Once upon a time, President Barack Obama was eviscerated for wearing a tan suit. Can you imagine how much more apoplectic Republicans would have been if Obama refused to take his daily intelligence briefing? Susan Rice, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a former National Security Advisor under Obama, certainly can.
Rice was incredulous in relaying that Trump has repeatedly said “nah, not today,” when his intelligence briefers have come to him to discuss secrets that impact the nation’s security.
“It’s been recently reported, David, that the president of the United States, who’s been in office well over 100 days now, has only received the presidential daily briefing - the most important, highly classified, daily intelligence briefing, some 12 times, some 12 days of his 100-plus days in office,” Rice said in a recent podcast interview with David Frum, one of former President George W. Bush’s speechwriters. “What is he doing if he’s not reading the PDB?”
Well, let’s see. Trump siccing his Justice Department on law firms that once represented or employed people he doesn’t like. He’s trying to bully colleges and universities into dropping diversity, equity and inclusion programs by threatening to snatch their federal funding. He’s imposing gigantic tariffs that have spooked the national economy. He’s patting his defense secretary on the head after the secretary discussed impending military attack operations on the unsecured messaging service Signal.
Oh, and he’s looking after his bag.
It’s always the bag with Trump. Qatar offered him a $400 million airplane he wants U.S. taxpayers to pay $1 billion to retrofit so it could serve as Air Force One, and, instead of telling his benefactors that Congress would have to approve such a gift or that taking the plane would be shockingly and wildly unethical, he expressed shock that anyone would be shocked that he’d accept the aircraft. Which, of course, he did.
Trump ain’t too proud to beg, and he ain’t got time for no stinkin’ intelligence briefing. Can’t have anything get in the way of “Fox and Friends.”
“I hate to say this,” Rice said, “but you could say it about the airplane. You could say it about Signalgate. You could say it about so many different things. But if any other president had refused or opted not to receive the presidential daily briefing from the intelligence community on a regular basis, it would be a huge, huge scandal with massive investigations in Congress and huge speculation that the president is not playing with a full deck. That’s a key part of the job.”
You mean throwing a swank soiree for crypto bros who have put millions into your pocket isn’t the job of the president? You mean taking that briefing and learning whether, say, some nefarious group was getting dangerously close to attacking the U.S. or one its allies is more important than eating filet mignon with the bros?
Just imagine...imagine what Fox News would’ve looked and sounded like in the early 2010s if Obama did the same thing. Heck, if he did half of the stuff Trump gets away with on the daily. That tan suit reaction would’ve been nothing in comparison.