Former Secret Service Agent Reviews Presidential Films, from 'Air Force One' to 'VEEP' | Vanity Fair

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- So I think the best way to sum up
being a Secret Service agent,
it's prolonged periods of boredom
only broken up by moments of sheer terror.
[light music]
Hello, my name is Jonathan Wackrow,
and I'm a former United States Secret Service agent.
I spent 14 years in the agency, and 4 1/2 years
assigned to the presidential protection division
during the Obama administration.
Today we will be reviewing scenes
featuring the president's Secret Service detail
in TV and film.
This is "Air Force One" directed by Wolfgang Peterson.
Seeing Air Force one in person for the very first time
is very majestic.
Literally takes your breath away.
The entire construct around the plane
has a different sense of importance
than your regular aircraft.
They actually represent it and capture the moment very well.
The reason why the plane has such distinctive markings
and is so obvious is because of the mission that it serves.
The Secret Service understands security concerns
that go along with it
and it's built into the overarching security plan.
- Gentlemen, welcome to Air Force One.
Please present your equipment for inspection.
- We were just inspected at the gate.
Sir, this plane carries the president of the United States.
- I understand.
I'm terribly sorry.
- Please place your thumb on the ID pad.
- Looking at the boarding procedures,
what they got right is the organized structure.
There are a lot of moving parts around Air Force One
just prior to departure, but it's not chaotic.
It's very organized.
What is off on this is actually who does it.
The Secret Service does not protect the plane itself.
That's a responsibility that falls upon the Air Force.
The Secret Service is responsible
for the overall security of the airport site.
As we saw on the clip, one of the passengers put their thumb
on an ID pad to gain access.
This was actually cutting edge at that time.
Since then technology has evolved
and has expanded the level of access control
to further protect that plane.
- Hello there, I'm Melanie Mitchell, deputy press secretary.
I'll be taking you in from here.
- Miss Mitchell,
it is so nice to finally meet you in person.
- The president and I were delighted
we could accommodate your news crew.
- So in my experience, I never wanna say never,
but I think it's highly unlikely
that you would see a foreign news crew,
absent of a foreign head of state on the aircraft
at the same time that the president is on board.
- If you'd like, I think we have time for a quick tour.
- [Jonathan] The press do reside
in the back of the aircraft,
and there is a separate cabin for Secret Service,
and the security detail.
- Secret service right here.
Never try to go past them without an escort
or you'll be very sorry.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Moving forward in the aircraft, you get into staff,
senior staff, and then the president's cabin.
- He could run the whole country from here,
or even a war if we had to.
- What is a little anomalous here is the fact that,
so close to the president's arrival,
White House staff would be showing foreign press around.
- Yes.
- The president's arriving.
They should all take their seats, right away.
- I'll get out of here and let you all get some sleep.
- The president is essentially going to be
one of the last people on the plane,
and when he gets on, that door shuts, and that plane moves.
[crowd chattering]
- Mr. President, welcome aboard, sir.
- I was stunned at how fast the plane took off
during my first trip.
I was actually still standing
and we were rolling down the runway.
You don't want that aircraft to become a target
on the ground.
So the point is, once the president is on board
that aircraft it is moving immediately.
- Mr. President.
- Mr. President.
- Change in plan, Danny.
Let's go to Barbados.
- Anything you want.
You're the president.
- My very first time aboard Air Force One,
the moment that I got on board,
you just knew that it was a different aircraft.
The flight crew was different.
You knew that this wasn't just a flight crew from Delta.
These were trained professionals that were there
to serve the president of the United States.
And the food was fantastic.
Skipping ahead in the movie, we see an agent
assigned to the president's detail
actually revealing himself as a rogue agent.
The look of the Secret Service agent portrayed in the film
is spot-on.
You always have your jacket on, tie on.
You never know when you may confront either senior staff
or the president,
so you want to have a professional appearance at all times.
The only change that you may actually have
is a change in jacket.
Sort of the rule of thumb though, is if the president
is not wearing a jacket, you are not gonna wear a jacket.
We wanna blend into the environment as much as possible.
So it's easier just to mimic what the president is doing
at that moment.
[suspenseful music]
We also see the rogue agent accessing a cache of weapons
behind a security wall.
What I can say is that this type of weapon system,
or armament onboard the aircraft, would be safeguarded
by an agent at all times.
Beyond that, there's really not much more
that I would wanna talk about.
I only will talk about things that are already out there
in the public domain.
This is "Dave" directed by Ivan Reitman.
In this scene, we see Dave, the president's decoy,
talking to a member of the president's detail.
- How long has that been going on?
- I can't say.
- You mean you don't know, or you can't say?
- I can't say.
- At the White House, the president has access
to his own private kitchen within the residence,
as we see here, but then also the presidential food service.
Quick answer is the president can get anything he wants
at any time.
The Secret Service tends to try to give as much privacy
as possible to the president while he's in the residence.
So while we know where he is at all times,
it may not be representative like this scene here
where an agent is standing next to the president
while they're making their meal.
- So your job is to protect the president all the time.
That's that's your whole job, right?
- Yes.
- The president's day is bifurcated
into official duties and private time.
So while the president may be in a relaxed demeanor,
you still have to remain on point
and focused on your job at hand.
And that's why in this scene,
we see the Secret Service agent maintaining his decorum
throughout the entire scene.
He's staying professional and focused
on what he needs to do.
If the president was to ever sit down and offer you food,
most agents that I know would respectfully decline.
- You have a gun?
- Yes.
- Ever use it?
- Not yet.
- A very common question to get.
I thought the agent's response was a little bit cute
which he said, "Not yet" indicating that Dave was
starting to encroach on some some questions
that that agent didn't wanna answer.
If this was the president, the actual president,
asking questions, you have to answer them truthfully.
But again, you have to understand what is the context
of the questioning.
Even though we have top secret clearance,
you actually can't divulge things even to the president
that are compartmentalized information.
- You know what I've always wondered about you guys,
where they say that you'd take a bullet for the president.
- What about it?
- Is that really true?
I mean, would you let yourself be killed to save his life?
- Certainly.
- So that means now you'd get killed for me, too?
- They're protecting the office of the presidency.
So it's something greater than the individual.
And I think that's the point that the agent at the very end
realized that this isn't about protecting Dave the decoy,
or stopping a bullet for Dave the decoy,
this is about the sanctity and protecting the office
of the presidency.
This film is "Angel Has Fallen" directed by Ric Roman Waugh.
We see the president being attacked by drones
while he is fishing on a lake.
[drones whining]
- Drones!
They're drones!
- Come with me, sir!
- [Agent on radio] Art, get him under the ballistic
hard cover and keep him down!
I'm on my way!
- So every president is going to have their own hobbies,
and each one of those hobbies is gonna present
a very unique challenge for the Secret Service.
It doesn't matter what the activity is,
you have to build that methodology around it.
[men shouting]
[drones whining]
[electronic beeping]
- [Agent on radio] [indistinct] Engage, engage!
[guns firing]
[intense music]
- Don't move, don't move!
They're tracking you somehow.
- We see the president with one Secret Service agent
in a single boat in the middle of the lake.
This is something that's really anomalous.
You wouldn't see.
You would have the president with the security detail
on one boat, but then you'd also have a chase boat
with additional detail members on it,
as well as military and medical personnel.
Again, you're taking that environment that's established
around the president and just putting it onto the water.
- [Mike] Just hold still and keep him covered.
I'm coming to you!
[guns firing]
- One of the reasons why I actually like this scene
is because it actually represents a bonafide threat.
We have seen recently occurrences overseas in Syria
where drones have been utilized
and weaponized to attack over the horizon.
So this scene really does represent
what a potential threat could be.
There's a lot of technologies that are emerging today,
in addition to drones, that really worry
not only the Secret Service, but law enforcement in general.
If you think about utilizing AI, machine learning,
anything with deep fakes, videos.
How do you create disinformation?
How do you tap into communication systems?
- [Mike] They're coming at you, boss.
Get him in the water!
The hard cover isn't enough!
- What about you? - Go!
[drones whining] [boat exploding]
- What's wrong with it is the fact
that that type of attack could even occur.
The Secret Service controls the environment
that they operate in.
What the viewer sees is the president in the lake,
and the Secret Service on the shoreline.
That's actually not how protection works.
It's a concentric ring of protection
that goes out from the protectee.
And why that's important for this scene is
that the drones came from a launcher,
and the launcher was in fairly close proximity
to the site of the president.
That would have been picked up by the Secret Service.
And so when you think about a methodology,
and why it's so successful, it's because it's systematic,
and it constantly proves itself correct time and time again,
even with emerging technology such as this drone attack.
- Hey Hannah, where's Megan?
- She's with Mr. Soneji.
- This is "Along Came a Spider" directed by Lee Tamahori.
In this scene, we see the president's daughter kidnapped
while she's at school.
- Control, I'm en route to Soneji's classroom.
- One of the agents speaking back to the command post
which I think they called the control,
the microphone's actually connected to the watch.
So anytime you see a Secret Service agent
speaking into their wrist or their jacket,
or even sometimes you'll see them putting their finger
to their ear, it's all part of the communication device.
So it's wherever the microphone is most comfortable.
[intense music]
[knocking at door]
- Mr. Soneji, Secret Service, open up.
Mr. Soneji!
Do you have a key?
- There's a lot that that is wrong.
First and foremost, the fact that a protectee is so far away
from the Secret Service is never gonna happen.
Second of all, the fact that a protectee
is behind a locked door
that the Secret Service doesn't have access to.
Third, and I think that the most egregious thing is,
you'll never have a Secret Service agent ask somebody,
"Hey, have you seen where my protectee is?"
I think that that is grounds for termination
almost immediately.
There's a big difference between a security structure
that's set up for the president
and one that's set up for the president's children,
especially younger children that may be in school.
But the protective methodology doesn't change.
- Control, shut down, stop all vehicles,
lock on Soneji and Rose.
- So in modern times this is a threat,
but Secret Service has spent a considerable amount of time
planning for these scenarios.
So whether it was the Bush girls going to college,
Sasha and Malia being able to go to school
in Washington, D.C., you build a structure
that blends into the school environment
where you're still protecting that individual
360 degrees in all directions, at all times.
Here, we saw a complete departure from that.
How do you control the anxiety of a child of the president
so that they're not always fearful
that they're gonna be kidnapped or harmed?
And actually what you have to do is tell them
about those threats, have a little bit more transparency
with them so that they understand and are reassured
that even though there are these threats out there,
you are there, and the security structure is there,
and the process is there to mitigate that.
- We will have a procession.
And I will walk to the cathedral with the casket.
- This is "Jackie" directed by Pablo Larrain.
- Even if we could resume the arrangements,
I'm sure you can understand
the Secret Service still has their concerns.
- [Jackie] And President Johnson?
- President Johnson would like nothing more
than to fulfill your wishes,
but I have to take into account his safety.
- In this scene we see former First Lady Jackie Kennedy
discussing security details
before the funeral of then-president John F. Kennedy.
- He would do anything that might bring you comfort.
- And who is it up to, Mr. Valenti?
- Oftentimes it's said that Secret Service policies
are born out of blood, and the tragic loss
of John F. Kennedy is a clear example of that.
Agents learn very early on in their training
about the different failures that occurred on that day.
And for that reason we see the president
constantly traveling in not only a closed-top vehicle,
but now that vehicle is completely and fully armored.
- [Valenti] Well, as I'm sure, you know,
tomorrow we're expecting close to 100 heads of state.
- 103.
- Yes, I'm sure that's right.
And I suspect they'll make all their own decisions.
- [Jackie] Based on what?
- There's a great deal of classified intelligence
that I just can't get into.
We've intercepted a threat against General de Gaulle
from our assets in Geneva.
I'm afraid of he refuses to march, others may follow.
- The question is what is the balance
of exposure and security?
And there's always a fine balance between the two.
This instance, the first lady felt that it was necessary
to bring closure to this traumatic situation,
for her to walk with the casket.
Obviously, that represents a significant security challenge,
but the Secret Service doesn't dictate the behavior
of the protectees.
We build a security structure around that behavior.
So typically there's no final call made by one individual
to dictate a security procedure.
What it is, it's both sides coming to an agreement.
If it was up to the White House staff
they would have the president standing
in the middle of a crowd
of 100,000 people with everybody around him.
It was up to the Secret Service,
we'd have the president in a big steel box
with a little vent for air.
There's a big difference,
and how do we come to an agreement?
Well, that's negotiation.
- Mr. Valenti, would you mind getting a message
to all our funeral guests when they land?
- Of course.
- Inform them that I will walk with Jack tomorrow,
alone if necessary, and tell General de Gaulle
that if he wishes to ride in an armored car,
or in a tank, for that matter, I won't blame him.
And I'm sure the tens of millions of people watching
won't either.
- [Valenti] Why are you doing this Mrs. Kennedy?
- I'm just doing my job.
- So as we know historically, the former first lady
did walk in the funeral procession publicly outside.
I think in this instance, the first lady was smart.
She stuck to her own conviction.
She knew what was best for not only her, her children,
but the nation, as it tried to heal.
This is "The American President" directed by Rob Reiner.
Here, we see the president of the United States
requesting an impromptu stop at a flower shop.
- Look, look, there it is, Carmen's House of Flowers.
Hey, Coop, we gotta stop.
- [Coop] What?
- I gotta get her some flowers.
- Here? - Now?
- Well, that's what men do when they break a date.
- That's not what men do.
I know no men who do that.
- Hey Coop, I'm gonna hop out at the flower shop.
- You're gonna hop out, sir?
- No, he's not hopping.
No, no hopping, sir.
- The president would often call his agents by their name.
In this instance, calling him Coop
is a good representation of that relationship.
The lead agent is the head of the detail.
So the entire structure builds out from that one individual.
The detail leader would be traveling directly
with the president.
[siren wailing]
- [Coop] Stay in the car, I'll get the flowers.
- [Andrew] Then it's not gonna be personal.
- There's a very large motorcade.
And the question always arises.
How many vehicles are in that motorcade?
It varies.
It varies upon location.
Actually in Washington, D.C.,
you're gonna see probably one of the smallest motorcades
where if the president's traveling to a campaign stop
that motorcade could expand out significantly.
- Do a security suite, we don't know who's in there.
- You think there's a florist in there
planning an assassination on the off chance
I might be stopping by?
- It's possible.
- The president says what are the odds of somebody
launching an attack in that flower shop.
I'll give them partial credit for that.
However, you don't know what's on the other side
of that door.
So that could be somebody that hates the president,
that has great animosity,
that is engaged in criminal activity.
You just don't know.
So eliminating the unknown is something that is critical
for the Secret Service.
- Excuse me.
- No girl, at the game.
I'm telling you, Kiki wasn't even there.
- Excuse me.
- Hold on.
I will be right with you.
- Hey, I don't know if you're the one
that I talked to on the phone.
Virginia, dogwood, president.
Does any of this ring a...
[body thudding]
- So at the time that this movie was made,
which was really pre-9/11, there is a likelihood
that this could have occurred.
In today's environment, what you see here
is what's referred to as an off-the-record movement.
These types of things rarely occur, if any.
I have never experienced a true off-the-record movement
which was not choreographed.
Again, the threat environment is such
that you can't take any chances
and you have to control every environment
that the president goes into.
This is an episode of "Veep" directed by Tristam Shapiro.
- I think we should just go for it.
I think we should just fine the fuckers
'til the fuckers aren't fine.
[agent chuckling]
- This is a great scene.
I love it because it does represent the shock, sometimes,
that protectees have to realize that Secret Service agents
are actually human.
They have some sort of emotion.
I think that the vice president's reaction here
is a little bit overboard.
I've seen the president make a joke, and agents laugh.
I've actually laughed at something the first lady said,
and then in turn, they started teasing me about something.
So as long as it's something that's measured,
that doesn't have a material impact on the moment,
then I think it's appropriate.
- That was totally inappropriate.
- Inappropriate. - Inappropriate.
That's not the first time that that's happened,
by the way.
He's not supposed to register emotion.
He's supposed to be like a robot geisha.
- I have heard Secret Service agents be described
in many different ways, never as a robot geisha.
So that actually is a first.
You may find this surprising, but I actually think
that "Veep" really represents the organized,
I don't want to say chaos,
but a structure that is a hurry-up offense constantly
for any administration.
A great representation of the security structure
that I've discussed today can actually be seen
during the upcoming inauguration.
During the inaugural parade, you can actually see
many layers of the concentric rings of protection.
There's a lot of things that you will see,
and there's a lot more things that you will not see.
I challenge you to take a look
and see how many you can identify.