If an ambassador has to become President, who?

So let's say for the sake of argument all government officials within the US suddenly die so the highest ranking people in the US government are the ambassadors working overseas. The question is, who becomes Acting President? I would think the ambassador to Russia or the UK, but I don't know...
 
Legally and Constitutionally, there's no real basis any Ambassador becoming Acting President. The Constitutional line of succession ends with the VP with provisions for extending it by statute, and the statute ends with the most junior Cabinet Secretary. And there'd have to be not a single Congressman or Senator left, because quorum is based on the total number of active members: a single surviving Congressman could elect himself Speaker or a single surviving Senator could elect himself President Pro Tem, and either would succeed automatically to the Presidency. Without a Congress, they wouldn't be able to amend the statute. There would also have to by almost no State Governors left, because most states allow their Governors to make at least temporary appointments to fill Senate vacancies.

Practically, I'd expect de facto executive power to fall to the most senior surviving member of the military: in a crisis of this magnitude, commander-in-chief is the most important executive power, and the military chain of command provides a pretty solid mechanism for identifying the proper acting commander-in-chief. The Presidency would probably stand vacant until things were patched back together enough to hold special elections to refill the House and elect a new Speaker (who would then become President).

Supposing for the sake of argument that it has to be an Ambassador for some reason (a legal theory that the Ambassador in question automatically succeeds to Acting Secretary of State?), my first guess would be Ambassador to Russia, China, or the UN, those being the most important working ambassadorships. The US Ambassador to the UK is very prestigious, but for the last couple administrations at least it's been considered a sinecure to be handed out as a reward to valuable political supporters.
 
I would say it would be more likely that a senior member of the military, likely one of the Joint Chiefs, would take control with his fellows backing him up until new Senators at least could be appointed or elected, at which point basically a new PPT would be elected, and that man or woman would become President until the next General Election.

Not pretty, not likely, but workable.
 
Yes, if you wanted an ambassador, that might actually be a way to do it. States appoint enough Senators since the legislatures can appoint them to fill vacancies, the ambassador in question is prominent enough that he or she is chosen as a Senator, and then that person is elevated to President Pro Tempore. It would make some sense from a standpoint of dealing ith foreign relations. My guess would be the one tot he U.N..
 
Add to the succession list in the relevant act, if all cabinet unavailable each dept will have to have a designated number 2. Likely Ambassador to UN in the Case of the State Department
 
Add to the succession list in the relevant act, if all cabinet unavailable each dept will have to have a designated number 2. Likely Ambassador to UN in the Case of the State Department

The designated number 2 for each department would most likely be the Deputy Secretary, as they're already the department's #2 person. If they adopt the Continuity of Government Commission's suggestion of incorporating people not regularly in Washington into the order, then you might get people thinking in terms of the Ambassador to the UN, but even then I'm not sure.
 
The designated number 2 for each department would most likely be the Deputy Secretary, as they're already the department's #2 person. If they adopt the Continuity of Government Commission's suggestion of incorporating people not regularly in Washington into the order, then you might get people thinking in terms of the Ambassador to the UN, but even then I'm not sure.

They'd maybe be called upon to become SecState, which is behind the line of succession but there are plenty of Deputy SecStates who are more in tune with the workings of the department. Even if a UN Ambassador was recalled to be SecState and then Acting President, once there was a Speaker, Pro Tempore, or VP, they'd bump the SecState and become Acting President. Ambassadors are really not in the line of succession, unless say the Ambassador to Australia survives a nuclear war which glassed the Americas, Europe and Asia... but then there are bigger problems.
 
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