dollars. His old company,
Halliburton won big contracts to aid American troops in the war.
To sum up how Cheney is a messed up dude, he spent decades in government, only to use
his connections he made while in government to enrich his own wealth and power and get
the U.S. involved in endless wars, which yes continue to this day.
Google “Darth Vader Dick Cheney” and you’ll see all kinds of memes. What’s messed up
is that Cheney has even embraced the memes. And you’ll probably mention in the comments
that he accidentally shot his friend. “Accidentally.”
But to end on a positive note. When Cheney was Secretary of Defense, he actually did a decent job. And I think if he just retired after that and called it good, people would have a lot better perception of him.
But 9/11 seemed to make Cheney irrational and opportunistic.
So there you have it, the worst 5 Vice Presidents in American history. Again, it’s just my
opinion, but what do I know? It's not like I teach American history or American government for a living.
Trump: Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.
Oops, I meant, indoctrinate. (laughs) But seriously,
I teach my students how to think, not what to think. So what do YOU think? If you disagree with any of these choices, I'd
love to hear from you in the comments. I try to read as many as possible, by the way.
Am I biased? Absolutely. Are YOU biased? Absolutely. Which is why we should always be critical
be critical about where we get our news from. Newsvoice is an app that is helping us critically
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and perspectives for the same stories. You can upvote stories you find interesting and
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sponsoring this video.
So who do YOU think were the worst Vice Presidents in American history? Also, at the time of
this recording, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Joe Biden, had yet to
pick a running mate. Who do you think it should be? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks
for watching, and good day to you.