{"product_id":"zero-fail-isbn-9780399589034","title":"Zero Fail","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER • The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming lapses of the Obama and Trump years—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Carol Leonnig\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“This book is a wake-up call, and a valuable study of a critically important agency.”—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eWASHINGTON POST \u003c\/i\u003eBEST BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCarol Leonnig reported on the Secret Service for nearly a decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today—from a toxic workplace culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But by Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mismanagement and mistakes in judgement: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTo explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that is in desperate need of reform.“This book is a wake-up call, and a valuable study of a critically important agency.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eZero Fail\u003c\/i\u003e is an important book, one that will ruffle feathers in need of ruffling and that will be useful to legislators, policymakers and historians alike.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Here is journalism as a true and honest public service. . . . [\u003ci\u003eZero Fail\u003c\/i\u003e] is just terrific.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Terrifying . . . There is certainly heroism here, and there are certainly plots that were foiled, and there are certainly instances of an agency in the moment being well run and foiling an attack and chasing something down and being on top of stuff. But there is an astonishing litany of stuff they have done wrong and scrapes we have narrowly avoided in this country by the skin of our teeth and through sheer luck. . . . It just flips your stomach up and down. This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work—the determinative work—in this field.”\u003cb\u003e—Rachel Maddow\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eCarol Leonnig\u003c\/b\u003e is a national investigative reporter at \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, where she has worked since 2000. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and co-author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eA Very Stable Genius\u003c\/i\u003e, Leonnig is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.\u003cb\u003ePrologue\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eOn the evening of March 30, 1981, an eight-year-old boy in Norfolk, Virginia, sat glued to his family’s living room TV. Earlier that day, John Hinckley, Jr., had attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton. But as CBS News played the scene in a slow-motion loop, the boy’s focus wasn’t on the president. It was on the man who entered the frame.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Over and over again, the boy watched in amazement as this square-jawed man in a light gray suit turned toward the gunfire and fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. \u003ci\u003eBy taking a bullet for the president, \u003c\/i\u003ethe newsman said, \u003ci\u003eTim McCarthy probably saved his life.\u003c\/i\u003e At that moment, young Brad Gable (not his real name) knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe would be a Secret Service agent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now, thirty years later, Gable had indeed fulfilled that mission. He was a member of the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team, or CAT. In the constellation of presidential protection, CAT arguably has the most dangerous assignment. When most people think of the Secret Service, they picture the suited agents who cover and evacuate the president in moments of danger. The heavily armed CAT force has a different mission: Run toward whatever gunfire or explosion threatens the president and neutralize it. The team’s credo reflects the only two fates they believe await any attacker who crosses them: “Dead or Arrested.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGable was proud of the career he had chosen. Among his colleagues, he was respected for the pure patriotism driving him and for his intense focus on operational details. So why, in the late summer of 2012, as he sat in a restaurant near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, did he suddenly feel like throwing up?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gable and his fellow agents had come to a mom-and-pop restaurant with a group of Delta Force members who were overseeing the CAT team’s annual training. Gable’s squad had drilled for almost a week with these steely Special Forces operators, playing out mock assassination attempts and blind attacks to learn how to shield themselves and their buddies in close-quarters combat. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter a dinner of ribs, steaks, and wings, Gable sat back for some beers and small talk with one of 9\/11’s faceless heroes, a Delta Force sergeant major I’ll call John. Gable liked John’s no-bullshit style. He had real battlefield experience—two weeks after the 9\/11 attacks, he’d been part of the raid on Mullah Omar’s Kandahar compound, but he didn’t crow about it—which instantly earned Gable’s trust and respect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On his second beer, Gable felt loose enough to ask John a question that had been on his mind: “After teaching so many operators and law enforcement agents, what do you think of the Secret Service’s overall readiness?” The sergeant major demurred, so Gable pressed him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Seriously, how would you rate us?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Look,” John said. “I feel sorry for you guys. The Service has really let you down. You’ll never be able to stop a real attack.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It wasn’t the answer Gable had hoped for, and as he listened to John dissect the Service’s outdated equipment and spotty training, his stomach grew queasy. Deep down, he knew how ill-equipped and out of date the Secret Service was, but hearing it articulated by someone he respected made it impossible to deny. His mind drifted to all the times he had seen the Service drop the ball—most recently, a 2010 trip to Mumbai with President Obama, in which his unit had narrowly avoided a major international incident after nearly killing an unidentified gunman who turned out to be a local police officer. Scenarios like these were dress rehearsals for a real attack on the president, and in his five years with CAT, he had seen the Service fail so many of them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGable was now faced with a brutal truth: Increasingly, the Secret Service was fulfilling its Zero Fail mission based not on its skills, people, training, or technology, but on dumb luck. How long would it be before that luck ran out? Gable wasn’t alone. He knew other dedicated agents who felt a growing sense of disillusionment, especially with the agency’s leadership. But fear of repercussions had kept them silent. Until the stakes got too high.New York Times bestseller","brand":"Random House Trade Paperbacks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304689422565,"sku":"NP9780399589034","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780399589034.jpg?v=1767744877","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/zero-fail-isbn-9780399589034","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}