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Nov 13, 2020 · To place these developments into context, the Brennan Center’s Daniel I. Weiner spoke with Tim Lau and explained the significance of a peaceful transfer of power, the consequences of inadequate presidential transitions, and the potential for reform.
- John Adams - Thomas Jefferson
- John Quincy Adams - Andrew Jackson
- Andrew Johnson - Ulysses S. Grant
- Herbert Hoover - Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Harry Truman - Dwight Eisenhower
- Lyndon Johnson - Richard Nixon
- Jimmy Carter - Ronald Reagan
- George H.W. Bush - Bill Clinton
John Adams chose not to attend the inaugural ceremony of Thomas Jefferson, to whom he lost the brutal election of 1800. Instead, Adams slipped out of Washington on the early morning of Jefferson’s inauguration. Jefferson’s victory marked a complete shift of power in the young nation from the Federalists to Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, in wha...
Four years after winning the popular vote but losing the White House thanks to the “corrupt bargain,” Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adamsin an 1828 campaign marred by mudslinging on both sides; Jackson even blamed the Adams camp’s attacks for contributing to the death of his wife, Rachel. On Inauguration Day, Adams followed his father’s examp...
Jackson and his successor, Martin Van Buren, rode to the Capitol in the same horse-drawn carriage for Van Buren’s inauguration, setting a new example for peaceful transitions. Most outgoing presidents after Jackson would follow the same custom—but there were exceptions. Andrew Johnson declined even to attend the inauguration of his successor, Ulyss...
The 1932 election occurred during the worst economic downturn in the nation’s history. FDR defeated Herbert Hoover in a landslide, promising “a new deal for the American people.” After the election, Hoover repeatedly attempted to get Roosevelt to work together to confront the economic crisis, but Roosevelt refused, as acceding to Hoover’s condition...
The two men worked together in the last months of World War II, as well as during the creation of NATO, but their relationship deteriorated during the 1952 election, in which Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson. Truman was horrified by Eisenhower’s use of hardline anti-Communist rhetoric in his campaign, especially his refusal to denounce Joseph Mc...
During the tumultuous election of 1968, the country’s divisions—over civil rights and the ongoing Vietnam War, among many other issues—played out in stark relief. Shortly before the election, Johnson learned that Nixon’s campaign had been conducting secret negotiations, through intermediaries, to discourage the South Vietnamese government from part...
Economic woes and the Iran hostage crisis doomed Jimmy Carter’s hopes for reelection in 1980. On January 20, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated into office, 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens were released from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where Iranian student revolutionaries had held them hostage for 444 days. According to Reagan biogra...
Some past presidents had left letters for their successors, but the one left by George H.W. Bush for Bill Clinton went down in history as one of the most gracious, and launched a new tradition for outgoing U.S. presidents. Though Clinton had defeated his bid for reelection in 1992, in a race that also featured the third-party candidate Ross Perot, ...
- Sarah Pruitt
- 1 min
Dec 8, 2020 · The transfer of power: A roundup of research on US presidential transitions. When problems arise during the brief period when one U.S. president hands off executive power to the next, it can have serious consequences for the country, academic studies show.
Jun 6, 2021 · But the events of 1798-1801—America’s first peaceful transfer of power from one presidential party to another—were in fact far more fraught than is generally understood today and in myriad ...
Sep 17, 2020 · His departure from office marked the first peaceful transfer of power between political opponents in the United States, now viewed as a hallmark of the nation’s democracy.
- Sarah Pruitt
Nov 9, 2020 · Transition of presidential power isn’t always easy. When President Donald Trump lost November 2020′s election, it marked just the 11th time in U.S. history an incumbent president was beaten...
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Apr 1, 2021 · In 2021, the United States failed for the first time in its history to achieve a peaceful transfer of presidential power. The events of January 6, observes conservative commentator William “Bill” Kristol ’73, Ph.D. ’79—and the enabling political rhetoric and lies that preceded that day, and that continue now—have left him concerned ...
