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Major crisis on inauguration day

Undesired Walrus

Penultimate Amazing
Undesired Walrus
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
11,691
Just wondering, what would happen if at 9am on inauguration day of a new president, a major crisis occurred on the scale of a nuclear attack? Presumably the inauguration ceremony would be cancelled but would the outgoing president stop governing, even if at 11.45 the outgoing president was still in the throws of ordering retaliation, organising national guard etc?
 
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I know the constitution requires transition of power at noon, but I'm more interested in what would actually happen, whether it would be seen as more prudent by the new president to allow the old one to continue acting as de facto president, or whether this would be the opinion of the joint chiefs.
 
The incoming President would be right next to the outgoing one, probably at least throughout the day, and, yes, the new President would likely be sworn in at the usual time. The inauguration doesn't happen in a vacuum, and any incoming President would - in theory at least - be ready to hit the ground running as soon as s/he got back to the office after being sworn in.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
I know the constitution requires transition of power at noon, but I'm more interested in what would actually happen, whether it would be seen as more prudent by the new president to allow the old one to continue acting as de facto president, or whether this would be the opinion of the joint chiefs.
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I don't see any reason for the transition to be postponed. The incoming president could appoint the previous president a relevant cabinet position with as much authority as required to perform logistics, and still reserve ultimate executive power for strategic decisionmaking.
 
Seems like a reasonable situation.

But, suppose, in the nuclear fray, both the outgoing and incoming Presidents were injured to the degree where only one half of each persons brain was salvageable, and through some modern medical miracle, we were able to stitch a body together from each of the two candidate's and install one half of each candidate's brain.

For further consideration let's say, one candidate was a Repulican and the other was a Democrat?

Then, what would happen?

Would we have a Franken-candidate as President?

What about Dracula and The Wolfman, and other Universal Monsters? Where would they fit in?

And, how would Trump be involved in all this?
 
deaman said:
And, how would Trump be involved in all this?
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Under your scenario, both president's bodies would probably be too damaged to house the FrankenBrain. Trump's head is largely empty, and could finally be put to good use as the receptacle for the Frankenbrain.
 
The only intolerable thing - the thing our Founding Fathers could not have foreseen - would be if, just as he was being sworn in, the incoming President became gay.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Just wondering, what would happen if at 9am on inauguration day of a new president, a major crisis occurred on the scale of a nuclear attack? Presumably the inauguration ceremony would be cancelled but would the outgoing president stop governing, even if at 11.45 the outgoing president was still in the throws of ordering retaliation, organising national guard etc?
Click to expand...


The new girl becomes President at noon, whether she's sworn in or not. Not only would the previous President lack the authority to conduct military operations, but it would be illegal for the military to accept any orders.

However, the real answer is: nobody knows. It would be unprecedented. Also, the Presidential oath is the only one mandated, word for word, by the Constitution. Nobody seriously thinks the President needs to take the oath before assuming power. Obama had been President for about an hour when he took the oath and, even then, Roberts screwed up the wording. In the video, you can see Obama notice. He retook the oath correctly in the Oval Office later that day.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274_VdeckAU
 
deaman said:
But, suppose, in the nuclear fray, both the outgoing and incoming Presidents were injured to the degree where only one half of each persons brain was salvageable, and through some modern medical miracle, we were able to stitch a body together from each of the two candidate's and install one half of each candidate's brain.

For further consideration let's say, one candidate was a Repulican and the other was a Democrat?

Then, what would happen?

Would we have a Franken-candidate as President?

What about Dracula and The Wolfman, and other Universal Monsters? Where would they fit in?

And, how would Trump be involved in all this?
Click to expand...

We could stitch together Al Franken and Jill Stein.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Just wondering, what would happen if at 9am on inauguration day of a new president, a major crisis occurred on the scale of a nuclear attack? Presumably the inauguration ceremony would be cancelled but would the outgoing president stop governing, even if at 11.45 the outgoing president was still in the throws of ordering retaliation, organising national guard etc?
Click to expand...

My guess is that something that big would probably have some degree of notice and therefore the new President would be on the same page as the existing President; and as such, the transition would still occur with the new President carrying out the acts that the old President started.
 
Assuming the nuclear attack was isolated, say like a terrorist detonating a bomb in a city in the US or around the world, the new President would assume office and coordinate the response, though I imagine the oath would be hastily delivered and most likely while the new President was moving to take command. I would imagine that the old President would get out of the way, because while technically in command for fifteen or thirty minutes, practically the new President would be the go to person.

The military and other agencies have most likely run such theoretical simulations, and there is probably a specific protocol in place to deal with such an attack, especially as that would be an opportune time to make a political statement with a terrorist strike.

Assuming the attack was an all out nuclear strike by someone like Russia, it would largely be irrelevant as the country would cease to exist along with a large part of the world's population.
 
Want some real confusion? Kill the President-elect and Vice President-elect at 11:55, and then start the attack at 12:05.

At noon, the Speaker of the House would have become President.

But what would really happen? No one knows, or will know until it happens. In theory, at noon, the new President takes over, and the transition is instantaneous, and everyone follows orders from whoever happens to be President at the time. If the incoming and outgoing Presidents disagree, then in theory at 11:59 the outgoing President issues a command, which is obeyed without question, and at 12:01 the incoming President issues a contradictory command, which is obeyed without question.

In practice? Who knows?

The only marginally similar case that I know of that was in any way like this occurred at the 1981 inauguration. It wasn't very similar, but there was a tiny bit of similarity. American hostages were being held by Iran. Jimmy Carter, the outgoing President, was negotiating for their release. The negotiations continued overnight into the morning of January 20, and military forces were on standby awaiting orders the whole time. The staff of the incoming President was being kept informed. The actual military commanders didn't transition, so the people in charge of scrambling aircraft if necessary were the same before noon and after noon. However, the commander in chief changed promptly at noon, and I'm fairly certain that if something very, very, important happened and the President had to be notified immediately, someone would have been keeping track of a watch to know who to go to.
 
deaman said:
But, suppose, in the nuclear fray, both the outgoing and incoming Presidents were injured to the degree where only one half of each persons brain was salvageable, and through some modern medical miracle, we were able to stitch a body together from each of the two candidate's and install one half of each candidate's brain.
Click to expand...

Did you read My Brother's Keeper too?

BTW, the terrible cover makes it look like a romance novel, it really isn't.
 
Meadmaker said:
Want some real confusion? Kill the President-elect and Vice President-elect at 11:55, and then start the attack at 12:05.

At noon, the Speaker of the House would have become President.

But what would really happen? No one knows, or will know until it happens. In theory, at noon, the new President takes over, and the transition is instantaneous, and everyone follows orders from whoever happens to be President at the time. If the incoming and outgoing Presidents disagree, then in theory at 11:59 the outgoing President issues a command, which is obeyed without question, and at 12:01 the incoming President issues a contradictory command, which is obeyed without question.

In practice? Who knows?

The only marginally similar case that I know of that was in any way like this occurred at the 1981 inauguration. It wasn't very similar, but there was a tiny bit of similarity. American hostages were being held by Iran. Jimmy Carter, the outgoing President, was negotiating for their release. The negotiations continued overnight into the morning of January 20, and military forces were on standby awaiting orders the whole time. The staff of the incoming President was being kept informed. The actual military commanders didn't transition, so the people in charge of scrambling aircraft if necessary were the same before noon and after noon. However, the commander in chief changed promptly at noon, and I'm fairly certain that if something very, very, important happened and the President had to be notified immediately, someone would have been keeping track of a watch to know who to go to.
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And that highlights an important aspect that makes such a crisis very unlikely. At inauguration, the president-elect already knows for more than two months they're going to be president, and has been planning accordingly: has assembled a future cabinet, and has been briefed by the outgoing president on all kind of important matters, including the nuclear codes.

You'd really need a scenario like in your opening paragraphs, with an unprepared president being sworn in, for this to be an issue.
 
If nuclear war is so bad we don't have 10 hours to transition and have the new president decide, it is probably for the best that we don't retaliate.
 
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