Invoking Twenty-Five — Staff Divides as Leo Prepares Transfer
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo informs Josh, C.J., and Will about President Bartlet's decision to invoke the 25th Amendment, prompting mixed reactions.
Toby arrives, out of breath, and expresses his support for the President's decision, drawing a parallel to his own newfound fatherhood.
Josh voices concerns about the political implications of transferring power to the Speaker, while Toby and Leo reassure him.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Worried and combative—fearful about short-term political consequences and long-term strategic damage.
Enters with staff, presses the political implications of temporarily handing power to the leading Republican, argues that the transfer hands the opposition the election, and challenges the cost of the action.
- • Prevent political harm and protect the administration's electoral chances.
- • Force the team to reckon with the political costs of constitutional steps.
- • Keep the administration's strategic options intact.
- • Formal transfer of power will be exploited politically by Republicans.
- • Political survival and future policy are threatened by this constitutional move.
Apprehensive and skeptical—fearful of institutional breakdown and divided loyalties.
Voices constitutional and operational concern during the Cabinet exchange: warns that contradictory orders from the President and acting president could create extraordinary chaos and put Leo in an impossible position.
- • Prevent dual chains of command and the chaos they would bring.
- • Ensure that any transfer is accompanied by clear procedural safeguards.
- • Protect the integrity of executive operations.
- • Conflicting orders are a realistic and dangerous possibility.
- • Personal loyalty may override institutional duty in some actors.
Urgent, paternal fury turning into calming conviction—personal stakes drive moral certainty.
Bursts in breathless, insists the President must leave the West Wing, declares fierce protectiveness over his newborns and applauds the invocation, and repeatedly reassures the group that Leo will make the right call.
- • Ensure the President's family and the Presidency are protected.
- • Support the invocation as the right and necessary step.
- • Reassure staff and delegate operational trust to Leo.
- • The President's decision is morally justified because it protects loved ones and the institution.
- • Personal stakes legitimize extraordinary measures.
Focused and anxious—he's personally invested but channels panic into action.
Arrives, listens to Leo's orders, glances at the Constitution booklet, asks 'Until when?', and departs to execute Leo's command to summon a federal judge and freeze paperwork.
- • Carry out Leo's orders immediately and accurately.
- • Secure the legal presence required to validate the transfer.
- • Protect the President by controlling administrative levers.
- • Following chain-of-command orders is the fastest way to stabilize the situation.
- • Legal and documentary control (paperwork) materially affects power and outcomes.
Gravely resolute—combines personal anguish with constitutional duty, prioritizing country over ego.
Addresses the transfer on camera/recorded declaration invoking Section Three of the 25th Amendment, calls for Cabinet assent, promises not to give orders, and names Cabinet members—a solemn, constitutional act performed offstage but central to the scene.
- • Temporarily transfer presidential powers to preserve clear-headed governance.
- • Secure explicit Cabinet endorsement to legitimize the acting president.
- • Prevent his personal crisis from producing dangerous executive action.
- • The Constitution contains mechanisms to preserve governance in personal crises.
- • His personal involvement must not imperil national security or institutional integrity.
Controlled exhaustion with resolute clarity—grief and urgency are present but channeled into administrative action.
Sitting exhausted outside the White House, Leo converts panic into procedure: he orders the freezing of all nonessential paper, instructs Charlie to fetch a federal judge, announces that the President is invoking the 25th, and later greets and escorts the Speaker inside.
- • Preserve legal/constitutional continuity by constraining the Oval Office's authority.
- • Create unambiguous administrative boundaries to protect staff and the presidency.
- • Ensure the temporary transfer is procedurally sound and defensible.
- • The nation is safer if processes are followed precisely, even under personal crisis.
- • Acting decisively (paper freeze, judge) reduces the chance of chaotic or illegal orders.
- • He can translate personal crisis into bureaucratic control that protects the President's intent.
Composed and confident—measured in public, aware of the political gravity but projecting steadiness.
Enters as the Speaker with the Cabinet, offers outward calm—'Relax, everybody'—greets Leo and proceeds inside to assume acting presidential responsibilities.
- • Assume acting presidential duties with legitimacy and control.
- • Reassure White House staff and smooth the transition.
- • Preserve institutional continuity while minimizing spectacle.
- • Order and calm convey authority and reduce panic.
- • The constitutional role he is about to fill must be treated as solemn duty, not partisan gain.
Focused and unemotional—procedural alertness under crisis conditions.
Guards open doors, provide security, and present the camera-over-shoulder perspective as Cabinet members and the Speaker approach; they physically manage access and movement into the White House.
- • Secure entry for Cabinet and protect principals.
- • Maintain order and enforce access restrictions.
- • Facilitate orderly movement during a high-stakes transfer.
- • Protocol and security procedures preserve safety despite political turmoil.
- • Their role is to execute orders, not debate them.
Businesslike and attentive—participating in ritualized, high-stakes procedure.
Called during the President's roll call of Cabinet members; appears as part of the assembled Cabinet approaching the White House to provide assent to the invocation.
- • Fulfill constitutional duty by participating in the Cabinet roll call.
- • Provide institutional legitimacy to the acting president.
- • Assess legal and practical implications for their department.
- • Cabinet assent lends legitimacy and legal cover to the transfer.
- • Their presence is required for a stable transition.
Not present—represented as a calm procedural resource whose arrival will confer legal rigor.
Mentioned by Leo as someone who must be brought to the White House immediately to oversee procedural/legal aspects of the transfer; not yet present in the scene.
- • Provide judicial oversight for the invocation of Section Three.
- • Ensure the process is legally defensible and properly documented.
- • Judicial presence legitimizes executive procedures in constitutional crises.
- • Law must be visibly adhered to for public and institutional confidence.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Margaret hands Leo a cup of coffee which he sets down next to a small Constitution booklet; the cup is a small humanizing prop that marks exhaustion and the attempt at ordinary comfort amid crisis.
A police motorcade (motorcycles and cars) is moving with sirens and lights; it frames arrival of the Cabinet and the Speaker and visually underscores the national-security, ceremonial and urgent dimensions of the transfer.
Leo explicitly orders the staff secretary's office to freeze all nonessential paperwork: executive orders, correspondence, and legislation. The paperwork functions narratively as the lever by which he immediately narrows presidential authority and prevents ad hoc executive action.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The United States Capitol appears in the background as the motorcade passes; its silhouette serves as a visual reminder of legislative power and the proximity of partisan consequence to the constitutional act unfolding.
The Oval Office is referenced as the locus of presidential power being deliberately downsized: Leo orders a narrowing of its scope. Although the action occurs outside, the Oval is the functional target of the paperwork freeze and the symbol of authority being temporarily ceded.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The U.S. House is represented by its Speaker entering to assume acting presidential authority; the House's role is narrative—its leadership becomes the repository of temporary executive power and the political consequences that follow.
The Staff Secretary's Office is instrumentally engaged when Leo orders that all nonessential paperwork be frozen; the office is the bureaucratic switch that halts executive actions and prevents inadvertent or unilateral signatures.
Law enforcement provides the motorcade, secures exterior approaches, and manages the physical arrival of the Speaker and Cabinet; their presence makes the procedural transfer possible and visible.
The Full Cabinet is assembled and called by name by the President; their assent is sought to legitimize the invocation of Section Three. The Cabinet functions as a collective legal and moral authority whose unanimity (or lack of it) will determine public and institutional acceptance of the transfer.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"LEO: "He's invoking the 25th Amendment. He's invoking twenty-five.""
"WILL: "Of the President temporarily handing over power to his political enemy? I think it's a fairly stunning act of patriotism. And a fairly ordinary act of fatherhood.""
"JOSH: "It's just that we're elevating the most powerful Republican in the country.""