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This article is about the U.S. contingency plan to safeguard its line of presidential succession. For the 2016 TV series inspired by the plan, see Designated Survivor (TV series).
Barack Obama delivers the 2011 State of the Union Address to members of the House and Senate, cabinet members and Supreme Court judges. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was the designated survivor and did not attend. He did not disclose where he spent the evening, except that he was not in Washington, D.C.[1]
In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is a person in the presidential line of succession who is kept distant from others in the line when they are gathered together, to reduce the chance that everyone in the line will be unable to take over the presidency in a catastrophic or mass-casualty event. The person is chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from events such as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. The designation of a survivor is intended to prevent the decapitation of the government and to safeguard continuity in the presidency if the president, the vice president, and others in the presidential line of succession die. The procedure began in the 1950s, during the Cold War, with the idea that a nuclear attack could kill government officials and the U.S. government would collapse.
The location of the designated survivor is kept confidential, but the designated survivor is not guaranteed to be the person to assume the presidency in such a situation. For the 2010 State of the Union address, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of housing and urban development, was the designated survivor, but Secretary of StateHillary Clinton also was absent from the address, for a conference in London; had a calamity occurred, Clinton, not Donovan, would have become acting president, because her office was higher in the line of succession.[2]
Congress also designates members of the Senate and House (one from each party) to become congressional "designated survivors" to maintain the existence of Congress in a mass-casualty event.[3]
Selection
In a 2016 interview, Jon Favreau, a speechwriter for President Barack Obama, said that the procedure for picking a designated survivor for a State of the Union address was "entirely random", but later clarified that the content of the speech played a role in who was permitted to be absent. Favreau said that for a State of the Union address in which Obama's education policy was a major focus, for example, the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, was not chosen as the designated survivor, because it was thought that he should attend and represent his department.[4]
12345671981, 1989, 1993, 2001, 2009, 2017, 2021 and 2025 speeches were given by incoming presidents and not formal "State of the Union" addresses.
1234For the 2005, 2006, 2016 State of the Union addresses and 2017 Presidential Inauguration, the President pro tempore of the Senate would have been the highest-ranking survivor.
↑While Shaun Donovan was the designated survivor, Hillary Clinton was overseas and was the de facto designated survivor as the most senior person in the line of succession not present.
↑According to Military.com, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the highest-ranking official in the line of succession who did not attend the inauguration, but it was never officially reported whether he, or anyone else, served as designated survivor.[52]
↑Due to COVID-19 protocols requiring limited attendance, most of the cabinet was not present for the speech and thus no formal designated survivor was named. United States Secretary of the TreasuryJanet Yellen was the de facto designated survivor as the most senior person in the line of succession not present.
↑Millstein, Seth (February 6, 2019). "How Is The Designated Survivor Chosen? Rick Perry Won't Be At The 2019 SOTU". Bustle. CBS News reports that the president and their staff are responsible for selecting the designated survivor, and Jon Favreau, Barack Obama's former lead speechwriter, spoke to The Ringer about the designated survivor selection process in 2016. Favreau initially said that the process is "entirely random," but then backtracked a bit and said that sometimes, the designated survivor depends on what the president intends to say in their speech.
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