Strom Thurmond to Be 2nd in Line for Presidency, Briefly
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WASHINGTON — Sen. Strom Thurmond, the 84-year-old South Carolina Republican, will be second in line for the presidency for 72 hours beginning at noon Saturday --the day before President Reagan enters the hospital for tests and prostate surgery.
Thurmond’s brief bump up from third to second in presidential succession is due to a three-day gap between the end of the 99th Congress and the start of the 100th Congress. The timing of Reagan’s hospitalization, with surgery scheduled Monday, is coincidental.
Thurmond, as president pro tempore of the Senate, would normally be behind the vice president and the Speaker of the House.
But outgoing Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) will lose his title at noon Saturday and new Speaker Jim Wright of Texas won’t be elected to succeed him until noon on Jan. 6.
If by some amazing coincidence Reagan and Vice President George Bush left office during Thurmond’s short ascendance, the South Carolina senator would become President for two years.
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