There’s been a lot of talk today about the line of succession.  If the President falls too ill to serve, the Vice President steps up, if he can’t… then the speaker of the house.

You’ve heard that.  But it’s not so cut and dried.  Succession is mentioned in the constitution, 3 constitional amendments the Presidential Succession Act…. and we know what’s supposed to happen.

But in the moment of crisis… things get weird.   Like the day President Reagan was shot.  

March 30th 198.  The President spoke at a Washington Hotel…   After the applause he walks outside to the limo….

back back.

He was shot… and it was soon after the White House claimed the President was awake and cracking jokes.  He was not.   His condition was dire.  And in the chaotic hours that followed… the Secretary of State… Alexander Haig tried to reassure the nation with the wrong words.  

Wait.  What?  I am in control.  The entire nation wondered… who gave you the keys?  Again… Haig was Secretary of State… elected by no one way way down in the line of succession.   But in those critical hours…he *took* control… and it was never forgotten that when a President is incapacited … things can get very very messy… 

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