What if vice president dies

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Eight vice presidents have assumed the presidency upon the death of the president; one upon the president's resignation. The president pro tempore serves as leader of the Senate in the vice president's absence and is usually the senior member of the majority party. Ford was confirmed within two months in a very difficult political environment, with Nixon a Republican getting a Congress controlled by Democrats to approve Ford.

A year later, Ford was able to get Nelson Rockefeller confirmed as his replacement after a four-month process. A Vice Presidential resignation raises serious constitutional questions. The 25 th Amendment was ratified by the states in and it cleared up a lot of issues about presidential succession that were unresolved or unanticipated by the Founding Fathers.

The Founders established the office of Vice President as a late addition in the constitutional drafting process. But after President Dwight Eisenhower had health problems, a congressional effort started to clear up presidential succession questions. President John F. The 25 th Amendment made it clear that the Vice President becomes President in the case of death, resignation and removal from office. It also said that a President can nominate someone to become Vice President if that office is vacant, with the approval of Congress.

However, Section 3 and 4 established new roles for the Vice President if the President were unable to perform his or her official duties. A seamless transition of power in case of unexpected events is a hallmark of a functioning democracy. In , William Henry Harrison president number nine died of typhoid or pneumonia at In , Zachary Taylor president 12 , died at 66, possibly of cholera, potentially caused by eating too much dry fruit at a celebration.

In , Abraham Lincoln president 16 , then 56, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a confederacy supporter. William McKinley president 25 died at 58 in , also assassinated, by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Warren Harding president 29 died at 57 in of a heart attack and was not, as it was rumored at the time, poisoned by his wife Florence, to whom he was unfaithful. Franklin Delano Roosevelt number 32 died in at the age of 63, after years of poor health.

In , John F. At 46, he was the youngest president at the end of his office. The vice-president in this case, Kamala Harris is sworn in to take over the presidential responsibilities until the end of the mandate. Similarly, if the president is temporarily unable to serve, they have to communicate it in writing to the president pro tempore of the Senate who presides over the Senate in lieu of the vice-president and the Speaker of the House.

The vice-president then takes on presidential responsibility until the president lets the Senate and House know they can resume their duties. This has happened three times in US history: For about eight hours in , then vice-president George H W Bush acted as president while Ronald Reagan underwent colon cancer surgery.