The press room in the White House was getting increasingly smoky and noisier as the speculation among the assembled reporters spread. White House press conferences were not common events in the first place, and one on a Friday in early May seemed like an odd time to say the least. Still, there had been those rumors about Interior Secretary Fall, Navy Secretary Denby, and a few others--something about bribes and oil leases at odd places in the west.
The door opened abruptly and he came in: same silver hair and dark eyebrows as always, looking, as one wag had put it, like Central Casting had sent someone to play the president. He stepped to the podium and motioned the reporters to be seated.
"I have a brief statement to make. There will not be time for questions afterward, but we'll deal with those later."
"By now, you have heard all the talk about several members of my cabinet, and the oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Elk Hills, and other places. You have heard how they have been implicated in bribery and graft. While the question of guilt or innocence is one for the courts to decide, and not me, I know one thing. As their boss, I'm responsible for these men and their actions. Even a shadow of a suspicion like this cripples the administration and the ability to get things done."
"Therefore, effective at 11:00 this morning, just a bit more than an hour ago, I relieved Secretaries Fall and Denby, among others, of their duties. They now have time to work on the cases to clear their names. At the same time, I can't just walk away from this since, as I said, I'm their boss. That means just one thing: one week from today--that's noon on Friday, May 18, I will resign the presidency."
"Vice president Coolidge will then be sworn in immediately. I have every confidence that he can straighten this out and restore trust in the presidency."
"I plan to return home to Marion and to private life. That's for the best: I didn't particularly want the presidency in the first place, and I knew pretty quickly I was in over my head. Now the nation can get on with its business, with a new, stronger man as president."
"Thank you and good afternoon."
So what happens now upon Warren Harding's resignation?