the authenticity is the key thing for us. how much of the plotline is inspired by real events? were there ever specific threats made against your daughter chelsea? well, if there were, i still wouldn't talk about them. my daughter, like other adult children of presidents, loses secret service protection when you leave the white house. and normally, that's fine, because there is no real danger. but when i left, 9/11 hadn't happened yet. bin laden still had me under a fatwa because i had tried so hard to kill him, or at least capture him. and so i was worried about anybody in my family being collateral damage. you look at things like the storming of the capitol, and you go, oh, my god, how can we write fiction that could compete with what's going on in the world? it was horrible, but if you want to live in a country where everything is about politics, everything is polarised,