Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

by Rachel Maddow, Michael Yarvitz

The untold story of the other scandal that rocked Nixon's White House: the wild crimes, audacious cover-up, and spectacular downfall of Vice President Spiro Agnew - with new reporting that expands on Rachel Maddow's Peabody Award-nominated podcast.

Is it possible for an American vice president to direct a vast criminal enterprise within the halls of the White House? To have one of the most brazen corruption scandals in American history play out while nobody's paying attention? And for that scandal to be all but forgotten decades later?

The year was 1973, and the vice president in question was Spiro T. Agnew, Richard Nixon's second-in-command. Long on firebrand rhetoric and short on political experience, Agnew had carried out a bribery and extortion ring in office for years, when--at the height of Watergate--three young federal prosecutors discovered his crimes and launched a mission to take him down before it was too late. Before Nixon's downfall made way for Agnew to ascend to the presidency himself. Agnew did everything he could to bury their investigation: dismissing it as a "witch hunt," riling up his partisan base, making the press the enemy, and, with a crumbling circle of loyalists, scheming to obstruct justice.

In this blockbuster account, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz detail the investigation that exposed Agnew's crimes, the attempts at a cover-up - which involved future President George H. W. Bush - and the bargain that forced Agnew's resignation but also spared him years in federal prison. Based on the hit podcast, Bag Man expands and deepens the story of Spiro Agnew's scandal and its lasting influence on our politics, our media, and our understanding of what it takes to confront a criminal in the White House.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, True Crime, Biography, American History, Crime

291 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2020

About the author

Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power; Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth; and Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

Reviews

[TXGAL1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever heard of Spiro Agnew—Richard Nixon’s disgraced Vice President? Do you know how Mr. Agnew became a disgraced former Vice President of the United States? If your answer to either one of these questions is “no”, BAG MAN by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz can answer these questions and do so in a quick and eye-opening read.

For myself, I remembered Agnew resigning but I never really knew or was curious WHY? This book had me spellbound with the plethora of criminal events that led Agnew from the governorship of Maryland to being the two-term Vice President under Richard Nixon, and, the wealth of historical documents and authors’ notes detailing the fight to bring a criminal to justice. On the whole, Agnew seemed to silently slip away into private life never to be heard from again.

Spiro Agnew, following his resignation, was “…gifted a small government staff, Secret Service protection, and a taxpayer-funded office just a block from the White House.” WHAT?! This person resigned in shame from public office due to egregious lapses in judgement and the taxpayers pay for his maintenance?

BAG MAN contains many head-shaking and mind-blowing moments which facilitates the page-turning education of a moment in 1973 that had nothing to do with Watergate. Thankfully, for the American people, justice was being brought to bear by Attorney General Elliott Richardson, US Attorney in Maryland George Beall and his Assistant US Attorneys Tim Baker, Ron Liebman, and Barney Skolnik.

I was surprised by Agnew’s bold and brash take on business and politics. His outlook never waned in the days following his departure from government.

This book is recommended to anyone who enjoys reading about forgotten moments in history.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House (no, not the current resident) by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz is a fascinating read that highlights the strange career of Spiro Agnew.

I remember Agnew and his shame very well. I was born in Maryland and lived there during most of the period when he held any office. During his time as VP, my sister worked on the Hill for Congressman Stratton from NY and then Congressman Bennett from Florida, so we heard a lot of the rumblings through her as well as on the nightly news and in the Post.

This work not only includes a lot of new (at least to me) information but offers both analysis and an engaging presentation. This was an enjoyable read even while it made you mad at what passes for politics. This is also the person who, along with Nixon, weaponized racism even more than before through substitute words and using "law and order" in place of openly announcing their racist leanings. Not much different from today's illegitimate administration.

I highly recommend this to readers interested in political history, especially how crooked our political system is and has been. It would be nice to make Agnew sound like an outlier but he isn't, he just wasn't very sophisticated at what he did. Politicians since him have perfected the art of the con. As evidenced by the liar/conman/racist-in-chief, Trumpenfuehrer.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compulsively readable look at a sordid episode of White House history involving the VP under Nixon - the ignominious Spiro T. Agnew. Going into this book I had only a cursory understanding of what this scandal was about, as it has generally been overshadowed in the history books by Watergate.

The book briskly covers a lot of ground and provides a good amount of context to the case, in addition to covering the various criminals and prosecutors involved.

One inescapable conclusion: Agnew was an early prototype of our current president. His response to getting caught on the take was alarmingly similar to 45's: "Fake News! Liberal Media! Investigate the Investigators! They're all Commies and/or Radicals! Witch Hunt! Witch Hunt!!"

A cool tidbit: Some of the bit players in this drama went on to star in other spectacles to come, among them George H.W. Bush and Robert Bork. Interesting if depressing stuff.

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Who the heck was Spiro Agnew?
Or, as the joke went at the time, What’s a Spiro Agnew?”

Agnew for Vice President?
This would be funny if it weren’t so serious.
Lines from 1968 political advertisement

So, we have this guy who wasn’t taken seriously by the press or the powerbrokers. But he’s a real political counterpuncher. He attacks the press as biased, dishonest, and unreliable. He thrills the nation’s traditional conservatives by hatefully attacking all the people they fear and hate themselves. He claims that those investigating his crimes are conducting a massive witch-hunt, and adds them to the list of those he publicly smears and attacks. While it sounds like all this comes out of today’s news reports, in this case it is covering a drama that played out over fifty years ago.

Spiro T. Agnew, an obscure Maryland politician who became governor in 1966 first came to Nixon’s attention through the way he handled the riots in Baltimore after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Agnew sent in police riot squads with live rounds, the National Guard, and after declaring an insurrection, called for and got the deployment of U.S. military troops (the first patrolling Baltimore’s streets since the Civil War). Over 5000 were arrested. Six were killed. The riots were repressed, where upon Agnew staged a victory lap on TV, publicly condemning Black community leaders (who were there on the pretense that Agnew would be speaking to them in good faith) as being responsible for the unrest. Pat Buchanan, Nixon’s young aid and speechwriter, liked what he saw, and brought Agnew to his boss’s attention.

And Nixon needed Agnew in 1968. The election was going to be close, and was largely dependent on the Republican’s Southern Strategy. But segregationist supreme George Wallace had entered the race as a third party candidate, threatening the Souther Strategy. Nixon’s people figured Wallace would take the Deep South states, but they needed a harsh talking, tough on crime guy to shore up the Southern boarder states. Agnew became that guy as Nixon’s running mate. Maddow writes:

”Agnew was like Nixon’s Id — without the burden of much actual knowledge or curiosity or responsibility to the country at large. He was a heat-seeking political missile who embraced the power of television and the value of a well-landed attack, low blow or not.”

Soon Agnew became a hero of the far Right, who understood that Nixon was an ally of convenience but no true ideological conservative. With the help of Nixon’s speech writers Buchanan and Safire, Agnew became a rhetorical bomb thrower, thrilling the conservatives with such memorable verbal attacks as:
-Pusillanimous pussyfooting on law and order
-Nattering nabobs of negativism
-The hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history
-An effete corp of impudent snobs
Agnew overnight went from a political non entity to an absolute star of the political Right and the presumed favorite for the Republican presidential nomination for 1976.

But Nixon hadn’t bothered to vet Agnew thoroughly. He was both a product and an overseer of an incredibly corrupt political system in Maryland. His acts of graft were commonplace when he was governor there, and he brazenly continued them from his Vice Presidential office. Ultimately, his crimes forced him from office in 1973, even as Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. As Maddow puts it:

”Agnew’s is a story of a scandal so brazen that, had it not occurred at the same time as Watergate, would likely be remembered as the most astonishing and sordid chapter visited upon the White House in modern times.”

Read the book to get the sordid details of Agnew’s scandal. They’re there. But they really aren’t the point of this book. This book recalling a half century old scandal and the man behind it who is most deservedly lost to obscurity is really about the beginnings of a type of bare-fisted, hate based politics that has become the norm in the Trump era. As Maddow writes:

”The vice presidency of Spiro T. Agnew marked the birth of the bruising, know-nothing, confrontational conservatism.”

So while those of us who remember Agnew will find this story interesting in its own right, for the rest of you this is a book to help explain how we got to this ridiculous point where our political norms now are.

[Manray9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz presents political history I recall well. Spiro Agnew, a conservative Republican, was elected governor of Maryland in 1966. Today Maryland is seen as a bastion of liberal Democrats, but it wasn't always so. In the fifties and sixties, the state possessed a strong segregationist element and a long history of racism and Jim Crow laws. [The atmosphere of the time and place is reflected in Bob Dylan's “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” recorded in 1963]. The 1966 Democratic gubernatorial nomination was clinched by George P. Mahoney after a strident segregationist campaign. Mahoney's success split the Democrats. Hyman Pressman ran as a pro-civil rights independent. Agnew, the Republican candidate, emerged victorious with a mere plurality. After less than two years as governor, his strong law and order positions in a time of social unrest, coupled with the support of Pat Buchanan, who had Nixon's ear, resulted in his selection as Republican vice presidential candidate in 1968.

Before ascending to the governor's mansion, Agnew served as Baltimore County Executive. As subsequent investigation revealed, in that position he began accepting envelopes of cash from architects, engineering firms, and paving companies in exchange for public contracts. The standard deal was a 5% kickback on contracts awarded. These activities continued after his election as governor and into his term as vice president. Frequently, the bagman for the payoff scheme called upon Agnew in the Office of the Vice President to pass along stacks of crisp $100 bills. Interestingly, Agnew's successor as Baltimore County Executive, Dale Anderson, went to jail for shenanigans similar to those of Agnew. Joe Alton, the executive of adjacent Anne Arundel County, went to jail for the same. Agnew's successor as governor, Marvin Mandel (a Democrat) was imprisoned for corruption too. But Agnew never served a day.

The Department of Justice office in Baltimore was under U.S. Attorney George Beall, a Republican appointed by Nixon. He was aided by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ron Liebman, Tim Baker and Barney Skolnik. In the course of routine investigations of local political corruption, they unearthed evidence that Agnew — as Baltimore County executive, as Maryland governor and as vice president — accepted bribes. Fortunately, the young government lawyers found support from Elliot Richardson, Nixon’s attorney general, who allowed them to pursue a case against the vice president.

But equality before the law confronted the reality of Agnew’s position, the partisan rancor of the era, and the towering spectre of Watergate. Justice Department lawyers had to confront the delicate issue of the best course of action under unusual circumstances. Agnew threatened to fight tooth-and-nail. He had deep support within the Republican Party. The U. S. attorneys pushed for a full-bore prosecution (they were convinced the case was open-and-shut), but Richardson insisted on allowing Agnew to make a deal. If he would plead no-contest to a single charge of tax evasion and immediately resign from office, no criminal prosecution and no jail time would result. With the precarious state of Nixon's presidency in late-1973, preventing Agnew from succeeding to the Oval Office was thought to be in the nation's best interest.

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House is a book based on a podcast and it shows. Although grounded in archival research and oral history interviews, the book appears hastily contrived. It is repetitive and the tone is glib and too cute by half. It boasts twenty pages of notes on the research and interviews, but no index. That's a problem for me. It is, however, informative and instructive. Those with an interest in American politics and government should read it.

Near the end an assessment of Agnew's legacy in American politics struck a chord:

For the elected official who prides himself on busting through political norms – and insists on always punching back harder than hit – it's a pretty straightforward set of plays. And leaves no time to fret over the destruction you leave behind, If saving yourself means undermining the instititions of democracy... fire up the backhoe. Obstruct the investigations of your crimes; smear and threaten and demand investigations of the investigators; play the victim; indict the press; throw up a smoke screen of legal argument, no matter how bizarre or foundationless... And by all means convince your legions of supporters that the allegations against you are all vicious lies, that the evidence against you is conjured and concocted by enemies threatened by your overwhelming political strength. That it's all a big witch hunt.

Sound familiar?

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as "intellectuals".
There are people in our society who should be separated and discarded.
Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools and women. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer.
Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the Government in Washington but in the studios of the networks in New York!
Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird cages.
A narrow and distorted picture of America often emerges from the televised news. A single dramatic piece of the mosaic becomes, in the minds of millions, the entire picture.
*****************************************************************************
For those of you who are too young or have forgotten their history the above words of wisdom did not emanate from Donald Trump but from Richard Nixon’s vice-president, Spiro T. Agnew. Some would argue that Agnew has passed on to the dust bin of history, but if one is looking for the words of a demagogue we can begin with Joseph McCarthy, follow with Agnew, and just look at the daily tweets of the current president. Agnew’s tale may have receded into the past, but it has been resurrected by MSNBC program host Rachel Madow and television producer Michael Yarvitz’s new book, BAG MAN: THE WILD CRIMES, AUDACIOUS COVER-UP AND SPECTACULAR DOWNFALL OF A BRAZEN CROOK IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Madow and Yarvitz offer a breezy, well documented account of how a sitting Vice President Spiro T. Agnew ran an undercover bribery and extortion scheme from inside the White House. Agnew’s machinations were a continuation of a process he had developed as Baltimore County Executive and later as Governor of Maryland. The authors describe the investigation of three young prosecutors from Baltimore; Barney Skolnik, Ron Leibman, and Tim Baker that began as a case against a few engineering firms with contracts with Baltimore County, an area surrounding the city of Baltimore that was booming in the 1960s and 70s that eventually led to Agnew. The problem that emerged was that the Watergate investigation was well underway and the number two man to the president was also a crook!

If the Agnew scandal had not occurred during Watergate it would have been considered one of the most sordid chapters visited upon the White House in the pre-Trump era. In telling the reader about Agnew’s tale, the authors focus on a corrupt occupant of the White House “whose crimes are discovered by his own Justice Department and who clings to high office by using power and prerogative of the same office to save himself.” Maddow and Yarvitz explore the strategies pursued by prosecutors and Agnew’s defense which raises some interesting historical tidbits. For example, Agnew was able to get Nixon to pressure the US Attorney George Beall to drop the case. Nixon enlisted his new Chief of Staff Alexander Haig (H.R. Haldeman had resigned over Watergate) to approach Maryland Senator Glenn Beall to call off his younger brother who was the US Attorney in charge of the investigation. When that did not work, he enlisted George Herbert Walker Bush, the future Vice President and President to engage in obstruction of justice by pressuring Beall. To his credit Beall refused and protected his prosecutors from the administration. In Jon Meacham’s biography of Bush, he hems and haws about Bush’s role in Iran-Contra, but never mentions his role in the Agnew case. Perhaps he should rework his hagiography of Bush.

There are numerous examples of the author’s attention to detail and insights. A wonderful example surrounds Agnew’s refusal to fade away into the night and arguing that he would fight for his job all the way to the Supreme Court employing the logic that a sitting Vice President could not be criminally indicted unless they were impeached by the House and removed by the Senate. If the Supreme Court rejected the argument, a strategy already employed by Nixon’s lawyers, then the President would also be in trouble. This explains why Nixon had enough of Agnew and sent Haig to tell him to resign. It is somewhat humorous how the authors present a president seemingly drowning in his own scandals having to deal with a Vice President who demanded support in weaseling out of his own crimes.

The authors do an exceptional job placing the Agnew scandal in the context of Watergate. Their job was facilitated by tapes and documents that seemingly were buried for decades which they have brought to life integrating verbatim transcripts to support their conclusions. The use of hours and hours of White House tapes, secretly recorded, as well as an audio diary dictated by H.R. Haldeman is a treasure trove of information that prosecutors did not have in 1973. They zero in on the investigation of Agnew and relate a number of scenes dealing with the prosecutors, Agnew-Nixon meetings, the comments by Agnew’s defense lawyers, and the machinations of the Nixon administration which are all priceless. When the authors inform the former prosecutors what they have learned they are amazed, “Wow! Agnew said my name! Oh joy….makes my whole life worthwhile.”

If there are heroes that emerge from the Agnew fiasco, they are Attorney General Elliot Richardson who allowed his office to pursue the case. Interestingly, it was Richardson who refused to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox when ordered to by Nixon as part of the Saturday Night Massacre. The next hero is George Beall who withstood immense pressure from the Nixon administration and his brother to stop the investigation. Beall refused and shielded his prosecutors to allow them to perform their constitutional duties.

The link to current events rest with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel which ruled that a sitting Vice President could be indicted, but a president could not. The 1973 ruling was cited by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to explain why he could not indict Donald Trump. The ruling has never been tested in the courts and provides a loophole for future presidents to follow in Trump’s footsteps.

Agnew’s “pay for play” activities are delineated in detail as his convoluted defense and uproarious personality, along with his bullying tactics-sound familiar? In 1973 the American people were able to get rid of a criminal through prosecution and eventual resignation, today luckily, we are able to rely on the elective process because the likes of Bill Barr and Republicans in the Senate refused to perform their constitutional duties.

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a young adult when the action in this book was going down. I never understood exactly what happened to Spiro Agnew except that one day he was suddenly GONE. Turns out many Americans are still ignorant of his shenanigans. The truth is flabbergasting. And thanks to this book by Rachel Maddow, I am now less ignorant concerning this part of US History.

Spiro Agnew was a crook. His crimes weren't very imaginative. Starting when he was appointed to the Baltimore County, Maryland, zoning board, he began collecting cash bribes from contractors to help them win contracts. This practice of paying for favors didn't stop until he resigned as Vice President of the United States. Some of his payoffs were delivered right to the White House. He never got jail time.

This was all happening during Watergate. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats wanted a petty criminal advancing to the office of President of the United States if Nixon was forced out of office. His prosecutors were willing to ignore charges as long as they could get rid of him FAST. He was fined only $10,000.

Agnew had a blustering attitude when defending himself. In one of the final chapters, Maddow wrote:

Ultimately, Agnew failed to save himself. But he left a scorched-earth battle plan for any corrupt officeholder that followed:
Attack the investigation as a witch hunt.
Obstruct it behind the scenes.
Attack individual investigators in personal terms.
Attack the credibility of the Justice Department itself.
Attack the media informing Americans about the case.

Sound familiar?

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

1972-1974 were incredible years for the U.S: an election that elicited untold questionable and illegal acts by a sitting President's administration, congressional hearings, tapes, and if that were not enough, the Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, resigned from office with a plea of Nolo contendere. I followed most of this with avid interest as I watched television day after day as the Watergate story unraveled. When Agnew's troubles took over the headlines, I realized that it was necessary to take him down first, or he might become President. What a disaster that would have been.

Rachel Maddow's book, Bag Man, deals with that effort because he was guilty from his pre-Vice-Presidential days to his triumph as #2 in the line of succession. Like more recent demagogues he tried to wangle his way out, but they 'had the goods' on him. Maddow's book is deservedly appreciative of the men like George Beall, Ron Liebman, Tim Baker and Barney Skolnik, who put in the hours and work to find the evidence against Agnew. Then there were the higher-ups like Henry Petersen, and in particular, Elliot Richardson, the Attorney General. I've always been a fan of Richardson. His intelligence and integrity made you appreciate what an honest man can do.

Towards the end of the book when Richardson is quoted about the lesson learned from the Agnew case, he reiterates, ..."I would hope that the nation would feel that the process of criminal justice is one that it can trust and have confidence in."

Unfortunately, there have been many dark moments since the heady days of the early 70s. Politicans never seem to learn that the truth will come out eventually. Hopefully, those who are guilty will be punished, but as long as some people remain blind to what politicians will do for money and power, the Spiro Agnews of this world will continue to push the envelope.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was only 10 then summer the Nixon-Agnew administration came crashing down, but I have vivid memories of the Watergate hearings playing out, day after day on the TV. I honestly had no idea that Agnew's indictment and resignation were caused by a completely different scandal.

Bag Man is a really well organized and thoroughly consuming telling of the man that was just a heartbeat away from becoming president. Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz reveal all the details of what up that point, seemed like an implausible fall from the White House. Reading it now, it should have been a warning.

Spiro T. Agnew was crooked long before he came to Washington. The history of his efforts to cover up his crimes, reads like a page from the DJT playbook. (Still, here we are again!)

I found this so fascinating and easy to read. The storytelling engages you from the opening to the final period. It was amazing to learn all the new details that have come out decades after the crime. The foreshadowing of the corruption to follow is remarkable.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the podcast for me - Maddow is so good at this

- Rachel Maddow’s new book, ‘Bag Man,’ and the downfall of Spiro Agnew: Overshadowed by the Watergate scandal, the resignation of Nixon V.P. Spiro Agnew in 1973 over corruption and tax evasion is almost forgotten history. Rachel Maddow revisits Agnew’s story – and explains how the lessons are still relevant today. “So much of the legal framework by which Trump’s alleged crimes had to be considered by the Special Counsel and by this Justice Department, all that groundwork was laid by this forgotten story of Agnew taking bags of cash at his White House office.”

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for any high school or college civics or modern US History course. Detailed and factual notes, with extensive documentation, tell the story of corruption at the highest level of our government. And the echoes to the corruption and criminality of the 45th president are uncanny. You might think he read this book to get his own playbook of ideas on how to turn our country inside out, destroying democracy and our faith in it, just to make himself rich and save himself from accountability. Reads like an excellent novel. I highly recommend it to anyone who cares about America and its ideals.

[Gary Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s Vice President, was one greedy guy. Agnew took bribes throughout his entire public career, including his time as Vice President when his “bag man” would personally deliver envelopes stuffed with cash to Agnew in his White House office.

This book version of Rachel Maddow’s Bag Man podcast series about the investigation into Agnew’s criminality is every bit as fascinating as the podcast and is even more delicious because of Maddow’s wit and humor. The heroes are the federal prosecutors and Attorney General Elliot Richardson as they work to remove a corrupt Vice President from the line of presidential succession while President Richard Nixon’s hold on his office grows more tenuous.

Maddow goes beyond the facts of the case to note the importance of Agnew’s ignominious legacy. When faced with the evidence against him, Agnew used strategies that might sound familiar: “Attack the investigation as a witch hunt. Obstruct it behind the scenes. Attack individual investigators in personal terms. Attack the credibility of the Justice Department itself. Attack the media informing Americans about the case. Punch back. Hard. Until either you are broken or the system is.”

[Martin, I stand with ISRAEL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Rachel Maddow! For exposing this scum

Spiro Agnew was a disgusting human being
1. As Governor of Maryland, he too bribes.
2. He took bribes as Vice President of the United States.
3 . Called the press enemies(Sounds like Trump)
4. Had affairs
5. Anti-Semitic. He wrote the Saudi Government to donate money to his cause of fighting the Zionist who control the U.S. He accused the Jews for his downfall because the Jews own the media. (See #3)
6. Richard Nixon couldn’t stand him and wanted to remove him from office. They barely spoke to each other.
7. Hated blacks.
8. He was a Republican

[Obsidian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did Not Finish-38 percent.

Sorry, I tried. This is beyond boring. I already know most of the details behind Agnew and Nixon, this just didn't give me anything new to read or a different perspective on things.

[Katie.dorny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and thorough read into an unknown but highly relevant part of history

[Sahitya · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 4.5.

I had heard of the Bagman podcast but never got around to catching up. But I remember watching Rachel talk about Agnew during a couple of A blocks of her show and was surprised that I hadn’t even heard the name of this supposedly infamous VP. So when I saw the announcement for this book, I was obviously very excited and immediately got around to reading it as soon as I got my library copy.

I naturally don’t want to hash the facts from the book again in this review, but reading about this whole saga of a corrupt VP who took envelopes of cash bribes even while in the White House was just stunning, and even more surprising was the fact that this seems like a very forgotten piece of history, probably overshadowed by the Watergate scandal and its aftermath. However, the main point I took from this story was the parallels to the Trump administration - from the numerous similarities between the two figures and their brazen corruption, as well as the attacks they go on when caught. It’s almost like I was reading about the past four years and not something that happened almost 50 years ago. And just like what happened with Agnew, it feels like this administration might also escape prosecutions or any consequences, either due to a too lenient Biden admin or more possibly, lots of self serving pardons.

But what felt not similar between Agnew’s case and the current administration was the conduct of the Attorney General, the US attorney of Maryland as well as the prosecutors. Rightfully, the authors highlight the relentless work done by these civil servants who did their duty despite pressure from the higher ups and ultimately got a corrupt person out of the presidential line of succession, even if they were unable to get their preferred indictments or sentences. This is obviously in stark contrast to our recently resigned AG who never felt like someone who would support the prosecutors under him if they wanted to pursue similar lines of inquiry against anyone in the administration. This just goes to show that while the corruption has lived on, principled people - who would put up a fight against those in power using their positions for nefarious activities - are now a rare commodity, which is very unfortunate for the country.

All in all, this was a well written and interesting read with lots of first hand information from the lawyers who were involved, and despite the brazen corruption of a person in high office, I did enjoy the book a lot. There’s quite a bit of snark in the writing, which I think I can attribute to Rachel’s signature humor, but it never lessened the importance of what happened. And just like Rachel mentioned many times in her previous book Blowout, the strength of our small-d democratic institutions depends on the people who are ready to defend them, even against those in power - and the past four years have shown that they are not invincible. It’s now upto the people how they want to hold their electeds accountable. But before you do that, read this book and listen to the podcast, but sometimes history really teaches us lessons which can help us make better choices in the future.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first vote ever cast in a Presidential election was for George McGovern and Sargent Shriver who lost in one of the biggest landslides in US history to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, neither of whom completed their term thanks to two separate scandals (which kind of vindicated my voting judgment I like to think!) While I was aware of some of the accusations against the brash and, we soon learn, racist VP, it was so overshadowed by Nixon's own Watergate scandal that I really didn't know all that much about Agnew's vast criminality (how about accepting cash bribe payments while in the White House for starters?) Rachel Maddow (whose nightly news show I love on TV) and her co author Michael Yarvitz write a well researched and highly readable account of (as the subtitle tells us) the crimes, cover up and downfall of a brazen crook. While by definition I think there are no "spoilers" in a historical non fiction account, I won't go into too much detail so you can be as amazed as I was in what actually transpired. There are several unsung heroes (including Attorney General Elliot Richardson of the Saturday Night Massacre fame, who resigned rather than fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox as ordered by Nixon) and a team of DOJ lawyers who were determined to beat the clock and bring Agnew to justice before he would have succeeded Richard Nixon as President which would have been an absolute nightmare (a term I'd also apply to the last four years in the White House. In fact, Agnew's reaction to the accusations against him became the playbook for Trump all these years later.) Real justice was never truly achieved in view of most legal observers, and I agree that he really just got his wrist slapped. But the goal of preventing Agnew from ascending to the Presidency was successful. It's an amazing story and really interesting history for political junkies (guilty) and others who wonder about our broken political system.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

America's first Vice-President, John Adams, described the position as "the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his imagination conceived." It's an article of faith that most of the men who have held this exalted-sounding but functionally meaningless job were ciphers, nonentities and small-time crooks, including more than a few of the time-servers who succeeded a deceased or disgraced Executive Chief (I'm pretty sure the Chester Arthur Presidential Museum doesn't need to implement social-distancing protocols). There have been a few noteworthy Vice Presidents, of course, but mostly for the wrong reasons: Aaron Burr killed a man while serving as VP, Dick Cheney conspired to start a war under false pretenses, and "Bag Man" subject Spiro Agnew resigned from the office to avoid indictment for graft. Agnew was a dull man in a dull job, and even his crimes were dull, especially when contrasted with those of his boss, Richard Nixon: while the Trickster was shredding the Constitution, Agnew was collecting envelopes full of cash like a second-rate Chicago ward heeler. A serious historical account of Spiro Agnew's venality and criminality would make for dreary reading indeed, so I guess it's lucky that a TV pundit like Rachel Maddow, who thrives on outrage, should try to wring a little juice out of such mundane corruption. She and her co-author do their level best to make Spiro Agnew into a historical villain, but undercut their own efforts every time they mention the Watergate investigation: now, that's what a real crisis looks like.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Who knew how far his corruption spread? Including George H. W. Bush. Very readable...does not sound like Rachel.

[Amy Van deventer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the podcast and wasn’t sure if it would be redundant to read the book as well. No regrets. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't watch the Rachel Maddow Show, and I don't remember hearing about this book or placing it on hold at the library.

But hey, here it is. And I read it.

I think the title is meant to make you think it's about Trump, but it's about Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice president. He resigned in disgrace due to a "tax" scandal. But the real story is that he was accepting bribes, and when he got caught he was really good at deflecting blame. So good, in fact, that he perhaps wrote the Trump playbook.

Maybe consider this a spoiler, but to me the most shocking revelation in this book is that George H.W. Bush was involved in the attempted cover up of Agnew's crimes. He was sent to talk to the prosecutors brother on Agnew's behalf. Holy shit, what would have happened if he was busted for obstruction of justice?

Like just about everyone else, I knew way more about Watergate than I knew about anything that happened with Spiro Agnew. I recommend reading this if you're interested in presidential history, political corruption, or reading anything that is in any way related to Trump.

[Megargee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The case against Vice President Spiro Agnew was straightforward. As a Baltimore County executive and later as Maryland governor, Agnew arranged that contracts for public works projects such as roads an bridges would only be awarded to contractors who kicked back about 5% of the amount of the contract to Agnew and his cronies throughout the life of the project. Quarterly payments were handed over to Agnew, in cash, in white envelopes, even after he was in the White House.
Rachel Maddow relates how a brave trio of young Federal prosecutors, apprised of this scheme by Maryland investigators, took down the second ranking U.S. public official before the simultaneous Watergate prosecution led to Pres. Nixon's resignation and Agnew's elevation to the Presidency.
Well written and fact moving, Maddow's account reveals previously undisclosed information gleaned from Nixon and other's forgotten tapes and diaries. The material is especially relevant today because the precedents and procedures formulated then are now the basis for any accusations of illegal behavior for subsequent presidents suspected of criminal behavior.

[Andie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I distinctly remember the day that Spiro T. Agnew resigned the Presidency, and had I know the true extent of his crimes, I would have been even more ecstatic to see him leave office. I always thought that he had been nabbed for tax evasion. Little did I know.

If you think that Donald Trump has been a unique politician, think again. Before there was Donald Trump, there was Spiro Agnew, a man who was chosen by Richard Nixon to be his running mate because he would attract those Southerners who would otherwise have voted for George Wallace, and a man who originated the scorched earth battle plan for corrupt officeholders:
• Label any investigation as a witch hunt
• Obstruct the investigation behind the scenes
• Attack the investigators in personal terms
• Attack the credibility of the justice department
• Attack the media
• Always punch back hard until either you or the system is broken
Sound familiar?

Agnew got his start - both politically and criminally - in 1962 as the executive of Baltimore County. In that position, he was responsible for a large number of road and bridge contracts and he made sure that he got a kick-back on each and every one that was awarded. When he became governor of Maryland in 1967 there were even more public works projects and even more kickbacks - kickbacks he continued to receive at his office in the White House when he became Vice President in 1969.

He was caught in the most mundane way. One of the contractors who had been paying Agnew off (and then Agnew's successor as Baltimore County Executive) decided to talk. And he talked, and talked and talked.

The great thing about this book is that so many of the conversations that demonstrate Agnew's guilt are on tape, courtesy of the infamous taping system that Nixon installed in the White house. These tapes were largely ignored as the larger Watergate case took over the nation's attention in 1973. Maddow, however, seems to have listened to them all .She has also interviewed many of the Federal prosecutors who were on the case at the time.

It's a great story, and much like the story of the 2020 election, it's heroes are fairly ordinary civil servants who insisted on doing their jobs and refused to be intimidated by powerful men in office. There are also the usual political weasels (Agnew also had 100 members of Congress who tried to stop his investigation), and some surprising bad guys.

This book reads like a great political thriller and I had a hard time setting it down. Read it and learn something.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without focusing on the current occupant of the WH, Maddow and coauthor Michael Yarvitz make the point loud and clear corruption sometimes seeps into even the highest offices in the land.

I'm old so I remember Agnew and his smarmy, snarky face and demeanor. Why am I not surprised that Pat Buchanan helped him craft some of his best lines? Birds of a feather.

But this is a story of young prosecutors determined to do the right thing, to follow bribery and extortion wherever they end up...and to fight for justice. And their boss, who quietly, without ever telling these dedicated lawyers that he withstood incredible political pressure to shut down this investigation.

Agnew's first elected office was county commissioner, and he learned early to demand a kickback on any building projects in his county...then, as governor (for less than two years), he continued to expect those white envelopes stuffed with cash. His greed did not stop when he was elected VP. He made it clear those payments would continue...and those cash payments made their way to his hands, and quickly into the middle drawer of the Vice President of the United States.

The news of his crimes broke just as Watergate was creating a cloud over the WH. Competing crimes, with different motivation, and different strategies to evade justice.

Two episodes will stick with me...AG Eliot Richardson asked for a brief to be researched and written on whether the Constitution allowed for the indictment of the sitting president and VP. The tortured prose muddied the waters as much as anything. Finally Robert Bork (!), Solicitor General, took the mess and made it work. Only after his office asked specifically what Richardson WANTED the outcome to be...and he wanted to be able to indict the VP, but not necessarily the President...This comes back to bite us in the Trump Impeachment...Mueller used this ruling as his excuse to pull his punches in his investigation...a ruling that Eliot Richardson had written so he could pressure Agnew to resign before he was indicted, but he could continue to protect Nixon (his reward was a knife in the back...more on that later). So, with much wrangling, including one funny scene in a small motel room stuffed with lawyers, Agnew was forced to plead guilty to one charge, be fined, and sentenced to probation.

TEN DAYS LATER Nixon demanded that AG Richardson fire the Watergate Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox...Richardson refused and was fired. Then Nixon demanded his Deputy, William Ruckelshaus, a good Hoosier GOP fire Cox. Ruckelshaus refused. THEN Nixon demanded that the Solicitor General, one ROBERT BORK, future unsuccessful SCOTUS nominee, fire Cox. Bork, never a man of principle, promptly fired Cox. That, boys and girls, was known at the "Saturday Night Massacre." I remember it in real time. We were proud of our fellow Hoosier who stood up to naked, craven power.

IF Richardson had not forced Agnew to resign and take the plea-deal, who knows what could have happened with this particular case...Richardson helped Nixon get rid of Agnew, and was fired. So much for loyalty.

I kept interrupting my husband's reading to read aloud from this book...as always, the prose is snappy and clear...and devastating in its truth.

Ron Leibman, Tim Baker, George Beall, Barney Skolnik...none of them even 40 years old. All dedicated public servants who believed in the rule of law...who believed in justice. Who believed no one is too high to be held accountable. These men were heroes.

The book ends with Beall's words...he was the boss who never let his lawyers know the pressure he withstood for them: "If I leave this office without enemies, I will not have done the job properly. I think that the public has to know there is an office somewhere that is incorruptible."

Yes, we do...where is that office now?

[Shannon Ratliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest minds of our time in my humble opinion. I’m only mildly jealous. Preach it, Rachel! Amen and a-fucking-men again!

[Rob Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was SO entertaining, even if you have only the remotest interest in US political history. The podcast is great, the book is better. There is a wealth of new info, new characters, and much more detail behind how everything went down.

I think the two mediums (radio/podcast and the book) are perfect compliments. In the book, you have far greater detail and time, plus the benefit of several photographs of the people involved.

In the podcast, you have the tightly edited drama that brings it to life.

Now the perfect trifecta would be to see this all come to film. Oh wait! That's already in the works!

As regards using this historical chapter as a litmus for present and future eras, it has been tempting to compare Trump to Nixon. The requisites are all there, aren't they? Corruption, lying, impending impeachment. And yet, it's really Agnew that we need to study more closely for the blueprint.

My favorite quote from the book regarding the obvious and unavoidable comparisons to the Trump admin:

Ultimately, Agnew failed to save himself. But he left scorched-earth battle plan for any corrupt officeholder that followed:
Attack the investigation as a witch hunt. Obstruct it behind the scenes.
Attack individual investigators in personal terms.
Attack the credibility of the Justice Department itself.
Attack the media informing Americans about the case.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick impressions: Overall this is a solid work of research and history combined with a great narrative that you just have to keep reading. I stayed up way late to finish this one, and I do not do that for just any book. If you are interested in U.S. history and politics, and perhaps also understand the current times in the U.S. a bit better, you need to pick this book up now. This was excellent, and I am happy to recommend it to anyone.

Full review on my blog coming soon.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read nonfiction, but this book caught my eye. I remember a lot about the time of Watergate, but didn't remember much at all about Spiro Agnew. This interesting telling of the events surrounding his resignation from the Vice Presidency was an eye opener. He got off too easy as far as I can tell from this book.