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>> our panelist is carol leonnig of the washington poster. we are thrilled to have her here today. and i wanted to read you a very brief bio. carol leonnig works at the "washington post" since 2000. she previously reported at the philadelphia inquirer the charlotte observer, and last but not least the bryn mawr habit for by college news. [laughter] as a former college newspaper person myself, i wanted to pay tribute to that. [laughter] [applause] she wanted 2015 pulitzer prize among many other accolades for her work on misconduct inside the secret service. which we will be discussing today. and in addition to this book "zero fail" the rise and fall the secret service we will be discussing today she has also

written two other books very stable genius donald j trumps testing of america with her colleague and also i alone can fix it donald j trumps catastrophic final year about thear pandemic that we have been living through for the past three years. so please give her a warm tucson welcome thank you. [applause] [applause] >> thank you so much for being here today. ouyour book captures the systemc management issues inside the secret service as well as the individual agents when lives are on the line it is such a rich topic for discussion. and i wanted to start by asking you, having covered the secret service since 2012 did you --

when did you think this would be such a rich topic of discussion for a book? cook's first off i want to say i'm so delighted and being questioned by a lawyer who used to be a journalist. i grew up in a family of lawyero and i'm the only one that took this particularly at the time this very un- lucrative. it has turned out okay so far. i have a lot of respect for lawyers and i am so delighted dave is my interviewer. i'm very grateful to you forn n'mentioning bryn mawr news because i would not have been the journalist if the editor of that paper at the time had not sort of grabbed rapidly by the scuff of the neck and elicited me too write a story about something that i will tell you more about later. it really captivated me aboutut journalism and what you can find when you start to date and you have time. to answer the question on the table, this is a funny story.

i'm not normally viewed as very funny in my delivery. but hey answer my question right tonow. the funny story is, like all great reporting threads and especially investigative reporting i threads, this nearly lifelong obsession with the secret service began really by accident. i have a register of voice that's either like a big sister or a friendly friend. and i am trustworthy but i'm the beneficiary of sounding trustworthy. [laughter] so when there was this insane, at the time considered the most humiliating episode in secret service history in 2012 a dozen agents we find out arek being

flown back unceremoniously in columbia and i always ermispronounce it and my great investigative reporting partner broke that story in 2012. othe and his editor called me te next morning and said we have got a lot of agents we've got to call. we've a lot of people we've got to call but we have to find out how this happened. what dhec customer these agents were flown back because they were caught with their guns and security plants in their hotel rooms drunk off their but can't forgive meet my mom does not will me too use that word. and with prostitutes during a time when they were supposed to be preparingng and securing basically the entire city for president obama's arrival. so what dhec happened? i get a call from david and his editors and can you help us out? what it is going to p evolve is

getting on the phone and convincing a lot of people that do not talk to the press to tell me what happened. you all may be old enough to remember them going to take a guess,. [laughter] the shampoo commercial you tell two friends, you tell two more friends, so these agents basically said this woman issh calling around. she seems to know what happened. and each of these two friends would tell another two friends, answerer her questions, listen o her she sounds like she wants at the bottom of it. the thing is this is a really long answer i'm so sorry. the thing is agents can lose their jobs for talking to the press. the secret service uses that in their employment contract to block agents from talking about things the service does not want

them to talk about. talk about any flattering thing you want to talk about. talk about lovely wonderful memory of a president is fine. talk about the secret service in a way that is unflattering it is revelatory, it comes back and embarrasses somebody and you can lose your job. so i was lucky that they spoke to me. in this happy accident more of them told me unbelievable things that were so much worse than what had happened. so much worse. and actually chilling because to a person every senior agent i spoke to who had some years who had a little hyde was convinced the president was going to be killed on theirpe watch. it was going to happen it was a matter of time because the agency was so broken, so dysfunctional. so much using duct tape to keep it together.

when i knew i had a book was when an agent called me. and i don't mean a secret service agent but a book agent and said you have a book. i don't know you but you have a book. her name was elyse cheney, cheney literary agency i'm forever indebted to n her. because she would not let go of me. i had no desire to write a book i did not know anything about writing a book i was late 40s i will just say. and i always wanted to be a journalist and nothing else. but she would not let go and convinced me. i am so glad she was the tiger that she was. quickset is a great story. ithis book is such a service to us all to really get behind this image of the secret service as just these agents in suits who are very trim and fit and a lead

protection unit. in fact, not only is that not entirely true the whole origin of the secret service is not certainly but i would've thought. can you tell me more about that? nwhat sure it was also a piecef information to me that i had written a lot about the department of defense, the department ofor justice, the environmental protection agency. but i really never studied this tiny little protection unit that began in 1865 in the department of the treasury. its initial assignment was called the secret service because they were trying to beat undercover and secretive about how they do their t work. abraham lincoln and his b secretary of treasury had been talking for weeks about the so damaging flood of forged currency that made up the entire or two thirds of the economy at

the time. and this was really harmful to a fledgling united states trying to get back and recover after the civil war. they had been talking about at a meeting interestingly enough the day hours later lincoln was shot and killed. they had had a treasury meeting in a cabinet meeting to discuss how can we control this flood of forgeries and fraudulent dollars, bills? his secretary of treasury proceeded with the idea after lincoln was killed and months later created this little unit i never rough-and-tumble agents almost like a revenue is if you will for the bootleggers era. and what they did is they found people, gangs like mobster gangs and they broke up these plate making operations for they tried to arrest the guys engaged then

they burned the currency that was the big job. quickset sounds like there is no formal presidentialy protection agency for a long time in our history. why do you think that was the case? >> i love this question for this must be from a lawyer. [laughter] i did not know this so it in the research for the book. there was intense resistance to the idea of a presidential security team. it was part and parcel of the founding of america. which is it is thehe people's house. we talked about the capitol is the people's house but the first thing for the white house is the people's house. there were no fences if you could believe it run the white house. people had picnics on the whiten house lawn and walk their dogs. literally rode their horses across the front steps.

so the idea of a palace guard and two american presidents who wanted to feel as though they were projecting an image of the man of the people, the people's representative. and so security was considered something over with the royals and europe and not something we are going to do here. unfortunately three presidents would be killed before the country and the federal government really woke up and said okay we cannot lose anymore presidents this way. you know how lincoln was killed. the third presidential assassination that triggered the formation of that secret service or i should say the assignment of this role to the secret service was mckinley. he was at a world fair 1901 and was shot at close range by a

socialist communist who was infuriated by mckinley's administration, the feeling that little people were overlooked and mckinley died of his injuries weirdly many, many weeks after the actual event. but that was the beginning of secret service protecting presidents. >> rate. and then you write about how we finally had a formal agency projecting the president from the mckinley assassination up until the kennedy assassination. what was this iteration of the secret service like? >> this. between mckinley and kennedy? >> exactly. >> i would say it was pretty fun at roots and eyes but. it was essentially different

patrols who would be with the president when he traveled or when he was in public or what is now so frequently called the rope line.s they keep a rope between the people in the president. the president shakes people's hands as they walk by this formalized way of meeting the president and let them touch the hands of voters and stay engaged with them. it was a little bit unprofessional. but still a form of security. armed guards with the president. and with his family. especially around the time of eisenhower forgive me before eisenhower around world war ii there was a much larger interest in having at least one security guard along with the president's family. usually the first lady.

>> and of course in president kennedy takes office. he is very resistant to having a detail around him full-time. can you tell me more about those created challenges for the secret service protecting him? >> kennedy put an incredible strain on the secret service. i begin the book describing what that was like for the agents who were traveling with him during his campaign before dallas, months before dallas. they were exhausted. he was a jet setting high flying let me touch every voter i can kind of president which was so different subjects culture shock for the secret service after his predecessor who often stayed in the white house did not travel terribly much and was not that

interested and standing at a rope line and shaking hands all day long. definitely wanted to be engaged but kennedy was a whole different animal. as an extrovert fed off the people's energy. and wanted to be with him. he famously said to his detail they call a whip very senior supervisor on the presidents detail said i would not get elected dog catcher if i listen to you people and did what you wanted. li need to be with the people d paraphrasing that last part dogcatcher quote iscu accurate. he feasted on being with people and he would flee almost like a runaway he would flee his protectors to get out in front of them and t get closer to a throng of people who throw himself into it and it was infuriating to the secret service. they are tired from the hours he

is traveling and being with people. they are hopscotch in each other from city to city trying to keep up, not catching enough sleep. tthey are exhausted by that travel he is doing. easily triple what his predecessor had done. and they're kind of ticked off because he will not listen to the doctor essentially. then of course we all know now, and they knew better than anyone kennedy was also foiling his protectors he was trying to be with women who were not his wife. in trying to be with them on a daily basis so that evasion he was engaged in was also painful for them but i know this is not really your question but i just feel like it's important to say this. the agents and i interviewedvi almost all of them, sadly many of them have died since my interview with them and since

the book was published. but interviewed almost every single agent on kennedy's detail at the time of the assassination funds that were still alive. and they were so passionate about their duty to country. their patriotism was so invested in protecting the president. and they were not judging his morality in large measure. some of them m were. but many of them were infuriated because it was their job to protect what was happening on the other side of that hotel room door. and they could not screen these women they were coming in regularly at all hours of the night and leaving at all hours of the night. they were infuriated because yoe were putting a barrier between them and their ability to serve their country into their duty.

that is what i felt and learned from them most poignantly. >> right. and of course we all know the tragic events this recklessness led to on november 22, 1963. i loved in your book how you really walked through the assassination through the perspective of the secret service agents. how do you think having interviewed them and having talked to them do you think there were wayss in which the secret service failed to protect president kennedy adequately? >> i do sadly. even though i think their sense of duty and mission wasas so ke. there were ways as individualsid they failed. but i think the larger answer to the question as there were in which the agency failed them. did not give them the tools to

do the job in a way that would save the president on that day. one is the director of thed secret service jim rowley whole weirdly used to live a blockck from where i live now, went to the church at the corner of my block. sorry i was about too go that direction going to stop myself. the way the agency failed the secret service is the director had been begging, begging kennedy and the administration to give him more money to hirene more agents he knew how exhausted and beat up they all were pretty asked for an additional i think 36 agents to try to keep their heads above water. these guys and interviewed a lot of their wives two. they were literally coming home from an assignment on a nine city tour, dropping their bags

at their wife's front doorstep. the wife would get their clothes, wash them, put them back out on the doorstep and they would come back from headquarters and go out that night. they were really doing triple duty. rowley could not get the kennedy administration to agreed to give him those extra agents. there is a lack of training. none of them are really no in a routine way what should they do if someone shot at or came at the president with a knife other than their good law enforcement training. they did not have a lot of training in the seconds that count when a gunshot goes off in the president is standing at a podium,g or near his car. that training was not there. neither was or ever consideration which shocks me after afflicted some of the internal records of the months and weeks before the

assassination, there was not an effort to try to protect the president from gunfire from the line of sight. line of sight is a big deal for the secret service. they try to make sure they block with buses, or walls, they built walls to block the line of sight from the rifle of a gun. forgive me, i know very little about guns. [laughter] the end of a gun and the presidents head. a clean shot. another hundred people could have had a clean shot that day because the secret service was not working very hard to focus on that. you ask the question. so well dave the questions i will about their own responsibility in the only personal responsibility that olathe the feet of those agents

and is in order to learn of the steam at the end of the night and this was ordered drinking time and are making history, they all went out in fort worth, the night before the assassination of the trip to dallas to stephanie copy/strip kind of club like a club where the waitresses were underwear and the bartenders illegally served straight liquor. and they put it into these guys with her drinking until 2:00 o'clock and 4:00 o'clock and 5:00 o'clock in the morning and as the head of the warren commissioner said, and hearings after the assassination and the causes, they setno up sorry director, we you cannot tell me that a man had been up until two or four or 5:00 o'clock in the morning, he was drunk or not, was able to react to protect the president the next morning nesta

fact. >> this very important i know very little about guns so to all hop on the train as well. >> somebody's going to like have a care all. [laughter] >> what will should and i also have to ask be as importantly, the 1960s were very tragic decade with multiplepl assassinations of a president and some non- presidents as well and you start of the book health the assassination of robert kennedy, changerv the secret service initiative another ways and how did that affect the nation and change their mission. >> is a devastating time, in such a like trial very offended by your or by fire like such an awful time in such hundred in the sense of okay come these are presidential candidates running for office. robert kennedy's brother,

forgiving john f. kennedy's brother is one of them. the secret service knows at this juncture before bobby kennedy is killed in chalk on the hundred fatally shot in los angeles when they know that the people who want to killde the president are looking often for fame and he believed that the way to get fame, is to kill somebody famous or have such an incredible engage in such an incredible violet event is enormous and will make them famous. so when they shot robert f kennedy in trenton is alerted immediately i think at in the morning because los angeles was like nine or 10:00 o'clock when the shooting happened and he is alerted immediately because the director and said, you put

security detail on every single's presidential candidate tonight and despite some do whatever you need to do. an agent, i'm combining two stories into one but an agent, people asked me many times, have you been to tucson before and the answer a is yes but like blw through for work is the first time that a gotten a chance to enjoy it and really spend someex quality time experiencing the place one of the agents that i interviewed here, a retired agent, an amazing icon, reagan detail leader for many years. he was a first agent is called the night by director relatively young and deeply trusted by the director is a good instincts and he said, okay, pack a bag,

parallel because i don't know how long you begun don't know where you're going or when you come home but going to go see this candidate in the neighborhood of washington dc, and good luck. band bobby d, with by the way, bobby as his wife reminded me many times in our interviews that harass, did not come home for nine months pretty and again did drop off his laundry. [laughter] but did not actually sleep in his own bed and forever after, prominent candidates for president would always get secret service protection. >> after that we should talk about major success of this secret service in 1981 and another turning point from the agency where it came when they

fulfilled their mission in president reagan was shot outside of the dc hotel to survive due to their heroism and please telling more about that event and how it unfolded. >> ronald reagan had been president for all of about owns a six weeks jerry part is leader of the printed presidential detail but actually really spent relief anytime with reagan shoulder to shoulder. we often say right hand shoulder of the present when you're the detail leader but he had not been doing that, he had been assigning that assignment to the deputy detail leader andl he decided this one particular hmorning, march that he neededo spend some time with the boston needed to get to know him and not just of the paperwork in the

office and get out on the road with him and it was not considered a very high profile event. the president was speaking to a labor union, and local hotel that was less than a mile from p the white house and when i pass all the time on my way to work in the presence had been going there many many times in each of their tenures right is a standard routine visit right it was rainy, foggy use, and jury power decided not to else reagan to where his bulletproof vest which they often make the president comedian wanted to ask him to wear it especially in foreign trips, and sometimes on trips out of town and is kind of muggy and achy monies of the right word from it was humid he decided not to bring that up.

a man who you all know, secretly formed his wife into an area of news for carvers, cameramen really cbs abc, had an area not been traded normally there secrt service sort of how to down enter everybody going to get within 100 feet or 100 year olds of the president and there was a failure to do that because there was this presumption at the local job we done this a million times we cameramen are over there and so as the president emergence from an underground driveway essentially walkway, walking toward the beast, the name for the presidential limo, shots ring out john hinckley is all about 15 feet from the president and so he has the

ability to kill him. what is wonderful about this episode if you can say anything is wonderful about something so traumatic, gunfire in dc street aimed at a president, is it everybody on the presidents detail immediately react, instantly with her training that they didn't have when kennedy was shot in trading is called the attack on the principal and they drill in this day in and day out in the principal as i hear something, you seeou something, sounds bad psa, missus my job when that happens gunfire goes off, inc. was able to get off six shots less than two seconds and all of them very willing to be still, jerry parker said and he does not look up and he does not turn to his right coming does not turn to his left, he just start shoving the president towards the open

back door of the limousine when they are 3 yards away from it so it is not easy to shove ronald reagan that far but that is what he does and he almost according to present reagan in his. description of the later, you must breaks reagan's resumes as rib is broken because that is how hard he shoved him into that will help essential hippies in between the two nothing we well, not really getting cars either. [laughter]th is a hub, the transmission and reagan's chest was down on that and he's convinced his river ribs are broken. another amazing agent emmy, betty considers the sort of bulk football player basically like a real youngster, he is the shot also does not look left does not look right, he knows with

gunfire is coming from, he points towards his chest towards this and holds out his hands as fast as he can't is and why does he can become a and then ultimately, those two d men savd allocable it and does get through and ricochets two news this morning i know i all know this. [laughter] sometimes a really figure you guys know all of this you talk about the cars in the guns later. [laughter] and so, by the way most of this i learned with the same chill by reading the fbi's 3 inches which of the fbi agents interviewing the agents in real time what happened, what you do great camera footage of it as well and my wonderful kelly and competitor, wilbur wrote about exclusively about this moment in time and i recommend it to you

rawhide down, rawhide the reagan's codename the secret service primary documents have this are breathtaking because they are all the ages are basically unwell and the attack on the principal training told me to do this is what he did. the get in the car outcome of the bullet ricocheted funny passenger rear passenger doorhe and goes in slices to the site through a part of reagan's long and nobody knows that happening, behind deputy agent shoved emily did not break his lie, he shoved the legs backwards car so they can shut the door and the driver also an agent, no he has a entered god going to get out ofg there no notice happening in and

said he's praying, please don't let me run over to me because timmy is falling and they don't know where he is so he figures of god go but it may have to run over him to eat the president out of here. i luckily he does not timmy survives became a police chief in a great town outside of chicago i'm sorry the such a long answer. >> i remember reading how initially they didn't think they necessarily had to go to the hospital but then they had to make a detour and talk more about that. >> and try to be brief about that so jerry power, also on the attack on that principal training has hads a basic like were combat military hospital you know, sorry, is like a match

training t like you might have o do a trick, i could do and if i have to do like in amputation, i could do it, and he notices that reagan is complaining you broke my ribs dude any notices that the front coming out of his mouth is pink, coming up like, hein does make comments oxen itn an oxygenated and from his training, he is a way to second, that is a symptom or clue that his lungs is damage in some way, something is happening and he feels all around him and reagan is like get off mandy's by feeling up and down his body trying to find a blood and there's nothing and so he says to drew, reroute reroute stagecoach to george washington university and if he had not done that, reagan would have

died. he did not have a lot of time for a surgeon to see him and to determine that he had this in his lungs and that a potentially exploding bullet was lodged there later was not watching this is a reporter, a little young for this moment but people watching this in real time had no idea of the american public most of the people in the white house, no ideant the president d have more than half of his blood replaced is how much he lost the emergency room while they were trying to get the bullet and find it. so another way the jerry parr saved democracy as well as the life of an important politician. >> that's incredible story of heroism of course had another very tragic day for our country

september 11th them in the secret service also show incredible heroism but there was some key vulnerabilities including the vice president cheney and tell me more about that. >> yes and so, i try to write this book the way my agent proposed it to me. [laughter] wanted to write about the current secret service but she was like this agency has had such an arc from rebuilding assault in the wake of a national tragedy and proving itself when reagan's life was saved and many other times, gerald ford and others. and then he begins a slow slide and gradual demise in the wake of 911. we just a tragic because every

other federal agency got a ton of money and attentive help and all of the star wars toys and tools to rebuild for new century you national security secret service didn't. they obviously, is incredibly poignant and a pivot point for our country and so many ways before the secret service, revealed how little they had imagined the ways foreign terrorist would like to had our government. destabilize our country basically knock off the head when the country and killing the president. we all know that the plane that crashed was intended either for the white house with a capitol based on interviews that the fbi conducted, they believe it was

very very likely but it's also very likely to have been the white house and that day, there is failure to communicate as well as a failure of imagination it failure to communicate in the white house. the president as you know, was in florida and an education event just trying to press the flash had reminded voters how much he cared about education reform and holding schools accountable. an amount going to some of the mistakes the secret service makt that day regarding president bush but with regard to vice president cheney who would've been the president it which have been killed that day, cheney was in his office for a meeting he didn't usually go to the oval office meeting with that they he did and he c was meeting with a close ally who also b was a top budget official had he was watching the television when the

second jet hit the second tower. in the secret service, the person in charge of making sure to liaison with the faa about w any threat to the white house, even my the white house have been attacked by air twice before, not by a huge commercial jet, twice planes had either, o scratch there or crashed into thee lawn. so is not like it's not impossible to envision that a plane could be used as a weapon. the agent in charge liaison with the faa gets a very urgent message forse the second play hitting the second tower and that is it about nine oh 3:00 a.m. the morning, and it is we are still missing two just not communicating with us, and heading towards you coming 20 minutes out and for some reason,

this agent is liaison inc. with the faa sends a courier to the tower of the old executive office building which is where the secret service had emergency operation center in this runner goes up thereun to communicate that message so that very classified classified screen, then nobody is supposed to know about, won't talk about very much more, on the screen white house tracking plays coming close they only have this much of the picture and faa, has this picture is on the run up to can see how close and minutes out and how many seconds out nobody communicates to the headquarters the secret service, and we have two incoming planes as you have a vice president at the white house with the plaintiff coming to.

it's literally a minute before the incoming plane that ends up crashing into the pentagon and buzzes the white house before before the details theater breas into cheney's office and said, we have to go, literally voice them out the doorway down the stairwell into the underground bunker and another failure of imagination that i was nobody thought.have to rush the vice president to the underground bunker in seconds to prepare for a plane incoming to get the white house in the ages with him do not have classified std instantly getting inside of the protected bunker to date have to wait in the underground tunnel just protected but not the same kind of protection, to getting inside again ridiculously long answer i'm going to have to work

on this. >> this is fascinating and i can see everybody in the crowd is on the edge of their seats, really appreciate it and of course,. [applause] [applause] >> i'm going to ask one more question before we turn it over to the audience for question so start thinking now about your questions, president bush of course leaves office to be replaced by president obama and as you said, not the same level of funding to services and other agencies11 post 911, and at the same time, president obama first black president face enormous threats and how did that stretch the agency even further. >> so glad you asked because in a way it's a bit of a perfect

storm and after 911, all sorts of big agencies are student from scratch. transportation security administration, all of a sudden, tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of new recruits and employees all added to this huge department of homeland security and what congress and what the presidents are the most worried about is theow last thing that just happened it and we stop planes from being used as weapons of mass destruction how we m make e skies safe again and it's really the only thing they're worried about secondarily, how do we keep terrorists from gettingng into the country and custom and border controls and incredible operation that stamped out to

secure our ports and borders soe people would argue that terrorists are not coming in through tijuana, we spent jillian's of dollars to secure those borders and a again, in te wakery of 911 there was a primay reason. the secret service is now the presidents radar at this time enemy president bush before obama takes overcoming it is true for president obama as well but this is weakening of the agency and worry all the money is going to the big sister agencies that are supposed to keep us safe i and only problems they are forgetting that the president iss target number one prices and target number one silver massive shooters who want to f be famous so the secret service just gets comparatively strong, little or an little or little or try to keep open commission is expanding in a

large number of people to s protect is eating away at suitability to do the job the perfect storm incoming front is president obama represents annex essential threat to a portion of americans who believe the black president is a danger to them and discussing to them in the threats against president obama quadrupled and compared it to the previous president now i have to put some contacts there, internet threats, use of the internet is on the race was possibly increase its partially attributable to that but i've read some of these chatter the secret service collected and investigated tended is spine tingling late terrifying and talking about how we can hang up michelle obama where we could

anger in house could be done and ways in which president obama couldd be drawn and cornered and thereat pretty bad material is n the guide of our going off about a black president although that happened as well. very worrisome time for the obama's the director of the time solomon is been criticized valley from being more forceful just like hundred director rally begging for additional money but when he doesn't get it, he kind of stops begging the services depleted. >> thank you so much printed has more about that now would like to go to the audience and ask if you question we have some microphones appear we look forward to hearing from you. >> the end of the rifle is often

read to enter referred to as a muzzle. [laughter] [laughter] >> really. >> you just touched on protecting obama and some of the things that have happened to him and do you know is a secret service low concern medic day transportation secretary do they have a responsibility there. there was one other guy was worried about but you will know. >> i don't know what the threat matrix is for pete buttigieg but i would imagine because of his prominence and also has a republican position, i would imagine that's higher than normal for cabinet member but i don't know it s well enough to speak intelligently byy the threat matrix and what that would trigger for him.

many cabinet secretaries have protections provided for them by their own agency for example epa is using for o the secret secury administrator detail provided within the agency and her agency at times and that is true as well for the state department and hillary clinton was protected by diplomatic security core and happens she was also diversely given lifetimee protections that secret service protect and i get home as i don't know the answer on peace and i will tell you that it's interesting that the people that you don't expect to have a great threat matrix and while i was seriously reported a story about deputy national security advisor who the secret service is now investigating what appears to be a strange man who came onto his lawn may have tried to break into his home, days and/or hours

after the w national security advisor became the public face for sanctions against russia the white house briefing room. if you remember david axelrod, obama senior advisor, had a secret service detail after a man began shooting in the lobby of the holocaust museum and when they amend item he was killed, the shooter was killed but when they went through his pockets, they found all of these drugs in the address and phone numbers for david axelrod, and commentary valleys jewishness is on the secret service began to protect him after that long answer. >> carol could you talk about today, what is happening with the secret service now relative to biden thaty i know that of

course you are very well versed on the last years with trump perhaps in context on the trump time and exactly where we are at now. >> i hope someone here's what i'm about to say be on this room, very disappointed that after basically diagramming what is wrong broken with the secret service, how underserved the agents are by the federal government and thehe white house and providing them with funding the biden administration has done almost nothing to rectify that. ... acknowledge that but one of the agents who came to me and risked their careers to say. a president's going to get killed. it's a matter of time. do something what of them i i am

only channeling their very passionate fear. passionate fear. and nothing that is really other than the margins has been fixed and there. is there any initiative in congress to do anything about that nothing? when did the secret service protection for life start with the presidency and when did the secret service protection start with the presidency? and second question related to that the former president to saudi arabia because he does not want to face any of the various lawsuits he has going against him. what measures, if any, can be done to remove his secret service or does he have it for

life? [applause] >> i think i understood your dfirst question. and the answer he talked a little bit about before the secret service protecting a littlele after an achilles assassination. we cannotp keep letting presidents die because a boater comes up to them with a gun. as for the former president that's really hard to lose your lifetime promise of protection. it's written into the statute try to decline it does not have the option to decline protecting former presidents and former first lady's. it is a guarantee if you are in prison there will be another provision for how that happened.

[applause] i am not predicting i just know that question has come up before. [laughter] >> it's a riveting book. he spoke a bit about the patriotism at these agencies in a sense of duty to country bread then later in the book you talk about how many of them voted for trump. i am wondering if you can talk about how any democratic president can feel safe with that sort of mentality? cookson really quite u.s. a question. the kicker for my book is essentially me learning in the wake of generally six because i was reporting a generous six. i had to come out of book leave because of january 6 and keep reporting for the post. which i'm glad for that duty and that mission, but i'm not complaining. secret service agents were rooting in some situation for

the insurrectionist who attacked local police officers. how can you root for someone to take a flag pole into someone blue i don't mean party i mean police officers. that really frightens me. about society and that mission i've seen so many times. but the secret service like all lawrv enforcement agencies lean conservative but that's okay. fbi liens conservative. i am sure tucson police department liens conservative in their personal lives. the secret service, the fbi, all these agencies always had a duty to check your politics at the door. so it lead that outside put it in the locker. and it's illustrious of the rest of the country as our country has become more and more divided

the secret service became, as did the fbi, as did other law enforcement agencies become open about their political viewpoints. more angry, and increasingly uncomfortable checking their politics at thewh door. i went democratic liberal leaning cops to check their politics at the door. it's about blind justice. it's about the mission. but that changed and donald trump again i give him credit for his genius, he convinced many, many americansns and many secret service agents he was their defender. their protector their savior. >> inc. is a much her being here

carol. we are spending millions of dollars protecting protecting mike pompeo. words that might come from? why is he so important to put people who are in charge? >> this raises an important question i'll be quick i saw two minute warning over there. rather infamously donald trump extended protection for his children, adult children for six months after he left office in three top aides as national security advisor, his chief of staff and blinken on the third printer broke the story but he can't number what i wrote. and pompeo is not in that group. but he's getting protection now from the state department and i have to believe the biden state not politicalin

happens to be the next president has found a very justifiable and reasonable reason to protect them. threats against it rise to that level he needs that security pretty asked the question were s to some of the come from? it comes at a state department budget and ultimately comes out of our pocketbooks. i cannot help but think it also diminishes our ability to provide the kind of s protection the secret service wants to provide. [laughter] [inaudible] clicks thank you very much. one last question, very glad to be at the stage of quite the anurge to deliver grand commenty on this event on this year's speech because i tried to remain invested in a lot of these types of things. i want to remain a strong interest to the audience into the speaker. so here's my question right off

the bat. what are some k of the some of e key duties involving social media for the protective services? >> i hope i understand youron question right. you mean monitoring social media? >> yes correctly. >> the secret service has a huge huge extra responsibilitynd and duty because social media is where people make threats. social medias were stuart rhodes, forgivero me, the proud boys in the oath keepers at times communicate their plansca for january 6. you could get some good clues, as reporters do, from monitoring wthis about what that guys arep to and what they are threatening. it is important and that is a good question for quick thank you. if you think the proud boys were the most noteworthy example of the groups of insurrectionist groups? was there a specific group you find the most noteworthy could

have possibly started from before the insurrection itself? >> are three main groups. i am not a prosecutor or fbi agent. they may have tons of evidence i have not seen. oath a keepers, proud boys and three presenters per. >> thank you, very great to know. much.nk you very [applause] ♪ if you are enjoying book tv senate for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive his schedule of upcoming programs, author discussions book festivals and more. book tv, every sunday on cspan2 or anytime online a booktv.org. television for serious readers. >> american history tv saturdays on cspan2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story.

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