Figures lie and liars figure, the old saying goes. But even if this net figure was exaggerated by 10%, or 20%, or more, Trump would have to be considered wildly unpopular. As it is, he's the very most unpalatable person ever to hold the most crucial job on the planet.
Add that to being the very least qualified, and most self-disqualified, candidate ever to sneak into the Presidency with a plurality, and it is as I have been saying since the name-calling and subornation of violence in his campaign: the GOP is going to have to get rid of him before the midterm elections or they will lose both Houses of Congress. The longer that clock ticks, and in particular if Trump, Pence, Kushner, Trump Jr. and others are indicted, the worse the massacre is going to be.
It is not too early to talk about an unprecedented crisis in Presidential succession: If Trump is indicted, and must resign, Vice President Mike Pence would assume the presidency. But as Shareblue Media has reported,
Pence is "complicit, and can not avoid the taint of the (Flynn) scandal."
If Pence cannot become President because of that, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is third in line. However, as Huffington Post reports,
reports of Ryan considering retirement from Congress are beginning to swirl, though Ryan has made no public announcements-- just as his predecessor made no public statements about his intentions to step down until the day before he went ahead and did it.
The fourth in line is the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. That person is Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). As USA Today reported
(click here)
in 2014, "When the GOP-controlled Senate takes office in January, Utah's Orrin Hatch is slated to get a new title and some cool perks.
Hatch is set to become Senate president pro tempore, a constitutional office that makes him third in line to the presidency behind the vice president and speaker of the House. The president pro tempore presides over the Senate in the absence of the vice president and is usually the most senior member of the majority party.
Hatch, who first arrived in the Senate in 1977, will get a security detail, a small staff and an office at the Capitol, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Plus, if there is a national emergency, he'll be scurried off to some secret undisclosed location. The current Senate president pro tempore is Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Hatch, who has said his current term that ends in January 2019 will be his last, played down his new role in the Utah newspaper story."
He's 83 years old, and though his health apparently remains good, he really doesn't want to be President.
The fifth through eighteenth men and women in the line of succession to the White House
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