President Donald Trump has appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins as the designated survivor for tonight’s address to a joint session of Congress.
The role of designated survivor is a critical component of our nation’s preparedness, ensuring that the government can continue to function in the event of a catastrophic incident.
This practice, rooted in the Cold War era, involves selecting a Cabinet member to remain at a secure, undisclosed location during significant governmental gatherings, such as the President’s address to Congress.
AP reported:
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.
“It focuses your mind. It also enhances your prayer that it doesn’t happen to you,” James Nicholson, who was President George W. Bush’s veterans affairs secretary and designated survivor during the 2006 State of the Union, said of possibly becoming president after a cataclysmic event.
For Trump’s address, Doug Collins — who is the current administration’s veterans affairs secretary — was chosen as designated survivor. Historian and journalist Garrett M. Graff said 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.
“The idea of, you’re just a random Cabinet official, and then something terrible happens and, all of a sudden, you’re president of the United States,” said Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”
Until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, designated survivors had more control over where they went outside Washington. 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.
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