How does Presidential power transfer if there were a decapitation strike on Inauguration Day? Let’s say that both the outgoing President, outgoing Vice President, President-Elect, Vice-President-Elect, etc are killed, as are attending members of the Senate. Hell, let’s imagine that the whole of Washington DC gets vapourised by a terrorist FLACOD. Suppose it had happenned when Carter handed over to Reagan, but amended for modern rules. Does the chain of succession follow the outgoing President, the incoming President (his cabinet hasn’t been confirmed, so are its members in the line of succession?) or what?
Would it surprise you to learn that the Constitution has no provision for this type of event? If this were actually to happen, I suspect that whatever members of the Senate and House remained would select someone to be president until a new election could be held. YMMV
Sure it does. (In that the Constitution empowers Congress to create statutes about the line of sucession after the Vice Presidency.)
In the event of such a catastrophe, the line of succession would go through the VP, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, to the current smorgasboard of cabinet secretaries. (Remember, they continue to serve until their replacements are confirmed by the Senate.)
Even if there are no valid cabinet members, there’s still a Speaker of the House and a President Pro Tempore of the Senate. I’m pretty sure they try to keep one of those Congrescritters in a safe place during times like the Innaguration (when there are a whole lot of VIPs concentrated together), and even if they both got killed somehow, the surviving members of each house could choose a new Speaker/PPT, who would then immediately succeed.
Don’t some Cabinet secretaries remain in office until a few hours/days after the new POTUS takes office?
As I understand it, the Speaker normally attends the Inauguration, sitting with the outgoing and incoming Presidents and Vice-Presidents, and would no doubt be killed. Whether the President Pro Tem would be there or not is debatable. But in either case, there would no doubt be Representatives and Senators who would survive, and who could convene and choose new officers, the first new Speaker chosen succeeding to the Presidency.
However, (1) the Cabinet officers put their resignations at the disposal of an incoming President – they do not, as a rule, resign flat out but write out a resignation effective on acceptance by the (new) President. This gives their departments continuity of authority – Defense or Interior are not headless until the replacements are ratified by the Senate. (2) Under the post 9-11-01 standards, one Cabinet Secretary is always at the proverbial “undisclosed location” precisely as a protection against terrorism wiping out the entire line of succession. He would succeed until a President (the new Speaker) qualifies, under the law.
No. Cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president. Once their boss’ term expires their jobs do as well.
As previously mentioned there is a defined succession plan already in place. While most of those on the list are cabinet secretaries, the top three are members of Congress.
Let us not forget that the new Congress is sworn in two weeks before the President. Since all members in the succession line no longer appear together (especially during the State of the Union Address), one can probably surmise the same also occurs at the presidential inaugural.