...can he/she still hold office (if elected) for two more terms? I believe the answer is “yes,” but it would mean that there is a strong possibility that he/she will have held office for ten years (or longer). Could/would public outcry prevent this from happening? The 22nd Amendment states: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has acted as President for more than two years of a term, which some other person was elected a President, shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. So, if the default position of becoming President due to death impeachment etc falls on a VP, is the answer then that IF he/she serves say three years in that role, then he/she couldn’t run for re-election more than once?
My understanding from high school civics class in the 1970s (I've killed a few brain cells since then) is a maximum of 10 years. So 2 years or less of the previous prez's term, they can serve 2 additional terms. If over 2 years of his/her term, then they only get 1 additional term.
22nd amendment Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
To answer the question specifically, "no", public outcry wouldn't prevent this from happening. FDR served for parts of 3 terms (until his death). The 22nd Amendment was enacted as a result of that. Ford served more than 2 years after Nixon resigned and had he been successful in his campaign he would only have been able to serve that one elected term and not two. If Pence took over now he would be able to serve two full terms if elected and re-elected. There would be no public outcry because the public would have had to elect the President in the first place.
Gotcha, thanks everyone. So, the cut off is two years as the ''placeholder'' President, if one seeks to hold eight years in office (after that) upon being reelected and then elected. Good to know.
What if there is no Vice President (resigned) and the Speaker of the House is incapacitated and .... oh never mind...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Right. Effectively, ten years max. Other scenarios: If Trump leaves the US upon losing the election (which he has threatened to do) then Pence would become president and would remain president until January when Biden takes over. If Trump dies well after the election, same thing. If Trump dies _before_ the election then it gets interesting. If Biden wins, then no big deal. Biden becomes president in January. If the Trump/Pence ticket wins then theoretically Pence would continue to be president. However, the people don't decide who becomes president - electors do. The electors could then theoretically cast their vote for someone else (say, Marco Rubio or Rush Limbaugh) and elect them president. But if not all electors do so, then it would be likely that no one would get 270 electoral votes. At that point the house selects the president and the senate selects the vice president. Thus you could end up with Biden as president and Pence as vice president.
You take that back! You take that back right now!! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
A slight correction FDR was elected 4 times (32, 36, 40, 44) which was why the amendment was made. Truman could have run again in 52 but chose not to.
Oh FMD!!!! At least keep the fool north of the Equator and as far away from Australia and NZ as possible. We have our own brown nosing extreme right wing ratbag to content with!
