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  • The president of the United States

  • is arguably the most important position in the world.

  • As the leader of the free world, the safety of the president

  • is an important job for the dedicated service men and women

  • willing to take a bullet for POTUS and to keep them

  • and their families safe--

  • for life.

  • But not every day is dodging bullets

  • from Jodie Foster fan boys.

  • It's a little more pedestrian than that.

  • Today, we're exploring what life is

  • like as a member of the Secret Service.

  • But first, before we can grant you security clearance

  • to watch, go ahead and check the Subscribe button, and let

  • us know what government entity you

  • would like to hear more about.

  • Now, the big cat is on the move.

  • The big cat is on the move.

  • [PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

  • Presidents are, at the end of the day, human beings

  • just like you and me, only with nuclear codes.

  • They enjoy kicking back and relaxing as much

  • as the next average Joe.

  • In order to keep the president safe at all times, including

  • leisurely times, they sometimes have

  • to take up the same hobbies and interests as their boss.

  • But sometimes that works out just fine.

  • Take Ronald Reagan, for example--

  • a big fan of horses.

  • Yes, before there was trickle-down economics,

  • there was Trickle the horse.

  • Reagan's Secret Service agent on duty, John Barletta,

  • loved a good jaunt on a horse too,

  • and the two would often ride around Reagan's private ranch.

  • Not exactly the unsafest place in the country for a president

  • to be, but Barletta still had a job

  • to do in case there was a sudden gust of wind,

  • or a temperamental horse.

  • In general, Reagan was known to be

  • pretty kind to his Secret Service agents,

  • and also had one of the most favorable hobbies

  • that a member of the Secret Service

  • would [? be ?] forced to participate in.

  • [LIGHT ROCK MUSIC]

  • Bill Clinton turned himself into an avid runner

  • during his tenure as president, which

  • was a real pain in the butt for Secret Service members

  • to keep up with.

  • Clinton was slow, sure, but also stubbornly refused

  • to run on any self-contained indoor track, military base,

  • or treadmill.

  • He wanted to run around in public with the people, where

  • all the crime could be, and sweeping the area

  • was complicated, cumbersome, and expensive.

  • The Secret Service also had the extra fun duty

  • of completing these runs while being weighed down

  • with heavy guns, bulky radios, and dress shoes.

  • Exercising for a president was surprisingly foreign up

  • until the '90s, but Clinton used these as

  • less of a heart-healthy, stress-reducing "me"

  • time and more of a "where can I find the nearest McDonald's?"

  • time.

  • With agents around the president 24/7,

  • they sometimes have to endure more than just

  • potentially dangerous situations.

  • They also have the distinction of getting

  • involved in painfully awkward ones as well.

  • President Lyndon Johnson, for example,

  • sounded like a real peach.

  • He lashed out at agents when they didn't do what he wanted,

  • which included following traffic laws.

  • Johnson allegedly ordered an agent to break the law

  • and jump the curb when running late to an event.

  • When the agent refused because that's hardly a safe way

  • to drive, Johnson threw a fit.

  • Johnson attempted to fire that safe driver the next day,

  • but his job was saved after Johnson's secretary intervened.

  • And he got off light.

  • Johnson was a randy man who enjoyed the company of women

  • who were not Lady Bird, and his agents

  • had a real fun time trying to navigate around

  • his affairs with women.

  • LBJ even chose to have one of his trysts

  • with his secretaries in the Oval Office,

  • which his wife had the misfortune to walk in on.

  • [WOMAN SCREAMING]

  • After screaming at the agents for failing to warn him

  • that his wife was on the way, an alarm system

  • was installed to prevent it from happening again,

  • as opposed to LBJ just not having an extramarital affair

  • in his office.

  • Presidents-- they're just like us.

  • They get a little moody sometimes.

  • Former agent and author of Within Arm's Length--

  • A Secret Service Agent's Definitive Inside Account

  • of Protecting the President, Dan Emmett

  • worked for both Bushes, W. and H., as well as Clinton.

  • When asked who his favorite president was to protect,

  • Dan took the fifth and refused to answer.

  • Each man had personal highs and lows

  • with good days and bad days.

  • Not that hard to imagine that Obama's mood might

  • be different on the same day that he's been passing out

  • candy to a very tiny child dressed

  • as the pope versus the day they killed bin Laden.

  • Not all agents speak with the discretion of Emmett, however.

  • Agents who protected Richard Nixon described him as a stone

  • cold weirdo, with many calling him

  • the strangest president, though what

  • is that sample size, exactly?

  • Depressed and paranoid, Nixon--

  • codenamed Searchlight-- supposedly

  • dipped into some extremely odd behavior, including eating dog

  • biscuits, and less odd behavior, such as getting hammered

  • on Martinis during the day.

  • [LIGHT CHOIR MUSIC]

  • Jimmy Carter came into office in 1977

  • with four children and zero peanut farms.

  • His youngest daughter was only nine years old when Carter

  • was sworn into office, so Secret Service agents

  • had to work double duty to serve the president of the United

  • States and to be baby sitters.

  • Good affordable child care can be so hard to find.

  • Amy Carter required a Secret Service escort for something

  • as innocuous as attending a sleepover,

  • often putting in overtime to do so.

  • When Amy wanted to go to a friend's house

  • instead of being brought home after school, as they were

  • instructed to do, she'd pull the low-key,

  • do you know who my father is, and would phone daddy

  • for permission, who often told her guards to take her wherever

  • she wants to go, which is questionable parenting at best,

  • but Jimmy had bigger things on his plate.

  • Amy, a real sweetheart, was also known to purposefully leave

  • crumbs like Hansel and Gretel, only less to remember where she

  • was and more because she was a brat who

  • thought it funny for her Secret Service detail

  • to clean up after her.

  • His son, however-- also a sweetheart-- who went by Chip,

  • was slightly more nefarious.

  • He was recently separated, liked to party,

  • and loved to bring home randoms to the White House, which

  • made him a gas to protect.

  • [ELECTRONIC HIP HOP MUSIC]

  • Presidents aren't the only ones under constant threat

  • of being assassinated.

  • Vice presidents require 24-hour protection too.

  • Spiro Agnew, the VP to President Nixon until 1973--

  • before it got too dicey--

  • was prone to throw parties for his service detail

  • and was referred to as a cop buff.

  • In return, his Secret Service agents

  • with throw parties for this cop buff, who would later

  • become paranoid that his new friends, paid service detail,

  • were talking crap about him behind his back-- which,

  • to be fair, they probably totally were.

  • Although generally believed to have a cordial relationship

  • with his service detail, Agnew didn't make himself

  • less of an easy target by also needing extramarital affairs

  • to be covered by his agents, asking for hotel rooms that

  • could only be booked if his lover's room could

  • be booked beside him.

  • Ah, and they say romance is dead.

  • The Secret Service was inconsistent

  • when it came to the care of the president's canine friends,

  • and rarely said thank you or please

  • when asking agents to do more than their sworn duty demanded.

  • For example, it probably was not a life-or-death scenario

  • for President Lyndon Johnson, who's

  • coming across just swimmingly here

  • in general, when he asked his agents to take his dog Yuki out

  • on a particularly rainy day.

  • Secret Service, take care of Yuki, he demanded into the air

  • as he threw his dog outside of his Texas ranch.

  • Though this was not a strange demand from LBJ,

  • his detail did resent that there was nary a please

  • or thank you thrown in the way for taking care of a muddy dog.

  • Yuki was returned to the ranch, but not before getting

  • the sheets all muddy, which resulted in a second

  • non-life-or-death demand to clean up the damn dog.

  • All of this according to Dennis McCarthy,

  • who detailed his time on duty serving

  • LBJ, whom he described as treating the guys as

  • hired hands.

  • When Hubert Humphrey asked a member of his service

  • detail, Chuck Vance, Vance clapped back and told Humphrey

  • that while he wasn't allowed to walk his dog,

  • he would be more obliged to walk you, sir.

  • Meow.

  • This kitty likes to scratch.

  • [LIGHT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

  • Not all stories of protecting and serving

  • end with being riddled with bullets.

  • Some end with love.

  • Our old friend Chuck Vance protected both Vice Presidents

  • Humphrey and Agnew before being reassigned

  • to California to protect Gerald Ford after Ford left office.

  • It was here where Vance caught the eye of Ford's daughter,

  • Susan, and the two struck up a relationship that at first was

  • secret, and sexy, and later would become

  • tumultuous, and not sexy.

  • When Betty Ford found out about the relationship,

  • mama was pissed and had Vance relocated.

  • It was less of the "on dad's payroll" thing

  • about Vance, and more the "he is divorced with two kids" that

  • left Betty unsettled.

  • Susan, who we presume was rebelling against her mother,

  • married Vance anyways in 1979, where

  • Vance would soon leave the agency

  • to go into private security.

  • The couple would divorce in 1988, meaning mom--

  • as per usual-- was right.

  • Oh, mom.

  • A great security detail is one you should never see coming.

  • Like a referee in an NBA game, if they're

  • doing their job correctly, you won't even

  • notice they're there.

  • Because of this, agents often blended into the background

  • and became a witness to some of the more vulnerable moments

  • in a president's day-to-day life.

  • They're silent observers.

  • Dennis McCarthy recalled President Nixon

  • weeping when the Watergate scandal that would bring down

  • his presidency began.

  • Agents were also witnesses to affairs, drug use,

  • and drinking, slightly disconcerting things

  • to hear about men with the nuclear codes.

  • But because agents' presence were so common,

  • presidents didn't give it a second thought.

  • How comforting.

  • Much like anything worth protecting, guarding

  • the president wasn't always easy,

  • and some didn't help in making their service detail's

  • job any easier by participating in reckless behavior.

  • Famous playboy JFK also kept it interesting for his security

  • detail.

  • Kennedy liked the company of women who were not his wife.

  • According to the agent Ronald Kessler in the book

  • In The President's Secret Service--

  • Behind the Scenes with the Agents in the Line of Fire

  • and the Presidents They Protect-- geez,

  • can anybody write a book with a nice short title--

  • Kennedy was entertaining two women

  • when it was discovered Jackie O was coming home early.

  • Kennedy hopped out of the pool and gave

  • his unfinished drink to a nearby agent, saying, enjoy it.

  • It's quite good.

  • Unfortunately, we all know what happened on November 22, 1963.

  • Choosing to parade in Dallas in an open-topped convertible

  • over Secret Service objections, Kennedy

  • became the only president assassinated

  • on the Secret Service's watch.

  • Technically, the legislation creating the agency

  • was on Lincoln's desk the day he was assassinated.

  • [LIGHT ROCK MUSIC]

  • The one thing most presidents have in common

  • is they love golf.

  • According to agent Clint Hill, President Dwight D.

  • Eisenhower's main hobby was hitting the links.

  • He'd store a pair of cleats in the Oval Office

  • so he could throw those bad boys on

  • and putt in the halls of the White House

  • during all the downtime presidents famously have.

  • After he would putt, it was the job of his valet, Sergeant John

  • Moaney, to run and fetch it--

  • yes, like a dog.

  • But Moaney actually enjoyed the task--

  • or so he said.

  • If on a public course, Eisenhower

  • would be accompanied by a service detail

  • with a Thompson submachine gun, which is not the best

  • way to hit a golf ball, but in a pinch can really lay the wood.

  • On the other hand, agents felt bad for Nixon,

  • because while Nixon enjoyed golf,

  • he was not in a particularly good.

  • One agent said, when you saw him play golf,

  • you were embarrassed forum.

  • I mean, it was awful.

  • Eventually, Nixon, being very chill,

  • gave up on the game of golf and decried it

  • as "a game for lazy bastards."

  • Weird because Donald Trump seems to love it so much.

  • But that's for Weird History in 2052.

  • So what do you think?

  • Would you want to serve in the Secret Service?

  • Let us know in the comments below, and while you're at it,

  • check out some of these other fine

  • videos from our Weird History.

The president of the United States

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作为特勤局特工的生活是什么样的(What Life Is Like as a Secret Service Agent)

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    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 05 月 20 日
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