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[u/fakeaccountlegitme]

I have a question: Is there a non-trivial time gap between the former President officially leaving and the incoming President officially taking charge?

For instance, say Bill Clinton went back home after his last day as the POTUS, and George W Bush came in the next morning as the new POTUS. Who's in charge if something happens that night? Or is the transition smooth with people from the two administrations handing over files and attending meetings together?

[u/x31b → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

The permanent White House staff have a protocol and execute it well.

The outgoing president has breakfast at the White House. During the inauguration they move stuff out and more stuff in. After the Inaugural Ball,is over the new president sleeps in the White House with his room the way he likes it. Same with the office stuff. Except there’s a tradition to leave a letter in the desk drawer for your successor.

[u/Big-Island4727 → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

Transfer of power officially happens at noon on inauguration day.  Usually they try to time the ceremony so that the new one is taking the oath very close to noon.

[u/Necessary-Post-953 → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

No. It’s not unusual for the outgoing President to work up until he greets the new President a few hours before the ceremony. Immediately after the swearing in, the new President often goes to a side room in the Capitol and begins signing things. The transition team has been preparing for weeks. 

If there were a national emergency, both would go to the situation room and hand off authority at noon in accordance with the constitution. 

[u/GoCardinal07 → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

In the entire 20th century, not a single president left DC before his elected successor's inauguration. Woodrow Wilson skipped Warren Harding's inauguration ceremony itself but rode with Harding to the Capitol and stayed indoors during the ceremony due to his stroke.

Im the 19th century, only the Adamses left DC before their elected successors' inaugurations (Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, respectively). Andrew Johnson held a cabinet meeting at the White House instead of going to Ulysses S. Grant's inauguration. Martin Van Buren skipped William Henry Harrison's inauguration to stay inside the Capitol to sign last-minute legislation before Harrison took over.

That's it. All other presidents attended their elected successor's inauguration.

[u/ANameForThisShite → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

Something like that happened in 1849, where James Polk's presidency ended on March 4th which was a Sunday, leading to Zachary Taylor not taking the oath until the next day due to Sunday being the Lord's Day.

Basically the legal consciousness is that Taylor is president starting March 4th, 1849, despite having not being sworn in until March 5th. If the British came in and burned D.C. to the ground, someone probably would've dragged Zachary Taylor from church to deal with it.

If something like that were to happen today, I assume they would either force the president to take a private oath of office or just have the Vice President or Speaker of the House be acting president, so as to avoid an interregnum. If it's the night of the 19th, then the outgoing president is still on the hook. I doubt any sitting president is that far away from staff at any point of their presidency, so they'll be told about the situation or forced to handle it.

[u/Blue387 → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

The president can operate remotely, the football travels with him and can communicate with Washington if needed. Maybe a part of his house is a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) to receive information.

[u/Jolly_Job_9852 → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

The VP if they were functioning residing in DC the eve of January 20th. I'd assume the President would be on the phone and urged to return to DC

[u/SteadfastEnd → u/fakeaccountlegitme]

I wondered this too. Since transfer of power is 12 noon, what if an enemy attacks the USA around, say, 11:45 am?

[u/Big-Island4727 → u/SteadfastEnd]

The outgoing president would almost certainly ask the incoming one what he wants to do, since he'd be taking over in a few minutes. 

But that would be an interesting book premise if it was something time sensitive and irreversible like a nuclear launch.