Presidential Libraries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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Our main story tonight concerns presidential libraries, voted number one nice little activity by retired dads quarterly. Presidential libraries are incredible repositories of documents, artifacts, and occasionally, displays like this one at the Reagan Library

really laying out that man's priorities.

You might know that President Reagan once said, there is nothing as good for the inside of a man

as he called her, Mrs. Reagan.

the way God intended. And look,

there is nothing as good for the inside of a man

might be the dirtiest thing I have ever heard. and merry-go-rounds.

like this one.

where spiders and ladybugs are as big as cars.

all in their natural habitat. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! collecting bugs instead of friends, but... is not a museum dedicated to Bill Clinton.

to Trump's presidential library.

his opened, setting the record straight. This, uh, library is not a library. It's an archives building with the idea of keeping the records of the government in an orderly manner. The objective is to obtain microfilm reports on all the presidential papers.

It'll take a little while to get that done, but when you do get it done, this place will be the center of the study of the presidency of the United States.

Yeah, that is basically it. And by the way, do you remember when presidents were boring? It almost feels strange to watch a clip of one without the fear he's gonna throw in a slur or argue that Joy Behar should be imprisoned. Back then, presidents kept their racism and sexism away from the cameras and just put them in their policies.

It was a simpler time. from a presidency for researchers and scholars, and a museum showcasing that presidency for various visiting dads and bored school kids who already went to the planetarium last year.

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The first presidential library was established by FDR, who wanted a place to house the presidential papers and gifts accumulated during his administration. Before then, when a president's term ended, he'd leave the White House with all his records, many of which ended up destroyed. George Washington's were apparently extensively

mutilated by rats. Most of William Henry Harrison succumbed to flames when his log cabin burned down. And Chester Arthur's son had most of his father's papers burned in three garbage cans. And if you automatically knew Chester Arthur

was the 21st president and not the name of a snack food character, congratulations, you are our exact audience. The point is, after FDR, presidents began gifting their records to the federal government to be housed in libraries, and that is a good thing.

Among other reasons, it is why we have this incredible audio of LBJ calling the head of the company that made his trousers with a custom request.

The crotch down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight. So when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there, because they cut me. It's just like riding a wire fence. Let's see if you can't leave me about it. An age from where the zipper ends,

uh, down to under my... back to my bunghole.

That is just excellent. We've played that clip before on this show, and we will play it again. Not only does he burp in the middle of the call like a man whose nuts haven't breathed in years, but every time I hear it, I'm forced to wonder,

just how big were LBJ's balls? I mean, just in terms of fruit, are we talking plums or pomelos? Kiwis or mangoes? Clementines or big honking naval oranges? If I could go back in time and ask LBJ one question,

it would be, did you put out the hit on JFK? But if I could ask two, I'd say, if we're measuring circumference, do we need inches or do we need feet? Now, initially, the handover of records was voluntary, but after Nixon tried to ensure access to audio tapes from his presidency would be limited to himself

and laid plans that they'd be destroyed at some point, Congress made it mandatory, codifying into law

as this Clinton Library employee explains. that are a thousand years old. Many of the gifts were sent to President Clinton by the public, including a statue of American basketball star, the president would like to have, and sent it off to the White House.

Their gift ended up in a place of honor.

is a museum If you have been to one, that is probably what you walked through. And the first thing to understand is that these buildings aren't publicly funded.

In fact, here's Jimmy Carter at the dedication ceremony for George H.W. Bush's library, describing how it works. As many of you may not know, all the funds that are... none of it comes from the federal government. We have to raise the money,

and then turn over the library to the federal government.

and they all do,

That is true. It is in the Constitution.

something a little more intimate.

Everyone can relate to it. People enjoy humor. In the next few days, though, the half-fascinating, half-creepy LBJ will be taken apart and moved. Step one...

It's just a matter of, uh... taking his clothes off.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing? Don't do that in front of us! No one needs to see an animatronic LBJ stripped down to his softball-sized nuts and bunghole. by the government means that the line between shrine and official archive can get unhelpfully blurry. Especially because those foundations are often run by the president's family and friends,

who often then help to personally curate the exhibits. And what that means is, on the museum side of things, especially when a library first opens, exhibits can be extremely one-sided. Take the Reagan Library, which we called

a Graceland for conservatives. It features everything from an actual plane that served as Air Force One, to a section of the Berlin Wall, to an Irish pub the Reagans once visited, which was purchased by the Reagan Foundation

and recreated as a place to sell snacks, complete with the bottle, glasses, and part of the bar the Reagans once touched under reliquary-like glass. And look, I'm not surprised that the actor president turned his library into What If Planet Hollywood but with more Gorbachev.

But Ronnie R and his sidekick wife touched this piece of wood while having a beer and ignoring AIDS feels a bit much to me. But the thing is, when it comes to one of the biggest scandals of Reagan's presidency, Iran-Contra, when the museum first opened and for years afterward,

it didn't mention it at all. And that is not a one-off. On the day that Clinton's library opened, it became clear there were some pretty significant editorial choices made.

For all of President Clinton's fans who braved the weather today, he certainly has his critics. And they complain the new library gives little attention to the impeachment scandal that dominated Clinton's second term. Inside the museum, just one alcove deals with impeachment

and characterizes it as a struggle for power. Most of the building is filled with pictures and memorabilia from more accomplished and happier times.

Yeah, that makes sense, doesn't it? If you asked any rando on the street to name something that defined Clinton's presidency, they'd say, ooh, probably baseball. That guy loved baseballs to a genuine fault. If I remember, his love of baseball

almost derailed his presidency. Now, that pattern continued with George W. Bush's museum, where a historian pointed out that a display about the Iraq War boldly claims no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction are found, although Iraq's WMD-related program activities are still a threat, which is a big old swing to take.

At that point, you'd almost be better off just having the whole Iraq War section be a giant sign reading, -"Oops!" At least... -$TIME OUT that would be historically honest. But perhaps the most extreme case of whitewashing was at Nixon's library, which initially opened

without a partnership with the National Archives. When the library first opened, it taught visitors that Watergate was a coup orchestrated by the media and Democratic elites, that the enemies list was the product of a rogue presidential staffer, and that Nixon didn't do anything

And just set aside how ahistorical that is,

It's also worth pointing out,

before he could finish updating that exhibit.

over exhibits is so well known that the former director of the Herbert Hoover Library had a pretty grim piece of advice if you are planning to visit any presidential library.

People generally go, though, initially to the library as soon as it's opened, and then don't return again. I tell people, wait 25 years, if you've got 25 years.

Yeah. That is both a little depressing and also might be the worst advertising campaign I have ever heard. This'll get good in 25 years. It's not what you say to promote a business. If anything, it's what you say to reassure brand new parents.

Look, just give it 25 years, then it does get kind of fun. But he is right. Presidential libraries do tend to evolve over time. FDR's has worked to update their message on the Holocaust, describing his slowness to admit Jewish refugees until late in the war, and reckoning with his internment

of Japanese-Americans. And Truman's underwent a huge update, and now encourages visitors to engage in a debate over the question, if you were President Truman in 1945, would you have dropped the bomb? Which is a fun little discussion...

for a family to have together, and likely to result in a pretty awkward drive home, after dad admits he'd have dropped more and bigger bombs. So that is the museum half of the libraries. But remember, there's also the archive side. And while it is supposed to be separate,

ex-presidents can exert a surprising amount of control there too, because their foundations get to consult on the library's first director, and can effectively veto anyone that they don't like. And that person also gets to oversee the archive side, which is a big deal.

Because by law, all of the documents from a presidency are supposed to be requestable by the public five years after their term ends. But, as a practical matter, that's basically impossible for them to do. Funding for the National Archives has remained stagnant for the last 30 years, which, as this archivist explains,

has led to an enormous backlog.

When that five-year window hits, almost immediately, we have a backlog of thousands of FOIA requests that we can't possibly respond to within the ten days under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yeah, he's right, and he's actually massively understating things there. Because when it comes to Reagan, Bush, and Clinton's records, the government estimated in 2007 that they wouldn't be fully open and accessible for a hundred years. And at that point, no one is gonna have time

to analyze Reagan's papers. We'll all be too busy dealing with the fallout of World War IV, presumably launched by President Beast. Although, don't worry, don't worry, the video of him launching the nukes did do numbers, so it's not all bad news.

And those massive backlogs mean that the library director has a huge amount of power when it comes to the order Not all bad news. And those massive backlogs mean that the library director

that make a president look good and delay

and the documents that you can't. for these buildings, and it is not a small amount either. Clinton's cost 165 million.

George W. Bush's cost 327 million.

to try and kill a young Barack Obama.

Well, to be fair, there is one rule.

But that is the end of the rules.

because while still in office, to fundraise while in office, All of which opens up a host of problems, up to and including accusations of bribery. This has been an issue for decades now. Bill Clinton caught a lot of heat at the end of his presidency after he did this.

Among his last acts, he pardoned billionaire fugitive Mark Rich. A man who never stood trial is now cleared for crimes that could have meant 300 years in prison. -♪ In the streets... ♪ -That's Rich's ex-wife, Denise, hugging and kissing the Clintons. She's a New York socialite who's donated more than a million dollars to Democrats. Thank you, Denise.

Thank you for everything you've done to make it possible for Hillary and me to serve.

Okay, thanks to Denise aside, can we just talk for a second about this fucking photo? This man looks like the Godfather concept art. I've never been more certain in my life that someone was undeserving of a presidential privilege. about this fucking photo. This man looks like the Godfather concept art. I've never been more certain in my life that someone was undeserving of a presidential pardon than in the three human seconds that photo was on screen.

And the details in that case are pretty damning. Mark Rich had fled to Switzerland 17 years before after he was indicted on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with Iran during an embargo, and evading more than $48 million in income taxes. And let me reiterate, he fled.

This man was a fugitive. He wasn't in the U.S. fighting to clear his name. He noped the fuck out of the country. But Clinton pardoned him, which, as many pointed out at the time, came hot on the heels of a $450,000 donation from Denise to, guess what? The Clinton Library Foundation. And look, I am not saying that the runaway billionaire

funnels bribe money through his ex-wife to the Clintons in exchange for immunity. I am not saying that. --AUDIENCE LAUGHS AND APPLAUDS --What I am saying is, if someone were to do that, what do you think that individual would look like,

and would they look something like this? I am just asking questions here. Now, I should say, not every president has done this. To his credit, Obama eschewed directly soliciting library donations while in office and voluntarily disclosed donations that he received.

But he didn't have to do that, and that is kind of the problem here. Because all of this brings us back to Donald Trump, who is now set to amplify every single problem that I've described so far, because presidential libraries seem almost designed to exploit his every personal failing,

from his tendency to obfuscate his wrongdoing, to his desire to build expensive monuments to himself, to a set of ethical guidelines based more in norms than law. Because the fact is, as things stand right now, from expensive monuments to himself, to a set of ethical guidelines based more in norms than law. Because the fact is, as things stand right now, someone could walk up to Trump today

with a $50 million check, hand it to him while saying, we love the work that you are doing, and hope that you'll consider helping us out with that little problem that we were discussing earlier. And as long as that check said,

pay to the order of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, it would be completely legal. Though, don't worry, what soulless, ethically bankrupt, arse-kissing corporation would even think of doing something like that? and you never will be! -♪ ♪ -♪ And the legal settlements that we know about are bad enough, but that's just the beginning of the money involved here.

Funds left over from the $239 million raised by the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, including millions from tech companies and CEOs, are also expected to be redirected to Trump's library. And that's not even getting into the $400 million plane given to Trump by Qatar, which is also slated to be

transferred to the Trump Library shortly before he leaves office. And that gift is being flown directly through the library loophole.

The Constitution prohibits anyone holding federal office from accepting a personal gift from a foreign head of state. But sources say Attorney General Pam Bondi is not being given to an individual,

but rather to the U.S. Air Force,

and then to Donald Trump's foundation.

Oh, come on.

look pretty high. And it does seem notable that Trump was given a $400 million plane by Qatar, and then just this week, out of absolutely nowhere, he issued an EO declaring that any attack on Qatar would be treated as a threat to U.S. security.

And look, I am not saying the U.S. military should be for sale, but it sure feels like Qatar just bought it awfully cheap. In fact, I would say the same thing to Trump that I once said about Kim Kardashian turning up for a shaman toilet paper event. They simply didn't pay you enough

to do as much as you are doing for them right now. The point here is our whole private public setup for presidential libraries has resulted in a bunch of shrine-like buildings the presidents can raise money for from basically any source, with the vast majority of donations undisclosed, and as usual, Trump, simply by being himself, has very effectively shined a bright light on all these cracks.

So, what should we do? Well, for starters, we should make donations to presidential libraries far more transparent, and soliciting to them while in office should be outlawed altogether. Multiple bills have tried to do some version of that over the years, but they've all gone absolutely nowhere.

And frankly, I don't think that this guy is gonna be signing one anytime soon. As for the National Archives, they should be getting funded to an operational level, so they can reduce that hundred-year backlog and actually do the important job that they're supposed to.

Because who knows how many more recordings at LBJ bunghole level... we could be missing out on. But honestly, maybe the main thing here is to let go of the idea that these giant shrines are remotely necessary,

or that they're accurate representations of history, and try to decouple their celebrity function from their archival one. And that link's actually been wobbling for a while now. A few years ago, the federal government actually handed all control of the George W. Bush Museum

over to its private foundation. So the government still runs the archives, the important part, but when it comes to the museum, there are no federal workers lending legitimacy to its whitewashed version of history.

Meanwhile, Obama declined to build an archive at his future presidential center at all, instead opting to digitize all his unclassified paper records. That means that his grand monument to himself will be entirely privately run. And while I know this sounds weird,

maybe that's a good thing. But the key thing is, next time you visit a presidential library, and especially one of the newer ones, you should go in there knowing that they are not necessarily telling the story

of that president from a historical lens, but from a personal one. And going forward, whenever you hear reports that an organization, news network, or foreign country is giving money to a presidential library? And I think that you're going to be hearing about that

a lot over the next three years. Know that it is at best a personal gift, and at worst, an active bribe. And while clearly, none of this is ideal, I guess, as long as this is how the system is operating, then if you can't beat them, you should probably join them. So given that, please follow me.

or foundation interested in taking it.

It is, from our own guesstimates, a life-size rendering of LBJ's balls. And any presidential library is now welcome to take these balls as a symbol of the massive ego it takes to build one of these libraries in the first place. The only catch is, in the grand tradition

of these buildings engaging in quid pro quos, we would expect something in return. Now, obviously, these testicles make the most sense in LBJ's library. In return, we'd be interested in taking your animatronic statue off him.

But we're also open to negotiation with other foundations, too. Just make us an offer, whether it's a horse statue from the Reagan Library, or if the Trump Foundation is so inclined, a full blanket pardon for me personally. That is apparently something I'm allowed to suggest.

The point is, we are open to any and all trade, so please do get in touch. That is our show. Thank you so much for watching us. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week.

Good night! Call us! Call us about the balls! ♪