What would happen if a president really did refuse to give up the presidency?

In My Humble Opinion
61

A more realistic :slight_smile: set of assumptions would be something like this:

New president from the same party, lets the old president stay in the whitehouse (some precedent for that), devolves all decision making to the old president, old president is still refered to as “President xxx” (some precedent for that)

or this:

President elect, VP elect and a couple of other people are assasinated days before inauguration. Lame-duck president declares national emergency, state of war, martial law, etc etc, and offers to “help out” old secretary of agriculture (new person not yet appointed, due to senate deadlock). Puts more stuff through congress (including appointments for Speaker? VP?, while other membors are being effectively detained outside DC “for security reasons”

62

Or:

Old President announces he’s hanging on, new President calls for declarations of support from Congress, military and civil service, and for the usual pre-inauguration preparations for the new administration. Either these proceed more or less as normal, or makeshift arrangements are made to organise them elsewhere, and everything depends on which side chooses to use (and has enough) military support to enforce their will. On the assumption that everyone respects their oath, the old President is left maundering in the White House until Inauguration Day, at which point, the electricity and water supply is shut off and the building put under siege until common sense prevails. On the assumption that enough don’t respect their oath, either the old President enforces his will by a coup d’état or there is civil war, or both.

And the whole thing ends up in expensive and endless law suits.

63

It really is to laugh with Obama, though. Has anyone who says this kind of stuff seen him? He looks like he can’t wait to leave and spend time with his daughters who are, after all, growing up very quickly. He looks exhausted. And small wonder.

64

Yes, working full-time is hard, especially when one is not used to it.

Regards,
Shodan

65

Really? Really? Was this at all necessary?

66

Agreed. I remember seeing an interview with Jimmy Carter (can’t remember where), where he said he’s spoken to other ex-presidents and they think the presidency should be a single 6 year term.

67

There was talk in 2012 that if he had lost, he already had a big, fancy house waiting for him in Hawaii.

Heck when you think about it, former presidents get a big pension and make a ton off of speaker fees.