Trump Cited Gary Byrne’s Crisis Of Character, Which Secret Service Veterans “Strongly Denounce”
Trump Highlights Byrne’s Claim That Clinton “Lacks The Integrity And Temperament” To Be President. From Trump’s June 22 remarks, as prepared for delivery:
She lacks the temperament, the judgment and the competence to lead.
In the words of a Secret Service agent posted outside the Oval Office:
“She simply lacks the integrity and temperament to serve in the office…from the bottom of my soul, I know this to be true…Her leadership style – volcanic, impulsive…disdainful of the rules set for everyone else – hasn’t changed a bit.” [DonaldJTrump.com,
6/22/16]
Politico: Secret Service Veterans “Strongly Denounce” Byrne’s Book. Politico reported on criticism of former Secret Service officer Gary Byrne’s book from current and former Secret Service members, including from the non-partisan Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service. The Secret Service veterans say Byrne was “too low-ranking” to have witnessed events recounted in the book, and suggest he is lying for political and financial benefit.
On Tuesday, AFAUSSS, which is strictly nonpartisan, is set to release a statement blasting Gary Byrne author of “Crisis in Character,” saying members “strongly denounce” the book, which they add has made security harder by eroding the trust between agents and the people they protect.
“There is no place for any self-moralizing narratives, particularly those with an underlying motive,” reads the statement from the group’s board of directors, which says Byrne has politics and profit on his mind.
AFAUSSS rarely issues public statements of any kind.
The book has rankled current and former members of the Secret Service, who don’t like anyone airing their business in public — but who also take issue with Byrne inflating his role. Byrne was a uniformed officer in Bill Clinton’s White House. But that’s the lowest level of protection within the White House and around the president.
People familiar with West Wing security laugh at the idea that Byrne or any uniformed officer ever would have walked in on Bill Clinton anywhere, whether in a meeting or, as a New York Post
article over the weekend claims, in the middle of a make-out session in the Map Room with the late daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale. The Secret Service presidential detail would have stopped him. (That affair was a well-worn rumor during the Clinton years, though strongly denied by Eleanor Mondale, who died of brain cancer in 2011.)
[...]
The group’s statement, which POLITICO obtained in advance of its release, very carefully calls Byrne a liar.
“One must question the veracity and content of any book which implies that its author played such an integral part of so many [claimed] incidents. Any critique of management by one who has never managed personnel or programs resounds hollow. Additionally, why would an employee wait in excess of ten years after terminating his employment with the Service to make his allegations public?” it reads. [
Politico, 6/22/16]