WI: President-Elect Assassinates President

I'm not really talking about straight-up murdering the President. Let's say while showing the next President of the United States around the White House, getting him or her familiar with the environment, the President is somehow killed by the President-Elect. Either during a golf trip where the ball winds up hitting the President wrong, or the President accidentally trips over the President-Elect's foot and ends up hitting the ledge of a table. Maybe they even pull a Dick Cheney, but it's fatal.

Interestingly, what if they were of different parties should something like this happen? Or of the same?

What would be the public perception of the event? And how would the White House react and proceed going forward? Would they seek to punish the President-Elect, or would the incoming President be absolved of the consequences?

And if you'd like to discuss the media angle of the event, that's welcomed too.
 
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What would be the public perception of the event?

The rational section of the public would just chalk it up to a sad fluke. The conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, would go absolutley orgasmic, with dozens of scenarios and counter-scenarios being floated all over the place. If one of the two prezes, for example, was a member of Trilateral, but the other wasn't, that would be seen as MAJORLY significant.

Though for a REAL conspiracy heyday, the President should kill the Elect, since that would thwart the course of history.
 
I don't know who president-elect would murder his precessor and why but there is surely much odd conspiracy theories. And president-elect would be prosecute as murder and VP-elect would become president.
 
Surely if he (or she) is President-Elect then there is little to no reason to assassinate their (soon to be) predecesor.(?)
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
If the President Elect murdered the sitting President, then the President Elect would be arrested and loose their position of President Elect. The Vice Presidential Elect will come into power, unless they had a hand in it, and face a large unpopularity entering office thanks to this act. The Party itself would be investigated, and public support would waver.
 

jahenders

Banned
How about this variant twist?

Same scenario, but the President (despondent at his loss, upset at giving the White House to the other party, bitter at the President-Elect (P-E) for bitter campaign statements, and depressed at his old age and many health issues) kills HIMSELF but makes it look like the P-E did it to prevent him from taking office.

Yet another variant the (sitting) VP kills the President and frames the P-E. The VP takes power and gets a court stay to prevent the P-E OR VP-Elect from taking office (while the charges are being investigated). This might hold for a while, but eventually the VP has to step down. If the P-E and VP-E are still "under a cloud," perhaps the new Speaker of the House (a friend of the VP) becomes President (at least temporarily)
 
I'm not really talking about straight-up murdering the President...

Just to reiterate, since it seems a lot of the replies completely missed the point of the WI or just blatantly ignored the very first sentence.

but if you want to explore that possibility go for it

I've removed this part from the original post since this was, except one post, the only point users were focusing upon.

To clear it up, this is an accidental death by or at the hands of the President-Elect. The questions posed still stand.
 
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This would be an awesome plot for a season of House of Cards!!!

By the by, the Vice-President elect would become President though they'd be serving under quite a tainted legacy.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Just to reiterate, since it seems a lot of the replies completely missed the point of the WI or just blatantly ignored the very first sentence.

The President Elect would be in deep shit, but if it was an accident, then they might get away with it. But only if it was clearly an accident. If they could, in anyway, have the accident constrewn in a way that made them look like the killer, then they will loose their nomination, and it will be passed to the VP elect.
 
Well, since this would take place when the two of them are in the same place, they would never be alone. When you are POTUS, there will be darn near no privacy. And since these meetings will be almost always job related, there will be many officials from cabinet level on down in witness. So, yeah, it's possible that sitting a President dies in some accident that unwittingly involves the President-elect but there will be an untold number of unimpeachable witnesses. Which will fuel the conspiracy theorists even more.*

*The Eternal Brethren For the Wearing of the Tinfoil Hat has two dogmas to which one must surrender oneself for membership:
1) Absence of evidence in support of The Theory is proof of The Cover Up.
2) Existence of evidence in opposition to The Theory is proof of The Cover Up.

And the corollary,
-Any evidence for a Theory is proof the theory is The Cover Up.

This is known as the Doctrine of Insubstantiation
 

jahenders

Banned
Not quite true. When you're POTUS, you can have private meetings if you so decide. They're rare because POTUS typically wants support (note-taking, information, gopher, etc).

However, POTUS could certainly say (after a round of meetings involving lots of staff and cabinet members), "Now Bob and I are going to sit down in the Oval Office and chat in private."

If that's the case and then POTUS dies somehow during that meeting, the Pres-Elect is going to initially be facing some VERY suspicious Secret Service folks. His best bet would be if there WERE a few witnesses and they supported his story.

Well, since this would take place when the two of them are in the same place, they would never be alone. When you are POTUS, there will be darn near no privacy. And since these meetings will be almost always job related, there will be many officials from cabinet level on down in witness. So, yeah, it's possible that sitting a President dies in some accident that unwittingly involves the President-elect but there will be an untold number of unimpeachable witnesses. Which will fuel the conspiracy theorists even more.*

*The Eternal Brethren For the Wearing of the Tinfoil Hat has two dogmas to which one must surrender oneself for membership:
1) Absence of evidence in support of The Theory is proof of The Cover Up.
2) Existence of evidence in opposition to The Theory is proof of The Cover Up.

And the corollary,
-Any evidence for a Theory is proof the theory is The Cover Up.

This is known as the Doctrine of Insubstantiation
 
If Buchanan is assassinated in a way that widely implicates Lincoln as culprit, what would Breckinridge do until 4th of March regarding the seceding States?

Would border states like Virginia wait for Fort Sumter, or would accusation against Lincoln as murderer be enough pretext for them to secede?
 
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