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The legislation calls for a 16-member bipartisan commission made up of doctors and former administration officials. USA TODAY

WASHINGTON When President Donald Trump was hospitalized last week with COVID-19, the administration sought to assure Americanshe was still fit to carry out his duties as president.

While he appears to be on the way to recovery, the outbreak that has engulfed the White House and infected more than a dozen staffershas sparked questions about whether other officials in the line of succession should be self-quarantining in case thepresidentbecomesincapacitated.

The people inline to take over the president's dutiesifTrump wereto become gravely ill are"not taking seriously their responsibilitiesas best we can tell under succession" regarding their health and safety,said political scientist Norman Ornstein with the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

Take these examples: The vice president is still traveling, and so is the secretary of state. A senior Republican senator in the line of succession wont even get a COVID test, even though he was at a committee hearing with another senator who has tested positive.

Trump and otherRepublicans have come under fire for disregarding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to slow the spread of the coronavirus, including social distancing and mask-wearing.

2020 election updates: Trump planning campaign event at the White House

The White House and the Trump campaign hosted events that drew thousands of people in close proximity, including a Rose Garden event now thought to be a "superspreader" forthe virus. And after Trump's positive test and quarantine, the campaign didn't quit in-person events.

And Republican officials in the line of succession have, for the most part, kept up their usual schedules and practices.

On Oct. 4, with Trump still hospitalized for COVID-19, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left for a trip to Asia. Although he trimmed his itinerary, he stillmet with a parade of dignitaries, includingJapan's prime minister.

In an interview Friday morning with the Hugh Hewitt Show, Pompeo said he has never had any concerns about Trump's fitness for duty."None," he said when Hewitt asked if he'd ever had a moment of doubt about whether Trump was fully in charge.

Trump is "not the least bit tired," Pompeo said, addinghe has had "long conversations" with Trump to keep him updated on world affairs.

OnSaturdayTrump held a campaign-style rally on the South Lawn, sayinghe'd been clearedby his doctor to resume public events. But the question lingers:If he were to experience a relapse in symptoms and become seriously ill, who would take charge?

"In a responsible administration, you would at least have in reservealetter signed by the president turning authority temporarily over to the vice president, so that there's a clear chain of command in case you become incapacitated before you can do that," Ornstein said.

Underthe 25th Amendment, the president could notify House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Senate GOP's senior member,Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that he is unable to function, transferring power to Vice President Mike Penceuntil the president indicates he is able to return.

The amendment both setup the process for the president to voluntarily relinquish dutiesand created a method which has never been used for powers to be taken away whenothers believe the presidentis unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

If Trump believes he can still do his job but Pence and a majority of the Cabinet disagree, a transfer of power to Pence would require the backing of two-thirds of both the House andSenate. Lawmakers could also designate through legislation an alternative group other than the Cabinet that the vice president could work with to declare Trump unable to serve.

In an extreme circumstance, if the president were to die from the virus, Pence is first in line to succeed him, as established by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. Pelosi is second, followed by thepresident pro tempore of the Senate, a titleheld by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

25th Amendment: Democrats pitch bill on presidential succession commission, citing Trump's COVID diagnosis

On Friday,Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., introduced legislationthey said wouldcreate a commission on the presidential capacity to discharge his or her powers and give Congress a role in ensuring "effective and uninterrupted leadership" in the nation's highest office.

Pelosi said the move was not about Trump, but rather the need for clear procedure, while Raskin noted that COVID-19 has affected several government officials.In addition to Trump andFirst Lady Melania Trump, an array of White House advisers andRepublican senators have also contracted the virus.

There is no mechanism, however, that establishes a procedure should both Trump and Pence become incapacitated and unable to servebut do not die, Ornstein said. The chance of that happening is not very high, but the pandemic has resurfaced concerns over gaps in the continuity of the U.S. government in the midst of the health crisis.

"There are nightmare scenarios that we're talking about here, all of which, let's say have been triggered by the utter irresponsibility of the president, holding these events, without masks, without any precautions, which has created the super spreader problem," Ornstein said.

Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne, second from left, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, third from left, attend the four Indo-Pacific nations' foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020.(Photo: Charly Triballeau, AP)

Those in the president's orbit have been regularly tested throughout the pandemic, but the recent White House outbreak showed that even repeated negative tests don't mean a person was not exposed and won't test negative later.

Following are the list of people in the line of succession and details about how they are dealing with the risks of COVID-19:

Vice President Mike Pence speaks on stage during the Vice Presidential debate between Republican nominee Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris held at Kingsbury Hall at The University of Utah.(Photo: Jack Gruber, Jack Gruber-USA TODAY)

Pence, 61, says he has tested negative for COVID-19. He continued to travel and hold campaign events after Trump tested positiveand said he had not been considered in close contactwith the president to be at risk of being exposed. He participated in the vice presidential debate with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.,on Wednesday in Salt Lake City.

Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during the Weekly News Conference on Capitol Hill on October 08, 2020 in Washington, DC. Pelosi spoke on the uncertainty around negotiations of another emergency COVID-19 relief package.(Photo: Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images)

Pelosi, 80, has said she is confident in the protocols established for the House. She has also maintained she wears a face mask when she is around othersand that she has tested negative for the virus since Trump's diagnosis.

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), talks to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (L) before a hearing on Wednesday, September 30, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.(Photo: Pool, Getty Images)

Grassley, 87, "has been tested multiple times when the situation warrants and upon the recommendation of his doctors," his spokesperson, Michael Zona, said. Grassley was criticized for sayinghe would not seek a test after attending a meeting with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who later tested positive for the virus.

"Sen. Grassley continues to take precautions to defend against contracting the virus," Zona added. "Regarding recent COVID-19 cases in the Senate, Sen. Grassleys doctors have not recommended he be tested as he has not come into close contact with anyone suspected of having or confirmed to have coronavirus."

Pompeo, 56, is fourthin the line of succession if Trump should be unable to carry out his presidential duties. Although he truncated his trip to Asia, he has not cancelled other events. The State Department's press office did not answer questions about whether Pompeo has cancelled other in-person meetings or taken additional precautions to keep himself extra safe given Trump's diagnosis.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, walks from the office of Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Ky., as he leaves the Capitol, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020, in Washington. Mnuchin earlier met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) ORG XMIT: DCMC114(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)

Mnuchin, 57, fifth in the line of succession after Pompeo, has been tested daily for COVID-19 for months, according to his spokesperson Monica Crowley.

"He has consistently tested negative for COVID-19 and will continue to be tested daily," she said.

United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, a West Point graduate, greets cadets before a game between Army and The Citadel at Michie Stadium.(Photo: Danny Wild, Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports)

Esper, 56, who is sixth in line, has not released any COVID testing results. He continues to make public appearances, with a visit to West Point on Friday.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, left, Attorney General William Barr and former presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway attend a Rose Garden event Sept. 26 where President Donald Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, as his nominee to the Supreme Court.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

Barr, 70, is seventh in line, and was in attendance without a mask at the Rose Garden event celebrating Trump's Supreme Court pick the weekend before Trump's positive test. His spokesperson said he would quarantine as a precaution for several days on Sunday after receiving multiple negative tests, AP reported. On Tuesday, DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said he again tested negative.

This Wednesday, May 6, 2020 image from a tweet by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, the Interior Secretary talks with Cassius Cash, the park superintendent, as he visits National Parks Service employees at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.(Photo: AP)

Bernhardt, 51, eighth in line, "follows CDC guidance, has been tested numerous times and has not tested positive for COVID-19," his spokesperson Conner Swanson said.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue places a box of food in a family's car during the One More Child Farmers to Families Food Box event on the campus of Florida Baptist Children's Homes in Lakeland, Florida June 8, 2020.

Perdue, 63, ninth in line and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, "recently tested negative this week," the Department of Agriculturesaid on Tuesday.

"I havent been around [Trump]in more than a week so I dont feel its necessary to get a test. I feel comfortable where I am, Im very aware of my body and symptoms. I feel good, I have a lot of energy and were out here across the country advocating for American agriculture," Perdue said last week after Trump's diagnosis.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross arrives at the Manufacturer & Business Association in Erie on Wednesday.(Photo: JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS)

Ross, 82, who is 10th in line, told Bloomberg TV he had tested negative on Monday and that his department was doing a lot of remote work during the pandemic.

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Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Grassley are in the line of succession. What if they get sick with COVID-19? - USA TODAY

Before certain events of last Friday, this year's first and only vice presidential debate might have been politely described as the least anticipated event of 2020, notwithstanding the release of a new Bright Eyes album.

There are good reasons for this, which are worth discussing, as a nation now prepares to turn its lonely eyes to Michael Pence.

The vice president is, surprisingly, one would think, given his ostensibly straight-shooting style, among the least understood figures in American politics. This is true not least of all among liberals, many of whom appear to be under the impression that Pence would have a better chance at the top of the GOP ticket than his boss. The argument, if I understand it correctly, is that the Republican product lower taxes, repealing the Affordable Care Act would sell better with different packaging.

This is totally wrong. It is the same absurd logic that led feckless cable news journalists to give Donald Trump the billions of dollars in free air time that ultimately won him his party's nomination in 2016, on the assumption that he was certain to lose the general election. So far from being the least likely candidate to beat Hillary Clinton, Trump is probably the only Republican who could have done it.

Which of the other roughly 224 participants in the 2016 GOP primary could have won Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania? It is difficult now to remember that as recently as 2015, defending the Iraq war was a mainstream position in Republican circles; with the lone exception of Rick Santorum, who had been out of the Senate for a decade, not a single other candidate in that primary was critical of NAFTA or the broader thrust of American trade policy. Trump's insistence upon leaving Social Security and Medicare intact separated him from his opponents, who favored either means testing and increased age thresholds for these programs or their outright elimination. These are not positions that would have won over the small tens of thousands in a handful of Midwestern states but crucial number of reliable Democratic voters who broke for Trump.

Nor was Trump's appeal simply a question of policy. It is his crude antagonistic style that endears him to his supporters, many of whom do not share any of the Republican Party's traditional commitments and stand to benefit little if at all from the enactment of its economic agenda. Like Barack Obama before him, Trump managed to convince millions of Americans that voting for him was some kind of life-affirming existential gesture.

It is just about possible to believe that in 2016, Trump needed Pence, who gave him credibility with congressional Republicans and in the wider world of conservative think tanks and media outlets. If the governor of Indiana, for utterly inexplicable reasons then considered something of a rising star in right-wing politics, was on board with this guy, then Tea Party congressmen could hold their noses. But now? I am surprised the president did not dump Pence unceremoniously in favor of someone like Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who briefly served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. As things stand, the best that can be hoped for from Pence in Wednesday's debate is that his sheer tediousness will convince viewers to turn off their televisions and watch old Trump clips on YouTube.

Pence is an impossible old fossil, a crude survival of Homo republicanthalensis as the species existed during the Bush administration. His vision of conservatism failed decisively in two successive presidential elections. It has as much of a chance of meeting with a revival in the next one as Perry Como has of reaching the top of the Spotify charts.

This is why fantasies of replacing Trump at the top of the Republican ticket with Pence are absurd regardless of any lingering concerns about the former's health. It is also why in 2024 it is impossible to imagine him winning the nomination, much less the White House.

Regardless of what happens at the beginning of November, Pence has no political future, at least outside of his home state, in which it is possible to imagine him lording over undergraduates and hapless administrators as the chancellor of, say, Purdue University.

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The myth of Mike Pence's appeal - The Week

Yep, thats me. Youre probably wondering how I got here.Alex Wong/Getty Images

Hello, America! I am the housefly that perched atop Mike Pences head for two solid minutes during Wednesday nights vice presidential debate, and Id like to talk to you about the future of this great nation. Like some of you, I was undecided when I began watching the debate, because, as with some of you, my brain is the size of a poppyseed. But when I heard Mike Pence outline the Trump administrations plans, I knew there was only one ticket I could trust to protect me and the 150 or so eggs I laid in the vice presidents hair. Today I am thrilled to wholeheartedly endorse Donald J. Trump for president.

You may be confused as to why I am offering an endorsement in the first place, since most Americans share molecular physicist Seth Brundles pernicious misconception that insects dont have politics. Its true that were not big on compromise, but its also true that we love garbage, and we love corpses, and we love shit, and you dont have to have one of those big ugly mammalian brains to tell which political party is committed to materially improving our lives. No president in my life cyclewhich began two weeks ago, when I was a maggot happily gnawing my way through a rotten Egg McMuffin in a dumpster behind Kingsbury Hallhas done more to roll back environmental regulations, ensuring that my family and I have a constant supply of garbage where we can live, laugh, and love. No president in my life cycle has provided more dead Americans for us to eat, working tirelessly to overwhelm hospitals and morgues, presumably for our benefit. And no administration in history, never mind my life cycle, has been as dedicated to shit in all its formsbullshit, horseshit, and of course the literal shit that inevitably accompanies a diet of fast food and Diet Cokepumping it into the airwaves, the sewers, and the skulls of their supporters. Theres just no question which administration will do more to help me feed my family.

This election goes beyond mere material concerns, however; theres also a spiritual dimension. And for faith-based voters like me, the Trump administration is the only option. Like all flies, I worship Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, the Prince of Demons, the Archfiend of Lies and Death and Decay, and my faith is very important to me. When I heard Mike Pence speak so movingly of his faithhis faith in Donald Trump, primarilyI knew which administration I could trust to build Our Dark Lords Throne of Lies right here on earth. Kamala Harris did her best to dissemble at a few points, and maybe it worked on television, but take it from a fly in the studio audience: You could smell the evil radiating from Mike Pence. In fact, I was originally only planning on briefly alighting on the vice presidents head, running my ovipositor through his gorgeous strands of snowy white hair, dropping a clutch of eggs, and going on my merry way. But the second the setae on my footpads touched that wiry surface, I sensed a kindred intelligence coldly whirring and clicking away just under Pences skull, and I knew it was time for me to make my first political endorsement.

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My endorsement of a Republican candidate may be surprising to those who remember my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers endorsement of Hillary Clinton back in 2016, which famously caused Alex Jones to speculate that Clinton and Barack Obama were both demons:

The explanation here is simple, and its a treasured story my family has passed down to our larvae for 48 generations: We were pranking Alex Jones because he sucks. Land in the right place at the right time, and you can get that dude to believe pretty much anything. I know that humans are bad at detecting a wryly cocked proboscis, but you hardly needed compound eyes to see that Hillary Clinton was just a run-of-the-mill Democrat, not some kind of hellbeast of decay practically rubbing her hands together with glee at the thought of stacking the lies and the garbage and the bodies so high that mankinds rotten civilization finally collapses and the Age of the Fly can begin.

The 2020 election is different, however. I have listened closely to Mike Pences plans and policies. I have carefully smelled his hair. I have laid hundreds of eggs in his scalp. And this November, I am confident that there is only one ticket that can ensure a happy, healthy, and extremely well-fed future for my larvae. I urge all humans to cast your votes for Donald Trump and Michael Pence. They might not literally be insects, but theyre the closest thing weve got. Besides, the other guy is trying to kill me:

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I Am the Fly That Landed in Mike Pences Hair. Heres Why Im Supporting Donald Trump. - Slate

The New York Times dutifully reported:

Vice President Mike Pence, his hair perfectly coiffed, never reacted to the flys appearance on the right side of his head. It stood out against his bright white hair, standing still for the most part but moving around slightly before, well, flying away.

A local TV news reporter from Californiaclocked the flys screen time on Mr. Pences headat 2 minutes, 3 seconds.

Despite the buzz that it created, the fly did not respond to an interview request. However, Americas most famous insect did start a viral social media account.

Please dont whack me with a fly swatter, but that spiritual ramifications title at the top of this weeks column was clickbait.

If that bugs you, though, Sojourners Jenna Barnett has you covered with 5 Bible verses about flies. See, theres always a religion angle. Even with Flygate.

Concerning the actual debate, Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris clashed briefly over religious belief. Religion Unpluggeds Timothy Nerozzi delves into the specifics.

Before we proceed, lets end this portion of Weekend Plug-in with an appropriate hymn.

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What spiritual ramifications of the fly that landed on Mike Pence's head? - GetReligion

CLEVELAND, Ohio The moment a fly landed on Mike Pences head during Wednesdays vice-presidential debate is being immortalized with a bobblehead.

You might say the buzz hadnt died down from the debate when the folks at the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum issued the news.

Pre-orders are available for the Mike Pence fly bobblehead, which costs $25. The bobblehead includes the fly on Pences head, a plexiglass-like barrier and a removable mini swatter. Shipping is expected in January.

The fly landed - and stayed on Pences head for a couple of minutes as he debated Sen. Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City.

While bobbleheads gained fame for depicting moments mostly in sports, this year has expanded the reach of the Milwaukee-based hall.

Multiple bobbleheads have been issued in the likeness of Dr. Anthony Fauci including one that became the top-selling one ever plus others showing governors, essential workers and sign-language interpreters. Donations of sales from several of the bobbleheads have been earmarked for the Protect The Heroes fund in support of the 100 Million Mask Challenge for healthcare workers.

There are just too many good opportunities to turn into bobbleheads these days, said the halls co-founder Phil Sklar.

Recent bobblehead coverage

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I am on cleveland.coms life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, heres a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 8:05 a.m. Fridays for Beer with Bona and Much, Much More with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler.

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Mike Pence fly bobblehead set to be released - cleveland.com