Thread by @DavidPriess

THREAD: It’s time to bring the *facts* about vice presidents and the President’s Daily Brief.

No spin—just the actual history.

And some pictures.

1/14

The President’s Daily Brief (PDB) was created by the CIA in 1964 for Lyndon Johnson, building on an earlier daily product designed for John Kennedy: the President’s Intelligence Checklist (PICL).

As JFK’s vice president, LBJ had *not* been allowed to see the PICL.

2/14

Vice presidents since (and including) LBJ’s VP Hubert Humphrey have almost always had access to a copy of the President’s Daily Brief and have (1) read it on their own, (2) taken in-person briefings apart from a POTUS session, and/or (3) joined the president’s own briefing.

3/14

After not seeing the PDB at first, President Nixon’s first VP, Spiro Agnew, became a reader.

His successor as VP, Gerald Ford, saw the PDB during daily in-person briefings from a CIA officer.

Ford’s VP, Nelson Rockefeller, read it avidly but didn’t join Ford’s briefings.

4/14

Vice President Walter Mondale saw not just any copy of the book; he received President Carter’s very own PDB copy.

“The President would read it,” Mondale told me, “and then I would see it with his written comments.”

5/14

Bush 41, as VP, would often attend President Reagan’s daily national security sessions at which the PDB was discussed—after a CIA officer had already briefed the PDB to Bush at his Naval Observatory residence.

What else would you expect from a former CIA director?

6/14

Dan Quayle often walked into President Bush 41’s Oval Office PDB briefings near their end (because he’d already had his own PDB session).

“The people who briefed me,” Quayle told me, “were very knowledgeable and very conversational. They were pros.”

7/14

President Clinton invited Al Gore to attend his PDB sessions—which Gore did when in town. Gore got not only the PDB but also a tailored “VP Supplement.”

Clinton’s in-person briefings were irregular, but Gore’s own briefings stayed steady for all eight years as VP.

8/14

Vice President Dick Cheney, after an intense session with his own briefer, would join the national security advisor and the White House chief of staff in President Bush 43’s daily PDB briefings.

Cheney was a voracious consumer of intel throughout his eight years as VP.

9/14

VP Joe Biden read the PDB each day before joining President Obama for his briefing.

“The presidential daily brief is something I read every single day as Vice President,” Biden said in June. “I was briefed every morning before I got to the White House, and then again.”

10/14

I’ve yet to see evidence that Vice President Mike Pence regularly joined Trump’s intelligence briefings (on those days when Trump took them).

I’ve also yet to see evidence that Pence failed to read the PDB on his own and/or take briefings on its content.

11/14

In 2017, after Pence took intel briefings almost daily as VP-elect, I speculated, “Pence is more likely to take on a substantial role, like those assumed by Al Gore and Dick Cheney, rather than a limited role, like Lyndon Johnson or Spiro Agnew.”

I suspect I was wrong.

12/14

President Biden’s publicly released schedules show that he and Vice President Kamala Harris have been taking in-person PDB briefings together every working day when they are both in town.

13/14

Stories about the PDB, presidents, vice presidents, and the intel-policy relationship fill my book THE PRESIDENT’S BOOK OF SECRETS, which features first-hand information from my interviews with presidents, vice presidents, CIA directors, and others:

/end
amazon.com/Presidents-Boo…