Transition of Power: The Presidency Page #6

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NARRATOR:
The orderly transition

and succession of power

is the hallmark

of American democracy...

Are you up for one more term?

...whether it happens

every four years,

eight years, or in an instant.

(gunshots)

(people screaming)

In the hours after

an attempted assassination,

President Ronald Reagan

is in emergency surgery

with a bullet lodged

just one inch from his heart.

Vice President George Bush

is flying back to Washington,

but has no secure

communication link,

and the Cabinet can't agree

on who's in charge.

WOMAN:

You guys, sit down here.

White House Spokesperson Larry

Speakes faces the press corps.

They want to know who is

in control at the White House.

If the president goes

into surgery

and goes under anesthesia...

-REPORTER:
What about crisis

management? -I-I cannot answer

that question, which is,

which is technical and legal.

BRANDS:
Al Haig,

Reagan's secretary of state,

who's watching this

from the Situation Room,

thought that

the president's spokesman

was not doing a good job,

and so he literally ran

from the Situation Room

to the briefing room and grabbed

the microphone and said...

First, uh, as you know,

we are in close touch

with the vice president,

who is returning to Washington.

REPORTER:
Who's making

the decisions for the government

right now?

Who's making the decisions?

Constitutionally, gentlemen,

you have the president,

the vice president

and the secretary of state

in that order.

And should the president decide

he wants to transfer the helm

to the vice president,

he will do so.

(reporters clamor)

As of now I am in control here

in the White House.

NARRATOR:

The trouble is,

Secretary Haig

has made a mistake.

BRANDS:

And his point was to reassure

the American people,

to reassure the world.

The effect, in fact,

was just the opposite.

Because here's this guy who's

flushed and out of breath,

and saying "I'm in charge,"

and in fact he's wrong.

It made very clear that,

well, nobody was in charge.

He misstated the line of

presidential succession.

You have the president,

the vice president,

and the secretary of state

in that order.

He was not next in line

after the vice president.

Ahead of him was

the speaker of the House

and the president pro tem

of the Senate.

NARRATOR:

At 6:
30 p.m.,

the vice president finally

arrives in Washington,

takes command

of the Situation Room,

and tries to restore order.

(indistinct talking,

camera shutters clicking)

NARRATOR:

President Reagan survives

the near fatal gunshot wound.

BUSH:

The president's emerged

with the most

optimistic prospects

for a complete recovery.

I can reassure this nation

and a watching world

that the American government

is functioning

fully and effectively.

NARRATOR:
The next day,

70-year-old Ronald Reagan

is back at work,

signing a piece of legislation

in his hospital room.

Reagan was amazing in the way

he was able to rebound from,

you know, being nearly killed

when he was shot.

NARRATOR:

During the entire incident,

Reagan never officially

transfers power,

but the 25th Amendment

does provide a way

to temporarily hand off power

with a simple letter

to Congress.

HUGHES:
So if we have

a president who's going to be

temporarily incapacitated,

the president would voluntarily

give up power,

and then once they're

in their right mind,

they're back on their feet,

they again give

written permission

to have that power back.

NARRATOR:
The clause

was most recently invoked

by George W. Bush.

I'm gonna be sedated

for a period of time

and will, uh, transfer power

to the vice president

during that time.

NARRATOR:

Twice while in office,

Bush signs over power

to his VP,

Dick Cheney.

Both times were because

of a colonoscopy.

As a result,

Cheney now holds the record

for what is, in effect,

the shortest presidency

in history,

a total of four hours.

He'll realize he's not gonna be

president that long.

(reporters laughing)

Anyway, I'm glad to be able

to share that with you.

-Thank you all very much.

-(laughter)

(bell tolls)

NARRATOR:
With the official

transition of power

now just two weeks away,

inside the White House,

plans are underway

to prepare the Oval Office.

Every president

can personalize the space

from the artwork

to the furniture.

It's also become a tradition

for presidents to design

their own Oval Office rug.

Each one features

the presidential coat of arms,

which includes the image

of an eagle

holding both the arrows of war

and the olive branch of peace.

GARY WALTERS:
One of the things

that's important

to the president

is the selection of the desk

that he's going to use

and sit behind.

Some have used

the HMS Resolute desk,

the one that John John Kennedy

crawled through,

that many people have seen

that photograph.

NARRATOR:

The Resolute desk was a gift

to President

Rutherford B. Hayes

from England's Queen Victoria.

It's been used by seven

presidents in the Oval Office

since 1880.

WALTERS:
But other presidents

use other desks.

President Nixon used

a different desk

in the Oval Office.

(indistinct talking)

Lyndon Johnson brought his desk

from when he was down

on Capitol Hill.

It's the president's office,

and whatever he wants in there

is what should be there.

NARRATOR:

Presidents can also choose

how to document their time

in office.

Some have installed hidden

microphones in their desks

to secretly record

conversations.

DOYLE:

The first president

to bug the Oval Office

was Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

who had a big old-fashioned

sound-on-film recorder.

There was a microphone in

a lamp on the Oval Office desk,

the wire ran down

to the basement,

and he recorded random

press conferences

and Oval Office business.

John Kennedy

installed a James Bond

kind of system where there'd be

a pen and pencil set

on the Oval Office desk,

and he'd say, "Oh, hello,

how are you? Come on in."

And he would just push

the pencil forward.

That would...

(snaps)

kick on the tape recorders

underneath the, uh, Oval Office

and he would then be recording

everything you said to him

and you would not know it.

Johnson installed

his own system,

which was much more focused

on the telephone

'cause Johnson did all

his important business

on the telephone.

NARRATOR:

But for one president,

the decision to set up

a secret recording system

would be the fatal blow in

the strangest transfer of power

in American history.

(cheering)

REPORTER:
The Nixon-Agnew team

received an overwhelming mandate

from the American voters.

NARRATOR:
Six months

after a landslide victory

earns him a second term

in office,

Richard Nixon's presidency

is in virtual collapse.

His top aides are implicated

in the cover-up

of a burglary at the

Democratic Party headquarters

in the Watergate

office complex.

Nixon goes on live television

to assure the nation

he has no involvement

in the scandal.

Whatever improper activities

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