The continuity of government programs don’t say much about *successor incapacitation* , much as security protocols can’t do a heck of a lot with “everyone including the PPD, has to quarantine” while protecting a president who might be sick with a contagious, deadly virus.
In emergencies, WHMO and the White House staff have places to go, people to protect those places, and decent, secure communication networks. This is uncharted territory.
Starting early in the summer, WHMO and the @SecretService sketched out new ad hoc arrangements for precisely this scenario. The details and logistics are really complex because of the stochastic nature of this situation and the virus.
Like: how to change security rotations and WHMO emergency action team protocols to account for the actual presence of a virus cluster? Who can / can’t work from home? What if the medical unit itself gets sick? How much risk is it reasonable to assume?
Without giving away secrets, it’s reasonable to assume that the WHMO and USSS would love to put a President into a bubble somewhere away from all but one or two staff members... like Putin at his dacha... but that this President will want his quarantine to be modified.
Everything that @NormOrnstein has been fretting about for years is in play: the mayhem of the “bumping provisions,” members of Congress in the line of succession, potential executive branch incapacitation without reconstitution plans....the most contentious election since 1876..
One other thing the contingency programs all assume: there is a clear and healthy presidential successor somewhere AND that the successor won’t be in tension with his or her partially incapacitated predecessor! Can’t assume that Trump won’t Tweet, even if he gets sick.
More of how messy this stuff can be, here: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
If the COG programs come into conflict with reality, presidential continuity rests on a set of laws and the constitution. Those are really messy, too. They assume clarity and Manichaean dilemmas . mprnews.org/story/2020/04/…
They also assume a president will tell the truth and want that truth known to all.
So, what you should want, now, is for the President not to get the virus.
One final word: given the incubation period for Covid, I can’t imagine a doctor (not even Scott A.!) would say it’s ok for the President to not quarantine even if he tests negative tonight. He was exposed yesterday. If he travels tomorrow, he’s not following doctors orders.
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