How to Get Rid of a President

October 29, 2018
Former CIA officer Priess (The President’s Book of Secrets) capitalizes on today’s keen interest in truncated terms of office in these piquant studies of presidential woe. He covers all the most dramatic ways a presidency can end, including impeachment; resignation before looming impeachment; assassination, which was an easier proposition in the 19th century, when the lack of security details, he notes, made it easy to saunter up to a president with a gun; and death by sudden infection, which felled William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor early in their respective terms. Priess also digs into less spectacular but perhaps more poignant presidential failures: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Chester A. Arthur were all not renominated by their parties for a second term; Samuel Tilden was denied the office by a corrupt backroom deal; Woodrow Wilson was secretly replaced by his wife after a stroke incapacitated him; Calvin Coolidge silently wilted from depression. A litany of others were denied reelection by voters. Unlike the many impeachment primers now being published, Priess’s tome doesn’t offer much assessment of prospects for removal; instead he gives readers a collection of colorful, slightly morbid vignettes that connoisseurs of political picaresque will relish.

October 15, 2018
A timely anecdotal narrative about how every incumbent U.S. president has left office, focusing on departures or near departures under duress.In each chapter, former CIA officer Priess (The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America's Presidents, 2016) discusses a discrete path toward departure: rejected by one's own political party (Presidents Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Arthur, and Lyndon Johnson); undermined by opponents and/or subordinates (Nixon); sunk due to general unpopularity (Taft); death by natural causes (Harrison, Taylor, Harding, Franklin Roosevelt); assassination (Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, Kennedy); temporarily unable to serve due to a traumatic occurrence (Wilson, Eisenhower, Reagan); and impeachment (Andrew Johnson, Clinton). Throughout the book, Priess delves into the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, explaining debates among the Founding Fathers about how much stability to offer a chief executive. Nobody desired an executive with powers so weak as to be ineffective, but at the same time, nobody wanted to be ruled by a monarchy similar to the one from which the country had just won independence. The author makes the historical context relevant through his skilled storytelling, and at the end of the book, he concedes that his research focuses on the "how" of the removal processes without addressing the question of "when." Although Priess rarely mentions Donald Trump by name, he clearly has the sitting president in mind as he explores the idea of an incumbent president being clearly unfit for office. Of course, he writes, it is inevitable that a centuries-old Constitution cannot be expected to anticipate every permutation of unfitness. As a result, he suggests, without offering specifics, that contemporary policymakers consider amending the Constitution to adapt to current circumstances. Harking back to Abraham Lincoln, Priess writes that government of the people, by the people, and for the people must encompass fair but contemporary means of removing presidents if necessary.A mostly dispassionate discussion of an issue that must be addressed.

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Starred review from November 15, 2018
His confrontational title notwithstanding, Priess has written a companionable history of U.S. presidents in crisis. Is the president a monarch? If not, how should the person be removed from office? The Founding Fathers struggled with this issue and eventually enshrined a method of impeachment into the Constitution to short-circuit the quadrennial election process. Priess reminds his readers of often-forgotten economic, social, and legal controversies that so inflamed citizens in the past. Some unpopular presidents, such as John Tyler, didn't reach reelection; others found themselves unceremoniously dumped by their own parties instead of voters. Even Abraham Lincoln faced such challenges. Priess excels at making presidents look tragically human: When you're having a bad day, reflect on the life of Franklin Pierce and hug someone. Priess even awards the generally dismissed James Buchanan a few sympathy points. Anyone distressed or appalled by today's rancorous clashes over presidential prerogative and power may take comfort from learning that the nation has weathered it all before.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)