Presidential Succession
and Disability
Presidential Succession Act of 1947
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Vice President
Speaker of the House
Pro Tempore of the Senate
Secretary of State
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Defense
Attorney General
Secretary of the Interior
Presidential Succession Act of 1947
9. Secretary of Agriculture
10. Secretary of Commerce
11. Secretary of Labor
12. Secretary of Health and Human Services
13. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
14. Secretary of Transportation
15. Secretary of Energy
16. Secretary of Education
17. Secretary of Veteran Affairs
18. Secretary of Homeland Security
25th Amendment (Ratified 1967)
• Section 1: In case of removal of
the President from office or of his
death or resignation, the Vice
President shall become President
Presidential Vacancy
• 0 Presidents has ever been removed from
office (2 impeached, both acquitted)
• 8 Presidents have died in office (4 from
assassination, 4 from natural causes)
• 1 President has resigned
Removal From Office
• Impeachment Process
1. House of Representatives Impeaches by a
majority vote
2. Senate conducts the trial, 2/3 vote required to
convict and remove from office
The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court shall preside over the trial of
an impeached President instead of
the Vice President
• Andrew Johnson (1868) Acquitted
• Bill Clinton (1998-1999) Acquitted
Impeachable Offenses
• Article II, Section 4
• “The President, Vice President and all civil
officers of the United States, shall be removed
from office on impeachment for and conviction
of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors”
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
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Andrew Johnson (Impeached 1868)
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867
Johnson fires his Secretary of War (Edwin Stanton)
House brings 11 articles of impeachment
Johnson acquitted (not guilty) by 1 Senate vote
Tenure of Office Act is repealed in 1887 (illegal)
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• Bill Clinton (Impeached 1998)
• House brought 2 articles of Impeachment:
1. Perjury (lying under oath): 228 to 206 vote
2. Obstruction of Justice: 221 to 212 vote
• Result of affair Clinton had with a White House intern,
Monica Lewinsky
• Senate acquits Clinton on both charges (1999)
1. Perjury (45 to 55 vote)
2. Obstruction of Justice (50 to 50 vote)
Bill Clinton Impeachment
VP assumes the Office of President
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William H. Harrison: Death (1841) (pneumonia)
Zachary Taylor: Death (1850) (gastroenteritis)
Abraham Lincoln: Death (1865) (assassination)
James A. Garfield: Death (1881) (assassination)
William McKinley: Death (1901) (assassination)
Warren G. Harding: Death (1923) (illness)
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Death (1945) (cerebral)
John F. Kennedy: Death (1963) (assassination)
Richard M. Nixon: Resignation (1974)
Abraham Lincoln
• The assassination of Abraham
Lincoln took place on Good Friday,
April 14, 1865, at approximately
10:15 p.m. Lincoln was shot by
actor and Confederate
sympathizer John Wilkes Booth
while attending a performance at
Ford's Theater with his wife.
Lincoln died the following day at
7:22 a.m.
• Booth was tracked down by Union
Soldiers and was shot and killed
by Sergeant Boston Corbett on
April 26, 1865.
James A. Garfield
• Took place in Washington, D.C.,
at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 2,
1881, less than four months after
Garfield took office. Charles J.
Guiteau shot him because he
would not hire him for a
government position. Garfield
died 11 weeks later, on
September 19th, 1881 due to
infections.
• Guiteau was immediately
arrested. He was tried and found
guilty. He appealed, but his
appeal was rejected, and he was
hung on June 30, 1882 in the
District of Columbia.
William McKinley
• Friday, September 6, 1901, at the
Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York.
McKinley, attending the Pan-American
Exposition, was shot twice by Leon
Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley died
eight days later, on September 14,
1901, at 2:15 a.m.
• Immediately after he shot McKinley,
members of the crowd subdued
Czolgosz, before the National Guard
Signal Corps and police intervened,
and beat him so severely it was
initially thought he might not live to
stand trial. Czolgosz did survive and
was convicted and electrocuted by
Congress ordered the US Secret Service
three jolts, each of 1800 volts, in
to protect the President after the
Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901
assassination of President McKinley
JFK Assassination in 1963
• Shot on Friday, November 22nd, 1963 in Dallas
Texas at 12:30 P.M. while in a motorcade
• 10 month investigation (Warren Commission)
• Official response: JFK was shot by Lee Harvey
Oswald
• Conspiracy Theories:
1. CIA and Military (Vietnam War)
2. Civil Rights
3. Mafia
4. Castro (Cuba)
5. CIA/Military/M. Monroe/UFO Theory
JFK Motorcade moments before assassination
Assassination of
JFK in 1963
First shot: JFK raises
both hands to his throat
in reaction to being hit.
Bullet Wound
to Neck
Autopsy Photograph
Side View: Exit wound in rear of skull
Oswald
Killed by
Jack Ruby
Vice President Johnson swears in as the new President on an
Airplane next to Jackie Kennedy
Ford Assassination Attempts
• First assassination attempt
• September 5, 1975: On the northern grounds of
the California State Capitol, Lynette Fromme, a
follower of Charles Manson, drew a Colt M1911
.45 caliber pistol on Ford when he reached to
shake her hand in a crowd. There were four
cartridges in the pistol's magazine but the firing
chamber was empty. She was soon restrained
by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. Fromme
was sentenced to life in prison, but was released
from custody on August 14, 2009, nearly 3 years
after Ford's death.
• Second assassination attempt
• September 22, 1975: In San Francisco,
California, Sara Jane Moore fired a revolver at
Ford from 40 feet away. A bystander, Oliver
Sipple, grabbed Moore's arm and the shot
missed Ford. Moore was sentenced to life in
prison. She was later paroled from a federal
prison on Monday, December 31, 2007 (370
days after Ford's death) after serving more than
30 years
Lynette Fromme
The Reagan assassination attempt occurred on Monday, March 30, 1981, just
69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While leaving a speaking
engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President
Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr.
John Hinckley, Jr.
Jodie Foster
Alexander Haig
“Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the President, the Vice President and the
Secretary of State in that order, and should the President decide he wants to
transfer the helm to the Vice President, he will do so. He has not done that. As of
now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice
President and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with
him, of course.”
Alexander Haig
George H.W. Bush Attempt
• April 13, 1993: Sixteen
men, said to be in the
employ of Saddam
Hussein, smuggled a car
bomb into Kuwait with the
intent of killing Bush as he
spoke at Kuwait
University. The plot was
foiled when Kuwaiti
officials found the bomb
and arrested the
suspected assassins.
Bush had left office in
January 1993.
Bill Clinton (1st Attempt)
• September 12, 1994:
Frank Eugene Corder
flew a single-engine
Cessna into the White
House lawn, allegedly
trying to hit the White
House. The President
and First Family were
not home at the time,
thus the actual motive
behind the crash
landing is inconclusive.
Corder was the only
casualty
Bill Clinton (2nd Attempt)
• October 29, 1994: Francisco
Martin Duran fired at least 29
shots with a semi-automatic rifle at
the White House from a fence
overlooking the north lawn,
thinking that Clinton was among
the men in dark suits standing
there (Clinton was in the White
House Residence watching a
football game). Three tourists,
Harry Rakowsky, Ken Davis and
Robert Haines, tackled Duran
before he could injure anyone.
Duran was found to have a suicide
note in his pocket and was
sentenced to 40 years in prison.
President Nixon Resigns
• Result of the Watergate Scandal
• Republican operatives break into the Democratic
Party’s National Headquarters in the Watergate
complex (hotel) in Washington D.C. in June 1972
• Long list of illegal activity: bribery, perjury, income
tax invasion, fraud, and illegal campaign
contributions
• The trail led back to Nixon
• House was moving to impeach
• Nixon resigned August 9th, 1974
Watergate Hotel
Nixon Resigns
“I am not a crook”
Review
1. Presidents removed from office?
None (2 impeached: Johnson, Clinton) both acquitted
2. Presidents that died in office?
8 total (4 assassinated, 4 natural causes)
3. Presidents that have resigned
1 (Nixon)
25th Amendment (Ratified 1967)
• Section 2: “Whenever there is a vacancy in
the office the Vice President, the President
shall nominate a Vice President who shall
take office upon confirmation by a majority
vote of both Houses of Congress”
Richard Nixon
Spiro Agnew
Gerald Ford
Nelson Rockefeller
25th Amendment (Ratified 1967)
• Section 3: “Whenever the President transmits to the
President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives his
written declaration that he is unable to discharge
the powers and duties of his office, and until he
transmits to them a written declaration to the
contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged
by the Vice President as Acting President”
President Bush (July 21st 2007)
• CAMP DAVID: Doctors removed five small growths from
President Bush ’s colon after he temporarily transferred the
powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney under the
rarely invoked 25th Amendment.
• The polyps, extra tissue growing inside the large intestine,
were found during a routine colon cancer scan performed at
the Camp David presidential retreat.
• Bush invoked the presidential disability clause of the
Constitution at 7:16 a.m. He transferred his authority to
Cheney, who was at his home on the Chesapeake Bay in St.
Michaels, Md., about 45 miles east of Washington.
• Nothing occurred during the 2 hours and 5 minutes of the
transfer that required Cheney to take official action
25th Amendment (Section 4)
• Vice President and a majority of the principal
officers of the executive departments (Cabinet:
15 total)
• Written declaration to the President Pro
Tempore of Senate and Speaker of the House of
Representatives
• Vice President shall assume the duties and
office of the President
Majority of Cabinet (8
out of 15)
+
VP
th
25
Amendment (Section 4)
• Congress shall assemble within 48 hours if not
already assembled
• Congress has 21 days to decide the issue
• Requires a 2/3 vote in both houses of Congress
to determine that the President is unable to
discharge the powers and duties of the office
Summary and Review
• Next 4 people in line to succeed the President
• 3 automatic times the Vice President would
become President (examples of each)
• Process for replacing a Vice President
• President transfers power to Vice President
• Process for taking power from the President
Final Thought !
 “I am the Vice President. In this I am
nothing, but I may be everything”
 John Adams Nation’s 1st Vice President”
Lincoln-Kennedy
Assassination
Curse?
• Both presidents were elected to the presidency in '60.
• Both presidents were elected to the United States House
of Representatives in '46.
• Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vicepresident in '56.
• Both successors were Southern Democrats named
Johnson born in '08.
• Both presidents were concerned with the problems of
American blacks and made their view strongly known
• Both presidents were shot in the head.
• Both presidents were shot in presence of their
wives.
• Both presidents were shot on a Friday.
• Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy was
shot in a Ford car, a Lincoln limousine.
• Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told
him not to go to the theatre. Kennedy had a
secretary named Evelyn Lincoln (who was born 100
years after Abraham Lincoln, and whose husband
Harold's nickname was Abe), and she warned him
not to go to Dallas.
• Both Oswald and Booth were killed before they
could be put on trial.
• Lincoln and Kennedy each have 7 letters.
• John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald each
have 15 letters and 3 words.
Now it really gets strange
• Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a
warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a
warehouse and fled to a theater.
• A week prior to the assassination, Lincoln was
in Monroe, Maryland. A week prior to the
assassination of JFK, he was with the actress,
Marylyn Monroe.