Where do you think we are, Susan, Secret Service? Are we better than we were after Butler or in the same place?

I think we are better.

You know, these men and women are my true heroes because they put their their lives on the line for our continuity of government to protect the president every single day.

So with that being said, it did not surprise me that we had this White House correspondent situation where there was a near just unbelievable tragedy that happened.

Almost occurred.

He, the actual intruder fell.

He was not stopped.

Is there any inside perspective you've gained on what really happened to this poor woman?

So the latest, a deputy director resignation over potential conflict of interest.

Yes, this isn't really a surprise because he had sat down with the director, Sean Curran for 60 minutes interview just that Sunday prior.

So this came out of nowhere, except for, I was asking questions about the conflict of interest in the fact that he had said during the 60 minutes interview that president Trump was, uh, and all the protectees were vulnerable for, to a swarm of drones.

They could take out one drone.

But they couldn't take out a sworn.

Well, that is a mistake to even say that.

I mean, I think that's pretty well known in the intelligence community and the national security community that multiple drones are a problem.

And I mean, so what's your handle on how much or how little the Secret Service has improved from, you know, sort of Butler to present?

She is still a member in good standing of the California Senate, and I do not believe she's been removed from her leadership positions because she's an influential member of a variety of committees in Sacramento, and they have yet to remove her from those committees.

That's right, including the insurance committee, uh, which, you know, uh, we're not having an insurance crisis in California right now.

I mean, we're in the middle of a terrible insurance crisis that basically g- had pitted the governor against the state legislature.

They're having a big fight over who's gonna pay for these wildfires.

Meanwhile, all of our insurance rates are going through the roof in California, can't even get insurance, some people, if you live in certain zones.

So, you know, this individual, you know, a lot to say, "Oh, she's a state senator." No.

She is a, someone who is creating policy, uh, for the rest of the, the state and is facing, you know, what, what appears to be serious questions about her ethics and whether she was involved in this, you know, b- this investigation, this FBI investigation that took down the city attorney of Baldwin Park when she was city, a city councilwoman of Baldwin Park, which is, yeah, as you know, uh, in San Gabriel Valley, uh, in with, near Covina.

Do you get the impression that because she is the biggest name involved in these scandals, that they are making sure to dot their I's and cross their T's, and they're not gonna move forward until they feel that they can get her with a California jury should they charge her with something?

She is still a member in good standing of the California Senate, and I do not believe she's been removed from her leadership positions because she's an influential member of a variety of committees in Sacramento, and they have yet to remove her from those committees.

That's right, including the insurance committee, uh, which, you know, uh, we're not having an insurance crisis in California right now.

I mean, we're in the middle of a terrible insurance crisis that basically g- had pitted the governor against the state legislature.

They're having a big fight over who's gonna pay for these wildfires.

Meanwhile, all of our insurance rates are going through the roof in California.

You can't even get insurance, some people, if you live in certain zones.

So, you know, this individual, you know, a lot to say, "Oh, she's a state senator." No.

Do you get the impression that because she is the biggest name involved in these scandals, that they are making sure to dot their I's and cross their T's, and they're not gonna move forward until they feel that they can get her with a California jury should they charge her with something?

She is still a member in good standing of the California Senate, and I do not believe she's been removed from her leadership positions, because she's an influential member of a variety of committees in Sacramento, and they have yet to remove her from those committees.

That's right, including the insurance committee, uh, which, you know, uh, we're not having an insurance crisis in California right now.

I mean, we're in the middle of a terrible insurance crisis that basically had pitted the governor against the state legislature.

They're having a big fight over who's gonna pay for these wildfires.

Meanwhile, all of our insurance rates are going through the roof in California.

You can't even get insurance, some people, if you live in certain zones.

So, you know, this individual, you know, a lot to say, "Oh, she's a state senator." No.

Do you get the impression that because she is the biggest name involved in these scandals, that they are making sure to dot their I's and cross their T's, and they're not gonna move forward until they feel that they can get her with a California jury should they charge her with something?

If I was running against Gavin Newsom in that South Carolina primary, I would fly some of those fire victims out from Altadena to South Carolina, and I would have them tell their story all over that state.

Yeah, this is something that I'm in.

extremely passionate about you may have seen it in my tweets i was fighting with a public utility commissioner last week over this very thing gavin newsom has taken millions we know about at least 700 000 between his campaign contributions and his wife's gender justice non-profit from pg e The company, the utility company, and these utility companies, they're not like regular investor-owned utility companies like we normally think of.

They have a monopoly, basically, and they're an extension of the government in my estimation.

And he's taken money from these utilities time and time again, and lo and behold, he's come to their rescue, bailing them out and abandoning the wildfire victims themselves.

We saw this all play out in Paradise with the Paradise fire.

That was the canary in the coal mine.

It's a longstanding relationship that is very close.

If I was running against Gavin Newsom in that South Carolina primary, I would fly some of those fire victims out from Altadena to South Carolina, and I would have them tell their story all over that state.

Yeah.

This is something that I'm extremely passionate about.

You may have seen it in my tweets.

I was fighting with a public utility commissioner last week over this very thing.

Gavin Newsom has taken m- millions, we know about at least 700,000, between his campaign contributions and his wife's gender justice nonprofit from PG&E, the company, the utility company.

And these utility companies, they're not like regular investor-owned utility, uh, companies like we normally think of.

It's a longstanding relationship that is very close.

If I was running against Gavin Newsom in that South Carolina primary, I would fly some of those fire victims out from Altadena to South Carolina, and I would have them tell their story all over that state.

Yeah, this is something that I'm in.

extremely passionate about.

You may have seen it in my tweets.

I was fighting with a public utility commissioner last week over this very thing.

Gavin Newsom has taken millions.

We know about at least 700,000 between his campaign contributions and his wife's gender justice nonprofit from PG&E.

It's a longstanding relationship that is very close.

That's for sure.

Yeah, that's right.

And I think that that but this has been going on for a long time.

And you see, you saw that it really kind of erupted in the public view in 2012 when there was that prostitution scandal.

And what I'm told, you know, that was kind of the motto in the Secret Service was wheels up, rings off and woo.

On advanced trips, you know, this trip was not when the president was President Obama was not in Colombia at the time they were preparing for a trip for President Obama to be there.

But still, there is this sort of mentality.

Where do you think we are in that balance between I've inherited, you know, a lot of bad news and I'm trying to go in the right direction, but you know, like, where are we on getting in the right direction?

And so I think there should be a protective vision or a protective unit, but then the currency and everything else should go back to treasury.

You know what, you hit on something just so important because we saw that on display at Butler when those women who were struggling like the Keystone cops to get Trump into the car in the motorcade and exit the scene.

Those, some of those women, I'll get, I can break it down for you, but the one that got the most laughs, we'll say, or vitriol was the overweight woman.

And I understand that that particular individual is out of the Pittsburgh field office and is very well respected, but was not, you know, obviously in cutting edge training shape or protocol with her guns.

And then, you know, the, the, The emphasis on these field offices is the number one emphasis is not protecting You know, not when the protectees come to town, including the president, vice president, et cetera.

So that's what you saw on display right there.

You hit on it.

um and my concern is nothing's changed and at least at the time and tell me if anything's changed isn't but they were like a thousand agents shy of their congressional mandated maximum number of agents so part of the problem which i think played itself out in butler and other places is when you don't have enough personnel then you know that puts a burden on everybody else to fill in the blanks

Right

... is briefed on.

The comm- The, the p- The number one, he's the number one spokesperson for the Secret Service.

Very clo- Um, usually work hand in glove with the director.

So he, he's a company man.

He, he...

What, what's interesting to me about him is that he was very aggressively, uh, defending, uh, Kimberly Cheatle's record after the Butler rally assassination at- assassination attempt that nearly killed Donald Trump.

Why didn't, why didn't they get rid of this guy too? G- uh, Gugliel- Guglielmi, Guglielmi?

Can you give us some more context here? Just how rare is it for the CIA and FBI to be investigating leaks involving a presidential administration?

Well, I think it's pretty anomalous.

I have never heard, especially when it comes to the communications director.

Now, communications directors get fired.

I was involved in some of the reporting that led to the firing of a communications director at the Secret Service in around 2015, 2016.

But that's because the director herself, Julia Pearson, was getting fired as well.

She didn't share information with President Obama and DHS Secretary at the time, Jay Johnson, that I had reported.

Tell us about his role there in the lack of information getting out about Butler.

He lays these traps where you evaluate him on the performative and not based on what he's actually done as an executive in California.

That's exactly right, and I think the first person to really, you know, explore this performative, uh, aspect of Gavin Newsom was Kevin Kiley in his book, which I read as research for my book.

He, he uses that word performative.

Uh, but you know what? We-- It's our job in the press to hold him accountable and say, you know, "You say, 'So goes California, so goes the nation.'" That's one of Gavin Newsom's favorite phrases.

So why are we having the highest homelessness? Why can't you govern? I mean, you can say everything you want, you can be right on the far left positions, uh, but can you actually govern? Can you do the basic things that people need? Like when there's a fire in our-- i- in California near your house, are you panicking? Yes, you are.

We all panicked.

Um, I had a...

But when he championed it, when he got those laws passed, he said what he loves to say, "Game changer."

He lays these traps where you evaluate him on the performative and not based on what he's actually done as an executive in California.

That's exactly right.

And I think the first person to really explore this performative aspect aspect of Gavin Newsom was Kevin Kiley in his book, which I read and researched from my book.

He uses that word for formative.

But you know what? It's our job in the press to hold him accountable and say, you know, you say so goes California, so goes the nation.

That's one of Gavin Newsom's favorite phrases.

So why are we having the highest homelessness? Why can't you govern? I mean, you can say everything you want.

But when he championed it, when he got those laws passed, he said what he loves to say, game changer.

This started right here in Gavin state.

That's right.

Well, I think that Gavin Newsom is getting pretty nervous, and that's the reason why he went forward with that story.

He wasn't in the news a lot, uh, preceding the fact that he basically disclosed that he was under investigation, and then immediately started fundraising, um, after that, uh, for that issue, saying, "Hey, I'm, you know, a target of Donald Trump, and this is a politi- a political weaponization issue," and on and on.

Uh, but we all know that there was a lobbyist who was working with his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who was wearing a wire.

Um, and we only know that thanks to the California Post excellent reporting.

So you know, the California Post is already changing the game.

I could easily see why the Newsoms would do something like this if they think no one is minding the store.

This started right here in Gavin's state.

That's right.

Well, I think that Gavin Newsom is getting pretty nervous, and that's the reason why he went forward with that story.

He wasn't in the news a lot, uh, preceding the fact that he basically disclosed that he was under investigation and then immediately started fundraising, um, after that, uh, for that issue saying, "Hey, I'm, you know, a target of Donald Trump, and this is a politi- a political weaponization issue," and on and on.

Uh, but we all know that there was a lobbyist who was working with his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who was wearing a wire.

Um, and we only know that thanks to the California Post excellent reporting.

So, you know, the California Post is already changing the game.

I could easily see why the Newsoms would do something like this if they think no one is minding the store.

Yeah.

They put themselves, their lives on the line because people say, "Oh, you're taking potshots," and then, "No, every agency is corrupt." You know, people outside of Washington just say, "Oh, all of Washington is corrupt." Well, that's not necessarily the case.

Um, we take a look at these issues because there are serious morale issues in the Secret Service that have been ongoing that you've done a lot of work about, and we wanna know, get to the heart of it so that we can reform the agencies and so they, they, we're better equipped to protect the president and our continuity of government.

So that being said, a long wind-up too, uh, there are, uh, problems with the Secret Service, um, espe- this year alone, in the last eight months, there have been at least six agents or officers that have been arrested or run afoul of the law that are Secret Service agents, and, um, they have been placed on administrative leave.

The latest, unfortunately, I did report in June about this particular agent, Marquez Pinder.

He was arrested and charged Sunday with five felony counts in a near-fatal fraternity hazing incident that occurred this spring.

I've been reporting on this, trying to get information.

It, it's-

While protecting a vice president with a large policy portfolio and a young and growing family presents a unique challenge, agents of the Secret Service do so with excellence every day." We spoke with Real Clear Politics national correspondent Susan Crabtree, who has reported extensively on the Secret Service and who says the strain inside Vice President Vance's protective detail has been building for more than a year.

I've been reporting on the understaffing of JD Vance's Secret Service detail for more than a year.

I've heard multiple, multiple complaints, and I've been reporting on this in various, various stories and, and tweets.

Uh, the Secret Service, the, the presidential detail is almost twice as large, from what I understand, uh, as the vice president's detail.

But of course, JD Vance is doing more than half amount of-- they-- He's traveling at least twice as much, if not likely more.

He's very integral to this administration, uh, far more than VP Harris was, and he also has young kids.

So that is stressing, um, the-- providing a lot of stress for the detail, and they haven't done anything at the leadership level that I know of that-- to address these concerns that, that have been simmering on the detail for months and months.

Crabtree also accuses the outlet of applying a double standard to the demands placed on agents protecting members of the Biden family

This started right here in Gavin State.

That's right.

Well, I think that Gavin Newsom is getting pretty nervous, and that's the reason why he went forward with that story.

He wasn't in the news a lot preceding the fact that he basically disclosed that he was under investigation and then immediately started fundraising for that issue saying, hey, I'm a target of Donald Trump and this is a political weaponization issue and on and on.

But we all know that there was a lobbyist who was working with his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who was wearing a wire.

And we only know that thanks to the California Post excellent reporting.

So, you know, the California Post is already changing the game.

I could easily see why the Newsoms would do something like this if they think no one is minding the store.

This started right here in Gavin state.

That's right.

Well, I think that Gavin Newsom is getting pretty nervous, and that's the reason why he went forward with that story.

He wasn't in the news a lot, uh, preceding the fact that he basically disclosed that he was under investigation and then immediately started fundraising, um, after that, uh, for that issue, saying, "Hey, I'm, you know, a target of Donald Trump, and this is a politi- a political representation issue," and on and on.

Uh, but we all know that there was a lobbyist who was working with his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, who was wearing a wire.

Um, and we only know that thanks to the California Post excellent reporting.

So, you know, the California Post is already changing the game.

I could easily see why the Newsoms would do something like this if they think no one is minding the store.

Just give us an overview to start with here, and then we'll go into a couple of the examples.

Yes, well, this is a long trail of Gavin Newsom's corruption ties and his connections to unsavory characters.

Interestingly enough, you think that Dana Williamson, we all know that his most recent chief of staff last year or just last month pleaded guilty to public corruption charges taking, siphoning more than $200,000 out of Javier Becerra's dormant campaign account.

to benefit who? Javier Becerra's top aide at the Health and Human Services Department when he worked there.

But what are the chances, John, what are the chances of his deputy chief of staff when he was mayor dealing with pending criminal charges for public corruption at the same time that Dana Williamson is? What do you think the chances are of

And again, the charges involve bribery.

Yes, he is probably the most interesting, fascinating case.

He actually dated for a time San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the previous mayor of San Francisco, David Lurie, now it's the mayor.

And again, the charges involve bribery.

Yes, he is probably the most interesting, fascinating case.

He actually dated for a time San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the previous mayor of San Francisco, David Lurie, now it's the mayor.

But this individual takes the cake because he's serving seven years on bribery and corruption scandal and bribery charges for taking bribes and soliciting them as the I think he's the chief deputy of the public works program he was before his grand fall from grace.

But yet, he was involved in something even, I think, as deeply concerning, even more concerning.

In 2003, he got to know Gavin Newsom even before he was mayor when he volunteered on Newsom's mayoral campaign while serving in the city government.

And he was involved in orchestrating a coercive voting scheme through what is known as, and you're not going to believe this, the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners.

urban gardeners is this a union

urban gardeners is this a union

this it sounds like a union to me but it guess what it's a non-profit controlled by the extent the san francisco city government public works program which nuru headed And so you had people being basically commissioned into service for Gavin Newsom's campaign, even if they didn't want to be.

These are street cleaners.

Street cleaners.

Yeah, street cleaners in San Francisco were made to go out and canvass for Gavin Newsom and collect, here's the keyword, absentee ballots.

Ah! And this is I'm not kidding you.

And this they've complained.

Who is this character?

So what exactly is happening here and how is the governor's wife a significant part of this investigation?

Well, it's interesting because it does date back to the Dana Williamson, which is Gavin Newsom's chief of staff, who was pleaded guilty last month to corruption.

I mean, pure and simple.

It's quite an open and shut case of corruption.

She was siphoning money, $225,000, and she was orchestrating the whole plan to Javier Becerra, the leading frontrunner, of the gubernatorial campaign in California right now, by default, by the way, because Eric Swallow got pushed out.

So he was not even the second choice.

He was the third choice.

So, Susan, kind of walk us through why it takes so long in California compared to other states to actually let us know who won.

So what exactly is happening here, and how is, uh, the, the governor's wife, uh, a significant part of this investigation?

Well, it's interesting because it does date back to the Dana Williamson, which is Ga- Gavin Newsom's chief of staff, who has pleaded guilty last month to corruption.

I mean, pure and simple, it's a, it's quite an open and shut case of corruption.

She was siphoning money, $225,000, and she was orchestrating the whole plan to Xavier Becerra, the leading front runner of the gubernatorial campaign in California right now, um, by default, by the way, because Eric Swalwell got pushed out.

So he was not even the second choice.

He was the third choice.

But all of a sudden, he's the number one guy, but he has this baggage because, uh, Newsom's chief of staff, his former campaign manager, Dana Williamson, a- was siphoning this money to Xavier Becerra's chief of staff, Steve McCluskey, to pad his salary so he could go become Becerra's chief of staff at HHS when he was the really terrible [laughs] um, leader of HHS, lackluster job there.

So, uh, Susan, kinda walk us through why it takes so long in California compared to other states to actually let us know who won.