What if Mike Pence gets infected? White House COVID-19 outbreak could set off constitutional chaos

[Wicked Blue]

Raw Story
Published 2 hours ago
on October 2, 2020
By Travis Gettys


NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian laid out the possible chain of events if Vice President Mike Pence also tests positive for the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump announced that he and first lady Melania Trump had been infected, along with senior adviser Hope Hicks, and Dilanian explained to MSNBC’s

“There’s a sense this is a dire national security situation, perhaps even a crisis, at the same time,” Dilanian said. “Unlike Boris Johnson, the president of the United States is the commander in chief of the world’s most powerful military with the awesome nuclear force and he has a nuclear football at his disposal at all times, and he needs to be mentally and cognitively in full capacity to be able to make split decisions about national security threats to the United States.”

“So we’ll hear a lot, I think, in the coming days about this term continuity of government,” he continued. “That is a term that notes a lot of different procedures and operations behind the scenes. It got a lot of attention after 9/11. It’s war-gamed and there are exercises every year where the government games out how it’s going to maintain operations in the event of a crisis. Most of the planning has to do with catastrophic attacks, terrorist attacks, and a lot of it involves whisking decision-makers away to bunkers. There are places they would take the president in the event of a crisis, but when you have the president infected with COVID that’s a problem. You wouldn’t want an infected person with key decision makers.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/what-if-mike-pence-gets-infected-white-house-19-outbreak-could-set-off-constitutional-chaos/

[EarlG]

1. It's not exactly chaos

The presidential line of succession is clearly laid out in the Constitution.

[MerryBlooms]

15. rec.

[crickets]

17. But 'chaos' gets better ratings. nt

[beachbumbob]

2. 25th amendment and understanding CIVICS 101

there ZERO constitutional crisis here

[fleur-de-lisa]

3. Why chaos? There's a prescribed process.

The pubes won't like it, but tough shit.

[MoonlitKnight]

4. Zero crisis

We haven’t had a President with mental and cognitive capacity since January 20, 2017.

[Iliyah]

5. Only chaos . . .

because the next successor after vp pence has a "D" by HER name . .

[Me.]

6. Nancy Isn't Positive

[Sherman A1]

7. Try this

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. Pelosi hasn't tested positive, and Hoyer isn't next in line, it's Sen. Leahy. Nt

[Wicked Blue]

9. Oh, good I thought I'd seen a post here that Peliosi had tested positive

THANK GODDESS she's okay

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. You should revise your post, otherwise you may be alerted for spreading misinformation nt

[Wicked Blue]

11. Done

Thank you so much for pointing that out!

[Polybius]

16. Not true about Leahy

The current Senate Pro Tempore is Chuck Grassley, he's next in line after Pelosi.

[Fiendish Thingy]

19. My mistake- President Leahy happens if no electoral winner & new congress not seated. Nt

[Polybius]

20. Yes

I'm sure he'll be Senate Pro Tempore anyway after the election, since I think we take the Senate.

[Coleman]

12. If the 25th is used

The result is an acting President. There will be no VP until the return of the president. The acting president has very limited powers. Don't look for Pelosi to save the day.

[DarthDem]

13. I understand some of his points, but

The invocation of Johnson is weird. The UK has nuclear weapons too. I guess he was trying to say that Queen Elizabeth is the head of state of the UK, but she's not issuing military orders.

[Wounded Bear]

14. It's worse than the normal chaos Trump has instigated?

Sorry, just being snarky.

[Happy Hoosier]

18. President Pelosi? Yes please. NT