Inside the Secret Service

Given the lack of any successfully carried out assassination attempt on a President in the past 40 years, the Secret Service seems, at a first glance, to be an efficient and effective law enforcement agency. But author and Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig has spent years talking to individuals inside the agency, and her new book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service paints a very different picture. Leonnig joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss the agency. She takes us through some of their recent newsmaking scandals, the unique relationship between the Secret Service and the Trump administration, as well as what she identifies as a toxic and confused culture, both among the leadership as well as the rank and file.

Plus, an update on the scandal at the Post Office, and some real world effects from Yahoo News' reporting.

GUEST:

• Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig), Reporter, Washington Post; author

HOSTS:

• Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
• Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
• Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

• “Kevin McCarthy Leads House GOP In Blasting Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Holocaust Remarks” by Barbara Spunt (May 25, NPR)
• Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service (Random House, May 2021)



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