We the People: Succession of Power

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episode of our ongoing series We the People, the story behind one of the last amendments to the Constitution, and the man who got it done.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's A. Martinez. I work on a news show. And yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day. But you just can't ignore the news when important world-changing events are happening. So that is where the up-first podcast comes in. Every single morning, in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out.
0:21.5	Listen to the Up First podcast from NPR.
0:26.2	Well, it depends on where they're placed.
0:29.2	They can be wherever you want them.
0:31.5	Uh-huh.
0:32.2	Four, the pockets.
0:34.6	On a warm day in November 1963, local Dallas TV station WFAA was broadcasting a show about women's fashion.
0:44.3	Then there's zippers up the side so that the jacket will fit tightly around the hips, keeping that straight, sleek look that it should have in the arm.
0:53.3	The show was stopped.
0:59.0	Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
1:01.0	You'll excuse the fact that I'm out of breath, but about 10 or 15 minutes ago, a tragic thing,
1:06.0	from all indications at this point has happened in the city of Dallas.
1:09.0	Let me quote to you this.
1:11.6	When the broadcast came back on air,
1:14.6	a man appeared on screen looking pale and in shock.
1:18.6	He says...
1:19.6	President Kennedy and Governor John Colony have been cut down by
1:22.6	assassins' bullets in downtown Dallas.
1:24.6	The American President John F. Kennedy,
1:26.6	along with the governor of Texas, were shot.
1:29.7	Newsrooms were in chaos trying to figure out what happened.
1:33.0	Mr. Kennedy was struck in the head.
	...

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