Posted on 12/26/2014 10:53:43 AM PST by mojito
Shortly after President Obama landed here one fall day for fund-raisers, his motorcade pulled out of the airport and raced at 80 miles per hour down an empty freeway to his hotel in the city.
At the front of the procession were bulletproof black sport utility vehicles and limousines driven by Secret Service agents who had spent hundreds of hours learning how to maneuver at high speeds.
Bringing up the rear were police cars with their lights flashing and a Secret Service ambulance that follows the president wherever he travels.
And in between were several vans filled with White House staff members and journalists, being piloted by volunteers like Natalie Tyson, a 24-year-old Bay Area graduate student....
Volunteers with no special training are a link in the middle of the fastest, and highest-profile, chain of vehicles in the country. They are cheaper than the Secret Service personnel or local police officers who surround them on the road. And their cargo of lowly staff members and reporters is apparently less precious.
The White House declined to comment on the practice. The Secret Service defended it, saying it has been standard since at least the 1980s. Volunteer drivers “are briefed by the Secret Service agent responsible for the motorcade prior to any movements” about what to do in case of an emergency, like an attack, a spokesman for the agency said.
But Ms. Tyson said in a telephone interview several weeks after she drove in the motorcade that she had received little instruction from the Secret Service about what to do in the event of a high-speed emergency. She assumed that she should just follow the car in front of her no matter what happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Read the whole thing - Another revealing behind the scenes look into the kindergarten that is the 0bama WH.
h/t Vanderluen@American Digest
“I can TOTALLY do Grand Theft Auto car stunts in this, right?!”
All those in the motorcade are novices, but they’re good communist novices.
Why on earth do we the taxpayers pay Government rate salaries to Agents who act as drivers. Let’s just go the nearest Home Depot and hire a few of those looking for day jobs.
FYI I am being extremely sarcastic.
“Volunteers with no special training are a link in the middle of the fastest, and highest-profile, chain of vehicles in the country. They are cheaper than the Secret Service personnel or local police officers who surround them on the road. And their cargo of lowly staff members and reporters is apparently less precious.”
Dan Bongino, former Secret Service agent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bongino
was talking about this today on WMAL radio. He says this is standard practice. The Secret Service detail is there to protect the Presidnet, the First Family and maybe a few others, but staffers, the press, etc., are only tagging along.
The article clearly says this started before Obama. Sounds the SS has been doing this quite awhile.
His extensive criminal history only came to light in recent days after federal prosecutors outlined convictions and charges of armed robbery, theft and larceny against Thompson, who now faces federal prison time for embezzling more than $800,000 from HUD during his short stint as a federal worker...
The sort of people hired under 0bama? That's the more interesting question.
“but staffers, the press, etc., are only tagging along.”
Yes but they are in the motorcade and close to the President.
...and before anyone responds that Lois Lerner worked at the IRS and not HHS, yes, I know that, but emails can cross agencies.
A lap dance from Lois Lerner is reserved for those condemned to the darkest, foulest pits of he!!.
They are just LIV landmine detonators...they are just kneel at the Obama altar sacrificial lambs bu don’t know it yet...they think The One actually appreciates what they do...morons...
Given Obama’s approval rating it’s not a surprise they have to scrape up people who will drive for him.
Why do we need a motorcade for this poser? Just put him in an unmarked used car & let him do his own driving. Probably nobody would notice.
Yeah, do his own driving. Were it not for his government gig, he would be driving a cab in NYC or Chicago.
“Volunteers” meaning they aren’t paid? And I would volunteer to do this why? Especially when it involves protecting an enemy of the United States?
I can honestly see some idiot doing that.
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