105.

13 | Final | SNm | Summer 2020

PART 1: Incorporating Sources (10)
Integrate the information in the two passages below into your own well-organized paragraph on the
topic. Use both paraphrasing and quotations and document your use of the sources by using the APA
format for in-text citations. You must quote at least twice from each source and use your own language
when paraphrasing. Your paragraph should be around 150 words long.

Source 1:

Like two US presidents before him, Donald Trump could temporarily hand over power to his
vice president should he become incapacitated, for example while undergoing a medical
procedure as treatment for the coronavirus.

Trump said on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was going into quarantine to
begin the recovery process immediately.

Under Section 3 of the US Constitution's 25th Amendment, adopted in 1967 following the 1963
assassination of President John Kennedy, Trump could declare in writing his inability to
discharge his duties.

Vice President Mike Pence would become acting president, although Trump would remain in
office. The president would regain his powers by declaring in writing that he is again ready to
discharge them.

The 25th Amendment's Section 4 also offers a path to stripping a president of power if, for
instance, his Cabinet believes he has become incapacitated, but this has never been invoked.

Section 3 Precedents

- On July 13, 1985, President Ronald Reagan elected to have a precancerous lesion removed
after it was discovered during a colonoscopy. He signed a letter that, while not specifically
invoking Section 3, said he was mindful of its provisions. Vice President George H.W. Bush was
acting president for nearly eight hours, from 11:28am until 7:22pm, when Reagan issued a letter
declaring himself able to resume his duties.

- On June 29, 2002, President George W Bush invoked Section 3, temporarily transferring his
powers to Vice President Dick Cheney before undergoing a colonoscopy. Cheney was acting
president from 7:09am to 9:24am.

- On July 21, 2007, Bush again invoked Section 3 before another colonoscopy. Cheney was
acting president from 7:16am to 9:21am.

Section 4
 Under Section 4, the vice president and a majority of either Cabinet officials or “such other body
as Congress may by law provide” can inform leaders in the two houses of Congress that the
president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

In such a case, the vice president takes over as acting president. The president resumes office
after informing the same two congressional leaders “that no inability exists” unless the Cabinet
officials or other body declare otherwise. Congress then must assemble within 48 hours to decide
the issue.

If two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate vote in their
respective chambers that the president is unable to discharge the duties of office, the vice
president remains acting president until after the next scheduled presidential election decides the
next White House occupant. Otherwise, the president resumes office.

Smith, J. (2020, October 1). Explainer: How Mike Pence could temporarily assume control if
Trump becomes incapacitated. Reuters, 8(3), 9-10.

Source 2:

Here are the ways the diagnosis could swing the election either way for Trump.

Negative

● Trump’s days in isolation will halt his intense campaign schedule. Trump was much better at
energizing crowds in airport hangers than Joe Biden has been. This advantage is now gone.
● Trump is a sick man. Campaigning in any form requires robust health. Any physical advantage
born of being the younger and fitter of the two candidates has now gone.
● Because he has often disparaged the virulence of the disease, the president faces the public
humiliation of being its victim. Trump does not deal well with humiliation -- the excoriating
account of his childhood, as told by his estranged niece Mary L Trump, is replete with examples
of the young Donald dishing out but being unable to take humiliation.
● Trump has traded on his "strong man" image for decades. If he gets a bad dose, he will look
every bit and more of his 74 years. If his experience is like that of Boris Johnson, Trump could
well be out of action for weeks with the attendant psychological challenge of recovery weighing
on him. The British PM, several intimates have observed, is still in recovery, still cognitively and
emotionally impaired by his personal fight with Covid-19.

Positive

There are also potential political advantages in Trump’s Covid diagnosis.

● Because of the virus, Joe Biden was already cautious about face-to-face campaigning. His
younger opponent falling ill may well keep Biden more basement-bound and less willing to
crisscross the battleground states.
● Trump is not the first leader to catch the virus. While Boris Johnson became very sick, Jair
Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, had a relatively mild dose. He was able to claim from
personal experience how few people who catch the virus are actually killed by it. This has been
Trump’s basic refrain over the course of the pandemic. Catching and recovering from the virus
will prove he was right all along. Lockdowns, he will insist, were one big overreaction to a
contagious but not virulent disease.
● History tells us sick presidential candidates often win the ensuing election -- Ronald Reagan
nearly died from an assassin’s bullet in 1981 but won big in 1984 -- or that their party will. When
Warren G Harding died in office (in 1923), his Republican party stayed in the White House for
another ten years.
● Indeed, assassinated presidents tend to guarantee their party retains the White House at the next
election: Lincoln’s murder in 1865 was a cause of his great general, Ulysses S Grant, winning in
1868. William McKinley’s murder in 1903 put his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, into
office for eight years. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 lead to Lyndon Johnson winning in a
landslide the next year. Dying is, of course, not Trump’s plan, but sickness and death need not
mean the GOP lose the White House.
● The greatest president in US history, measured by victories (1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944),
Franklin Roosevelt, was also the most challenged by his health. A victim of polio, he spent his
entire presidency in a wheelchair. The point is not that Covid could turn Trump into FDR. It is to
observe how far illness can empower a president.
● Trump’s illness could have a positive effect on the tone of political discourse. Biden will not
want to be seen to demonize a sick opponent. The presidential debates will almost certainly be
cancelled -- which will likely mean a more civil national debate.

Again, we can only begin to properly estimate the political ramifications of Trump’s Covid-19
diagnosis when we know his prognosis. It is another element of uncertainty in this strangest and
most uncertain of election years. 

Does Trump’s Covid-19 affect the election? (n.d.) The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://thenewyorktimes.com/92901

PART II: RESPONSE WRITING (10)

Give your response or reaction to the ONE of the two pieces of

information given below in 250 words or more. Your response
should be clearly organized, and unified around one or two
ideas.
1) By last count, it was found that there are only 114 Bengal
Tigers in the Sundarbans on the Bangladeshi side.
2) According to Class 10 student Faeeza, young girls had been
put on lockdown by their guardians even before the
coronavirus pandemic.