We defend the physical capital of the United States with these thick Jersey barriers,

but obviously the statutes to provide for continuity are not nearly as solid.

There should not be a scenario that any

of the professors that come here before you can put forward where we don't know who is

president and who isn't. You're listening to Civics 101, I'm Nick Capadiche.

I'm Hannah McCarthy.

And today we are talking about the order of presidential succession. We're going to talk about the current order and then how it's changed since the founding as well as some interesting moments in Presidential Succession history.

We're also going to talk a little about designated survivors and

finally the arguments about whether our order of succession is constitutional or

not. All right, let's go. Okay, Nick, the order of presidential succession, or rather the presidential line of succession lays

out who becomes president if the current

president is dead, impeached, has resigned, or is otherwise incapable of holding the

job. And we all know that's the vice president, right? Like if Joe

Biden died in a plane crash, Kamala Harris would become president.

Right, and this sort of thing has happened nine times in US history, eight deaths,

one resignation, but it's that next step which

brings this topic up in the news cycle every time there's uncertainty about who

is running the House of Representatives.

Well, after more than two weeks without a speaker, the plan to keep temporary speaker,

Patrick McHenry, through the end of the year, appears to be a no go no go that was the plan initially but it was struck down what does all the drama mean for the line of succession then when it comes to the presidency

Now Hannah let me start here by saying that so far this has never, never actually come up.

We've never had to go farther than vice president to fill a vacant presidency.

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