Allegedly

Earlier this week, professional podcaster and part-time US Senator Ted Cruz tried his best to boost the contrived controversy about Joe Biden being linked to his son’s foreign dealings with this imaginative line of argument:

Now, leaving aside the obvious fact that anyone can pretty much “allege” anything — something that the son of JFK’s alleged assassin should appreciate more than anyone else — Cruz’s claim about the history of scandals involving vice presidents is, of course, completely wrong. (I know, I know, I was shocked too.)

The Vice Presidency of the United States is an office with a long and checkered past, and many of its occupants have seemed intent on living up to the “vice” aspect as literally as possible.

Even if we just restrict ourselves to reviewing only the vice presidents who were alleged or proven to have accepted bribes in office, there’s a decent list.

In 1873, Vice President Schuyler Colfax was accused of bribery as part of the Grant administration’s infamous Crédit Mobilier scandal, which involved a financing scheme for construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. Several government officials, including Colfax, were accused of taking bribes in the form of cash and stock in exchange for siding with the railroad’s needs.

Colfax angrily denied the charges, but an investigation soon showed that he had, in fact, taken thousands in bribes. The vice president escaped impeachment only because the clock was running out on his term when the revelations came, but President Grant dropped him from the re-election ticket. His political career was over.

In 1910, Vice President James S. Sherman was accused of bribery by U.S. Senator Thomas Gore, who claimed that he had been approached as part of an Oklahoma scandal involving Native American lands worth some $30,000,000 — nearly a billion in today’s money — and that Taft’s VP had already expressed interest. Sherman was eventually cleared of all allegations.

In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew was accused of bribery. The US Attorney for the District of Maryland investigated the accusations that he had taken kickbacks as governor of the state. As the political pressure steadily increased, Agnew resigned from office, pleading guilty to related charges of tax evasion. But the bribery charges were later proven in court too.

In 1997, Vice President Al Gore Jr. was accused of bribery by House Republicans who demanded an inquiry into the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign’s fundraising efforts. An inquiry by Attorney General Janet Reno cleared him.

So, no, there have been plenty of allegations of bribery made against US Vice Presidents. Some of them turned out to be true; others were utterly baseless.

But we’ve been here before, no matter how much Ted Cruz wants to pretend otherwise.