# You're a Secret Service agent. Would you take a bullet for a President you hated? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513 "2016-05-11T00:08:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/21 "2016-05-11T12:55:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > That is exactly what they have to promise if they choose to be on Presidential detail. Secret Service Presidential detail is only a small minority of the whole agency but it is among the elite among them or at least it is supposed to be. Despite recent scandals and mismanagement, the agents on that detail pledge to give everything they have including their lives to save the President or the President’s family. Smells like heresay to me. Can you point to anything more substantial than what you heard as your friend’s family lore? I mean, if all we are going to do is exchange stuff other people said in casual conversation, I used to work from time to time with a fellow who retired from the Secret Service before he became a part-time deputy sheriff. He had worked executive protection and reported no such dramatic oaths. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/22 "2016-05-11T13:32:43Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Smells like heresay to me. Can you point to anything more substantial than what you heard as your friend’s family lore? I mean, if all we are going to do is exchange stuff other people said in casual conversation, I used to work from time to time with a fellow who retired from the Secret Service before he became a part-time deputy sheriff. He had worked executive protection and reported no such dramatic oaths. From the Secret Service FAQs - [About Us](http://www.secretservice.gov/about/faqs/) > [@](#): > > Why do agents agree to sacrifice their lives for the sake of saving the president? > A key mission of the Secret Service is protection. As such, agents are trained to make sure the president and the other people they protect are safe at all times, including in situations that may be dangerous or even life-threatening. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/23 "2016-05-11T14:38:27Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > I wouldn’t take a bullet for anyone as a job, which is why I am not in the secret service. This. I’m not too cool about working overtime; taking a bullet would be a total deal-breaker for me. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/24 "2016-05-11T15:22:44Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Not to mention that an attack on the President could possibly be part of a decapitation strike preceding a military attack, up to and including a full-scale nuclear strike. This. Regardless of what you think of the “hypothetical” president in the OP, and even if you otherwise wish him dead, I’d think you would probably agree that it would be best if the perpetrators were unable to successfully carry out this part of their plan. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/25 "2016-05-11T15:38:25Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > If you’re not prepared to do this, then you should not be a Secret Service agent. Yeah, it’s pretty much the higher-stakes version of a county clerk not giving out marriage licenses to people she personally disagrees with: this is a job requirement, and nobody’s making you keep the job. Would I? Hard to say, given that I don’t know the bizarre chain of events that would have made me qualified to be in the position in the first place. But I’d either do it or resign before it ever came up; I wouldn’t promise to protect someone and then not do it. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/26 "2016-05-11T18:38:28Z")
If you’re not up to the task, step down. Otherwise you’re part of the assassination. And face it, if you despise the duly elected president that much, you’re in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/27 "2016-05-11T18:53:27Z")
14 people said no. I wonder if they read the OP, or if they’re saying they wouldn’t take the job. Hard to believe many people would not do such a critical job after they’ve said they would. If I worked at McDonald’s and they made me swear never to eat at Wendy’s even though I wasn’t sure if I could fulfill that promise I might just say yes and see if I could live up to it. Hard to imagine taking on a critical position like the Secret Service protectors of the POTUS and not mean it though. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/28 "2016-05-11T19:02:29Z")
Whether our president is a shitheel or not, losing a president will break our hearts. You know what happened the last time. We still collectively lose our shit over it. No country does well after they lose their leader, even if they have a viable alternative. I signed up to take a bullet for the president. I would be honored to do it. it doesn’t mean I am taking a bullet for Trump. It means no less than me taking a bullet for my country, that I love so dearly, and which has been threatened. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/29 "2016-05-11T19:09:18Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Do the job or quit. Simple. Pretty much that. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/30 "2016-05-11T19:13:33Z")
For what it’s worth, the Secret Service does more than protecting the President, including anti-counterfeiting activities. If I was in the Secret Service protecting the President, then I’d take the bullet because that’s the job, but if I felt I wasn’t willing to do that, I’d be the first to transfer to the counterfeiting department. (As an accountant with lousy eyesight, isn’t that where they’d have put me in the first place? 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/31 "2016-05-11T20:32:52Z")
I may not like the President, but I _hate_ the mofos who want to take him out by killing him. Yeah, I take the bullet if I can. From what I understand, the Secret Service considers this an honor. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/32 "2016-05-11T23:34:20Z")
And even if it _is_ President Trump, think about all the rich goodies he’d shower you with if you survived. Although on second thought, with Trump he might just give you a pat on the back and call it even. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/33 "2016-05-12T01:09:18Z")
I’m not a SS agent, not my line of work… so no. I wouldn’t event take Tomahawk if it were to be pointed at the wrong convention. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And even if it _is_ President Trump, think about all the rich goodies he’d shower you with if you survived. If it was a Tomahawk, think if all the rich goodies you’d be peppered with as you tried to survive… ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/34 "2016-05-12T10:44:59Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Yep. \*\*If I value keeping my job \*\*and upholding what I vowed to do at its inception, then I’d take a bullet for Pres. Trump. If I had a problem with him so big I couldn’t overcome it to do my then do my job, I would resign. Well, technically, if you took the bullet, you’d be maimed or dead afterwards, so you couldn’t keep your job afterwards. Edit: Yeah, I know what you mean, though. You have to have that _ **ethos** _, actual shooting or not. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/35 "2016-05-12T12:06:58Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > No, but I wouldn’t take one for a president I liked, either. IRL, I don’t think Secret Service agents are expected to, either. They have to be willing to be in the line of fire as part of the job, but I strongly doubt there is a real expectation that they deliberately sacrifice their lives for the POTUS. I am not in the Secret Service, so I can’t speak to what their actual training or expectations are, but in the one time in my life where there were shots fired at the president, one of the agents, Tim McCarthy, spread his body out in front of Reagan to shield him from the shots, taking a bullet in his abdomen in the process. > **[Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan)** > > On March 30, 1981, then President of the United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had developed an erotomanic obsession after viewing her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. > Reagan was seriously wounded by a revolver bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine a... ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/36 "2016-05-12T17:42:42Z")
Not at all. Which is why I’m never going to be a Secret Service agent. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/37 "2016-05-12T17:58:39Z")
Sure I would, if I ever accepted the assignment, which I probably wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/38 "2016-05-12T18:39:23Z")
A professional discharges his responsibilities. A professional who rises to that level can be expected to, under extreme duress. I’m not a dedicated secret service agent, nor would I aspire to be one, so don’t ask me what I would do. For example, Barry Richard, a registered Democrat, was the head of the law team that defended Bush before the Florida Supreme Court, in Gore v. Bush in the 2000 election. He probably voted for Gore, but defended Bush in court. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/39 "2016-05-12T19:14:22Z")
Without reading the thread - No, because if I didn’t like or at least respect the President there is no way I would ever get put on the Detail. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513/40 "2016-05-12T20:37:08Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Smells like heresay to me. Can you point to anything more substantial than what you heard as your friend’s family lore? I mean, if all we are going to do is exchange stuff other people said in casual conversation, I used to work from time to time with a fellow who retired from the Secret Service before he became a part-time deputy sheriff. He had worked executive protection and reported no such dramatic oaths. I don’t know about any special oaths the detail takes beyond the oath they take for the job but they are certainly trained to throw themselves in front of whoever they are protecting. They train so that it becomes second nature and reflex. They are trained specifically to take a bullet. > [@dracoi](#): > > For what it’s worth, the Secret Service does more than protecting the President, including anti-counterfeiting activities. > > If I was in the Secret Service protecting the President, then I’d take the bullet because that’s the job, but if I felt I wasn’t willing to do that, I’d be the first to transfer to the counterfeiting department. (As an accountant with lousy eyesight, isn’t that where they’d have put me in the first place? 🙂 ) I’ve worked a couple of presidential protection details. When the president travels into an area they pull all the Secret Service agents out of the local offices to work on the protection detail. Those regular agents are not going to be the ones closest to the president but you still have to be willing to put your ass on the line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-secret-service-agent-would-you-take-a-bullet-for-a-president-you-hated/754513.md?page=3)