It's no secret that history has seen its fair share of terrible politicians. Occasionally,
however, somebody might be remembered as a great statesman or a beloved national treasure
— despite being totally undeserving of their reputation. These are the respected politicians
who were actually terrible people.
Woodrow Wilson wasn't just the 28th president of the United States — he was also a straight-up
racist. And sure, American attitudes towards race were generally backwards back in the
late 19th and early 20th century, but Wilson really was something else.
Under his leadership, the federal government was resegregated, despite having actually
made some decent progress towards racial integration. He also fired almost all of his Black employees
and unilaterally defeated an amendment at the Versailles Convention recognizing the
principle of racial equality. On top of this, he wrote a history book that was sympathetic
to the KKK — so much so, in fact, that it was even quoted in the infamous film Birth
of a Nation.
Wilson also had a problem with women — specifically, women who wanted to vote. It's actually pretty
ironic that the 19th Amendment was ratified while he was in office; he certainly wasn't
one of its most enthusiastic proponents. Indeed, Wilson once told his staff that:
"[I am] definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage."
One of Wilson's aides later remembered that Wilson had once insisted:
"A woman's place was in the home, and the type of woman who took an active part in the
suffrage agitation was totally abhorrent."
Even a woman who simply spoke in public made him feel — in his words — "chilled" and
"scandalized."
As far as politicians go, Nelson Mandela is considered by most as close to a saint as
you can possibly get. As it turns out, however, his wife — and later ex-wife — Winnie
Mandela was less saintly, to say the least. Their marriage survived almost three decades
of Nelson's imprisonment, but fell apart in 1996 when it was revealed she had cheated
on him with her younger bodyguard.
Like her husband, Winnie was a bona fide revolutionary, and even earned herself the title of "mother
of the nation." But her methods were downright horrific. Winnie was known for her involvement
in the so-called "necklacing" of police informers and apartheid collaborators — a method of
execution in which a gasoline-soaked car tire is placed around the victim's neck and set
on fire. She even once famously said:
"With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country."
Over the course of the 1980s and '90s, Winnie was implicated in a number of kidnappings
and killings, and was also convicted of theft and fraud in 2003. When she went before the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the '90s, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, of
her role in the fight against apartheid:
"She was a tremendous stalwart of our struggle, an icon of liberation — something went wrong,
horribly, badly wrong."
Winnie, for her part, apologized to the Commission for her actions.
"It is true, things went horribly wrong. For that, I am deeply sorry."
Many of Lyndon B. Johnson's more unsavoury exploits are pretty well-known, such as his
penchant for exposing himself as a way in an attempt to assert his dominance over others.
But Johnson's power games went so much further than that.
Johnson's relationships with the women in his life were particularly mired by abuse
and control. One biography of the 36th president claims that he would pick out his wife's clothes,
select her haircut, and force her to wear lipstick. His secretaries received the same
treatment, being made to do their hair certain ways, with Johnson even picking out their
bathing suits. He even told them how much hairspray to use. And, of course, there was
the fact that he frequently got naked in the presence of his colleagues. One writer once
said that:
"What would be sexual harassment today was part of the everyday atmosphere of Johnson's
office."
Men had it almost as bad, too, with Johnson frequently abusing his Secret Service staff,
forcing colleagues to follow him into the bathroom, and even exposing himself to journalists
when he couldn't answer their questions.
Although his name is practically synonymous with peace, freedom, and civil rights, many
of Gandhi's beliefs were backwards even for his time. For example, his sexual proclivities
were risque enough that one political rival once referred to him as a, quote, "dangerous,
semi-repressed sex maniac." Despite practicing celibacy for much of his life, Gandhi often
had young women sleep and bathe with him, even when his wife was still alive. But that's
not nearly the worst that Gandhi got away with.
Having lived in South Africa for over two decades, Gandhi was given more than ample
opportunity to indulge in his own deeply racist beliefs. In short: he hated the country's
Black population, and wanted them to be segregated in pretty much every public space, from hospitals
to trains. He almost always referred to Black people by a racial slur and believed it was
desperately important that whites remain in charge of the country.
Gandhi's views on women were also abhorrent. He believed that menstruation was, quote,
"a manifestation of the distortion of a woman's soul," and proudly wrote that women should
be held responsible for any attacks they suffered. He even went so far as to say women who were
assaulted had, quote, "lost their value as human beings," and that a father was well
within his rights to kill a daughter who had been assaulted, so as to restore honor to
their family.
Many U.S. Presidents have cheated on their wives, but John F. Kennedy might well be the
most notorious, having been described by historians as a "compulsive womanizer." JFK slept with
movie stars, secretaries, and plenty of people in between over the years — including Mimi
Alford, one of his own interns.
"Was he exploiting you?"
"Well, it certain was an incredibly imbalanced relationship, and not a good relationship
in hindsight, looking back."
And on top of all that, he seemed to pay little mind to the hurt it caused his own wife.
Jackie Kennedy is remembered today as having been the perfect first lady and an ever-dutiful
spouse. But Jackie was fully aware of many of John's affairs, always made it perfectly
clear to him that she wasn't happy about it, and even considered divorce on two occasions.
One of these took place in 1956, when JFK left his pregnant wife at home to go on a
Mediterranean cruise. Then, when Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter, her husband
couldn't even be bothered to cut his vacation short and come home to her.
Every time she thought of ending her marriage, however, Jackie was talked out of it by her
family. Her sister pointed out that their father had cheated on their mother and that
had worked out all right. Meanwhile, her mother said it was simply the price Jackie must pay
for being married to a powerful man.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill may have been best known for leading the UK's
stand against the Nazis in World War II, but his less savory side is no secret, either.
Many critics have accused Churchill of holding deeply racist views and pursuing destructive,
imperialist policies while in office. Fewer people, however, will be aware of his early
battles against the women's rights movement.
Churchill was vehemently opposed to women getting the vote, and the suffragettes singled
him out as the one politician they needed to bring down — in some cases literally.
In 1909, for example, an activist named Teresa Garnett came at him with a whip and attempted
to force him into the path of a train. Around the same time, after a group of suffragettes
had interrupted one of his meetings, Churchill said:
"Nothing would induce me to vote for giving votes to women."
But the suffragists didn't give up. They attended his speeches, heckled him, and generally made
as many disruptions as they could. Christabel Pankhurst was actually arrested after one
such incident, and Churchill said he hoped sitting in jail would, in his words, "soothe
her fevered brain." Nonetheless, the Suffragettes won out… eventually. In 1918, women over
the age of 30 were given the vote in the UK — but only if they or their husbands owned
property of a certain value. It wasn't until 1928 that all women were granted fully equal
voting rights to men.
Strom Thurmond was so beloved by his constituents that he was a continuous presence in the Senate
for 49 years, making him the longest serving senator in United States history at the time
of his retirement. But for all his many electoral successes, Thurmond had a serious dark side.
In 1948, Thurmond ran for president on a state's rights and segregationist platform, and even
managed to get over a million votes. He then continued his fight against equality after
getting elected into the Senate. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a
handful of basic civil rights laws, but Thurmond was having none of it. He filibustered all
on his own for a whopping 24 hours and 18 minutes, which, to this day, is still the
longest speech in Senate history.
But what makes Thurmond much worse than your run-of-the-mill racist was that he was also
a raging hypocrite. The whole time that he was declaring that Black people and white
people should be separated, he was hiding a mixed-race daughter of his own. Thurmond
was 22 years old when he had impregnated a 15-year-old Black domestic worker. He ignored
his child right up until she was 16, after which he started giving her money — partially
to keep her quiet, since he knew the scandal could end his political career. The truth
of Thurmond's hypocrisy wasn't fully revealed until after his death in 2003, when his daughter,
Essie Mae Washington-Williams, finally came forward.
Nicolas Sarkozy was president of France from 2007 to 2012 — and perhaps one of his most
infamous traits was his love of all things glamorous. Known as the "bling bling" president,
Sarkozy frequently wore Rolexes and custom-made Italian suits. He also divorced his second
wife and quickly married the wealthy model Carla Bruni. Perhaps inevitably, then, it
was money that eventually led to Sarkozy's political downfall.
Liliane Bettencourt was the heiress to the French cosmetics company L'Oréal. She was
also absurdly wealthy — when she died in 2017, she was the wealthiest woman in the
world, with a net worth of nearly $40 billion. But Bettencourt was also accused of secretly
giving hundreds of thousands of euros in illegal campaign contributions to Sarkozy and another
government minister. This, however, was far from the only illegal money Sarkozy was accused
of snapping up.
In 2018, he was questioned by the police about taking cash from the late Libyan dictator
Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 electoral campaign. Around $6.2 million was allegedly
handed over in three suitcases stuffed full of cash. Overall, Sarkozy was thought to have
received 50 million euros. This, of course, wasn't just incredibly shady — it was also
outright illegal. As such, in 2021, he and two co-defendants were convicted of corruption
and sentenced to three years: two suspended and one in prison.
Everyone knows about Bill Clinton's dealings with Monica Lewinsky, which is perhaps one
of the most famous affairs of all time.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
But although there was a severe power and age imbalance between the two, that affair
was at least consensual. According to a number of women, however, that wasn't the case with
many of Clinton's other encounters.
In 1991, Clinton was attending a conference in Little Rock as the governor of Arkansas.
Afterwards, he invited a woman named Paula Jones back to his suite. After talking for
a few minutes, Clinton allegedly reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her close. He
then ran his hand up her thigh and tried to kiss her neck when she tried to stop him.
After Clinton undressed and started making demands, Jones refused and fled.
Kathleen Willey is another of Clinton's accusers. In 1993, she went to the Oval Office for professional
advice, where Clinton groped her, grabbed her crotch, and rubbed himself on her. But
the worst accusation of all comes from Juanita Broaddrick. In 1978, Broaddrick was volunteering
for Clinton's gubernatorial campaign when he invited her to have coffee in his hotel
room. Once there, she claims, he assaulted her. Clinton was never charged for the incident,
however, and to this day it has largely been forgotten.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit
the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).