Five little-known men who almost became president - Constitution Daily (blog)
This last weekend in 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford became president after Richard Nixon’s resignation. Until then, the list of possible U. S. presidents included names like Thomas Ferry and Lafayette Foster, since the office of the Vice President had been vacant more than a dozen times and those men were a heartbeat away from the White House. It gained momentum after President John F. Kennedy’s death in 1963, when Lyndon Johnson served out the remainder of Kennedy’s term without his own Vice President. The 25 amendment also cleared up any questions about the Vice President’s ability to succeed a President who dies in office, who resigns, or who is removed from office. It also had guidelines about how the President, Vice President, Congress and the cabinet can deal with situations when a President is temporarily or permanently unable to discharge his or her duties. a precedent set by President (or Acting President, as his opponents believed) John Tyler in 1841. and a presidential succession law passed by Congress that named the next-in-line to the White House after the President and Vice President. The office of Vice President has been vacant 18 times because of the deaths of eight Presidents and seven Vice Presidents in office, two vice presidential resignations, and one presidential resignation. Source: blog.constitutioncenter.org
