The year is 1973, and President Richard Nixon reigns supreme. Seemingly untouchable after his re-election victory the year before, Nixon is now confronted with being in connection with the Watergate Scandal. Furious at such a heretical accusation, this Dick decides to hold a press conference. Calm, cool, collected - all words he wishes that could be used to describe his manner, but were ultimately the exact opposite.
"I am not a crook," President Nixon declares to the world. The nation sees him for who he is - or at least, who they thought he was - but what was unbeknownst to the American people was that Nixon had a trick up his sleeve. While uttering those 5 infamous words, the leader of the free world had his fingers crossed behind his back, indicating that he knew damn well that he was lying. When a committee in Congress was tasked to investigate the President's connection with Watergate, he was caught on record claiming that, "he was just joshin'." Nixon would later resign the following year, on the accordance of, "the American people clearly not getting [his] joke".
Fast forward 25 years later, well into President Bill Clinton's second term in the Oval Office. In his attempts to deescalate the devastating allegations of having an extramarital affair with an intern, Clinton had the following to say: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
Flawless execution, except for one thing... He had a hint of a smile after he said those dreaded words. Quickly realizing that the media was onto him, he clarified. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, hehe." The slight smirk from before paled in comparison to Bill's giggle. At this point, the press room was louder than a concert hall while President Clinton tried to reiterate his statement.
"Y'all, y'all... I did not have sexual relations with that woman." No smirk. No guffaw. Third time's the charm, right? Nope. Turns out, he had been doing air-quotes with his fingers to his side and a photographer picked that up and released it on The Daily News the next morning. President Clinton would later be impeached as a result of the media misconstruing his "sarcastic remarks."
And here we are today, some 18 years later. The Republican Party's presidential nominee is a man who has called Mexicans rapists and murderers, women disgusting pigs, Latino judges biased because of his heritage, refused to call a prisoner-of-war a hero, proposed for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, picked a fight with the parents of a fallen soldier, requested Russia's assistance in hacking into the other party's campaign, and called our sitting President and former Secretary of State the founders of an international terrorist organization responsible of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. But excuse us for not picking up on the "sarcasm".