Fifty years ago today was a glorious day for all mankind.

Sure, we put some guys on the moon. That was kinda cool. But for listeners of This is the President, it’s an even more special day. Because once man had landed on the moon and walked on the surface, what was the next step?

A phone call from the president, of course! Which, naturally, leads us to the most long distance presidential telephone call in history.

It all happened on July 20, 1969, a few minutes before 12AM Eastern Daylight Time. Nixon was introduced to the astronauts by CAPCOM (Capsule Commander - like the NASA terms?) Bruce McCandless II. The call was short and, in all honesty, not the most exciting call we’ve ever had on the show but for the sake of history and completeness, we feel like it had to be done.

As we mention in the podcast, there was a “contingency plan” prepared in case the astronauts never made it back from the moon. First they would call the astronaut’s wives, then NASA would shut off all the communications to the trapped astronauts and then the president would read a speech written by White House staffer William Safire that you can hear in the video on our site.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the longest distance presidential telephone call you will ever hear.

ALSO ON THE SHOW - Harmon and Scott discuss some of the latest diatribes from the current president, Harmon revisits his Trump impression and a plane tries to land on Harmon’s balcony.