This is the 99% invisible breakdown of the Constitution.

I'm Roman Mars.

And I'm Elizabeth Joe.

Today we are finishing up our discussion of Article 2, which establishes the executive

branch of the federal government.

Our special guest for this episode is Dr. Tom Frieden, who served as director of the Center

for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama from 2009 to 2017.

We brought him on to talk about the experience of being a highly trained expert in an inherently political institution.

That was once considered to be about as apolitical as you can get, but not so much anymore.

Dr. Frieden was also the New York City Public Health Commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg from 2002 to 2009,

and he talks about the difference between running a city health agency and a federal health agency.

Which one had the most power?

Might surprise you.

But first, Elizabeth is going to take us through Article 2, Section by Section.

We covered Article 1 before that was addressing Congress, its powers and limitations.

Now let's take a brief tour of Article 2.

Okay.

All right. So Article 2 can be seen as doing a couple of things, specifying the selection of the

president and the function of the executive branch, listing the specific powers of the president, listing the selection of the president and the function of the executive branch,

listing the specific powers of the president, listing the duties of the president,

and what to do with a constitutionally inadequate president.

So there are some, just like with Article 1, some very important aspects of the executive branch that are in Article 2,

...