Rules Former Presidents Have To Follow

just because you were once the commander-in-chief that doesn't mean you can now do whatever you want from driving cars to using cell phones these are the rules that former presidents have to follow one of the greatest perks of being president is not having to deal with traffic every day for one thing you've got drivers who can take you anywhere you need to go and for another the secret service can block off traffic for you to ensure your security it's no fun for anyone else on the road but hey you're the president and you have important things to do there is a downside though once a president's term is over they can never drive a car on an open road again the reason is because of the lifetime secret service detail that all ex-presidents get after all one of the least safe places you can be is on the road and that's just under normal circumstances add in that ex-presidents are always a target and things get even hairier so to ensure their safety they're not allowed to hit the road as george w bush explained to jay leno he's only allowed to drive on his own private property far from any reckless drivers or people who wish him harm he must be driven everywhere by secret service agents trained in evasive and defensive driving maneuvers the rule was instituted after john f kennedy's assassination in 1963 lyndon b johnson was to date the last president to drive on public roads one of the president's most important duties is to be aware of any potential threats to the security of the united states these briefings are carried out constantly throughout a president's tenure even multiple times a day if necessary because the world is always changing and threats can come up unexpectedly you'd think former presidents would no longer need to be bothered about such things since they're retired from the job and are now private citizens but you'd be wrong they continue to receive national security updates for the rest of their lives not necessarily because they're expected to actively do anything about them but just in case they have advice they can offer the current administration or if they get asked about the situation by the press even if being president isn't their job anymore they still need constant updates about what's going on this actually became newsworthy in 2018 when president donald trump allegedly threatened to revoke barack obama's access to national security briefings according to newsweek president trump was rumored to be unaware that former presidents received the briefings and had to be informed that this was normal and nothing to be concerned about though trump later said these rumors were untrue whether or not it really happened the story shined a light on just what kind of access ex-presidents have to day-to-day information about the country's security have you ever noticed that everyone who serves as president gets a library named after them when they leave office there's a good reason for this it's a law the 1955 presidential libraries act established that each president would oversee the creation of a library in their name while having a library named after yourself is definitely a cool perk residential libraries are a little different they contain every non-classified word a president has written in office even the stuff that may not be so good such as bill clinton's library in little rock arkansas which features information about his impeachment scandal they're not allowed to keep certain materials out of their libraries as anything created during a president's term is legally considered to be public property this was decided after richard nixon attempted to leave out materials regarding the watergate scandal the lights are off and they must be looking for a fuse box or something because in flashlights they're keeping me awake the individual presidents do have some control over how much a certain subject is featured though for example george w bush's library in dallas texas does mention his invasion of iraq but instead of shying away from it the materials on display defend his decision to go to war we all assume that the government is listening to everything we do these days especially after numerous scandals have come up in the last two decades where the government was caught doing exactly that by surveilling u.s citizens without a warrant the intelligence community has since tried to clean up its image by being more transparent about this and it now requires warrants in many situations however the secret service often gets exceptions to these rules in cases relating to the security of current and former presidents for example according to the hill the secret service got an exception to warrant laws regarding so-called stingray devices that can monitor the location of cell phones with the department of homeland security arguing it was impractical to require them to obtain warrants to monitor the president and other important individuals while this particular device doesn't monitor the contents of communications passed by the phones this is just one of many techniques that law enforcement can use for surveillance and the secret service has pretty sweeping jurisdiction over keeping former presidents safe whether that's from threatening phone calls suspicious tweets or anything in between routinely monitoring a president or former president's communications is an invasive but necessary activity the secret service has to undertake to ensure the security of those they are sworn to protect former presidents don't have much privacy and those snoopy secret service agents even get to paw through their mail an ex-president's regular old snail mail and packages must be examined by agents before they can be delivered that may sound like overkill but they've caught several dangerous deliveries by doing this even as recently as 2018 according to bloomberg law the secret service successfully identified explosives on route to former presidents bill clinton and barack obama among other vip targets and it's not just a random agent shuffling through and opening the ex-president's mail on the way back from their mailbox it's all screened off-site by trained security staff with knowledge of dealing with explosives dangerous chemicals and so on every male piece is meticulously examined for any possible threats to the former president what's more the secret service agents aren't the only ones keeping an eye on ex-presidential mail the united states postal service also gets in on the act as they monitor any suspicious packages sent through the mail no matter who they're going to through a program called dangerous mail investigations which sounds like a show that cbs will be picking up any day now it's my opinion that it is utter nonsense every so often you just need some alone time people take walks seek out a quiet room or whatever they need to find a little peace and quiet if this is you becoming president might be a bad idea because you're literally never alone and that continues even after you've left office secret service detail is a 24 7 thing and former secret service agent jonathan wackrow described presidential protection to nbc news is quote the most intrusive thing that anyone could ever experience basically you're constantly surrounded by people you barely know and since agents can be swapped out or moved around ex-presidents are likely to be surrounded by strangers for the rest of their lives and these agents don't take a break when things aren't going well like when there are arguments between spouses agents are even with former presidents during holidays imagine not being able to eat thanksgiving dinner without a bunch of people in black suits posted up nearby this actually happened to donald trump when he was president-elect when he and his family sat down to holiday dinner at mar-a-lago more than 150 secret service agents were there too since all of his family members who were in attendance had secret service details of their own being one of the most powerful individuals in the world might seem like it would include the ability to do well pretty much anything you want this isn't necessarily the case because of that 24 7 365 day a year secret service detail it's hard to be spontaneous if a regular person wants to pop down to starbucks and get a grande french vanilla latte or whatever they just head that way get their coffee and get on with their day due to a former president's large secret service detail though anything they want to do even normal everyday stuff becomes a huge undertaking think of something you like to do every day like taking a walk or going out for dinner now imagine you have to do that thing with an entourage of strangers disrupting everyone around you for the rest of your life for example president barack obama made a starbucks run while he was still in office and it ended up with the secret service blocking off much of the street and moving pedestrians away from the president the president even asked the secret service to give him a little space just a small indicator of how frustrating constant security must be speaking of president obama he was a pretty notorious fan of playing games to pick up basketball something he spent a lot of time doing while in private life and as a senator once he became president though the secret service told him that they needed four hours notice before such a game which president obama wasn't terribly happy about according to nbc news so what's a former president to do if they get sick of all these rules and stipulations they have to follow why even be president if you don't get to spend your retirement years doing whatever you feel like right well there is a way they can get out of having to deal with all this and go back to how things were before they took office by declining the secret service detail as it turns out this is an actual option the secret service only protects those who accept the protection if a former president or anyone else with security detail waives those protections they're free to accept responsibility for their own safety and security or maybe hire their own private security that might be willing to let them do more things without restrictions former president richard nixon actually did this in his later years though the reason he gave was to save the government some money according to the new york times then in 2017 president trump's son donald jr willingly declined secret service protection as reported by the times citing privacy as his reason for doing so while the secret service heavily discourages protectees from choosing to do this it's absolutely an option if a president ever wants to drive their own car again check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about presidential history are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one

Channel: Grunge

Views: 9,073,340

Rating: 4.8372087 out of 5

Keywords: grunge, grunge channel, presidents, president, former presidents, potus, us president, president of the united states, rules for former presidents, former president driving, secret service, former president secret service, presidential, president security, presidential library, white house, president mail screening, surveillance, government surveillance, donald trump, barack obama, george bush, george w bush, bill clinton

Id: to_hR0QJl80

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2020