Donald Trump, the man soon-to-be in charge of our national security, tells Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday, that he doesn’t need to get the Presidential Daily Brief, which the president relies upon heavily to inform national security decisions because he’s “like a smart person” and he “gets it when he needs it.” President Obama currently receives the report six days a week.
WALLACE: I just want to ask you about your skepticism about the intelligence community. You are getting the presidential daily brief only once a week.
TRUMP: Yes. Well, I get it when I need it.
WALLACE: But, if there is some skepticism
TRUMP: Look, first of all, these are very good people giving me these briefings. And I say if something should change from this point, immediately call me, I’m available on one minute’s notice. I don’t have to be told, you know, I’m like a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next 8 years. Could be 8 years, but 8 years. I don’t need that. But, I do say, if something should change, let us know.
Now, in the meantime, my generals are great. Are being briefed. And Mike Pence is being briefed, who is by the way one of my very good decisions. He’s doing terrific. And they’re being briefed and I’m being briefed also. But if they’re gonna come and tell me the exact same thing that they told me, you know it doesn’t change necessarily, but there are times where it might change, I mean they’ll be some very fluid situations. I’ll be there, not every day, but more than that. But I don’t need to be told, Chris, the same thing every day, every morning, same words, nothing has changed, let’s go over it again. I don’t need that.
We had another president who took his PDB’s nonchalantly:
In an otherwise dry day of hearings before the 9/11 commission, one brief bit of dialogue set off a sudden flash of clarity on the basic question of how our government let disaster happen.
The revelation came this morning, when CIA Director George Tenet was on the stand. Timothy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, asked him when he first found out about the report from the FBI's Minnesota field office that Zacarias Moussaoui, an Islamic jihadist, had been taking lessons on how to fly a 747. Tenet replied that he was briefed about the case on Aug. 23 or 24, 2001.
Roemer then asked Tenet if he mentioned Moussaoui to President Bush at one of their frequent morning briefings. Tenet replied, "I was not in briefings at this time." Bush, he noted, "was on vacation." He added that he didn't see the president at all in August 2001. During the entire month, Bush was at his ranch in Texas. "You never talked with him?" Roemer asked. "No," Tenet replied. By the way, for much of August, Tenet too was, as he put it, "on leave.”
Not reading and acting on the information in the Presidential Daily Brief is dereliction of duty. Dangerous incompetence.
In addition to insisting he doesn’t need the daily brief, Donald Trump continues to blame the CIA, saying he does not believe the intelligence reports showing the Russians interfered in U.S. elections. He claims the CIA doesn’t know who hacked the DNC and RNC and neither does he. Except the CIA does know. It was the Russians. And they may have colluded with the Trump campaign.
Sunday morning a group of bipartisan group of senators called for a full investigation, saying "Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American.”
You can watch the full interview below.