Trump resigns suddenly, Pence becomes prez, names Romney VP.....

[alittlelark]

Horrifying thought, but the GOP KNOWS tRumpy is going down hard and that Pence is up to his neck in corruption.... Romney detests Trump, and is 'acceptable' to most of their base. They (McConnell, whomever else...) try to force tRumps resignation with serious non-veiled threats (legal or otherwise) involving himself and his family members. He resigns or has a sudden 'health problem' that forces Pence to ascend to POTUS and name Romney VP - when his indictments come down, he resigns and Romney is POTUS.....

I know it sounds paranoid.... but they would go to ANY lengths to keep power.

[Zoonart]

1. Each of them thinks he is the fulfillment of

Biblical prophecy. How's that going to work? LOL.

[alittlelark]

3. ...'God works in mysterious ways'....

I have heard it too many times to count. Get a few of their religious nutjob preachers to say it is Gods will - sheeple are sheeple...

If it was a 'health issue' it would be easy to do.

[The Truth Is Here]

2. House will never confirm Rmoney, until Pence resigns.

[alittlelark]

5. They would have to comfirm SOME Repug...why not Romney?

[underpants]

6. Welcome to DU

[Blue_true]

10. If Rmoney does not get confirmed and Pence gets indicted and resigns.

Constitutionally Nancy is the President. Some of my unsubstantiated thinking, but I think plausible. Both Mueller and Roberts are republicans, Mueller cares about the Constitution while Roberts cares about government institutions. If Mueller sees a real mess with Trump and Pence being criminals and being forced out, my bet is he consults with Roberts before he drops a bomb. Roberts can suggest two things, indict Trump and Pence at the same time and force Nancy to become President, or try some trick where Trump or Pence is allowed to name a successor before being forced out. My guess, the first choice is by far the best, especially if Roberts consults with Pelosi and gets a republican of good standing or Indy of good standing named VP - that option would cause the least national trauma, in particular if the VP pledges not to run in 2020, so voters get to chose future White House leadership.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

24. I think the rules of succession specify the speaker would only be an "acting president."

So Roberts and the supremes would have to make a call on whether Pelosi would remain "acting" or step down once at least a new VP is named and confirmed. I think that they'll do everything they can to avoid that kind of a mushy constitutional crisis.

[Polybius]

28. Nope

If the VP can't take over, it automatically goes to the Speaker.

[Blue_true]

34. The problem, like the previous poster implied.

The 25th Amendment calls out a line of succession (surprisingly that was not hard coded in the Constitution until after John F Kennedy was assinated, Eisenhower made an agreement that the VP would assume office if the President died or became incapacitated, Johnson was elevated under that agreement. The 25th was authored by Senator Birch Bayh and laid out a line of succession that included the Speaker of the House, then things become open to interpretation.

If Trump and Pence are indicted and either refuses to resign, there is no mechanism for forcing that person out of office other than through the Cabinet. So, a criminal Trump could refuse to resign, get impeached but kept in by the republican led Senate, he is President and can name a VP to replace Pence.

In short, we could be in really unchartered waters if Trump and Pence simultaneously have serious high crimes lodged against them. But if both resign and leave both offices vacant, then Pelosi becomes President, BUT, there is no stipulation on how long she serves, even acting as Temp. In theory, she can serve until a new President is seated in January 2021. The 25th is really open ended, I am afraid that with the country so divided, fixing it is going to be difficult, if not impossible. My feeling is irregardless of party, if the Speaker of the House takes over as President, it should be clearly specified that person serves until a new President is elected and inuargurated at the end of the current presidential term, I really feel that for the best interests of the country, that needs to be clearly defined.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

36. +1

[Gidney N Cloyd]

35. We all know that the speaker is next in line. The question is...

...what the word "acting" means in terms of permanence. The rules of succession specify that the VP becomes President in the event the President is removed from office but the rest of the successive order from the speaker on down are characterized in the law as "acting" as president. That's the kind of unprecedented technicality that makes the supremes earn their pay.

[Jarqui]

4. It has seemed obvious to me all along that if both Trump and Pence are

in peril, they will install a 'clean' Republican before both Pence & Trump go to prevent Nancy Pelosi from becoming President.

As part of the pardon deal, Trump or Pence would have to accept who the Republicans want. That might well be Romney.

[VMA131Marine]

11. Not possible!

Nancy Pelosi is third in the line of succession. If Pence goes first, both house of Congress have to approve the successor. No way the House Dems approve anyone of Trump's choosing, especially if it looks like he will be brought down by Mueller too.

[Jarqui]

19. Gerald Ford was minority leader for the Republicans

Not possible?

History says otherwise.

[VMA131Marine]

20. Name a Republican that the Dem-controlled house would approve

What part of both houses have to approve Pence's replacement did you not understand?

[Jarqui]

23. You'd have to ask them.

I don't know. I don't have a vote.

What I do know, under similar circumstances in 1973, a Dem controlled House approved Republican Minority Leader Ford - by a significant margin.

There may be something in the fine print where the Republicans get to pick one of their own ... I'm not sure.

But the historical fact of the matter is that you are not correct. It is indeed possible.

[VMA131Marine]

30. It may have been possible then but

we are talking about what's possible now, not what has happened in history. The Dem House will not approve a Republican replacement for Pence if it should come to that. Why on earth would they?

[Jarqui]

33. It depends on the 'rules' and other things

Let's agree on this much: both of us would be mindbogglingly delighted if Mueller forced Trump & Pence out (to jail) and Nancy Pelosi became President. I'd almost feel like I did when Obama won - ecstatic.

With what has gone on in the last ten to twenty-five years - back to Newt Gingrich (or maybe before), things have gotten very partisan. They stole Obama's Supreme Court pick. They rammed Kavanaugh - a drunken sexual predator through. So like you, many Dems will not be in the mood to play nice.

If the House can dig in their heels and not approve anyone, then Nancy could ascend to the Oval Office. Again, I'd be delighted.

But you are overlooking something: Pence & Trump have to resign or be impeached. To get them to resign, like Nixon, the cards in the Senate for Impeachment have to be stacked against them. Mitch McConnell will not stack those cards for Impeachment if the White House is going to be turned over to Nancy Pelosi. They'll leave Trump or Pence in place until the 2020 election. Why should McConnell do otherwise? He's got his puppet in place should a Supreme Court vacancy open up ... and can continue to stack the courts with hard core right wingers.

The Republicans will never impeach Trump & Pence to give the White House to Nancy Pelosi. That is what is not "possible" to use your phrasing (even though technically it is). They might impeach Trump & Pence if another Republican is waiting in the wings to take over the Oval Office.

That's my two cents on it

[Jarqui]

25. It happened a second time in 1974 when

President Ford nominated Republican Nelson Rockefeller to be his Vice President. Rockefeller was a recent former governor of New York.

[Polybius]

26. Romney

Haley too, as well as Kasich.

[VMA131Marine]

29. Not a chance!

[Polybius]

31. There's no way that they wouldn't be confirmed

First of all, it would look bad on us if we didn't. Second, if every Republican House member votes yes, than all they need is like 15 or 20% of Democrats. They'll have far more.

[VMA131Marine]

37. That's just a defeatist attitude.

If it looked like Trump was going down too, no way the Dem House approves a replacement Republican Veep. Not when a Dem Speaker could become President instead.

[Polybius]

38. I'm not a defeatist, I just disagree

If a President loses his VP, he has a right to a new one. Look at it the one time it happened in the past.

Gerald Ford in 1973. Ford was nominated by Nixon to fill a vacant VP (Spiro Agnew resigned). Nixon was deep into Watergate at the time, and Democrats had huge majorities in the House and Senate that year. On November 27 1973 the Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford, and on December 6 1973, the House voted 387 to 35. Ford himself voted "present."

Ford isn't someone that I would have nominated, but voting for him was the right thing to do. I like Pelosi, but she will never be President, unless she runs in 2020 and becomes the Democratic nominee. Here's a very good article on the process of Ford and his rise to VP.

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Gerald_Ford.htm

[marylandblue]

14. That's my thinking, a President Pelosi would widely be regarded as illegitimate

It would look like she deliberately blocked an acceptable Republican for her own ambitions. And in today's.world, any Republican who is not batshit crazy would be acceptable.

[underpants]

7. Trump isn't quitting

It's just not in his nature.

[alittlelark]

8. Shame is his Achilles Heel... a 'health problem'

Is the least shameful way - blame it on stress caused by Dems.... They all know he is going down - he likely does as well. They could 'promise him' to make the upcoming charges against he and his family 'go away' if the R's retain power.

[brooklynite]

9. You're absolutely right...

It is paranoid.

How do you imagine that the RNC, who's Chair beat up HER OWN UNCLE, is going to put him on the ticket?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211616385

[smirkymonkey]

12. Pardon my ignorance, but what are the rules concerning the line of succession?

Can they just bypass Pelosi and install someone of their own choosing? I thought it had to automatically go to the Speaker of the House once the Pres and Vice Pres were out.

[roamer65]

15. Nixon chose Ford because he was able to be ratified by the House and Senate.

Per the 25th Amendment, a sitting president gets to choose a VP designate that must be ratified by the full House and Senate.

[smirkymonkey]

16. What if the VP goes too? And we have a republican Senate and a Democratic House?

What is likely to happen then? BTW, thanks for your answer, not trying to be a pain, just curious about what they can do.

[Polybius]

27. If they both quit at once, Pelosi automatically becomes President

But that would never happen.

[roamer65]

32. Bingo.

The Speaker of the House becomes president and then Nancy would select her VP nominee.

[marylandblue]

17. To get Pelosi, Both Trump and Pence would have to go simultaneously

And that won't happen. One will resign/be removed first and th other will pick a new VP. The only good part is that the person will have to be at least somewhat respectable and would likely be a weak candidate for 2020.

[smirkymonkey]

18. Ok, thanks! That answers my question a bit better.

There is always hope!

[roamer65]

13. ...and then Rmoney loses the 2020 election.

Mittens is not a popular guy. He will lose. Your scenario is an appealingly one.

[Andy823]

21. Another thing

The trump base won't be supporting Mitt in a 2020 race. The KKK, nazis, white nationalists, and plain old racists won't back a Mormon, and neither will the so called "christian" evangelicals who support trump.

Just my opinion.

[alittlelark]

22. He got 47% of the vote in 2012

[allgood33]

39. Trump resigns, Pence is indicted or charged for perjury, Pelosi becomes President!

I like that better.

[WeekiWater]

40. That would be a thing of beauty.

The next Presidential election would be one of the largest landslides in history.