Julian Dorey Podcast - #228 - Inside Obama's 2009-2014 White House w/ Secret Service Agent | Mark Brandenburg

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

MY PREVIOUS EPISODE w/ MARK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5HsyOGhwKECTN7jqvcvB1M?si=zrAjWAd9RfWJLUMlGAKfJw  (***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Mark Brandenburg is an ACTIVE Secret Service Presidential Protection Agent. For the past 23 years, Mark has protected Sitting-Presidents, Former Presidents & World Leaders. From 2009 - 2014, he was assigned to President Barack Obama’s White House Detail. BUY MARK’S BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fence-Jumper-Mark-J-Brandenburg/dp/1646638964  EPISODE LINKS - Julian Dorey PODCAST MERCH: https://juliandorey.myshopify.com/  - Support our Show on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey   - BUY Guest’s Books & Films IN MY AMAZON STORE: https://amzn.to/3RPu952   - Tommy G Trump Attempt Investigation: https://youtu.be/WtCR3wqj4kY?si=p-VN2Y0OlV6HbfL5  MARK LINKS - INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/mbrandenburg34/?hl=en  FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY INSTAGRAM (Podcast): https://www.instagram.com/juliandoreypodcast/  INSTAGRAM (Personal): https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/  X: https://twitter.com/julianddorey JULIAN YT CHANNELS - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips   - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily    - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP   Get $150 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover (USING CODE: “JULIANDOREY”): https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier ****TIMESTAMPS**** 0:00 - Obama’s Secret Service Detail, Funny Story w/ Obama, JD Vance Detail 5:35 - Repremanding Protectees; Secret Service Breakdowns 12:59 - Protecting Obama & kids during Presidency; Inside White House Protection Details 24:12 - How Secret Service Travels w/ Presidents; 5 Years w/ Obama 27:57 - Secret Service Code of Silence; Obama Hosts Mark’s family 35:06 - The Intense Secruity for Obama’s Kabul Trip; Secret Service War Zone Protection ] 44:41 - Chinook w/ Navy SEALs; Spec Ops Guys; Andrew Bustamante makes fun of Julian 50:20 - Secret Service War Zone housing; Mark’s Current Work at Secret Service 58:16 - Trump CREDITS: - Host, Producer, and Editor: Julian Dorey - In-Studio Producer: Alessi Allaman - https://www.instagram.com/allaman.docyou/ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 228 - Mark Brandenburg (PART 2) Music by Artlist.io Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And also he became at that point, he's super recognized. Even today, if Obama walked into the room, he's just one of those people you recognize like that all over the world. He's one of the top three most recognizable faces in the world. Easily. Maybe the most recognized outside of Trump. Yeah, exactly. And that makes a big big difference too because it's one thing i've been with protectees at times where they're in the public trying to be somewhat normal and they can kind of blend in yeah you know they can put a ball cap on or something blend in trump and obama are not doing that ever um those

days are over so uh you want to be present, that sometimes will happen. If you become an icon, then you're going to lose some anonymity. Oh, that's funny. So you're called in, though. You're one of the guys called in because you're working in the Chicago field office to protect him during this run. Well, I did mostly. A lot of times when I did it, I wasn't with him on the road. But when he came to district, at that time, he came to Chicago a lot. They lived on the south side of Chicago. And really nice neighborhood. And we took over,

you know, we had the, now the house is being, getting 24-7 protection. So every time he, when he was campaigning, he'd come to Chicago. Frequently, I was doing leads for him, you know. And most of the time he was in Chicago, he's doing normal stuff. I mean, his, at that time, his daughters were young. I mean, I'm not that time, his daughters were young. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm not sure what age he was in, but he may have been late forties, maybe fifth. I mean,

he's probably around my age. Yeah. I think it was like mid forties. Yeah. So they were very young. So there were, uh, and what's funny is,

you know, it's kind of interesting because when you pick somebody up and you're seeing this probably now, I'm sure some of the guys are getting this with, with JD Vance and some of the new new people who haven't been protected before. It's kind of interesting. It just says that from a human being standpoint, you know, they you know, he comes from an academic background and things like that. And suddenly he's got his house surrounded by guys with guns.

And what's funny is I just remember one time. So we would drive him around. You know, his kids would take his kids somewhere. But now we're driving him. I remember he knew chicago better than we did i'm from fucking texas and kansas city i've been in chicago a while but i don't know the south i mean he knows how to get everywhere really quickly so i just remember you're going in the wrong no he said he said he goes he goes hey you guys looking for real estate because we were like taking wrong turns everywhere he goes eventually he would just tell us where to go at times.

Because he would tell us some place. That's not good, Mark. No, it's not great. These are off the record movements. But we got better at it. But it was just funny because he had a sense of humor about it. But yeah, so that was an interesting time. And also it's when I started doing more and more protection.

And what's interesting is career wise, when he does get elected, I kind of followed him to DC just by accident just so happened to time out uh the way it worked my career and and him his election is I was literally on the president's detail just months after he his first inauguration okay I'm gonna come to that in a second I want to stay on what you just brought up though because this is – like you said, your own words. It's a very interesting human interaction when you add this layer now to someone who's never had it. But like when you go – it doesn't have to be Obama, but whatever examples you're thinking of in your head just from like a standard perspective. When someone suddenly now has protection and day one, you go in there, I would imagine it's probably classified to be able to say how many agents may go in and it probably varies. But do you just show up and knock on the door and say, okay, sir, sit down.

We're going to tell you what all the procedures are from now on or is there like a – are they involved in the process of deciding how some of this is going to go. I haven't been involved in that personally, but obviously the folks from headquarters, the people when it's starting to get initiated, they're going to sit down with them and talk to the, especially the supervisors, because like say a detail leader for, like say you become like a nominee. If I'm your detail leader, I'm going to come to you probably with another boss from our protective operations.

And they're going to go over, hey, what to expect, the type of things that – and it takes time for people to get used to that. And I can imagine – I think about that when we picked up vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance and his family because they're young, and they have young children and stuff. So there's a lot of, that's a different dynamic. Oh, yeah. And it's going to be an adjustment for them like it is for anybody. But yeah, you have to talk to them and explain to them kind of how it's going to be.

And we don't dictate to them like, oh, we're doing it this way. No. It's very intrusive. Protection is very intrusive in people's lives. And you can imagine imagine especially if you have young children and you have some fucking weirdo oh yeah following you around some some arm yeah yeah we'll get there yeah i don't got the fake arm it was daddy why does this man have a

fake arm but the uh so yeah it's it's it's it's intrus. It's – I can't imagine what it's like for them. But yeah, you have to be upfront with them about what to expect. And also because like some of your – not your freedom is taken away, but it's just obviously it's a bigger hassle now if you're going to go to the grocery store or something like that. So it takes time. And really once it gets implemented, then you kind of work out how the best to do it. Because every family or every protectee has a different dynamic depending on how many – once again, how many kids they have, family members, where they live, all those things. Do you guys like ever have to reprimand protectees because like they try to get around like what you're doing? Reprimand is pretty strong well that's the thing is like you gotta play like

when you're a detail it's usually there's usually the detail leader or somebody like or a supervisor that's doing the you know if you're if you're a shift agent you're not sitting there and let's say on a large detail you're a shift agent you're not talking to the protectee unless spoken to if they say good morning you say good morning sir good morning ma'am uh but you know obviously they'll have to explain to them depending on what they want they start it's been my experience so they usually figure it out they realize that we're there to help protect you we're there to make keep you all safe and your loved ones safe um there's gonna be some parameters that got to stay within to do that best. But if they want to do something, really, it's incumbent upon us to keep them safe.

If he wants to say, hey, I want to go get ice cream with the kids, somebody like Vance or somebody at that level may not be as recognizable. You throw a ball cap, he could put an Ohio State Buckeyes hat on, and he probably would be that recognizable. You could handle that situation better. Like I said earlier, if you're somebody that's more recognizable you know if trump said that or something then it's going to be as a detail leader you may have to address that like sir we can do that but it's going you're going to give us an hour you're going to get in whatever the case is right so you just have to explain but they these are smart people and they figure it

out they understand i think after time they start understanding what goes into that, especially as maybe their privacy becomes – because of their notoriety or because of their recognizability. Right. Once they realize that, they usually come around to that conclusion. It's like I remember there was a story. Maybe this is like 03. I might be wrong about that. It was one of the years in the early 2000s when W was in office. He did this thing.

I want to say it was on Thanksgiving or some holiday where he and Condoleezza Rice snuck away with – and I hope I'm remembering the details of this story right. If fans can put some stuff down in the comments to link to this. But like I believe he and Condoleezza Rice like snuck away with like one agent or something in a car, got on a plane, and he went and saw all the troops in maybe it was Iraq or Afghanistan. Yeah. I think it was Thanksgiving. They were like, how did he pull this off without the Secret Service? And I'm like, I feel like he got chewed out when he got home.

Yeah. Well, if he went overseas, I guarantee you for that – because I remember seeing the footage of that when he went and visited the troops. I think it was Iraq or Afghanistan. It was one of them. Yeah. But actually I've been – which is interesting because I've been involved in those with Obama. I was actually the transportation lead when he went to Kabul, Afghanistan in like 20 – Whoa.

Yeah. We'll get there. Yeah. It was pretty cool. It was actually one of the highlights of my career. So I kind of have an idea of what... And he went and visited Karzai during that visit. That would have been 20... Was he president at the time?

Karzai? Yes. He was still president? It was a big deal because he actually went to Kabul. And we'll get to there eventually. But those type of visits, obviously to a war zone... Yes, there's... It's like a lot of things in the government. It's compartmentalized. It's need-to-know basis. So the way they have to operate would be outside of how maybe we would normally do things, meaning because you have the compartmentalized, there are going to be people in the know, and there's going gonna be a lot of people who don't know like uh for instance i would i my guess is there is a lot of secret service agents uh in the white house who

had no idea the president was not in the white house right yeah so that's what you had to do that's what i'm saying it feels like that would be one like what the fuck eagle down yeah but i remember seeing that and like i said i wasn't on the detail at the time i think i was still in chicago and i remember seeing that i'm like even at the time I'm like wonder how that happens yeah yeah because but it's very it's very difficult and it's non-stop and that's why you know once again that's why the job can be super demanding I mean we're taking obviously a lot of shit right now deservedly so um but it is a very very demanding job and and those type of things are going on all the time. Not overseas, obviously, to Afghanistan, for God's sakes. But there's always visits.

There's always things going on. I mean, people aren't thinking about it, but it's going on all the time. Hey, guys, if you're listening on Spotify right now and you're not following me, please take a second and hit that follow button and also leave a five-star review. Both things really help my show, and I appreciate all of you who take the time to do it. Furthermore, if you're not following me on Instagram, you can get me at Julian Dory podcast or on my personal page at Julian D. Dory. Both links are in the description to this episode. Thank you. And yeah, it's so, you know, things happen. You're like, you know, you think about some Some other people – a lot of people don't think about it.

How the fuck did that happen? How did they make that work? Yeah, and I think – It's kind of taken for granted that, oh, it just – he just magically appears in fucking Afghanistan. I want to say this, and I'm saying this separately from the Trump incident because it was a fucking mess, that thing. Yeah, I don't see it is it needs to be said we don't see all the great jobs that happen because you don't get any news from it the job is to get no news and so you know i know the secret service has had some issues in recent years with certain things but like

there's a lot of great people there like you there's a lot of people who do the job correctly and there are a lot of not just u. leaders, but world leaders who are very properly protected in risky situations, whether it be here or abroad. Correct. And, you know, no one writes a story. The planes that land safely don't make the news. And the same thing, and when it goes with the Secret Service, and I liken it to a football team, it's like 10 guys on a play can do their jobs perfectly. One motherfucker misses his block. That's it. And we are in a zero sum game where there is,

we can't have bad days. And so you can have, and it doesn't make, and this is not making excuses. Look what happened. And we'll get to it. I know on July 13th is in fucking excusable. And there's one agency to be blamed.

And that's the U S secret service. It's not the Butler Police Department. It's not anybody else. It's our responsibility solely. And we'll get into the more specifics of what I know about that. And just for your audience to know, I don't know anything more

than what's been said publicly. And as we discuss this today, I'll discuss what's... I saw that face. I'll discuss what was done publicly, what was being disclosed by our assistant director and by everybody else. And I can give my two cents from 23 years of doing this job.

I'll accept that answer. No, I'm telling you. I'll accept it publicly. Privately, you and I will have a discussion. That's the kind of skepticism you have to have with your job. But the – so anyway, the – yeah. So yeah, you can have all the wins in the world. It makes no difference if something happens like with Reagan or with Trump or something like that.

When that kind of thing happens, there's a breakdown, And what you have to do is collectively is go, how the fuck did this happen? And how do we unfuck this? And how do we get back on track? How do we never let it happen again? Exactly. And like I said, I know we'll get into that more extensively. We're coming to it. We're coming up. I just want to make sure I have the full background with you because it's a compelling story. So we're going to come to the Obama cobble thing again in a minute because I do have some questions on what the procedures are for something like that in a war zone but you had said maybe 10 minutes ago you followed obama basically by accident from chicago to dc and so he gets in office in in 08 are you immediately on the presidential detail no like for like eight months or so i was protecting

at that time we do things a little different. I was protecting, actually, DHS Secretary Chertoff was still- Michael Chertoff. Michael Chertoff was still in office for a while before he was replaced by, I think, Napolitano. So for a while, I was protecting him. It's kind of a way of breaking you in. It's a small detail. You come from the field office, you haven't done much shift work with the details. So it's kind of a way to get you involved in that and understand the operation. Because obviously he's going to the White House a lot. At that time, DHS was up on Nebraska Avenue. And you're just learning the procedures and stuff.

And then after about eight months of that, I went to the president's detail. And obviously Obama's in office at that time. You already knew him because you worked with him. Yeah, and he didn't know me. I was familiar with them, the dynamic of the family. I mean, you were around them quite a bit. I mean, the first time I was on President's Detail, I was actually taking Malia to – she was in middle school. I would take her to middle school.

We would take her to school every day. Are you the one driving her, that kind of thing? Sometimes, but most of the time I was in the front right seat or behind. But, yeah, so we had a, yeah, I would drive sometimes and we had, I won't say what kind of vehicle, but it's funny because that was the first time I protected a child, you know, somebody who wasn't an adult. Yeah, it's fascinating. And they're new to this at the time. And so it was very interesting. And they went to Sidwell Friends, like a lot of kids of people who are in those kind of positions.

Yep. But they were wonderful. I mean, the kids were – they were really good kids, and they were super polite. And, you know, just – so it's a good family. But it was interesting as an adult protecting a kid. Yeah. And at school – and the school was great. The school was very accommodating to us.

Yeah, they're used to it. You're trying not to be intrusive, but I also understood that it's got to be strange for these girls to have some dude, middle-aged. At that time, I'm probably in my 30s, and they're like, why is this guy following me around? Do you keep someone physically in the classroom, or do you stay outside? I don't want to give the procedures of it, but I'll put it this way. We're as un-intrusive as you can be under the circumstances because, you know, it was pretty common knowledge, obviously, that they were going to that school. I mean, you can't really hide that. But it was just interesting from that standpoint. So you go there, you do that. I did transportation and then shift. And so I was on the, you know, I was with the Obamas when they were in the White House for about five years, a little over five years. Wow. So that's got to – they're still kids, right?

Yeah. They're really good kids. But we were all kids at one point. Yeah. We're growing up. There's the ups and downs of growing up. We do stupid shit. We rebel.

We get in trouble, stuff like that with our parents and things and obviously like you're a parent yourself but isn't it like almost a little odd that you're you basically get to watch the tv show right there of someone growing up and not be involved in that aspect of it but like you may sit there and see them do something you know have a bad day and do something do some disrespectful shit or something and you just stand there and go all right eagle moving yeah you know you're not you're not in it but you're stand there and go, all right, Eagle moving. You're not in it, but you're right there. Like, ooh. Yeah. You really don't think about it, honestly. At the school, you're so concerned with their safety. And you have obviously a whole school full of kids and stuff like that. And the staff was great, but you really don't think about it that way. The only thing that was odd for me is at that point, I'd never protected anybody that

wasn't an adult. And so it's a different vibe. Like you might put on – like on the drive-in, you might put music on, like pop music or something like that. So it's a little – they wanted a certain radio station. You don't change the station, huh? No. It's classic rock today, Malia. They turn on Toby Keith. He's like Taylor Swift. Pipe down, bitch.

I'm in charge. But the – yeah, so it was just interesting from that standpoint but they were they are they are a great family and they were good kids so it was like yeah i really and at the time you know myself i was really young at the time but it's like yeah you didn't really think about it but i you know looking back and like as i got older i was like i can't not to your point i can't imagine having somebody with me all the time. It's a huge adjustment. And I'm sure, you know, I put myself in their shoes. That couldn't have been great.

And that's where also, but, you know, and then we had, and sometimes, you know, it might be, I'm sure it was easier for them if there was a female agent as opposed to a guy agent, you know, like following them around a little. Because it's weird when you have, like, some guy that looked like he played football. And it's like just, and you stand out because you're walking around in the school with... And we're dressed down. We're not dressed in suits and looking like a hitman or some shit. So we're trying to do the best we can. But you can only blend in so much in a middle school. But no, they were great kids and good protectees.

But yeah, I think about that too when you think about children getting into this. It is a different dynamic for sure. How does it work that you get moved from, say, Malia's protection to Barack's protection though? It's kind of a progress. So eventually you'll do a set. So eventually you'll do like a first lady's detail. I did transportation. I did operations as well, where you do a lot of logistics.

So they kind of progress you along. So you'll do shift before you get to the shift. You'll do like a smaller detail. So in say in the Trumps, it might be, you know, one of the, like a daughter, Ivanka, or one of the, one of his sons or something like that. Of course, they're adults. So it's a different dynamic than it is with a kid. But it's just every, every family, every administration is different. And then they kind of, then even when you go to the shift, though, they're gonna, they're not gonna just throw you to the wolves. They're not gonna go,

hey, go do this giant fucking site. No, go do this fucking arena right now for us they're gonna they're gonna your first site's gonna be something relatively simple maybe an airport arrival maybe a landing zone for the marine one it's gonna be something that is not gonna be overwhelming and you're gonna have supervisors and you're gonna have lead agents there who have had more experience to kind of make sure to help you along to help because they're passing along that knowledge like hey this is something you need to be concerned about or something like that why is an airport simple it's not and which is it's kind of yeah yeah it's i'm thinking about snipers and stuff yes i mean you have it's funny you brought that up because sometimes in the service we say that now it's simpler from the standpoint of um the planning it's more how do i put it it's it's more clear than if you get like an arena

or something they're all different the airports tend to be there's to your point there's very similar there's a lot of similarities to how they're set up there's only some of these set up so obviously you have counter sniper and all those other concerns as far as distance and stuff but it's just typically you're not dealing with crowds nearly as big usually you'll have maybe a pen of greeters uh that you know right like they'll open it up it's usually you're not dealing with like a 40 000 people or something like that so that's where it's quote-unquote simpler not that any site's really truly simple because you can make the same case for a landing zone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you obviously have to have wide open spaces and that kind of thing. You're going to have high speed avenues of approach and all these other concerns. But an airport – airports are typically already secured obviously by the police department and there's a lot of security measures already in place at an airport so that it helps you. But when we say simple, you know, it's easier than some other ones, but it's not easy like any other site. But that's how they typically will start you out because, you know, at a site, at a typical visit, you're going to have, you know, the airport, obviously, which is, you know, obviously the only site where they go to twice because of the arrival

and departure. There's going to be possibly a landing zone if they do a lift, if they're not just motorcading. And then you may have, depending on what's going to be possibly a landing zone if they do a lift, if they're not just motorcading. And then you may have, depending on what's going on, whether one site, a rally site or something, or maybe they're doing a couple of fundraisers at some houses. It just depends on the visit. So the idea is, hey, if we're going to get these guys some experience, get them on those types of things.

There's usually a lot more moving parts, obviously, at a rally or at a large event. Or even at a house, if you're having a fundraising place at some rich guy's place. Obviously, you're in a neighborhood. There's a lot of complications with that. So you want somebody with more experience. Also, by then, hopefully, supervisors, we see how they interact with people. Because if you're dealing with folks, if you have the wrong personality, you've got to be able to work with people. And so it's like if they're doing a fundraiser somewhere and it's – I don't know.

Say it's a big basketball star or something and the NBA star. You've got to be able to work with these people and stuff, and it's their house, but you have all these other concerns security wise my house now my life yeah so it's like you gotta be you gotta be very tactful you gotta be able to work with people you know if you have a person if you have some guy that's a robot you can't work with other people that's kind of a problem because you're once again we're very intrusive and it's not like the tv it's not like tv shows or the movies where we come in oh hey we got this you know it's like we're taking this over this is ours now that's not how TV shows or the movies where we come in, hey, we got this. It's like we're taking this over. This is ours now.

That's not how it works. Imagine walking into like LeBron's house like get the fuck out of the way, pal. Exactly. Or it's like – yeah, you see people. These are very successful people. Yes. And I've always found that they're all very pleasant. But at the same time, it is – once again, like up for a week you're in their shit you're

all up in their business in their house and everything in a neighborhood and now all the neighbors know that something's up and then by then i'm sure they've told them you have to like if they you know are a legal gun owner and stuff you need to know where that stuff is you may i don't know what the procedure is you don't have to say but maybe you have to remove that stuff yeah like you know, you're right. It's a lot. It's a lot. And like, you would think a house wouldn't be that hard, but obviously you're surrounded

by other houses and things like that. I can see that being hard. And also you're kind of in a corner. It's like your egress routes are limited at that point. Your what? Your egress routes. Like the way, if you want to get out the fuck out of there in a hurry, you're in, like, let's say you go to a big mansion in Bel Air.

Right. It's walled in it's backed in no one's thinking about how to get out of here because there's usually only one way out exactly so you gotta so it can be you can go in there and go shit we're kind of in a corner here and so you have to have mitigate that. And you have to come up with sometimes creative ways to do that. So yeah. So anyway, that's how they progress the agents as they go through their time and the details. And you do see by the time they've done a bunch of sites, they've done transportation or the first lady detail, maybe operations. They also have an access control section for the White House. So they do all that, and by then you may start doing leads. Okay. So when you were describing Obama as a candidate

and how when he was back in Chicago, you'd go on it, right? And you're in the office there, but you wouldn't necessarily go with him to some campaign thing in Nevada or something like that. Once you're president, though, and you get on the president's detail as someone in the D.C. office, you do – the people who are on that detail travel with him everywhere, correct? Yes. So it doesn't change up based on town. Maybe they add in some sources for certain places. Yeah, so the ship, the guys that are right around them, they're all based out of D.C. with the president and current president, current vice president, even former presidents.

In the case of Trump, they have their own detail. The people that are right around them are with him. There's a group of them that are with him at all times. It's not like they're bringing people in to do the shift right around him. Now, the post standards, and I know it's been stated publicly that post standards in some of these that it's been stated publicly that post standards

in some of these places might come from outside agencies, HSI, Homeland Investigations, to post stand, which is like, like I said, the people around them, the people right around them are our people, and they're dedicated to that protectee in that division. So yeah, so with the president, and even with the president and vice president, I mean, everything is done based on the D.C. I mean, they're flying their cars in. The cars aren't even coming out of the field offices. They're literally going on C-17s and the

Air Force is flying. Oh, they're flying. Yes. Which is one of the... That's fucking awesome. When I was on transportation, I used to say, we're like the fucking roadies of the president's detail. Because we're loading up, they're loading up the C-17 with all kinds of equipment, cars, all kinds of shit, and

flying it in. And then when the show's over, right, when the President's done and he gets back on Air Force One and is gone, the poor transportation guys are still back there at the airport, loading it back up, flying back to Andrews, getting everything put away. It's great. It's super rewarding. it's a lot of

hard work um and it's a but it's it's a it's a very rewarding experience but it's a lot of work and uh some people who don't do transportation um some people shy away from it because it is so I think the hours and the demands of it are a lot but I mean once but then again you're going to drive the president of the United States. So not a lot of people can say they did that. And so I found it rewarding. And also the teamwork involved. I became really close with a lot of the guys that did transportation.

And I'm a little biased here, but I think that they turn out to be – the guys that do that well end up being really good agents because they see all the logistics that goes into it. Like I said, if all we did was protection, it's not that protection itself is not super complicated. It's all the other, it's getting people, equipment, everything in place. And you see the military, our military is really phenomenal at probably better than any, I'm certain better than anybody in the world at logistics. And we learn, we do it very well as, you know, logistics as well. But we learned a lot. I learned a lot from just working with military folks, people in the Air Force and the Marines and stuff like that.

Because obviously on the President's detail in particular, you're working with the military a lot. So you said I believe you ended up on the detail for like five years? About five years and four months. Were you referring to that being directly with Obama himself? So, yes. That's five years. That's. Were you referring to that being directly with Obama himself? So, yes. That's five years. That's the entire time of the detail. So that includes my time protecting his daughter.

Okay. So it does include that. The shift. Yeah, it includes everything. So what – do you remember what year you ended up on his? So it would have been – I think it was 2009 to 2014 is when I was with him. Oh, so you were with him for like five years. Yes. I was with – well, I was with him. You're talking about just on the shift? was with him. Oh, so you were with him for like five years. Yes, I was with

him. You're talking about just on the shift? Just on him. Just on the shift, probably at that time. It probably would have been about half of that time. Okay. When you're directly on the shift. So roughly half that time. One of the things I really respect about the Secret Service is that

with very few exceptions, there is a real code of honor there with not dishing dirt on people they protect and stuff like that and so you know you'll see i i think the worst i've ever seen is like some small leaks on like family members and stuff but you guys are really good about not taking things out of there because again it's so up close and personal you see the worst side of anyone you're protecting yeah that's how it is but that said it's always nice to hear about some of the real human interactions that happen with people that are just frankly these caricatures on tv and whatever yeah and i gotta think when you're protecting someone's family for five years and then maybe two and a half of the years you're with the guy and whatever at some point you and some of the other agents

you get to know him a little bit right like yeah beyond just like watching him like you have some personal conversations and stuff like that like what's that like to talk to a sitting u.s president kind of off the record shooting the shit well what's interesting is when you're brand new when you're brand new to the detail, first of all, you can't believe you're going to the White House for work. That's how I was. There was a certain awe to it. I'm a big history buff and things like that, so I was really appreciative of it.

When you see them at first, that does go away to a large extent. To your point, you do see them as human. It's not the caricature or what they're putting out there. But I found over my time in the service, I never ran into a protectee that was really a dick. It was just a complete asshole.

I mean, I find that they're really – it's been my experience that they're really appreciative. Even – and I won't say who it was, but I've been a detail leader and an assistant detail leader for cabinet-level people. And I remember one time a guy had a bad day, and he got along great i was with him a long time and he just had a bad day but you know he didn't and he said something or he kind of got he kind of snapped just a little bit at me nothing big i didn't give a shit i was like dude i've had a lot worse sit down jim so anyway but he comes back in the car after because and he's like mark i'm sorry about you know he apologized about it because he was like – and I knew. He didn't have to.

I was like, sir, you don't have to say that. I go, it's all good. I've been around him a lot. But like – and to speak to your point, here's what's funny. So one of my best memories when I was on The President's Detail – and I say this because this kind of gives you an idea of the person. So I did a big site in Kansas City where I was a cop, obviously. This is a big fort plant. Yeah.

And Obama was going there. And I had a chance to get one of my best – my best friend, Johnny, who's a cop and where I used to work. And then my dad at the time and my – I have a twin brother. Your dad at the time? My dad at the time. Your dad changed now? Jesus Christ. What the hell? Why the at the time. Your dad changed now? Jesus Christ. What's that?

Why the fuck did I say that? It might be your mom. That's happening these days. I don't know. Anyway, my first... So anyway, I wrote my first dad. I like people that I meet for the first time and they're cool with me fucking with them. You're really good at that. Yeah, so he –

Unless he hit the volume on that spot because we laughed our ass off right there. I just want to make an editor's note, but go ahead. All right. Yeah, so my dad happened to be in town because he wasn't living in Kansas City at the time. So anyway, so I got them to be able to see – so Obama was going to be there. I was doing the site. We worked it out so that we could get a family picture we could get a picture with the president now what's funny as shit is my brother and my dad are big time republicans so like super conservative so so we

get them backstage they do they have a photo line so you have these people that paid all this money to get a picture with the president right so they are going through the photo line. So you have these people that paid all this money to get a picture with the president, right? So they are going through the photo line. And then they do police photos. And so they always do police and fire photos. And then my family comes up. And it's my brother. His two daughters at the time were young. And my dad.

And it was cool because the detail leader goes, hey, Mr. President, this is Mark Brandenburg's family. And they introduce him. I said, my dad was an Air Force pilot. I hate your fucking guts. No, here's what's funny. My brother, who's a salesman, never lost for words. You could just say, that's the president. I go, no shit, dude. What do you think I do

for a living? But here's what's cool. President Obama hands my dad, who knows he's a veteran, he hands him a coin. It says Obama on there. It's like a coin for the president. Talks to the girls. He pans him a coin. It's like, it says Obama on there and it's like a coin for the president. Talks to the girls. He obviously is a girl dad and literally talked to my family.

Now, there's no cameras. There's no press or media. He talked for seven minutes to them. He didn't have to do it. It's the president of the fucking United States. He's about to go on stage. And to this day,

my Republican right-wing dad has that picture on his wall at 90 years old with that coin mounted of the president of the United States. That's America right there. That's fuck yeah it is. And it's, that's the kind of stuff where you're like, I'll never forget. I have that picture. I'll never forget it. And it's really badass.

And then the other funny part is now we're off stage and he goes up to his remarks and I just see my dad like this. Oh, God, everything the president dad like this oh god damn it hating everything the president's saying he's like oh you were doing great stop stop taxing me so yeah so it was but it was one of my best experiences the whole time i was on the detail because i'll never forget that and my dad's 90 years old, still has it on the wall. That's cool. But it also speaks well of the president. Yes.

And to your point is, that's America. We're all, you know, with all the partisan bullshit and everything that's going on, the respect that the office deserves, it doesn't matter who's there. And it was just really cool. And the other cool thing was my best friend Johnny's African-American cop, like I said, and I pulled little strings. So I had him on the front row with his daughter. He has this young daughter. And so when he's at the rope line, he got a picture with his daughter with the president of the United States. My buddy is beaming because, you know, you realize during when he protected Obama how much he meant to the African-American community.

I mean he was – Monumental. Huge and deservedly so. And it meant a lot to my buddy Johnny. And what's funny is because I was the side agent, I think the governor of Missouri – I think the governor of Missouri had him in the second row. I had my buddy in the front row. You put him in the front row ahead of the governor. I said – I have one shot at this.

I'm getting Johnny a picture with the president of the United States. Fuck the governor. Good for you. I don't even know who it was. But you know what was cool was like the staff. The staff was cool. I go, hey, can I put my buddy in the front row? I didn't know if they'd go for it.

And I knew the staffers by then. I'd worked with them a lot. They were like, fuck yeah, absolutely. I go, sweet. So anyway, that was just a story. Good thing your buddy wasn't an assassin, by the way. We'd never heard from you again. have been that would have been hard to explain it would have been hard to yeah that would have been really hard to explain

who's the suspect i think i know who he is governor my bad my bad i didn't realize i kept you out of line of fire thank me later that's funny. So you're on that detail with the family at least for five years. Before we move on, I just want to go to that Kabul one, the Kabul one that we put the pin in when he was going to visit Karzai. Was this 2011, you said? Yeah, I was right. Yeah, because I was around 2011.

Okay. So my question is, you kind of hinted at this a little bit ago. I just want to make sure I understood. When you, the Secret Service, who's in charge of the situation, goes to take a president into a war zone, no less, not even just something international, but they're going into a war zone. When you get to the ground, are you getting actual security support from Navy SEALs, people in intelligence? I don't know, anyone, FBI if they're out there for some reason. How does that work? In that situation where you're going to a war zone like Afghanistan or Iraq, obviously

we're a civilian police force. Basically. The U.S. Secret Service, we're not military. That's their world. Oh, right. When they go overseas in that situation, obviously, we're laying super heavy on the military. And this is their turf.

Yes. And in the case we were talking about, yes, you had Navy SEALs and special ops, Delta and those folks. Obviously State Department, other three-letter agencies like that are all involved heavily in this. And once again, it's compartmentalized big time, even when you're – not to go into detail, but when you're on the ground, they don't – I'm sure people had suspicions of who we were, but it wasn't common knowledge who's on the ground. But shit's going – at the time, this was the green zone in Kabul. But it was a big deal because Obama was going to actually – to Karzai's palace.

So that's why it was a big deal. The Taliban's palace now. Yeah. Yeah. I'll refrain from comments. Yeah, we'll leave that one there. It's okay. I'm going to stay away from politics.

I swear to God I'm going to make it through a few hours without saying anything about politics. But yeah, so it obviously was a big deal for the – that was a big sign. Instead of going just to Bagram, they were actually going to go right into Kabul, even though it was the green zone and stuff. And you can imagine the kind of shit that's going on. But once again, it was the – the military is driving that wagon. I mean we're obviously heavily involved with – and we're doing – we're the main agency protecting, but we also know that we're in their playground. This is not Des Moines, Iowa. This is not a normal rally site.

So, yeah, we were well taken care of, let's say. It's the only motorcade rally I've had MRAPs blocking roads and things like that. Yeah. So – but they were – once again, you're leaning heavily on those guys because that's their place. How long is – before you even get on the flight to go there without going into classified type things, how long is the preparation and how many people that aren't even going to be there are involved and who's involved in that? How do you guys go about like planning again to go into a fucking war zone, which is the definition of unpredictable? Yeah. I can't give you a timeframe of how long we were in there.

I'll put it this way. The way we traveled and the way we did things was heavily – once again, going back to the military, the military had a huge say in that. Because we can't – obviously, you can't just fly in there. You can't just roll in there looking like you don't belong. You got to look like you're in that group. So I'll put it this way. It's a fair amount of time, but it's not as much time as you would think to, I don't know how that's, I know that's super vague,

but there's not as much time as you would think to do something of that magnitude. But, you know, once again, that's where OPSEC, you know, operational security plays a huge role. And that's why they're so big on compartmentalizing because it's really our best, you know, they're not expecting the president, you know, Obama to just show up in a cobble. And so they're going to use that.

All the people who are – all the chefs in the kitchen are putting their – are figuring out their angle on things and making sure that we're doing it the proper way without compromising. And once again, that's the biggest thing is compromising in operational security. If you can maintain that – look, I was just – look, I helped – I was planning the motorcade route and stuff. I was a very small part. I found myself like in rooms with these big shots in the military, and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? You're talking about imposter syndrome. syndrome but um but it was also like i said it was you know i you know when my career is over and i'm an old man and i'm my grandkids are sick of me talking about my time in the secret service they're gonna hear this fucking story oh yeah yeah so but even if so it's not as long as we would think and again there's things that are classified there and if this next question you

can answer yeah people are just gonna have to deal with that but like not for this one in particularly but in general when you are gonna take the president let's say even just internationally because you can pretty much say anything other than pretty much anything it's not on your turf so it's going to be dangerous is there like a situation room like we see the situation room where the president's in there with his cabinet talking to the military make a decision on who we're going to bomb next or whatever yeah but like is there a situation where people sit in from your agency mostly but then from other you know advising type places where you are basically

sitting in there for however long it takes six eight hours for some upcoming trip where you are playing imagination of every possible thing that could go wrong and trying to amalgamate that down into how we're then going to attack that yeah and like i said yeah not getting specifics but once again that's where the military comes into play a lot as far as uh they'll have a skiff set up for us so we can do uh top secret communications on site um and so the military helps facilitate that opsec for the most overseas i'm talking overseas, obviously. Obviously, in the United States, we can find a place to do that sort of thing.

Because when you're talking about a situation where emergency action situations, okay, this happens, here's how we're going to evac, or here's how we're going to do this. So they're game-playing all that. And once again, some of that, the stuff is is it also compartmentalized so you know everybody sees us right around the protectee getting them out of there but there's other yes with a president or vice president there's other assets and other things that are involved outside of just the people around them there's more I'll put it this way especially the president vice but there's way more going on than people realize and obviously he's the commander-in-chief.

He's the current commander-in-chief. That's why the military has such a big role, the White House military office. And everybody sees the ceremonial shit. They see the Marines outside there. Or they may see the Navy mess serving them food and stuff like that. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Most of it's below the surface. And there's a lot of things that they do. Because once again, he's the continuance of operations in the United States.

The military is heavily involved. He's the commander-in-chief. He's at the top of the food chain. But also, you're also thinking about things, you know, people always talk about the lone survivor or the last survivor or whatever. Or designated survivor. That's what they call it. Yeah. Lone Survivor is Marcus Luttrell. Yeah, yeah. I was- Yeah, it's designated survivor.

I was getting confused for a second. It's designated survivor. People talk about that when they have a State of the Union. Yes. Because that's what we're talking about is the continuance of operations. And that's something that's also because there's a president, vice president, speaker of the house, and it goes all the way down the list through the cabinet and everything. There was that Kiefer Sutherland show. I really never watched it, but I think I saw the first episode one time. Yeah, and that's what they're playing off of.

And I'm just like, God, imagine that. And like I said, the military has a lot to say in that because obviously that's – you're thinking of the worst-case scenario that they're going to do that. But yeah, overseas, for sure, there's a lot of contingencies and a lot of things that are... And even that same thing domestically. Obviously, overseas is different depending on what country you're in because there's always going to be more complications overseas because obviously we're out of the country.

And depending on where you're at, every place is a little bit different working with them. When you got to Kabul for that one, one though because that was a really big deal, you were saying you're going down the trail to – or what did you call it? You have the term for it. Why am I forgetting it? Like when you're going en route. Oh, the motorcade, like en route? Yeah, but you had a – fuck, you had a better term for it.

Egress? Yeah, yeah. So the egress was on the side or whatever. But once you get there, everything goes without a hitch. Was there – It went well. It went very well. Yeah, it went very, very well.

And like I said, on paper, it's really – it wasn't super complicated. It wasn't like – this is not, once again, rocket science. But at the same time, any time you bring the commander-in-chief going back you know, you're putting the person in charge of our executive branch, bringing them into the war zone, and not just Kabul, which was, Kabul was, you know, is safe, relatively safe, you know, you bring it, bring them down into, I mean, in Bagram as well, totally safe, but you bring them down to Kabul where it's, you know, obviously that's a heightened concern. Yeah, like I said, it wasn't super complicated per se it's just it's just the the gravity of the situation and understanding where you're at that you know he's going into

the viper's nest so to speak i mean for a president to go into that situation is unusual so uh but that's the reason why it was such a rewarding experience and um i had the emasculating experience of uh i had to so once he lifts and goes back to Bagram, I had to get on a Chinook with – and it's a bunch of Navy SEAL guys. And you. Me and this other agent. So you got the SEAL guys and their kits looking badass. Just looking at you. Yeah, and they're all veined out.

I am in my fucking suit. I'm sitting next to this other agent. He's in a fucking suit. I go, I never felt like a bigger pussy in my life. And these guys, I mean, you've got the people with 50 cows and all this stuff. And I was never military. I was a cop. And it was a cool experience.

And the guys were super impressive. You've met a lot of the special ops guys. They're the most humble people. I have never had a bad experience with any of those guys. They're fucking awesome. They're amazing. I mean, they have never had a bad experience with any of those guys. They're fucking awesome. They're amazing. I mean, they look super impressive, but they're super humble, and they're great examples, I think,

to a large extent. I think one of the great things about seeing so many guys like that becoming more prominent figures in the public is really good because it shows young men in particular and young women, but young men, I think, especially how to be, you know, hey, is really good because it shows young men in particular and young women, but young men, I think especially,

um, how to be, you know, Hey, be disciplined, work hard, set goals, but be humble,

you know, be, it's a, it's a, it's a really welcome part of our culture. You know, it's easy to shit on our culture. I'm glad, I'm glad you say that.

Because you see those guys, I follow like guys like Jocko and I did Andy Stone's podcast and I've done, every time I, but even when you meet them in those situations um I just remember that they're very down to earth you know and you would think you'd be intimidated almost even as a grown man you're kind of like because you see the guys and you know what their training's like yeah the the thing the thing that I just have a great reverence for with them and it doesn doesn't mean – we're all humans.

We all have different opinions and stuff, and I have great back and forth with those guys, and sometimes we disagree on shit. But the thing that I have a great reverence for is that they have seen the places and things that are the worst that this world has to offer, and they've had to answer the call to those things and so they have an extra understanding of just how fucking good yeah we have it here and what a place like this means what parts of the western world mean as well yeah and you know not that i can ever fully understand that as i sit here in my armchair and not that everyone out there listening who hasn't done this can fully understand that but if we can in my armchair and not that everyone out there listening who hasn't done this can fully understand that but if we can get a piece of that and if I can help do that on a show like this I think that is absolutely critical for as you say you just put it beautifully for our culture and for you know to have people to look up to there's there's all different types of reasons to look up to people I think it's great to look up to. There's all different types of reasons to look up to people. I think it's great to look up to your favorite athletes and stuff like that too, like they're doing something

you love. But we should also have a realm where the people who do a great job like serving the country, they're also the role models. And I think the internet has really helped let that happen now. And that's a good thing to see. No, I totally agree. And yeah, you see them, how they apply that discipline and that work ethic and how they apply it to become successful in other endeavors. But they always do it. Like I said, I always go back to the humility thing because if I was on ABC, I would be a complete dick. I would just be totally in myself. I was like, I'm so much fucking better than you. Stop talking to me.

I've met a few who are a little bit like, all right, pipe down there, kids. It's like, I'm so much fucking better than you. Stop talking to me. I've met a few who are a little bit like, alright, pipe down there, kids. It's like, yeah, slow your roll. Easy. Easy. I got a podcast here. You think you're a badass? You have the Julian Dory podcast, bitch. I just

think about some dudes who leave this like, what went wrong in my life? Why was I here? Yeah, the guy's like, I was taking out bad guys. And now I'm talking to this asshole in his parents' house. He's got dolls. It was worse when they would show up to my parents' house and they're like, wow. That was the best. I'll be right back. I'm just going to my parents' house and they're like, wow, I bought a phone. That was the best.

I'll be right back. I'm just going to rest for a quick and cry. Andy Bustamante one time, episode 126 when we were doing the crossover with Concrete. At the time it was Concrete, but now it's Danny Jones Podcast with my boy. We were – I forget what Danny Havy talked about, but I was going on something with geopolitics. And I knew what – I knew the subject matter pretty well. But, you know, I'm from Jersey. There's a certain way I say it.

And maybe I'll put the clip in right here. But Andy basically just like stopped and then looked at me and goes. Historians and politicians. I'm sorry. Historians and political scientists around the world cringe when Julian talks about World International. This fucking old guy sitting there. This guy gets ripped off. It's on TikTok.

And he turns around. Somewhere there's a... He puts a new school spin on it. He does. I've never heard anybody who knows more about the CIA and the FBI and the US government than Julian. I swear to God. There's a Harvard professor somewhere sitting there like, I made a career out of studying political science

so that this guy could call Hooj and tell us some old guy. I'm sitting there going, yeah, I think you're probably right. We all have our roles. Some of it just pulls shit out of our ass. It's fine. This has been funny today. I i like this we got a good vibe because we're talking about a hard thing yeah i know i know i got you off you were finishing up the whole cobble thing with obama it went well yeah it went really well and and like i said it

was like when i talk about it's one of the highlights of my career just to have i mean you know i'll just to be tasked with that just to have – when the bosses pulled me aside offline in a car and me and some other people who were doing it face-to-face, obviously. When they said I was going to do that, you can imagine how fired – because you worked so hard to get to that point. It was kind of like a thumbs-up, like, hey, they wouldn't just hand that to you. It was a real big photo confidence for me, and that's why – and I remember the guys I was with on it, and it was just really, really cool. The only downside was we had very small barracks, and the protective intelligence guy that slept below me snored every fucking night. Oh, shit. It was really small.

I forgot about that stuff. So you guys, when you're on detail traveling with them, you're not like – they're not putting you at the presidential palace? Well, yeah, but we were doing the advance, so we were there well ahead of time. So yeah, so we're living just like anybody else that was living there. And once again, you're – You'd be thankful for that. That's my taxpayer dollars. Yes, yes.

No, I was fine with it. I was fine with it. I just remember it. But it's just funny. It's like you remember all that shit because it was such an intense, you know, that time period was just so intense because you're like, I can't fuck this up. You know, they're going to give me this vote of confidence and I got to come through. And plus, you know, I saw the guy, the other people they tapped for. And these are people I respect and admire a lot who I still respect and admire a lot. And just to be, you know what I mean? When you get, when you get, it's like when you, when you get a chance to, to, to, to, when they give you that call to do that and then you're surrounded by really talented, smart people and they think that you're in that class, it's an, it's a giant vote of confidence.

I remember that time in my career, it was, it helped me a lot. Um, and I don't think I fucked it up to that extent. No, you did well. You did a good job. So it was, anyway, that's, that So anyway, that's the cobble story. But it was definitely the highlight of my career. So you're five years on Obama, and I want to come to the Trump stuff. I just want to make sure we know where you stand.

So I guess you left that detail in around 2014, 2015, somewhere in there. So since 2015 to today, I believe you're in charge of the kansas city office is that right no i'm no i'm one of the supervisors okay all right so between then and and now what what kinds of things were you so i went to and i'm i'm a fucking weirdo because i was in what's called opio uh office of protective operations so i went from president's detail to dignitary protection detail where i protected treasury secretaries dhs secretaries john uh john kelly was one of the people i was helped protect yeah and awesome when he was when he was dhs so when when trump got elected i was i literally

the inauguration night i was me and uh uh my good friend uh he's passed on since then, Colin Johnson, God rest his soul, was the detail leader. He was a Marine and a great American. And obviously he was – being a Marine and John Kelly, who was a four-star, head of Southern Command, they got along great. And they were just great people, the Kelly family. And he lost one of his sons in battles and overseas so they were a great family it was only i was only on with him for six months but it was um anyway i did that treasury secretary and stuff and then i got promoted and i went to the supervisor i was a shift leader on for vice president pence on the vice presidential yeah so i spent about just under two years as a shift leader.

I was in charge of like transportation, of course, and then I was a shift leader. That's kind of like the quarter. What does shift leader mean? So a shift leader basically is the quarter. So the shift, the guys right around on the four or five agents around the president, you're quarterbacking them. And then you have the other supervisors.

I'm not the guy that's walking behind the protectee, but basically you're just helping maintain protection. And you have a shift of agents that you work and you assign them. It's a demanding job, but it's a very rewarding job too. So basically what you're doing is the bubble right around the protectee, you're kind of there to make sure that it stays the way it's supposed to. You're kind of keeping an eye on everything to make sure it's where it needs to be. If somebody's out of place or there's some issue somewhere else, because you can be working a protectee, they may go somewhere they weren't supposed to maybe initially. And so you're just making sure

that that protection bubble is there. I mean, that's a general idea of what we do, but there's a lot of other responsibilities that go with it, but it's a very rewarding it was one of the more enjoyable parts, even though it was, once again, anything worth doing, anything that's really enjoyable is hard to do sometimes. I mean, it's the most rewarding thing, and that's how this was.

And we had great people, the people I worked with are still really close friends, even people who are my subordinates who are now, you know, they're being promoted and they're doing well in the Secret Service, and they'll be my boss someday probably. But they're good friends, and so it was a really rewarding time. And also the people we had in charge at that detailed time were just awesome people. So really great mentors. And so yeah, that was a fun time. And then after that, I went back to Dignitary Protection, where I've been for years until recently when i when i got back to the midwest so it sounds like

pretty much since you got to the obama stuff you've been all protection detail 16 years investigation i did 16 yes 16 years of pure protection okay and operational stuff i didn't do any headquarters um nothing against headquarters people, but I had no desire. The guys with their guns in the drawer. Yeah. Deskpop time. Yeah. So I was operational the whole time, and I enjoyed it.

I mean, towards the end, I'm not going to lie. Towards the end, there's times in this job you're always going to hit that wall at times. And it is harder. I'm 50 years old now, almost 51. It's harder now at 50 to do that kind of shit than it was at 35 or 40 even so just because the hours and the you know all the travel and all that but i loved it but that is i mean 16 years at operational protection is is a long time i think even by anybody's i mean they should have my brain examined i have a feeling it's from playing football in the 80s and 90s and i must have you're you're you are literally like one of the best guys on the face of the planet i could be talking to about this

not just because you're still there but because this has been your job there now specifically at the at the highest level for so many years and now i don't know if you said this a little bit ago but we were talking about it off camera like you're called in to do all different types of protections because of your expertise and stuff. So maybe there's a world leader coming through or something. You're called on to that one. You were called on to the RNC in some capacity after the whole Trump thing. And I'm not – that's really nice of you.

I am by no means the best Secret Service agent, not even close. I mean there's guys I can think of off the top of my head who do way more advanced. They've done major venues like RNC and DNC and stuff like that. I help out with stuff. You're being humble, but you're very qualified. Yeah, I think there's no question. I put it this way. I would not trade in my experience as doing protection,

and I feel like that's why I do have a really good sense of, of the operational side of protection, how things physically are done. If you want to, if you want to do the planner and stuff like that, and I love doing a lot of the advanced work and all that stuff, but I just, there's so many remarkable people in the secret service.

I still, after 23 years feel like that. Like I'll have somebody coming that's 10 years younger than me, and I'm blown away by how impressive they are and things like that. We just need more of them, and which we'll get to as well. Now I think there's going to be a high demand for that, for sure, in light of this. But let's get to the lead we buried here, which is why we're talking. Obviously, what just happened and everyone's still litigating this publicly.

It's been litigated a lot harder, even privately, I'm sure. But Alessi, I sent you a video on text actually of AOC during the hearing with Kim Cheadle. Can you just pull up that vid? It was a tweet. I just want to make sure we have that because this is a good place to start and pause it real quick because it's already starting. We've got to turn the volume on.

Basically, AOC asked the question that we were all wondering about, which has to do with the perimeter and how this was done because obviously the shot came from between 400 and 450 feet away which doesn't sound like a lot to a lot of other people but i want to go through the process there but let's let's play this real quick so we have it thank you for watching this episode guys i want to give you a sneak preview of some of the great

guests i have coming up i am am really, really excited about the people that have been coming in here. So a few that I just filmed that I want you to look out for. Number one, we're gonna have Jorge Ventura up next. Jorge is a border reporter down at the Mexican border. He works on both sides. Some of the story of how he got into that

and how he kind of fell into this journalism career is pretty wild too. And the things that he has witnessed and the context that he has are, some of it's kind of unbelievable. So you're really, really going to like that one. I also have Louisa Nicola coming on. She is a top neuroscientist who is specifically a neuroscientist in brain, how do I say this, in like performance utilizing neurology, essentially. So if you've ever seen the show Billions, she's like Wendy Rhodes. Like that's what she gets called. She works with high level athletes, high level executives, et cetera. And she brought some heat in that episode, calling out somebody in particularly who's been blowing up on the internet that she thinks is full of shit. So keep your eyes out for that one. And I am then going to

have two wild, wild Scientology episodes coming up. One of them is with a Aaron, who you know from the YouTube channel Growing Up in Scientology. He is a highly requested guest. This is somebody that Danny Jones, my buddy, brought on his podcast couple of years ago. My buddy, Matt Cox has had him on. He's been on Lex Friedman. People request him all the time and he did not disappoint, but there is a second Scientology guest that also shout out to Aaron for hooking it up. But that guest was pretty amazing. And the story, I don't think it's ever been told in the long form, three and a half hours,

like we just told it. So make sure if you're on Spotify right now that you are following. If you're on YouTube, you are subscribed and I will see you guys very soon, early this week. Jorge Venter is up next. Peace. Peace.