Wayne Palmer

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Wayne Palmer is a fictional character on the television series 24. He is played by D. B. Woodside.

The brother of former President David Palmer, Wayne came in to replace Mike Novick as the President's Chief of Staff, after Palmer had relieved Novick of his duties at the end of Season Two. He is a former Marine. He also has a sister named Sandra Palmer. After high school, he received a baseball scholarship to Stanford University, where he was a pitcher and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

Before being employed by the President, Palmer was a member of the United States Marine Corps, though he did not see combat. At some point after being discharged, Palmer worked as an Attorney at Law for Anderson & Siebertz for a period of time. Afterwards, he served as a COO for Milliken Enterprises that was owned by Alan Milliken, a high powered businessman backer of his brother. While Milliken was hospitalized, recovering from a stroke, Wayne embarked upon an affair with Milliken's wife, Julia.

[edit] Day 3

During Season Three, Milliken finds out about Wayne's affair with his wife, Julia, and presents the information to President Palmer, demanding that he fire his brother as Chief of Staff.

Instead of allowing Wayne to resign, Palmer called in his ex-wife, Sherry, to dig up the dirt on Milliken. When she failed in her attempt to counter-blackmail Milliken, Sherry seized the opportunity to prevent Milliken from reaching his medication during a heart attack and convinced Julia not to help him. Milliken died from a heart attack in front of Julia and Sherry. President Palmer provided an alibi for Sherry to the police. She then attempted to expose the truth. Wayne had brought in a specialist to obtain evidence linking Sherry to Milliken's death. As they did so and the evidence was obtained, Milliken's wife, Julia, facing jail time, arrived at Sherry's house with the intent to kill her. Wayne attempted to stop the murder, but failed to do so. Julia then committed suicide. The events of this day led to President Palmer deciding not to seek his second term.

[edit] After Day 3

Some time after Day 3, Wayne eventually married, but as of yet, his wife has been neither seen nor mentioned on the TV series.

[edit] Day 5

At the start of Season Five, Wayne is helping his brother, former President David Palmer, to write his memoirs at Wayne's apartment. It is then that David Palmer is shot in the neck and killed by a sniper. Later, as the FBI comb the crime scene, Jack Bauer quietly infiltrates the apartment but is surprised by Wayne, who is under the assumption that Bauer was responsible for carrying out the assassination. After Bauer manages to convince him otherwise, Wayne helps to uncover information about his brother's death and a plot within the administration.

Shortly after martial law is declared by President Charles Logan, Wayne contacts Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce to discuss new information concerning David Palmer and the events of the day. As he approaches Logan's retreat, a van of armed commandos working for Christopher Henderson attack his car. He survives and manages to flee his assailants. Wayne escapes with the help of Pierce.

Wayne and Aaron walk into the Presidential retreat and confront Martha Logan's personal assistant, Evelyn Martin, then talk to her regarding e-mails that she exchanged with his brother, David Palmer. Evelyn reveals that she told David who was behind the plot in the government, and that a kidnapper (later revealed to be Henderson) has her eight-year-old daughter. Wayne calls Jack Bauer to assist him, and they rendezvous outside the retreat. Jack allows Wayne to come along to the exchange, where the both of them rescue Evelyn's daughter and kill Henderson's thugs, but fail to capture Henderson himself.

Wayne later helps Jack to break into a bank in order to retrieve evidence that demonstrates President Logan's involvement in his brother's death. After recovering the evidence, Jack takes Wayne to meet with Bill Buchanan, who leads him to a safe house as per Jack's advice. Wayne is not seen throughout the remainder of the season; later, according to President Logan, his whereabouts are still unknown. Wayne is also not seen at his brother's ceremony, which takes place in the final episode of the season, "6:00 AM - 7:00 AM", but it is likely that he attended the funeral service in Washington DC.

[edit] Day 6

President Palmer in the Oval Office with NSA, Karen Hayes, and White House Chief of Staff, Thomas Lennox

Wayne was elected President (it is unknown whether his opponent in the election was Hal Gardner or someone else) and was inaugurated 3 months prior to Season 6. He negotiated Jack Bauer's release from the Chinese Government. He paid a high price to the Chinese for his release, only to trade Jack to Abu Fayed as well as $25,000,000 for the location of Hamri Al-Assad. It cost him a high emotional price, as he sold out an agent who was very loyal to his brother, he paid it, asking Jack to do it for the sake of the country.

While Jack was willing to die for something, he learned he'd die for nothing in season six. His motivation changed, and he got free. When the information he told CTU wasn't believed, he organized an escape plan for Assad, the man believed responsible for the events leading up to season 6. He currently is in torment, but seems to realize Jack had always been honest with both himself and his brother David Palmer. Wayne trusted Jack, with collaborating evidence, enough to make him believe in the former agent. Assad was then sent to Washington as per the President's orders to broker a deal to solve the current crisis as well as bridge the gap between the Muslims of the world and the US Government. As part of the agreement, Wayne has pardoned Assad of all past crimes.

Internally, Wayne has seen strife between Karen Hayes and Thomas Lennox, with Karen stressing the importance that the Muslim-American community has played in turning in terrorists, while Tom has drawn up plans for detention facilities. Wayne initially rejected Tom's plan, but reconsidered after the suitcase nuke detonated in Valencia. However, he ultimately decided the principles of American freedom were more important than the supposed security detention camps would provide, and rejected the proposal once again.

When Assad arrived in Washington, Wayne requested that Assad make his alliance with the President public. This series of events have made the President very unpopular with his own administration, to the point that some members are conspiring to "remove him from office". So far, the only known conspirators are Reed Pollack and a man Pollack refers to as "Carson". Lennox was almost a member, but refused to participate in the killing of a President and was held captive by Pollack. As 5:00 p.m. on Day 6 approaches, Reed places the bomb in a press room feet from Palmer and sets it off after exiting. Assad covers Wayne with his own body, allowing Palmer to survive the explosion, but Wayne is severely injured. As of 6:00 p.m., Palmer is in stable condition, but it is unknown whether he will ultimately survive. Karen Hayes' plans to convince Sandra Palmer to allow Wayne to be woken up. While this is a major risk to his life, it would allow him to stop Noah Daniels from launching a nuclear attack on Assad's country. Hayes got Sandra's permission to free Wayne of his coma, but soon thereafter it seemed that complications had arisen. However, minutes later, Wayne retracts the order made by Daniels demanding a nuclear strike and resumes his role as President - much to the chagrin of Daniels, who threatens to have Palmer removed from office, citing what Daniels perceives as an incapability that prevents Palmer from properly executing his duties as President. Daniels attempts to invoke the 25th Amendment by contacting the Cabinet. The subsequent vote for Palmer's removal is a tie and is set to be brought before the Supreme Court, however, Daniels is forced to drop the charge under threats from Lennox. Palmer officialy returns to duty. But to the shock and horror of both Lennox and Karen, he immediately continues with the nuclear launch, stating that he is aware of critics, Daniels and Lennox specifically, referring to him as a weak President.

[edit] Trivia

• President Wayne Palmer's Secret Service codename is "Citadel".
• Wayne Palmer has often been compared to Robert F. Kennedy, brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy. In interviews, producers have acknowledged that Wayne was originally conceived as "RFK to David's JFK". In addition, Wayne shares many of Bobby's characteristics, including being in an advisory position to his brother during his administration, his fierce loyalty to his brother (even if it involves bending or breaking the law), and following in his assassinated brother's footsteps by running for the presidency. His involvement in the Milliken scandal can be seen as an allegory to RFK's known weakness for women and his rumored involvement with the death of Marilyn Monroe. DB Woodside stated during Season 3 that his character was a "son of a bitch", much like the common perception of RFK as Attorney General, and was willing to fight his and his brother's detractors on their level, unlike his more detached predecessors and superiors.
• Also, due to being a young and relatively inexperienced African-American politician, some have compared him to Barack Obama. [1]

[edit] References