00:00The night the Capitol exploded, America lost almost everyone in power.
00:04The President, the Vice President, Cabinet members, lawmakers, all gone in seconds.
00:09And just when the world thought the country was about to collapse,
00:12one man nobody took seriously was suddenly pushed into the most powerful job on Earth.
00:16His name was Tom Kirkman.
00:18Tom was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
00:21That night, the President was giving the State of the Union Address,
00:25which meant almost every major leader in Washington was inside the Capitol.
00:28But there's one rule most people don't know about.
00:31To make sure the government survives a worst-case attack,
00:34one Cabinet member is secretly taken to a secure location.
00:37That person is called the designated survivor.
00:40If everyone else dies, he becomes President.
00:42And tonight, that person was Tom.
00:44But to Tom, it didn't feel like an honor.
00:46It felt like an insult.
00:47He was sitting in a safe house with his wife,
00:50watching the speech on TV, still frustrated that he had been left out.
00:54Then suddenly, the broadcast cut out.
00:55Seconds later, Secret Service agents rushed in and ordered them to hand over their phones.
01:00Before Tom could even understand what was happening,
01:03a massive flash lit up the sky outside.
01:05The Capitol was on fire.
01:07Tom was thrown into a car and rushed away.
01:09He kept asking what happened, but no one wanted to say it out loud.
01:13Then the confirmation came in.
01:14The President was dead.
01:16The Vice President was dead.
01:17The Speaker of the House was dead.
01:19Tom froze.
01:19Because under the law, he was now the President of the United States.
01:23He didn't even have time to put on a suit.
01:25Still wearing jeans and a hoodie, he was taken to the White House and...
Comments