The most scandalous president in US history

Photo: AP

According to History, in 1920, Mr. Warren G. Harding became President of the United States with a commitment to bring the country back to normal. He was a beloved President until his sudden death on August 2, 1923 in the Presidential Suite of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

However, in the following years, scandals involving hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs, an illegitimate child, and illegal cabinet appointments by close friends tarnished his legacy.

Months before Harding's death, allegations of corruption began to surface surrounding several members of the "Ohio Gang"—longtime political allies and poker buddies whom Harding appointed to his cabinet and other positions of power.

Charles Forbes, head of the newly created Veterans Administration, was accused of taking kickbacks from contractors building hospitals for veterans and illegally selling surplus medical supplies. President Harding was so furious that he reportedly strangled his subordinates when he learned of the allegations. Forbes resigned in February 1923 after a Senate investigation found that he and his associates had stolen more than $200 million from the Veterans Administration. The following year, Forbes was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud and bribery.

Teapot Dome Scandal

The most enduring stain on Harding’s presidency was Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall and the Teapot Dome oil scandal. In 1921, Fall persuaded the president to transfer oversight of the Navy’s strategic petroleum reserve to the Interior Department. Fall then secretly awarded no-bid contracts to a pair of longtime friends and oil tycoons.

Investigations revealed that Fall had accepted more than $400,000 in bribes and that President Warren G. Harding was involved in the affair.

Use money to shut up lover

Mr. Harding's mistress and stepchild. Photo: History.com

According to the Washington Post, the 29th President of the United States paid not one but two women to keep his sexual relationships with them secret.

One of Harding's two mistresses was Carrie Fulton Philips, the wife of one of his closest friends in his hometown of Marion, Ohio. This extramarital affair lasted for 15 years.

The other was Nan Britton. They first met in 1914 when Nan was a teenager and Harding was running for the Senate. At the age of 20, Nan Britton entered into an intimate relationship with the 51-year-old Harding. In October 1919, she secretly gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Ann. Harding never saw his lover again, but he sent monthly child support payments through secret service agents.

Harding's payments to his two mistresses did not violate campaign finance laws at the time, but if they had been made public, he would have lost the Republican nomination and his presidential campaign. Keeping it a secret was paramount.