You are 100% correct, with the one exception that if Biden dies or resigns today, Harris wouldn’t become Acting President, she would become the actual 47th President, and Trump would have to reprint all of his 45-47 hats.
From doing some quick reading (instead of work, lol) it sounds like as long as there is a human filling the job as President, when the VP steps in it must be in that Acting capacity. So the President could notify Congress ahead of time that he will be temporarily incapacitated due to a medical procedure, and the VP will act as President for that period of time.
Or, if the President becomes incapacitated without giving that advanced notice, the VP (along with a majority of the President’s cabinet) can notify Congress of that fact, and the the VP can assume the Acting President role. Then the President simply informs Congress when he is better again. If there is any dispute over that between the President and VP, Congress gets to ultimately decide whether the President is still incapable, although it would take a 2/3 vote of both Houses to render him incapable.
There seems to be absolutely no difference in terms of the powers of “Acting President” vs. “Actual President”. However, since the Acting President is normally a temporary role, one would think that they wouldn’t be signing legislation or making appointments unless the President is incapacitated for a long time, since that would piss off their boss.
Dick Cheney just wrote letters to his grandkids while he was Acting President, just to be able to sign them “Acting President”.
You are 100% correct, with the one exception that if Biden dies or resigns today, Harris wouldn’t become Acting President, she would become the actual 47th President, and Trump would have to reprint all of his 45-47 hats.
Biden resigning now just to make Trump’s hats invalid would be the best Dark Brandon move ever.
He should resign on the 30th of December, or however early he needs to resign so Harris can inaugurate before 1 Jan.
Thanks 👍. I corrected my response.
From doing some quick reading (instead of work, lol) it sounds like as long as there is a human filling the job as President, when the VP steps in it must be in that Acting capacity. So the President could notify Congress ahead of time that he will be temporarily incapacitated due to a medical procedure, and the VP will act as President for that period of time.
Or, if the President becomes incapacitated without giving that advanced notice, the VP (along with a majority of the President’s cabinet) can notify Congress of that fact, and the the VP can assume the Acting President role. Then the President simply informs Congress when he is better again. If there is any dispute over that between the President and VP, Congress gets to ultimately decide whether the President is still incapable, although it would take a 2/3 vote of both Houses to render him incapable.
There seems to be absolutely no difference in terms of the powers of “Acting President” vs. “Actual President”. However, since the Acting President is normally a temporary role, one would think that they wouldn’t be signing legislation or making appointments unless the President is incapacitated for a long time, since that would piss off their boss.
Dick Cheney just wrote letters to his grandkids while he was Acting President, just to be able to sign them “Acting President”.
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/cheney-pens-letter-while-acting-as-potus