The

The Every four or eight years, the power of the presidency transfers from one person to another.

This transition is a moment of great vulnerability when the nation is preoccupied and distracted away from possible threats to its security.

That threat is magnified, especially during an unplanned transition, if the president dies, is assassinated or resigns from office.

Eight times in American history a president has died in office, four of them by

assassination. Once in American history, a president has resigned. Despite the chaos and confusion

of these events, the business of the nation moved forward. The biggest safeguard against chaos

during a transition comes from the U.S. Constitution, which spells out

what happens when the president dies, resigns, or is incapacitated. It's called the line of

succession, and it specifies who becomes president in those circumstances. So everybody

knows that the vice president is next in line after the president. From there, it's the

Speaker of the House, the President, pro tem of the Senate, and then the cabinet. But our guest

today believes that that system is flawed, that there are gaps that could lead to chaos and could

undermine the legitimacy of our government in the event of a crisis.

It's a scenario that has been portrayed in tons of movies and TV shows, and according to our

guest, it could play out disastrously in real life.

Our guest today is Roy Brownell.

He's an author, an attorney, and a lecturer.

He's been published in several academic journals,

such as the Presidential Studies Quarterly and the Journal of National Security Law and Policy,

and he served in high positions in the Senate and the State Department. And a couple of months

ago, he wrote an excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal called How to Avoid a Presidential Succession Nightmare.

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