C.J. Gets a Threatening Email | The West Wing 

Ron has literally taken a bullet for the President before.

So what you're saying is that Ron is the head of the deep state

Interesting thing is that Donna may have saved CJ's life. Without Donna getting Josh, CJ keeps it a secret. The Secret Service aren't watching her email. Granted that CJ would receive the email of the pictures and that would certainly alarm the hell out of her, but until then she's a target. Come to think of it, she was no more a target then than before. Nevermind. Donna didn't save her.

@@Michael-dy2lb naw, Donna did the right thing. the ball got rolling as CJ was getting at the least, stalked, and at worse, cased. SS wouldn't have known until too late to get pro-active.

@@Michael-dy2lb With her busy schedule, if she had decided the threat wasn't anything to worry about, she might have routed the rest into her junk mail folder and not seen the pictures. For sure Donna may have saved her life.

@@seanmcmurphy4744 That's a solid argument. She hadn't sent it to her junk email yet, but it's possible.

@@Michael-dy2lb The sad thing is, with social media lynch mobs, everyone is now getting rape threats, death threats, doxes and swats. Election workers, court clerks, judges, uni presidents, professors, school board members, teachers.

If you watch In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Ron checks the president for injuries when they’re in the limo. According to the actor, that’s how the secret service actually do it.

This is all due to Micheal O'Neill doing his research. Unlike some men who always play police or military, O'Neill was never in either. He played basketball in college and went directly into acting. So all of these small touches are due to him going to the right people, asking questions and making absolutely sure he had it all down.

@@Elthenar Absolutely. It’s a clear sign of an actor putting in the work. I’m sure as research he met with the real deal, maybe even was allowed to observe while on duty. And I would bet that he’s actually wearing something under the suit jacket to help feel more in character. No one writes these little character bits into a script and no director suggests it. This all comes from the actor showing up prepared.

He is such an amazing character actor. I see him on the screen and get excited every single time. I know he will be good.

⁠@@MsJaytee1975That is why Reagan survived his assassination attempt. That and a bunch of other “lucky” breaks that was actually someone thinking it out before it could happen.

7 Emmys

@@jesusthroughmary she got 4

@@kennethpaulsen5407 4 for TWW, 7 overall

@@kennethpaulsen5407 She got seven Emmy's in total, four were for West Wing.

@@Mybpeterson this was under the post about the west wing so she got 4 for the show. that she got 3 for some other things is not relevant to this.

Likely rose up through the ranks. Did it himself as an assignment before, I'm sure. Good stuff.

I'm reasonably sure that they probably just had a set of tools on a server in the White House that the Secret Service could access for such occasions. Otherwise, fair call.

@@samueljones7571 No. Sophisticated hacking tools, at the time, were kept in a GSA rated classified storage container. They were not kept on the network. Want to know why? Because if you had a reason to need those tools in an instant to look at a credible threat, such as a network intrusion, then the threat actor had access to them, too. From inside your network. The reason tracert was used, in this case, is because it's a basic tool that came standard as part of DOS, and continues to be standard on most operating systems.

@@samueljones7571 I mean, it's The West Wing. Who cares, right? It's just shoeleather to do it any other way. Still, love seeing it.

IT here! Running a trace route from that computer would be useless, at best it would just lead back to the mail server of the White House, because that is what distributes the email to computers. You could see where the email came from on the mail server side though.

It was perfectly eerie

I didn't see it the first time I watched.....I'll never miss it again, it was profound.

So well done and an amazing actor!

I always remember the time that Ron got shot in the hand and didn't even mention it until Bartlet noticed that he was bleeding and then refused to let the President take him to the hospital, because his job was to get the President to safety. His own health could wait until that objective has been achieved. Ron is absolutely a professional, he is good at his job and takes it very seriously.

My father was in the US Secret Service, from Kennedy to Bush 41. At one point he was the SAIC of the entire White House complex. Essentially, Ron Butterfield’s character. And yes, my father did see and do some wild and dark stuff in his time.

which is why they walk the dark places

Agreed

​@@ericsteel173i probably met your father a time or two. I worked in the WH for Bush 41.

@@ericsteel173 Tell your dad we appreciate him and his service

The writing was exquisite [certainly the Sorkin episodes] and the acting was stellar. A fantastic show.

Every scene. Every episode. I miss this show so much

CJ's wariness was hardly subtle.

That is a well know body language cue. Some thing a person will do if they feel threatened or attacked, just be aware that people also button their jackets when they feel cold.

Call Seal 6!

Not saying you're wrong or anything, but that last scene made me feel almost the exact opposite. Bartlet and Ron try to strong-arm her and Bartlet mocks her before they even bother to explain how severe the situation actually is. The person threatening her life has literally been photo-scouting her home, and then emailed it to her (an email that she didn't get the chance to look at before they shoved the secret service agreement in her face), but apparently it's more important for her boss and the head of the Secret Service to make fun of her for not wanting a detail, than it is to actually explain to her WHY she needs one. If I'm CJ in that moment, I'm feeling a lot of things. Valued by my boss and the people in that room is NOT what one of them 😂

@@noahbrown6970 This is honestly something that TWW did well. Bartlet is strong-arming her. But it's not because he thinks he can. It's because he's afraid for his family and he has every right to be considering what happened with Charlie. Ron is just doing his job and in some respect can't become an empathic persuader so much as a rational member of security. And CJ is used to hate mail but doesn't know threat assessment so she doesn't take the threat as seriously as she should. As for Bartlet's mockery, it's literally the thing he does when he's angry. And there's a whole track record through the show pointing out how that helps and hurts and Tobey mentions he does that because of his father. And he's right to be angry. At least, in his mind. CJ isn't taking a legitimate threat seriously from the jump (it took 3 emails for it to get to him about her need for security) and the last time someone got death threats he and Josh got shot for it. Ultimately, TWW did well writing characters with flaws that popped at bad times. Bartlet was the first to start the shouting match and to put down others when he got angry even when a cool head matters. CJ was used to taking so much flak that she had bad threat assessment (seen here and with both shootings). And many more that aren't relevant to this scene.

Look, I’m a huge, huge, HUGE fan of TWW. Even 25 years later, it’s still, to me, by far the best tv show ever ever ever. That being said, having established my admiration for the show as well as for Aaron Sorkin, I’ve often disliked the way they wrote the interactions featuring C.J. It’s often somewhat dismissive of her. I still can’t fathom why they would write her character that way.

they kept their eye on the prize--they needed that paper signed. CJ got strong-armed because she got in the way of that. They didn't want to alarm her in order to get their job done if they could get her to just sign the paperwork. that decision is debatable. but what CJ thought was important was the sign of weakness--what they thought was important was keeping her alive. Guiding Olive does raise a salient point about Bartlett repeating his father's way of communicating. As president, he does have to worry about being a liberal weak on crime, but as a man he doesn't have to worry about looking weak in the face of violence.

its one of the reasons i watched the clip, seen he was in it

Him and fitzwallace, and fbi agent caspar. Just three consumate professionals who are never flustered by anything.

Very quiet moves slowly. But you know he could F up someone’s day real quick lol

Ahh but look at the time. The last one was 602 and so we can presume its a little after 6am. We last saw her check then after 10pm the night before.

I mean, this was 20 years ago. Emails simply weren't as common.

@@Afalstein yes, yes of course

It was 2000, not as may people were on the internet

Fewer.

How she stopped talking when Ron looked at the President. And the regretful nod the President gave.

@@chewy739 That was subtle look by Ron, something I missed the first time. Beautifull acting.

If you actually watch the episode you can see through the back of one of them.

This role as the secret service agent essentially gets Harmon the role on NCIS.

Nothing can kill Mark Harmon. He’s just taking a nap.

And then cue Jeff Buckley…Sorkin sure did know how to set a mood with music

@@joemckim1183In a season 8 episode there’s flashbacks to the mid 90s where Gibbs’ boss is played by Michael O’Neill aka Ron Butterfield

No reason it shouldn't be exactly like the show in that regard. It used to bug me, but now I look at it as Puck's "If we have offended..." speech from Midsummer.

same as the shower scene in Psycho--your mind can do more than Hitchcock could perform with special effects

@@alertgasper It's something a lot of current-day directors and writers haven't learned: The power of suggestion can sometimes be more effective than simply showing everything. A lot of what is shown so graphically nowadays wouldn't need to be graphic if the director understood the power of suggestion and letting the viewer's imagination do the rest.

@@rowanaforrest9792 true--just because someone has the tech and budget for CGI or FX, doesn't mean they can't let a little good "suggestion" go on. Let the audience get involved in a scene by imagining themselves, rather than having the material spoon-fed to them.

Agreed, he steals every scene he is in

Same with CJ buttoning her jacket when seeing the pictures. She feels violated and even something as simple as buttoning a jacket can be psychologically soothing because it puts another layer between them and the threat.

Re-watching clips like these show me just how detail oriented they were. Ron has a gun, how would he sit? CJ is shown invasive photos, how would she react? Master class.

Honestly one of the best shows ever produced!

Because it's not about politics, it's about people and their integrity. May our government be peopled with civil servants and politicians with HALF the integrity as these.

You just described every episode of this show.

CJ wasn't a character who suddenly became dumb in this moment. She was absolutely right when she said it would make her appear fragile. Very easy for her critics to say "oh look, the little girl needs protection." She didn't know how serious the threat was. President Bartlett was trying to protect her by trying not to tell her just how serious the threat was, but even he knew she wasn't going to just do what he told her to do. That's why they had the pictures ready. Had CJ walked into that office and just willingly accepted she needed protection, it actually would have lessened her character.

@@jasonkoch3182 Agree to disagree. There have been plenty of moments within the series where she expected, if not demanded, that others defer to her expertise in specific matters. That said, her portrayal (IMHO) would have honored character continuity if she were to acknowledge Ron’s input while also stating her concerns about appearances. Instead she outright dismisses his concerns and recommendations knowing full well that he isn’t just pulling that out of his butt. That’s an inconsistency that I find annoying in shows like this.

He was in JAG which was the precursor to NCIS. So technically we do.

Probably automated 5min cuts

@@DoctorWhom Which now explains the careless and nondescript posts: hit 'in', drag to around the five minute mark, regardless of context, and post. I'm starting to go off this channel, very, very quickly - the person behind it couldn't care less.

@@DoctorWhom Its not like they are going to get copyright striked for it. The OP is correct. If you are going to do a job do it like you care.

Because there was anything in this video that a woman couldn’t do?

It's not about being looked after by the men, it's about her not taking the threat seriously until they are forced to show her how close the threat is.

Oh, I guess you forgot Gina Toscano, the character that Jorja Fox played on "The West Wing". The Secret Service has WOMEN, too.

There is literally a female Secret Service agent in the Oval Office with CJ, Butterfield and the President during the scene you perpetual victim. Stop being pathetic.

Maybe Ron Butterfield who is the head of the Secret Service a male agent would do a better job protecting CJ and that CJ would listen to a male agent more than a female agent.