In the event that a disaster were to strike the United States during the State of the Union (SOTU) address and the nation's leaders -- from the President to the federal officials, members of Congress, Supreme Court and presidential cabinet -- were all incapacitated or wiped away, one low-ranking cabinet member would be chosen to "survive" and ensure the continuity of the governance of the country.
This year, former Charlotte Mayor and current Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was tapped by the White House Chief of Staff to be the "designated survivor" to serve as the President in an interim basis.
The designated survivor position is a tradition that dates back to the Cold War. Since 9/11, it has become an even more serious job in Washington.
On the night of the SOTU, Foxx had the most important task in the country:
"Stay away from the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night, and be prepared to help run the government if a catastrophic event wipes out the government leaders attending the State of the Union speech," he was instructed.
Although 13th in the line of succession for the presidency, Foxx would have been looked upon to lead the country if something terrible had happened during the President's SOTU. He would have been taken to an undisclosed location, away from the U.S. Capitol and would have been guarded and protected by the U.S. Secret Service throughout the duration of the speech. A military aide would have also been part of the security detail.
The aide would have been carrying "the football," a briefcase housing nuclear launch codes.
Often, the designated survivor's identity is kept in secret until the night of the State of the Union for security reasons. The chosen survivor is selected a few weeks before the event, given training and briefed in procedures he or she would need to do in case he or she is tasked to become the country's Commander-in-Chief.
Procedures involving the designated survivor are kept a tight-lipped secret, but one obvious requirement is that he or she is a natural born U.S. citizen. Hence, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, having been born in the United Kingdom, is not eligible for the position.
Designated survivors that have been tapped in the past include Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Attorney General Eric Holder.
