Generally, yes. But the Secret Service is obedient on the scale of Rome’s Praetorian Guard, and the military are conditioned to err on the side of following orders, especially ones from from the President. (Read Fail-Safe, a somewhat dated but still excellent work.)
Those people are sworn to defend the Constitution. The chances of an armed coup d’etat ever occurring in the United States are miniscule.
Surprised no one’s mentioned this up to now.
In that work, didn’t each Cabinet member have a deputy who was prepared to take over the post pro tempore in the event of disaster?
With the exception of Hoover, every president since Wilson has delivered a State of the Union address.
In today’s media-fueled environment, **not ** televising a live address due to fear of terrorism is not an option. There’d be no quicker way of saying “Oh, look, what a big bunch of pussies we’ve become in the last hundred years!”
It’s the VP’s job to preside over Congress. If he/she isn’t willing to accept the risks that go along with the post, he/she shouldn’t seek it.
I don’t know if SCOTUS are required to attend, but since distinguished seats are reserved for them, I think it would be bad form for them not to show up.
Well, that last bit seems circular: why bother reserving those seats for them to make it de rigueur? And since, given the whole premise of this series and the real-life process behind it, it’s no big deal for this or that Cabinet Secretary to stay away, why not have all of 'em stay away? They don’t need to be there! Secretary of Defense? Attorney General? Any one of 'em may skip the next SoTU; why not skip it anyway?
And as for the VP – when he’s not there the rest of the time, the Senate already has its own president pro tem, right? As far as I know, the VP isn’t required to be there much of the time in general, or during the SoTU in particular; it’s his job to be there sometimes, but also to be the in-case-of-emergency backup commander-in-chief.
The suggestion has nothing to do with the VP’s willingness to accept risk and everything to do with the order of succession to the presidency.
Ideally, the First Family would be evacuated by helicopter, but ultimately they’re expendable.
The main concern should be getting the President to the nearest place of safety as quickly as possible. The huge bunker under the White House is the place to go.
Everything above ground might be destroyed, but the bunker is secure and will allow the President to continue performing his duties.
Whatever the rationale for protecting him/her, presiding over Congress is his/her job.
This makes sense from a purely practical point of view. Psychologically, however, the effect would be quite different. State of the Union is now something you simply cannot miss if you’re part of the government.
To do what you suggest is entirely logical, but it would require a lot of planning in advance and a carefully managed media campaign to convince the public (and potential enemies) it’s not being done out of cowardice.
It’s no big deal because he was *ordered to stay away, and no one would miss him anyway.
*
“Who? The head of HHD? Never heard of him!”
You might get away with one guy low on the totem pole missing, but not the entire Cabinet. Not with the (entirely unjustified) attention attached to the event nowadays.
Well, regardless of politics, it does seem kind of stupid to put the 700 or so most important people in the government in the same building built to 19th-century standards.
I’m thrilled that, in the real world, the US would be run by ex San Antonio mayor Julian Castro. 
The position is vacant until an election is held.
That is why the designated survivor scenario always includes a Representative and a Senator so that there is always a Congress.
Well, look, psychologically, we already trumpet the DESIGNATED SURVIVOR bit to everyone, to the point where – again – this whole show is based around it; if nothing else, you’d think we could just tap the Vice-President for that, in much the same way that we routinely explain how they don’t typically travel together and so on; that ship has sailed, we may as well get the obvious benefit.
I mean, as for the Cabinet Secretaries and the Supreme Court – I’d argue that, and I think I’m right; but given the existence of a Designated Survivor, and given the whole point of having a VP, explaining that the VP is the Designated Survivor seems like a job for the Department of Redundancy Department.
(Is this turning into a hijack away from discussing the show?)
I agree, hauling him off to the bunker made sense if it can withstand an attack, but sending the wife and kids up to the residence floors didn’t seem right. First, if Congress has been destroyed, the WH could be next. Also, it was mere minutes after the attack that they arrived–I did like the swearing-in scene, calm in the midst of chaos. So moving up to the living area, presumably the late President was married, kids? would they all have been at the SotU? If any one of them had the flu or homework, it would be pack a bag kid, you don’t live here anymore. If they all perished in the bomb, it would be the housekeeping staff packing up everyone’s personal belongings and changing the sheets in record time and it would be very creepy for the new family. But yeah, it really goes back to the WH not being super-safe at the moment except for the bunker in the basement.
Which the new president didn’t spend a whole lotta time in. Basically, it was the moment of silence and then the General’s confrontation. Then he was getting some fresh air on the terrace and the rest of the episode focussed on the speech and the teenage son. The FBI scenes weren’t integrated in the story and they seemed simplistic and under-populated.
I didn’t understand how his assistant actually got inside the WH after being turned away.
They did a good job conveying his air of confusion and bewilderment: the glasses, the hoodie, not knowing anyone’s name or title or job description, the camera swinging around the room when he arrived, practically being led around by the arm, go here, do this.
Given how uneven the first episode was, I’m not sure they’re going to be able to sustain this but I’ll give it a few more episodes. I don’t think the timing is right for the concept though. Current campaigning already raises the uncomfortable prospect of an unqualified person as POTUS.
I watched and enjoyed. I guess I’m ignorant enough about how things work in government that I didn’t even consider most of what has been pointed out.
My only disappointment was finding that only the pilot was available. I would have binged, likely. I just finished eight seasons of Dexter and need a fix bad.
My favorite part was that Major patiently explaining the nuclear football to him.
He was expecting an actual football.
That scans his palmprint, or his eyeball, or – no? That’s just in the movies?
Notwithstanding its accuracy or inaccuracy, I somewhat enjoyed it. But I hope they dial back the cheesy soundtrack music (excessive (IMHO) background music is one of my pet peeves). It’s an interesting concept but I’ll watch a few more episodes.
I thought there were some pluses and minuses.
Plus: Good acting, good production values, novel premise.
Minuses: Very predictable, very cliche, lots of things that don’t really make sense if you think about them (as mentioned already)
I’m definitely up for at least a few more episodes, see how it starts to feel once it gets into a groove.