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(CNN) – President Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19 and is in quarantine with First Lady Melania Trump.
This is what happens if you start showing symptoms and get too sick to serve as president.
The Constitution establishes the rules of succession.
When Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, was hospitalized with Covid this year, he stressed that there was no formal succession procedure in the UK and raised serious questions about who was running the country. Johnson asked his foreign secretary to stand in for him if he was completely incapacitated.
In the US, there are specific guidelines in both the Constitution and federal law that dictate who takes over if Trump can’t do his job. (Here is the line of succession). But the first step is to determine that a president is incapacitated, and at this point there is very little clarity.
Under Amendment 25, he could make that determination himself and, with a letter to the Senate, formally hand over power to Vice President Mike Pence, who would then rule until Trump informed the Senate that he was regaining power.
Here’s what it looks like in the 25th Amendment:
“Provided that the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he cannot exercise the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and Duties will be performed by the Vice President as Acting President. “
Ronald Reagan did this when cancerous polyps were removed from his colon and George W. Bush did it twice when he had colonoscopies. In both cases, when the presidents were under anesthesia, they handed over power for a few hours, although Reagan denied it was an intended use of the 25th Amendment.
New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt recently reported that Pence was on hold to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency in 2019, when Trump may have to undergo a procedure requiring anesthesia at Walter Reed Hospital, although it was knows very little about it. situation and the White House has been cautious about details.
The cabinet can intervene
There is another clause in the 25th Amendment that is worth considering. If the president were incapacitated to such a degree that he could not temporarily transmit power, the vice president and the majority of the cabinet could, technically, take it away from him. If the vice president and a majority of the cabinet disagree, a large majority in Congress and the Senate could vote to remove him permanently.
This clause had in mind a president who was in a coma or suffered a stroke.
The Reagan administration wrote, but did not sign or transmit, letters to the Senate that would have removed Reagan from power after he was shot in 1981. You can view them on the Reagan Library website.
Dwight Eisenhower, for example, suffered a debilitating heart attack while in office in the 1950s. That was before the 25th Amendment, so there was no constitutional rule. Instead, he reached an agreement with Vice President Richard Nixon on handing over power.
What if many people in the succession line get sick?
The other item to consider is that since Covid has infiltrated the White House, it is possible, though not likely, that the virus will incapacitate various members of the administration. Trump has been in close contact with Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been in contact with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
His Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has been working in the White House and traveling to the Capitol to meet with senators.
The Presidential Succession Law is a law that has been in force since 1948 and establishes a very long line of succession for the presidency “If, due to death, resignation, removal from office, incapacity or lack of qualification, there is no president or vice president to perform the powers and duties of the office of president “.
In the first place is the president of the Chamber, although he would have to resign from Congress. Then comes the highest-ranking US senator. Then go to the cabinet.
And beyond succession plans, the US has made plans to keep the government running, what is called government continuity, in all manner of eventualities.
The Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem said on CNN Friday that people shouldn’t worry about the government’s failure.
“Given the probability that the Trumps are statistically okay, they could be out of commission for a couple of days, I think the consequences will be more political than anything else,” he said, pointing to the contingency of the administration’s planning.
“The systems are in place, they seem to be working. You’re nervous because it’s a time to be nervous, but in terms of the fact that Trump is not the presidency, nor is it the United States, we have plans for whatever contingencies may occur.”
And the elections?
One contingency that would be unprecedented in modern times is if a presidential candidate becomes too ill to run a campaign.
Both Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden are on the ballot. People are already voting by mail and absentee voting, and the elections will go according to plan.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “This is what happens if Trump gets too sick to rule.”
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