is arguably the most important position in the world.

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

is an important job for the dedicated service men and women

willing to take a bullet for POTUS and to keep them

and their families safe--

for life.

But not every day is dodging bullets

from Jodie Foster fan boys.

It's a little more pedestrian than that.

Today, we're exploring what life is

like as a member of the Secret Service.

But first, before we can grant you security clearance

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

us know what government entity you

would like to hear more about.

Now, the big cat is on the move.

The big cat is on the move.

[PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

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

just like you and me, only with nuclear codes.

They enjoy kicking back and relaxing as much

as the next average Joe.

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

leisurely times, they sometimes have

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

But sometimes that works out just fine.

Take Ronald Reagan, for example--

a big fan of horses.

Yes, before there was trickle-down economics,

there was Trickle the horse.

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

loved a good jaunt on a horse too,

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

Not exactly the unsafest place in the country for a president

to be, but Barletta still had a job

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

or a temperamental horse.

In general, Reagan was known to be

pretty kind to his Secret Service agents,

and also had one of the most favorable hobbies

that a member of the Secret Service

would [? be ?] forced to participate in.

[LIGHT ROCK MUSIC]

Bill Clinton turned himself into an avid runner

during his tenure as president, which

was a real pain in the butt for Secret Service members

to keep up with.

Clinton was slow, sure, but also stubbornly refused

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

or treadmill.

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

all the crime could be, and sweeping the area

was complicated, cumbersome, and expensive.

The Secret Service also had the extra fun duty

of completing these runs while being weighed down

with heavy guns, bulky radios, and dress shoes.

Exercising for a president was surprisingly foreign up

until the '90s, but Clinton used these as

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

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

time.

With agents around the president 24/7,

they sometimes have to endure more than just

potentially dangerous situations.

They also have the distinction of getting

involved in painfully awkward ones as well.

President Lyndon Johnson, for example,

sounded like a real peach.

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

which included following traffic laws.

Johnson allegedly ordered an agent to break the law

and jump the curb when running late to an event.

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

to drive, Johnson threw a fit.

Johnson attempted to fire that safe driver the next day,

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

And he got off light.

Johnson was a randy man who enjoyed the company of women

who were not Lady Bird, and his agents

had a real fun time trying to navigate around

his affairs with women.

LBJ even chose to have one of his trysts

with his secretaries in the Oval Office,

which his wife had the misfortune to walk in on.

[WOMAN SCREAMING]

After screaming at the agents for failing to warn him

that his wife was on the way, an alarm system

was installed to prevent it from happening again,

as opposed to LBJ just not having an extramarital affair

in his office.

Presidents-- they're just like us.

They get a little moody sometimes.

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

A Secret Service Agent's Definitive Inside Account

of Protecting the President, Dan Emmett

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

When asked who his favorite president was to protect,

Dan took the fifth and refused to answer.

Each man had personal highs and lows

with good days and bad days.

Not that hard to imagine that Obama's mood might

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

candy to a very tiny child dressed

as the pope versus the day they killed bin Laden.

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

Agents who protected Richard Nixon described him as a stone

cold weirdo, with many calling him

the strangest president, though what

is that sample size, exactly?

Depressed and paranoid, Nixon--

codenamed Searchlight-- supposedly

dipped into some extremely odd behavior, including eating dog

biscuits, and less odd behavior, such as getting hammered

on Martinis during the day.

[LIGHT CHOIR MUSIC]

Jimmy Carter came into office in 1977

with four children and zero peanut farms.

His youngest daughter was only nine years old when Carter

was sworn into office, so Secret Service agents

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

States and to be baby sitters.

Good affordable child care can be so hard to find.

Amy Carter required a Secret Service escort for something

as innocuous as attending a sleepover,

often putting in overtime to do so.

When Amy wanted to go to a friend's house

instead of being brought home after school, as they were

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

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

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

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

but Jimmy had bigger things on his plate.

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

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

was and more because she was a brat who

thought it funny for her Secret Service detail

to clean up after her.

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

was slightly more nefarious.

He was recently separated, liked to party,

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

made him a gas to protect.

[ELECTRONIC HIP HOP MUSIC]

Presidents aren't the only ones under constant threat

of being assassinated.

Vice presidents require 24-hour protection too.

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

before it got too dicey--

was prone to throw parties for his service detail

and was referred to as a cop buff.

In return, his Secret Service agents

with throw parties for this cop buff, who would later

become paranoid that his new friends, paid service detail,

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

to be fair, they probably totally were.

Although generally believed to have a cordial relationship

with his service detail, Agnew didn't make himself

less of an easy target by also needing extramarital affairs

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

could only be booked if his lover's room could

be booked beside him.

Ah, and they say romance is dead.

The Secret Service was inconsistent

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

and rarely said thank you or please

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

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

for President Lyndon Johnson, who's

coming across just swimmingly here

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

on a particularly rainy day.

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

as he threw his dog outside of his Texas ranch.

Though this was not a strange demand from LBJ,

his detail did resent that there was nary a please

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

Yuki was returned to the ranch, but not before getting

the sheets all muddy, which resulted in a second

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

All of this according to Dennis McCarthy,

who detailed his time on duty serving

LBJ, whom he described as treating the guys as

hired hands.

When Hubert Humphrey asked a member of his service

detail, Chuck Vance, Vance clapped back and told Humphrey

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

he would be more obliged to walk you, sir.

Meow.

This kitty likes to scratch.

[LIGHT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Not all stories of protecting and serving

end with being riddled with bullets.

Some end with love.

Our old friend Chuck Vance protected both Vice Presidents

Humphrey and Agnew before being reassigned

to California to protect Gerald Ford after Ford left office.

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

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

secret, and sexy, and later would become

tumultuous, and not sexy.

When Betty Ford found out about the relationship,

mama was pissed and had Vance relocated.

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

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

left Betty unsettled.

Susan, who we presume was rebelling against her mother,

married Vance anyways in 1979, where

Vance would soon leave the agency

to go into private security.

The couple would divorce in 1988, meaning mom--

as per usual-- was right.

Oh, mom.

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

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

doing their job correctly, you won't even

notice they're there.

Because of this, agents often blended into the background

and became a witness to some of the more vulnerable moments

in a president's day-to-day life.

They're silent observers.

Dennis McCarthy recalled President Nixon

weeping when the Watergate scandal that would bring down

his presidency began.

Agents were also witnesses to affairs, drug use,

and drinking, slightly disconcerting things

to hear about men with the nuclear codes.

But because agents' presence were so common,

presidents didn't give it a second thought.

How comforting.

Much like anything worth protecting, guarding

the president wasn't always easy,

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

job any easier by participating in reckless behavior.

Famous playboy JFK also kept it interesting for his security

detail.

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

According to the agent Ronald Kessler in the book

In The President's Secret Service--

Behind the Scenes with the Agents in the Line of Fire

and the Presidents They Protect-- geez,

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

Kennedy was entertaining two women

when it was discovered Jackie O was coming home early.

Kennedy hopped out of the pool and gave

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

It's quite good.