A designated survivor is an individual away from the main event to ensure someone in the line of presidential succession stays alive in case of an unthinkable tragedy.
US President Donald Trump is slated to deliver a joint congressional address on Tuesday night, which will see the rest of the government gathered together. However, Trump’s White House hasn’t said who will be the designated survivor choice on Tuesday.
Who is a designated survivor?
Notably, a designated survivor is kept away from the main event to ensure someone in the line of presidential succession stays alive in case of an unthinkable tragedy when all the government officials gather at a place.
According to historian and journalist Garrett M. Graff, the concept of designated survivor has long captivated people because it combines the public’s inherent fascination with danger and the romance of an “everyman” being thrust into the presidency.
Being a designated survivor brings extra adrenaline jolts
Being the actual designated survivor brings extra adrenaline jolts and humbling thoughts about being unwittingly catapulted into the presidency and unthinkable tragedy—though the minute-to-minute details usually don’t feature the high drama of fictional portrayals, those who have filled the role say.
A list of individuals picked as Designated Survivors in US history:
- President Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, the late Bill Richardson, was picked in 2000 and simply moved up a planned weekend trip with his wife to Oxford, Maryland, a waterfront town about 80 miles away, so he’d be there during the State of the Union.
- When Dan Glickman, Clinton’s agriculture secretary, was tapped during the 1997 State of the Union, his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, was too far away, so he chose New York, where his daughter lived.
- Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s attorney general, was the designated survivor during the 2007 State of the Union. He said White House chief of staff Josh Bolten called a few days before and gave a couple of options for where he could hunker down.
- James Nicholson, who was President George W. Bush’s veterans affairs secretary, was designated survivor during the 2006 State of the Union.
Picking a failsafe in case of a cataclysmic event that wipes out everyone else dates back to the Cold War. It’s been dramatised in novels and an ABC series starring Kiefer Sutherland that aired from 2016 to 2019.
(With inputs from AP)
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