Legacy - 46. A Conference of Confidence - Brad Reynolds

The Congressional chamber was abuzz with activity. That Jeremy would be making the announcement of Schroeder’s suicide here was amazing in itself, however my brother-in-law felt strongly that members of the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court should be present when he made the announcement, hence the change in venue. It was a last minute decision, and it was the right decision.

Although it looked and felt like my brother-in-law was about to give a State of the Union address, this was still billed as a press conference. No President had ever held a press conference in front of Congress before. These were extraordinary times indeed.

The other thing that was amazing was that we were on Capitol Hill - not under it, but above ground. Jeremy felt it important to send the message to the world that the crisis was over. To that end the members of Congress as well as of the Supreme Court, and the key members of the Administration would be moving back to their own homes. They just didn’t know it yet.

As the Vice President designate, I and my family would be temporary guests of the President and would be staying in the White House, pending my confirmation. If confirmed, we would then move into the Vice President’s residence nearby.

As the new president, Jeremy and his kids would be staying put in the White House residence. Even Trevor and Kurt and their kids would remain there as well. Jeremy’s office, however, would be moving from the East Wing to the West Wing, and he’d be vacating his Congressional office. One of my last duties as Governor would be to appoint a replacement to Jeremy’s Congressional seat. The filling of Sammy’s vacated seat, on the other hand, would likely have to wait until the current Lieutenant Governor took my place. Thanks to the peculiarities of our state, she was a Republican and, hence, the balance of power in the U.S. Congress would not change.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the Sergeant at Arms called out, “The Vice President of the United States.”

Looking down on the throng from the balcony, where I was seated, I could not help but feel the tension in the room as Jeremy strode down the aisle of the chamber. It was evident that everyone wondered where Schroeder was. Of course when the notice for the press conference went out, it was stated up front that Jeremy would be the one holding the conference, so most people were already anticipating bad news. Under ordinary circumstances, the uncertainty would have unnerved the nation and the world as a whole. As it was, this was just one more unsettling event in a series of unbelievable shocks to our fragile state of affairs.

The applause died down as Jeremy took his place at the podium. Seated behind him were the House Majority Leader, since there was no Constitutional line of succession to the Speaker, and the President Pro Tempora of the Senate.

“Ladies and gentlemen, representatives, senators, justices and distinguished guests,” Jeremy began. “It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the untimely passing of President Marvin Schroeder.”

There was immediate murmuring among the crowd and it was some time before Jeremy could resume speaking. “After the President gave his final news conference on Friday, he left the facilities of the executive branch and returned to his Congressional office in Rayburn Hall on Capitol Hill. He did so without anyone’s knowledge, specifically and systematically erasing all recordings that might have led to the discovery of his whereabouts.

“Shortly after recording a final message to the American People, he took his own life. His body was not discovered until this morning. Once his fate was known, immediate plans were made to hold this press conference while at the same time every effort was made to rule out the possibility that his death was anything other than suicide. The possibility that there had been foul play . . . that this could have been yet another assassination, demanded that we conduct a thorough investigation before notifying the public.

“Although the full results of the autopsy will not be available until Tuesday at the earliest, we have confirmed that President Schroeder died from a self-inflicted injury and that he was alive at the time of sustaining the injury.

“More significantly, we undertook a thorough and exhaustive examination of the video holographic recording the President made of his suicide message . . . a message you will soon see and hear. The analysis of the recording was the most extensive that has ever been attempted in history and it proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the message was authentic and that it was not coerced. The results of the analysis will be made available to the public, as will the original recording for independent verification.

“We will now play this recording so as to honor the wishes and memory of the man who served, albeit briefly, as the 49th President of the United States.”

The room lights dimmed perceptibly and the area where Jeremy was standing was replaced by a holographic image of Marvin Schroeder, bigger than life. Of course I’d already seen the full recording, which included a somewhat rambling message and concluded with the rather grizzly scene of the President hanging himself from the chandelier in his office. We all agreed that it would not be appropriate to show the actual hanging itself and so only his recorded message would be shown today. Members of the press and law enforcement officials who wished to see the full recording would be allowed to view it in private showings, but we would do everything we could to forestall the inevitable release of the video of the hanging to the public at large.

Schroeder’s recorded comments lasted only twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds, but they spoke volumes. He spoke of his mistakes and his belief that he was acting in America’s best interests, but freely admitted that he had been wrong and had allowed himself to be duped by those whose intent was far from what he had thought it was. He vehemently denied that he’d had anything to do with President Reynolds’ assassination or with the events that followed, and he indicated that he was leaving information behind that he hoped could be used to bring those who were responsible to justice.

At the end, the image faded and the lights came back up to reveal Jeremy, still standing at the podium.

“President Schroeder led America through one of the darkest times in its history and he did a fine job. What the President did not tell you was that members of the intelligence community had already tracked down a number of leads that pointed directly at men and women who were very close to the President. I want to be clear that there never was any evidence whatsoever to tie the President directly to the events of the past week, but the fact that a number of his closest associates may have been involved was of grave concern.

“Undoubtedly, it was that evidence that led the President to the decision to take his own life. Although we all wish the President would have chosen another path, we are grateful that he provided the evidence he did . . . evidence that has already led to more than a hundred arrests . . . and that he served as the steward of our great nation through this time of crisis.

“Please join me in thanking President Schroeder for a job well done.” I practically gagged as I clapped my hands along with Jeremy and everyone else in the room. Some steward Schroeder turned out to be! Whether he acted directly or not, to a large degree he was responsible for the death of my brother and, for that, I could never find it in my heart to forgive him.

As the applause was dying down, I noticed that a motorized scooter was making its way down the aisle to the podium. Once the applause stopped, a very stooped John Roberts rose up from his wheelchair, stepped up to the podium and raised his hand.

“Repeat after me,” the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court began. “I Jeremy Kimball do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”

The room was completely silent as Jeremy repeated each phrase, one at a time. At the end, Roberts shook Jeremy’s hand and the room broke into what could only be called a somber applause. This was not a moment to celebrate. It was yet another transition and it was occurring far too soon and under the most unusual of circumstances. Taking over from a martyred president was one thing, but taking over from one who committed suicide was a first. We were treading on new ground.

As the applause died down, my brother-in-law began to address the nation for the first time as the fiftieth President of the United States.

“Thirty-six years ago,” Jeremy began, “I was a very shy and lonely boy. Growing up gay in the Midwest in the early twenty-first century was a far cry from what it is now. About to turn thirteen, I knew there was something different about me . . . I just didn’t know what it was. Growing up is difficult enough . . . but growing up gay in the turn-of-the-century Bible Belt was not something I would have wished on my enemies.

“Hiding what I was turned out not to be an option, I accidentally outed myself in my thirteenth year and became an outcast overnight. No one wanted to be seen with me and so I sat alone. But there was this one boy who didn’t seem to care. We didn’t know each other well, but he was always friendly to me in spite of the rumors.

“Then one hot, torrid day that summer, we ran into each other and got caught in a torrential downpour. We got to know each other a lot better that day and, before the sun had set, we were deeply in love with each other. That boy was David Reynolds.

“David Reynolds was also different but he didn’t let it define him. His attractions were just something that were a part of him . . . a very small part as far as he was concerned. Far more significant was his outgoing personality, his remarkable ability to think on his feet and, yes, his slightly crooked and endearing smile. David was the kind of person who drew people in and made them feel they were special. David didn’t care that people knew we were gay. Thanks in large part to that attitude, most kids didn’t seem to care either. David taught me how to be a popular kid, an athlete, a scholar and a leader who just happened to be gay.

“Three years later David and I were married in a double ceremony along with our best friends, Kurt DeWitt, who is now the White House Chief of Staff, and Trevor Austin, the former and soon-to-be-reinstated National Security Advisor.

“Before I met David, I assumed I would end up going into business as had my father and as did my brother and sister. It seemed to be the logical place for someone with my background. David Reynolds showed me another way. He took our shared ideals, our values, our sense of fairness and our passion and turned them into reality. He did that as the first openly gay class president in our high school. He did that as a member of the Harvard Law Review. He did it while clerking for the Supreme Court and he did it in Guatemala while we served in the American Red Cross. He did it as the youngest governor in the history of our state and he did it as a congressman and then a senator. Few presidents could claim so many accomplishments in the scarcely more than two years he served in public office.

“David Reynolds was like a great ray of sunshine bringing hope to the masses and, yet, at the same time making a reality of the opposition’s long-sought desire to reduce the role of the Federal Government in our lives. He was a remarkable human being. He was my inspiration.

“So why was this incredible human gunned down? I know some people hated him because he was gay, just as I’m sure they must hate me. It would have been convenient for some if that really had been the reason he was killed, but it was not. Many people feared he would be killed for that very reason, just as many feared President Obama would be killed because he was the first African American president. Although prejudice and hatred have always been with us throughout our history, by and large Americans are better than that. We are a diverse people. Our diversity is our strength and people recognize that. It is our differences that make us strong.

“Although some may have hated David because of who he loved, most I think recognized that his unique perspective as a gay man gave him a different view of life. He could look at things differently from any other president in history and it was that unique vantage point that allowed him to imagine the impossible. Whereas every president that came before assumed that greed and unfairness could only be balanced by the heavy hand of the Federal Government, or that the only way to make society better was to allow greed and unfairness to run rampant, David Reynolds saw a better way. Hence, the so-called Reynolds Doctrine was born.

“Create a world in which there are rules that guarantee a level playing field . . . a world in which breaking those rules only hurts the one doing the breaking . . . and there is no need for a heavy hand. There is no need to tolerate greed and unfairness. Once again it is those who make money through hard work and ingenuity that prosper the most. Of course for those who profited from the work of others, from profiteering or from taking advantage of the overhead created by a bloated bureaucracy, the Reynolds Doctrine was a disaster. Could some of these have been responsible for my husband’s murder? We have evidence that it was a factor, but it was not the primary reason.

“David Reynolds’ unique perspective also allowed him to imagine something even more incredible . . . something even more impossible. For all time humans have assumed that war is inevitable. We have learned to tolerate it, to make use of it and to profit from it. We cry out to God, ‘sim shalom!’, ‘grant us peace!’, and yet we continue to beat our plow shares into swords and to feed off human misery, all the time shaking our heads in sorrow.

“President Reynolds saw a better way. He saw that war was not inevitable . . . that when we build on our similarities rather than our differences, that when we treat other people and other religions as we treat ourselves and our own, that when we treat the land as something lent to us in stewardship rather than as ours alone to do with as we please, war no longer has any use to us. We can move beyond war.

“David Reynolds was not killed because of who he was or who he loved. He was not killed for upending the financial system or shrinking government. No, David Reynolds was killed because he committed the sin of waging peace. By securing the framework for a lasting peace in the Middle East, he upset a delicate balance of power, unleashing the fury of those who’d long been led to see Israel as a scapegoat for the evil being propagated in their own lands . . . for completely unrelated reasons. Ultimately, that fury could not be contained and so those who depended on the Middle East as a distraction for the goings on in their own countries saw the need to restore the status quo. For them, war in the Middle East was a necessity they could not conceive of living without.

“Hence an influential group of world leaders and business associates hatched a plan to upend peace in the Middle East. Through assassinations, kidnapping and terrorism, they managed to eliminate those that saw peace as the way of the future. They sowed the seeds of distrust once again, hoping to set the cause of peace back for generations to come.

“But guess what? They . . . utterly . . . failed. The peace process that my husband started was about more than one person or one philosophy. Yes, President Reynolds’ charisma was instrumental in bringing about an agreement that many thought impossible, but the agreement still stands. Today those who tried to disrupt it have been arrested and I give my support and commitment, right here, right now that the United States of America will do everything in its power to ensure that peace in the Middle East succeeds.

“Thanks to the evidence supplied by President Schroeder, more than a hundred arrests were made today, and hundreds more will follow. There were many arrests made in North America, Europe and Japan in those countries with whom we have direct jurisdiction or firm extradition agreements. Presented with inscrutable evidence, many more arrests were made in China, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Syria and Iran, among others. The evidence presented by President Schroeder may not have proved a connection to the assassination of our president, but it did provide firm substantiation of illegal activities. Taken together with the largely circumstantial evidence already in our possession, it was a simple matter to connect the dots. Justice will be served and, at least in the West, the wrongs committed will be treated as war crimes and the sentences will be the harshest allowable under the law.

Taking a sip of water and pausing for a moment, Jeremy continued, “No number of arrests, no amount of vindication can ever make up for the loss of a great man. David Reynolds was one of the greatest natural leaders the world has ever seen. Had he lived, he might well have gone down in history as another Churchill, Roosevelt or Gandhi. Instead he was gunned down in his prime. Yet he accomplished more in his two years as president than most do in eight . . . than most humans do in a lifetime.

“Not only that, but he was an amazing husband and father . . . he was my soul mate. How I will live without him I do not know. But know this, I did not choose to be president but, now that I am, I will dedicate myself to ensuring that the legacy of David Reynolds will not die. His programs, his ideals, his passion will live on through me and, I hope, through those that follow. The world will forever be a better place because David Reynolds was in it.”

As Jeremy stepped back from the podium, the entire chamber broke into a thunderous applause as everyone rose to their feet. The standing ovation must have lasted a solid fifteen minutes or more as every time Jeremy tried to quiet the crowd, they only applauded more. What an incredible speech he’d given and I could not help but wonder what was left for him to say in the eulogy he’d be delivering next week.

Finally things quieted down and people took their seats, allowing Jeremy to resume speaking.

“With today’s arrests,” he went on, “the danger of a terrorist attack has been eliminated and I am ordering the Federal Government to resume normal operations. Congressmen, judges and Federal officials will be allowed to return to their homes. Government offices will reopen for business as usual tomorrow morning and airports throughout the country will resume normal schedules.

“As did my predecessor, I am going to move quickly to fill vacancies left by recent events. The first and most important vacancy is the vice presidency. America needs a new vice president and for the position I am nominating my brother-in-law, Bradford Reynolds.” Suddenly a bright spotlight shone upon me and the room broke into applause. How embarrassing!

“There is no one I trust more as my right arm than Governor Reynolds. He may have grown up in his brother’s shadow, as did I for that matter, but he is an exceptional leader with all of the same qualities that made my husband an outstanding president. He would be on anyone’s short list for Vice President . . . or President. That he is my brother-in-law and one of my best friends only highlights how fortunate I am to be surrounded by the family and friends that I have.

“Chief Justice Roberts has submitted notice that he intends to retire at the end of the current term. Roberts has given of himself in a way that few have and, although we may not have seen eye-to-eye on most things, I think we all appreciate the many sacrifices he made in service to our country.” Again there was applause.

“As his successor, I am nominating William Kramer, a highly respected scholar and noted authority on Constitutional Law at Georgetown University. Mr. Kramer has long been considered a prime candidate for the Supreme Court and I have every confidence that he will bring a fresh perspective and a scholarly approach to the Chief Justice position. He may not be as conservative as John Roberts, but he is no flaming liberal either. He is a fair-minded pragmatist with a strong record of supporting what’s right, regardless of whether or not it is supported by the left, or the right, or is popular. He knows Constitutional Law like no one else on the Court has for generations.

“Sadly, Elizabeth Warren has submitted her resignation as Secretary of Education. Dr. Warren cited personal reasons and is stepping down so that she can spend more time with her family. I will be nominating Congressman Sammy Austin to succeed her. Dr. Austin’s accomplishments in the field of Education are well known to all and I have no doubt that Dr. Austin will bring a new sense of innovation to the Department.

“Unfortunately, Secretary of State El Tahari remains missing. We believe we have located the facility where he is being held and we believe him to be safe. NATO forces have secured the area and plans are in the works for a rescue operation, the details of which are being worked out at this very moment.

“And with that, I will now take questions from the press.”

Although members of the press were segregated in a special section reserved for them, the so-called press box, the physical layout of the room was not conducive to a traditional press conference. Consequently, an unconventional approach was called for in making it feasible for Jeremy to answer questions. Jeremy insisted that the conference had to be fair and that all members of the press had to be afforded an equal opportunity to ask questions.

To that end, anyone wishing to ask a question was required to enter it as text on a tablet they were each given on entering the room. Questions were then chosen at random and vetted before being passed on to the President. The reason for the vetting was not so that Jeremy could cherry pick just the questions he wanted to answer, but so that inappropriate questions or ones that could compromise national security could be edited or discarded. A full unedited list of the questions would be made available after the conference so all would see that the process was done fairly.

Each question was read aloud by a computer-generated voice so that all would hear the question at the same time that Jeremy did. Members of Congress waited with anticipation as did the rest of us, as did a worldwide audience numbering in the billions, as the President prepared to answer the first question.

“Mr. President,” a pleasant, female voice began, “now that the danger is past, will President Reynolds’ funeral proceed as planned?”

“The train carrying my husband’s body has been delayed due to the number of well wishers along the route,” Jeremy explained. “It was originally supposed to arrive here on Friday. It is currently in Baltimore and is expected to arrive here in Washington tomorrow morning. President Reynolds’ body will then lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda for the remainder of the week. So as to allow time for all who wish to pay their respects, the funeral has been pushed back to Sunday, April fifth, a week from today.”

Not stated by Jeremy was that he’d decided not to hold the funeral on Saturday, which was the Jewish Sabbath. Although he personally wasn't all that religious, several members of his family and particularly young Josh and Sandy, insisted that the funeral be respectful of Jewish traditions. Jeremy was getting a lot of press as America’s first Jewish president, even as he continued to insist he was only half-Jewish and just as much a Christian. Not that he was trying to deny his Jewish roots at all. He was very proud of his heritage and had even gone through the Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the same time as his children. What was far more significant to me was that no one was mentioning that he was the second gay president. This was as it should have been and I was pleased.

“Mr. President,” the next question began, “Why wasn’t the media informed of President Schroeder’s disappearance in the first place? Are we supposed to trust you have nothing to hide?” Man, what a question!

“Even as I am committed to running an open administration, I recognize as I’m sure you do that ‘open’ doesn’t mean divulging all information as it becomes available in real time. Within the White House complex, the President is free to wander as he pleases. None of us even bothered to think about the President having been absent until late Friday night, and there was really no reason to even go looking for him until yesterday morning, when things started happening in the Middle East. With yet another crisis unfolding, the last thing we wanted to do was to add more fuel to the fire. Notifying the public that the President was missing would have been irresponsible.

“Once the President’s body had been located, we moved quickly to set up this press conference. This wasn’t the sort of news you’d want to deliver in a mere press release, after all. By scheduling it late in the day, it gave us the time needed to be able to answer critical questions, most importantly whether or not President Schroeder’s death really was suicide. We were able to obtain preliminary autopsy results, to run an exhaustive analysis of the President’s suicide recording and to act on the data he provided us about those who might have been behind my husband’s murder and the ensuing events of the past week. Although not the primary reason for delaying the conference to this evening, the delay allowed us to make more than a hundred arrests without giving those involved the time to escape. I have little doubt that history will report that today’s events were among the best coordinated in history, and there are many people to thank for that.”

“Mr. President,” the voice began again, “One of the major criticisms of your husband was that he filled his administration with relatives and close personal friends, yet you seem to be following the same path, retaining the same cabinet and appointing your brother-in-law to be your vice-president. What do you have to say about these criticisms and about the apparent lack of diversity in your administration?” I couldn’t help but gulp hearing that question.

“As you, the members of the press, have so diligently pointed out, I am the first Jewish American president in history,” Jeremy replied. “In my cabinet we have four Jews, two Muslims, a Catholic, a Mormon, a Sikh, a Hindu and two Buddhists. There are five women, three African Americans, four Hispanic members, a Pakistani and a Native American. Seven members are gay, but that is certainly not by design. Over the years President Reynolds and I have befriended a number of extraordinary individuals who are the top people in their professions. People of this caliber generally do not go into public service, and that we were able to recruit them is, I believe, largely a reflection of the enthusiasm displayed by my husband. There are many leaders throughout the U.S. that were friends of ours in high school. This is not just coincidence. David Reynolds had a profound influence on so many lives.

“When President Reynolds came to Washington, naturally he brought with him a group of individuals who were eminently qualified for the posts to which we sought their appointment. Many of these were people we’d known since high school. These were people we knew we could trust. Presidents have been appointing close friends, associates and relatives to important posts since America began. This is certainly nothing new. What is unique is that our administration brought with us a brain trust the likes of which has not been seen since the Kennedy administration.

“Brad Reynolds possesses all of the qualities that made my husband an outstanding president. He has been active in politics since he was only thirteen years old. That he is a relative and a friend is no coincidence. As with most of our friends, he became interested in politics because of his brother, my husband. The reason I chose Brad Reynolds is because he is by far the best person for the job. The same can be said of my choices for Chief Justice and Secretary of Education.”

The press conference went on like that for close to another hour, with Jeremy fielding question after question, not hesitating in answering a single one of them. His performance was exceptional and I could not help but marvel at how much he’d grown in recent years. Jer might not have my brother’s or my ability to think as fast on his feet, but he was a close second compared to any politician I’d ever met. What he lacked in my brother’s charisma he more than made up for with his raw intelligence and, yet, he still retained the ability to relate to people on a personal level. It was evident to me that as a president, Jeremy would go far.