Sticking with Diet Coke, Lincoln and his little blue pill, and a Presidential-sized hangover. Politicians like to be seen as being able to connect with the common people, but if your idea of a good time is grabbing a drink, count these Presidents out.
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00:00Sticking with Diet Coke, Lincoln and his little blue pill, and a presidential-sized hangover.
00:06Politicians like to be seen as being able to connect with the common people, but if
00:09your idea of a good time is grabbing a drink, count these presidents out.
00:13Whiskey, wine, and cider flowed freely in the early days of the White House until 9th
00:19President William Henry Harrison entered the scene. Harrison, the son of a wealthy plantation
00:23owner and politician in Virginia, was one of the soberest presidents to take office.
00:28Yet, a tall tale about hard cider was at the center of his presidential campaign. In 1840,
00:34Harrison ran against incumbent President Martin Van Buren, who was not above dabbling in smear
00:38tactics to pull ahead of Harrison in the presidential race. Van Buren and the Democrats portrayed
00:43Harrison as an elderly grouch, who would rather spend his days holed up in a log cabin with
00:47a barrel of hard cider than serve the American people.
00:50William Henry Harrison wasn't born in a log cabin, but nonetheless, this becomes the enduring
00:55symbol of that campaign.
00:57Harrison and the Whig Party were smart enough to flip the script and used the image of Harrison
01:01socializing outside a log cabin with hard cider as a promotional part of his campaign.
01:06Rather than risk criticism for being a non-drinking man of privileged means, Harrison played up
01:10the facade to appear more relatable to the common man. It worked, but the results were
01:15notoriously brief. Harrison died one month after his 1841 inauguration, making his presidential
01:20term the shortest in U.S. history.
01:24President James K. Polk was one of the first presidents to be remarkably unexcited about
01:28drinking. Polk, the 11th president, came from a conservative Southern family, and was perhaps
01:33the most sullen man to ever rock a mullet hairstyle. Polk was the ultimate wallflower
01:38who didn't bother with friends or any interests outside of politics. His wife, Sarah, was
01:42a devout Presbyterian who banned card games, liquor, dancing, and music from White House
01:47receptions.
01:48President Polk was awkward in social situations and known to look to Sarah as an advisor,
01:52so he went along with it. On rare occasions, he imbibed modest amounts of wine, which was
01:56served during formal White House dinners. Professional rival Sam Houston once called
02:00Polk, quote, a victim of the use of water as a beverage. This may have been true. Months
02:06after leaving office, Polk contracted cholera and died at age 53.
02:11Twelfth President Zachary Taylor was the kind of guy who felt more comfortable attempting
02:14to colonize Mexico on the battlefield than he did talking smack at the bar. Historical
02:18accounts of Taylor's personal drinking habits maintain that he abstained from alcohol.
02:23That didn't mean that Taylor was opposed to other people drinking at the White House.
02:27Taylor provided wine to White House guests on the principle of diplomacy, although he
02:31didn't receive visitors at his presidential home for long. After being in office for just
02:3516 months, Taylor fell seriously ill after attending a 4th of July celebration at the
02:39grounds that would soon be home to the Washington Monument.
02:43In typical alcohol-free fashion, Taylor spent the sweltering holiday afternoon gorging on
02:47cherries and iced milk, which doctors pinpointed as the culprit of Taylor's severe gastroenteritis.
02:53He died days later, on July 9, 1850.
02:57In the wake of President Zachary Taylor's sudden death in July 1850, Taylor's vice president,
03:02Millard Fillmore, took office. Fillmore, like his predecessor, wasn't a drinker. According
03:06to Robert J. Raback's Millard Fillmore Biography of a President, a presidential visit to London
03:12in 1855 was the only time Fillmore tried alcohol. On a tour of the city's winehouses,
03:17Fillmore recalled being, quote, "'slightly fuddled' by merely moistening his lips with
03:21such a variety of liquids."
03:23Fillmore assumed the presidency at a time when the temperance movement was a widespread
03:27concept. Abstaining from, or at least moderating, the consumption of intoxicating spirits was
03:32initially promoted by church organizations with roots in New York, and Fillmore came
03:36of age upstate. In 1842, Fillmore signed the Congressional Temperance Society's constitution,
03:41which pledged,
03:42"...the object of this society shall be by example and by kind moral influence to discountenance
03:47the use of ardent spirit and the traffic in it throughout the community."
03:52Any glass containing alcohol that Abraham Lincoln raised in solidarity with his countrymen
03:56was little more than a prop. What's more, he possessed a deeper understanding of alcohol's
04:00complex role in society. In 1842, years before Lincoln became the 16th president of the United
04:06States, he delivered his Temperance Address to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society.
04:11In the speech, Lincoln urged that compassion, not judgment, should be shown toward people
04:15who struggle to drink moderately. He also noted the, quote, "'impolitic' nature of denouncing
04:20those who sell alcohol for a living."
04:22A Kentucky native, Lincoln and many of the locals had ties to the alcohol trade. Lincoln
04:27once owned a grocery store that sold liquor, but it's unlikely he sampled the goods much.
04:31He maintained that drinking caused him to feel, quote, "'flabby and undone'," enough
04:35to keep him on the preferential side of temperance.
04:38There might be more as to why bloated and displaced sentiments plagued Lincoln on the
04:42occasions he did hit the bottle. In the years leading up to his presidency, Lincoln took
04:46a pill known as Blue Mass to help his perpetual melancholia. The high mercury content within
04:52Blue Mass pills is said to have contributed to Lincoln's temper flaring up during his
04:56presidential campaign.
04:58All his friends and relatives come and say, when he's behaving really erratically, he
05:02loses his temper. He's very sensitive. He's got a tremor when he's under stress."
05:07Union Army soldier-turned-19th President Rutherford Hayes was moderate in his political beliefs
05:12and his alcohol intake. Between his highly disputed victory in the 1876 election and
05:18his wife's hardcore support of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Hayes was inclined
05:22to do some people-pleasing. Hayes, who was known to have the occasional beer or partake
05:27in military celebrations where drinking went down, decided to serve wine at the first official
05:32state dinner. The temperance advocates caught wind of it, and the new presidential couple
05:36felt the pressure. Lucy Hayes was a hardcore supporter of the Women's Christian Temperance
05:41Union, and the president, who was focused on post-war reform, wasn't trying to deal
05:45with unnecessary infighting. Thus, the couple agreed that the White House would be dry for
05:50the rest of the president's term.
05:52Grandson of fellow teetotaling president William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison's
05:57one-term presidency was about as memorable as his grandpa's one month in office. Harrison
06:02was one of the few presidents who didn't drink at all. We're not saying that alcohol makes
06:05people more fun, but by historical accounts, Harrison wasn't packing much in the vivaciousness
06:11department.
06:12It is said that Harrison's only vices were cucumbers and cigars, and that shaking his
06:16hand was like holding a dead fish. Character defects aside, Harrison also held the reputation
06:21of being a family man, and was the first former president to hold a professorship at
06:25a college when he taught at Stanford. As far as White House happy hour is concerned, it's
06:30safe to say that Harrison would have sat it out. Harrison's wife was more inclined to
06:34serve clear hot soup at White House receptions than alcohol of any kind.
06:40He was president prior to Prohibition, yet Taft was more or less a teetotaler before
06:44alcohol in America was banned by law. Historic accounts note that Taft wasn't adverse to
06:49those in his presidential company partaking in a few drinks, but he was hardly tempted.
06:53Then again, Taft had his health to consider. Long known as the heaviest man to ever take
06:59executive office, Taft's teetotaling ways were primarily for physical health reasons.
07:04Taft was aligned with the temperance movement and favored simmon beer, a beverage brewed
07:08from persimmon fruits. When asked about his views on Prohibition, Taft said that while
07:12he was not a drinking man himself, he opposed it on the federal level, but saw its merits
07:16on a more regional level. Taft remained active in politics, serving as chief justice until
07:21his death from heart disease in 1930.
07:24Rumor has it that when quippy New York writer Dorothy Parker was seated near President Calvin
07:29Coolidge at a dinner party, she told him about a bet she had with her friend. Parker wagered
07:34she could get more than two words out of the stoic commander-in-chief, to which Silent
07:38Cal replied,
07:39"'You lose.'"
07:40A pent-up guy like Coolidge didn't bother much with booze, and he definitely didn't
07:44rely on it to socialize. On the occasions he did imbibe, it was done in near solitude.
07:49Coolidge famously turned down a rum cocktail at an official state dinner in Cuba, where
07:53he was the guest of honor. Cuban President Gerardo Machado brought in an expert mixologist
07:58to prepare rounds of El Presidente for guests, but Coolidge preferred to toast his fellow
08:02dignitaries with water.
08:04We're cutting Coolidge some slack, considering that his tight-lipped turn at the state dinner
08:08occurred in 1928 during U.S. Prohibition. Coolidge wasn't a staunch Prohibitionist,
08:14but there was a lingering expectation to lead by example.
08:18If we focused on his time before serving as the 43rd president, George W. Bush definitely
08:22would have been found at a happy hour somewhere. As a Yale University freshman in 1964, W.
08:28was staring down a long legacy of family alumni, including his father and grandfather. Young
08:33and unfocused, Bush found comfort in the good-old-boy aspects of Yalie tradition — frat parties,
08:39secret society meetings, and football games — all activities that allowed the would-be
08:43president to drink with abandon.
08:45Bush referred to his drinks of choice as the Four B's — beer, bourbon, and B&B, which
08:50was Benedictine liquor and brandy. He was also known to consume all of them in one sitting.
08:56In his college days, Bush was prone to pulling idiotic pranks while inebriated, like the
08:59time he was arrested for disorderly conduct after stealing a Christmas wreath off a storefront,
09:04but the charges were later dropped.
09:06As an adult, he was a habitual binge drinker, with a friend telling The Washington Post
09:10in 1999,
09:11"...once he got started, he couldn't, didn't shut it off."
09:15Bush's proclivities came to a head after a raucous 40th birthday celebration left him
09:20with a hangover and an existential crisis. Former first lady Laura Bush said the birthday
09:24bash wasn't wilder than any other weekend, but he simply felt ready to stop.
09:30"...then George just woke up and knew he wanted to quit, and he stopped. And he was able to
09:35stop."
09:36Bush has been sober ever since.
09:38Donald J. Trump is a lot of things, but Boozer is not one of them. For years, Trump has stuck
09:43to the story that he's never even tried a glass of alcohol, something he described in
09:47a 2018 press conference as, quote, "...one of my only good traits."
09:51The former president has said that he doesn't drink alcohol because his older brother, Fred
09:55Trump Jr., was an alcoholic who died young. Trump has expressed regret over aggressively
10:00pressuring Fred Jr. to join the family business when he wanted no part of it.
10:04Trump maintains he's a diet Coke man. However, fellow movers and shakers of the 80s and 90s
10:09Manhattan club scene paint a different picture. One bartender recalls Trump nursing light
10:14beers, no more than three a night. A club owner from those days says he witnessed Trump
10:18drink champagne or liquor while hanging out with elite model management founder John Casablancas,
10:23who Trump relied on as a wingman.
10:27Trump and Biden don't see eye-to-eye on anything, really, except living the sober life.
10:32I'm the only Irishman you've ever met, though, that's never had a drink.
10:35In the past, Biden has explained that he never picked up the bottle because he saw the heart-wrenching
10:39effects of alcoholism in his family and his neighborhood growing up. Biden, the oldest
10:44of four children, told his younger siblings he would pay them $100 each if they didn't
10:48drink before they turned 21, though his brother Frank would eventually battle alcohol dependency.
10:54Biden also advised his sons not to drink due to the history of alcoholism in the family,
10:59but his youngest son Hunter ultimately experienced struggles similar to those his elders faced.
11:04Hunter has been forthcoming about his drug and alcohol addictions and numerous rehab
11:08visits, though his past behaviors have often served as fodder for Biden's political opponents.
11:13Biden is one of the few presidents in U.S. history who has never drank alcohol, so he
11:17probably won't be making any appearances at the White House happy hour unless they're
11:21serving orange Gatorade, since it's his favorite — and ice cream, of course.