Carol Leonnig on the United States Secret Service and What to Do About It
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
The United States Secret Service has many important missions, the most public of which is protecting the president of the United States. And in this mission, its motto is "Zero Fail." There is no window for them to let their guard down when it comes to protecting the commander-in-chief.
And yet, the past several decades of the Secret Service's protection have seen gaps, mistakes and exposures of some fundamental problems within the Secret Service itself. Carol Leonnig is a Pulitzer Prize-winning national investigative reporter at the Washington Post known for her reporting on the Secret Service, as well as the Trump presidency and many other topics. She is also the author of the new book, "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service." She sat down with David Priess to talk about the United States Secret Service, its mission, its challenges and potential reforms to get over some of its most fundamental flaws.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.6 | Despite director Mark Sullivan's claims at the time that he took this so seriously, |
| 0:39.5 | very little changed as a result of this. |
| 0:42.2 | The service got a huge black eye. |
| 0:44.6 | The director tried to get tough and essentially say to Congress and to the White House, all |
| 0:52.0 | of which were really angry. |
| 0:53.5 | You know, heads were going to roll. |
| 0:55.4 | He was going to fire people to show how seriously he took that and he did move to force people |
| 1:02.5 | to resign, taking away their security clearances. |
| 1:06.4 | Very little in the culture of the service changed because the service had reached a point |
| 1:11.4 | of arrogance. |
| 1:13.4 | I'm David Priese and this is the LawFair podcast July 7, 2021. |
| 1:20.6 | The United States Secret Service has many important missions, the most public of which is |
| 1:25.7 | protecting the President of the United States. |
| 1:28.8 | And in this mission, its motto is zero fail. |
| 1:32.0 | There is no window for them to let their guard down when it comes to protecting the commander |
| 1:36.6 | in chief. |
| 1:37.6 | And yet, the past several decades of the Secret Service's protection have seen gaps, |
... |
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