• Crisis of Character

  • A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate
  • By: Gary J. Byrne
  • Narrated by: Brian Troxell
  • Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (3,207 ratings)

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Crisis of Character  By  cover art

Crisis of Character

By: Gary J. Byrne
Narrated by: Brian Troxell
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Publisher's summary

Posted directly outside President Clinton's Oval Office, former Secret Service uniformed officer Gary Byrne reveals what he observed of Hillary Clinton's character and the culture inside the White House while protecting the first family in Crisis of Character, the most anticipated book of the 2016 election.

©2016 Gary J. Byrne (P)2016 Hachette Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Crisis of Character

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Very good collection of Clinton stories!

What about Brian Troxell’s performance did you like?

He read the text as if he were the author, speaking naturally, as if telling stories to his friends.

Any additional comments?

Although everyone in the media is calling Byrne a "Secret Service Agent", he never claims to be such. He was an officer in the Secret Service Uniformed Division -- essentially a White House cop. As real agents have recently said, Byrne was never an agent, and was never part of the Presidential Protective Division.

Byrne started his career as Air Force Security Police. An early chapter of the book describes in detail how challenging Air Force Basic Training at Lackland AFB was. I cringed because I know how easy it is, compared to other services. Byrne takes a whole chapter to describe his military career in detail. If you know anything about Security Police, you know that their days are filled with stultifying boredom, sprinkled with moments of panic. When they tell their stories, they usually omit the boredom, and string together the most exciting events. In many cases, these exciting events actually happened to other people in their unit, but when they tell stories, what happened to one happened to all.

That is the crux of most of the criticisms of Byrne's book. Most of the stories in the book did not actually happen to him personally, but he cobbles together details of events that happened to all agents and officers, and adds all the rumors and gossip he heard in the break room to weave his story. However, even if you discard half of his book as rumor, gossip, and third-party nonsense, what remains is still damning.

Here are some points that stand out in my mind from the first ten chapters:

- Al Gore is a fool. When he first moved in to the VP mansion, he started searching for electronic bugs left behind by the Bush41 staff. He climbed ladders and pulled out all sorts of sensors, which drive the security folks crazy. He was also quite lax (as were the entire Clinton staff) about securing classified documents, which also drove security crazy.

- When the Clinton staff moved into the White House, they treated it as their personal palace. One guy in a suit sat on the edge of the pool and dipped his feet, while enjoying the feeling of victory and the promise that his folks now had the power to change everything. When asked by the SSUD for his ID, he said it was in his desk. When the SSUD searched for his ID, he became belligerent. He was gone the next day.

- Hillary and her sycophants wanted everything their way and NOW, regardless of standing security regulations and budgetary limitations. They threw elaborate galas and really left a mess in their wake, dropping food and drink all over the expensive carpets.

- When Leon Panetta replaced Mack McLarty as White House Chief of Staff, he reprimanded many of the staff who were lax in their customs and courtesies. For example, he insisted everyone stand when the President entered the room, and chewed out one idiot who had his feet up on a desk the whole time the President was there.

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81 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Finally. People are starting to speak up.

What made the experience of listening to Crisis of Character the most enjoyable?

I knew the author was highly credible. A decades seasoned veteran whose heart was to serve our country. I can't imagine the terrible conflicts and scandalous situations that many seem to find themselves when having to work with the Clintons. To have to serve such abuse of power, such lack of character, is reprehensible. No Clinton should be allowed near our government ever again.

What other book might you compare Crisis of Character to and why?

Clinton Cash. Because stories of Clinton corruption are corroborated and affirmed.
Finally people are speaking up and speaking out about bad leadership plunging this country into refuse.

What does Brian Troxell bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Like I was there.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

No more Clintons! No more Bushs'!

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74 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Republicans are perfect, democrats are evil

Would you try another book from Gary J. Byrne and/or Brian Troxell?

No. This is propaganda. He blushes at how perfect the Bush family are in every conceivable way. He shakes with fury at how rude, corrupt and crude the Clinton's are. I am no Clinton fan but this book was painted in two colours - black and white. There is no subtly.

His accounts of life with the Bush family and Clinton family comes across as crude caricatures. "President Bush knew 7am wasn't his time, it was the people's." and "Pappa Bush carried a briefcase, it spoke of his strong work ethic."

What?!

What do you think your next listen will be?

Something written by someone with a mental age in double figures.

What about Brian Troxell’s performance did you like?

Excellent with the material he had.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No.

Any additional comments?

This book is designed to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign for President. I'm no fan of her but this book doesn't come over as very believable. Shame.

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65 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book - highly credible and believable

What made the experience of listening to Crisis of Character the most enjoyable?

I started this book with a lot of skepticism, but came to believe as I read that this book was written by a credible man who has dedicated his life to protecting his country & various presidents. Everything he said rang true with stories that have been historically verified (like the former president's multiple affairs with women). Whether you are democrat or republican or independent, I think it's helpful to know the kind of people we are getting in our oval office. I highly recommend giving this book a listen to, it's excellent.

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57 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not in America's White House Again

Great book that all Americans must read and understand who Hillary and Bill Clinton are. They are a "Duo of utter disgrace and haters of morality. They both should be in prison and not in our White House!!!

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49 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Bad story clearly propaganda for republicans

I was interested to hear some interesting stories but this book is just republican propaganda...fail! Save your money you'll be disappointed.

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48 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Secret Service agent becomes political road kill

Crisis of Character is first and foremost the story of the work life as a Secret Service agent of Gary Byrne and we should all be grateful to him for coming forward with this book. Prior to this I certainly did not appreciate how the Bill Clinton-Ken Star power struggle so deeply and negatively impacted Byrne and many others. That Bill Clinton was a womanizer and possible rapist is no surprise. That Monica Lewinsky and some other of Bill Clinton's women aggressively made themselves available to him is old news. That Hillary Clinton is a profane and violent elitist is certainly no surprise. That both of the Clinton's are world class liars has been obvious for decades. I recommend the audiobook Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer for an understanding of how the Clinton's became fabulously wealthy using often shady methods after Bill Clinton left office on January 20, 2001.

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47 people found this helpful

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Timely

I recommend this book to anyone voting in the up coming election. I also recommend viewing the CSpan recording of the deposition. It's good to view all information favorable and unfavorable before voting. Act life your way of life depends on it because it does.

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44 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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So important to know the truth!

I enjoyed the story but was terribly disturbed by the corrupt mess in Washington. It's a complete disgrace that leadership hold themselves above the law and endanger those they were elected to protect.

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39 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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A captivating listen even if it's gonzo

This is a really hard one to review. I really enjoyed it but I also strongly suspect it's mostly fake. The first red flag is how he depicts himself as a hero in every story. If this was fiction (and it might as well be), he'd be the worst kind of Mary Sue. He always does the right thing even if others are trying to corrupt him. His flaws are mostly non-existant except or things out of his control like dyslexia and ADD. He tells one story of how he failed a written exam and was expecting to lose the job he was testing for but they gave it to him verbally and he passed. I can't help but wonder how a man who can't answer questions he knows on a written test can write a book like this.

The author also tries to make himself a central part of too many interesting stories. He supposedly took home and disposed of a bag of fancy White House towels that Bill Clinton used to clean himself after Monica left. I don't believe that. The towels probably existed but I don't think they left the White House. There are many other implausible stories like that. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these stories came from hearsay he picked up while he was working there but I seriously doubt he was involved in most them.

That said, it's so entertaining that I didn't really care if it's not true. I didn't want to stop because the stories are really fun. They're like stories you hear at a bar. The person is just telling them so you'll buy them more drinks but you're happy to do it because you're being entertained. It reminded me a lot of Hunter S. Thompson's work. The problem is Hunter didn't hide that his gonzo journalism was political motivated exaggeration with some basis in truth. Mr. Byrne is billing this as fact. That's where I draw the line. Mr. Byrne is attacking the Clintons with this book. That's fine. They're scumbags and they deserve it. But he should be attacking them with the truth. That's what they and what readers deserve.

If you want an incredibly entertaining bunch of stories and don't care if they're true or not, then I'd recoomend the book. It's a blast to listen to. If you want a true account of the behind the scenes goings on at the Clinton White House, look elsewhere. This book is fun but it's totally gonzo.

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