Betty Ford, First Lady, Pioneer Health And Women’s Rights Advocate, Dies
Betty Ford, former First Lady, popular and outspoken wife of the late President Gerald R. Ford, a woman who became the nation’s leading advocate for treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, has died at the age of 93 in Palm Springs, California. Ford, according to her biographer, Chris Chase, died at her home Friday night, surrounded by her family.
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford, better known as Betty, was an able partner to her husband, who assumed the presidency on August 9, 1974, when Richard M. Nixon, plagued by the Watergate scandal that had mired his presidency after a burglary of the Democratic National Committee’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, resigned amid scandal.
The accidental First Lady became a candid voice of openness and frankness, which was unprecedented in staid and staged Washington, D.C. Her demeanor was particularly ground-breaking for the wife of a president to speak so frankly about once-taboo subjects, such as sex, gay rights, abortion, marijuana, and even support for equal rights for women. Mrs. Ford called the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, sanctioning abortion rights, a “great, great decision.”
Mrs. Ford, born on April 8, 1918, was far more popular than her Republican husband, and his presidential election campaign took notice, printing, “Betty’s Husband for President” buttons.
The unvarnished candor of the politically active presidential wife “since Eleanor Roosevelt,” according to Time, was a breath of fresh air for the entire country, sorely needed following the obsessive secrecy of the Nixon presidency.
Arguably, her greatest legacy in fighting alcohol and drug addiction would occur after Gerald Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1976. She would go on to become America’s national leader and advocate on treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. On April 1, 1978, Ford was confronted by her husband and her children about her abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs. She subsequently founded the Betty Ford Center and Clinic in 1982, which led the nation on education and treatment of alcohol and drug addiction.
Mrs. Ford admitted her loneliness, which led to her addictions, while her husband was away campaigning and spending long hours working in politics. She also asserted that women’s conduct was more highly scrutinized than men’s behavior within society, thus women hid their addictions more effectively from their families and friends.
Ford also brought breast cancer out of the closet, a once-whispered women’s disease of great shame. Just six weeks into Ford’s nascent presidency, Betty Ford announced that she had breast cancer and would have surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital. She and the president invited reporters to her hospital room following surgery, where she was photographed in her house coat.
Betty Ford said she slept with her husband in the White House (Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had made it known they did not sleep with their wives because of the demands of the presidency) and she enjoyed sex with him frequently. She acknowledged the existence of abortion and supported women’s access to medically safe reproductive services, and she also strongly supported the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), all subjects which would be anathema today within the Republican Party.
In her 1978 memoir, “The Times of My Life,” Betty Ford wrote of her thoughts when her husband, then-Vice President Gerald Ford, rose to the presidency.
“I had such belief in my husband. I never doubted he could do it. … But I wasn’t sure what kind of First Lady I would be. There was a great deal of whooping and hollering right at the beginning because I’d said Jerry and I were not going to have separate bedrooms at the White House, and that we were going to take our own bed with us. … Even now, after all those years of married life, I like the idea of sleeping with my husband next to me.â€
“I figured, OK, I’ll move to the White House, do the best I can and if they don’t like it, they can kick me out, but they can’t make me somebody I’m not.â€
She also wrote, “I feel women ought to have equal rights, equal Social Security, equal opportunities for education, an equal chance to establish credit.â€
When Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1977, he had lost his voice and, exhausted, Betty Ford read his concession statement to the public from the White House.
Ford divorced William Warren after five years, before marrying Gerald Ford in 1948, just six weeks before he became a member of Congress. She was the mother of three sons, Michael, John, Steven and Susan, the Ford’s only daughter.
“Elizabeth Anne Ford distinguished herself through her courage and compassion,” President Barack Obama said upon Mrs. Ford’s passing. “As our nation’s First Lady, she was a powerful advocate for women’s health and women’s rights. After leaving the White House, Mrs. Ford helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction and inspired thousands to seek much-needed treatment. While her death is a cause for sadness, we know that organizations such as the Betty Ford Center will honor her legacy by giving countless Americans a new lease on life.
“Today, we take comfort in the knowledge that Betty and her husband, former President Gerald Ford, are together once more. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to their children, Michael, John, Steven, and Susan.”
Vice President and Mrs. Biden said in a statement, “Throughout her life, Betty displayed strength, courage and determination that provided hope for millions of Americans seeking a healthier, happier future. Her legacy and work will live on through the millions of lives she has touched and the many more who will continue to look to her for inspiration. Her family will remain in our thoughts and prayers in the coming days.”
See: The BBC's "Betty Ford's life in pictures"
Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.
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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.
“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”
Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.
“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.
The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.
“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”
While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.
READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post
Image via Reuters
The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.
“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.
“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.
He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”
Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”
Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”
Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.
The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.
Image via Reuters
Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.
“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.
His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Some ridiculed the president.
“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.
Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”
Image via Reuters
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