Along to pretend that the secret service is not vulnerable. So it is a corrupt culture and you saw an example of that when julia pierson, the director claims after this that he was stopped at the door that he was not armed, that was a total lie. How could any agency put out a lie like that and think that they could get away with it. And when it came out that that was not true, the new director joseph clancy, he was asked about that adhering and whether anyone would be held accountable for issuing that information and that was just an error. And they said how do you know it is an error, and they said i dont know how this happened and number one to be the director and number two, how can anyone on the lower level trust someone like that, how could they trust him stop this very corrupt culture how could you trust them with any information at the secret service today. Host out of the culture developed . Guest it started around 2003 when the department of Homeland Security took over the secret service. Previously it had been the treasury department. It made it a little bit more political. They had the fight over but its more and you will see they will leave the door of the White House Open they need to have good alarm systems, and then in addition, the leadership was part of the culture. And they talked about the intrusion the crashes at the state dinner the prostitution scandal, and every time that this happened president obama would say that the confidence in the leadership and competence in a Great Service we should have replaced Mark Sullivan longago with someone from outside the agency who would not be but holden to interest within the agency who would change the culture, that is what you do in any organization when it is in trouble. You bring in someone from the outside. And i am afraid that president obama has guaranteed with the selection of clancy that the secret service will continue from one to another. Host is it helpful or hurtful that the president basically has a say over who is going to be the director . Guest well, the president should have a say. But at the same time the director should be confirmed by the senate, the same as the fbi director, the same as hundreds of obscure officials that you have never heard of. For example, the u. S. Marshals and the 62 different districts in the country, is one of the recommendations in my book the first family detail. Im quite sure that if that were in place and by the way some house members on both sides of the aisle have since introduced legislation to require confirmation of secret service directors. They would not have mr. Clancy in charge, we would have an outside director, ideally someone who had been a highranking fbi official because the fbi has really done a spectacular job since 9 11 and keeping us safe from a foreign terrorist attack. They would never stand for this coverup culture that you see today in the rest of the secret service. Host ron kessler, the secret Service Agents have to sign nondisclosure agreements . Guest it was always understood that you never see what is going on behind the scenes but after the prostitution scandal came out they never wanted to have that out in the first place the secret service didnt choir confidentiality agreements so they were not allowed to speak to the press and they do so on parallel with losing your job. Host james bamford, when you had written about the secret service originally wrote in the Washington Post what is truly dangerous is the kind of National Inquirer gossett from the book the President Secret Service, without trust and confidence, president s will want to keep them at a distance out at a safety range when split seconds may counts. Guest in one hand theres no gossett in this book, theres a firsthand account, about half are on the record. It is simply investigative reporting. Because it so happens that this book begins with bill clintons mistress it goes into Hillary Clintons abuse of agents, the fact that she is like this that agents consider her part of foreign punishment, on and on to dick cheneys daughter who tried to get her Agency Friends to open restaurants, they refused as they should have, but she threw a fit and got her detail removed over that. Not to mention the fact that the reason that Ronald Reagan was shot by hinckley is that his own white house staff let spectators within 15 feet of him if he came out of the washington hilton. Onscreen, and that is why he was able to shoot him. It never came out that it was the fault of the white house. And so these are major disclosures that we need to know about. Especially that we need to know about with what the readers have to say behind the scenes. Host you write about the first family detail. Make sure that everyone who comes to visit the president is logged in except that there is one that you do not log into in the book. Guest this is what secret Service Agents were assigned to one it was in regards to the president and you know its a very small example of corner cutting that takes place that could jeopardize the security of the president and on a larger scale when Bradley Cooper, the actor a went to a white house correspondents dinner, president obama was about to speak and a highranking secret Service Official in new york instructed agents at the hotel to let Bradley Cooper and his suv into the secure space in front of the hotel were only secret Service Vehicles were allowed. Even then they had to screen for explosives because anyone could strap some explosive under a vehicle. And so it was just a favor to the pretty people the agents were horrified. You know, here they are, risking their lives to protect the president and they are being told that we dont care if there is an explosive, let him in that is the kind of culture that im talking about, which actually jeopardizes the life of the president. Another example is that on a regular basis, the agents were told by management to let people into events without metal detection screenings. This is like letting passengers into an airplane without detection screening and again, the secret service is so spineless that they will bow to pressure whether it is from the white house or bush and the Obama White House or from campaign to let people in and they had an attitude providing us. So they can say that you know we dont want these people outside the event, we want them to be in. And sure enough the secret service let them in because we had different aids coming and taking the president or Vice President. That is something that still hasnt hit the press. Dozens of examples of corner cutting and, you know other malfeasance in the book they still havent come out. Host is to take your latest book, the first family detail secret Service Agents reveal the hidden lives of the president s, what are some of the revelations that you found that did not make quite a splash they thought that they would to. Guest one is Vice President biden. When he goes to wilmington back at his home, which he does several times a week he will instruct agents to keep his military like a nuclear football. Which launches a counterattack on a country like russia or china or north korea. At least a mile behind a motorcade, along with his medical doctor. Because he wants to have this image and he doesnt want a big long motorcade, so he says, stay back a mile behind. Of course if obama were taken out, there would not be time for them to get divided so that they could launch a counter attack. When you look at this what could be more irresponsible and reckless, yet that has not been talked about. In addition he goes back several times a week and its one thing to go back a few times a year. But the costs to taxpayers has been a Million Dollars since he took office and some liberal writer question whether or not any of this was true and what could be more official than the actual details provided by the air force. The only thing that was picked up by the press the fact that he likes to talk about this war on women. Everybody borders on harassment when he does this going around naked in front of female agents. Host of joe biden is inconsiderate with secret Service Agents, Hillary Clinton can make Richard Nixon look like mahatma gandhi. When in fact he acts graciously but as soon as the cameras are gone, the angry personality and nastiness and imperiousness becomes evident. I love revealing secrets that are important that have meaning. In this case what this means is that we need to look at the character of candidates because the character ultimately influences how they carry out their presidency. Take a look at before he was involved in this issue that led to the speech and sure enough that was watergate. That we need to look at character, the same things that we look at whenever we choose an employee or a friend, anyone in our lives. When it comes to the presidency somehow people just forget about this thing and then focus on this. In the case of hillary she treats the Little People that she claims she is going to help if she is president , she treats him with contempt, she is abusive, nasty lying and to temper tantrums over nothing even this on the record quote from secret Service Agent who would drive her. And so what kind of a personality is that, its an unbalanced personality of someone who is certainly a hypocrite and that she cant bear to treat those same people with decency. And another detail is the reason that james foster committed suicide is that on one hand he was always depressed, but his suicide was triggered according to fbi agents who investigated the death, by the fact that a week before the suicide hillary had a big meeting in the white house with foster and other aides and colleagues. And they had a disagreement over some legal issue and hillary called him a smalltown hick lawyer and you will never make it in the bigtime, she humiliated the guy and after that things immediately when downhill according to the people that were fbi agents, family members, aides, and according to two fbi agents on the record, that episode triggered suicide a week later and again, the press has ignored that. Host we will get into your other books as we go through things today. But does your material need to be vetted by anyone . Generally we have talked about rival issues through rival lawyer, but i had to way back in 1972 when i was at the Washington Post, president nixon is a good friend, a fellow with a contribution of both sides and it cost millions of dollars paid to williams and calmly and then a second one over these books. And so im very careful and i do think of myself as a lawyer and also one thing that i do is when i trust someone, even if i dont trust that person, i will present a draft of what i plan to write we need corrections comments and one of my books with the President Secret Service, i revealed that the treasury secretary under president bush mr. Snow he had a mistress that he would go see every weekend and secret service would have to go down there. One time the agents saw him kissing this mistress and the mistress husband was about to come back to try to alert mr. Snow. I presented a draft of what i tried to write to him and he had a very highpowered lawyer, a very good lawyer Richard Cohen the former attorney general call me and sure enough he invited me to lunch at mortons and we sort of negotiated some items and he pointed out one or two errors and at his request i put this comment a little bit higher and change the wording here and there. But the story was there. And sure enough i could sleep at night not worrying about other things. Host how do you get secret Service Agents and other agents to talk to you . I dont really know the answer to that except to say that i know that im very interested in what they do. For example i did the first story on fbi criminal profiling in the Washington Post and i was fascinated about this. You know i really appreciated their work. And on the one hand, one of my books led to the dismissal of william sessions over his abusers so i am very comfortable talking about the abuses, the prostitution scandal as i mentioned, on the other hand when an agent era person does well, i they that and this is very unusual in todays world. And as i said i have made the point that the fbi has been very successful at blowing up a lot since 9 11 the whole culture was changed under those that emphasize prevention and emphasize this as opposed to putting people in jail. Of course they always want to stop and put people in jail, but it is a matter of emphasis and i go through that in my book the secrets of the fbi. So that is another reason that i think the people who cooperate with me and they say that okay she has a lot of knowledge and he has a lot of sources. Host can you explain the bureau . Guest its a complete mystery going back and because of this i was able to interview mark in california, he was the house breaking official during watergate and i went to his house, which was owned by his daughter and he was living with her and when i went to the door she said, you know this guy was out here about a euro bill in she didnt really know who he was, she knew he was a reporter and she said and he came in a white limousine and he had this 10 blocks away and he walked to my house. So this was what was being felt there was no way that he would do this. So the post picked up the story and that was the first really credible evidence that we had. So i sat next to Washington Post and bob woodward came over and they would write their stories over the typewriter because bernstein was a good writer, but woodward was not. They would argue about things and i recently said you know, we actually are talking about this. And so there was a real discussion of the sources, they were not making up sources there was a Conspiracy Theory a combination of different people, i dont know why they are bad or what the point of that was in an embarrassing footnote to my life, a week or two after watergate started they propose to ask you think twice replace him on this and he was abusing his expense account and a month later they would get a bill for the rental car that was left in some garage somewhere and they really wanted to push him aside. And i love to do and original investigated reporting and i was talking about how i possibly would not have gone along with woodward who is also at the post, although he was the best man. But in the end i am happy with my life. Host from your book the first family detail secret Service Agents reveal the hidden lives of the president s, secret Service Agents like barack and michelle obama, treat them with respect. Again i think that this is a very important clue for the character, one of the reasons they like obama even if they may not like his policies sometimes is that people do have this sense that she is not a very likable person. And so this is an example of the fact that my books are political, they tell it like it is, reviewing the previous book in saying that it presents flattering and unflattering stories about president s of both political parties. Host what goes into the president s annual trip to hawaii. What kind of planning by the secret service . Guest i think two weeks before they do in advance and they will interview local Law Enforcement to see if there are any threats out there, they go to the whole territory, they plan out everything, right down to the most minute detail of the motorcade route. Onetime one george h. W. Bush was going to give a speech in oklahoma when he was campaigning for reelection he advanced and people went out there, they talk to local Law Enforcement and Law Enforcement said no, there is this psychic in town who has been incredibly reliable in the past and let us to a body of the murder victims and she said that she had a vision that bush would be assassinated by sniper at an overpass. The secret Service Agents were embarrassed to take this seriously, but nonetheless they interviewed the psychic and after if she knew anything more about this alleged plot and she said i know that the motorcade vehicles are out at the air force base. They said can you show us where and they went there and there were five hangars and she pointed correctly to the hangar where the motorcade vehicles were. This was from one of the agents who is actually in charge and asked her a few other questions and she said this is going to come out of air force one wearing a sport jacket and sport coat, and i thought, that is absurd, but sure enough the next morning he came out wearing a sports jacket and a sports suit. So they went to an alternate route that did not go under any overpass and of course bush was safe and he was not told at the time but he knows about it now, and im always asked did they go to look at there is any sniper at an overpass, no, they didnt, but the secret Service Agents are very impressive and the fbi agents admire them more than any other Law Enforcement. When they interview the suspects if they can find them and put them into three categories category number three is the most serious where they believe that if they would carry out the plot, in most cases when the president goes the secret service will actually show up at the home of one of the individuals and warn them to stay away from the president , that they will be watched all the way through and [inaudible] they interview everyone involved and he probably will not be prosecuted. Host what is crown . Guest that is the secret Service Codename f