Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren When President JOE BIDEN takes the podium tonight for his State of the Union address, all members of his Cabinet will likely be in attendance, save one. Each year, the president designates a “survivor” to stay away from the Capitol in case disaster strikes. For those who’ve served in the role, it’s a weird designation: entrusted to run the government but also not among the clique invited to watch the big speech in person. Regardless, former Homeland Security Secretary JEH JOHNSON — one of the few government officials selected for the role, twice — said serving as the designated survivor is nothing like the TV show. After watching one episode of KIEFER SUTHERLAND cast as a Cabinet secretary who ascends to the presidency after an explosion kills everyone ahead of him in the line of succession (we promise, we’re not giving anything away), “I realized that it had no resemblance to reality and then stopped watching it,” Johnson said. For starters, Sutherland’s character, Tom Kirkman, is given only a 24-hours heads up that he’s the designated survivor (in reality, selectees are notified about a week beforehand). Once in a secure location, he uses a personal phone to talk to his daughter (cell phones are not allowed, according to Johnson). And Kirkman appears to eat part of a sad looking salad for dinner, which does not track with Johnson’s recollection of eating “a pretty good” meal as compensation for not being at the president’s speech. The practice of one Cabinet official skipping large in-person events dates back to the early 1960s and perhaps much earlier, according to the Senate Historical Office. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that the White House started to publicly announce the names of officials selected to skip the State of the Union address and presidential inaugurations. The process of selecting a designated survivor has varied over time, but typically the White House picks a Cabinet member whose policy portfolio may have prepared them to run the country in the event of a catastrophe. Former Attorney General ALBERTO GONZALES, the designated survivor in 2007, said that the Bush administration always leaned toward “someone who had some familiarity with things going on in foreign affairs so it wouldn’t all be brand new.” Sometimes other factors can be at play, like whether it would be best for a Cabinet member to be at the Capitol, ready for TV cameras to cut to a quick shot of them, especially if their department’s policy initiatives are highlighted in the president’s speech. “I remember years where education would be a big deal in the speech and therefore Arne Duncan, who was the education secretary at the time, could not be the designated survivor,” JON FAVREAU, President BARACK OBAMA’s former speechwriter, said in a 2016 interview with The Ringer. Former Cabinet members say that while there’s a lot of public interest in the designated survivor (thanks in large part to the TV show), it can be disappointing to miss out on the State of the Union. But being picked to uphold the line of succession can also serve as a moment to reflect on one's leadership. “I think everyone who is in that position, at least I hope that at some point fairly early in the evening, they come to a realization of the really serious possibility that they become president of the United States. And that’s a pretty weighty thing to confront,” said Gonzales, who spent his few hours as designated survivor flying around in a government airplane. Officials from different agencies accompanied him, along with binders of protocols and classified procedures to assist him should he have to step into the presidency. For designated survivors, the news coverage of your selection is not always the best confidence booster. Johnson said he remembers watching MSNBC’s CHRIS MATTHEWS inform viewers that he was the designated survivor. “He said, ‘And that makes sense, because no presidency named Johnson begins well.’” Johnson also recognized that as the secretary of Homeland Security, he would have gotten a lot of the blame if something bad had happened during Obama’s address. That’s been especially true since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Prior to then, designated survivors could just hang out with their friends rather than wait the speech out in a government plane or an undisclosed location. Former Commerce Secretary BILL DALEY, the designated survivor in 1998, told West Wing Playbook that he enjoyed an early dinner with his brother at The Palm restaurant in D.C. before going to a friend’s house to watch President BILL CLINTON’s speech. As soon as Clinton was safely back at the White House, the Secret Service agents who were glued to Daley all day quickly dispersed, leaving him without a way home. “I was like, ‘How about a ride?’” Daley recalled. “There wasn’t Uber then, so one of my friends gave me a ride back home.” MESSAGE US — Are you STAFFING THIS YEAR’S DESIGNATED SURVIVOR? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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