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This podcast uses government documents to illuminate the workings of the American government, and offer context around the effects of government agencies in your everyday life.
N. Rodgers: Hey, Aughie.
J. Aughenbaugh: Good morning, Nia. How are you?
N. Rodgers: I'm excellent. How are you?
J. Aughenbaugh: I'm doing fine, on this cold, brisk January morning.
N. Rodgers: Welcome to the first episode of the season. Even though we're going to say that again later in the week for the real first episode of the season because this isn't in the news first episode of the season.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, we're trying to time this up to the transition of power, as they say.
N. Rodgers: Yes, the peaceful transition of power that will be happening. We're recording ahead of time. We're assuming there has been a peaceful transition of power. But if there hasn't, we'll be back with you tomorrow in an emergency episode to update. But this should be released on January 20th, which is the presidential inauguration day.
J. Aughenbaugh: That's right.
N. Rodgers: I have been thinking about this because, of course, when I am president, I need to know what the rules are.
J. Aughenbaugh: Correct. That's right.
N. Rodgers: Because I can't just wander into the job without having my trustee Advisor, Dr. John Aughenbaugh, who's going to say, you cannot do that, Nia. You cannot bring the pandas to the presidential inauguration. You do not have the power to release them from the zoo.
J. Aughenbaugh: No flying monkeys, no pigs attempting to fly.
N. Rodgers: But there's no real rule about me having, like, acrobats. I could have the circa sole perform. I could do all kinds of cool stuff. If I could get them to do that in the DC Code.
J. Aughenbaugh: You could have a stage full of mimes.
N. Rodgers: That would be awesome. Here's my presidential address. Then just say nothing. Anyway, we're going to get to presidential address its in a little bit. But let me guess, just off the top of my head. As I have known you now for these many years. I would be willing to bet that there's almost nothing about rules about this in the Constitution. Would I be correct about that?
J. Aughenbaugh: That is correct.
N. Rodgers: Because the Constitution, it is alarmingly vague on many important aspects of public and executive life. They don't really get into a lot of the how's and the whys and the wherefores.
J. Aughenbaugh: There is the Constitution as written, and then there's the Constitution in practice. In writing, there is with the exception of when a president and vice president should take the oath. There's nothing about, "Inauguration."
N. Rodgers: But they had them back in the day, didn't they?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah. But again, so much of governing in politics is symbolic. It's performative.
N. Rodgers: It's ceremonial.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, and so much of what we're going to be discussing today, listeners.
N. Rodgers: It's a symbolism of the inauguration.
J. Aughenbaugh: Practices and customs that have developed over time. When presidents or first ladies do something different, then all of a sudden we make a big deal about it. But constitutionally, the 20th Amendment says, ''The terms of the president and the vice president should end at noon on the 20th day of January'', and that's it.
N. Rodgers: Just assumes that the next president is 12:01.
J. Aughenbaugh: 12:01. That's right. Now, how do we know that the next president has assumed the office? Well, then you go to a different section of the Constitution. Article 2 Section 1, spells out the president's oath. Many Americans could actually recite a good chunk of this, but there isn't a lot to the presidential oath. ''I do solemnly swear or affirm.''
N. Rodgers: If you prefer not to swear.
J. Aughenbaugh: To swear. That's right. Which on this podcast.
N. Rodgers: Good luck with that. I'm trying in 2025 not to swear. Listeners, help keep me honest.
J. Aughenbaugh: God bless you. Because I, on the other hand, have thought.
N. Rodgers: You can just take up the slack and swear more.
J. Aughenbaugh: I've already begun to teach in the spring semester, and I even told myself walking the class, don't swear, and within the first five minutes, I've already swore. But anyways, the rest of the oath, ''I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will, to the best of my ability,'' here comes three verbs, ''Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.''
N. Rodgers: That's it?
J. Aughenbaugh: That's it. As we were joking off-recording.
N. Rodgers: Most of the time it's done correctly.
J. Aughenbaugh: Most of the time. President Barack Obama.
N. Rodgers: Had to re-swear.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, and Chief Justice John Roberts.
N. Rodgers: John Roberts hook that up a little bit.
J. Aughenbaugh: Barack Obama, again, God bless him. He went with it.
N. Rodgers: He didn't want to embarrass the Chief Justice because you know that he had probably practiced it 900,000 times. Said it himself in the shower a bunch of times so that he wouldn't mess it up. I think it's actually sweet. But he was like, I'll go with you, man. Whatever you're going to say, I'll say it, too. Then somebody was like, he's not really the president because he didn't actually swear the real oath. But he then went inside and did everything right.
J. Aughenbaugh: They did it in a private ceremony.
N. Rodgers: Poor child Rob. You had one job, man. You had one job today.
J. Aughenbaugh: In speaking of the Chief Justice administering the oath, that's not even constitutionally required.
N. Rodgers: Really? It could just be anybody.
J. Aughenbaugh: Pretty much. The Constitution just wants you to swear or affirm the oath.
N. Rodgers: It doesn't care who's administering it.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah. It could be to the Speaker of the House. It could go ahead and be the janitor in the West Wing.
N. Rodgers: It doesn't have to be an elected official, does it? Well, the Chief Justice is not an elected official.
J. Aughenbaugh: No, he's not.
N. Rodgers: Does it have to be done publicly?
J. Aughenbaugh: No.
N. Rodgers: How does word get out that the president has.
J. Aughenbaugh: That's the thing. You want to do it publicly so that everybody knows.
N. Rodgers: That you did it.
J. Aughenbaugh: You did it.
N. Rodgers: Because otherwise you would get the whole conspiracy lunatics on the Internet saying, he didn't actually take the oath. He's not really the president. We could go overthrow him at any moment. Because there are people who say that. They need to get out more. They need to touch grass.
J. Aughenbaugh: That would be particularly the case with presidents who a lot of people are-
N. Rodgers: Aren't really thrilled with.
J. Aughenbaugh: They're not thrilled with or they think that the vice president is pretty much the person behind the screen [inaudible].
N. Rodgers: Cheney Bush. You can see that argument being made.
J. Aughenbaugh: The last person to administer the oath who was not a Chief Justice was Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes in 1963, when she gave the oath to whom?
N. Rodgers: To Johnson. She's the one on the plane.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: She's the one on the plane after Kennedy was assassinated. That's who that woman is. She's the one administering the oath. Actually, what's interesting about that is the person standing next to Johnson is not Lady Bird. It's Jacqueline Kennedy. She's the one I think holding the Bible.
J. Aughenbaugh: Before we get to the Bible, I just want to briefly mention that.
N. Rodgers: Before you get to the Bible. Deeper words never spoken before we get to the Bible.
J. Aughenbaugh: Bible, yes. Listeners, I'm not being anti-religion here. I just wanted to mention before we moved on to swearing the oath on a Bible, about the vice president. Vice president's oath is usually taken before the president's. It's longer because it's actually required in federal law.
N. Rodgers: Is that because the vice president is also the president of the Senate?
J. Aughenbaugh: You could go ahead and make that argument, but nevertheless.
N. Rodgers: You can make that argument, Nia, but that's not it.
J. Aughenbaugh: The reality is, for a good chunk of our country's history, we didn't know if the vice president immediately became president if the office of president became vacant.
N. Rodgers: That's like, what? The 23rd? Is that the 23rd Amendment or the 25th?
J. Aughenbaugh: It's the 25th.
N. Rodgers: Thank you.
J. Aughenbaugh: When we go ahead and look that up listening.
N. Rodgers: We have the correct. It's the 25th Amendment.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, the 25th Amendment. In listeners that was one of our infamous teaching moments, because even ''experts'' sometimes don't know the answers right off the top of their head. It's quite alright to go ahead and look up information to make sure that you are accurate.
N. Rodgers: As long as you check the correct place. Where I went was the National Constitution Center which is likely to be correct as opposed to Bob's Yata Data website.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Where you have no idea who's in charge of that.
J. Aughenbaugh: Where Bob is sitting in the basement of his 80-year-old mom's house.
N. Rodgers: Making stuff up.
J. Aughenbaugh: Making stuff up.
N. Rodgers: You can also look at Wikipedia. For things like this, that's a reasonable place to look. That came because of Kennedy. Because before that, there had been no clarity about.
J. Aughenbaugh: Well, but also with the vice president, how do you know that the vice president has taken office? Why not by the same logic do what Presidents do?
N. Rodgers: Swear enough. Makes sense. What is the if?
J. Aughenbaugh: It's a little bit longer. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I'm about to enter, so help me God. That is actually required by law of the Vice Presidential oath.
N. Rodgers: That sounds familiar. Is that oath also administered to other people?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Because I think I've heard people repeat that before.
J. Aughenbaugh: You particularly see this with officers in the military.
N. Rodgers: Maybe that's where I'm hearing it.
J. Aughenbaugh: A few moments ago we mentioned the Bible.
N. Rodgers: Wait. Who administers the Vice President's oath?
J. Aughenbaugh: That could be pretty much.
N. Rodgers: Could that be the aforementioned flying monkey as long as it can administer an oath?
J. Aughenbaugh: Well, theoretically yes if monkeys are flying.
N. Rodgers: Generally is it a Supreme?
J. Aughenbaugh: Typically it's a Supreme Court justice, but not necessarily the chief.
N. Rodgers: Because chief's busy messing up the other one. Sorry J. Rob, had to get it in there.
J. Aughenbaugh: Wow.
N. Rodgers: Generally speaking I know, and you know I love him too. I know. He's somewhere going, hey, is that a knife in my back?
J. Aughenbaugh: This is just throwing fire here today. Not shade, but fire.
N. Rodgers: But generally speaking that probably would be a different Supreme Court justice, because the chief is occupied.
J. Aughenbaugh: I guess.
N. Rodgers: How long before the president does the vice president? Is right before?
J. Aughenbaugh: Typically yes, and some of the vice presidents don't even do it on the inauguration stage.
N. Rodgers: They do it inside casually and then okay. Well and I would imagine that. Forgive me, this is a staging thing in terms of when I used to be a stage manager in college. You don't want to take away from the big moment from the president, so I could also see why the vice president might do that privately or a smaller episode. That you're not standing on the main stage going, then there's me. The president is like, what are you doing?
J. Aughenbaugh: The lead actor in this production is the president. Remember listeners is we've discussed on this podcast, vice presidents for most of our country history were basically just pretty much waiting for presidents to die, because otherwise they weren't given a lot to do.
N. Rodgers: They opened a lot of shopping malls.
J. Aughenbaugh: They attended a lot of state funerals.
N. Rodgers: State funerals. They were waiting for somebody to die, either the president.
J. Aughenbaugh: The president.
N. Rodgers: Or the president of something else.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: They just sat around on death watch.
J. Aughenbaugh: The Bible, this is a tradition. Taking the oath by placing one's hand on a Bible actually began with our first President George Washington. Some have claimed that Washington also started the practice of saying at the end of the oath, so help me God. Others argued that it did not occur until much later. Some have said it's more of a practice of modern times. There is audio recordings of Herbert Hoover adding so help me God.
N. Rodgers: Wait, Herbert Hoover? I thought Herbert Hoover just agreed. Do you agree to do that it?
J. Aughenbaugh: I do. He said I do.
N. Rodgers: Like he was marrying the office.
J. Aughenbaugh: He was marrying the Chief Justice who at the time was William Howard Taft.
N. Rodgers: Who would not have wanted to marry him?
J. Aughenbaugh: Who probably looked at him side eye.
N. Rodgers: Like you're supposed to repeat.
J. Aughenbaugh: But the Bible and not all presidents have sworn an oath on the Bible.
N. Rodgers: Really?
J. Aughenbaugh: Most infamously Teddy Roosevelt refused.
N. Rodgers: That's interesting.
J. Aughenbaugh: Which is probably not all that surprising.
N. Rodgers: No, Teddy was a maverick kind of a guy.
J. Aughenbaugh: He was recalcitrant. Most have used a family Bible.
N. Rodgers: It would seem pretty standard that you would bring your family Bible, or you would bring somebody's family Bible to take your oath.
J. Aughenbaugh: Again, the practice not in the Constitution, you place your left hand on the Bible and you raise your right hand.
N. Rodgers: Which is what you do in court?
J. Aughenbaugh: That's right.
N. Rodgers: Let me ask a question if it's okay, please. Like in court, you can choose to swear your oath on a Koran?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: On various other religious texts? If that is what your faith would have you do, could a president conceivably do the same thing. If we had a Muslim President, could they swear on a Koran?
J. Aughenbaugh: Sure.
N. Rodgers: Because there's no rule about what kind of. If it doesn't matter whether you have a book or not, you could have. Like I could use Harry Potter.
J. Aughenbaugh: Sure.
N. Rodgers: If I felt strongly enough.
J. Aughenbaugh: I could pull out one of my favorite authors, whether it'd be Michael Connelly or John Lacare.
N. Rodgers: Then you'd have something to read during the inauguration while the other stuff is going on.
J. Aughenbaugh: It like that Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver during a playoff game this past Sunday who during the fourth quarter, the camera caught him reading a self help book while he's sitting on the bench.
N. Rodgers: That's awesome. Anytime you can make yourself feel better about stuff.
J. Aughenbaugh: Well hey, we encourage reading on this podcast.
N. Rodgers: Heck, can we.
J. Aughenbaugh: We do.
N. Rodgers: Actually, you would use some book noir, wouldn't you? Sasha Hammett or something?
J. Aughenbaugh: Raymond Chandler.
N. Rodgers: Sam Spade.
J. Aughenbaugh: I'd be sitting over there on the sideline. In Coach, this relaxes me.
N. Rodgers: I'd be reading Elizabeth Peters myself, but anyway. It can be with a book of any sort. It doesn't have the Bible. It's just because we are generally speaking a Christian nation.
J. Aughenbaugh: But again, it's customary, so much of this podcast episode is about custom and practice, because almost the rest of this discussion, listeners, is wholly unrelated to the US Constitution or federal law. Because once the president swears the oath, at that point, they're good to go. All the powers of the office of president now vest in them.
N. Rodgers: Is just ceremonial to do.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Because humans like that. We like ceremonial to do. Note the Rose Bowl parade, which people line up for days or the Macy's parade. My friend Neil says that it's not Thanksgiving until he's watched part of the Macy's Day parade. He just can't go forward because that's his entire life.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or, Nia, think about weddings.
N. Rodgers: Oh, my gosh. That is a wedding with the dresses and the suits and the flowers and the photographer and cake.
J. Aughenbaugh: Technically two people can show up at a local.
N. Rodgers: City hall.
J. Aughenbaugh: City hall
N. Rodgers: Sign the little marriage license thing.
J. Aughenbaugh: Licensing and be done with it.
N. Rodgers: But people spend a lot of money on.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or even think about, for instance, high school or college graduation.
N. Rodgers: I didn't go to mine, but yes, they are very ceremonial.
J. Aughenbaugh: The reality is, you graduated from college.
N. Rodgers: You graduated whether you went because I still graduated even though I didn't go to any of the ceremonies.
J. Aughenbaugh: In most college graduation ceremonies, you don't get your real diploma.
N. Rodgers: Oh, no. They hand you a blank piece of paper and say, "We'll mail that to you." In part because professors don't have their final grades in. But also can you imagine the nightmare of keeping those in order at a graduation ceremony like VCU? You'd end up with somebody else's. It just would inevitably happen that one would get off and everybody would end up with somebody else's diploma.
J. Aughenbaugh: Let's talk about the rest of the inauguration.
N. Rodgers: Ceremony.
J. Aughenbaugh: Nia has taken the oath on a Harry Potter book.
N. Rodgers: No. Elizabeth Peters, but yes.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or Elizabeth Peters. At that point, she strides to the podium, and then she gives what is known as the inaugural address.
N. Rodgers: Hopefully, I don't say something stupid. I'm assuming that gets crafted by people.
J. Aughenbaugh: You have speech writers who will go ahead and craft it. This again, began with our first president. George Washington gave an inaugural address. Most of GW's inaugural addresses, by today's standards were quite short. In fact, his second one clocked in at 135 words.
N. Rodgers: All right everybody, let's get to work, basically.
J. Aughenbaugh: But others are extremely long and Nia and I are both shocked by William Henry Harrison's. His was over 8,000 words.
N. Rodgers: Can I say something here? I'm not going to sit still for an 8,000 word inauguration unless you are the most eye candied president that has ever lived in the history of presidents. You're going to have to be so pretty, so handsome. You are going to have to make, what is his name, Justin Trudeau look like the ugly duckling, in order for me to sit through an 8,000-word. He read them a book.
J. Aughenbaugh: It better be 8000-word.
N. Rodgers: It better be so good. It better be.
J. Aughenbaugh: I want a song.
N. Rodgers: It better be a Beyonce concert is what it needs to be.
J. Aughenbaugh: I want song, I want dance, I want acrobats,.
N. Rodgers: Exactly.
J. Aughenbaugh: I want circus clowns, and I want an intermission.
N. Rodgers: I want an intermission. I'm going to need a party break. Sorry.
J. Aughenbaugh: Because Nia and listeners, in our previous podcast episode where we talked about favorite political films, even I pointed out that long films should have an intermission. If you're given an inaugural dress at 8,000 words, not only do I want the entertainment we just mentioned, but I want a coffee break. Nia, in your case, you want a party break. I want to stand up, stretch.
N. Rodgers: I may need a snack.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes. There should be waiters coming around taking drinking food orders.
N. Rodgers: Exactly. The thing about it is is 8,000-words. That's a lot to read to people. Most of the people at the inauguration are standing. Most people are not sitting. You are making people stand there while you talk. I am all about the Washington level of address. I want to say something punchy and interesting and then move on, like I, because I don't want to torture the people. I don't want people to say later, "Well, I lost one of my feet at the inauguration because I got so cold. I got frostbite because I was standing in one place for so long." It did have a mall effect, did it not?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah. Because Harrison so at that time, the inauguration was in March. Now it's done in January. But even in March in Washington in DC.
N. Rodgers: In DC.
J. Aughenbaugh: There was inclement weather. He caught a cold and he died of pneumonia a month later. But many presidents lay out their agenda with their inauguration address. Some of them are extremely well known. Abraham Lincoln, for instance, not surprising because he was really good at giving speeches. With his first one, he attempted to dissuade Southern border states from seceding not successfully, and at his second inauguration, he tried to, if you will, bring the country back together with the infamous phrase, "malice toward none and charity for all.".
N. Rodgers: Trying to make peace.
J. Aughenbaugh: Make peace. Teddy Roosevelt heralded, if you will, the United States moving on from isolationism, because he discussed at length how American democracy was not only important for Americans but for the rest of the world. Roosevelt's first inauguration was, he gave us the infamous phrase, "The only thing Americans had to fear was fear itself," because he was trying to, if you will, buck up the country that was going through the Great Depression. JFK.
J. Aughenbaugh: Nia, what did JFK ask of the nation?
N. Rodgers: Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. He was making a call to public service. In fact, on his watch, isn't that when the.
J. Aughenbaugh: Peace Corps.
N. Rodgers: Thank you. The Peace Corps was formed under his presidency, wasn't it?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, and it was expanded during the Johnson administration. Then Ronald Reagan, I mean, you want to talk about somebody who was going to set the tone.
N. Rodgers: You have to admire it.
J. Aughenbaugh: Reagan ran for office arguing that the federal government had gotten too large.
N. Rodgers: Was bloated and a mess.
J. Aughenbaugh: In that some functions of the federal government should be returned to the states. He had an infamous quote, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." It pretty much became the mantra of an entire generation of Republicans in the United States. Government is the problem. But again, listeners, you know this about me. I've said this about the State of the Union address. Presidents don't have to give a speech. They don't have to give an inauguration address.
N. Rodgers: But there is no chance whatsoever that if you are narcissistic enough to run for president of the United States and win you are not going to take an opportunity to address the people. There is no way that you would combine a person who is shy with a person who's being president. That's just not going to happen.
J. Aughenbaugh: You have a captive audience, not only at the event, but across the country. You're going to want to utilize it. Now, there's other aspects. Nia gets done giving her emotional, powerful inauguration address.
N. Rodgers: I can only hope.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes. At that point in time. Well, even before. Now, let's talk about some of the other aspects. Before even the inauguration, Nia, how do you get to the inauguration? Which, by the way, is now typically on the West Portico of the White House. It used to be on the East. Now it's the West because you got a better view of the Capitol in the mall, etc., in Washington, DC. Nia, how do you get there?
N. Rodgers: How do I get there or how are you supposed to get there?
J. Aughenbaugh: You show up in Uber?
N. Rodgers: That's what I would do. I'd be like, drop me over there.
J. Aughenbaugh: No, you would not.
N. Rodgers: No I am kidding. Generally speaking.
J. Aughenbaugh: Because you're a narcissist.
N. Rodgers: Generally speaking, what happens is they walk. They walk from where they are staying to the portico, and they wave to the crowds.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Part of that is to be seen, but part of that is also to be with the people on the day of the inauguration. Because a lot of people are not going to get into the actual inauguration.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: But they do line the parade route. They get to wave and they get to see you, and it's very ceremonial, again that idea of the bride walking down the aisle, all about that is so that every eye is on her. That's the point of that walk is that she has her moment of being in the spotlight. I think that that's part of what the parade does. Forgive me, I know this is going to sound rude. It also shows that the president is physically able to walk and to get from one place to another. He's ambulatory in some way.
J. Aughenbaugh: But if you think about it, listeners, our first presidents actually allowed the public to come to the White House. Come on in.
N. Rodgers: That didn't work out with Andrew Jackson, because that turned into a brawl because got drunk and it went off the rails in a big way. But didn't it? I got that right with Andrew Jackson?
J. Aughenbaugh: It was Andrew Jackson's inauguration, which again, was yet another reason why Washington DC elites were just like, my goodness.
N. Rodgers: Who's this guy?
J. Aughenbaugh: We just elected this Tennessee hick look at what his hick friends have done to our White House. [LAUGHTER] I love it.
N. Rodgers: Think your parents go away for the weekend, and you have what is later called an infamous party at your high school. People are like, man, do you remember that party at Aughenbaugh's house that weekend? Because it's that memorable. But it's the kind of memorable that your parents are like, do you know how much money it's going to cost for us to fix this?
J. Aughenbaugh: Eventually you have presidents begin to do parades.
N. Rodgers: Where there's a parade, there's a marching band.
J. Aughenbaugh: My favorite is the inauguration parade for Bill Clinton's second inauguration. The parade featured floats, choirs, and marching bands from all 50 states.
N. Rodgers: Go big or go home.
J. Aughenbaugh: You imagine if you were in the marching band, and you got selected to represent the entirety of the state of Montana. First of all, you got to go to DC, but second of all, you're in a parade for the president of the United States second inauguration.
N. Rodgers: Now let us take a moment here to note that all of the participants in the parade pay for themselves to get to DC and pay for themselves to stay in DC.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: The same way they do when they do the Rose Bowl, the same way they do with the Macy's, any big parade, that's why schools run fundraisers to get their bands to these events.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Because there is not a federal fund for the presidential parade. Inaugural committees, which the president generally appoints the head of an inaugural committee, and then that person gets all their rich friends to work on the inaugural stuff together, which is the balls and the lunches and all that stuff. But it's not funded by taxpayers.
J. Aughenbaugh: The only part of the inauguration that is covered by taxpayers is the Secret Service for the outgoing president and vice president, the incoming vice president and president.
N. Rodgers: Which it should be. Security should be paid for.
J. Aughenbaugh: Then the architect's office of the Capital, which has the Capitol Police Department. That is paid for by taxpayer dollars. Everything else after the president gives the inaugural address is basically paid for out of private money. That includes also the parade leading up to the inauguration, as Nia just described. This has been widely reported.
N. Rodgers: I mean, it's a great honor to get to go. But you're going to have to fund it yourself.
J. Aughenbaugh: This has been widely reported in regards to incoming President Trump's second inauguration. Trump has, at least according to the New York Times, raised nearly $170,000,000 for his second inauguration.
N. Rodgers: What happens to the money if they don't spend it all on the parties?
J. Aughenbaugh: That can be then set aside for future political action committee expenditures. Yes.
N. Rodgers: Including his legal fund?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Not saying he will do that.
J. Aughenbaugh: But it's private money.
N. Rodgers: But let's just say for a moment, $170 million. That's a lot of money. But Joe Biden brought in how much?
J. Aughenbaugh: $62 million.
N. Rodgers: These presidents are like Bridezillas. They're not throwing a wedding. They're throwing the wedding of the season.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: They want to outdo whatever Poor Schmuck came before them. In that sense, you're right. It's exactly like a wedding. The more money you have, the more poofy it gets and the venues that you can rent and the food that you can provide and all that stuff just goes up and up in expense.
J. Aughenbaugh: It is the hot ticket of the social season in Washington, DC.
N. Rodgers: Even if it's a president you don't like, you still want to be seen.
J. Aughenbaugh: After the inauguration itself, in the speech that Nia has just given, then you're going to have a series of lunches.
N. Rodgers: Well, you're not going to actually get to eat anything because you're going to have to glad-hand people.
J. Aughenbaugh: Of course.
N. Rodgers: You should have a kind bar or something in the car, because that's what you're really going to need, going from lunch to lunch because you have to show up. I would have to show up. By the way, will you be my vice president?
J. Aughenbaugh: Well, of course, Nia.
N. Rodgers: Because then you can do half of them and I can do half of them. Isn't that how that works?
J. Aughenbaugh: It's similar to a wedding reception.
N. Rodgers: The groom works half the bride works. That's the rule.
J. Aughenbaugh: If there are tables filled with people who neither one of you really want to go ahead and talk to.
N. Rodgers: Your mother-in-law's do it.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or you divide them up. Well, if I got this table, then you have to go ahead and deal with uncle so and so and Aunt Joan who neither of us really like, but we're pretty much obligated to have them here and they probably gave us a really sweet gift. That's the other thing.
N. Rodgers: A huge number of these people are donors.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: You have to schmooze them. Here's the thing. You may not be president again, but the likelihood is that your party will continue. Unless you just completely destroy your party, which I would think modernly would be really difficult to do. Unless you completely destroy your party, those people will be donors to your party in the future. You need to woo them. You need them to have a good experience. You need them to say, that was just lovely. Here, let me write you a check for $1 million or whatever.
J. Aughenbaugh: You want them to continue to want to grab their pen and the proverbial checkbook for not only your inauguration but future-year political parties and campaigns?
N. Rodgers: Is there a limit to how much they can write that check for?
J. Aughenbaugh: No. There is no limit.
N. Rodgers: Does it have to be reported?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, it does. It has to be reported to the Federal Election Commission.
N. Rodgers: Has anybody ever scalp their tickets?
J. Aughenbaugh: Well, yes, scalping does go on. This is particularly the case for Trump's second inauguration. Trump's inaugural committee is no longer selling tickets to major donors for the swearing-in ceremony or the private inauguration balls. Some major donors are already grousing or already complaining that they aren't getting access to the top-notch private events, even though they have already donated, in some cases, over $1 million dollars.
N. Rodgers: Please tell me there's a waiting list.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, there is.
N. Rodgers: That's the worst. You have to have an outfit. You have to be ready to go, but then you may be disappointed and not go.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Waiting lists are the worst.
J. Aughenbaugh: According to the New York Times article, if you wanted access to six tickets to six private events, you either had to give $1 million, or you had to raise $2 million for Trump's inaugural committee. By the way, the big event is after the swearing-in ceremony, where you would be guaranteed a prime seat behind all the elected officials is the candlelight dinner the night before with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. Yes.
N. Rodgers: Can I just say he knows how to work it?
J. Aughenbaugh: Sure he is. He's a businessman. He knows this. He probably has three or four different tuxes depending on which event. He has a tux for the pre-inauguration candlelight dinner, he's probably got two or three suits for the inauguration and the lunches that follow. He's going to be changing as much as Taylor Swift at one of her concerts. Seriously. By the way, listeners, in just a few moments, we are going to get to the attire of some of the participants. This stuff gets reviewed. It's extremely important. Again, symbolically, are there any other historical or customs before we get to attire that you wanted to go ahead and deal with or address?
N. Rodgers: We were talking earlier about the fact that it does not have to be in DC. It can be anywhere.
N. Rodgers: Theoretically, and this is what we'll be doing during our inauguration. We're going to move it someplace warmer, because there is no reason to be this cold. I get the symbolism of DC I do. I get the mall and the beauty of the mall because I love the mall. I think the mall is actually beautiful, the way it's set up and I love to go walk on the mall, but seriously, making people stand outside in weather that will be likely in the teens next week.
J. Aughenbaugh: Because next week is supposed to get really cold, for the Northern half of the United States in the Mid Atlantic this year.
N. Rodgers: I'm not interested in that I think we could hold it in our "summer retreat", which I don't know where you and I will have a summer retreat, but we'll have to figure that out.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or Nia you could do this, you could do like the National Football League has warm weather locations.
N. Rodgers: Without for bid.
J. Aughenbaugh: Or bid, because the Super Bowl is usually either in indoor stadiums, or in stadiums in the South. Because the Super Bowl usually occurs late January and February.
N. Rodgers: This year I think it's in New Orleans.
J. Aughenbaugh: You can't hold the Super Bowl for instance in Buffalo, in early February.
N. Rodgers: Yeah, that'd be stupid.
J. Aughenbaugh: The NFL has stadiums and communities.
N. Rodgers: Or university, because the university like Alabama has a huge stadium. I think it holds 108,000 people.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah. If you think about it, you could have communities in the Deep South, where it's warm in January.
N. Rodgers: Right, and it would help the community with tourism.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: I'm just saying there's some benefit to moving this bad boy around, and there are plenty of beautiful places in the United States, wow but always beautiful.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: I'm here to tell you there are plenty of other beautiful places in the United States. It could be held in a lot of different places, there are stadiums in Texas that hold 200,000 people, or I think 200,000 that's a lot.
J. Aughenbaugh: Think about the River Walk in San Antonio.
N. Rodgers: Or downtown Memphis so beautiful.
J. Aughenbaugh: Memphis. Beale Street in New Orleans.
N. Rodgers: Great.
J. Aughenbaugh: Historical.
N. Rodgers: There plenty of places in [CROSSOVER] Atlanta. The New York of the South. There are plenty of places to hold it. Austin's beautiful and it's weird. Keep Austin weird, you can hold inauguration there. I get it symbolism base of government, but presidents are president regardless of where they are, which is why a lot of them have retreats elsewhere. Eisenhower hung out in Denver, Trump hangs out at Mar-a-Lago.
J. Aughenbaugh: FDR had a place in Georgia.
N. Rodgers: Same with Carter, he had his place in Plains, his farm in Plains, like they just.
J. Aughenbaugh: Bush 43.
N. Rodgers: I don't think we need to be locked in.
J. Aughenbaugh: But the location can vary. Washington's first inauguration took place in New York, because the Capitol was not yet built. John Adams was located in Philadelphia, Jefferson was the first president to do the inauguration in DC but he did it in the Senate chamber in the Capitol.
N. Rodgers: Inside, that makes sense.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes. Then starting with Andrew Jackson, inauguration ceremonies were held on the Capital's East Portico. Reagan was the first president to take the oath on the West Portico of the Capitol because that looks out on the Mall. Then you have the issue of whether or not January 20th is on a Sunday.
N. Rodgers: Because then you have to move it to the Monday.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, move it to the Monday.
N. Rodgers: You move it later not earlier, unlike paydays which get moved earlier.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Presidential inaugurations get moved later.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: If it's on a Saturday or Sunday, it gets moved to the following Monday. Hence why we this year are having an inauguration on the same day as MLK.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah.
N. Rodgers: But know actually it falls on the 20th, anyway.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah.
N. Rodgers: The other thing I want to ask about before we get to the clothing, which I think is an interesting part of this as well, is in case of emergency break the glass on this individual. Sometimes they don't have an inauguration for a variety of reasons. Assassination, it's usually seen as poor form to then have a big party. Like thank goodness that guy's dead, let's have a party that's really rude. You don't do it that way, also when the president resigns in disgrace. You don't really have a big inauguration. He took the oath of office.
J. Aughenbaugh: Gerald Ford did.
N. Rodgers: But we didn't have a big to do, because that again, would have been.
J. Aughenbaugh: It was a very somber, fair.
N. Rodgers: Would have been very jarring, for people to say, wait why are you having a big party when this is.
J. Aughenbaugh: We've had a number of presidents take the oath, and it wasn't in DC, we didn't have a big event. I'm talking about Vice Presidents Tyler, Phil More, Andrew Johnson after Lincoln was assassinated, Chester Arthur after Garfield was assassinated, Roosevelt took office in Buffalo New York, after the assassination of William McKinley.
N. Rodgers: That's right.
J. Aughenbaugh: He wasn't even in DC.
N. Rodgers: He wasn't even in the same city, McKinley was at the Chicago World's Fair.
J. Aughenbaugh: Coolidge was at home in Vermont when Harding died, and he was sworn in by his father who was a notary public and a justice of the peace.
N. Rodgers: How cool is that? Hey dad, can you administer this oath? Sure son.
J. Aughenbaugh: Listeners, as Nia already pointed out, LBJ was actually sworn in on board Air Force 1, after Kennedy's death. Then Gerald Ford was the last to take the oath.
N. Rodgers: In a sort of not hugely ceremonial way.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, non traditional on the Capitol. He took it in the East room of the White House.
N. Rodgers: Which again, I understand why you would want to do that. It just makes sense for people to. Can we bench him the first planned ball?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, I wanted to get to the parties before we get to First Lady attire.
N. Rodgers: Guess who's the first lady to have a ball?
J. Aughenbaugh: Dolly Madison was the first one to plan an official ball, it was in Long's Hotel in Washington, DC. Again her husband was president elect James Madison, guests paid $4, I love that.
N. Rodgers: Of course, back then, $4 was a lot of money.
J. Aughenbaugh: Inaugural balls have basically moved around DC. I like the fact that some of them have actually been held at government buildings, including the United States Patent Office in the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries building.
N. Rodgers: Which is kind of warehousy looking.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah because you want a large space so that people can dance.
N. Rodgers: Heck yeah.
J. Aughenbaugh: Woodrow Wilson actually canceled his inaugural balls for his second inauguration, because that actually occurred during which war?
N. Rodgers: World War I.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, World War I okay?
N. Rodgers: It would have been poor form to be all like let's have a party while our guys are over in France dying in the trenches.
J. Aughenbaugh: But I did not know this, and listeners one of the fascination one of the reasons why I love doing research for these podcast episodes, is I always find out something I had no idea. I thought that having multiple inauguration balls was something that probably originated in the early 1800s. That's not the case. The first president to have multiple inauguration balls was President Truman in 1949.
N. Rodgers: Yeah, but I bet he had a good reason. Truman seems like a guy who would have had a good reason.
J. Aughenbaugh: I don't know if he had a good reason or not, other than the fact that probably.
N. Rodgers: Wasn't it so that more people could participate and attend and be.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah to a certain extent, and also to.
N. Rodgers: Be part of the process.
J. Aughenbaugh: Truman was he was a product of the Democratic Party machine, I imagine there were various elements of the party that were like hey dude, we're responsible for you one, becoming a senator two becoming vice president and three becoming president. You owe us, so we need to have multiple balls, but I had imagined that it occurred early in the 1800s and that was not the case.
N. Rodgers: Yeah, I would have imagined Roosevelt.
J. Aughenbaugh: Any number of presidents in the 1800s, I would have thought would have had multiple balls, but it didn't occur.
N. Rodgers: Yeah, because Mary Lincoln Todd, she liked to dress up.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah.
N. Rodgers: Mary Todd Lincoln.
J. Aughenbaugh: Mary Todd Lincoln, but, if you think about for instance, Andrew Jackson. You would think that you would want to have multiple balls if you have a whole bunch of supporters who are willing to get so drunk and destroy the White House.
N. Rodgers: Is he also the person who had the big block of cheese?
J. Aughenbaugh: The big block of cheese day, yes.
N. Rodgers: Santos West Wing. Big Just look up the episode Big Block of Cheese.
J. Aughenbaugh: One day a year, he would open the White House.
N. Rodgers: When you listen to the people and the people's concerns, but occasionally, the people show up and get drunk and smash your place up.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes
N. Rodgers: Can I tell you a brief thing about Dolly Madison that I love?
J. Aughenbaugh: Go ahead.
N. Rodgers: Dolly Madison saved there was a fire in the White House, and Dolly Madison saved the original portrait of George Washington.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, she did.
N. Rodgers: She cut it out of the frame and she threw it out of a window to save it. When George W. Bush was unveiling his portrait, President and Michelle Obama were sitting there during the ceremony and to Michelle Obama, he said, now, if there's a fire in the White House, Dolly Madison cut the picture out, threw it out the window. He looked at his portrait and he looked at her and he winked. She busted out laughing because it was very sweet personal human moment between the two of them. I know that they're actually buddies anyway. When they're in public together, they share mints and stuff like that, but I thought, nice callback, both to history and to your friendship. Well done you, George Bush.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Excuse me. I'm sorry.
J. Aughenbaugh: The last part of this episode, I got to admit I had not included in my research notes. Nia, to her credit, went ahead and added an element to our preparation. This is probably the only time that I have or will probably the rest of my life, actually discuss dresses and attire.
N. Rodgers: You're going to show up to our inauguration in cargo pants, a Yankee sweatshirt, a ball cap and probably sandals because that's who you are. Maybe I could get you to wear tennis shoes. Actually, listeners, that's not true. When Aughie does Constitution Day, he wears a suit.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: He looks very handsome. He's got his whole thing going. He still has his coffee cup 'cause it's welded to his hand and he's incapable of putting one down. But he can dress nice if he has to. I assume that you wore a suit to your wedding, as well.
J. Aughenbaugh: I actually had a tux on.
N. Rodgers: See the thing about men and I'm about to have a little mini rant here. Men, unless you are in Hollywood and you're a certain man, you really don't have to put a whole lot of effort into your outfit. You have to wear a nice suit and hopefully it's tailored so that it fits you pretty decently.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: You've got to spend some decent amount of money on your suit for the swearing in ceremony. Then you go and you put on a tux. Unless you're incredibly foofy, you probably wear one or two tuxes the entire night.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: The ladies, well, actually, they don't change clothes.
J. Aughenbaugh: But the expectation is different.
N. Rodgers: Most of the time. The thing is, a man's tux is never, well, I shouldn't say never because there are people out there who are like, hold my beer. But generally speaking, it's not going to cost 15-$20,000 for a man's tux. If it is, there's something wrong with your tux or something wrong with your man. You have to think about those things. That's a Rhinestone tux and I don't know how I feel about that. Let's start first with the suit that you wear to your inauguration. It's probably a suit you've owned the whole time, you've probably been in public life in some way. You've either been a CEO or you've been a governor or you've been a senator. You own some suits. That's not a big deal, 'cause nobody cares what you wear, but the wife here for the First Lady has always been a woman. What they wear to the swearing in ceremony is usually a coat dress because cold. Yeah. They usually wear gloves and a hat. They often have fur accessories of some kind, although fur these days is out, but back in the day fur was in. It's to combat the cold temperatures. The First Ladies often go monochromatic.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, they do.
N. Rodgers: Because those look better in pictures.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, they do.
N. Rodgers: That's one of the reasons that they do that, is that looks better in pictures. They're not trying to upstage their suit wearing husband.
J. Aughenbaugh: Let me stop you right there, Nia. It's a very fine line to walk when you are the First Lady and I imagine this. I don't know if it will be the case if we have a first man or when we have a first man, but it's a very fine line to walk. On one hand, you want to look elegant.
N. Rodgers: Classic.
J. Aughenbaugh: Classic.
N. Rodgers: That's why you don't wear some crazy thing to the swearing in.
J. Aughenbaugh: On the other end, you can't look so good that you upstage, again, who's supposed to be the lead actor.
N. Rodgers: Exactly.
J. Aughenbaugh: In this production, which is the president elect.
N. Rodgers: Exactly. A lot of the First Ladies downplay their look, they wear simpler stuff. Not all of them, but most of them do. Here's the thing about the evening dresses, which I just thought was fascinating. First of all, there is no budget for the First Lady.
J. Aughenbaugh: None.
N. Rodgers: There is a budget for the president. President gets a $50,000 clothing allowance, which I assume he immediately turns over to his wife because nobody cares what he's wearing and they care what she's wearing. But I don't know that for sure. Here's the deal. Designers cannot give the First Lady an expensive dress that she then keeps.
J. Aughenbaugh: Correct.
N. Rodgers: Because there's inurement clauses that don't allow for that.
J. Aughenbaugh: That's right.
N. Rodgers: You have to be careful about how much money you accept in private gifts. That does not mean that they can't offer her a discount.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Many of them do, because that is what they commonly do not just with First ladies, but with celebrities. As long as it's being offered to other people, she's not running afoul of the law because it's not being offered just to the First Lady. It's also being offered to Katy Perry and Beyonce and whoever else is wearing a designer dress.
J. Aughenbaugh: Correct. Of course, and listeners, again, you might be thinking, well, that's not really good business sense for these designers.
N. Rodgers: To a 40% discount?
J. Aughenbaugh: But yes, it is.
N. Rodgers: But [inaudible] a name in every paper?
J. Aughenbaugh: Think about it, for instance, Jason Wu provided both of Michelle Obama's dresses.
N. Rodgers: Did anybody know him before Michelle Obama chose him?
J. Aughenbaugh: Again, I'm not a fashionista by any stretch of imagination.
N. Rodgers: The answer is no.
J. Aughenbaugh: But even I became aware of Jason Wu as a designer because I read all of these stories about Barack Obama's inauguration, and they always had a paragraph about who provided the dresses for Michelle Obama.
N. Rodgers: The First Ladies, starting in 1909, donated their dresses to the National Archives.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: In many instances, it will say something like gift from Alexandria O'Neal in honor of the First Lady Jill Biden or gift from Jason Wu in honor of the First Lady Michelle Obama.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: It's the designer that's giving the dress because the First Lady has not paid for it.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Melania Trump's dress, her Ave Pierre dress, does not say that in the National Archives because she paid for her dress.
J. Aughenbaugh: That's what also Laura Bush did.
N. Rodgers: Exactly.
J. Aughenbaugh: She paid for both of them. Then she donated them.
N. Rodgers: In fact, in her memoir, she mentions that their accountant came to them the first year and said, it's expensive to be president. He was like, no, it's expensive to have a First Lady.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Part of it is because the First Lady is seen as an emblem of American culture and American fashion most of the time. Now, a couple of First ladies have gone European because they were trying to change the standard of what American beauty looks like. For instance, Kennedy Onassis, she wore Oleg Cassini, but do you know who paid for her dress?
J. Aughenbaugh: Her father-in-law did.
N. Rodgers: Her father-in-law. Joseph Kennedy Senior did not want there to be a question about that expensive dress being paid for by the American public. In fact, no American public has paid for any inaugural dress ever. Todd Lincoln, she went into so much debt for her clothes that she talked about selling manure from the White House to pay off the debt.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: It's a weird thing where these women don't have a budget, but they are expected to be very fashion forward. The way some of them deal with it is like the way Michelle Obama dealt with it, which was she bought a lot of separates so that she could mix up her outfits. It would look like she had a variety in her wardrobe that she didn't have. But my favorite story is Laura Bush and I'll end on this because I just adore Laura Bush on a variety of levels, partly because she's a librarian.
N. Rodgers: She shows up for an interview with a news station, and there's a picture of her wearing the same outfit that she's currently wearing. She's like, oh, crap. She and her press secretary exchange shirts, so that it looks like she has more variety in her in her clothing outfits, in her outfits. It's a tough line to find where you want to look good, but you don't want to upstage, as Aggie said, but you also need to not wear the same outfit over and over, because then it looks like America's too poor to have have a First Lady that has a lot of different clothes. But then again, sometimes the First Ladies get into trouble with their clothes, Melania Trump with her jacket, I don't care do you. She was visiting migrants in.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Texas. Probably not the best look.
J. Aughenbaugh: Again, listeners, it's not lost on Nia and I that the expectations we place on First Ladies.
N. Rodgers: Are ridiculous.
J. Aughenbaugh: Are ridiculous, because we don't want them to embarrass. The president, on the other hand, if it was the first man.
N. Rodgers: IT happens.
J. Aughenbaugh: We have our doubts that the public and the press would be giving any thought whatsoever, to what they're wearing.
N. Rodgers: Exactly.
J. Aughenbaugh: Whether or not there is variety.
N. Rodgers: Exactly. It's the same thing that happens on a red carpet. Almost no actor is asked. Who are you wearing?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: But almost every actress is asked, Who were you wearing?
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: They are supposed to be able to say, my dress is by so and so, my shoes are by so and so. My jewelry is lane jewelers, whoever's loaned all that stuff. I will tell you that there is one standout that's interesting to me as we wrap up here, and that is Jill Biden wore a matching face mask.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, I recall that.
N. Rodgers: To her because it was during COVID.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: All the pictures of her in that beautiful peacock blue coat dress that she's wearing for the swearing in ceremony, she's wearing a matching peacock blue.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: Mask. No, I think it's cool that they made a matching mask cause like but it is going to be an interesting thing to look back on the retrospective photographs. But the other thing the last bit, and I promise it's really the last bit is many of the older if you're asking yourself, why didn't Mary Todd Lincoln? Why didn't a lot of the other Ida Roosevelt? Why didn't a lot of the other people give their dresses to the Smithsonian? The answer is because they cut them up to make new dresses out of its fashion changed because until the turn of the 20th century until the early 1900s, fabric was rare. You didn't just have bolts and bolts, I don't care how wealthy you were. You didn't have bolts and bolts of fabric that you could give away dresses, pell-mell without reusing the fabric. It's only because the modern era of industry that we get first ladies that are able to give their dresses to the national archives. But if you ever get a chance to go to the Smithsonian, the Smithsonian has a permanent collection of ladies the inaugural dresses, it is fascinating to me to go look. It is fascinating to me to realize that all of these people in general were very tiny people. All of the First Ladies, except Barbara Bush senior in the modern era, were quite thin and very small. Designers also like putting their clothes on thin women. It makes it's aspirational. There's a whole relationship there between designers and First Ladies that's complicated.
J. Aughenbaugh: There you go, folks. For those of you who had and by the way, listeners, this podcast episode, the idea for it actually came from.
N. Rodgers: From Julie. Shout out to Julie.
J. Aughenbaugh: Shout out to Julie, because we had not planned on doing an inauguration episode. But as we dug into this, we were like, There's a lot of meat to this bone.
N. Rodgers: What's fascinating is there is actually no meat to this bone. You got to take an oath. That's it. All the meat on this bone is added.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: It's all stuff that tradition, which means that a president could start a new tradition at any time.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes.
N. Rodgers: I'm looking forward to seeing what Donald Trump will do with his second.
J. Aughenbaugh: I still remember listeners, the big deal that it was when Reagan moved the inauguration swearing in address from the East Portico to the West Portico of the Capitol, because there were a whole bunch of traditionals who were like, we always do it on the East. He was just like, but we're going to look out onto the mall. A symbol of American democracy.
N. Rodgers: He was an actor. He liked settings.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yes, you love settings. But it's customary. It's performative. It's symbolic. I still remember when Jimmy Carter got out of the limousine and started walking during his parade, and the director of the Secret Service in one of the rare times to where the Secret Service actually publicly commented on procedures, said, they weren't all that happy that President Carter decided to go off script.
N. Rodgers: He was the first person to walk. Not just ride in the limousine and wait.
J. Aughenbaugh: Modern presidents. Because presidents in the 1800s. They basically had a couple of choices. Either they were in a horse drawn carriage or they walked. But there's Carter. man of the People.
N. Rodgers: Sit down of the limousine. He's still walking.
J. Aughenbaugh: And the Secret Services, it's like, huh?
N. Rodgers: No, sir. This is a bad idea. No, we're walking. I would imagine that for just a brief moment, I hope that he said to Rosalind, can you walk in those shoes the rest of the week? You do need to take that into account. You can.
J. Aughenbaugh: Yeah, because if you're a good partner and your partner wears high heels every once in a while, you need to ask that question. Can you handle this terrain and can you walk that distance in no shoe?
N. Rodgers: Because otherwise, we'll stay in the car. The thing to me about that, which I think is interesting is most of the First Ladies don't look particularly comfortable in their outfits in part because most of them are just regular women, they've been wives of politicians for the most part, but they haven't done a whole lot of I'll tell you what the Melania Trump, she can work a room because she's a model. She was a professional model. She just owns a stage when she walks across it. I'm like, that's a person who doesn't need to be taught how to walk or how to turn in her dress. She's got it. I'm looking forward to seeing what she wears this year.
J. Aughenbaugh: Because many of our First Ladies have been really good politicians wives. But they've not desired.
N. Rodgers: To be hugely public.
J. Aughenbaugh: Public. The limelight. You know if you think about some of the First Ladies that we've just mentioned from Laura Bush, who by all accounts, was very happy being a librarian.
N. Rodgers: Quiet shy person.
J. Aughenbaugh: Michelle Obama did not necessarily want to be a politician's wife. Barack Obama has written about that and spoken about that a couple of different times.
N. Rodgers: Jill Biden is a professor.
J. Aughenbaugh: These are people who would have been quite content never be too definitely be on a stage where their attire choices would be reviewed like it was a new US foreign policy that would affect the rest of the world.
N. Rodgers: Exactly. We could probably put some of that away now. Thank you, Aughie. It's interesting to me how much of this is just, we've always done it this way, except we haven't. It's added tradition over time as people want to do things or as people need to do things.
J. Aughenbaugh: The Constitution is written versus the Constitution in practice. The Constitution in practice, you can't give a better example than what we do when we have this "peaceful transition of power." Thanks, Nia.
N. Rodgers: Thank you, Aughie