
Zero Fail
The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service
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Narrated by:
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Maggi-Meg Reed
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Carol Leonnig
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By:
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Carol Leonnig
About this listen
New York Times best seller
“This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work - the determinative work - in this field.... Terrifying.” (Rachel Maddow)
The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 - by the Pulitzer Prize winner and number one New York Times best-selling co-author of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post
Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today - from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn’t always so troubled.
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. 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 this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgment: 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.
To 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’s in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”
©2021 Carol Leonnig (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“This book is a wake-up call, and a valuable study of a critically important agency.” (The New York Times)
“Zero Fail is an important book, one that will ruffle feathers in need of ruffling and that will be useful to legislators, policymakers and historians alike.” (The Washington Post)
“Here is journalism as a true and honest public service.... [Zero Fail] is just terrific.” (The Wall Street Journal)
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Only four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to. On an icy night in October 1984, a commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta. Four survived: the rookie pilot, a prominent politician, a cop, and the criminal he was escorting to face charges. As the men fight through the night to stay alive, the dividing lines of power, wealth, and status are erased, and each man is forced to confront the precious and limited nature of his existence.
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Too long, and it got boring.
- By Simone on 06-30-17
By: Carol Shaben
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Life Inside the Bubble
- Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away from It All
- By: Dan Bongino
- Narrated by: Mark F. Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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He swore to take a bullet for the President and left it all behind to take a bullet for the American people. Why would a successful, twelve-year Secret Service agent resign his position in the prime of his career to run for political office against all the odds? New York Times bestseller, Life Inside the Bubble is an intimate look at life inside the presidential "bubble," a haze of staffers, consultants, cronies, acolytes, bureaucrats and lobbyists that creates the "alternate reality" in which monumental policy decisions are made.
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Tales from a whining baby!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-20
By: Dan Bongino
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The First Family Detail
- Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents
- By: Ronald Kessler
- Narrated by: Michael Bybee
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author and award-winning reporter Ronald Kessler, The First Family Detail tells eye-opening, behind-the-scenes stories from Secret Service agents about presidents and their families.
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This was very, very interesting!
- By E.R. on 08-19-14
By: Ronald Kessler
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The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told
- A True Tale of Three Gamblers, the Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel
- By: Mark Paul
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 1980s, a spectacular three-year-old female racehorse named Winning Colors was being groomed for success under her famous Hollywood trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the billionaire owner of the San Diego Chargers pro-football team Eugene Klein. Meanwhile, three fun-loving gamblers Miami Paul, Dino Mateo, and Big Bernie believed that Winning Colors could be the unlikely female winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.
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Exciting & Entertaining Story
- By TeeRex81 on 04-17-20
By: Mark Paul
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The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
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John Lee is GREAT!
- By David on 09-21-18
By: Ben Macintyre
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Unthinkable
- Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
- By: Jamie Raskin
- Narrated by: Jamie Raskin
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.
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Must reading/listening for every American who has despaired of losing our democracy.
- By Shirley Anderson on 01-06-22
By: Jamie Raskin
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Rage
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Woodward, the number-one international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans.
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Illuminating
- By Bridgette on 09-17-20
By: Bob Woodward
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The Pale-Faced Lie
- A True Story
- By: David Crow
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his siblings idolized their dad. Tall, strong, smart, and brave, the self-taught Cherokee regaled his family with stories of his World War II feats. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics that justified cruelty, violence, lies - even murder. A shrewd con artist with a genius IQ, Thurston intimidated David with beatings to coerce him into doing his criminal bidding. David's mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn't protect him.
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Best new release I’ve read!
- By A. Deal on 02-17-20
By: David Crow
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We Were the Lucky Ones
- By: Georgia Hunter
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati, Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-seller with more than one million copies sold worldwide. Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive - and to reunite - We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer.
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Love it but...
- By Roz on 07-19-17
By: Georgia Hunter
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Billion Dollar Whale
- By: Bradley Hope, Tom Wright
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Now a number-one international best seller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude—one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system.
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Couldn’t stop listening!
- By N Lane on 10-05-18
By: Bradley Hope, and others
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Blowout
- Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2010, the words “earthquake swarm” entered the lexicon in Oklahoma. That same year, a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia—including his iconic crystal-encrusted white glove—was sold at auction for over $1 million to a guy who was, officially, just the lowly forestry minister of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea. And in 2014, Ukrainian revolutionaries raided the palace of their ousted president and found a zoo of peacocks, gilded toilets, and a floating restaurant modeled after a Spanish galleon.
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chilling...
- By Kindle Customer on 10-12-19
By: Rachel Maddow
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The Secret History of the Rape Kit
- A True Crime Story
- By: Pagan Kennedy
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1972, Martha "Marty" Goddard volunteered at a crisis hotline, counseling girls who had been molested by their fathers, their teachers, their uncles. Soon, Marty was on a mission to answer a question: Why were so many sexual predators getting away with these crimes? By the end of the decade, she had launched a campaign pushing hospitals and police departments to collect evidence of sexual assault and treat survivors with dignity. She designed a new kind of forensics tool—the rape kit—and new practices around evidence collection that spread across the country.
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A forgotten woman who changed the world
- By Gregory J. Baldwin on 01-19-25
By: Pagan Kennedy
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The Siege
- A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath.
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Another brilliant book by MacIntyre
- By ian on 09-29-24
By: Ben Macintyre
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The Unseen Realm
- By: Dr. Michael S. Heiser
- Narrated by: Gordon Greenhill
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Unseen Realm, Dr. Michael Heiser examines the ancient context of scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God. He illuminates intriguing and amazing passages of the Bible that have been hiding in plain sight. You'll find yourself engaged in an enthusiastic pursuit of the truth, resulting in a new appreciation for God's word.
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But the paper book.
- By garth jeffcoat on 05-26-18
What listeners say about Zero Fail
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- R. Scott Goosen
- 05-20-21
Zero Fail-great read-poor reader pf book
I enjoyed the book portion but not the Audible book due to the reader. In my opinion, the author should have paid for a professional reader. The details are there, the research was well done, the reader of this Audible book was awful-a 1 star.
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- Relaxxxx
- 06-13-21
History Lesson / Current Events
Thank you for writing this book. Thank you for your thoroughness, truthfulness and fairness. I learned so much from listening to this book - - it is a history lesson, an eye-opener, current events, and a realty-check. It shows the humaneness of people, especially those who have sworn to serve, protect and uphold the law, by exposing their biases, weaknesses and true characteristics. As such, for me, this confirmed that generally, those people can not be trusted. That’s a sad truth; a sad reality for many of us. I am NOT saying that there are NOT people who have upheld the oath they’ve taken by setting out to do exactly what they’ve promised to do without prejudice, bias, malice, racism, selfishness, brown-nosing, self-aggrandizement, abuse of power, etc. It’s just that when you hear about one bad apple in the barrel, it ruins all of the apples in the barrel. Unfortunately, there are many, many barrels of bad apples - - always has been, always will be. This culture of the acceptance and downplaying the misdeeds of bad apples (people) has been normalized to the point that it is systemic. It’s here to stay - - handed down from generation to generation. Sadly, this book confirms that the Secret Service is no exception.
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- Dzoom
- 08-08-22
Scary And Good
Well written, well researched and well read account of the history of the Secret Service. That’s the good part, the truly scary part is how underfunded and political the Service is and no answers in sight.
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- Lenna__MN
- 06-06-22
loved it!
Boy... the stuff we didn't know about the inner workings in the history of the Secret Service! It was excellently written and read. Highly recommend!
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- Chris Lynch
- 06-04-21
Amazing detail
Truly a must. I learned so much! It’s great to get the good the bad and the ugly.
I appreciate our secret service so much more.
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- Damon T. Bethea
- 07-29-21
Eye Opener
This book is so eye opening. The secret service is in need of a lot of reforms. I highly recommend this book.
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- Barbara Wintroub
- 08-05-21
Mesmerizing
I couldn’t stop listening. What a gem of a story. Carol did an absolutely brilliant job telling this story.
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- steve finkelstein
- 06-12-21
A great listen
This is a great book. Lots of interesting facts and stories about the secret service.There are several things I learned:
(1) Richard Nixon was more evil than anyone can imagine.
(2) John Kennedy and Bill Clinton were jerks during their time in office. Jerk is a kinder term but if I used stronger language, Audible probably would not display the review.
(3) The 45th president was a selfish grifter who turned the secret service into the Nazi’s SS.
(4) If the secret service spent the same amount of time and effort working on positive reforms as they do on hiding errors and back-stabbing their work force, they would be a better organization.
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- ruth fruehauf
- 08-14-21
A page turner
Riveted, I was stuck in my driveway more than once while listening to this excellent, well researched book. The history was fascinating and the writing beautiful. Go for it!
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- Judi Ellis
- 05-25-21
Credible Analysis of Secret Service
Already winner of the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on the Secret Service published in 2014, Carol Leonnig has documented thorough history and detailed operations of the Secret Service. Zero Fail is the result of research conducted in National Archives and other impeccable repositories as well as extensive interviews with former Secret Service agents. For the protection of her sources names of the interviewees were not revealed. Specific research methods are detailed.
Those of us familiar with Carol Leonnig’s writing appreciate her frank style. This book, in particular, is shockingly brutal in detailing the events resulting in security successes and failures.
I do not agree with other reviewers who claim Zero Fail is a “hit job” on the Secret Service. Leonnig recounts the incidents in detail and largely are based on first hand written reports, sworn testimony, and personal recounts. Further, the very existence of recurring incidents over the history of the agency validates systemic problems.
Without doubt Zero Fail’s telling of President John F Kennedy’s assassination evokes again the collective horror experienced by Americans. For many of us who remember the assassination, this book gives some unknown first hand details from the agents who were there. I could not help but find myself shocked by gruesome details. She shares the second-guessing of agents who were there. She recounts one of the first of many times agents participated in heavy drinking prior to a crucial event.
I lost sleep over Zero Fail—both because the book captivates because it disturbs. Leonnig is a master at making facts riveting reading.
The Secret Service is in trouble. A clear pattern is evident.
The blame lies with the agency culture. Rather than pointing fingers Leonnig lets the agency reveal its own faults and weaknesses. Jaw dropping incidents of misbehavior repeat from 1960’s to the most recent Secret Service failures. The author lets the facts tell the story. She cannot be accused of damaging the reputation of the Secret Service. The agency’s history of blunders does the damage.
Yes, the worth of the Secret Service is difficult to measure by what its very existence has deterred. Its glaring track record of misses and near-misses overshadows successes. Readers must be vigilant and avoid being influenced by unfair reviewers who attempt to shield any law enforcement group from scrutiny.
In the case of Zero Fail the title is required by the agency. The Secret Service’s alcohol fueled culture has torpedoed its mission. Carol Leonnig turns the agency’s ugly underbelly to the light. Politicization of the agency further endangers the agency’s effectiveness. The book concludes with evidence the Secret Service has fallen into the dangerous position of defending former President Trump’s “big lie”. Again, the author lets the facts tell the story.
I highly recommend Zero Fail for its credibility and its readability.
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