Life Inside the Bubble: Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away From It All (18 page)

I found the interview process to be easier than I expected and the stress miniscule compared to briefing the White House Situation Room via secure video link from a war zone in Afghanistan. Although thousands of people were listening, I kept reminding myself that it was just a conversation between me and Shari, and the effect was noticeable. I received warm reviews from friends and family regarding the radio show. I followed up with appearances on the conservative morning talk shows in the Maryland
market. Although I was new at handling the media, I felt very comfortable and began to receive e-mails from the listeners supporting my candor and willingness to dig into economic issues. As a result of the positive media, donations started to slowly trickle into our website and the skeleton of a campaign was beginning to form.

It wasn’t long after the initial burst of media attention before political opponents began to attack me on the radio and in print. A number of party “insiders” began to openly question whether I had “paid my dues” or “waited in line.” I only grew more determined as they questioned my ability to take on this task in a traditionally blue state. I was focused on gaining the approval of the voters, not the party establishment, and I was determined to run my campaign on ideas and not to bow to the usual process.

The media spotlight grew in intensity as the week wore on and we struck gold just two days after the announcement when Karla, my campaign media liaison, asked me coyly if I was interested in an appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show on the Fox News Channel. Any chance to appear in front of the Fox News Channel’s large and loyal audience is a cherished commodity among candidates, especially conservatives. I had never done live television before. All of my prior interviews had been on the radio, and I was hoping to not only get through the interview but to get it noticed. Arriving at the New York studio and waiting in the green room was a surreal experience. I had spent twelve years surrounded by media as a Secret Service agent, but I was never the target of their attention. I had watched
Your World with Neil Cavuto
for many years and walked down the hallway to the studio confident that this was the start of something special. I sat down across from Neil, we engaged in small talk, and about ten seconds before we went live, Neil jokingly said to me, “So, are you ready for this?”

It took me slightly off guard but I quickly adjusted and after a brief introduction Neil asked, “Why are you doing this?”

My answer to the question was unrehearsed and although it lacked eloquence, I addressed the frustration I had with an unaccountable government. I said, “I just got tired of being tired. I was tired two years ago. Now I’m really tired. So I got tired of being tired and I said it’s time to get in the ring and throw a few punches. It was a huge risk, no doubt about it. I gave up a great career. I love the Secret Service. They were very good to me.”

He followed up midway through the interview by asking me, “Meanwhile,
you want to run for senate what made you want to do it, what’s lacking that you think, I have to do something?”

I spoke of my personal and political North Star, Thomas Sowell’s book
The Vision of the Anointed
, and of the difference between political intentions and real-world results, and how today’s Democratic Party had been wholly unable to produce tangible results. The interview was the knockout punch I needed to ensure a steady stream of media appearances and a solid introduction to the Maryland political scene. I was to appear on Neil’s show multiple times throughout the campaign and will always be grateful for the chance he took on a rookie candidate.

I took the train home from New York after appearing on the weekend morning show
Fox and Friends
, where I had another solid interview. Although the media requests were still steadily streaming in to Karla, I knew I had a gargantuan task ahead of me. I had to raise a minimum of one and a half to two million dollars and build a massive team of volunteers to get the campaign moving. The media appearances helped drive traffic to my website and recruit volunteers, but I had no experience with fund-raising. I was anxious that when the media glare wore off, I would be left publicly humiliated that I couldn’t get the funding I needed to run a competitive race. I was a proud man and I refused to let that happen. I decided I was going to outwork my opponents no matter what. I scheduled appearances with every political club and at any event that would have us throughout the state of Maryland, and the journey began in earnest.

D
URING MY TENURE
as a Secret Service agent I worked closely with the Israeli security forces, and the security of the state of Israel has always been a personal, not a political issue for me. Seeing firsthand the life-and-death security situations faced by my counterparts from Israel opened my eyes to the grave threat that they live with on a daily basis. It was hard to forget the radical Islamist taunt known by nearly every Israeli security operative: “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.”

This speaks to an ideology that has no interest in negotiations or
“peace talks”—it is interested only in death; first the death of Israel, then the death of the United States. After President Obama’s infamous speech calling for the return to the 1967 borders as the basis of renewed talks, I decided that I needed to take action and show my support for Israel rather than simply speaking about it. Using my own funds, I decided to attend a rally being organized by radio host Glenn Beck in support of Israel in the summer of 2011. I was unaware at the time that the trip would change the course of my campaign and my life.

After the rally, I was scheduled to attend a dinner with Israeli and US officials along with some additional guests. There was some confusion around seating assignments and I was mistakenly placed next to Senator Mike Lee from Utah. In our subsequent conversation, I found Senator Lee to be a genuine, passionate defender of his principles rather than politics—a rare phenomenon among elected officials. I told him that I was a candidate for the US Senate in Maryland and we engaged in a nearly two-hour conversation covering everything from political philosophy to economics to constitutional law. Our discussion was refreshing, and I found it reassuring to know that there were some “good guys” left. I was privileged to be able to meet again with Senator Lee upon returning home and was thrilled when he agreed to endorse me. With little name recognition or money and involved in a race that under the best of circumstances was a long shot, I was humbled and honored by Senator Lee’s support. This began a relationship that gave my campaign a credible, national profile among elected officials, which is more difficult to obtain than a credible media profile.

Despite the fortuitous set of circumstances leading to my meeting with Senator Lee, building a Republican campaign organization in a blue state from scratch was a formidable task and required a detailed strategy. The campaign schedule was filled quickly and I found myself in the car for hours each day driving from event to event. Maryland is an oddly shaped state that is too small to fly around, so all of our campaign trips were on the road. Considering my experience as an agent during three presidential campaigns, I felt that I had a good idea of the workload and the nonstop stress, but when the campaign is your own, it is very different. There are no days off on a campaign, and during the busiest days I would deliver up to ten speeches. Eating became a luxury, and I managed to locate bathrooms
in every corner of Maryland. In the car shuttling between campaign stops, I spent the majority of my time on the phone trying to raise money.

Having no prior political experience, it was initially very difficult for me to raise money. There is nothing more humiliating than calling potential donors and asking for help and having them quickly reject you. But in the face of some early setbacks, I continued on and refused to give in.

I announced my candidacy in May of 2011 and for months I had the political spotlight to myself. As potential contenders for the Republican nomination began to drop out of the race, the path to the Republican primary nomination became clear. But just as the campaign seemed to hit its stride, I received an e-mail from a friend with a statement of candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination from former deputy assistant secretary of defense Richard Douglas. His resume was impressive, and my wife and I knew immediately the political landscape had changed. The fight for the nomination would be much more challenging now, but I became more determined than ever. I didn’t leave my position in the Secret Service to lose the Republican primary, and while I welcomed challengers, I was not going to lose to one.

I met Rich for the first time at the Talbot County Republican Club meeting in September of 2011 and found him to be friendly and knowledgeable. Numerous Republican Party insiders began to support Rich, and our battle for the nomination was getting more aggressive. I was never the favorite son of the Republican Party establishment, but I refused to allow this to deter me. I kept reminding myself that being an insider earned you exactly one vote, the same as the “outsiders.”

A
T THE MARYLAND GOP CONVENTION
that fall, my campaign hosted a large hospitality area. It was the perfect opportunity to generate some additional buzz around the campaign. However, some of the attention we received was not the kind we were seeking. After a successful night interacting with supporters, I received a phone call from Brandon, a campaign staffer, telling me that his tires were flat. The following morning, I received another phone call, this time from my campaign manager, telling me that his tires were also flat. Someone placed nails in the tires of Brandon, Jim, and a third campaign staffer’s
cars. One week earlier we had found nails in my pregnant wife’s tires, and it became clear that someone was sending us a threatening message. Sometimes the best revenge for these kinds of dirty tactics is to use them to expose your opponent. We issued a press release on the details of the incidents and publicly embarrassed the fools who did it. We never found nails in our tires again.

April 3, primary day, was an exciting one for the team. There was very little reliable polling on the race for the Republican nomination, so we could only hope for the best. Knowing the volume of work we put into the race, I was cautiously optimistic that we could pull out the victory. The night was an emotional roller coaster. As the county-by-county results came in, we would take a healthy lead, then Rich would close in, only to see us pull ahead with another county win. The results began to turn in our favor at about 10:00 that night and as our lead grew, I became more excited. Finally at 11:00 p.m., the math became insurmountable for Rich. I walked into the crowded Annapolis Marriott Waterfront ballroom and proclaimed, “We won.”

It was a moment of pure elation. I never thought, considering where I started, that I would reach this point, and the excited, joyful looks on the faces of the hundreds of supporters and family members who had gathered to celebrate was a reward greater than any political victory.

I basked in the success of the primary victory for a few short days, knowing that the bigger fight was ahead of me. What I didn’t know was that a media firestorm was about to hit, and a family member of mine would be at its center. Only ten days after the primary, I attended the Montgomery County GOP Lincoln dinner in one of my first official appearances as the GOP Senate nominee. While driving to the dinner I received a phone call from a former Secret Service colleague, now a high-ranking supervisor, who said, “Danno, I wanna give you a heads up. It looks like your brother’s CAT [Counter-Assault Team] was caught with some locals from an okie-doke in Colombia and they’re being shipped home.”

His tone was humorous and intentionally cryptic and after I translated what he was telling me and asked some basic questions, it seemed that my brother, who also joined the Secret Service, was only tangentially involved and the incident was receiving little attention. Nonetheless, I was upset by the news and it weighed heavily on me the entire night. I was seated at the
head table with RNC chairman Reince Priebus and was looking forward to the conversation, but was so distracted I could barely talk. The Colombia story involving Secret Service personnel and local prostitutes had not yet broken in the media, and I had no idea of the frenzy that was to come.

The story broke in the
Washington Post
later that night, and the media circus began. The campaign was flooded with requests for me, as a former Secret Service agent and now a public political figure, to comment and appear to discuss the scandal. I had yet to speak to my brother, and details on the incident were sparse even from friends still employed as special agents with the Secret Service, so I withheld comment. I desperately tried to contact active and retired agents to get information on what really happened. I needed to know the details before I could make a statement to avoid the possibility of having to make a retraction later if my facts were not accurate. As the pressure grew, I became extremely uncomfortable with our media blackout on the topic. My campaign had always been transparent and open, and I felt that our silence was lending to the appearance of impropriety, but I was having difficulty locating my brother and determining if he had played any part in this developing scandal. The facts were still unclear.

As we approached Sunday night and the attention on the story was growing, I began to reconsider our strategy of silence. Every one of our campaign consultants begged me to stay away from the scandal, but my instincts were telling me otherwise. I asked myself, “Why create suspicion?”

It came to a crescendo when a Baltimore-area radio host by the name of Sean Casey e-mailed me asking for a comment. After receiving requests from every major network, cable channel, print, and online outlet, I felt an obligation to respond to Sean. He was fair and courteous to me during the initial period of my campaign when very few people gave me a chance. I agreed to do his show that week knowing that once my voice hit the airwaves, the door for more media was wide open. I notified Karla to begin accepting interview requests and the frenzy began. Although I made no attempt to hide the fact that I had personal relationships with many of the agents involved in the scandal, I felt strongly that I should not be the one responsible for releasing their names considering the sensitive nature of the situation for the agents’ families. My brother’s name was supposed to be kept out of the media along with the rest of the agents involved, but
someone with access to the Secret Service records of the incident leaked his name to the
Huffington Post
.