America's 50 Most Scandalous Political Scandals

Warren G. Couldn't Keep His Harding In His Pants

Long before Bill Clinton famously received oral in the Oval Office, Warren G. Harding introduced his young lover to a nearby closet.

Nan Britton in the 1920s
Thirty-one years younger than Harding, Nan Britton's obsession with the politician began in her early teens. When Harding was still a senator, she would paste pictures of him on her walls. Nan's father was friends with Harding, who ended up taking advantage of the girl's obsessions and, according to her, fathering her child, Elizabeth Ann.

But while Britton was obsessed with Harding, it was another woman who became the first and only person to ever successfully extort hush money from a major American political party. Carrie Fulton Phillips carried on a 15-year-relationship with Harding that began when she was still married to Harding's friend from Marion, Ohio, James Phillips.

Later in life, Carrie Fulton Phillips was known as an eccentric obsessed with her many dogs.
When Republican party bosses found out about the affair in the run-up to Harding's 1920 presidential campaign, they decided to pay off his mistress. Harding had written hundreds of love letters to Fulton, who could easily crush his and the party's chances for a win.

The Republican party paid for Fulton to take a lavish trip to Asia and also agreed to pay her an annual stipend of hush money until her death.

But they couldn't shut up Nan Britton, who started working on her tell-all book as soon as Harding died in 1924. The President's Daughter was a reference to Britton's daughter, Elizabeth Ann, and was published in 1927.

Warren and Florence Harding
Just like Bill, Harding's wife was tough. She was reportedly furious over his dalliances, and it is suspected to this day that she might have poisoned her husband, leading to his death while touring America's Northwest on a series of speeches.

America's 50 Most Scandalous Political Scandals
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