Skeletons in the closet: Secrets the president’s watchie should never leak

If Secret Service agents, both retired and active, were to spill the beans on the things they see, hear or stumble upon, the world “would scream,” journalist Ronald Kessler notes in his book, In the President’s Secret Service, published in 2009.

Obama: The ‘Renegade’ smoker Contrary to President Obama’s claims on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° show that he quit smoking, Kessler reveals that ‘Renegade,’ as Obama is code named by the Secret Service, is still a regular puffer. He probably “smokes on the Truman Balcony and in the White House residence and West Wing,” notes Kessler as “agents say he smokes outside the White House as well.”

President Lincoln: His ‘agent’ was drinking when he was killed

Before the Secret Service took over guarding American presidents in 1902, security was lax. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, the police officer assigned to him was boozing in a nearby tavern!

The earlier Secret Service seems to have been a very jua kali outfit as well, with President Theodore Roosevelt writing to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge: “They would not be of least use in preventing any assault upon my life.”

George W Bush: ‘Daddy, tell officer to back off!’ Secret agents were given hell by Bush’s heavy-parting teenagers Jenna Welch and Barbara Pierce. Code named ‘Turquoise’ and ‘Twinkle,’ the two rebellious youngsters disliked their security detail so much.

“The supervisor of her detail was scared of her, because they were afraid she is going to pick up the phone and call dad,” writes Kessler. “Jenna called her father many times when she wanted the agents to back off. The president would call the special agent in charge (SAIC). The SAIC would then call the detail leader, who in turn would call the guys and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to back off,’” Kessler further reveals.

Bill Clinton: Pilot can wait, I’m having a haircut Code named ‘Eagle,’ the people charmer was to many agents the worst time keeper. He once disrupted the national air traffic flow as he held the Air Force One on the runway waiting for him as he got a haircut! Among the worst is Hillary Clinton, who is currently campaigning for presidency to succeed President Barack Obama on a Democratic ticket. Besides firing Christopher B Emery, a White House staff for answering Laura Bush’s call after the Bushes left office, Hillary is said to have been excessively hard on staff.

“She’s very angry and sarcastic and is very hard on her staff. She yells at them and complains,” an agent who worked under her said. In her book, Living History, Hillary Clinton wrote of her gratitude to the White House staff. The truth was, said a Secret Service agent, “Hillary did not speak to us. She never said thank you.” Jimmy Carter: Had no clothes for two days Code named ‘Deacon,’ Carter was a brute who “treated with contempt the little people who helped and protected him.” He never wanted the staff and bodyguards to say hello or look at him whenever he walked in. In a bid to project himself as a man of the people, he would pretend to carry his luggage while in most cases, the trunks were empty!

“Carter would have us carry his luggage from the trunk to the airport. But that was not our job, and we finally stopped doing it,” one agent said. “On one occasion...we opened the trunk and shut it, leaving his luggage in the trunk. He was without clothes for two days,” said an agent.

John F Kennedy: Sneaked babes into White House Code named ‘Lancer,’ he was a president who led a double life as a charming and charismatic leader, but behind the scenes, he was “the cheating, reckless husband whose aides sneaked women into the White House to appease his sexual appetite.”

He had a penchant for orgies, nude pool parties with women and a “taste for celebrities.” According to Secret Service agents, “Kennedy had sex with Marilyn Monroe in New York hotels.” He also had her “on a double bed in a loft above Attorney General Robert F Kennedy’s office, the president’s brother.”

Lyndon B Johnson: Peed on White House fence when drunk Code named ‘Volunteer,’ he was said to be “uncouth, nasty and often drunk.” He also had affairs with secretaries and was once caught on a couch in the Oval Office by his wife Lady Bird Johnson. Sometimes he got so drunk, he took leaks at the White House fence.