Imagine the following scenario: On the 9th of January 2024 in the morning we wake up to news that President of the USA Joe Biden suffered a stroke and died in White House. The administration confirms that the death was entirely natural and no third party contributed to it. Even before the news reach all TV stations another one breaks: Former president of the USA Donald Trump has suffered a cardiac arrest and died in his residence in Mar a Lago. Early reports claim that the site was secure and no malicious actor could reasonably reach Mr. Trump so the death is most likely natural.
What happens then?
It’s already 11th Jan why’d you write Jan 9
Trump’s dead, though, right? Yeah, I can live with that.
uhh the vice president takes over, and the parties pick new candidates.
pretty basic actually.
and realistically, they havent even officially picked candidates yet. so other than trump tornado dying not much would change.
Not much would change.
Don’t discount the tears of joy from billions of people across every political spectrum
Who do you think would be the DNC candidate?
A backup clone of Biden
Hillery 🤢
Al Gore.
Not only that, but there’s an entire line of presidential succession. It’s part of a broader concept of ‘continuity of government’. Basically, it ensures that there’s always someone formally in charge. You could vaporize half the country including every senior official and there’d still be a legit, sworn in president in a few hours.
There’s basically contingencies upon contingencies. One interesting book on the topic is ‘Raven Rock’ by Garrett M. graff.
The plotline of the show Designated Survivor. Follows Kiefer Southerland as a Sec of HUD that has to take over following a terrorist attack. He basically carries the show, it’s pretty good.
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The first couple seasons were
Also of Battlestar Galactica, the documentary about our past, where the secretary of education is made president, but has cancer and survives for all of the seasons.
Past*
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Yeah, overreaction there. Like the other commenter said I wasn’t correcting grammar or spelling, BSG 2004 is set in the past not the future.
That’s not what he’s correcting!
The ‘new’ Battlestar Galactica is literally set in our past; 150.000 years ago. The characters eventually settle on a new planet that they also call Earth. From the show’s perspective, we are their descendants.
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A party, untill they democratically elect the next only given sociopathic geriatric option.
This is pretty accurate
The conspiracy theories would be insufferable
Dancing and singing in the streets
Kamala Harris becomes President, and the GOP implodes under the weight of a million conspiracy theories.
Don’t forget the infighting. I imagine it would be glorious. Like watching the inbred redneck family having an all out brawl at Walmart.
And then comes the conspiracy theories. Which will happen if either of them die any time soon anyway. Because what are the odds of old men randomly dying, right? There must be a conspiracy!
Trump having a heart attack before the election would provide enough conspiracy theories for a lifetime, and it honestly seems about as likely as him not having a heart attack.
I’d love to hit a few qultists I know with the “dIeD sUdDeNlY!!” bullshit they spew if trump died before the election.
Well, it would be pretty suspicious given he’s the world’s healthiest man. /s
Hey man, don’t bring Lauren Boebert’s family into this!!!
Sanely, the vice president takes over for the duration of the term and the primary goes as usual, just missing the two previous top picks. That being said we live in a society with a disturbing amount of violent conspiracy theorists so no telling what the aftermath of that one would be.
Them both being dead is both convenient and conveniently suspicious. Since Trump is guarded by secret service, conspiracies would arise saying they (under Bidens order, or a Harris power grab) killed him. It would be completely absurd given the circumstances and no reputable source would support it, but people would believe it anyway and Fox would push the story. Widely broadcast funerals for each of them.
Then nothing… The conspiracies would flow, but nothing much would change.
Probably the parties and their donors would scramble to replace them.
Harris has a leg up as she would be promoted to President and would be the incumbent. But she might not be prepared for a primary. Probably Gavin Newsom, her and a couple people would fight over some key endorsements and donors.
Well Chris Christie and Mike Pence would probably kick themselves as they just dropped out of the race. In a lot of ways, the republican race wouldn’t change much. At least Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis would still be fighting over the voters not waiting for Trump to resurrect three days later.
The really dicy shit happens if the winning candidate dies before inauguration.
not waiting for Trump to resurrect three days later.
I hadn’t thought of this. Now there’s no question in my mind there would be those adamant this would happen. Then on the fourth day, blame the democrats somehow.
Nah, they’d just say they counted wrong, “re do” their math, and pick a new day they expect him to return. It’s a pretty common tactic in cults.
Well yeah it was three days in the Bible but you’ve gotta account for inflation.
Kamala Harris becomes president and both primaries will elect someone.
I’m not sure anyone on the dem side would primary Harris, however. If she is primaried, Gavin Newsome would probably be sworn in about this time next year.
On edit: jmho
If biden dies for sure someone jumps in.
Neither have been elected yet. The Democrat and Republican parties would both nominate new candidates for president and then people would vote on them.
If you’re talking about after they’ve been elected then the vice president takes over as president, followed by the speaker of the house if the vice president is incapacitated.
Important to note that the speaker only takes over if the president and vp died together. If the president dies, the vp takes over and picks a new vp, who would then be first in the line of succession.
Thank you for the correction!
The VP has to be confirmed by congress so the vacancy could be a long one.
And the new President doesn’t necessarily have to pick a VP, it’s just expected to fill the vacancy.
Neither have been elected yet.
I’m pretty sure they’ve both been elected as president. Biden is even currently president, and I don’t think he was appointed or anything.
You have a fair point there.
Since in OPs hypothetical they specified the Jan 9 date and that Biden had been elected, I misspoke.
I think they meant elected as candidates or the next president.
tbf I didn’t read the OP beyond the title! Haha
Cheers!
A new holiday would be created and we’d party for a week straight.
It would probably be Nikki Haley vs Gavin Newsom. Would Kamala stay in the VP spot? Maybe.
Would Harris run against Newsom? Id bet.
We’d have a real election race that’s for sure
Not Burnie Sanders vs DeSantis.
DeSantis wins because old people are Republican and the youth don’t vote.
the youth don’t vote
We estimate that 50% of young people, ages 18-29, voted in the 2020 presidential election, a remarkable 11-point increase from 2016 (39%) and likely one of the highest rates of youth electoral participation since the voting age was lowered to 18.
45-64 year old voting is in decline, declining from 75% to 71% over time.
