Q&A on the News
Q: In his recent book about the Secret Service and presidents, Ronald Kessler portrayed Hillary Clinton as the worst of the first ladies to monitor. She was depicted as arrogant, foul-mouthed, imperious and anti-police and military, among other things. Is there any truth to these observations?
—Seth Davis, Suwanee
A: Kessler, a former journalist who worked for the Boston Herald, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, wrote "The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents" from interviews with Secret Service and FBI agents and White House staff.
“She is so nasty to agents that being assigned to her detail is considered a form of punishment,” Kessler told ABC News in 2014.
A Clinton spokesman told Politico that year that that several recently published books about the Clintons were “concocting trashy nonsense for a quick buck, at the expense of anything even remotely resembling the truth.”
Other authors, including Joyce Milton – in 1999’s “The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton” – and Christopher Andersen – who wrote 2004’s “American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power” – have included instances of Hillary Clinton being rude to her protection details, according to Snopes.com, a fact-checking website.
Q: Who is paying for the new trees at North Atlanta High School? I have stopped my count at 260 trees.
—Mary Ann Hite, Atlanta
A: Atlanta Public Schools is paying for the trees at North Atlanta High School, a spokeswoman told Q&A on the News in an email.
“They are part of the tree recompense requirement from the city of Atlanta tree ordinance for the North Atlanta High School project,” she wrote.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
