Hamlet on the Hudson: Designated Survivor

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo was home playing with his children in the living room of his Queens home. He was the designated survivor for President Bill Clinton's State of the Union on January 19, 1999. Clinton was in the midst of perhaps the greatest crisis his administration had faced yet, the Arkansas native facing impeachment for the first time since Andrew Johnson held the office. Like most designated survivors, Cuomo paid no attention to his duties, instead seeing it as an excuse spend time with his family that otherwise would have been spent giving multiple standing ovations to a man who himself relished in the attention that was given to him. The speech was on in the background, the forty-one year old cabinet member letting his father watch it as he spent quality time with the family.

As a man concerned with public image, his time at Housing and Urban Development was spent revamping the department's image. Ever since its inception in the 1960s, and particularly during Ronald Reagan's time in office, it was seen as a corrupt and useless government department. The image of it serving 'welfare queens' and 'thugs' or 'hoodlums' was one that dogged his work ever since taking office two years ago. Had his surname not been shared with the man in the room with him, he would have been nothing but some upstart from Queens with little to no political experience for a major cabinet position, one which under Clinton was mired with controversy. This day was like no other to Andrew Cuomo, until the world changed.

A loud 'boom' was heard on the television as the House Chamber shook, and within seconds it went to static. Within fifteen seconds according to reports, the few Secret Service agents assigned to the designated survivor rushed into his living room and grabbed him by the arms, escorting him to a car waiting outside to lead him to a designated location. It was later found out to be the 104th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. According to one young officer at the precinct that night, "everything was in complete chaos. Images of fire and smoke rising from the Capitol filled our screens, reporters and anchors completely shocked by what they witnessed. We knew at the time that Andrew Cuomo was the designated survivor, according to someone on CNN, and when we saw him being rushed into our basement, we knew that the worst had happened." With his father and family in tow, he was briefed. An airplane had crashed into the Capitol Building, an apparent terrorist attack, and two others were missing. Even though it was not confirmed, they were certain that every member in the line of succession above Cuomo was dead.

New York City Police Sergeant Taciano Arroyo was at the precinct at the time. He was filming the birthday party of one of his fellow officers at the time. "We knew something happened when the Secret Service came into the precinct with a young man being dragged with them. The man immediately behind him we all recognized as former Governor Mario Cuomo," Arroyo later said during an interview. "Well...One of the agents spotted me and asked me to follow him. I didn't know why, but I knew if I didn't my superiors would have been angry with me." Arroyo spent only ten minutes in the basement of the precinct as agents every few seconds reported new information on dead cabinet members. After a few minutes, it was confirmed. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, the new Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, as well as most members of Congress were confirmed killed. A second aircraft crashed into the Empire State Building, while a third crashed into the Statue of Liberty. Officers across the city were immediately called into service as the terrorist attacks sent the nation into peril.

Officer Arroyo was then asked to turn on his video camera. What few officers remained at the precinct, along with the Secret Service and Andrew Cuomo's family, surrounded the young man that was to be President. His father, Mario Cuomo, was handed a Bible and administered the oath of office. It was solemn, a moment between a father who at one time was all but guaranteed the White House, and a son, who just starting his ambitious career was thrust into the highest office in the land. As the oath was completed, a tear rolled down President Andrew Cuomo's cheek as he looked around to all of those in the room. What was earlier in the night meant to be a time to relax with family now turned into the greatest catastrophe to befall the United States of America. With a terrorist attack decapitating the head of the nation, a young man now serving as the most important person in the land, an election in less than two years, and most, if not all of the government's infrastructure now eradicated, it seemed hopeless for the nation. Wiping away the tear, Cuomo simply stood up straight as his father pat him on the back. "Let's find out who did this," the new 43rd President of the United States told everyone. "Then let's show them what happens when they attack us."

Whoa. An Executive Orders scenario. This should be interesting.

Newt Gingrich is no longer in the House so he should be alive. We must make him President! He is the country's only hope!

Also, did you read the Obama assassination thread and write this after that, or were you already working on this timeline before the thread? If the former, that was pretty fast considering you wrote a really well written first chapter.

Yeah. I read the Obama thread and thought it was a fun concept, so I looked at a list of designated survivors. I decided on Andrew Cuomo, especially since at this point Mario Cuomo is still alive, so he can have a big role. I almost picked Margaret Heckler, who was the designated survivor for Ronald Reagan's second inaugural.

This should be interesting. I await with bated breath.

This is just...wow.
Could the Empire State building survive?

Noravea said:

Yeah. I read the Obama thread and thought it was a fun concept, so I looked at a list of designated survivors. I decided on Andrew Cuomo, especially since at this point Mario Cuomo is still alive, so he can have a big role. I almost picked Margaret Heckler, who was the designated survivor for Ronald Reagan's second inaugural.

Click to expand...

I thought Gates would be a fascinating scenario because you would have even more fuel for the War on Terror right when Americans were getting sick of it. This should be interesting since it would start the War on Terror earlier much like in the Rejection and Revenge timeline.

We'll see. It was better constructed than the World Trade Center (A bomber crashed into it before), so I'm leaning towards it being heavily damaged or to being completely destroyed. Keep in mind I only got this idea less than an hour ago.

We finally get a President Cuomo.

keep this one going

I'm intrigued. Please, continue, I look forward to see where this goes.

Excerpt from Survivors: The Legacy of the Tuesday Night Massacre by Jason McElroy

The first member of Congress known to have survived the terrorist attacks was the sixty-two year old Senator John McCain of Arizona. Sitting among the Senate and House Republicans in the Capitol Building, he was at the time unsure on how to vote in the upcoming vote for impeachment, and that subject was on his mind during much of the State of the Union. "My mind drifted on the things President Clinton did not discuss, particularly the Lewinsky affair," McCain later would tell the press. "The room began to shake, and seconds later everyone was on the ground, fire and smoke and glass everywhere." Also on his mind was the obvious, the 2000 Presidential election. With a President mired in controversy on his way out of office and his Vice President and natural successor seen as a member of the elite and disconnected to the average people, a victory to him seemed almost inevitable. Former Senator Bob Dole considered him on the short-list for Vice President in 1996, and most political analysts believed that he had a serious chance at winning the nomination and the election. What happened that night was unexpected.

Crawling through the rubble and eventually aided by Capitol Police and other emergency workers, he was escorted over the remnants of the House Chamber and into the cold night air of Washington. Reporters and photographers immediately swarmed towards the surviving Arizona Senator, the first person pulled from the rubble. "His arm was broken," one emergency worker said. "And there was blood all over his face, but he kept on walking down to the street. Capitol Police surrounded him was he walked towards the ambulances himself without aid. Those from the television networks had a field day with this show of strength. I knew then that he would be our next President. I knew everyone else was probably dead, and some speculated that he was in fact our President." Just an hour later, Andrew Cuomo was confirmed as the country's 43rd President, squashing the desires of the millions of Americans who saw McCain's defiant charge down from the Capitol. It was that moment that cemented a legacy in every American. When most people think of the Tuesday Night Massacre, those who witnessed it immediately remembered McCain's survival. In that moment he represented what America hoped it would become. It stood up, injured, but it brushed the dust off and went on.

In the end, some twenty-seven United States Senators and seventy-two House members survived the attacks, the last surviving members of Congress. None in either house's leadership survived. The attacks in New York City meanwhile had a more visible toll on the American people. The attack on the Empire State Building came twenty minutes after the attack on the Capitol, a Boeing 747 crashing into the structure. All aboard were killed, while nearly one hundred inside the building perished as well. Crashing mid-way up the building, the few dozen remaining above the impact line managed to find their way to the ground and survived the attacks. Despite fears of the building collapsing, it still stood and in the coming days, an American flag was hung from the point of entry for the aircraft. The attacks in the South Bronx meanwhile were more devastating, hundreds on the ground killed by a hijacked 747, most awake and watching the coverage of the earlier attacks. An additional aircraft flying over Springfield, Illinois, was hijacked, but the passengers managed to reclaim the aircraft and safely land it outside of Chicago.

At eleven o'clock at night, at ambulances sped to the South Bronx, the 43rd President of the United States addressed the nation from the 104th Precinct in Queens, New York. "Tonight, our nation was crippled by devastating attacks against against our capital and our largest city," Cuomo began, a sad look appearing in his eyes to millions of Americans, most likely seeing his face for the first time. "I regret to inform you that our President, Bill Clinton, and our Vice President, Al Gore, were among the victims in the attacks. Along with them, hundreds or even thousands of our fellow countrymen and women are among the casualties. This night may be one of terror, but tomorrow brings to us a new hope to rebuild our country, and to seek and destroy those who wish to cause harm to our people, to our cities, and to our ideals." At the time the new President had no idea who attacked the United States, but that question was answered within a few hours.

Based on a February 1998 fatwā authored by Osama bin Laden, twenty-two terrorists from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, planned and launched their attacks on the night of January 21, 1999. Planning began in August 1998 after the embassy bombings that same month, and were initially meant to be smaller attacks on shopping malls and symbols of what they described as "American influence and symbolism." Soon however, once the core group of Al Qaeda was made aware of the planned attacks, they urged for a more visible target. Initially, attacks were suggested on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House, but it was decided that attacking the Capitol during the State of the Union was more advantageous to their cause. "We must show the world how weak America is by cutting off the head," said one of the terrorists in his journal, left behind in his Chicago apartment. Three of the four hijackings were a success, while the fourth was failed thanks to the bravery of the Americans on that flight, who managed to safely land the plane and prevent another catastrophe.

The following morning, President Andrew Cuomo traveled to the ruins of the United States Capitol. The dome still stood, as did the Senate Chamber, but most of the building was heavily damaged by the fire and an entire section destroyed. Surrounding by close advisers and what few Senators were allowed to remain in the capital city, the young President inspected the site of the attack. In order to create a stable leadership, Cuomo personally called the highest ranking Senate and House survivors to select among themselves a new leader for both houses of Congress. That morning, through various phone conferences as well as personal meetings outside of Washington, forty-six year old John Kasich was elected to become the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. With two decades of experience in the House under his belt, many surviving Republicans saw him as a natural leader to succeed Dennis Hastert. In the Senate, John McCain, despite ambitions for higher office, was volunteered by surviving Republicans as a successor to Trent Lott as Senate Majority Leader. Even though a majority of surviving Senators were Democrats, the previous Republican majority as well as McCain's defiant actions the previous night saw multiple Democrats voting for him as Majority Leader.

Due to the state of national security during the crisis, an impromptu cabinet meeting was held in the White House Situation Room at around noon that same day. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater was the only other surviving member of the cabinet, and fell behind the then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the line of succession. Lower-level officials from the various departments that lost their leaders met with the New Yorker, who called for calm and asked for various options on what to do regarding the foreign threat. The cabinet was unanimous in its desire to go to war to hunt down and destroy Al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, which the CIA had been able to connect to the attacks. The next question was then asked by Secretary Slater, who said after a long moment of silence, "Where do we go to war?" Afghanistan was the most spoken about option, while others, mostly those who were more conservative, suggested Iraq, Iran, and even Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Quickly, the Pentagon took over planning for the upcoming war.

That night from the Oval Office, President Cuomo addressed the nation for a second time, this time with more information and more sure of himself. Unlike the previous night's emotional response, he now was giving a political one. In it, he announced that the organization known as Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, and that its leader, Osama bin Laden, was somewhere in hiding. While some cabinet members and advisers urged for him to say that things were going to return to normal, he did not. "If anyone says things will be like the way before, they are lying," Cuomo told the nation. "Like it or not, our nation has changed. We are in a state of war against terrorism, and we must fight." Support for him among the American people was strong, his starting approval ratings being at 85%. Being the second unelected President in American history, he had a disadvantage to Gerald Ford. Ford was experienced in the House and was among the nation's most respected Congressmen. Cuomo meanwhile was not known by anyone and had never been in an election in his life. Some called for him to appoint a more experience Vice President and to resign, but a passionate response by John McCain killed those demands.

The search for a Vice President began the next day, as well as for a new cabinet and Congress. State Governors which lost members of the Senate immediately began making appointments to replace them. Most kept to whichever party won the last election, but some controversial appointments were made as well. Former Senator Al D'Amato, who a mere three weeks before was forced out of office due to his defeat in 1998 at the hands of Chuck Schumer, was appointed to replace the recently deceased Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In Nevada, Republican Governor Kenny Guinn appointed John Ensign to replace the deceased Harry Reid, who defeated Ensign just months before in the 1998 elections. Congress meanwhile was asked to return to Washington on February 1 to vote on a new cabinet and for a new Vice President. The shortlist was indeed short, with names like John McCain, Paul Wellstone, Dianne Feinstein, and John Kerry dominating it. Cuomo however added some of his own suggestions, including Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater. Cuomo would write in his diary on the night of January 25 that he was truly conflicted on who to select as his Vice President, but he knew that time was short and that a decision needed to be made soon.

I'd believe that McCain could do that. Man is something else.

By the way, just to confirm it, Ol' Handsome Joe is still alive.

Noravea said:

By the way, just to confirm it, Ol' Handsome Joe is still alive.

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I'm guessing he's our new President Pro Temp? A Democrat as the Senate head, A Republican as the real power.

Perhaps. He is now the most senior Senator.

On February 1, 1999, Arizona Senator and new Majority Leader John McCain formally opened the next session of the upper house in the Senate Chamber at the United States Capitol. Even though security was tight and the Secret Service feared a second series of attacks, the defiant Vietnam War veteran demanded it to be held just yards from where the attacks claimed hundreds of lives only a week-and-a-half before. The number of Senators nearly doubled since the attacks, Governors across the country nominating replacements while the incumbents that remained decided what to do regarding leadership. Approval ratings for government were sky-high, President Cuomo's numbering at 94% while the Senate's was at 72%. A strange sense of bipartisanship struck Congress after the attacks, McCain famously leading a rendition of "God Bless America" at the steps of the Capitol prior to the session beginning. In what was an offer of friendship to the new Democratic members, who were once again now in the minority, Senator McCain offered vote for Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as the new President pro tempore to succeed the deceased Strom Thurmond. The Senate vote was near unanimous, the body going 58-3 in favor of Biden.

The issue of the cabinet and Vice President was staggered however. Despite intense media speculation on who the new Vice President would be, Andrew Cuomo remained silent on the matter. Speculation remained to John McCain or Dianne Feinstein, one a historic reach across the aisle in a time of national crisis, and the other an opportunity to make history. The internet meanwhile created speculation on nearly every other survivor of the attacks. Even former First Lady Hillary Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter were among those on the internet named as possible Vice Presidents. In the end, President Cuomo decided on a person who had been very close to him since the attacks. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater of Arkansas was Cuomo's final choice. Having served in the cabinet for as long as Cuomo did, Slater previously served as a member of the Arkansas State Highway Commission between 1987 and 1993. After that, he served as the Director of the Federal Highway Commission from 1993 to 1997 before being brought on as Secretary of Transportation. The announcement was made in the White House Rose Garden, Slater being seated next to former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who wore black to represent her state of mourning for her husband.

The decision was criticized by those who felt that someone with experience on foreign policy was needed, but Cuomo would later say that "I trusted him [Slater] to do a good job. We served on the cabinet together, and became good friends over the previous week while the nation was in crisis. Despite his responsibilities in the Transportation Department, he was in effect my second-in-command during those days of crisis and chaos." On February 2, 1999, Slater was confirmed by the United States Senate after a short day of testimony and questioning by Senate leaders. The vote was 55-6 in favor of Slater, who was sworn in that very same day on the steps of the Capitol. While Rodney Slater became the nation's first African-American Vice President, the issue of a cabinet quickly became paramount. In a surprise move, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell was announced to be President Cuomo's nomination for Secretary of Defense. Long-serving Democratic Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts was meanwhile selected as Secretary of State. The most surprising move however was to suggest Hillary Clinton the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, a move which many saw as opportunism by the recent widow of President Bill Clinton. Clinton however refused but like to take the office, citing that she was in a period of mourning and that it was too soon to go into public work. Instead, Jane E. Henney, who on January 17 became the new Commissioner of Food and Drugs, was made the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. In the end, the new cabinet was nominated and appointed within a week, Cuomo selecting Senators and House members willing to abandon their seats, or picking from old cabinet officials who were willing to return.

On February 14, 1999, a Joint-Session of Congress was held from the Senate Chamber, President Andrew Cuomo at the dais with Vice President Rodney Slater and Speaker of the House John Kasich. Most of the new cabinet was also in attendance, but much of Congress was absent, including President pro tempore Joe Biden. Heavy security carpeted the capital city, a no-fly zone covering all of Maryland, Delaware, and Northern Virginia. In his speech, President Cuomo identified Afghanistan as the refuge for Al Qaeda, stating that its leader Osama bin Laden fled to the country after the attacks. Even though the terrorist leader denied any involvement in the attacks, videos discovered by the CIA and other international organizations indicated that the organization had knowledge of the attacks as well as their blessing. Cuomo announced the country's plan to go to war to "remove Al Qaeda and the Taliban from its stranglehold over the people of Afghanistan," and to "avenge those we lost on the Tuesday Night Massacre." Congress gave him a standing ovation, the following day authorizing President Cuomo to use force against Afghanistan should they not hand over Osama bin Laden. That next morning, Secretary of State Ed Markey departed the United States to discuss creating a coalition with other nations for an almost guaranteed military engagement.

Nor,

Good so far but I have a couple of issues.

1) I am pretty sure that Hilary would not be up to accepting a Cabinet post less than 3 weeks after her husband was murdered on national television.
2) She would not IMHO be appearing in the Rose Garden laughing and joking so soon after the tragedy.

These two issues would make her out to be the most callous wife of a leader since Lady MacBeth!

Dalriadan Archangel 21 said:

Nor,

Good so far but I have a couple of issues.

1) I am pretty sure that Hilary would not be up to accepting a Cabinet post less than 3 weeks after her husband was murdered on national television.
2) She would not IMHO be appearing in the Rose Garden laughing and joking so soon after the tragedy.

These two issues would make her out to be the most callous wife of a leader since Lady MacBeth!

Click to expand...

I assume Hillary talk was just speculation, and particularly tasteless ones at that.

That pic was definitely taken before the TL.

Wouldn't Hillary have been at the inauguration so she should have died in the blast? Also, it feels really weird talking about modern day people dying...