In an article for McClatchy this Friday, Tara Copp tackled the question of how the military would handle a potential situation where President Trump refuses to leave office. According to her, “it’s not up to him.”
“The 20th Amendment states that the power of the presidency, and with it command of the armed forces, will transfer to the president-elect on Jan. 20,” Copp writes. “Both current and retired uniformed and civilian defense officials are stressing that the military has no role in that power transfer and will not intervene.”
Military experts agree that there’s no role for the active duty military when it comes to the transfer of power between presidents.
“Should there be unrest, or something like that at the local level, our National Guard is called out by governors,” but not the active duty military, Former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. “We obviously don’t want to see violence at any level, anywhere, and I also believe when all is said and done this will be a peaceful transition.”
According to Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo Law School professor Deborah Pearlstein, it will be up to Joe Biden to decide which law enforcement branch, such as the U.S. Marshals or Secret Service, would be tasked with getting Trump to vacate the White House.
Read the full article over at McClatchy.