Is Trump's presidency off to a terrible start? Dan Rather thinks so
What do William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes and Abraham Lincoln all have in common (besides the obvious)? Their presidencies all got off to a rough start — but not as bad of the one President Trump has faced in the past couple months, according to newsman Dan Rather.
Rather said it's the worst start he has witnessed and that presidential scholars think it may be the worst one in history.
The former CBS News anchor went through the former presidencies in a Facebook post:
- Harrison died a month after his inauguration
- Hayes had a rough transition after a contentious and controversial election
- Lincoln saw the withdrawal of states from the Union and the beginning of the Civil War (but this led to him being one of the best presidents in history, he noted)
Why is Trump having a terrible start? The defeat on repealing Obamacare. The probe into the links between Russia and his presidential campaign. The striking down of his temporary travel ban.
"Where the early Trump Presidential troubles will lead, no one can foretell," he wrote. "President John Kennedy once said, 'The first lesson of the Presidency is that it is impossible to foretell the precise nature of the problems that will confront you or the specific skills and capacities which those problems will demand.'"