Prior to 1901, the prevailing ideology was that American democracy as embodied in the highest elected official didn't warrant the privileged trappings of its British antecedents. It wasn't until after the third assassination of a US President (POTUS) - William McKinley - in 1901, that Congress authorized the expansion of the Secret Service's purview to include a bodyguard function. Leonnig's purpose was to be a conduit for the former and current agents who believe that the Secret Service is broken and in need of major repair.Ĭreated in 1865 as an enforcement arm of the US Treasury, the Secret Service was tasked with eliminating the counterfeit currency flooding the country in the wake of the Civil War. But author Leonnig bore a more noble agenda as she set out to document the modern history of the Secret Service, warts and all, after extensive interviews and research of federal documents.
Zero Fail could seem like an exposé, especially since this Washington Post journalist's introduction to the Secret Service was the "Hookergate" scandal in Cartagena in 2012. To expose the these shortcomings, Leonnig interviewed countless current and former agents who risked their careers to speak out about an agency that's broken and in desperate need of a reform.ĥ ☆ the Secret Service was born out of a fundamental tension that lies at the heart of American democracy: symbolism versus security By Barack Obama's presidency, the Secret Service was becoming notorious for break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing at the building while agents stood by, a massive prostitution scandal in Cartagena, and many other dangerous lapses. But this reputation for courage and efficiency would not last forever.
Shocked into reform by their failure to protect the president on that fateful day, this once-sleepy agency was rapidly transformed into a proud, elite unit that would finally redeem themselves in 1981 by valiantly thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. But the Secret Service wasn't always so troubled. The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the ongoing scandals under Obama and Trump-by Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of A Very Stable GeniusĬarol Leonnig has been covering the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the gaffes and scandals that plague the agency today-from a toxic work culture to outdated equipment and training to the deep resentment among the ranks with the agency's leadership.
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