Chris Spyrou

In all of this, I know that questions were put to Caroline Leavitt whether or not the designated survivor protocol was enacted or was discussed in the lead up to that White House dinner, given that there were so many high profile members of the Trump administration part of it.

And she said that it kind of was a discussion, but they didn't really have to do much about it because there were a lot of cabinet members that weren't at that dinner anyway.

Just generally, though, what can you tell us about the designated survivor protocol?

I mean, some of us might have seen it on a particular Netflix series, but where does it come from and how seriously does the government take it day to day?

The designated survivor system dates back to the...

sort of late Jimmy Carter, early Ronald Reagan presidencies at the height of the Cold War, when there was a real threat of global thermonuclear war between the U.S.

and the Soviet Union that could unfold in a period of just 30 minutes or less.

And so during particularly high-profile events,

Normally, it's really only the presidential state of the union and presidential inaugurations.

One person in that presidential line of succession is designated the survivor and that they are actually kept out of negotiations.

whatever the event is and that they are usually kept out of Washington itself.

They might go to one of the underground bunkers that the U.S.

government maintains around Washington for what are called continuity of government purposes.

Both of these hollowed out mountains could support about 1,000 personnel operating underground for a period of up to a month at a time.

So the designated survivor might go to one of those facilities.

They might go to a different city.

Dan Glickman, who was the secretary of agriculture and was the designated survivor once or twice during the Clinton years, one time he just went up and had dinner with his daughter in New York.

And during that sort of brief window where the protocol is active, there's a whole security bubble around that official.

They have a copy of the nuclear football, the so-called nuclear war plans that they might be called upon to execute.

And then the moment the event is over, that whole security bubble disappears.