Vice President Joe Biden enjoys swimming without a bathing suit, a new book claims.
Biden, who’s flirting with a run for president in 2016, gives Secret Service agents an eyeful both at his Delaware home and at the vice president’s official residence in Washington, D.C., according to “The First Family Detail” by Ronald Kessler.
The book relies on named and unnamed sources to describe life guarding prominent politicians including Biden, former President Ronald Reagan, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
“Agents say that, whether at the vice president’s residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude,” Kessler writes in the book – due for release Aug. 5.
“Female Secret Service agents find that offensive,” he writes.
“Biden likes to be revered as everyday Joe,' an unnamed agent told Kessler. 'But the reality is no agents want to go on his detail because Biden makes agents’ lives so tough.”
In addition to the alleged skinny-dipping, agents are reportedly irritated by frequent last-minute trips to Delaware.
A Biden spokeswoman would not address the claims on the record. A spokesperson for the Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kessler worked for several mainstream publications – including more than a decade at The Washington Post – before a stint as chief Washington correspondent at the conservative online publication Newsmax in the early 2000s.
His reporting has won two George Polk awards.
Kessler does have credibility reporting on the Secret Service. In 2012 he tipped off The Post that Secret Service agents had been recalled from Colombia for visiting prostitutes ahead of a presidential visit. The scoop was the beginning of what became a long scandal affecting the service.
The liberal blog Media Matters, however, attacked Kessler on Thursday, citing reviews of other books he wrote. The older reviews cited by Media Matters complained his scoops were too sensational or relied on gossip.
Kessler tells U.S. News he believes it’s unfair for Media Matters to criticize him. He says the blog hasn’t seen the book, which he maintains is actually balanced and accurate.
“As an example of the impartial approach, while the book says agents consider being assigned to Hillary Clinton's detail a form of punishment and the worst assignment in the Secret Service because she is so nasty to them and the ‘little people’ she claims to champion, the book says that Barack and Michelle Obama treat their agents with respect and consideration,” Kessler says. “And the book reveals that John Hinckley was able to shoot President Reagan because the Reagan White House overruled the Secret Service to allow unscreened spectators to get within 15 feet of Reagan as he left the Washington Hilton. The book has negative disclosures about Republicans ranging from Spiro Agnew to Jenna Bush to Sen. Ted Cruz. Not exactly a political hatchet job!”
'As for sourcing,' he adds, 'having broken the story of Secret Service agents being sent home from Colombia for hiring prostitutes, and the fact that a third intruder crashed a White House state dinner along with the Salahis, I obviously have very good Secret Service sources.'
联系客服
