Who becomes POTUS when everyone dies?

[LuckyLuciano]

Now, I just finished watching the first season of the show Designated Survivor on Netflix. It was meh IMO, but played with some interesting ideas and got me thinking. In the tv show, there are three people left, a cabinet member (the designated survivor) and two congressmen. Even if the designated survivor also died, the other two congressmen would just vote amongst themselves for a new Speaker who would then assume the presidency.

But what if everyone in Washington suddenly drops dead in some freaky way. Who then would assume the role of President?

Ignoring how it happens, am I correct in assuming that if both houses of Congress, the president and his cabinet and the supreme court (yes I know their not in the line of succession, just for good measure) die, the proper way for the country to go forward would be for the governors to appoint interim senators who would have an immediate vote for a new president pro tempore, who would then assume the presidency and get to work appointing a new cabinet and court while the state governments organize special congressional elections?

 

[Tjakari]

Yeah, that sounds about right, in the most orderly scenarios at least. Depending on the circumstances though it's no unthinkable that some military officials fill the power vacuum. Who the highest ranked general is, I couldn't tell you, but they have a good claim to assuming the responsibilities of a Presidency and by extension an entire Executive Branch that is momentarily defunct.
If this happens at a healthy political moment that interim dictatorship would be temporary and custodial.

In an unhealthy moment....things might get weird, and not just with regards to the military.

That's a lot of states that aren't bound by much but a common expectation to reestablish the Federal Government. If faith in the United States is fleeting then you might get talk of a constitutional convention or maybe secession/independence in a few isolated cases.

Maybe Puerto Rico decides to cuts ties with a government that technically doesn't exist anymore.

Maybe Blue States/Red States refuse to attend any convention due to either side outnumbering them in a prospective Continental Congress.

Maybe Blue States/Red States refuse to send appointments and representatives to Washington until the rest agree to send delegates to a Convention.

Maybe any President that comes out of this crisis might not be accepted by some states; ones that take too long to send Congressmen or the compromise candidate is unacceptable for one reason or another to a particular state or group of states.

It's fun thinking about how awful we can get in a crisis, but I don't think it would go as smoothly you described in the OP even if it's pretty much the common sense response.

 

[Mikestone8]

Maybe any President that comes out of this crisis might not be accepted by some states; ones that take too long to send Congressmen or the compromise candidate is unacceptable for one reason or another to a particular state or group of states.

Provided the armed forces obey him, can those States (Governors? Legislatures?) do anything more than grumble?

 

[Tjakari]

Provided the armed forces obey him, can those States (Governors? Legislatures?) do anything more than grumble?

States have militaries too. Whether they'll actually listen to their State Governments or not? I doubt they would, but depending on what state it is and how nasty things get with the emergency government it might get farther than a few harsh words. Especially if there's time for aligned states to join their forces in case the military steps in.

Edit: Also, the likelihood that things get messy is almost certainly a function of how long it takes to put the country back together. A few weeks would probably be fine. If we reach a month then there will be enough people questioning the value of remaking the US strictly as it was that the political situation can get volatile.

The less time there is to think about this and less time there is for people to say it out loud, the better.

 

[sendô]

But what if everyone in Washington suddenly drops dead in some freaky way. Who then would assume the role of President?

In that scenario, you've got bigger problems that who's in charge of the twitter account.

 

[TehIrishSoap]

Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale

 

[nbcman]

There was a study done and a report issued on the Presidential Succession in 2009 which was co-chaired by Presidents Carter and Ford. There is an interesting scenario that they propose on the confusion that arises after a theoretical attack on a State of the Union address as well as a description of the current Presidential succession procedures and their recommendations to modify the Presidential succession procedures.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

In high school I created a story with a partial Marty Stu (the female Mary Sue - though I've heard Gary Stu for that as well) that became a behemoth of a Marty Stu - a great athlete and superstar pitcher who governors in this type of scenario decide they should "appoint" as President becasue he's the most respected American around; of course never mind that he had no political experience. (I won't get into how crazy it got with the soviets kidnapping him and him fighting his way back Rambo-style and bringing refugees with him. I used it to keep working on things like dialogue, etc. and just mercifully let it stay unsaved on my Macintosh when I switched to an IBM compatible almost a decade after I bought that computer, so when the Mac died a few months later, I gladly let it disappear so I didn't have to delete it after having worked on it to hone my writing for almost a decade, counting when I wrote the first very short draft covering only the baseball part out on paper over a number of study halls.)

The point being that even in the most calm of political climates, almost anyone will do as an appointed Senator who then is chosen as President Pro Tem, which means thigns can get pretty dicey anyway, depending on who they think is most capable.

 

[Michel Van]

i wonder are there any continue Plans in case Capitol Hill get wipe out in some way ?
Like a US authority take momentary the control of USA, organize nationwide new Election for New Congress, Senat and a POTUS.

 

[nbcman]

i wonder are there any continue Plans in case Capitol Hill get wipe out in some way ?
Like a US authority take momentary the control of USA, organize nationwide new Election for New Congress, Senat and a POTUS.

In addition to the continuity report for the US Presidency, there were also reports for mass vacancies in Congress:

https://www.webcitation.org/67sZ1XI...uity of government/continuityofgovernment.pdf

and for the Supreme Court:

http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Supreme-Court-Continuity.pdf

Presumably they would appoint people temporarily to vacancies as quickly as possible and then follow up with special elections and formal appointments for the Supreme Court to fill the positions permanently. But I haven't read all 3 reports in full to see what other recommendations they contain.

 

[David T]

President Michael Armacost? https://www.brookings.edu/articles/...-continuity-of-government-after-september-11/

 

[Blorg]

If enough people die, will the postmaster general become president?

 

[Nagisaki]

If enough people die, will the postmaster general become president?

Postmaster General isn't in the Line of Succession anymore, unfortunately.

 

[Blorg]

Postmaster General isn't in the Line of Succession anymore, unfortunately.

): Shame

 

[John Roscommon]

If enough people die, will the postmaster general become president?

Postmaster General isn't a Cabinet post anymore. So far as blowing up the Capitol real good, there's always one Cabinet Secretary who doesn't attend the State of the Union or Joint Sessions of Congress. To use that scenario you'll have to blow them up too, or have them choke on a chicken bone or something.