July 15, 2024 • 13 mins
Former Secret Service agent Greg Gitschier talks about the protection of current and former Presidents. He discussed how the site where President Trump was shot was set-up, what went right, and what went wrong...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm going to spend a few minutesnow with Greg Getcher. He's of a
longtime friend of mine. He wasa Jefferson County police officer at some point
in his career, early in hiscareer, and he's moved through various law
enforcement circles, ultimately winding up withthe United States Secret Service. Good to
talk to you again, sneak andDeacon. How's going? Oh good?
(00:22):
It was fun. We took alittle hike together last week. That was
great fun. Yeah. Our cardiologistkeeps us fitting slim and srim, I
guess, and he just sets agood example. Definitely, that's what he
does. And Henry Sadloe always getout there, let's go, let's hike.
And it was hot, but itwas fun. We appreciated that,
all right, So Greg, naturally, a lot of people want to know
(00:43):
about the logistics of the situation.And I know that you were visiting on
the radio station earlier today with Vanetti, so we don't have to go through
all the specifics of this, butwe're all stunned, of course, with
the basic point. How could someoneget that close of access to any press
residential appearance? Yes, I agreeone hundred percent. Let me just say
(01:07):
my prayers go out to the threepeople that were shot. The subject that
circumder's wounds was a chief fire departmentchief there in the county, and he
literally, the witnesses said, hecovered up his daughter and his wife and
took bullets for him. So myheart goes out to their family survivors,
and I just wanted to say thathow brave he was to do what he
(01:30):
did. Indeed, just a tragedythat anybody gets hurt in a situation where
someone takes it upon themselves to decidethey're going to, you know, shoot
at anybody, and that we windup with this sort of horror. And
that's for sure. But of course, when a presidential candidate, and in
this case it's a former United Statespresident, just like Barack Obama moves around,
(01:53):
so does Bill Clinton, you know, George W. Bush. They
move around, They have groups withthem. I don't know how many people
are guarding the car anymore, butyou get the point. Anybody who was
a president is guarded. I knowthat it's a limited detail. But when
that former president becomes a presidential candidateagain, does that increase the size of
the service group with him. Well, the obvious answer, Terry is yes,
(02:19):
it should. I think I think, you know, the protection asset
should be distributed to the highest threatlevel, so you know, former president
and he certainly in my over mycareer, I spent time with Jimmy Carter
when he was former, Gerald Fordwhen he was former you know, And
those are smuch smaller details. Anduh, I've been retired long enough I
couldn't even tell you how many areassigned to the president anymore. But obviously
(02:43):
it's reduced a lot once you becomea former president. However, to your
point, now that he's back inthe game and he could quite legitimately be
our next president, he should haveall the assets that's needed to protect him
at the threat level, which isin my opinion, very high against him.
Yeah, and I was reading toothat they're already starting to give him,
you know, our daily briefings becauseDonald Trump I'm talking about, because
(03:07):
he's moved this far through the tunnelof coming back to this opportunity to win
another election, and so he startsgetting daily briefings. That's part of basic
protocol, that's what goes along.So you would think just with that enhanced
attention paid to someone who's moving upthen that you would think they'd have a
(03:29):
security in this case, Greg,I'm guessing that outdoor situations are a little
more tricky than our indoor events.Well, yeah, you lose a little
control because indo our events they haveentrance doors and then you can control those
doors and everyone has to walk througha metal detector makes life a lot easier,
I assure you. At the MilwaukeeRepublican Action Convention, I know guys
(03:52):
that are up there and girls,and they're heavy, heavily secure. You
know, they're securify. Everything's veryheavy security, and they're even intensified now
after this assassination attempt. And thesame would be for the Democratic Convention in
Chicago as well. So inside youcontrol, outside you don't. That's why
I think in my opinion, fromwhen we've had to do these both when
(04:12):
I was the side agent and Iwas over the lead agent. You know,
you have to work. You haveto be able to see things from
the rooftops. You can see somefrom the air. We normally used to
have a helicopter that we would usefor certainly all the presidents, you know,
and they had a nickname, andyou'd call out the nick huntsman and
they would check rooftops and all thatkind of stuff. The snipers that are
(04:34):
famous, they're actually we call themcounter snipers because they go out in the
advance with us on the advanced team, and they set up all the possible
locations that a sniper would have thebest availability to shoot at our protectee.
So then they set up on thosepoints. Right. So this is no
big secret, it's common knowledge.But I was told they only had two
(04:56):
counter sniper teams there. One's aspider, one's shooting the long rifle.
Harry. I've been with those guysbecause I was a Secret Service farm instructor.
They have to hit a bowl andpen at one thousand yards, no
exaggeration, that's ten football fields.They are so good at what they do.
They doal in the temperature, humidity, the wind, everything. But
I think they only had two aboveformer President Trump. They were looking out
(05:19):
at what they deemed the highest levelthreats, and of course this threat came
from the hard right angle, andthey did probably did not have a scope
on it at that moment because theywere looking at other sites. I have
heard just recent, really recent informationthis afternoon that this guy came under knowledge
(05:40):
of the police department when he camethrough late and they were looking for him
and they lost him. As whatI was told, So I also was
told that there wasn't as many SecretService agents there that you would expect to
be there. They supplemented with obviouslylocal police, sheriffs and state troopers.
And there's always a difference in communicationgoes on with these different crews. But
(06:02):
I read your book, Sneak andDeacon. You talk about all these different
things parts of your life because you'realso a deacon of a church that's where
that name comes from. You talkabout going to ahead of Hillary Clinton in
Africa, scoping out these places wellin advance of an appearance. And so
I'm wondering, I'm wondering, why, whoever the advanced team on this one,
(06:24):
this particular incident where they try toassassinate Trump, that that wasn't pointed
out that rooftop is going to beone hundred and forty eight yards away.
That's danger. Absolutely, there's ourarguments. I love my former agency.
I thought those the agents on theshift, which are the guys on the
up on the stage, they reactedvery quickly and they did what they're supposed
(06:47):
to do. We were taught hundredsand hundreds of times to cover and evacuate
your protectee unless you're close enough tothe gun and you go for the gun.
They now, to President Trump's credit, he hit the deck very hard.
Once he touched his ear. Andincidentally, I've had a bullet was
by my ear when I was apolice officer here in Louisville, and you
could actually hear that bullet going by. It's very eerie. But he ducked.
(07:11):
He just fell down because that stagearound him is ballistic, so was
the podium, so he knew wherethe protection was. So the agents covered
him up. They tried to quicklyget him off stage. But if he
saw he's a big man, he'sstrong. He had all that adrenaline pumping
through him, and he was pumpinghis fist right and they were having trouble
moving him off the stage because hewas, you know, my opinion,
(07:33):
resisting him, resisting them a littlebit. But as they finally got him
off to the steps, he noticedthe wall separate and the armored limo packed
up to the stairs, where theytried to get him in that armored limo
very quickly. The suburban but hewas still pumping his fist all the way
in, you know. But youknow, they got him in there.
They did a great job. That'swhat we're paid to do, that's where
(07:55):
we're trained to do. But you'reright, the advancement, I'd hate to
have my name on that report thatI signed it that it was clear for
him to come in. And ifindeed this guy did come to our attention
through people or the police, inmy opinion, they should have held off
letting former President Trump come out onthat stage until they rectified the situation to
(08:16):
make sure this guy wasn't there andhe was a threat. Yeah, the
one guy that the BBC interviewed whathe was saying that Donald Trump was already
speaking, and then they saw thatguy on that roof and started yelling at
law enforcement or whoever happened to bearound. They couldn't see him the way
the fold came with that edge ofthat roof, but still Trump was already
(08:37):
on the stage. But the guythe witness said something to the effect of
I didn't understand why they didn't stopTrump's speech in order to take care of
this situation. So that's all,you know, Hopefully we'll find out I
hope you know, we can't investigateourselves. So the memory of understanding is
the FBI would always take over inthese situations. We're going to do a
(08:58):
very tediouster. You're actually reporting tofigure out what did go wrong and fix
it right away and see who madethat mistake, whoever it was. And
you know, if you couldn't putcounter snipers onto that roof, then you
would put a Secret Service agent anda police counterpart up there to make sure
nobody could get up there. SoI am not sure what happened. I
was told that they knew when hecame in that he was a problem,
(09:20):
but they lost him. So ifthat was the case, then I think
they should have held to protect theuntil it was they deemed it safe.
That's just my opinion. Terry,we're speaking of Greg get your former Secret
Service agent. Let's talk about thesize of the agents, because i've heard
this complaint. Now, Donald Trumpis what six' four. You can't
have somebody guarding him who's going tobe part of a cover if they're going
(09:43):
to move him. If she andit was mostly women who are much shorter,
is five to five or whatever Imean, it says that's too much
of him exposed in the training,do they talk about the agents that are
in close proximity to the protectee beingat least the same height for when this
sort of a situation arises, Terry, I have never heard that question asked
(10:05):
before, So I'll give you alot of credit for that one. Yeah.
So I'm not going to go intothis whole DEI situation. Let's just
save that for another day. Butthere was a time where, yeah,
you had to have all the physicalfitness requirements. We were tested, you
know, throughout the year, shootingbeyond the protection detail. We had to
shoot once a month because we hadmachine guns and shotguns and handguns. And
(10:30):
I was told that maybe, youknow, I'm wondering if those standards are
still the same. I don't know. I don't Purson, I've been retired
too long, but I would hopethat they, you know, they take
all that into you know, accountfor you know that by that particular situation.
Yeah, I mean, that's thegig as you you know, we've
seen it at the times of PresidentKennedy's assassination, Ronald Reagan being shot,
(10:54):
you know, the woman shooting atGerald Ford. I mean We've seen these
things over the but the agents thatare around it just seems like the whole
thing is to converge on the protecteeand if you are much shorter, I
mean, no offense. And it'snot about women, because Britney Griner could
be somebody gardener and then she wouldmore than cover a guy. So it's
(11:15):
just about the size of the peoplein close proximity. Terry. I mean,
they have these strict requirements because thinkabout it, we have some of
us will have automatic weapons on us. Okay you may not see them,
but we have them. You sawthe two CAT guys in the all black,
black uniform show on the stage.Those are our guys. CAT is
Counter Assault Team, and they didwhat they're supposed to do. They were
(11:35):
protecting for a second attack. Rememberwe always have to be taught the first
thing could be a diversion that funnelsus into a bigger kill zone. So
they did exactly what they're supposed todo. The shift agents did the best
they could with covering up president formerPresident Trump and getting him off the stage,
you know. And then the countersurveillance guys, I agree with you.
(11:56):
I think there was a site,a line of sight problem with with
the guy being over the other edgeof that, you know, peaked roof,
and they had to wait till hepopped up, you know, popped
his head up again. And Ithink you know what happened. I think
there are six seconds in between,yeah, six seconds in between. Well,
you're right, they can throw offthis initial thing, could be a
diversion in order for four other peopleto pop up, and then you're really
(12:20):
in trouble. And that's why yourguys are there. And that's that's what's
always you always worry about a secondarything or even a third thing that could
be lying in wait. So that'sjust the strategy. I get it.
Yes, yes, sir, yep. I think over all these agents,
you know, we don't. Wepracticed so much and we're like videotaped where
we practiced. So you have towatch the movie of you practice it in
(12:43):
front of all your teammates and haveto explain why you waited three seconds when
other people did it in less thanone second, you know, So you
don't have time to think about someof this stuff. You just have to
react and protect that person with youryou know, with your body, you
know, And that's just our job. That's what he did, understood,
all right. Appreciate your insights,Craig as always, yes, sir,
(13:05):
absolutely all right, good talk toyou, Greg get your former secret service
agent, and we're back in minuteon news radio eight forty whas
I'm going to spend a few minutesnow with Greg Getcher. He's of a
longtime friend of mine. He wasa Jefferson County police officer at some point
in his career, early in hiscareer, and he's moved through various law
enforcement circles, ultimately winding up withthe United States Secret Service. Good to
talk to you again, sneak andDeacon. How's going? Oh good?
(00:22):
It was fun. We took alittle hike together last week. That was
great fun. Yeah. Our cardiologistkeeps us fitting slim and srim, I
guess, and he just sets agood example. Definitely, that's what he
does. And Henry Sadloe always getout there, let's go, let's hike.
And it was hot, but itwas fun. We appreciated that,
all right, So Greg, naturally, a lot of people want to know
(00:43):
about the logistics of the situation.And I know that you were visiting on
the radio station earlier today with Vanetti, so we don't have to go through
all the specifics of this, butwe're all stunned, of course, with
the basic point. How could someoneget that close of access to any press
residential appearance? Yes, I agreeone hundred percent. Let me just say
(01:07):
my prayers go out to the threepeople that were shot. The subject that
circumder's wounds was a chief fire departmentchief there in the county, and he
literally, the witnesses said, hecovered up his daughter and his wife and
took bullets for him. So myheart goes out to their family survivors,
and I just wanted to say thathow brave he was to do what he
(01:30):
did. Indeed, just a tragedythat anybody gets hurt in a situation where
someone takes it upon themselves to decidethey're going to, you know, shoot
at anybody, and that we windup with this sort of horror. And
that's for sure. But of course, when a presidential candidate, and in
this case it's a former United Statespresident, just like Barack Obama moves around,
(01:53):
so does Bill Clinton, you know, George W. Bush. They
move around, They have groups withthem. I don't know how many people
are guarding the car anymore, butyou get the point. Anybody who was
a president is guarded. I knowthat it's a limited detail. But when
that former president becomes a presidential candidateagain, does that increase the size of
the service group with him. Well, the obvious answer, Terry is yes,
(02:19):
it should. I think I think, you know, the protection asset
should be distributed to the highest threatlevel, so you know, former president
and he certainly in my over mycareer, I spent time with Jimmy Carter
when he was former, Gerald Fordwhen he was former you know, And
those are smuch smaller details. Anduh, I've been retired long enough I
couldn't even tell you how many areassigned to the president anymore. But obviously
(02:43):
it's reduced a lot once you becomea former president. However, to your
point, now that he's back inthe game and he could quite legitimately be
our next president, he should haveall the assets that's needed to protect him
at the threat level, which isin my opinion, very high against him.
Yeah, and I was reading toothat they're already starting to give him,
you know, our daily briefings becauseDonald Trump I'm talking about, because
(03:07):
he's moved this far through the tunnelof coming back to this opportunity to win
another election, and so he startsgetting daily briefings. That's part of basic
protocol, that's what goes along.So you would think just with that enhanced
attention paid to someone who's moving upthen that you would think they'd have a
(03:29):
security in this case, Greg,I'm guessing that outdoor situations are a little
more tricky than our indoor events.Well, yeah, you lose a little
control because indo our events they haveentrance doors and then you can control those
doors and everyone has to walk througha metal detector makes life a lot easier,
I assure you. At the MilwaukeeRepublican Action Convention, I know guys
(03:52):
that are up there and girls,and they're heavy, heavily secure. You
know, they're securify. Everything's veryheavy security, and they're even intensified now
after this assassination attempt. And thesame would be for the Democratic Convention in
Chicago as well. So inside youcontrol, outside you don't. That's why
I think in my opinion, fromwhen we've had to do these both when
(04:12):
I was the side agent and Iwas over the lead agent. You know,
you have to work. You haveto be able to see things from
the rooftops. You can see somefrom the air. We normally used to
have a helicopter that we would usefor certainly all the presidents, you know,
and they had a nickname, andyou'd call out the nick huntsman and
they would check rooftops and all thatkind of stuff. The snipers that are
(04:34):
famous, they're actually we call themcounter snipers because they go out in the
advance with us on the advanced team, and they set up all the possible
locations that a sniper would have thebest availability to shoot at our protectee.
So then they set up on thosepoints. Right. So this is no
big secret, it's common knowledge.But I was told they only had two
(04:56):
counter sniper teams there. One's aspider, one's shooting the long rifle.
Harry. I've been with those guysbecause I was a Secret Service farm instructor.
They have to hit a bowl andpen at one thousand yards, no
exaggeration, that's ten football fields.They are so good at what they do.
They doal in the temperature, humidity, the wind, everything. But
I think they only had two aboveformer President Trump. They were looking out
(05:19):
at what they deemed the highest levelthreats, and of course this threat came
from the hard right angle, andthey did probably did not have a scope
on it at that moment because theywere looking at other sites. I have
heard just recent, really recent informationthis afternoon that this guy came under knowledge
(05:40):
of the police department when he camethrough late and they were looking for him
and they lost him. As whatI was told, So I also was
told that there wasn't as many SecretService agents there that you would expect to
be there. They supplemented with obviouslylocal police, sheriffs and state troopers.
And there's always a difference in communicationgoes on with these different crews. But
(06:02):
I read your book, Sneak andDeacon. You talk about all these different
things parts of your life because you'realso a deacon of a church that's where
that name comes from. You talkabout going to ahead of Hillary Clinton in
Africa, scoping out these places wellin advance of an appearance. And so
I'm wondering, I'm wondering, why, whoever the advanced team on this one,
(06:24):
this particular incident where they try toassassinate Trump, that that wasn't pointed
out that rooftop is going to beone hundred and forty eight yards away.
That's danger. Absolutely, there's ourarguments. I love my former agency.
I thought those the agents on theshift, which are the guys on the
up on the stage, they reactedvery quickly and they did what they're supposed
(06:47):
to do. We were taught hundredsand hundreds of times to cover and evacuate
your protectee unless you're close enough tothe gun and you go for the gun.
They now, to President Trump's credit, he hit the deck very hard.
Once he touched his ear. Andincidentally, I've had a bullet was
by my ear when I was apolice officer here in Louisville, and you
could actually hear that bullet going by. It's very eerie. But he ducked.
(07:11):
He just fell down because that stagearound him is ballistic, so was
the podium, so he knew wherethe protection was. So the agents covered
him up. They tried to quicklyget him off stage. But if he
saw he's a big man, he'sstrong. He had all that adrenaline pumping
through him, and he was pumpinghis fist right and they were having trouble
moving him off the stage because hewas, you know, my opinion,
(07:33):
resisting him, resisting them a littlebit. But as they finally got him
off to the steps, he noticedthe wall separate and the armored limo packed
up to the stairs, where theytried to get him in that armored limo
very quickly. The suburban but hewas still pumping his fist all the way
in, you know. But youknow, they got him in there.
They did a great job. That'swhat we're paid to do, that's where
(07:55):
we're trained to do. But you'reright, the advancement, I'd hate to
have my name on that report thatI signed it that it was clear for
him to come in. And ifindeed this guy did come to our attention
through people or the police, inmy opinion, they should have held off
letting former President Trump come out onthat stage until they rectified the situation to
(08:16):
make sure this guy wasn't there andhe was a threat. Yeah, the
one guy that the BBC interviewed whathe was saying that Donald Trump was already
speaking, and then they saw thatguy on that roof and started yelling at
law enforcement or whoever happened to bearound. They couldn't see him the way
the fold came with that edge ofthat roof, but still Trump was already
(08:37):
on the stage. But the guythe witness said something to the effect of
I didn't understand why they didn't stopTrump's speech in order to take care of
this situation. So that's all,you know, Hopefully we'll find out I
hope you know, we can't investigateourselves. So the memory of understanding is
the FBI would always take over inthese situations. We're going to do a
(08:58):
very tediouster. You're actually reporting tofigure out what did go wrong and fix
it right away and see who madethat mistake, whoever it was. And
you know, if you couldn't putcounter snipers onto that roof, then you
would put a Secret Service agent anda police counterpart up there to make sure
nobody could get up there. SoI am not sure what happened. I
was told that they knew when hecame in that he was a problem,
(09:20):
but they lost him. So ifthat was the case, then I think
they should have held to protect theuntil it was they deemed it safe.
That's just my opinion. Terry,we're speaking of Greg get your former Secret
Service agent. Let's talk about thesize of the agents, because i've heard
this complaint. Now, Donald Trumpis what six' four. You can't
have somebody guarding him who's going tobe part of a cover if they're going
(09:43):
to move him. If she andit was mostly women who are much shorter,
is five to five or whatever Imean, it says that's too much
of him exposed in the training,do they talk about the agents that are
in close proximity to the protectee beingat least the same height for when this
sort of a situation arises, Terry, I have never heard that question asked
(10:05):
before, So I'll give you alot of credit for that one. Yeah.
So I'm not going to go intothis whole DEI situation. Let's just
save that for another day. Butthere was a time where, yeah,
you had to have all the physicalfitness requirements. We were tested, you
know, throughout the year, shootingbeyond the protection detail. We had to
shoot once a month because we hadmachine guns and shotguns and handguns. And
(10:30):
I was told that maybe, youknow, I'm wondering if those standards are
still the same. I don't know. I don't Purson, I've been retired
too long, but I would hopethat they, you know, they take
all that into you know, accountfor you know that by that particular situation.
Yeah, I mean, that's thegig as you you know, we've
seen it at the times of PresidentKennedy's assassination, Ronald Reagan being shot,
(10:54):
you know, the woman shooting atGerald Ford. I mean We've seen these
things over the but the agents thatare around it just seems like the whole
thing is to converge on the protecteeand if you are much shorter, I
mean, no offense. And it'snot about women, because Britney Griner could
be somebody gardener and then she wouldmore than cover a guy. So it's
(11:15):
just about the size of the peoplein close proximity. Terry. I mean,
they have these strict requirements because thinkabout it, we have some of
us will have automatic weapons on us. Okay you may not see them,
but we have them. You sawthe two CAT guys in the all black,
black uniform show on the stage.Those are our guys. CAT is
Counter Assault Team, and they didwhat they're supposed to do. They were
(11:35):
protecting for a second attack. Rememberwe always have to be taught the first
thing could be a diversion that funnelsus into a bigger kill zone. So
they did exactly what they're supposed todo. The shift agents did the best
they could with covering up president formerPresident Trump and getting him off the stage,
you know. And then the countersurveillance guys, I agree with you.
(11:56):
I think there was a site,a line of sight problem with with
the guy being over the other edgeof that, you know, peaked roof,
and they had to wait till hepopped up, you know, popped
his head up again. And Ithink you know what happened. I think
there are six seconds in between,yeah, six seconds in between. Well,
you're right, they can throw offthis initial thing, could be a
diversion in order for four other peopleto pop up, and then you're really
(12:20):
in trouble. And that's why yourguys are there. And that's that's what's
always you always worry about a secondarything or even a third thing that could
be lying in wait. So that'sjust the strategy. I get it.
Yes, yes, sir, yep. I think over all these agents,
you know, we don't. Wepracticed so much and we're like videotaped where
we practiced. So you have towatch the movie of you practice it in
(12:43):
front of all your teammates and haveto explain why you waited three seconds when
other people did it in less thanone second, you know, So you
don't have time to think about someof this stuff. You just have to
react and protect that person with youryou know, with your body, you
know, And that's just our job. That's what he did, understood,
all right. Appreciate your insights,Craig as always, yes, sir,
(13:05):
absolutely all right, good talk toyou, Greg get your former secret service
agent, and we're back in minuteon news radio eight forty whas
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