Here are the most ridiculous family members of past presidents!
8 - Billy Carter
Jimmy Carter didn't have quite a greatly viewed presidency.
High gas prices, the Iranian hostage crisis, and meddling by the Reagan campaign basically
guaranteed the 39th president to one term.
While the general consensus is that Carter's four years in Washington were a borderline
disaster, he's maintained a reputation as a kind gentlemen and dedicated public servant
whose devout religious convictions have inspired him to work tirelessly for the greater good,
even at 92 years old.
His brother, Billy, however, was very different.
Where Jimmy was calm, humble and very prudent, Billy was seen as a belligerent drunkard,
as he often caused public spectacles.
For example, he once took a piss an airport runway, in full view of the press and foreign
dignitaries.
Whew, that's a tough one to top!
Billy, who owned and operated a gas station in Plains, Georgia, ran for mayor in 1976,
but lost.
He would go on to appear in ads for Falls City Brewing's "Billy Beer" claiming
"I think it's the best beer I've ever tasted, and I've tasted a lot."
However, the hard drinking good ol boy preferred PBR, according to those who knew him.
Billy Carter famously cracked open a beer when Jimmy tried to introduce him to astronaut
turned politician, Senator John Glenn.
I'm just wondering, was the movie Black Sheep inspired by Billy Carter?!
During his brother's presidency, he developed a reputation as a backwoods, beer drinking
redneck.
Perhaps the worst thing he did during Jimmy's presidency was work for the Libyan government
as a foreign agent.
Doing what exactly remains unclear, but this spawned a congressional inquiry that ultimately
found that his activities never influenced Jimmy's policies as president.
While testifying before Congress, Billy displayed a bit more intellect than he was given credit
for.
He certainly understand and knew of his reputation by saying quote, "I refused to conform to
an image that a lot of people thought a President's brother should adopt".
Even though his booze infused public outbursts caused PR problems for his brother, the two
maintained a close bond.
Jimmy Carter's advisers urged him to distance himself from Billy, but the two remained close
their whole lives.
When asked later if Billy embarrassed him, Jimmy Carter said quietly, ''I love him.''
Despite his irreverent attitude, the younger brother certainly seemed to reciprocate the
sentiment.
7 - Alice Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt prided himself on being a maverick of sorts….a political renegade
who didn't adhere to convention.
That seems to be a trait that his oldest daughter, Alice adopted as well.
She was 17 when her father took office in 1901, and immediately proved to be a rule
breaker.
She was known for smoking cigarettes in public, placing bets with bookies, and staying out
late to party.
All these things don't sound crazy for today, but let's remember the time period as these
were things that were unthinkable for a woman of her time.
Like her father, she had an eccentric personality, as she like to keep a pet snake, and even
once spontaneously jumping into a public pool fully clothed.
She also had a habit of bursting into the Oval Office while President Roosevelt was
working.
The president once commented that "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice,
but I cannot possibly do both."
After Roosevelt left office, she for some reason buried a voodoo doll of incoming First
Lady, Nellie Taft in the front yard.
Well, for some reason, Mrs. Taft banned her from the white house during her time there.
She was banned again during the Woodrow years when she campaigned against the U.S entry
into the League of Nations.
To be honest with you, this lady sounds like she'd be great to drink a beer with!
Her adult years were marked by troubled marriages, alleged affairs, and a brief defection to
the Democrats when she supported the Kennedys and Lyndon B Johnson.
However, she remained a powerful figure in American politics and was known as a skilled
writer.
Her autobiography Crowded Hours was both a critical and commercial success.
Her quick wit was either her most endearing or most annoying quality, depending on who
you asked.
While she ultimately left behind a complicated legacy when she passed away in 1980 at age
96, one thing is clear.
Like her father, she cared little for convention and thrived in the spotlight.
Love it or hate it, that's who she was.
6 - Sam Houston Johnson
If you're at all familiar with Lyndon B. Johnson, then it's hard to imagine that
a member of his own family could out crazy him.
After all, this was a guy who would supposedly whip out his d*ck in the white house to intimidate
people, held cabinet meetings while he took dumps, and once said that Gerald Ford was
so dumb that he couldn't fart and chew gum at the same time.
Ahhhh how awesome would it have been if social media existed while LBJ was around!
Anyways, his younger brother, Sam Houston Johnson, was a pretty wild dude himself.
Named after Sam Houston, a famous general and politician, Sam initially worked with
his older brother's administration.
However, his penchant for drinking turned into a serious problem for the administration,
as Sam would get drunk, and then get a bit too chatty with the press.
By some accounts, LBJ had to place Sam under Secret Service surveillance to keep him from
talking too much.
After LBJ's presidency, Sam wrote a book called My Brother Lyndon.
While the book did offer some praise for the former President, he was often critical of
LBJ, hinting that he was a giant bully and very difficult to deal with.
This further strained their relationship and the two were at odds for a while.
However, they supposedly reconciled some time before Lydon died.
Before his own death in 1978, Sam kicked his drinking habit and became a devout christian.
He also defected to the GOP during the '76 election, endorsing Gerald Ford over Jimmy
carter...you know, the guy who couldn't fart and chew gum at the same time?
5 - Ronald Reagan Jr
Former President Ronald Reagan has had a big impact on American politics.
For the success he had in the 80's, it's easy to understand why he's become such
an icon for conservatives.
So you can imagine how weird it is that his son, Ron, has become such an outspoken liberal.
Unlike his father who was a devout Christian, or at least he catered to the Evangelical
right anyway, Ronald Reagan Jr, or Ron as he goes by, became an atheist at age 12.
Surprisingly, that's a stance he still holds today.
As a kid, he was expelled from the Webb School of California, a prestigious private school.
Ron claimed, the administration was just looking for a reason to throw him out of school because
he was a "bad influence" on the other students.
Ron later dropped out of Yale after only one semester to pursue a career as a ballet dancer.
He joined the Joffrey Ballet in pursuit of his lifelong dream.
His father once wrote in a diary that Ron's performance was reminiscent of Fred Astaire's.
Despite their political differences, Ron and his father seemed to be on good terms.
In fact, Ron refrained from speaking out during his father's presidency just to avoid the
perception that they didn't get along.
Since his father's passing in 2004, he has often spoken highly of his father.
In February 2010, he was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board
of distinguished achievers.
While appearing in an ad for the foundation, he declared himself quote "an unabashed atheist,"
and also claimed that he quote "Wasn't afraid of burning in hell."
One thing that I know for sure is that that definitely didn't come out of former President
Ronald Reagan's mouth!
4 - Patti Davis
Ronald Reagan also had a daughter named Patti with his second wife, Nancy.
Much like her brother, Ron, she was a drastically different person than her parents.
While she also had a proclivity for the performing arts like her actor parents, her politics
were much different.
Patti was more of a free spirited liberal, whose sympathies were more in line with hippies
than Republicans.
Even during her father's Presidency, Patti was often outspoken against Reagan's policies.
She even dropped the Reagan last name to symbolize her disgust with his policies.
She was known to smoke pot and joined the nuclear freeze movement, much to the chagrin
of the family.
Her most controversial moment has to have been back in 1994, when she posed for Playboy.
Davis posed for Playboy magazine in the July 1994 issue, where she was the cover model.
This particular issue is considered to be one of the magazine's most controversial covers,
probably because you know, it's the first President's kid to do that ever.
Oh yeah, she also wrote explosive books about her family.
She wrote a fictional story called Homefront, where she used elements of her own life to
write the story.
She wrote an autobiography called The Way I See it a book where she revealed many family
secrets and dramas.
In her books she alleged that her mother Nancy slapped her and criticized her weight.
Yeahhhhh……...
3 - The Bush Twins
You know, if President George W. Bush didn't get in as president, he for sure would have
made this countdown.
We'll instead have to settle for his twin daughters Jenna and Barbara.
As is tradition, the two kept a relatively low profile while in the White House and the
media more or less left them alone when they were younger.
But, like most young adults in college, they did their fair share of partying.
The twins would reportedly try anything and everything to lose their Secret Service security
detail behind, which I have to assume is a tough thing to pull off.
According to Ronald Kessler, a former secret service agent, Jenna would purposely try to
lose her protection by going through red lights or by jumping in her car without telling agents
where she was going.
In 2001, they were students at the University of Texas when they were both arrested twice
within five weeks for underage drinking, and Jenna ultimately pled no contest to a misdemeanor
charge for using a fake ID.
By no means were they the only college kids to get busted for drinking, but when your
father happens to be president, people obviously find it more interesting.
Of course these two have since grown out of their partying habits and have become pretty
productive members of society.
They even penned a heartfelt open letters to the Obama daughters offering advice and
encouragement before their father took office.
Today Jenna is an author for Southern Living magazine, while Barbara, who's named after
her grandmother, is a very active Human's Rights advocate.
Seems like they turned out alright!
2 - Malia Obama
For the most part, the Obamas appeared to be a model first family during their White
House years.
However, over the past couple of years, Malia, the oldest daughter of former President Barack
Obama, has had a few moments that have raised a few eyebrows given her status.
While recently visiting the Parlor, an exclusive 21 and over New York City club, Malia Obama
approached conservative gossip pundit Lucian Wintrich.
She appeared to have been drinking.
She s only 18, so it would have been illegal for her to be drinking at the club, but hey,
I'm not going to hate on that.
Lucian Wintrich said that he was at Parlor in New York City with some friends and one
of his friends said Malia Obama just pointed at him and said, 'I wanna punch that dude
in the face,'.
He apparently started laughing and turned around to find Malia Obama staring him down.
He then tried to snap a picture of her while Malia Obama was staring him down and she came
up to him and started yelling.
He said that Malia said to him quote, "Do you want to have a conversation?
Let's sit down and have a real conversation".
Wintrich said quote "OK, let's sit down and have a real conversation, why not?'.
But unfortunately, her security wouldn't let her do that and told her to back off.
Of course, a lot of this is he said she said at this point, but we do know that, Malia
was at a 21 club drinking and confronted this guy.
In August of 2016 she was seen at Lollapalooza dancing and smoking whatever it could be that
she's smoking.
I'm not gonna hate on her smoking on whatever it is she's smoking; she's 18 and she
can make her own choices.
Hey, it's lollapalooza after all….I guess if you're not smoking something, you're
doing it wrong!
1 - Joe Kennedy
Ahhh, the patriarch of the great Kennedy family.
You know all about JFK, RFK, and their assassinations.
You probably know about Jackie O and maybe even Ted, the youngest brother.
But Joe Kennedy, well his story is far less flattering than that of his sons.
Mob ties, Nazi sympathies, affairs, bootlegging, bribery...these were just some of the things
that Joe Kennedy was notorious for.
Now it's no secret that Joe Kennedy wanted to be President one day.
However, given his less than reputable image, he instead used his money and influence to
pave the way for his oldest son, Joe Jr. to be President.
However, Joe Jr. was killed during WWII, so he pushed his son, John to be President.
That worked out...for a while anyway.
Joe Sr. was born to a family of liquor merchants.
He would go on to become an investment banker, later making a ton of money from investing
in Hollywood studios.
He was also known for his bootlegging during Prohibition, having a hug stock of his family's
liquor.
He made virtually no secret of his extramarital affairs, especially his fling with movie star
Gayle Swanson.
Perhaps worst of all though, he allowed a lobotomy to be performed on his daughter Rosemary.
She had what many considered to be a learning disability, and at age 23, Joe Sr. allowed
for a lobotomy to be done.
It failed and she ended up worse off.
The botched procedure left her with the mental capacity of a two year old, and she spent
the rest
of her life in an institution.
Here's what's next!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét