QUESTION: Cong. John Ratcliffe (Tx) went before the Senate Intelligence Committee today as he seeks to become the next @ODNIgov leader. We asked former DNI Jim Clapper about 2 key ODNI functions -assessing threats & the President's Daily Briefing. Follow this thread for more. 
ANSWER: (About threats) “The list of threats has really not changed since I was DNI. We have the same regional and trans-national issues to deal with. We know more about them than we did four years ago.
What is quite different today than four—or ten—years ago is how much less we seem to be paying attention to them. We have turned inward; we’re consumed with President Trump and all his antics, his erratic behavior, his blatant disdain for traditional friends and allies,
impeachment, etc, all have distracted our focus on threats we used to pay a lot of attention to. This is not a good situation, particularly over time."
ANSWER: (Describe the PDB process) "I had a full-time PDB briefer (I had ten of them, from when I was USDI and DNI). Each served on a one-year rotation. His/her job was to cull through all the intelligence traffic during the night, and then come in and brief me in the morning.
It was always My first meeting of the day. We’d spend at least an hour every day doing this; it was from this process that I picked items I’d later brief in the Oval.
In addition, I did a lot of reading of hard copy products, and got special topic briefings on intelligence matters. After a time, you develop a mental data base of the threat situation, which, day to day, doesn’t change that much.
It was a constant endeavor for me; that’s why I never had a whole day off for the six and half years I was DNI.“
You can read more about Jim Clapper here: leadingauthorities.com/print/view/pdf…
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