would you do this if you were briefing president trump based on everything you have just learned from that the washington post article? well, there was an interesting detail in that article, lawrence. when they have pieces of information, primarily about russia that they think may trigger this president, they include that in the written material. they don t include it in the oral briefing and what that says to me is that they don t think this president is actually reading those written pdbs, those written presidential daily briefs. they don t raise it in the oral session because they know he s there and interact and forced to sit behind the resolute desk for at least a portion of the morning and listen to what his intelligence briefers have to say. but look. i think that does a disservice not only to this president but also to the american people. the president must grapple with the intelligence, the best intelligence, the highest quality intelligence that our intelligence communit
the impact of the information? isn t the point of it for all of the information in it to have the correct impact that it should have on a president? well, that s right, lawrence. look. i wrote pdbs for president george w. bush and president obama. i briefed pdbs in the obama administration and i was briefed on pdbs in the latter half of the obama administration and what i can tell you is that chicken soup for the soul, the pdb is not. it is not an uplifting read. it is very rarely has good news. most of which you read in the pdb is bad news, devastating developments, it is dire analysis of the most important and challenging threats we face. and it s presented in the pdb precisely because the president has to deal with these issues. simple issues do not make their way to the president s desk. only the most complex and challenging ones do and it seems from this report today that president trump is not willing to grapple with these issues and in doing so he s not willing to
president s daily briefs, how would you do this if you were briefing president trump based on everything you have just learned from that the washington post article? well, there was an interesting detail in that article, lawrence. when they have pieces of information, primarily about russia that they think may trigger this president, they include that in the written material. they don t include it in the oral briefing and what that says to me is that they don t think this president is actually reading those written pdbs, those written presidential daily briefs. they don t raise it in the oral session because they know he s there and interact and forced to sit behind the resolute desk for at least a portion of the morning and listen to what his intelligence briefers have to say. but look. i think that does a disservice not only to this president but also to the american people. the president must grapple with the intelligence, the best intelligence, the highest quality intelligence
situation with the president, can you imagine having to soften the impact of the information? isn t the point of it for all of the information in it to have the correct impact that it should have on a president? well, that s right, lawrence. look. i wrote pdbs for president george w. bush and president obama. i briefed pdbs in the obama administration and i was briefed on pdbs in the latter half of the obama administration and what i can tell you is that chicken soup for the soul, the pdb is not. it is not an uplifting read. it is very rarely has good news. most of which you read in the pdb is bad news, devastating developments, it is dire analysis of the most important and challenging threats we face. and it s presented in the pdb precisely because the president has to deal with these issues. simple issues do not make their way to the president s desk. only the most complex and challenging ones do and it seems from this report today that president trump is not willing