This would have been what we call a career-ending move.
Former U.S. Secret Service agent Gerald Blaine says in his new book that he almost shot President Lyndon B. Johnson hours after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Associated Press reported.
Blaine writes in his book “The Kennedy Detail” that he was on a detail at night guarding Johnson’s Washington home on Nov. 23, 1963, just after Kennedy had been shot and Johnson had been sworn in, when he heard footsteps approaching, AP reported.
Blaine wrote that he picked up his submachine gun and pointed at the chest of the man who ended up being Johnson.
AP reported that the incident left Blaine chilled, realizing the nation could have lost a second president hours after losing Kennedy.