Aye; the Senate has nothing to do with succession.
I think the Senate would have to approve a Vice President though, so I guess that office would remain “open”.
I am in awe, good sir.
I’m glad you feel the Constitution will still matter… I wish I believed that.
Mark Esper won’t need that resignation letter after all:
Nominated.
I think it’s mostly because if you get to that stage, then absolutely nothing truly matters. That means there’s nothing preventing Republicans from fully supporting Trump marching into the White House with paid mercenaries, shooting up the place, then declaring himself High Poobah and the immediate execution of all liberals. It sort of makes discussion pointless.
Actually, both houses of Congress must confirm a nominee to become the new VP, as occurred when Ford was nominated back in 1973. If there is no Vice President, the Presidential Succession Act dictates that the Speaker of the House is next in line.
I can actually see this being a concern if this were all to happen after 2022 and if the Republicans were to take control of the House of Representatives. In the hypothetical case being considered, a Republican-controlled Congress might well refuse to confirm a Democratic nominee for VP in order to get the Republican Speaker of the House next in the line of succession.
That is if Biden dies before Jan 20, right? Oh and in the case of Ford, Nixon resigned
This is correct. If the nominee is not confirmed, there would be nobody in the office of vice-president.
This (no vice-president until the next election) has actually happened sixteen times in our history, the last of which was when LBJ assumed office after Kennedy was assassinated. For a period of 1 year and 59 days there was no veep. This led to the passage of the 25th amendment in 1967, which was used to fill the office twice, once in 1973 after Agnew resigned, and again in 1974 when Nixon resigned and Ford became president.
No, the discussion here was any time after Biden takes office, with my hypothetical of further shenanigans if the Republicans were to take control of the House in 2022.
If Biden dies while in office, Harris is President. She doesn’t have to be confirmed. Her VP would have to be. LBJ took the oath of office on the plane in Dallas, he was then President.
Sorry, you were responding to the question of what happens if there is no VP
I’m a little bit afraid we might be headed there, i.e., where absolutely nothing matters. I want to be wrong. Soooo badly. Not seeing much reassuring behavior from the Pubs so far. (I’m staring white-hot daggers at you Mitch, you MF bastard piece of shit. Grabbing useless power isn’t going to make your dick any harder you used-up old bugger or make you live any longer. 
)
I recall that the car companies just ignored him at the time, and continued on with their business going forward. More electric cars, better fuel mileage, etc. Because they’re not stupid.
I’m less pessimistic about it for the reason I mentioned above - Mitch is more of a “it’s not against the rules, so it’s ok” asshole.
He has no interest in openly flouting the Constitution when he can get nearly everything he wants by staying inside the rules (many of which he has a direct hand in setting).
And that’s one reason he never really liked Trump personally. There’s so much more they could have accomplished if Trump had decided to at least pretend he gave a damn about Constitutional checks on his power.
Our electoral system is currently rigged in favor of the GOP, and McConnell knows it. Vigorous protest against a Senate that openly violates democratic norms works against him. His incentives aren’t to do that but to continue the course - stay just far enough behind the line that he can legitimately claim the Senate expresses the will of the electorate. And he wouldn’t be far wrong, given what we’ve learned about our fellow citizens in this last election.
Well, the Trump Cabal are forcing Republicans to pick sides, and that is going to have a deleterious effect on their caucus.
Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Pence and others have decided they are going to call into question the legitimacy of the Pennsylvania election. McConnell is going to have to decide soon which horse he wants to ride.
An ass riding a horse!
Keep tellin’ me that.
Sadly true.