(RepublicanInformer.com)- A new book on the Secret Service reveals that those responsible for the safety and security of the President at times behaved less like an elite team of protectors and more like the Keystone Kops.
“Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service” by Washington Post reporter Carol D. Leonnig chronicles the successes, but also the mistakes of the team of agents charged with protecting the President.
Loennig draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 180 people from the eight previous presidential administrations — including current and former Secret Service agents, Cabinet members, and members of Congress.
“I spoke with Secret Service Staff who worked a heartbeat from the president and in far-flung field offices,” Loennig writes in the Author’s Note, “and with the equally dedicated members of their families.”
The book describes a number of security failures including the time a disoriented homeless man managed to wander past an unguarded staircase and get only steps from Michelle Obama’s Beverly Hilton hotel suite.
“Zero Fail” also recounts how SS agents stood guard while a parade of women – from starlets to prostitutes – enjoyed one-on-one time with JFK in the White House. The same “don’t ask; don’t tell” culture persisted during the Clinton Presidency as well, the book claims.
But it isn’t just Presidential peccadillos that get exposed in Loennig’s book. She also writes of the “wheels up, rings off” culture among married agents who took advantage of being out of town with the President to cheat on their wives.
Loennig devotes an entire chapter on the 2012 scandal involving Secret Service agents and prostitutes in Cartagena, Columbia.
While the book does spend a great deal of time on missteps, scandals and blunders, Leonnig does recount some of the bravery and valor of the Secret Service – including those surrounding the events of September 11, 2001.
Many have disputed some of the details Leonnig recounts – including a spokeswoman for Tiffany Trump whom the book claims carried on an affair with “the tall, dark, and handsome agent.”
Loennig’s book hits stores on Tuesday, May 18.
President Biden’s spokesman Andrew Bates also denied the book’s claim that the Biden Transition Team demanded all members of Trump’s protective detail be removed prior to Biden’s Administration for fear that they would not be loyal to Biden.
