Flashback: Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter Allegedly Lost the Nuclear Codes

A recently resurfaced report indicates that former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both had incidents involving lost nuclear codes.
Screenshot: YouTube Video, CBS News YouTube Channel

Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both were involved in stories about having lost the nuclear codes, a 2010 report from ABC News revealed.

ABC had reported on a memoir published by Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between 1997 and 2001, and a story about the former President having lost the codes for “months.”

“At one point during the Clinton administration the codes were actually missing for months,” Shelton wrote. “That’s a big deal — a gargantuan deal.”

They also point to a similar story told by Ret. Air Force Lt. Col Robert Patterson in his book, which claimed Clinton “misplaced” the nuclear codes the morning after the Monica Lewinsky story broke.

“He thought he just placed them upstairs,” Patterson claimed. “We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn’t recall when he had last seen them.”

RELATED: Trump Demands Immediate Release Of Search Warrant, Denies Reports That FBI Raid Was Over Nuclear Weapons Documents

Nuclear Codes Sent to the Cleaners?

Business Insider further elaborates that aides repeatedly told Shelton that Clinton was “busy,” and so he could not do his required check of the nuclear codes. This went on for months.

The ABC News report also references a story about Jimmy Carter having lost the “biscuit” – the card containing the nuclear codes that are to remain near the President at all times.

“Consider the old story that Jimmy Carter left his biscuit in a suit that got sent to the dry cleaners,” they wrote. “Today, no one will confirm the story, but no one will deny it either.”

Timeline in 2017 wrote that officials still hadn’t confirmed the story but “it’s been an open secret that Jimmy Carter inadvertently lost his (biscuit) when a suit was sent to the dry cleaners.”

RELATED: House Democrats Want Biden To Relinquish Sole Authority To Launch Nuclear Weapons

Democrats Didn’t Want Biden or Trump to Have Nuclear Control

Dozens of House Democrats last year called on President Joe Biden to relinquish sole control over the country’s nuclear arsenal and the ability to launch a strike using those weapons.

But in doing so, they clearly had an eye on Donald Trump.

In fact, it had little to do with Biden at all as a letter to Biden referenced the behaviors and threats of “past presidents” as reasons for the proposed change.

The footnotes in the letter referenced an alleged “threat” to nuke North Korea by the former President.

The Washington Post on Thursday published a sensational report alleging that this week’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort was an attempt by the FBI to retrieve documents pertaining to “nuclear weapons.”

The latest information, via NBC, about the recovered documents: “Federal agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some that were labeled top secret, according to documents obtained by NBC News. Among the items the FBI took was a handwritten note, information about the “President of France,” an executive grant of clemency for Trump ally Roger Stone and binders of photos.”

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

Mentioned in this article: