Pelosi says US should add Biden to Mount Rushmore - despite rumors she angled for his ouster: 'Such a consequential president'


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Published Aug. 4, 2024, 4:59 p.m. ET

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the country should honor President Biden by adding him to Mount Rushmore.

The 81-year-old commander in chief is "such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president," Rep. Pelosi (D-Calif.), 84, claimed in a clip aired on "CBS Sunday Morning Show."

"You have Teddy Roosevelt up there. And he's wonderful. I don't say take him down. But you can add Biden," she insisted when pressed about whether the incumbent president is really worthy of the honor of getting his massive mug engraved in rock at the iconic South Dakota national monument alongside former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Biden was born in 1942 - about a year after Mount Rushmore was completed.

Pelosi's extolling of Biden came as she defended her machinations during the recent Democratic mutiny against the president, who she claimed "was in a good place to make whatever decision --- the top of his game" - at the time.

Nancy Pelosi, 84, says President Biden belongs up on Mount Rushmore. Josh Morgan / USA TODAY NETWORK

Watch Nancy Pelosi smile slyly as she denies leading mutiny that toppled Biden: 'I didn't call one person'

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid.

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Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at a campaign rally in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024.

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Biden was forced to abandon his reelection bid last month after months of debate over his mental and physical ability to govern - a crisis that was rapidly speeded up by his disastrous debate performance against GOP foe Donald Trump in June.

Former President Trump, 78, has previously suggested he deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, quipping, "Sounds like a good idea to me" when asked about the possibility.

But he denied a report that his administration once reached out to Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to try to make it happen.

Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore
Donald Trump has publicly mused about adding his likeness to Mount Rushmore, too. AFP via Getty Images

Trump has also likened himself to Lincoln and other iconic presidents as well.

Pelosi's acclaim of Biden comes even as rumors have swirled that she pulled strings from behind the scenes to help orchestrate his downfall and withdrawal from the 2024 race.

Pelosi, who has a reputation for being a slick political operative, initially backed up Biden after his debate performance but then began to publicly declare he needed to make a decision about reelection - even after he initially made one, saying he was still in.

Two days after Biden even penned a letter to Democratic lawmakers in early July re-affirming that he was "firmly committed" to the race, Pelosi told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," "It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run."

President Biden
A heavily embattled Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race July 21. REUTERS

Some of her close allies in Congress, such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), also joined the chorus of calls for Biden to pass the baton.

There had been a report from CNN that Pelosi firmly told Biden that polls indicated he couldn't win the Nov. 5 election - and when he suggested polls indicated he could pull it off, she had him put his longtime adviser Mike Donilon on the phone.

But Pelosi on Sunday denied fomenting the revolt against Biden.

"No, I wasn't the leader of any pressure [campaign]," she said. "Let me say things that I didn't do: I didn't call one person. I did not call one person. I could always say to him, 'I never called anybody.' "

When asked about whether she felt Biden needed to step aside, Pelosi insisted she didn't.

"No. My whole point was whatever he decides, but we have to have a more aggressive campaign," she said.

"What I'm saying is I had confidence the president would make the proper choice of a country, whatever that would be - and I said that - whatever that is, we'll go with," Pelosi claimed.

Biden is rumored to be "furious" with Pelosi over her purported role from behind the scenes during the Democratic revolt against him.

Pelosi, asked Sunday about Biden's mood toward her, said, "He knows that I love him very much."

Mount Rushmore is an iconic national monument that was completed in 1941 - about a year before Biden was born. The Washington Post via Getty Images

She also stressed that she has "never shared any conversations with the president of the United States publicly."

Other top Democratic leaders - including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York - have declined to divulge their conversations with Biden during the mutiny.

Schumer had gone so far as to urge Biden to step aside, ABC reported - a report he has not denied.

Nancy Pelosi, 84, says President Biden belongs up on Mount Rushmore. Josh Morgan / USA TODAY NETWORK

Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore Donald Trump has publicly mused about adding his likeness to Mount Rushmore, too. AFP via Getty Images

President Biden A heavily embattled Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race July 21. REUTERS

Mount Rushmore is an iconic national monument that was completed in 1941 -- about a year before Biden was born. The Washington Post via Getty Images

Jill Biden shockingly admits she thought Joe was 'having a stroke' during disastrous 2024 debate with Trump

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Jill Biden shockingly admits she thought Joe was 'having a stroke' during disastrous 2024 debate with Trump By Emily Goodin and Steven Nelson Published May 27, 2026 Updated May 27, 2026, 3:31 p.m. PDT

See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google WASHINGTON - Now she tells us. Jill Biden has claimed in a new interview that she thought her husband, President Joe Biden, was "having a stroke" during his infamous 2024 debate with Donald Trump, after she staunchly defended her husband from the immediate political fallout. "I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," she told CBS News in a sitdown set to air in full Sunday ahead of the June 2 release of her memoir, "View from the East Wing."

Former first lady Jill Biden shockingly admitted that she thought then-President Joe Biden was "having a stroke" during his infamous 2024 debate with candidate Donald Trump. AFP via Getty Images "I don't know what happened," she added. "As I watched it, I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's having a stroke.' And it scared me to death." President Biden shocked the nation during the June 27, 2024, debate, repeatedly freezing on camera, fumbling for answers and appearing dazed and confused.

During the June 27, 2024, debate, Biden repeatedly froze on camera, fumbled for answers and appeared dazed and confused. Getty Images Jill Biden played the supportive spouse in the immediate aftermath, joining him at an Atlanta Waffle House and praising him for a job well done. "Joe - you did such a great job," she said during an event with reeling supporters. "You answered every question, you knew all the facts."

Follow The Post's live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis

In subsequent days, the first lady defended her husband to those who doubted his mental capabilities. Now, one former White House staffer told The Post, Jill's purported candor is too little, too late. "Unfortunately, when you wait this long to tell your own story in your own words, it's extremely hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. She owed it to herself to be candid and transparent in the moment or the days after," said Michael LaRosa, who served as the first lady's communications director during her first year in the East Wing. Other Democrats who worked with Joe Biden said they were hardly surprised that Jill Biden's rosy public comments about her husband's capabilities, both before and after the debate, were apparently untruthful - since they long suspected that she operated with outsized influence in the White House as the then-president's faculties waned. One ex-aide quipped that another, more accurate title for the memoir could be, "View From the East Wing, Blindfold On." "Find it in the fiction aisle of your local bookstore," this person added. At the time, the White House offered a plethora of excuses for Biden's performance, initially blaming a cold before pivoting to jet lag from an overseas trip taken two weeks earlier, before finally claiming that he had prepped so hard for the debate that he got facts jumbled in his head. "Why did we push out he had a cold," asked one Biden administration alum Wednesday night, "if she thought he had a stroke?"

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (left) during a CNN-hosted debated with President Joe Biden (right) on June 27, 2024. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert Ultimately, Biden dropped out of the presidential race July 21, 2024, under pressure from his own party, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. Biden's health had been an issue from the moment he announced he'd seek a second term in April 2023. At the time, he was 81 and the oldest person ever elected president. Jill was one of his staunchest defenders, saying publicly her husband would finish the job. But behind the scenes, she was pressuring aides to let the president rest more and took a major role in handling his schedule, former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told a House committee investigating a potential cover-up of the president's declining health. When Joe Biden exited the race, Jill campaigned for Harris, who ultimately lost in an Electoral College landslide to Trump and became the first Democrat in 20 years to lose the popular vote. Neither Jill nor publisher Gallery Books have said how much she has been paid for the tome. The Bidens are believed to need the funds from her book as well as a memoir the former president is writing. The couple left the White House as one of the poorest in presidential history, with financial disclosures showing cash assets worth between $632,000 and $1.38 million. Meanwhile, former first son Hunter Biden has racked up millions of dollars in legal fees as he fought federal gun and tax evasion charges in court - only to have his father pardon him in the final months of his presidency.

100 Days from Election, Democrats and Republicans Overwhelmingly Call for More Discussion of National Debt





Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts

* American History * Featured * People

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts

*Khalid Elhassan* - September 9, 2024

President Lincoln is enshrined not only in the Lincoln Memorial, but also in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. In his youth, America's 16^th president was a lean, mean, wrestling machine, who fought in anywhere from dozens to more than 300 bouts, and lost only once. Below are twenty three things about that and other fascinating but lesser known facts about American presidents.

23. President Wilson's Sheep

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts World War I propaganda posters. US Army Center of Military History

Americans of all stripes tried to do their bit and demonstrate their support for the war effort during World War I. In those days, that involved more than simply slapping a "/Support the Troops!/" bumper sticker on a car. War bonds drives were organized, donations were collected from the patriotic, and scrap metal was gathered. The White House participated, and for some time, starting in 1918, visitors got to see President Woodrow Wilson's residence transformed into a sheep ranching operation. The idea behind raising sheep on the White House Lawn was to save manpower. The sheep would trim the lawn, and the manpower thus saved could be redirected toward the war effort. The sheep performed another patriotic service: the President donated their wool to the American Red Cross , which apportioned it among the various states' Red Cross chapters.

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Sheep on the White House's South Lawn. White House Historical Association

At patriotic auctions, the White House wool brought in as much as $10,000 a pound. However, few knew just how much of a hassle it was to keep sheep on White House grounds. It began in the spring of 1918, as the president motored around the countryside with a friend, and remarked that he would like to see some sheep at the White House. It sounds odd now, but it was not that odd a century ago. Wilson and his wife wanted to be the model family for supporting the war effort. Indeed, over the next two years, wool sheared from the White House's sheep yielded $52,000 for the American Red Cross at auction --- a princely sum back then. However, as seen below, it was not all smooth sailing.

22. The White House Flock

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts The White House's lawn was covered with grazing sheep. DCist

As a /Washington Post/ article reported on May 12^th , 1918, just a few weeks after sheep were introduced to the White House: "/President Wilson is having no end of trouble with the flock of sheep he purchased recently to graze on the White House lawn/". Cars and trucks had only recently started to appear in the District of Colombia in increasing numbers, and their sounds terrified the sheep. It was just the start of an ongoing sheep drama . President Wilson's White House sheep could be said to have been scared, literally, shitless. As /The Washington Post/ described their plight: "/Two of the sheep developed serious illness yesterday and are under the care of specialists from the Department of Agriculture ... /

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Woodrow Wilson. Wikimedia

/The animals had been getting along nicely, until yesterday. The fact that one of the sheep has the "dips" is said to be due to the fact that it became frightened by passing automobiles and similar noises to which it was not accustomed./" By 1920, the flock had grown to 48 sheep, and had destroyed the White House's back lawn. So they were moved to the front lawn, and promptly began to wreck the rose gardens. The result was a frantic fencing operation to save the flower beds and more delicate trees from the flock's depredations. By August of that year, Wilson had finally had enough, and brought the experiment to an end . As /The Washington Post/ put it: "/President Wilson has decided to retire from the sheep business/".



21. Honest Abe Was a Hall of Fame Wrestler

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts In his youth, Abraham Lincoln kicked ass and took names. Pinterest

The Great Emancipator was also a great wrestler. With his craggy features, lanky frame, and stovepipe hat, Abraham Lincoln is perhaps America's most recognizable historic president, well known for many things. He successfully navigated America through the Civil War, freed the slaves, and authored the Gettysburg Address, recited by schoolchildren to this day. Less known is that in his youth, Lincoln was a lean, mean, wrestling machine, who performed feats of strength that became part of local legend and frontier lore. Out on the frontier back in those days, wrestling was more along the lines of unarmed combat than sport, and Lincoln, 6 foot 4 and ripped, was a natural. His skills often came in handy. At age nineteen, for example, he saved his stepbrother's river barge from river pirates by overpowering and throwing them overboard .

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Abraham Lincoln was a hall of fame wrestler. WWE

His most famous fight took place shortly after Lincoln, in his early twenties, moved to Salem, Illinois, and was challenged by a local bully named Jack Armstrong. The bout was inconclusive for some time. Then Armstrong resorted to dirty tricks. An enraged Lincoln grabbed him by the neck, and extending his arms, "/shook him like a rag doll/", then tossed him to the ground. Standing over his rival, Lincoln then challenged Armstrong's followers: "/I'm the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come and whet your horns!/" Armstrong admitted he'd been fairly beaten, and proclaimed Lincoln "/the best feller that ever broke into this settlement/". The duo shook hands, and became friends. Lincoln reportedly wrestled more than 300 times in his youth, and lost only once. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame .

20. The Mercurial Third President

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Thomas Jefferson. Time for Kids

Think of President Thomas Jefferson , and what usually comes to mind are his major accomplishments: The Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, and the University of Virginia. When it comes to controversy, what usually comes to mind is the contrast between his soaring rhetoric about freedom, the fact that he was a major slaveholder, and that he had an enslaved concubine, Sally Hemings. Less known are his wacky beliefs, and other indicia that make Jefferson come across as a maniac. The man was a genius, but a wacky one. For example, he went from a huge dog lover at some point in his life, to a dog hater who had all his dogs --- and all the dogs of his slaves --- killed .

Jefferson used to be a close friend of John Adams, before he turned on and became his mortal enemy. He once got into the nineteenth century equivalent of a flame war with some Frenchmen who'd derided the size of American animals. To settle it, Jefferson shipped a putrid moose carcass across the Atlantic from America to Paris. Americans generally like dogs, and politicians who like dogs. Kissing babies aside, few things afford politicians a shorter cut to voters' affection than to demonstrate affection towards dogs. Jefferson was a dog lover at some point. In 1789, at the end of his stint as America's ambassador to France, Jefferson especially liked shepherd dogs, and went out of his way to get some. However, as seen below, his view of dogs underwent a radical reversal .

19. From Dog Lover to Dog Hater

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts A Chienne Bergere. Spruce Pets

As he wrote to a friend, Thomas Jefferson spent the eve of his departure from France: "/[R]oving thro the neighborhood of this place to try to get a pair of shepherd's dogs. We walked 10 miles, clambering the cliffs in quest of the shepherds, during the most furious tempest of wind and rain I was ever in/". He came across a human corpse in his journey, but no shepherd dogs. He lucked out the next day, however, and bought "/a chienne bergere big with pup/". In Paris, Thomas Jefferson had been an avid dog lover. But his erstwhile love of dogs turned to outright hatred. He came to loathe them so much, that he called for the extermination of the entire species .

Jefferson was quite proud of his dogs when he got back home to Monticello, his plantation near Charlottesville, VA. He boasted of their herding skills, and before long, friends were writing him to ask for a pup from the next litter. However, Jefferson was one of those types who demanded strict and complete obedience. When one of his dogs proved obstinate, his views on dogs in general underwent a complete change. His reaction to one dog's disobedience was to kill all his dogs. He also ordered his foreman to rid the plantation of dogs and kill all the slaves' dogs as well. Eventually, he advocated for the complete eradication of all dogs everywhere . As he put it in a letter to a fellow dog hater in 1811: "/I participate in all your hostility to dogs, and would readily join in any plan for exterminating the whole race/".

18. LBJ's Quirky Side

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lyndon Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. Associated Press

Lyndon Baines Johnson, (1908 --- 1973) would have gone down in history as one of the country's greatest presidents, if not for the Vietnam War. LBJ had spent decades in Congress, both in the House and Senate, whose Majority Leader he became in the 1950s. When fate elevated him from vice president to president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, LBJ entered the Oval Office with an unequaled mastery of the legislative process. He put that expertise to good use, and pushed through landmark legislative accomplishments such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both Medicare and Medicaid also began during his administration. Had Vietnam not derailed his ambitious "Great Society" program, LBJ would probably rank alongside Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an exceptionally transformative president.

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lyndon Johnson sings with his dog, Yuki. National Archives

The disastrous war and the great legislative accomplishments loom large in the public's perceptions of LBJ. They obscure the lesser known quirky --- and sometimes seedy --- side of the man. LBJ liked to depict himself as a simple a Good Ole Boy, and in many ways, he really was. A Good Ole Boy, that is: there was nothing simple about the smart-as-a-whip Lyndon Johnson. One way the Good Ole Boy side came out was in his humor. Not subtle salon or /New Yorker/ type quips and /bon mots/, but down to earth --- and quite often earthy --- jokes and pranks. One of his favorites was to convince guests --- whose numbers included important foreign dignitaries --- that they were about to die. As seen below, LBJ pulled it off with his Amphicar --- a West German vehicle that was the only civilian passenger amphibious automobile to ever be mass produced.

17. /Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Pranks Have You Pulled Today?/

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lyndon Johnson with guests in his Amphicar. Silo Drome

About 4000 Amphicars were made, and President Johnson owned a baby blue one. He kept it in his Texas ranch, where he routinely hosted guests. While there, LBJ would often take his guests for a drive in his Amphicar --- without telling them what it was . He would then convince them that they were about to drown. As LBJ drove guests around the Texas backcountry in his Amphicar, he would come close to a lake or pond, and suddenly pretend to have lost control of the vehicle. Then, to the terrified guests' consternation, he would drive straight into a body of water. As the car splashed into a lake and the terrified passengers screamed, and perhaps soiled their pants as their lives flashed before their eyes, Johnson would double over with laughter.

As one of LBJ's marks put it : "/The President, with [his secretary] Vicky McCammon in the seat alongside him and me in the back, was now driving around in a small blue car with the top down. We reached a steep incline at the edge of the lake and the car started rolling rapidly toward the water. The President shouted, "The brakes don't work! The brakes won't hold! We're going in! We're going under!" The car splashed into the water. I started to get out. Just then the car leveled and I realized we were in a Amphicar. The President laughed. As we putted along the lake then (and throughout the evening), he teased me. "Vicky, did you see what Joe did? He didn't give a damn about his President. He just wanted to save his own skin and get out of the car." Then he would roar [with laughter]"./



16. Teddy Roosevelt's Troubled and Tragic Youth

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Teddy Roosevelt campaigning in 1912. Hoosier State Chronicles

President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858 --- 1919) had been a sickly child, whose parents feared he would not survive to adulthood. The son of a Manhattan socialite and a businessman philanthropist father, young Teddy often suffered severe asthma attacks that doctors could do little about. As he described the bouts in later years, they felt as if somebody had sat on his chest and tried to smother him with pillows. A born fighter, TR did not despair, and discovered how to keep down the asthma and simultaneously keep up his spirits: vigorous exercise. When he was around eleven-years-old, Teddy traveled with his family to Europe, and as they hiked in the Alps, the sickly kid discovered that he could keep pace with his father. It felt pretty good, and from then on, TR adopted a regimen of strenuous exercise and outdoors activities.

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Teddy Roosevelt's diary entry for February 14th, 1884. Wikimedia

He also took up boxing to learn how to fight, after he got bullied by older boys on a camping trip . TR went to Harvard, where he boxed and rowed. He was good enough at the former to make it to second place in a Harvard boxing tournament. After Harvard, TR spent a year at Columbia Law School, before he dropped out in 1881 to serve in the New York State Assembly. His political career showed early promise, and he made a name for himself, especially in his efforts against corporate corruption. Then came 1884, a horrible year for the future president. On Valentine's Day, February 14^th , two days after she gave birth to their daughter Alice, his wife died. His mother died a few hours later. The only entry on his diary that day was an 'X', and the notation "/The light has gone out of my life/".

15. TR Fell In Love With the West

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Teddy Roosevelt on horseback, out West. Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

A few months after his tragic bereavements, Teddy Roosevelt attended the GOP National Convention in Chicago, but his candidate lost. The personal and political setbacks in quick succession caused TR to feel burned out. So he decided to quit politics and move out West . He had visited the Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt buffalo, and liked the western lifestyle. So he invested $14,000 --- a significant amount in those days --- to become a rancher. TR was more than just a rich guy from the East Coast who went out west to cosplay as a cowboy. In the summer of 1884, he established the Elkhorn Ranch on the banks of the Little Missouri River in the Badlands, about 35 miles north of what is now Medora, North Dakota. He enthusiastically embraced his new occupation as a rancher, and set out to learn the ropes --- literally --- of the profession.

TR learned to ride, rope cattle, and hunt, and wrote three books about his experience. Later that year, he went on a days-long horseback ride to clear his head and take in the scenery. He eventually came upon the Nolan Hotel in Mingusville, Montana. The place looked like a seedy dive, and TR hesitated to enter --- especially after he heard two gunshots coming from the bar. However, nightfall was near, and it and it was cold outside, so he went in. He saw a "/shabby individual in a broad hat with a cocked gun in each hand was walking up and down the floor talking with strident profanity. He had evidently been shooting at the clock, which had two or three holes in its face/". As seen below, things were about to get interesting.

14. Teddy Roosevelt's Barroom Brawl

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts A bespectacled Teddy Roosevelt out West. Medora

Soon as he saw TR, who wore glasses, the bar lout hailed him as "Four Eyes" , and announced that "/Four Eyes is going to treat!/" TR tried to play it off, but the loudmouth followed him around. As the future president described the encounter : "/As soon as he saw me he hailed me as 'Four Eyes,' in reference to my spectacles, and said, 'Four Eyes is going to treat.' I joined in the laugh and got behind the stove and sat down, thinking to escape notice. He followed me, however, and though I tried to pass it off as a jest this merely made him more offensive, and he stood leaning over me, a gun in each hand, using very foul language... In response to his reiterated command that I should set up the drinks, I said, 'Well, if I've got to, I've got to,' and rose, looking past him./

/As I rose, I struck quick and hard with my right just to one side of the point of his jaw, hitting with my left as I straightened out, and then again with my right. He fired the guns, but I do not know whether this was merely a convulsive action of his hands, or whether he was trying to shoot at me. When he went down he struck the corner of the bar with his head... if he had moved I was about to drop on my knees; but he was senseless. I took away his guns, and the other people in the room, who were now loud in their denunciation of him, hustled him out and put him in the shed/". The next day, the humiliated lout left town on a freight train .

13. Too Ugly to Be President?

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Library of Congress

Many consider Abraham Lincoln to be America's greatest president, or at least in the top three. However, before he got the gig, Lincoln had to pass the job interview and audition: the 1860 presidential election. However, Lincoln's campaign had a problem: the candidate's looks. Photography had been invented by then, but had not yet widely spread in the media. So many Americans did not know what Lincoln looked like. In that vacuum, rumors --- spread and amplified by his opponents --- abounded that Lincoln was ugly as sin. One newspaper described him as: "/coarse, vulgar, and uneducated/".

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Abraham Lincoln shortly before he was elected president, and after four years in the White House. Imgur

As the /Houston Telegraph/ put it, Lincoln was: "/the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms and hatchet face ever strung upon a single frame. He has most unwarrantably abused the privilege which all politicians have of being ugly/". A woman claimed Lincoln was "/grotesque in appearance/". His opponents concocted a rallying cry that ended with: "/We beg and pray you --- Don't, for God's sake, show his picture/". It was petty, but unlike what we were told as kids, looks /do /matter. At least sometimes, and an election in which enough voters might be turned off by a candidate's mug to impact the result is one of those times. So, as seen below, Lincoln turned to famous photographer Matthew Brady .

12. The Photo That Saved Lincoln's Presidential Campaign

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lincoln's Cooper Union photo, by Matthew Brady. Library of Congress

Matthew Brady had Lincoln pose for a photo, just before he gave an early 1860 speech at Cooper Union that secured him the Republican nomination . It became Honest Abe's first widely disseminated image. Lincoln was rumored to be ugly, and gangly to the point of ungainliness. To address the ugly, Brady focused extra light on Lincoln's face. It highlighted that while not exactly handsome, Lincoln was not nearly as grotesque as his opponents claimed. To make Lincoln's neck look proportional, Brady touched up the photo to artificially enlarge the collar. He also had the future president curl up his fingers, so that their excessive length would not fuel the "gangly" narrative.

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lincoln's team simply slapped his face on a John C. Calhoun engraving. Library of Congress

Nowadays, politicians routinely edit their photos. In 1860, what Brady did was revolutionary. The resultant photo was so positively received, that Lincoln remarked: "/Brady and the Cooper Institute made me president/" . It was not the only --- and nowhere close to the most extreme --- old timey photo editing of Lincoln's image. After his assassination in 1865, the public was desperate for a then-popular "heroic pose" image of Lincoln. So portraitist Thomas Hicks went to extremes. He took a heroic pose image of extreme racist and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun, Lincoln's total political opposite, and swapped in Lincoln's head. Nobody noticed for a century.

11. George Washington's Adventurous Life

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze. Metropolitan Museum of Art

George Washington had the most interesting pre Oval Office (which didn't exist in his day) life of any American president. Before he was anybody, Washington played a key role in the disastrous Braddock Expedition --- an obscure engagement in the middle of nowhere that nonetheless helped spark off the Seven Years' War. The man was personally involved in world changing events from early on. When the American Revolution began, he led rebel armies almost from start to finish. He was not a brilliant battlefield commander. Nonetheless, he took disorganized militia mobs, forged them into a disciplined national army, and kept that army as a going concern for almost a decade, until victory was won.

Washington pulled that off despite intrigues, backstabbing, and straight up treason, both within his army and among his political masters . America probably would have lost its bid for independence without Washington. It is also probable that any random month from that period of his life as commander of the Continental Army had more interesting stuff than the entire pre-POTUS life of any other American president. Only other chief executives who had anything comparable by way of an exciting life before they were elected to lead the country were probably Andrew Jackson and US Grant, both of whom led armies in momentous battles and campaigns.

10. When a Young George Washington Started a World War

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts A young George Washington. Brewminate

Some people seem destined for great things, and everybody predicts from early on that they're going places. George Washington was one such. From early on, he stood out . Both literally, as he was quite big and tall by his era's standards, and because he had a presence that commanded attention. Decades before he commanded the Patriot forces in the American Revolution, a young Washington made a name for himself, both in the Colonies and in Britain. His first brush with fame began in 1753, when Virginia's governor sent Washington, then a twenty-one-year-old militia major, as a special envoy to demand that the French evacuate land claimed by Britain on the Ohio River. Washington was also ordered to negotiate peace with the Iroquois Confederacy, and to gather whatever intelligence he could about the French.

After a 900-mile and nearly three-months-long journey, Washington returned with the French commander's refusal to depart. The governor had him write a report, titled /The Journal of Major George Washington/ , which was then published to alert all to the dangers of French encroachment. The journal made Washington famous both in the Colonies, and among the political elites in Britain. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the Ohio River, this time as second in command of a Virginia regiment. Near today's Pittsburgh, he led a force of militia and Native allies, that surprised, slaughtered, and scalped about fifty French soldiers. That sparked what eventually became the Seven Years War' --- arguably history's first global conflict. It drew in all of Europe's great powers, and was fought in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

9. George Washington's Scary Mother

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts George Washington and the cherry tree, a story that never happened in real life. K-Pics

George Washington reportedly cut down a cherry tree in his childhood, and was then unable to lie about it to his father. In reality, that never happened. It was invented out of whole cloth by Mason Locke Weems, one of Washington's early biographers. However, the boy Washington's relationship with his mother could yield some true, although less inspirational, tales. Mary Ball Washington was not monstrous. Indeed, she deserves credit for raising "The Father of His Country". What made Mary Ball an iffy mother was a lifelong diet of passive-aggressiveness that she fed her son. As Washington put it, he grew up "/ten times more afraid/" of Mary than anybody else he knew .

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts George Washington and his mother, Mary Ball Washington. Epoch Times

Washington's mother made things awkward for him his entire life. During the Revolutionary War, she asked Virginia's House of Delegates for money. That prompted her embarrassed son --- a conscientious straight rod appalled at the idea of nepotism --- to rush off a letter, urging the Assembly not to give his mom any money. That attempt to cash in on her son's position paled in comparison to the fact that, even as Washington was leading the Patriots in their fight for independence, Mary was a vocal supporter of King George III . She stayed passive-aggressive to the end. When George became president in 1789 and dropped by to visit his mom, she did not celebrate, but instead told him that she was dying.

8. President Johnson's Johnson

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Lyndon Baines Johnson. National Archives

Another lesser known fact about President Johnson was that he was obsessed with his penis . Not as in he could not keep it in his pants --- he could not, in more ways than one, but that is not the point. LBJ was always eager to let everybody know that he had a huge penis. A competitive womanizer, whenever people mentioned John F. Kennedy's many affairs, LBJ would bang the table and brag that he had more women by accident than JFK ever had on purpose. Today, the sheer number of sexual assault allegations LBJ's conduct invited would probably force a presidential resignation --- at least if he was a Democrat president, or a TV one.

From early on, Johnson was notorious for creepy mannerisms that skeeved out people, especially in Capitol bathrooms. If a colleague entered while he was at the urinal, LBJ would often swing around, with his penis still in his hand, and whirl it around as he hooted: "/Woo-eee! Have you ever seen something as big as this?!/" Johnson would then begin to discuss pending legislation, even as he continued to brandish and shake his Johnson. The man simply had no humility when it came to his penis , which he called "Jumbo".

7. The Earthy LBJ

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts LBJ and JFK. Texas Monthly

LBJ was earthy in a whole lot of different ways. In an alpha male ritual of primacy assertion, he obliged aides, both male and female, to take dictation as they stood in the door of his office bathroom while he urinated or defecated. Even on the floors of the House or Senate, Johnson would extravagantly rummage away at his crotch, and frequently reach through a pocket to better position "Jumbo" so its outline could show beneath his pants. He constantly tried to work penis size boasts into conversations , as a clip from the LBJ Tapes, which recorded a phone call with his tailor illustrates: "/Another thing, the crotch, down where your nuts hang --- it's always a little too tight. So when you make them up, gimme an inch that I can let out there, because they cut me/".

President Johnson had a special nozzle installed in his White House bathroom, and had it positioned so it would shoot water directly at his penis while he showered . He refused to listen to arguments from the White House staff that the installation of the special nozzle would require a great deal of plumbing work, and insisted that it be done anyhow. As President of the United States, he of course had his way. As he told the staff: "/If I can move 10,000 troops in a day, you can certainly fix the bathroom any way I want it/".

6. When Thomas Jefferson Stood Up for the Honor of American Animals

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Thomas Jefferson. Wikimedia

Thomas Jefferson was a prickly man. Few things brought out his prickly side when he served as US ambassador to France more than slights, real or imagined, directed towards America. Count Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon, a prominent eighteenth century French naturalist and author of /Historie Naturelle/, a science encyclopedia, annoyed Jefferson . Buffon concocted the Theory of New World Degeneration, which held that North America was a marshy continent recently emerged from the sea. As the count claimed, excessive moisture made the continent's plants and wildlife inferior to, smaller, and more delicate than those of Europe. Moreover, argued Buffon, if plants or animals were transported from Europe to America, the poor environment would cause them to degenerate smaller and less virile sizes.

It was a dumb take by a man who had never been to the New World. Scientifically speaking, it was silly gibberish. It should have elicited no more than a scornful chuckle and a shrug. However, that is not how Jefferson handled it . Buffon's diss of North America's mega fauna seriously ticked off Jefferson, and he decided to disprove the count's theory. He went to great lengths to win the argument . Jefferson saw Buffon's take as an insult to America and its potential greatness. So he set out to challenge the Frenchman with evidence of American bigness. For starters, he wrote friends back home, and asked them to measure the size of American animals. As seen below, he did not stop there.

5. Jefferson's Ginormous Moose

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Thomas Jefferson went to extremes to prove Count Buffon wrong. History of Yesterday

Among the responses from Jefferson's friends was one from James Madison, who sent precise measurements of a Virginian weasel, including the "/distance between the anus and vulva/". Like a Founding Father version of /Seinfeld's/ George Costanza, Jefferson grew increasingly obsessed with the need to prove Buffon wrong. So he painstakingly compiled the measurements in a table . It included comparisons such as those between 12-pound American otters versus 8.9-pound European counterparts, and 410-pound American bears versus 153.7-pound European ones. Eager to confront the Frenchman, Jefferson accepted a dinner invitation at Buffon's home, and headed there armed with his data for a showdown, ready for a confrontation. The Frenchman diplomatically put off his prickly guest, and delayed the debate for another time. However, halfway through the dinner, somebody mentioned the North American moose.

Buffon declared that an animal of such size could not possibly exist in the continent's poor environment. A furious Jefferson sent a flurry of letters to America, and begged that somebody, anybody, shoot the biggest moose they could find, and ship it to him in Paris . Finally, New Hampshire's governor sent out hunters in the dead of winter to bag the biggest moose they could find. They did, then dragged it back to civilization for two weeks through heavy snow. A taxidermist stuffed it, before it was shipped to France. However, the taxidermist was incompetent, and the moose arrived in Paris in 1787 as a putrid mess . A triumphant Jefferson immediately sent the fetid carcass to Buffon, with a letter that told him to picture it with more fur and antlers. Unfortunately, Jefferson never got a retraction from Buffon: the Count died before he could publicly disavow his claims.

4. Abraham Lincoln's Marxist Leanings

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Abraham Lincoln with generals Grant and Sherman. Flickr

Republicans have traditionally been pro-business, and the GOP has usually been a reliable ally of employers in disputes with labor unions and employees. Surprisingly, however, the party's first president held views that could qualify him as a Marxist . In his first speech as an Illinois state legislator in 1837, Abraham Lincoln stated: "/These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people/". In his first Annual Message to Congress, on December 3^rd , 1861, Lincoln wrote: "/Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed/".

Honest Abe continued : "/Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them/".

3. President Lincoln and Karl Marx

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts Abraham Lincoln. Quotesta

Abraham Lincoln's Marxist views most likely came from the original fount of Marxism, Karl Marx himself. The author of /The Communist Manifesto/ and /Das Kapital/ had been a prolific contributor to the /New York Daily Tribune/, the most influential Republican newspaper of the 1850s , when the GOP was founded. In 1848, the /Tribune's /publisher had invited Marx to become a correspondent, and over the following decade, Marx, sometimes with the help of Friedrich Engels, wrote over 500 articles for the Republican newspaper.

Unsurprisingly, considering how much Marx detested labor exploitation, he rooted for Lincoln, and cheered him on as he wrecked slavery, the era's most exploitative labor system. In 1864, Marx wrote a letter on behalf of the International Working Men's Association, to congratulate Lincoln on his reelection and wish him success in the US Civil War . Lincoln instructed the American ambassador in Britain, where Marx lived, to thank him, and let him know that the United States: "/derive new encouragements to persevere from the testimony of the workingmen of Europe that the national attitude is favored with their enlightened approval and earnest sympathies/".

2. The First President's Specter

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts George Washington. Pinterest

Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, has its store of spooky ghost stories. The best ones revolve around encounters with the ghost of America's first president . One such is attributed to members of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, America's first national historic preservation organization, and the country's first women's patriotic society. The MVLAA raised money to purchase a dilapidated Mount Vernon in the nineteenth century, in order to restore and preserve it for posterity. In the early years, when members were in the area, they slept in the mansion, sometimes in the four-poster bed in which Washington died.

Many who did insisted that they felt the presence of George Washington's ghost, which some described as "/a strange and brooding spectre/". One night, as two MVLAA members shared Washington's bed, they saw a spook as their bedside candle went out with a noise. Alarmed, one told her friend: "/You are on the side of the bed where Washington died!/" Her friend replied: "/No, I'm not. He died on your side!/" That did it for their sleep. Both got up, dressed, and sat around wide awake until the sun came up, terrified by every squeak. As an 1890 newspaper article put it: "/They all agree that Washington visits his chamber in the still watches of the night/ ".

1. Haunted Mount Vernon

Abraham Lincoln, Hall of Fame Wrestler, and Other American President Facts George Washington's ghost. Mount Vernon

One of Massachusetts' more prominent figures in the first half of the nineteenth century was Josiah Quincy III (1772 --- 1864). He served in the US House of Representatives from 1805 to 1813, as mayor of Boston from 1823 to 1828, and as President of Harvard University from 1829 to 1845. In 1806, he visited Mount Vernon, inherited by George Washington's nephew Bushrod Washington. Quincy stayed overnight, and Bushrod hosted him in the first president's bedroom --- the one in which the great man had died. By then, rumors already abounded of spooky encounters with Washington's ghost in that bedroom. Quincy, who like most Americans of his generations revered George Washington, was not afraid.

Indeed, he actually hoped "/that he might be found worthy to behold the glorified spirit of him who was so revered by his countrymen/ ". As his son Josiah Quincy Jr. recounted decades later, his father was not disappointed. At some point that night, he reported that he did, indeed, meet the ghost of George Washington. Frustratingly, however, Quincy Jr. gave no details, other than inform readers that his father's "/assurance in this matter was perfect/". We are thus left to wonder what might have passed between the Massachusetts bigwig and the spooky ghost of America's first president.

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*Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading*

Atlantic, The, October 17^th , 2014 --- /White House Sheep, a History/

Atlas Obscura --- /The Great Lengths Taken to Make Abraham Lincoln Look Good in Portraits/

Auto Blog --- /LBJ's Amphibious Car Caught Friends and Dignitaries by Surprise/

Brodie, Fawn McKay --- /Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History /(1974)

Chernow, Ron --- /Washington: A Life /(2010)

Daily Beast --- /Happy Mother's Day! Meet the Worst Mothers in History/

Dugatkin, Lee Alan --- /Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America /(2009)

Gawker --- /LBJ Was Obsessed With His Dick/

History Collection --- /How George Washington Saved the American Revolution/

Jacobin, August 28^th , 2012 --- /Lincoln and Marx/

Listverse --- /10 Stories That Show the Weird Side of Thomas Jefferson/

Miller, Nathan --- /Theodore Roosevelt: A Life /(1992)

Mount Vernon --- /Ghost Stories: Washington's Ghost Haunts Mount Vernon/

Mount Vernon Digital Collection --- /The Journal of Major George Washington/

National Park Service --- /Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Vehicles/

National Wrestling Hall of Fame --- /Abraham Lincoln/

NPR --- /Thomas Jefferson Needs a Dead Moose Right Now to Defend America/

Sandburg, Carl --- /Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years /(1929)

Sandburg, Carl --- /Abraham Lincoln: The War Years /(1939)

Thayer, William Roscoe --- /Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography /(1919)

ThoughtCo. --- /Was Abraham Lincoln Really a Wrestler?/

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Digital Commons --- /The Journal of Major George Washington (1754)/

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum --- /Wilson's Sheep/

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