Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency Secret Service Protection 20240714

It is a rare treat to have the curtain pulled back from those who were on the front lines of protecting the president and the first family. We are honored to be joined tonight by three secret Service Agents Whose Service almost approached 82 years. 22 year veteran of the secret service. Larry was honored with the u. S. Secret Service Valor Award for his role in stopping an assassination attempt on president gerald ford in september of 1975 in sacramento. Later larry served 25 years as the security chief of the United States committee. Joe clancy is with us tonight. Joe served on the protective details of residence, including president bush, or trailblazers as he wouldve called them. President bush with strobe laser. Joes nearly 30 year career culminated in 2015 when president obama named joe the 24th director of the u. S. Secret service. He was in charge. Today joe is the chief Security Officer at comcast corporation. Nick is with us tonight. He served 30 years in the secret service. Helped protect five president s, including president bush. Worked on life scale events. Did a lot of post nine of travel, including secret trips to iraq and afghanistan. You may have seen him in a documentary or two talking about being on the field at Yankee Stadium as president bush throughout the first pitch before game three of the 2001 world series. What a moment. Also pleased to have with us as moderator, spencer, the former Deputy Assistant to the president for operation in advance at the white house under president bush. In that role, he oversaw the integration of dozens of military security and operational agencies all involved in president ial travel, including the u. S. Secret service. Today he serves as a global director of Business Development for a show called inc. , in International Event production company. We had planned to have former secret Service Agent kathleen, but due to a medical issue she is unable to be here. All of us on the stage tonight wish her a speedy recovery. We are so grateful to joe, nick and larry for making a time as our former agent experts to be with us here tonight. Lets welcome them on to the stage. [applause] we have a fantastic program tonight, and some really interesting information on the secret service, how it runs at a lot of back stories that you will find fascinating. Lets get started. Joe, director clancy, i should say. As a former director of the secret service, ku at set the scene of the secret service history. Frm. Dir. Clancy it is unusual for agents to sit on stage. We are talking into our sleeves, and talking into these mics are a challenge. Because of our training, any sudden movements might create [laughter] frm. Dir. Clancy we already noticed a couple of people do not applaud when we walked in. [laughter] frm. Dir. Clancy it is a tremendous history, over 150 years. It started april 14 fifth 1865. April 14, 1865, said we had this counterfeit currency. Abraham lincoln gave him the green light president lincoln went to fords theatre. We all know happened at fords theater. We continue to do investigations as we say throughout our history. We have gone through the paper investigations. Into the digital cyber world, we are one of the best in the world at that as well. Most people think of the secret service when we think of the protection assignment. The Protection Mission when you think of the secret service. 1901. After president mckinleys assassination, that is when we started protecting president s. A couple of years later we got funding from congress. It continue to progress with taking on candidates after Robert Kennedys assassination. We started taking on heads of state, children, wives, spouses, protect these are we get into some of the as we go through the program. Cain talked about the Training Academy in maryland, and then the number of employed agents. The president ial campaign coming up, we have 24 candidates. How much manpower will that require . [laughter] frm. Dir. Clancy every Campaign Season is a challenge for the secret service. I think our history proves we have done a good job at handling that. It is a tremendous challenge for our men and women in the secret service, and to their credit, they do a marvelous job. When you look at the history of the country, most of those world events, the secret service was behind the scenes allowing those events to take place. A lot of it had to do with our training. We have a terrific Training Facility in maryland. You will see examples tonight were that training really paid off in world events. I think we have a picture of an event that happened at the white house. Tell us about that. Normally you see secret Service Agents in night suits with their ear piece in but you never see their weapons. Here is a photo of a long gun. Can you tell us about what happened here . Frm. Dir. Clancy president bush was just coming back from a visit out of town. We came back to the white house. Typically, once you get inside the gates of the white house, there is a sense of relief that you have accomplished her mission. There is a little bit of a deep breath. Just as we are pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out, you have seen it many times in a press where he will walk up to the oval office, we got over the radio that there was a fence jumper. The french jumper was over on the ease part of the complex over by the treasury building. I was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to the president and say, we have a fence jumper and we have to stand in the vehicle until we get the issue resolved. And he said, a fence jumper, where . He started looking behind him and looking through. I was kind of glad for that response. After a few seconds goes on, he cannot see the fence jumper and i am not hearing its all clear yet. Then we say we have to get into the oval office. All that time i knew the uniformed officers and the agents were going to get this individual. I was confident that we would stay in an armored vehicle. You dont know when someone jumped the fence if they are armed. Stay in the safe area. Could we have evacuated the south grounds, yes. I was confident we would get him in a matter of seconds. I open the door and let president bush out. It might be hard for you to see that, but he was smirking because he knew i was sweating through my suit. [laughter] for those of you who knows president bush he likes to run on time and does not like to wait. Larry, in 1975, you saved president fords wife. Tell us that story. I think we have a video we will show you of the attempted assassination and then you can talk them through that day. [video clip] it was midmorning in sacramento when president ford left a hotel to walk to the state capital for a meeting with governor edmund brown junior to speak to the state legislator. This was a political trip. Part of the president s campaign to lock up the republican nomination. He was shaking hands as he went along, working the crowd is politician say. And it was a friendly crowd accompanied by secret Service Agents. The president reached for every hand in sight. Suddenly, a young Woman Holding a gun appeared at the president tsai. A secret Service Agent route the gun and wrestled the young woman to the gun as other agents formed a tight protective shield around the president and moved him swiftly to the capital. [end of video clip] there you are apprehending the wouldbe assassin. Larry i should have had a haircut back in the 1970s. That is what my mother said when she heard about it. [laughter] larry i was working the shift, the morning shift. The president was scheduled to speak at the capitol. He walks out of the hotel, the motorcade was there. It was scheduled. A large crowd across the street waiting to see him. It was a nice any day in california. He goes, i think i will walk, because it was across the park in the building was right there. It caused a scramble with agents and the police china to move the crowd in the right direction to get them so that there is a pathway. The crowd is across so as he walked along he could shake hands. My position at the time was right at his left shoulder. As hes walking along shaking hands, i am concentrating on his hands, kind of in the downward motion because having anybody grabbed too long, take his watch, whatever, out in the crowd is a member of the Charlie Manson family who happen to be carrying a 45 strapped to her ankle. She was back a couple people in the crowd. As he shaking hands suddenly i see this hand, put something in it. At that time i did not know was a weapon, but i stepped in front of the president to stop the hands from coming up because i did not want him to get hit with whatever it was. The minute i hated i knew it was a gun. I yelled out, gun. One of my very best friend leaves with the president. [laughter] larry part of our training program. You are on your own, buddy. She is screaming and the crowd is screaming and i got a hold of her hand and i got the gun and i was pushing. I did not have my vest on so, i am thinking that i dont know if there is more to this than that will happen but i know i not letting go over and push her back to the crowd. The crowd is screaming shes got a gun, she screaming. I keep pushing her away. By then, the president is gone with the agents. I propper down to the ground. Some of the agents and police from the back of the crowd came forward. I noticed one of the agents from the shift and i hand him the gun and proceeds to cuff her which is happening now. What you see. Once she was cuffed i turned her over to the agency. That was from our Intelligence Division and the police went back and rejoin the ship. It was pretty fast and furious and it was a matter of seconds and you have a chance to sit back and think about how fast it went down. [applause] what it she say . Did she make any comments . Larry supposedly she was saying it did not go off. I did grab it and cut my hand. For months i cap jabbing the wound to make sure it would stay open so i could go and see this. [laughter] larry that healed way too fast. It was just a little cut. When i hit it i think i stopped the fight. She did not have a round chamber. If she did it would have gone through me and that chamber. While he back to air force one i got pulled off to remain in sacramento to be interviewed by the fbi, who takes jurisdiction once we have an attempt like that. Mrs. Ford was there was waiting, she had gone in the other direction. When he boarded the plane she turned her head and said, well, how was your day mr. President. Well, not so good. I know the country is better for your duty that day and taking care of our president. September 11, 2001 is a day that changed our country forever. Can you, nick and joe walked us through that day. Talk about the fog of that day and trying to determine who was trying to decapitate our leadership of our country, and sort of how you dealt with it throughout the day . Its one of those moments in history where everyone can pretty much identify and recall where you are that day. For some reason i had come in early that morning. I did not accompany the president. I waited for him to return. For whatever reason i went to the white house early that morning. I was actually working out and had espn on and was watching sports highlights and then i saw the first plane like everyone else. It was the second line when we realize that we were under attack. Mrs. Bush was at the u. S. Capitol at the time. It took some time to see what was happening. We wanted to get her away from the capital. We had known that there were three planes down. The plane had just hit the pentagon. As i decided to go in connect with mrs. Bush as being relocated her from the capital. As we mentioned earlier in the green room, there were about six planes that were still and identified at the time right after the plane hitting the pentagon. It was a challenging day because, the United States had not been attacked since pearl harbor. You look at the oklahoma bombing. At this case we have the president in florida who wanted to come back. You have the first lady who wanted to be teamed up with her husband. So, communication, we restricted communication because of the nature of what was happening and then the president was relocated to louisiana as everyone got to see. It took some time, the president wanted to come back. We werent sure what was happening yet. The airspace was controlled and then it was not until later on in the evening that a decision was made by the president that he was adamant that he was going to address the nation from the white house. It was at that point that we linked up the president and the first lady. What is your recollection . Frm. Dir. Clancy i was in japan with the secretary oneill. We just arrived from china to japan and that was 9 00 in the evening and i went to my room, turned on the tv and just as nick described, saw the aircraft crashing into the world trade center, went down to secretary oneill and said, i dont think he had seen it yet. We immediately try to get an aircraft that come to the states. All the aircraft were grounded. It took 24 hours to get a military flight to fly back to washington, d. C. Tell us a little bit about post9 11 with respect to the development of the department of Homeland Security and that day sort of revealed a lot of things about how we treated security and how our government ran with respect to this kind of an attack and sort of the deficiencies that were uncovered and how the department of Homeland Security came about. Frm. Dir. Clancy it developed after 9 11. At the time the secret service was under the department of the u. S. Treasury. You had other entities. You had alcohol, tobacco and firearms. He had other departments under justice. Law enforcement and the Intelligence Community were in different agencies. U. S. Coast guard was offered transportation. It was not until dhs put it all under one roof. You had all of the Law Enforcement outside of those in the department of justice. And it took some time. There were growing pains. With it, just like anything else, it was one of those moments in history when you see that the department was created. Everyone was under one roof. We were able to communicate. We were able to share a bit better than previously. It was then, how does the country move forward after such a tragic event like that. Let alone the new creation of departments and other things that the department of defense was doing. And other men and women across the whole United States that were trying to strengthen and make the homeland safe. But it was then the president and first lady, how to move and get folks moving. I remember the president saying, if he just stayed in the white house, folks in new york and washington, d. C. May not go out. Other oppressive the country were affected, but those in new york and washington, d. C. Was at home. When you talk to the folks up in new york that lived it, it was getting the country back. It was creating these movements. I think a lot of you remember there were a couple of things. If you days after the attack at the world trade center, president bush went to new york city and stood on the rebel plow and that is where the famous video where he toured the museum. You see the bullhorn were he gave the remarks from. It was that going to new york and immediately after 9 11 and really letting the American People know that we will move forward in the country and get through this. I think we have a picture of it. The bigger event was the yankees were in the world series. Mlb had debated whether they would call it off, whether they should delay,. Talked to us about that event. I think that was one of the seminal events in president bushs presidency that really unify the country. A back story prior to, the president was hosting a strategy meeting at camp david shortly after. We were departing going to camp david. I was accompanying the president on the trip. As the press was on the south grounds and the and i am not sure why, but when the president came out of the oval office, he singled me over and i was not sure if he was calling me over or if there was someone behind me. He had come over and said, guess what, we are going to the world series, Yankee Stadium. I said, what . [laughter] nick thats how he was. He just calm the whole situation down. It was a stressful time and i was in shock. We are getting ready to go to camp david and he, to everyone down by saying we are going to the world series. I forgot the yankees were in the world series. We would tease each other. As we prepared to go, new york city, we had all sources to assist. Those that get it chance to watch the espn document, you will see the behind the scenes, the stress and the buildup. Everyone in the stadium had been going through metal detectors. I think Billy Crystal was very clear, if i have to get to the world series and we have to go through metal detectors, we will do it. It was unique time. The planning was difficult. It was an extremely stressful time, you got the world series of Major League Baseball going on, but you have the president of the United States going not just to the stadium, but going to the field for the mound. That was to draw out the first pitch. The planning between new york city supports, the other federal partners made the event go slow. The planning to allow him to go out to the mound, he went all the way to the mound to throb the pitch without any security around him. All of that was possible because of the planning. Tell us a little bit about where agents were, and nick there is a photo and the baseball fans picked up right away because you had the two extra umpires. While there was an extra one. Again, just an incident with larry, you had the agents and the assassination attempt of president ford as he said, they all left him. Thats what we are trained to do. The agents respond to protect. Again, it was a unique situation. It was, just the planning that had gone on between him going to the mound, whether or not he was actually going to stay for part of the game, stay for the game, where he would sit, there was a lot that had gone in. Resources were tremendous. We had the umpires, we had sudden airspace, it was covered, we had pretty much everyone. Tremendously also by giving access and baseball player. The mound a inky stadium was probably the safest place in the world. I will me and are all the way around with different topics. Tell us a little bit about how the secret service protects the children of the first family and what goes into that and the delicacies of it and sort of how you handle that because i know it is a difficult situation. Frm. Dir. Clancy they can be because the secret service wants to protect the children, but you want to make sure they have a normal life and that is hard in this rubble. My direct exposure to that was more with mrs. Obama. I remember sitting down with mrs. Obama. This was the first time i sat down with her at length. It was all about she wanted her kids to have a normal life going to school plays, going to basketball games and so on and so forth. And i wanted to make sure she knew that we had the same goals and as kids get older and they are teenagers, it is more challenging because, note teenager wants guys like me going out on a date. [laughter] frm. Dir. Clancy that is always the balance. You want to make sure they are in a safe environment. A huge part of any successful presidency is the requirement of Foreign Policy and foreign travel. This is for the panel. Maybe joe, you can start out with thoughts. But traveling, taking the president overseas. He does not fly on a commercial playing, go up to hertz, get a car and go to his meetings. Theres a tremendous amount of planning and you would be shocked to know how many planes hold equipment and materials go overseas anytime the president travels. Youre exactly right. When the president travels overseas you are moving the white house to that country. With that, the limousines, car planes, the military aircraft. You get fit six to eight cars on these aircraft. You can fit helicopters on these aircraft. So, everything moves in this foreign country. Beyond the logistics, the challenges the advance work. Now you dont have the same authority that you have within a state. You are relying on those Foreign Countries to do what you want. Theres a lot of negotiating back and forth and nudging back and forth. Because you know what you want and what you need to have a safe environment, but we dont always get to that point. So reciprocity is a big part of that when you can take your weapons in a foreign country, or whether we can fly marine one and it would always be whether we could fly marine one. Talk a little bit about how you negotiate. Hopefully when their leader comes to the states, it is an even exchange. Because we have a good video we will show you of how their was negotiation and then and even exchange. Nick they would go out roughly 15 and sometimes 20 days depending on the nature of the vision. A lot of these leaders are coming to the United States. We hold a requirement. We will not allow the president and the first lady to be unescorted. The event seems really have to push on it. Sometimes we have to get the political folks, the ambassadors, chiefs of staff, directors of White House Advance Team to negotiate our requirements. When you get into a summit, and you will see the video later, when you get into a summit there are 30 counterparts or 20 counterparts of security. What do you do with these security folks. It is the cars, its food, its medical supplies. Its a whole white house that is actually moving, regardless of the length of time that the president is traveling. There is an entire package that goes along with this, let alone the cars. Then you have all the stairs. Then you look at the aircrafts. As joe said, marine one. You have these backup plans and you have to have medical. It is a big footprint. Its not just about the president and the first lady, it is also allowing the president to fulfill the president s duties to run the country, to govern the United States. Wherever the president is, that machine follows. We are part of that, along with the military, the medical unit so that the president can fulfill his duties as chief executive. The president can literally do anything in a foreign country that he can do at the white house. Every piece of technology, equipment, personnel and resources on a foreign trip. Lets run the video because we have an interesting video of a foreign trip that is chilly. Do you want to narrate this . Nick this was an Asian Pacific summit. It is the 30 countries that touch the pacific ocean. The president and first lady had just arrived. Prior to that they the chileans had taken the secret Service Advance agent away from the site. We had a slight delay. But at this point i thought it was ok to go, so we left. The president and first lady, we talked about it as we went. What happened was, i think back a little to allow the press to take the photograph, the first lady of chile, then the security started closing in behind the president. He now heres me yelling. [laughter] nick so, he was trained well. [laughter] nick i was fortunate because [laughter] [applause] nick it was like moses parting the water. [laughter] nick the first lady is here so she can attest. They were hitting me. I am not sure why, but in all seriousness, i actually fought for that moment. This is like a game. The security part is like its a dangerous game. We are maintaining the prize. We have the president. At that moment i actually thought today was the day. I was the only Foreign Security allowed inside. I thought that today was the day there were hitting me and no one has ever done that. Get your hands off me. I am righthanded so my weapon is on my right side and thats were they were hitting me. It was really confusing. Then the doors were closing, which was definitely a concern. As i push my way up to the stairs, the president and the first lady heard the commotion, heard the yelling. My chilean counterpart actually tried to help. But the others formed this wall. Then the president , as i said, like moses came in part of the waters and i came in. Again, the advance team, not only secret service, but the White House Advance Teamwork it out to ensure that the secret service was going to have the representatives in with the president and accompanied the president and first lady at all times. Then something broke down. And it broke down just 10 minutes prior to departure. Then we were able to get the agent back, but then if you remember, the white house staff representative, along with the secret Service Agent had took them away and put them in a room and they secured it with an officer. Now we had no one. Then when we decided we were waiting, that is when they brought the individual back. Even the last minute things change, you have these agreements and then lastminute things change. I remember the president s trip to china was for the olympics. We had to negotiate for credentials and passes and permits and vehicle placards. We were on air force one flying to beijing and that still had not been worked out. Nick one thing to add to that, its not that the United States had negative press after, its not that we want to be the rulers, we recognize, and so do our counterparts in the Foreign Countries, that the United States president , whoever the president is, brings in the highest threat. The highest threat is against the u. S. President. They recognize that. At the summits, whether its the g8, the g20, or in this case, the asiapacific, they have 30 detailed leaders. Again, the United States, and again, with support of the white house, insured that the president and first lady are never unescorted. When they come here to the United States, the secret service does play a good partner with them. They also dont bring that footprint. And you have worked many of these, the foreign governments dont come with that big machine. Spence when i mentioned reciprocity, we try to give them everything they asked for in their country. We give them when they come on their trips. Frm. Dir. Clancy you saw president bushs support coming back for nick, but there was another event where there was a state dinner planned. We notice that there were not in place at the white house in the foreign country and nobody was checking for weapons. Nick was my supervisor at the time. I said nick, my recommendation is, we dont go. We cannot vouch for 250 people unmasked. We went to the deputy chief of staff. The end result was, they scrapped the state dinner, which we never want to be in that position. There is a lot of political ramifications. It showed a support that president bush had for the security. Eventually they had a 14 on each side did the. That support was very important. Spence lets look to post presidency. Larry, you ran president fords detail. Talk to us a little bit about that and the challenges of a postpresidency without all the support that the president had when he was in office. Larry people dont understand how difficult it is to cover a former president. I have former president ford and mrs. Ford seven months in vail. Five months in vail and seven months in palm springs every year. It was very, very stressful. Much different with the former president. You want to make sure does you no longer have military planes, air force one. You have to make sure you have your American Airlines mileage card because he will spend a lot of time traveling with the former president. Traveling with them is different. You are on a public plane. President ford had a great system. He would get on the plane, flying in first class, i had to fly first then too. He would go on the inside seat, i would be on the isle, he would immediately go to sleep. People are come by. Both he and mrs. Ford were just spectacular to work for. He was great on the golf course. Thoughtful, he jokes about it. He said he was the only president that could play two golf courses simultaneously. And the jokes kept going on and on. A very gracious couple. It was a privilege to be on their detail. Spence nick, you and i had the privilege to do a couple of secret trips. Talk to us a little bit about what it takes to plan a secret trip by a sitting president to a foreign country without anybody knowing . Nick finding out on the first one there was a lot of drama. There was only a few of us that were told of it. We had gone to a room to get the briefing. I actually remember, it was a long table. There was only about five of us in a room. There were some chocolate chip cookies that were not for us. I remember mr. Hagan saying, what im about to tell you is coming from the president. The president is going to go to baghdad. Im not sure why but i just shut up and went what, and i started eating the cookies. I looked at the director and i realized i was an adult when i was supposed to have some responsibility. From that moment forward we had five days to plan for this trip. It was not just taking a sitting president into a war zone. It was secretly doing it. The white house, or any place. The ranch where we left from, its not set up to sink the president out. Especially when we did the second once at the white house. Mrs. Bush will recall the second one when the president , i went up early in the morning and he had his sunglasses and ball cap on. Melia said he was in the hallway. I took a peek and he was there i said, sir, we are ready. He said, the glasses . I went, and he said, you said we are seeking out. I dont want barney to know. I wanted to say, just get in the elevator. But in the elevator he said, nick, chill. I said i dont know if i can do any more of these because this was the second one. When you are secretly doing it, there were secret Service People we cannot share information with, let alone folks on the detail. It was and i want to know, it was a need to know. We had to safely, successfully take the president out so he could fulfill his mission. I did not want to go there. But thats not what we are all about. The president was adamant when we went there. He said we agree to three hours on the ground, which we talked about, but the president was clear that he was going to serve everythings giving meal to every soldier. It was a movie moment. Then he met with some of the leaders in the community. That was the photo you are seeing in the chow hall. But you are also not telling the military. Air force one, the kernel did an outstanding job of taking this aircraft, changed the codes, flew without the call signs and then arriving in country not only were the men and women when they saw the president , but other folks on the ground had no clue. It was a team effort, but only five days. Five days and 99. 9 of the white house staff did not know. Most of the secret Service Agents that were not on the detail did not know. Members of the president s family probably did not know. They were sneaking the president out of the white house, if any of you have been a washington you know all around the white house is everywhere. There was a lot that went into getting them out of their getting him to andrews and having the plane take off and fly all the way to iraq without another airliner passing it in the sky and saying, there goes air force one. And that has happened. Nick the first one, if you remember, we had a switch and we flew directly. I was just involved with helping him get out of the white house complex. Years later president obama win over on one of those missions and fortunately i had the experience from watching nick and the one role was that if it leaked out, we would not do all the stops. We would limit the time on the ground. It did leak out. Youre in a position or you have to make a recommendation that you know is not popular. The recommendation was, we go to the military base and there was a lot of discussion. Once again, at that point the Obama Administration had a big discussion on air force one and they were very supportive. That means a lot to the ages when you get that kind of support. On that trip, joe was a special agent in charge of president obama. We were leaving. They were planning the trip. Prior to departing and istanbul, as joe said, there were getting out and the staff was still working on the time of the trip. How much time on the ground, and the staff, again, because of their priorities and mission, were extending it. Joe was holding firm. He would not say this so i will embarrass him. Its important point because it shows the relationship. Regardless of what you read in the newspapers. The relationship of the president and first lady with the detail is tremendous. They recognize and support. In this particular case, the president had his senior advisers and was asking for the plan. What is the schedule . They were giving him we are going to do this and extend an extended. He looked at joe, president obama looked at joe, saw that he was not buying into the extended program and said, joe, which schedule do you prefer. And he said, the shorter one. The president say, thats it and walked out. The decision was made. Regardless of the senior staff he relied on joe. Spence lets talk [applause] spence here at the bush center there is a new exhibit away from the white house. Lets talk about where our president s go when they are not staying in the white house. So, lets cover their private residences and maybe a little about camp david. Start with larry . Larry we went to avail. [applause] [laughter] larry when he was in office the advance team. Sometimes two or three weeks out ahead. I was a skier, still am, i think. The advance team would have to go out for two weeks ahead of the president to avail for mountain familiarization. [laughter] larry this required us getting up at the crack of dawn to ski fresh powder and familiarize ourselves with all the runs to make sure that there was no one hiding in the trees, etc. It was a pretty interesting operation. We moved about the mountain in such a way great outfit, larry. We would move about the mountain without people being able to really trail us the way we ran our formations. We would go to the ski instructor line, go through the line, we would be up the mountain, down a run and gone. We were able to move about without interrupting the normal ski days of everyone else. It worked out pretty well. With that. What is important is, again, the first families are trying to live a normal life in this bubble. Nick president reagan, horseback rider. President bush 41. What did he not do . Boats, water. President bush, running, biking. President clinton, president bush, president obama, all the other activities. The secret service had to train agents on horseback. Its about how to extract or evacuate the president and the first lady want while they are on horseback. How about getting to them on water safety, but patrol . President george h bush, 41, i remember being in Kennebunk Port and the press would say, and comedy fish did you catch question why he said with all these boats, it scared all the fish away. Spence for those of you who may have read books about president bush 41, that boat was not a slow blow. He would drive that thing at full throttle. Todd to us a little bit about the training. We are sort of making light of it, but it is serious. They have to learn to mountain bike. President Bush Mountain biked on his ranch and he is a serious mountain biker. You have to be able to keep up. Nick before the mounting bike was the running. I hope is not listening but he averaged around a 740 pace and i was not a runner. I did not like to run. He ran a race in d. C. , made the cover of runners world and ran a 6 40 pace for three miles. At the ranch and wherever he ran, he was averaging a 7 10 pace. The agents with equipment, no vest them president bush started these heat runs. I did not know what those were and neither did he until he created it it later went to his mountain bike. You could start out thinking you are in good shape. Finishing the race with the president and you have enough energy to hopefully and successfully evacuate. You are definitely in training all the time. You had to look at formations. With 41, their home was surrounded by three sides and water. There was a Great Partnership with the coast guard and the coast guard assisted. Secret Service Agents had to prepare water, water safety, boat handling, boat safety on how to extract the president from the water. Its not just he low lift from the water. It was putting in in the boat and then bringing them to short. We had to get armored vehicles. We had to use imaginary lines. They had to divide up the Atlantic Ocean and we had mark lowery who was on detail with us and former agent in charge and dallas. We would have to move the cars and get ready to receive the president as he had to come on shore. The president would cross over this imaginary line. If you are with the first lady spent time with tranquility. They would say the president is in the zone and remove the cars. We would wait 10 minutes at most cars around again. There was training involved in your kind of disrupting the town also. All of that comes down to, as you said earlier, to training. And the success of training was a successful attempt that larry prevented. Spence lets talk about that in closing. We have a minute or two left. Its talk about how you are trained to make a splitsecond decision. Often times you just have to react. How are you trained to do that . The training that you have to do, then it comes down to the person if can you react if the time comes in the right way . Frm. Dir. Clancy i think jerry would talk about his experience. Most of you have seen the video. You look at tim mccarthy, when the first shot rang out, tim turned around and made himself big. That is not a natural instinct, to make yourself big, its usually to cover yourself. But he made himself big to protect the president. That is from repetitive training that our Training Staff would do so well. Spence this is our wrapup. Sometimes with all the greater security, the most trained personnel, the best equipment. Sometimes the president just has to take matter into his own hands. In baghdad he had to fulfill the texas to shoot to step right here. [laughter] spence he was pretty quick. This concludes our presentation. [laughter] [applause] spence this includes our panel, mrs. Bush, thank you for having us. We all felt very honored to be invited down here. We certainly think the extended bush family for all they have done for the secret service. He told some stories, but when you go to the bush library in c b in normandy of what they have done for this country, it just makes you very proud. Mrs. Bush, thank you. [applause] thank you to spence, joe, nick and larry that i told you would be informative and entertaining. Thank you all for coming. You will exit through the museum. Please take a few minutes to stop by and visit our new special exhibit, president ial retreats, way from the white house, which will be open until 8 15. Tickets are available at bush centre. Org. Our next presentation is the lecture. And june 12 with a conversation about global flashpoints. Thank you and have a good evening. [applause] begin anat would amazing experience in the development of the United States. Collect saturday, a special American History Tv Washington journal feature, as we look back to the first arrival of africans to america, 400 years ago, at Point Comfort virginia. Folke live with north State University professor cassondra Alexandra Newby for the history and origins of slavery in america. The live coverage of senatores, including mark warner, senator tim kaine, governor ralph northam, and governor fairfax. 24 onaturday, august cspans washington journal, and on American History tv on cspan3. Tonight on real america, a film from 1970 hosted by minnesota republican congressman walter judd. The film shows the activities for students for a democratic society, the black panthers, and vietnam war protesters. These are leaders of the nationwide Youth Organization that calls themselves students for a democratic society. Chapters onthan 300 the college campuses. Take the major credit for the mob actions, takeovers on University Campuses throughout the nation. We talk about socialism anywhere. I guess there is. Communists in this organization . You will see. There are communists in the organization. There are also liberals in the organization. It is going to start up again in the fall. We are going to be on the streets from now on. Capitalism with socialism. This is the National Revolutionary conference for a united front. Bringing together students for a socalled democratic society, the black panthers and other revolutionary students. At the Oakland California auditorium july 18 through 20, 1969. Underlying purpose was to further he said youth will decide the entire struggle. The student youth and workingclass youth. Watch the entire film, communists on campus at 10 p. M. Eastern. You are watching American History tv. Announcer next on American History tv, author Rebecca Roberts talks about the decade leading up to the passage of the 19th amendment and how women gained the right to vote through marching, picketing, and persistence. Ms. Roberts is the author of suffragists in washington, d. C. , the 1913 parade and the fight for the vote. The White House Historical association hosted this discussion. Stewart my name is stuart, the president of the White House Historical association. It is my privilege to welcome many of you back to the historic Decatur House and the White House Historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. Tonight is one of the annual National Heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u. S. Capitolto