Ronald Kessler is a former investigative reporter for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and the New York Times bestselling author of The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents and The Secrets of the FBI.
After revealing his careless handling of classified documents, President Joe Biden told Americans he was very careful about handling the nation’s secrets.
“People know that I take classified documents and confidential information seriously,” he said.
But while Biden was vice president, he engaged in reckless and dangerous acts that threatened our national security far beyond the misuse of classified documents.
Whenever Biden returned to his home in Wilmington — often several times a week — he insisted that the military aide with the nuclear football in his motorcade stayed at least a mile behind him.
Even without traffic, it would have been impossible for the aide to catch up with Biden as he toured Delaware so Biden could launch a counter-strike in the event of a nuclear attack by Russia, China, or North Korea.
As revealed in my book, The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents, Secret Service agents say that Biden simply wanted to maintain his image as a regular Joe. A long motorcade would have given the wrong picture.
When Joe Biden was Vice President, he engaged in reckless and dangerous actions that threatened our national security to maintain his “normal Joe” persona
The Nuclear Football is a leather-covered titanium business case that weighs 40 pounds. It is secured with a cipher lock and contains a variety of secure phone features and written options for launching nuclear strikes that the President can authorize
Whenever Biden returned to his home in Wilmington, he insisted that the military aide with the nuclear football in his motorcade stay at least a mile behind him. Biden’s presidential motorcade is pictured Sunday
Never mind that the country could have been wiped out by nuclear attack had President Obama been eliminated because of Biden’s unprecedented irresponsibility and lack of judgment.
The Nuclear Football is a leather-covered titanium business case that weighs 40 pounds. It is secured with a cipher lock and contains a variety of secure phone features and written options for launching nuclear strikes that the President can authorize.
Book The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Uncover the Hidden Lives of Presidents, on how Biden wanted to preserve his regular Joe image
The President authenticates his identity using codes found on a small plastic card he carries with him. In the event that the President is incapacitated or deceased, an identical nuclear football is assigned to the Vice President.
In the event of a devastating impending attack on the U.S., the president — or vice president as his surrogate — would confirm his identity to the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon over a secure phone by reading codes from the Sealed Authenticator System card — too known as the “cookie” – which he should always carry with him.
White House military leaders and national security advisers would then brief the President or Vice President on the nature of the threat and the possibilities for retaliatory action. If either of them wanted to see the written options, they could.
He would then choose a retaliation option and his command would be read back to him. Once confirmed, the command center would use the military’s launch authorization codes to launch nuclear missiles.
“As part of the conference call, the President will be advised how many seconds or minutes remain if the President wishes to respond before he may not be able to do so because of nuclear weapons impacting the White House or its current location,” says John Stufflebeem, a former military aide who carried the briefcase and later oversaw the top secret program called the Sealed Authentication System when he was deputy director of global operations assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Kessler writes that if President Obama had been eliminated, the country could have been wiped out by nuclear attack due to Biden’s unprecedented irresponsibility and lack of judgment
Pictured is Biden’s home in Wilmington. An intelligence agent in VP Biden’s command said: “When he’s home in Wilmington, he’s told the service he wants nothing more than the sedan he’s in and the immediate Suburban we’re in. He wants everyone else out of sight’
Since either the president or vice president would likely have 15 minutes or less to militarily respond to an imminent attack before the United States could be obliterated by nuclear missiles, the military aides carrying the satchels should be in close proximity to the two guide at all times.
But as soon as Biden — codenamed Celtic — took office in January 2009, he set a rule: Instead of the usual entourage of at least 15 vehicles, preceded by a police escort in his motorcade, whenever he returned to Delaware, he wanted a Secret motorcade Service of just two – the sedan or Suburban he was driving in, plus a single Suburban behind him with agents.
Biden specifically ordered the Secret Service control vehicle, which carries the military aide and a doctor, to follow at least a mile behind his limousine.
“If you go to any city outside of Washington, you have a full-fledged vice presidential motorcade, much like the president’s motorcade,” a Secret Service agent in Biden’s command told me when Biden was vice president.
“Its length can be 15, 20 or more vehicles, including for personnel and a counterattack team. But by the time he’s home in Wilmington, he’s told the service — and for whatever reason, Secret Service Management is leaning in and accommodating — that all he wants is the limousine he’s in, and the immediate Suburban we’re sitting in.
“He wants everyone else out of sight. This includes the vehicle with the military aide and the doctor.”
As a result, the agent said, “They segregated important assets from the vice president in Wilmington while he was driving around. We’re told, “Don’t come near us, don’t let us see you, the VP doesn’t want to see you.”
In addition to endangering the country while he was in Delaware, Biden insisted on only having two Secret Service vehicles around him when vacationing in places like the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, and the military aides with the Atomic Football was instructed to stay in another Secret Service vehicle at a hotel.
Every second counts. By the time the command center would establish communications with the President or Vice President about nuclear soccer, nuclear missiles from a submarine could have already obliterated New York City.
Biden specifically ordered a Secret Service vehicle transporting the military aide with the nuke football and a doctor to follow at least a mile behind his limousine
By the time the command center would establish communications with the president or vice president about nuclear soccer, nuclear missiles from a submarine could already have obliterated New York City, Kessler writes
While the country’s ballistic missile defense system could counter other incoming missiles, a retaliatory strike is essential to disable the enemy’s military capability and prevent further attacks.
That, in turn, depends on the President and Vice President fulfilling their most important responsibility by ensuring that the military aide with the football is close by at all times.
An intelligence agent who was in Biden’s command at the time called Biden’s order to keep nuclear football a mile away from him “alarming,” saying, “He wants to be Joe and he doesn’t want the vehicles to be around him.”
If the House Homeland Security Committee questioned Secret Service agents who were on Biden’s vice presidential detail and asked them to testify publicly about what they had seen, their testimony would put Biden’s mishandling of classified material into perspective and document his outrageous irresponsibility to protect his image to enhance.