Program that is informative and highly entertaining. These guys know how to tell a story, and it is a rare treat to have the curtain pulled back by the people that protect the president and the first lady. There is three former secret Service Agents. His role in stopping an assassination attempt. It was the security chief with the United States olympic committee. Joe clancy is with us tonight. He served for president bush, or trailblazer, mrs. Bush was tempo. His nearly 30 year career culminated in 2015 when president obama named joe the 24th director of the u. S. Secret service. So he was in charge. Today he is the chief Security Officer at comcast corporation. Nick trotta is here. They worked on large scale events like leader summits. Post 9 11 travel including trips to iraq and afghanistan that you will hear about tonight. He was in Yankee Stadium as president bush through out the first pitch before game three in the world series. Also tonight, spencer geissinger. He was under advance and operations. He oversaw dozens of military and Security Military agencies and travel including the u. S. Secret service. Now he is the global director for show call inc. We planned to have former secret Service Agent kathleen flatley. Because of a medical reason she is not able to be here tonight and we are wishing her a speedy recovery. Let us welcome them to the stage. Thank you all. We have a fantastic program tonight and really interesting information on the secret service and how it runs and a lot of bang stories that you will find fascinating. So lets get started. As a former director, can you set the scene with the history of the secret service. That is correct. First i have to just say it is a little unusual for agents on stage, were usually got stage left and stage right, i just also want to give you a warning that because of our training any sudden movements might create we already noticed a couple people didnt applaud when we walked in. But the history of the secret service sf a tremendous history. It started on april 14th. There is a lot of count erfeit currency, and they went in and said we have a rampant counterfeit currency and we have to do something about it. And you had his orders, and that night, he went to fords theater to take in a play, our american cousin and we all know what happened. From there we continued to do investigations. From the counterfeit currency, to the plastic, we still do, and into the digital cyber world. We are one of the best in the world at that as well, but most people think of secret service for the protection mission. And in 1901, we started to protect president s. And it just continued to progress after taking on candidates and we started to take on heads of state to children, wives, spouses, and we will get into some of that. Can you take a little about the training economy and then the total number of agents . For example this campaign, the president ial campaign coming up we have 24 candidates. How much manpower is that going to require. It is a considerable channel. But i think our history proves that we have done a good job handling that. But it is a tremendous challe e challenge. When you look at the history of the country, most of those world events, the secret service was allowing those to take place. A lot of those have to do with training. And that training paid off in world events. I think we have a picture that happened of a world event at the white house. Tell us a little bit about that. Normally you see secret Service Agents in nice suits. Here is a photo of a long gun that is out. I remember president busch had, just coming back from a visit, once you get in the gates of the white house, there is a little sense of relief that you accomplished your mission. Just as were pulling up to the oval office area, he will walk up to the oval office and we get over the radio that we have a fence jumper. I was in the right front seat of the limb seen, i said we have a fence jump eer and well have to sit here for a few minutes until we get this resolved. And he said where, and he started looking behind him, and looking through, and i was kind of glad for that response. And then after a few seconds goes on, you cant see the fence jumper and im not it took about three minutes, but i knew the officers, the agents, they would get this person and you dont know are they armed, what do they have, could we have evacuated . Yes, but i was confidence that we would get him in a matter of seconds and then i opened the door and let president bush out. And i know from the event that he is smirking because he knew i was sweating through my suit. In 1975, you saved president fords life. Tell us that story. I think we have a video to show you of the assassination attempt. And we can talk you through that day. It was midmorning when president ford went ford they are looking at the republican nomination. He was shaking hands working the crowd as poll suggestions sitic. It was a friendly crowd. He reached for every hand in sight. A young Woman Holding a gun they wrestled the young woman to the ground and moved him swiftly to the capitol. There you are apprehending the would be assassin. I should have had a haircut. At least that is what my mother said when she heard about it. And i was working the shift, the morning shift, and the president was scheduled to speak at the capital. The motorcade is there as scheduled. A large crowd across the street, so he walkedous and he goes i think ill walk. It is just across the park. So that immediately causes a scramble with aelgts and police and trying to move through so get him. My position at the time was right at his left shoulder. So as he is walking along shaking hands, im concentrating on his hands in a downward motion. Dont want anyone to grab too long or take his watch or whatever. Im looking down. Out in the crowd is a member of the Charlie Manson family, who had aa. 45 strapped to her ankl. I saw a hand come up with something in it, and i didnt know at that time. And the minute i hit it i knew it was a gun i yelled out gun. All of my very best friends with the president leave, with the president. Part of the training program, youre on your own, buddy. So she is screaming and the crowd is screaming, and i got the gun here. And i didnt have my vest on, so im thinking i dont know if there is more to this that is going to happen, but i know im not letting go of her, the crowd is screaming, he has a gun, he has a girl, she is screaming. I keep pushing her away and the president is gone with the agents. I drop her down to the ground. Some of the agents and the police from the back of the crowd came forward. And once she was cuffed, and the police, and i went back and rejoined the shift, and i was pretty fast and curious and i sat back to think about how fast it went down. What did she say when you did she make any comments she said it didnt go off, but when i hit the 45, i cupped my hand, and i said you see this. It healed way too fast, it was just a little cut, but i think she might have been pulling back, i think i hit the slide. An interesting thing when we got back to air force one and i got pulled off to be interviewed by the fbi, who takes jurisdiction once we have an attempt like that, and mrs. Ford was there. When he boarded the plane, he sa she said how was your day, and he said not so good. It is a day that changed our country forever, can you walk us through that day. And they were trying to determine who was trying to decap tkacap yeah, many people can remember where they were that day, the president , i didnt accompany him. And i had espn on, and i was watching whatever sports highlights and i saw the first plane just like everyone else. And it was the second one when we realized that we were under attack. Mrs. Bush was at the u. S. Capitol at the time. So there was a it took some time to see what was happening. We wanted to get her away from the capitol. We had known there was three planes down. The pentagon the plane had just hit the pentagon, and as i decided to go and connect with mrs. Bush has we relocated her from the capital, and as i mentioned earlier there was about six planes that were still unidentified at the time after the plane hitting the pentagon. It was a challenging day because the yiegts had not been attacked we had the president in florida that wanted to come back. The first lady to be teamed up with her and so communication we restricted communication because of the nature of what was happening. And 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 air space was controlled, and then it wasnt until later on in the evening that the decision was made by the president that he was adamant that he was going to address the nation from the white house. And then it was at that point that we linked up the president and the first lady. Joe, what is your recollection of that day . I was actually in japan, and with the secretary of treasury oneal, and we had just arrived from china to japan, and it was 9 00 in the evening. I said, good night, mr. Secretary, went to my room, turned on the tv and, just as nick described, saw the airplane crashing into the World Trade Center and i went down to secretary oneal, and i said, i dont think that he had seen it just yet, and we immediately tried to get an aircraft back home to the states, but as we know that all of the aircraft were grounded, so it took almost 24 hours to get a military flight to fly back to washington, d. C. Tell us a little bit about post9 11 with the development of Homeland Security and sort of 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 sort of how the department of Homeland Security came about. Sure. Again, it had developed after 9 11 and, you know, at the time the secret service was under the department of the u. S. Treasury, you had other entities, and you had alcohol, tobacco and firearms under treasury and other departments under justice. And so Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Community were, you know, in different agencies and the u. S. Coast guard was under transportation. So it wasnt until dhs that put it all under one roof. So where you had all of the Law Enforcement outside of those inside of the department of justice, and so you had this and it took some time, and growing pains with it just like, you know, anything else. But, you know, it is one of those moments in history when you can see that the department was created and everybody was under one roof. We were able to communicate. We were able to share, lets say, a little bit better than previous. And then it was getting it was, as you mentioned earlier, it was then how does the country move forward . Right. After such a tragic event like that, let alone the new creation of departments and other things that the department of defense were 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 the folks moving. Because i remember the president saying if he just stayed in the white house, folks in new york and d. C. May not go out. The other parts of the country were affected, but those in new york and d. C. , you know, it was right here at home. And when you talk to the folks, you know, up in new york that lived it, it was getting the country back. So then it was creating the movements. Yeah. So i think a lot of you will remember a few days after there were a couple of things. A few days after the attack at the World Trade Center, president bush actually went to new york city and stood on the rubble pile. And thats where the famous video, if you toured the museum, you see the bullhorn that he actually gave those remarks from. So it was that, going to new york immediately after 9 11, letting the American People know that we will move forward as a country and we will get through this. And an even bigger event, and Bigger Picture of it, the yankees were in the world series and the mlb had wondered whether to call it off or delay it. And so talk to us about that event, because this is one of the seminole events that brought together the country. Yes, and if you can remember, he was holding a strategy meeting at camp david shortly thereafter and we were departing, and i was accompanying the president on the trip. And as the president was marine one was on the south grounds, and the press were on the south grounds of the white house, and not sure why, but the president when he came out of the oval office, instead of going directly to marine one, he kind of signaled me over. And i wasnt sure if he was calling me over or if there was someone behind me. And i didnt want to turn around because of all the press. Well, he had come over and he said guess what, were going to the world series, Yankee Stadium. And i went what . But thats how he was. He brought everyone he just calmed the whole situation down. You know, it was a stressful period. And i was in shock. I mean, we are getting ready to go to camp david and he calmed everybody down, nicky, we are going to Yankee Stadium to the world series. And i forgot the yankees were in the world series. And we would tease each other, as being a big yankee fan. But as we were preparing to go, new york city i mean, we had all forces to assist, all the resources, and those that get a chance to watch the espn documentary will see, you know, just the behindthescenes stress and the buildup, and everyone in the stadium, you know, had gone through metal detectors. I think Billy Crystal was already clear, hey, if i have to get to the world series and we have to go through metal detectors, were going to do it. Yeah. It was a unique time. The planning was, you know, it was difficult, because were it was an extremely stressful period. You have the world series and Major League Baseball going on. But you have the president of the United States goi ining nott to the stadium but going to the field, to the mound to throw out the first pitch. So it was the planning between new york city support, the other federal partners, made the event extremely go forward. And the planning to allow him to go out to mound if you saw him, and if you saw the video, and he went from the mound all of the way to the rubber on the mound to throw out the pitch without any security right around him. And all of that was possible because of the planning. Tell us a little bit about where agents were and yeah. So we had theres a photo, and the baseball fans picked up right away on it. During the world series and playoffs you have the two extra umpires. Well, there was an extra one. An extra extra one. But again, just in the incident with larry, and you had the agents in the assassination attempt of president ford. As he said they all left him. Thats what were trained to do. The agents are to respond to get the protectant out of the way. And here, again, unique situation. It was a just a the planning that had gone in between him going to the mound, whether or not he was actually going to, you know, stay for part of the game, stay for the game, where he would sit. So there was a lot that had gone in. We had excellent support. The resources were tremendous. We had the umpires. We had the air space, of course, was covered. We had pretty much everyone in media assist us tremendously also by giving access and baseball played a big part. The mound at Yankee Stadium was probably the safest place in the world. Safest place in the world. Joe, will you talk to us im going to segue and meander around with all different topics. Tell us a little bit about how secret service protects the children of the first family and sort of what goes into that and the delicacies of, that and sort of how you handle that, because i know that it is a difficult situation sometimes. It can be, because the secret service of course wants to protect the children, but you also want to make sure they have, as best as possible, a normal life. And thats very hard when youre in this bubble, and i realize that. My direct exposure of that was more with mrs. Obama. And i remember sitting down with mrs. Obama. It was really the first time i sat down with her at length, and it was all about mrs. Obama wanted her kids to have a normal life, going to school plays, going to school, going to basketball games and so on and so forth. And i wanted to make sure she knew we had the same goals. And as kids get older, you know, in their teen years, its more challenging. As can you imagine, no teenager wants guys like me looking like coming out on a date, you know. [ laughter ] so thats always the balance and you try to do the best you can, but you want to make sure theyre in a safe environment. Great. A huge part of any successful presidency requires Foreign Policy and foreign travel. Can you and this is for the panel. Maybe, joe, you can start out with some thoughts on it, but traveling, taking the president overse overseas, he doesnt fly on a commercial plane and go up to hertz and get a car and go off to his meetings. Theres a tremendous amount of planning, and its staggering. And you would be shocked to know how many planes full of equipment and materials go overseas any time the president travels, but can you talk to us about that . Youre exactly right, spence. Its really moving the white house. When the president travels overseas, were moving the white house. And with that, the limousines on these planes that you see on the cargo planes, you can fit six to eight cars on the aircraft. And you can fit helicopters on the aircraft. So, everything moves in this foreign country, but one of the biggest, and beyond the logistics, the biggest challenge is the advance work, because you dont have the same authority that you have within the states, and you are relying on the Foreign Countries to do what you want, and there is a lot of negotiating back and forth and a lot of 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. And so reciprocity is a big part of it when youre negotiating whether you c