Inside the failures of the Secret Service

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stern. Exacting. Infallible. The reputation of the U.S. Secret Service is all about perfection. But behind the scenes, the agency is far from perfect. Carol Leonnig goes behind the scenes on scandals and close calls that have come to define the agency.

Before Post reporter Carol Leonnig started covering the Secret Service, she had the same impression most of us do about the men and women in suits standing next to the president.

“They are super serious, they never crack a smile. They've got those impenetrable faces and impenetrable shiny glasses. Everything about them is spit, polish and perfect,” says Leonnig.

But behind the scenes, the agency tasked with protecting the president is anything but perfect.

“As an organization, you just started seeing morale break down,” says Jonathan Wackrow, a former agent and security expert.

In her new book “Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service,” Leonnig brings to light the secrets, scandals and shortcomings that plague the agency today--from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment.

“They have witnessed countless security vulnerabilities and gaffes...which make them fear that the zero-fail mission is perpetually at risk,” Leonnig says. “And that is a danger for the lives of the president and his family.”

Check out the book: “Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service,” by Carol Leonnig.

Read an excerpt: “How Trump set back the Secret Service’s recovery from scandal and strain.”

Watch Leonnig’s interview on Washington Post Live.

This story was produced by Martine Powers and Ariel Plotnick, and edited by Maggie Penman.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.
0:07.0	I'm routine powers.
0:09.0	It's Friday, May 21st.
0:17.0	There are many different reasons why people come to join the Secret Service.
0:22.5	For Bill Gage, that story goes all the way back to 1981.
0:28.0	In the Senate Reagan, it was almost assassinated outside a hotel in DC.
0:35.0	And Bill was watching on TV.
0:42.0	And I was really young like six or seven and I remember asking my dad and my sister as we watched.
0:47.0	When they were first getting the footage in of the actual John Hinckley firing the rounds
0:52.0	and the agents jumping in front of the bullets and the limo speeding away,
0:56.0	I just remember asking my dad who were those guys in suits and my dad telling me it was Secret Service.
1:01.0	You ask where all the heroes go on.
1:03.0	Here's one, Jerry Parr, Secret Service Man.
1:05.0	Hits the President from behind, gets him down and into the limousine as gunfire continues.
1:11.0	Bill grew up and he went on to spend 11 years in the Secret Service.
1:16.0	He protected President Obama, Sasha and Malia Obama, former Vice President Biden.
1:22.0	And he never forgot that image of what it means to be the person in the suit ready to take a bullet for democracy.
1:31.0	There's a common saying in the Secret Service that everybody joins to quote-unquote stand next to the man.
1:38.0	It's just an incredible feeling to provide protection to the President of the United States.
1:44.0	I think I had the same impression most people in the public do just from watching them
1:50.0	in the corner of the television shot of the President.
1:54.0	That is Carol Lennig. She's a national investigative reporter at the post.
	...

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