Kenneth Valentine served as a special agent in the US Secret Service for 24 years. He protected three sitting presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Valentine gives insight into what failures played out during the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump and offers his thoughts on the future of the US Secret Service.
He also covers surveillance tactics, training, weapons, and protocol around US elections. He talks about the night of 9/11, when he was left alone to defend the White House after the president evacuated. He recounts the odder parts of an agent's job, like carrying Uzis in briefcases and avoiding fish thrown by protesters.
Today, he's a published author, leadership expert, and public speaker.
Find more:
www.kennethvalentine.com/
Valentine gives insight into what failures played out during the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump and offers his thoughts on the future of the US Secret Service.
He also covers surveillance tactics, training, weapons, and protocol around US elections. He talks about the night of 9/11, when he was left alone to defend the White House after the president evacuated. He recounts the odder parts of an agent's job, like carrying Uzis in briefcases and avoiding fish thrown by protesters.
Today, he's a published author, leadership expert, and public speaker.
Find more:
www.kennethvalentine.com/
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FunTranscript
00:00My name is Kenneth Valentine, a veteran of the United States Secret Service,
00:04including protecting three sitting presidents. And this is everything that I'm authorized to tell you.
00:10Truth is that the Secret Service is anything but secret. Everything we do
00:14is on the front page of the news every single day. And so when you have a success,
00:18we shrink into the darkness. People don't even think about you. If you have a failure,
00:22it's front page news.
00:24The Butler, Pennsylvania shooting has been difficult on many fronts. We failed. The
00:30Secret Service failed. You know, the first and foremost is that one person died inside a secured
00:36event. Three of the people, including a former president, were wounded inside that event.
00:41There's just no way you can't use the word failure when shots are fired into what is supposed to be
00:48a secured venue. I was actually clued in by a text from multiple agents because I was in the
00:54hospital with my mother, who was about to have open heart surgery. And I had to commandeer the
00:59TV in the room from her bedside roommate and put it on a news show to pick up what was happening.
01:06I have to assume that we didn't follow our own protocol, that we did not pay attention to detail,
01:13which is the, you know, one of the mantras of the presidential protection detail is to pay
01:17attention to detail. And that's one of the failures that I, that I see with Butler is not only was
01:22able to get off rounds, but he was able to, to focus in, to see the protective from outside the
01:27venue and to put those shots in with some accuracy. So that's, that's actually multiple failures. You
01:33don't want to be reacting to the sound of gunshot because those bullets have already whizzed past
01:37if you hear it. When the person is shot, you don't want to react to the sound of gunshot.
01:41Whizzed past if you hear it. When the prevention doesn't work and now you're reacting,
01:45your job is to cover the protectee and then to evacuate that protectee. And the cover
01:50looked outstanding. The reaction by the detail was very good. They were very fast. It was fearless
01:57as it should be. Their training kicked in and they did exactly what we trained to do, which is get on
02:02top of that protectee and put them down. Put them down behind some assets and resources where they
02:07can't take another intentional focused shot at the protectee. There are a myriad of ways that,
02:15that could have been and should have been prevented that, that weren't that day. Shipping
02:20containers, blocking line of sight. So you can't use a shipping container, which is going to stop
02:24the bullets. Could you use a flag? Could you use a banner? Could you turn that stage to where the
02:29back of the stage is now facing that threat zone that maybe you don't have all the resources to
02:34post, but you could can't the stage such that it takes away that line of sight. And now your line
02:40of sight is a, is an empty field. Bulletproof glass. We use that at the National Lighting of
02:46the Christmas Tree every year for outdoor events. And so those, those resources are there. I think
02:51the investigation is going to have to ask those hard questions as to why weren't those kind of
02:56resources used for this event. A lot of what you see is, is kind of like the tip of the iceberg.
03:02You saw the protective detail around President Trump and they're the ones in the suits that
03:07reacted and jumped on top of him and then tried to affect that getaway from the scene. You also saw
03:13counter assault team members who came out from their position, kind of out of sight at a tactical
03:19position, but now they've come out of that tactical position into actual tactics. You saw them on
03:25stage because they had the, the helmets and the, the black gear. They collaborate and train with
03:30Navy SEALs, with Delta, with FBI HRT. So it's a very specialized team. They're highly trained.
03:37The images that the media shows over and over on the rooftop was our counter sniper unit. So if I'm
03:43not mistaken, that's the first round one of our United States Secret Service counter snipers have
03:48ever fired at another human being. And it was a perfect shot. The evacuation looked like it met
03:54with some difficulty. And part of the problem was the protectee himself. President Trump had the,
04:02for him, the presence of mind to, to signal to the American people that I'm okay and that we're
04:07going to win this battle. Now that's great. That gave me some relief watching from my mom's hospital
04:12room. So him sticking his head up high and exposing himself was a big problem that day.
04:18And what you're looking for is compliance. You know, ideally you would want to double them over
04:24and, and, and walk them out. And hopefully they assist you in that endeavor. If they don't,
04:31and I suspect what the training is now going to say is, don't expect their help,
04:37immobilize them and, and get them prone. If you have to, carry them out. The way I was trained
04:44is you put your hand on the back of their head and with one arm around their waist, if you push
04:49their head forward, they will comply and they will start moving forward. And the same if you,
04:54if you pull them backwards, they, they really come under your control at that point. If you,
05:00if you get that working, it's amazingly easy, even if you have to,
05:05you know, make them uncomfortable or even hurt them a little bit in the process. That's,
05:08that is more important.
05:159-11, hard for me to, to, to let go of. And I was on the first of two coveted days off in a row.
05:24And then my pager went off and it was my boss. I'm at home. I'm ready to go. I said,
05:29if you need me to do something, I'm your guy, let's go. And he said, you know what? Pack a
05:34bag and stand by. And I said, yes, sir. And I was angry. I might've hit something. I got a fourth
05:40page and they said, get to the White House immediately. Close to midnight, we were rotating
05:46through our posts and we get the crackle over the radio saying we've got an inbound aircraft.
05:52You know, I immediately think of a, of a jumbo passenger jet full of gas. We got an altitude,
05:58we got a direction of travel and we got a speed and it was on a high speed mission directly for
06:03the White House. So we did not have minutes. We had more like seconds, but the president and the
06:08first lady had been released to go upstairs to the residence for the night. And so once their
06:15evacuation was complete, my job was to stay and fight and then to be the point when they
06:23made their reentry. The problem was we were, we weren't talking about a ground attack.
06:29I was left behind with a machine gun, a pistol, a radio, and a gas mask to fight
06:33what I thought was a jumbo jet that was going to crash the house any second. You know, wasn't a good
06:38time to argue. The circumstances are different. You just, just suck it up and do it. And so I
06:44covered that evacuation. And then I looked on the ground floor of the White House, you know, where,
06:49where might I survive? You know, what if, what if it hits at the wrong angle and there's a chance,
06:54where would that chance be? And it was the West wall of the original White House. It has a wide
07:00archway. And I thought if I stand in this archway and it, and the plane hits just right,
07:05and the fireball didn't burn me alive, maybe, just maybe there's a chance that I survive this.
07:11And I, so I went and stood in that, in that archway with, with all my gear, my stuff. And I
07:17had what seemed like an eternity to stand there and, and ponder my own demise. But I remember
07:24being at great peace and I just thought, well, I guess this is how it ends. And I've seen what
07:29happens when these big planes hit these buildings. And I knew that the wingspan of a 747 was wider
07:37than the White House itself. So it was probably all going down and we were, everything was going
07:42to be burned. I thought about my wife for a second and I said, well, Lord, here I come. I'm
07:50ready. You know, they're going to put a plaque for me up over at headquarters. And that's, that's
07:54just all she wrote. And it wasn't too much longer that we got the crackle back on the radio that,
08:00that the plane had been identified, that there was no emergency that we could unevacuate the
08:06White House. He just wasn't on the right frequency and he wasn't on, he wasn't, didn't have his
08:11transponder turned on. So they, they just had no way to identify him without visually identifying
08:15him. That Air Force pilot came a lot closer to dying that night than I did, but I sure didn't
08:21know that at the time. Part of, of training to be a presidential or vice presidential
08:31agent is being shot at. And you need to know what that sounds like. You need to know what
08:35it feels like even. They absolutely light you up with paint balls and with plastic paint bullets
08:41and shot from real weapons. But if you do it wrong, you can count on being shot. And if you
08:47stick your head up where it shouldn't be stuck up, you're going to taste some, some of that paint
08:52ball in your mouth because they, the, the instructors are just that good with those weapons.
08:57And, and so they, and they know the mistakes that agents are going to make in training. They've seen
09:01it all before. Being shot at is no fun. I can tell you that. And, and that really drives you
09:06as a secret service agent to bolster up prevention because we don't want to be shot at. We want to
09:12prevent the shots from happening in the first place. So you get hit, you pay for it. It hurts.
09:17And, and you've got those bruises for, for a few weeks to, to think about what you did wrong.
09:23The very first thing that special agents have to do is, is go through a two week training course
09:27in Washington, DC. And this is really your, your intro course to being a part of the secret service
09:33family. The second step is a trip to Glencoe, Georgia to the Federal Law Enforcement Training
09:38Center. You learn about defensive driving. You learn about shooting and, and control tactics,
09:43handcuffing, a little bit of fighting, a little bit of federal law enforcement in terms of
09:48surveillance and, and arrest and a lot of classroom. And then you're sent to the secret
09:53service training school just outside of DC. And this is where, this is where the road gets a
09:58little rougher. We start with 24. Typically most make it. In my class, 19 out of the 24 made it.
10:08A lot of times we would have a schedule that said that the next day is all classroom. And that's a,
10:13sort of a relaxing thing to know ahead of time that, that, hey, it's all classroom. You can
10:18come dressed in your, your fatigues with your polo and, and we're just going to be in the
10:24classroom all day. And, and that never seemed to work out. We would show up and, and the instructor
10:30would be in his workout attire, shorts and a t-shirts. And he says, what are y'all doing
10:34dressed in those clothes? Get your PT gear on now and let's go. As our lead instructor,
10:39we had a gentleman who was a former Marine Corps officer who then had served in the CIA.
10:46He'd been in the secret service for a good while. He'd been on the presidential protection detail
10:50and he pushed us hard. The training lasts about six months. Between those three stops in DC
10:56down to Glencoe, Georgia and back to DC is about six months. One week where you're learning about
11:02constitutional law. And then at the end of the day, you're, you're headed to the long range to
11:07shoot long guns. And we would shoot everything from pistols and that could be a nine millimeter,
11:1240 millimeter, 38 special up to MP5s and M4s. And then our snipers who come from our uniform
11:21division have sniper type rifles, which are, which are much bigger and longer.
11:26Look, I was the freak. I showed up there with a right eye dominant, but I used,
11:32I closed my right eye. And so what they, they worked with me because I was looking down the
11:37barrel of a pistol with my left eye and I just made it work all these years, but it was a bad
11:42habit. And so they moved me to a different stance, more of an open stance and keeping both eyes open.
11:48And that was what ended up working for me. We missed those Uzis. Those were great guns.
11:54When I came into the secret service, that was the standard long gun for agents. And so we were all
12:00trained on the Uzi. We had that outstanding Samsonite briefcase with the Uzi in it. And
12:06we all got trained on that. But it got replaced by the MP5 probably back in the early 2000s.
12:12One of the funner parts of training was just the familiarization courses that we would be put
12:17through. And one of those, when I was on the presidential protection detail was a familiarization
12:23with the sounds. They took us out to Fort Meade and they fired rounds over our head from various
12:28weapons. And so we, we got to hear what a, an M4 sounds like when five, five, six rounds are going
12:35over your head or what an AK-47 rounds sound like when they're going over your head, or what a 50
12:41cal sniper rifle sounds like when those rounds are cracking over and very distinct sounds.
12:46You don't forget them once you've heard them, but they also taught you how to take, take an AK-47
12:51apart and put it back together. What do you want to do if you want to disable a weapon that's,
12:55that an assailant dropped and left behind and render it safe? Part of the training that we
13:01received was called control tactics. So control tactics includes hand-to-hand type exercises and,
13:08and combat, if you will, to knife fights and then, and then how to disarm somebody with a weapon.
13:14And so all of that goes into play. We, we start in a mat room and you've got a rubber knife or a
13:19rubber gun and you're working it out. You're doing it wrong six times to get it right one time and,
13:24and now we've got it. Let's do it again. And these instructors typically all a black belt
13:30in some sort of discipline, whether it's jujitsu or, or kenpo karate or, or taekwondo. And so we're
13:37really getting a hodgepodge of all of those things. A lot of Gracie jujitsu moves that,
13:41that really do work well because we don't want to stay and fight. We want to subdue,
13:46we want to bring someone into compliance and then we need to shove off and move. We have a,
13:50an axiom that we say maximum to the protectee, minimum to the problem. You know what? Anyone
13:56can win any fight any day. And, and a lot of that comes back to your training and how well you
14:01trained. And, but if you're caught off guard, if you're not mentally prepared, if you're not
14:05physically prepared, you're probably going to lose. Everyone thinks that, that somehow we're
14:15a spy agency and or an intelligence agency. And it's really quite the opposite. We are strictly
14:21law enforcement. We use intelligence. We try to gain intelligence, but we're, that's usually
14:26handed to us. And so we, we certainly need intelligence about protective efforts, about
14:33threats against the president. Attempts on the president are rare, but certainly people who would
14:38like to make an attempt are not rare. We've seen celebrities make threats and John Wilkes Booth was
14:44probably the most famous actor in America. Everyone knew who he was at that play that night
14:49and he was allowed to walk backstage and have access to the presidential box because of who
14:54he was. There was one comedian who displayed the severed head of a president and was interviewed
15:00about that. We're going to talk to that person and find out, you know, what's the intent here?
15:06If someone is squawking and talking, be it on the internet or at a bar or, or with friends and
15:13family about their intent to do harm to one of our protectees. We investigate that. We investigate
15:19every single one of those. How serious were you? Were you drunk? Were you off your medication? What,
15:24what was the cause of, of you making that threat? We keep records on those. We track them. We
15:30educate ourselves on them. And I don't know if there's a secret service agent alive who hadn't
15:35been at a party or a bar or, or somewhere. Even family members will say things that, you know,
15:42depending on who the president is or what their political leanings were, that they would say
15:46something inappropriate. So yeah, I've been, I've been in the presence of people who've said some
15:51really stupid things and, and either steer the conversation the other way because they don't
15:57know I'm an agent or, or just tell them flat out, hey, you need to stop before you say something
16:03you're going to regret. Even the patients at these mental institutions were given access to telephones
16:09at different times of the day. And, and you know, we knew some of them by name because,
16:15and I knew several of them by voice because every time they got unfettered access to a telephone,
16:23they would call our office and they would start down this road and they would talk
16:29into our telephone recording until it, until it ran out of tape and talking about, you know,
16:36I want to kill the president. I want to do this. I want to do that. And they'd email
16:40whitehouse.gov. I'm going to kill the president. You know, people, people would just do stupid
16:45things and there is a line to be crossed. It's a little blurry, but once you've crossed it,
16:50you're going to get interviewed. Secret Service protects the sitting US president,
17:00their family, the sitting US vice president and their family, former presidents of the United
17:05States and then visiting heads of state. I think right now the secret service is protecting upwards
17:10of 40 people, but on any given day, heads of state visit the United States. Certainly when
17:16the UN general assembly is in session, it becomes hundreds of people. Trust in the secret service
17:21is critical, not only trust between the agents and the hierarchy, but also trust with your
17:27protege. So if your protege doesn't trust you, that's a huge problem. And it's, it's a big
17:32reason why in the early nineties, when president Clinton went through the Monica Lewinsky scandal
17:38and all that, the secret service was subpoenaed to testify during that scandal. And we fought it.
17:44There's not a nondisclosure for embarrassing information, but that's where, you know, agents
17:50have to kind of earn their keep. They have to be worthy of trust and confidence that they're not
17:54going to, you know, go off telling these stories and, you know, divulging things. We lost. So we
18:01did have to testify, but we want to be able to, to have and enjoy that, that kind of trust with
18:07the protege's where they, they can know that they can be themselves, that they can do the job that
18:13they've been elected to do. I came into the Clinton administration during his last year and I was the
18:19junior guy who was told to shut up and keep your head down and, and you, you need to figure out
18:24why you're here first. And so president Clinton really didn't get out and do a whole lot during
18:27that last year, went on a few trips with him, but wouldn't say that I got to know him all that well,
18:33probably gotten to know him better since he is a former president. President George W. Bush,
18:39I was there for his first four years. And that's when I really started making strides within the
18:45detail in terms of your advance preparation. So you're, you're building your resume the whole time,
18:52working your way up to being a lead advance agent. I ran with him. He certainly appreciated
18:57the agents who were assigned to run with him because he was a heck of a runner. And so those
19:03agents stood out to him, but it wasn't like a buddy kind of thing. We had a job to do. He had a
19:10job to do. He had some very good friends and they were not agents. So president Obama was different
19:16though, because I was assigned to him when he was still a senator and I was already a senior agent.
19:22I had, I had already done the president's detail with two other presidents. We would go out for
19:26three weeks and then come back for three weeks. And so I came back from being with him and my
19:32wife mysteriously becomes pregnant right after I get home. And I'm going out on my three week
19:38tour with, with Senator Obama and it's time for my wife's ultrasound to find out if it's a boy
19:44or a girl. And we always found out with all five kids. We're not on Air Force One. We're on a
19:49little private jet that somebody rented for him. There's a lot more intimacy when, when it's like
19:54that. And so I told this agent who was single with no kids, I said, Hey, we're having another girl
19:59in the back of this little bitty plane. The senator had two staffers on the plane with him
20:06and Reggie Love was one of them. Reggie hears this. He just turns around and he says, Hey, Barack,
20:11Ken's having another girl. Not where I wanted the conversation to go. Well, I don't really want to
20:18have these kinds of personal conversations with any of the protectees because we're trying to
20:22keep it professional. And, and so he turns around and he says, you're having another girl, huh?
20:28And I said, yes, sir. And he said, well, how many does that make? I struggled with that for just
20:34a nanosecond because I didn't know, I didn't want to lie to him, but I didn't want to
20:39not tell him the whole truth. So I said, well, sir, that this will be number five,
20:44three boys, two girls. And he was so taken aback by that number, five kids. And he held up his hand
20:51and he said, five? Kind of forgot where I was for a second. And I said, yes, sir, five. And we're
20:55pretty sure this last one, your fault. And in my mind, I'm thinking back to being gone for three
21:01weeks and coming home and, you know, happy to be home, all that kind of stuff. And, and he was like,
21:06well, I don't know what to do with that, but as long as I'm not paying for college, congratulations.
21:11So the, the point of all that is that, that, you know, I, we didn't, I didn't have favorites
21:17necessarily, but the familiarity was different with, with each of those. And so Senator Obama
21:23gets elected president. I get promoted to go back to the president's detail at the same time. I'll
21:31never forget the first time he saw me when, when I was back and, and so big reunion, a big hug.
21:38And, you know, there's just that familiarity, whereas, you know, these other 200 people that
21:43he sees, you know, on a, on a daily or weekly basis, he, he does, there's just no frame of
21:48reference. But for me, I think it went back to that day on the plane when, when he thought I
21:54was accusing him of, of being the father of my kids. We dress for success in a little different
22:04way. And we try to, to kind of like a chameleon fit in with our environment so that the casual
22:10observer, maybe from a distance, doesn't know, is that a secret service agent or is that a high
22:15ranking department official? The special agents typically wear suits and the truth is the suits,
22:21you know, they don't help you buy those suits. So Joe Banks had a, you know, buy one, get 22 free.
22:27And so I had a bunch of Joe Banks suits for a while. The wear and tear on the suits is,
22:32is immense. I would wear holes where my gun, where the gun leather, you know, hit my hip,
22:40I would wear a hole in my pants and then in my jacket, there would be a hole where the
22:45hammer was covered. So sunglasses, if it's sunny or if you just don't want your eye gaze to be
22:50detectable, the bulletproof vest was a, was a requirement. You've got your issued sidearm
22:58and we, we fluctuated in, in caliber, maybe depending on the low bidder, I don't know,
23:02but it was, it was either a Sig or a Glock and, and a nine or a 40 back to nine. You would carry
23:10extra ammo. So at least one extra magazine, most, most agents carried at least two extra.
23:16We all carry the same gun. We all carry the same ammo so that if you are out of ammo, you can get
23:22more from, from a partner or teammate. If there's a gun on the floor, you can pick it up and use it
23:27because you've been trained on that, on that weapon. You've got handcuffs, you've got an
23:30issued extendable baton and a flashlight. And that was kind of minimal equipment. You know,
23:38everyone assigned to the president's detail had a, had some kind of cool flashlight. They didn't
23:41issue those things. So you had to buy your own. And, and so that it was another way to, to,
23:46to kind of be cool is to have the latest and greatest flashlight that you spent more than
23:50your salary on to have at your disposal in case the lights go out and, and, and we're in a pickle.
23:58A lot of times agents were encouraged to carry an IFAC kit. And so that's a, it's just a trauma
24:04kit that, you know, in case you are shot or your protectee is bleeding that you've, you've got it,
24:10you know, immediate access to first aid equipment, a tourniquet, you know, something to cover that
24:16wound and, and start that medical treatment immediately. So we also carried pagers back
24:21in the day, which, which then transitioned to a phone and a radio. You always had a radio.
24:27Some guys would carry backup batteries to radios because they didn't always work that well. I hope
24:31they got that worked out by now, but there's information that you carry with you just in case
24:36that, that, that I wouldn't be comfortable revealing. But there are diagrams and information
24:42about the president, about our plans, about our means and methods. But that's, that's about all
24:48I'm authorized to divulge there. If a Secret Service agent loses equipment, it's a big deal.
24:56You know, certainly a weapon or even a baton. Maybe the worst thing of all that, that an agent
25:04can lose is their pin. Because if you lose your pin, now someone can impersonate you just by
25:11virtue of wearing that pin. Now it won't get you access to too many places, but we protect those.
25:18We number them. If you lose one, it goes out to the entire Secret Service to say, hey, Valentine
25:26lost his blue pin number, you know, 44-221. And now it's entered into the National Criminal
25:35Information Database as a lost item if it's recovered. When agents would wobble a little bit
25:41on not blending or, or fitting in, then, then yeah, I'd call them out for it. In one specific
25:50instance, a pair of white Oakley, big, big frame sunglasses that just didn't, just didn't fit the
25:57circumstance. I went up to this agent and I said, you, you really thought long and hard about it and
26:06decided to wear those sunglasses anyway. And he said, hey, come on, man. My mom said these
26:12are pretty cool. And I said, well, that should have been your first sign that they don't work.
26:17So I don't want to see them again. There's not a lot that I'm authorized to say about the car.
26:27I know a lot of people call it the beast, but I can tell you, we did not refer to that car as the
26:32beast. I think that was a media invention that, that kind of caught on. In fact, when I was on
26:38the President's Detail, we took delivery of the first upgraded car that, that they refer to as
26:44the beast. And every car that we used prior to that time was a real car that was pulled off the
26:52line in Detroit, was, was likely sawed in half, stretched, and then armored it. In the process,
26:59the car now weighs too much for the frame. You know, the tires won't support it. The suspension
27:04won't carry it. The brakes won't stop it and the engine won't pull it. Those were not ideal.
27:08In fact, the first time I drove the President was in an old style car. I missed the, the drop-off
27:16point by about 12 feet because I'm standing on the brakes and the car won't stop. And, you know,
27:22that's just the way it was, you know, you, you needed some lead up time to get that thing rolling.
27:26And, and so it just wasn't ideal. Those upgraded cars that we've had since about 2000 are really
27:32not a car at all. It's, it's an armored system that looks like a car, much more like a tank
27:37that's got a plastic car wrapped around it. And so it's got a Cadillac dash. It's got Cadillac
27:43furnishings on the inside. It's got a nice steering wheel, but the, the workings of that car
27:48actually work. You step on the gas and that thing goes. I mean, it's got a huge engine in it.
27:53The tires support it. I mean, it, it really is quite a beast in terms of its capability,
28:00but it does have a downside and, and you know, it does not fly and it does not float. We get
28:06some really funny looks when we're in transport mode without him, because we don't have our own
28:12gas pumps. We take it to a local gas station and, and, you know, put high octane gas in that thing.
28:18And people are looking at us and, and taking pictures and getting a kick out of the fact that
28:24they think that might be the president's car getting gassed up at the, at the Chevron oil
28:29station. The only people authorized to drive that car are the presidential protective detail
28:36agents who are currently assigned to the transportation section. We've built out a
28:41program called the productive operations driving course, and it's not nothing. It's a tough course.
28:46It's a two week class that you have to pass in order to remain in that section and to be
28:53eligible to drive with the president in the car. We always travel with a mechanic.
28:59And it's one of the, one of the coolest things I thought about the president's detail.
29:04The mechanics are, are not agents. They're protective support technicians. That's their,
29:09that's their title. And we recruit them from the ranks of certified mechanics out there.
29:14And these guys are certified, GMASE certified mechanics who are also trained and carry weapons.
29:23So in their toolbox, they've got a gun, you know, they, they put the suit on,
29:27they have to qualify with the weapons. They have to requalify with the weapons,
29:31you know, all the time. And, and, and we rely on them very heavily, but they are,
29:36they are one of the greatest assets we have that people have no idea. And they're in every
29:40motorcade. So if the car breaks down, they're assessing it immediately. And, and one time we
29:45were simply driving from the air force base where we landed, taking the cars to the hotel and, and
29:52I was driving the limo and it, and it just broke down and stopped. And I called the mechanic on the
29:58radio and I said, hey, the, the car, and we got practically a motorcade with a police escort
30:06getting the cars from the airport to the hotel. And the mechanic came up and assessed and he said,
30:10hey, it's the alternator. And this mechanic had that alternator swapped out in minutes.
30:17You know, if we hadn't told anyone, no one would have known. The second inauguration of President
30:20George W. Bush and the Capitol to the White House, we rode part of the time, we walked part of the
30:25time. We would practice and rehearse being shot at, being, you know, having rocks and,
30:31and all kinds of things thrown at you. And we would practice, what are we going to do?
30:35You're there really to prevent someone from getting too close to the car. On that day,
30:40people started throwing, we, we came to a certain group of people that were,
30:44that were, you know, throwing snowballs and, and some of them have rocks in them.
30:49Someone threw a fish, I don't know if it was a goldfish or a, you know, some, something they
30:53bought at the store or what, but you know, people do stupid things out there. And I remember driving
30:59the limo for President Bush and, you know, people turn around and moon you or do, you know, do
31:04weird things, hold up crazy signs, but you know, not threatening, just kind of silly.
31:16Air Force One for me was a total joy because every time you got back to Air Force One,
31:23you knew you could relax for just a minute. You know, everyone could loosen their tie a little
31:27bit and relax. And if it was a long flight, you know, the agents could even catch a nap,
31:33could take that vest off and air out a little bit, you know, and let your hair down just a little bit.
31:38The food was outstanding as well. Funny thing was, I remember leaving the ranch
31:47kind of early on in my presidential career and thinking, I wonder what we're going to eat on
31:52the plane because we're riding from Texas back to DC and it's during a mealtime, so we're about
31:58to be treated to a pretty cool meal. And it was hot dogs and potato chips. And I remember thinking,
32:04what, you know, what the heck, man, who ordered this? Well, it turned out that's what the
32:08president wanted. So that's what everyone got. A couple of weeks after the trip, you got a bill
32:14and you had to pay for all the food that was consumed on the plane. And so they would add up
32:19all the food, everything that was consumed on a trip was weighed and measured. And they added that
32:25up, divided it by the number of people traveling on the plane and you got a bill. So that was a,
32:31that was a little bit of a shocker for me coming in, just assuming that, you know, that the G's
32:36going to take care of you and you got all this good stuff. Stairs are always a problem and an
32:42issue. And I'll tell you why. You know, you see a president stumble, you see them, you know, unsure.
32:49Well, part of it is that it's a different set of stairs getting up there almost every time,
32:54unless they're at Andrews. All of the ones that, that let the president in that upper door,
33:00the door with the presidential seal on it, the door that creates that iconic
33:05opportunity to turn around and wave to the country. The problem is those stairs are
33:13built into a truck. And so you, you have to drive a stair truck up to Air Force One,
33:18and they tend to be slippery when wet or cold. Air Force One has built in stairs, a set of rear
33:26built in stairs that, you know, you wouldn't want the president to walk up. And then it has a front
33:30set of stairs that can, can fold down. That camera shot is blocked by the motorcade, by people that
33:38are kind of clogging up that view. So Air Force One is a great way to go, but it's not the best
33:44way to go because the press plane is absolutely the best way to travel. They have so much freedom
33:50on that plane and, and so much food and it's just a lighter environment. And it's a beautiful thing
33:56because we will buy seats on that plane and the plane is only partially filled and the press
34:02knows how to have fun. I mean, they, they, they have a great time. There's a lot of laughter and
34:07you know, agents who know will choose to go over on the press plane.
34:16I was still in my mom's hospital room thinking this is going to change the rest of my life
34:22because I am branded as a former secret service agent, as a retired agent. And, you know, when,
34:29when people ask you, what do you do? And I say, oh, I, well, I'm a retired secret service agent.
34:36Now it's going to be about Butler. They don't care about the books. They don't care about the
34:40speeches. They, they don't care about the leadership training. They want to know what
34:43happened at Butler. And, and I knew standing there in my mom's hospital room that this was
34:48going to change the conversation, not this week, not for the next month or year, but for the rest
34:54of my life, it's going to be about what happened at Butler. President Trump was the sitting president
35:00for four years. He was defeated in an election and now he's coming back running again. And we,
35:06you don't typically see that. You know, when we look at protecting people, there's a lot of anger
35:12pointed toward our politicians in conjunction with the temperature of our country should have
35:17signaled to leadership that, that this is, this is a big deal. Butler's ultimate failure,
35:24in my opinion, is going to go back to leadership. Certainly we saw the secret service director come
35:29and testify and, and not give satisfactory answers to some pretty simple questions. And
35:35it goes above that to the department of Homeland Security. And I don't think we've seen anyone from
35:40the department of Homeland Security be pressed on their leadership of the secret service. And
35:46ever since secret service moved from treasury to DHS in the wake of 9-11, I think the culture of
35:52the secret service has been impacted by that move. And autonomy for the secret service means that we
35:57have the ability to innovate in the ability to lead. When you get to dictate where your protectee
36:04goes, especially given a little bit of time, you can do a whole lot to, to render that place safe.
36:11And so whether it's the president going golfing or going for a run, with a little bit of heads up,
36:17we can deploy assets and, you know, literally clear an area for them to operate in that's safe
36:24and secure. You know, a lot of people have asked me recently about the future of the secret service.
36:29And, you know, is, do you see a bright future for the secret service? And my answer is going to be
36:35yes. Every time something happens that, that makes them reassess, they will come back stronger.
36:40There's no excuse for, for error, for, for failure, but their success is going to be tied to
36:49their ability to get out of DHS and, and get back to treasury department. And then,
36:55you know, let's get us back to the time when, you know,
36:59one in 10,000 applicants was accepted for the job.
37:02So I started as a special agent in 1996 and retired in 2020. Secret service has mandatory
37:08retirement at 57. And I think it used to be 55. It got bumped to 57, but at 57, you're put to
37:14pasture and you can go do something else. You know, I think there's a lot of agents that,
37:19that their identity is so wrapped up in, in that, that whole secret service thing,
37:24or maybe that whole law enforcement thing, the badge, you know, that, that, that, that,
37:29or maybe that whole law enforcement thing, the badge, you know, is their whole identity. And,
37:34and boy, I was, I was really ready after 24 years. I, I, I let go of that pretty easily. I think I
37:42was, I was, I was ready. There is a jading that happens too. And, you know, you, you go into a
37:47restaurant and, you know, after doing it one way for 24 years, it's, that's a little hard to give
37:53up. And so my, my wife will point out if I'm being hypervigilant, you know, our surroundings about
37:58the exit doors, about, you know, who's coming in and, and, you know, looking them over and
38:04assessing what, what's going on. And that's my cue that, okay, I need to, I need to calm down or I
38:11need to, to relax a little bit. You know, I've tried to get better about that, but I think it's
38:15part of your DNA at this point. I think you, you, you've been changed. And so I, you know, I just go
38:21into scenarios and situations and given the opportunity, I do think about, well, if this
38:28breaks bad, you know, I'll sit in church and think if somebody comes in here shooting the place up,
38:35you know, what are we going to do? I'm not sure I'll ever recover from that. I'm not sure I need
38:40to, but it does change you. And it makes you a pretty formidable asset to a company or to,
38:48you know, whoever's going to hire you in the afterlife. But these days my life is,
38:54is consumed with reliving the past through leadership training and, and teaching and
38:59coaching and mentoring. And so on the side, I'm writing books and, and going out and giving
39:06speeches. But, but leadership is my focus now. The first book that I wrote was called
39:10Cheating Death, which was really a combination of letters to my kids combined with advice and
39:17then stories from the Secret Service. And the second book is really an offshoot of the first
39:22book. It's called Staying Sharp. It'll be out in February.
39:47you