Presidential Role



|Presidential Role |Description |Biden Example |

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|1) Chief of |Ceremonial head of U.S. government. Hosts foreign |In July 2021, President Biden sent his wife Jill to |

|State |leaders and represents the American people at |represent the U.S. at the opening ceremonies of the |

| |important ceremonies. |Olympic Games in Tokyo. |

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|2) Chief | |In May 2021, the Biden administration announced that|

|Executive |Enforces the laws and carries out the policies |the feds would not arrest people using marijuana in |

| |passed by Congress. |states where it is legal. |

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|3) Chief |Head of all government agencies and employees. |In January 2021, President Biden appointed an |

|Administrator |Appoints people to help run the government. |entirely new Cabinet to replace former President |

| | |Trump’s. |

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| | | |

|4) Chief | |In June 2021, President Biden traveled to |

|Diplomat |Main architect of American foreign policy. |Switzerland for a summit meeting with Russian leader|

| | |Vladimir Putin. |

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|5) Commander- | |Biden set Sept. 11, 2021 as the date the last |

|in-Chief |In charge of the armed forces. |American troops would finally be withdrawn from what|

| | |he called the “forever war” in Afghanistan. |

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|6) Chief | |In March 2021, President Biden signed a law |

|Legislator |Works with Congress to create laws. |authorizing a $1.9 trillion economic relief/stimulus|

| | |package during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. |

|Qualifications of the Presidency |

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|1) Age – 35 years old when taking office. |

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|2) Citizenship – “Natural born” citizen of the United States. |

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|3) Residency – Must have lived in U.S. for at least 14 years of their life. |

|President’s Term |

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|1) No-third-term tradition – Although it was not originally required by the Constitution, George Washington set an important precedent when he chose to step|

|down after serving just two terms. Over the next century and a half, although a couple (like Grant and Cleveland) tried, no president successfully got |

|elected to a third term. |

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|2) FDR – After being elected in 1932 and re-elected in 1936, he shattered the no-third-term tradition when he was elected to a third term in 1940 and a |

|fourth term in 1944. He died in 1945 only a few months into his fourth term, leaving many people questioning whether we really want a popular person serving|

|essentially as “president-for-life” only to die while in office. |

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|3) 22nd Amendment (1951) – No person may be elected president more than twice. Furthermore, if a president for some reason leaves office in the middle of a|

|term, the person who replaces him/her may only serve as president for a maximum of 10 years. |

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|Presidential Succession |

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|1) 25th Amendment (1967) – |

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|What happens if the presidency becomes vacant in the middle of a term? |

|The original Constitution only said if the president left office in the middle of a term, the powers of the presidency would “devolve” to the VP. It did not|

|clearly state the VP in this case would become president and would therefore no longer be the VP. Because this language was ambiguous, Congress, after the |

|assassination of JFK, passed the 25th Amendment which clearly states that if the president leaves office in the middle of a term, the VP becomes president. |

|Example: In 1974, Gerald Ford became President, when Richard Nixon resigned from the office. |

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|What happens if the vice-presidency becomes vacant in the middle of a term? |

|The VP spot can become vacant in the middle of a term if the VP dies, resigns, gets impeached and removed or if he/she replaces a president who leaves office|

|early. The Framers made no provision in the original Const. for replacing a VP who leaves office early. Historically whenever the VP spot became vacant in |

|the middle of a term, it was just left vacant until the next election. The 25th Amendment provides for when the VP spot becomes vacant midterm, that the |

|president appoints a new VP. This appointment must then be approved by a simple-majority vote in BOTH houses of Congress. Example: When Richard Nixon |

|resigned and Gerald Ford became president, Ford quickly appointed (and Congress approved) Nelson Rockefeller to replace him as VP. |

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|What happens if the president becomes incapacitated? |

|If for whatever reason the president becomes incapacitated in the middle of a term and cannot carry out his/her duties, the 25th Amendment says the VP serves|

|as “acting president” holding all the powers of the presidency until the president is healthy enough to resume his/her job. In this case, the VP does NOT |

|become president and is still officially the VP (one person temporarily doing the two top jobs). Example: In 2002 when George W. Bush had to be put under |

|anesthesia to undergo a colonoscopy, his VP Dick Cheney served as “acting president” for several hours. |

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|2) Presidential Succession Act of 1947 – |

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|a) Purpose – Provides a line of succession to the presidency in case several of the top leaders of our government are killed at the same time. During the |

|Cold War this was thought to be a very realistic concern. If the Soviet Union were to launch some kind of a devastating attack on our country (like a |

|nuclear assault) they could kill many leaders simultaneously. |

| |

|b) Who is on the list? – There are currently 18 people on this list: |

|1) Vice-president; |

|2) Speaker of the House; |

|3) President pro tempore of the Senate; |

|4)-18) the 15 members of the Cabinet in the order their positions were created. |

Warm-up Question: What is the purpose of presidential primary elections?

The word “primary” of course means “first.” Before we can have a presidential election in November, we first must narrow down the candidates from each party so only one of each will show up on the ballot. The primary elections take place in the winter and spring of the election year. Over the course of several months, in a couple of states each week, voters go to the polls and vote for the candidate from their own party which they like the best. This process traditionally begins in February with voting taking place in Iowa and New Hampshire, it then continues for several months, and ends with voters in the final states having their say in June. During these months, Republican candidates are running against other Republicans and Democratic candidates are running against other Democrats. By the end of the primary season, a single winner emerges from each party and the final stretch of the presidential campaign begins with one Republican going head-to-head with one Democrat for the position of leader of the free world.

Of course, in 2020 the candidates Joe Biden had to beat on the Democrat side included people like Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris – in all there were more than 15 Democrats who wanted to become the official nominee of their party – but Biden beat out all of the others. On the Republican side, President Trump only had two minor competitors for his party’s nomination, whom he beat easily: Bill Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts; and Joe Walsh, a former member of the House of Reps from Illinois. As a result of the primaries, by June 2020 it was down to Trump and Biden as the official candidates for their respective parties. Without this primary process, on the November ballot there would have been roughly 20 candidates between the two major parties. Since a candidate must win a simple majority of the Electoral College votes to become president, having that many candidates on the ballot might have split the vote in so many directions it would have been impossible for any one of them to win a majority.

One way to think of the primary elections is that they are similar to the baseball playoffs. Before we can have a World Series between the top two teams, these teams must beat all the other competitors in their own respective leagues. The top National League teams play against each other for the right to represent the NL while at the same time, the top American League teams play against each other for the right to represent the AL. When it finally gets down to where there is just one team left from each league, we have a World Series (which is similar to the general election in November).

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