# Thomas Dewey > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Thomas Dewey," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/thomas-dewey/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *New York prosecutor, governor and twice-defeated Republican presidential candidate, discussed by John Kiriakou for two reasons: the explanation he encountered for Dewey's 1948 loss to Harry Truman — that Dewey's short-cropped moustache reminded an intensely anti-fascist American public of Adolf Hitler — and Dewey's refusal, at sixty-seven, of Richard Nixon's 1969 offer to make him Chief Justice of the United States.* - **Known to Kiriakou for:** Prosecuting Albert Anastasia; losing the 1948 election - **Office:** District Attorney, then Governor of New York - **The 1948 explanation:** His short moustache evoked Hitler to an anti-fascist electorate - **Declined in 1969:** Chief Justice of the United States, offered by Richard Nixon - **Age when he declined:** 67 **Thomas E. Dewey** (1902–1971) was the New York prosecutor and governor who ran for president twice as a Republican and lost twice. John Kiriakou raised him in August 2025 after watching a documentary about the crime boss Dewey put away, and used him for two observations — one about how much the American electorate has changed, and one about how much American public life has. ## The prosecution and the election Kiriakou came to the subject through Albert Anastasia, the crime boss nicknamed the Lord High Executioner for the number of people he had killed, who was finally put away by the then district attorney Dewey — the same Dewey who went on to become governor of New York and then to run for president against both Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, *"nearly beating Harry Truman."*[1] He recalled the image everyone knows: Truman holding up the Chicago Tribune with its headline announcing that Dewey had defeated him.[1] ## The moustache The explanation the documentary reached, and which Kiriakou repeated, is not about policy or organisation. The conclusion, he said, *"was only that Dewey lost because he had a short cropped mustache and it reminded people of Adolf Hitler because people Americans were so anti-fascist."*[1] He drew the moral immediately: Americans were then *"so anti-fascist that they wouldn't even vote for a guy who had a mustache"* — and, of the distance between that public and the one he had just watched posing for photographs beside [armoured vehicles in Washington](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-armour-at-union-station), *"We have changed."*[2] ## The offer he refused The second item Kiriakou said he had not known until the night before. In 1969 Richard Nixon asked Dewey whether he would become Chief Justice of the United States, and Dewey turned it down.[2] Asked why, Kiriakou's answer was that Dewey simply was not interested: he was sixty-seven at the time, he had had a good life, and he was calling it a career.[3] Kiriakou's comment on that was a single line about the gerontocracy of contemporary Washington — *"Can you imagine in this day and age? He's a child."*[3] By way of consolation he noted that Dewey does at least have the New York State Thruway named after him.[2] ## See also - [The armour at Union Station](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-armour-at-union-station) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 04:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=278s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 05:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=309s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-18), at 05:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwweQtSlWCs&t=342s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-18-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/thomas-dewey/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt