The President's Daily Brief (PDB) is one of the most important things that a US president does on a daily basis.The PDB has been presented in some form to the president since 1946, when President Harry S. Truman received the Daily Summary.It is a daily summary of high-level, all-source information and analysis on national security issues produced for the president and key cabinet members and advisers. It includes highly classified intelligence analysis, information about covert operations, and reports from the most sensitive US sources or those shared by allied intelligence agencies.Most PDBs — even those from many years past — remain classified. Thus the concern over President Joe Biden, who, despite calls to step down due to suspected age-related health issues, has raised serious doubts about running for a second term.A disastrous debate with former president Donald Trump held on June 27 shook the very foundations of the Democratic party — Biden appeared old, confused, forgetful and rattled, sometimes tripping over his words. Everything a president should not and cannot be in the run-up to a November election.It is not surprising there is renewed interest in the session during which Biden receives his daily intelligence briefing.Following the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on 13 July, some say it underscores the scale of the security challenges now facing the Biden administration.According to a report in Intelligence Online, the question of the conditions under which the PDB is now being presented to its main recipient, known for his extensive intelligence experience, is causing some embarrassment.Officially, the White House says that the president continues to carry out his duties normally, but this contradicts press reports of days of lightened workloads to adapt to the 81-year-old president's level of fitness.When contacted by Intelligence Online, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which prepares the tailor-made document for the president, declined to comment.According to his official schedule, Biden receives the PDB on an almost daily basis, including when he is travelling abroad, usually at 10 a.m. Vice President Kamala Harris sometimes joins him for what is generally the first official activity of the day. Between 2009 and 2017, when he was second-in-command to Barack Obama, Biden made a habit of reading the PDB as soon as he woke up, as he recalled on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the CIA in 2022.After Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, the subject of the PDB was highlighted by the White House to distinguish him from his predecessor, Donald Trump, who had a notoriously adversarial relationship with the intelligence community. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also attends the 30-minute sessions, which are held in the Oval Office in the presence of one or more ODNI briefers. .Other officials, such as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines and CIA director William Burns, are regular participants.According to Intelligence Online, neither the format of these sessions nor the list of participants has undergone any major changes in recent months. While some Republicans are bashing Biden's inability to carry out his presidential duties, Democratic lawmakers, who are particularly influential on intelligence issues, are among the politicians most concerned.For instance, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Virginia senator Mark Warner, issued a statement on July 8 saying that "now is the time for conversations about the strongest path forward." Warner echoes many Democratic lawmakers who are worried about their party's electoral momentum.Following the US president's press conference at the NATO summit in Washington on 11 July, which was punctuated by numerous verbal blunders, Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race.Biden’s occasional struggles with focus may not be unusual for someone his age. But at 81 years old and seeking another four years in the White House, the moments when he’s off his game raises serious questions.According to the LA Times, one person who spends time with Biden said there have been visible signs of his aging over the last year that the president’s team has failed to fully address.The debate performance accelerated concerns about what was already a slow-moving problem, even if Biden has offered assurances that he's fit as a fiddle.Biden’s public interactions — with journalists especially — have been greatly limited under a mandate led by one of his top advisors, Anita Dunn.Currently he's held the fewest press conferences since President Ronald Reagan.At best, it is a protective reflex meant to shield their longtime boss — at worst, it looks like they're hiding something.This is a far cry from the administration of President Bill Clinton, who took the terrorist threat from Osama bin Laden seriously, and demanded a daily PDB on the al Qaida leader.This was scrapped by Condoleezza Rice, the former US Secretary of State, when President George W. Bush became POTUS.Perhaps the most famous PDB is the one made public by the 9/11 Commission in 2004. It's title: "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US."The intelligence was shared with the then-President Bush on Aug. 6, 2001, more than a month before the hijackers carried out the 9/11 attacks.When authorities gave President Kennedy the first version of the intel briefing in 1961, it was then called the President’s Intelligence Checklist, or PICL (pronounced “pickle”). This jokingly led to the CIA being called the "pickle farm."According to a report in Time, the Bay of Pigs Invasion had just taken place in April, and Kennedy — young and sharp — wanted to be sure he was receiving succinct information about national security threats daily, according to the CIA.His Senior Military Aide, Major Gen. Chester Clifton, suggested the information should come in a form small enough to slip into the President’s pocket, so he could carry it with him throughout the day.As a result, Kennedy received the first PICL on June 17, 1961.At 8-by-8.5 inches and with three or four items per page, the pamphlet contained 14 summaries of activity around the world. .After Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson started receiving slightly longer reports less frequently and did not rely as much on the PICL, until the CIA revamped the PICL as the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), which would combine the brevity of the PICL with the analysis that Johnson favoured.Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon, for example, pushed for perfection — longer versions with more context and analysis.Aides recall that he would not even look at a report, unless it was the absolute best that could be produced.George H.W. Bush preferred an in-person briefing, so he could communicate with the briefer and request more information. Starting in 2014, President Obama read his briefings daily on a tablet.Former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, Leon Panetta, called the PDB "incredibly important.""It's not a good way to start your day," Panetta told ABC News. "It can put a lot of worry into your head, by virtue of just reading about all the potential threats that the country is facing."Bruce Riedel, a former national security official, told ABC News that even today, the PDB has the same goal it did in the 1960s."It's purpose is really the same as it was back in the Kennedy administration — to give the president a fairly short and concise summary of the most important intelligence."In the Trump White House, Riedel said when now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was CIA director, he knew how to get through to the president."My understanding is that Mike Pompeo was very good at this, when he was director," he said. "He understood how to read the president's mood, and understood how you could get information that the president would absorb," he explained, adding he has "no idea how it works in the current environment."That, is the question many Republicans and Democrats are asking themselves today, in this chaotic US election campaign.Knowing what we now know, is President Biden up to the task?
The President's Daily Brief (PDB) is one of the most important things that a US president does on a daily basis.The PDB has been presented in some form to the president since 1946, when President Harry S. Truman received the Daily Summary.It is a daily summary of high-level, all-source information and analysis on national security issues produced for the president and key cabinet members and advisers. It includes highly classified intelligence analysis, information about covert operations, and reports from the most sensitive US sources or those shared by allied intelligence agencies.Most PDBs — even those from many years past — remain classified. Thus the concern over President Joe Biden, who, despite calls to step down due to suspected age-related health issues, has raised serious doubts about running for a second term.A disastrous debate with former president Donald Trump held on June 27 shook the very foundations of the Democratic party — Biden appeared old, confused, forgetful and rattled, sometimes tripping over his words. Everything a president should not and cannot be in the run-up to a November election.It is not surprising there is renewed interest in the session during which Biden receives his daily intelligence briefing.Following the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on 13 July, some say it underscores the scale of the security challenges now facing the Biden administration.According to a report in Intelligence Online, the question of the conditions under which the PDB is now being presented to its main recipient, known for his extensive intelligence experience, is causing some embarrassment.Officially, the White House says that the president continues to carry out his duties normally, but this contradicts press reports of days of lightened workloads to adapt to the 81-year-old president's level of fitness.When contacted by Intelligence Online, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which prepares the tailor-made document for the president, declined to comment.According to his official schedule, Biden receives the PDB on an almost daily basis, including when he is travelling abroad, usually at 10 a.m. Vice President Kamala Harris sometimes joins him for what is generally the first official activity of the day. Between 2009 and 2017, when he was second-in-command to Barack Obama, Biden made a habit of reading the PDB as soon as he woke up, as he recalled on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the CIA in 2022.After Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, the subject of the PDB was highlighted by the White House to distinguish him from his predecessor, Donald Trump, who had a notoriously adversarial relationship with the intelligence community. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also attends the 30-minute sessions, which are held in the Oval Office in the presence of one or more ODNI briefers. .Other officials, such as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines and CIA director William Burns, are regular participants.According to Intelligence Online, neither the format of these sessions nor the list of participants has undergone any major changes in recent months. While some Republicans are bashing Biden's inability to carry out his presidential duties, Democratic lawmakers, who are particularly influential on intelligence issues, are among the politicians most concerned.For instance, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Virginia senator Mark Warner, issued a statement on July 8 saying that "now is the time for conversations about the strongest path forward." Warner echoes many Democratic lawmakers who are worried about their party's electoral momentum.Following the US president's press conference at the NATO summit in Washington on 11 July, which was punctuated by numerous verbal blunders, Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race.Biden’s occasional struggles with focus may not be unusual for someone his age. But at 81 years old and seeking another four years in the White House, the moments when he’s off his game raises serious questions.According to the LA Times, one person who spends time with Biden said there have been visible signs of his aging over the last year that the president’s team has failed to fully address.The debate performance accelerated concerns about what was already a slow-moving problem, even if Biden has offered assurances that he's fit as a fiddle.Biden’s public interactions — with journalists especially — have been greatly limited under a mandate led by one of his top advisors, Anita Dunn.Currently he's held the fewest press conferences since President Ronald Reagan.At best, it is a protective reflex meant to shield their longtime boss — at worst, it looks like they're hiding something.This is a far cry from the administration of President Bill Clinton, who took the terrorist threat from Osama bin Laden seriously, and demanded a daily PDB on the al Qaida leader.This was scrapped by Condoleezza Rice, the former US Secretary of State, when President George W. Bush became POTUS.Perhaps the most famous PDB is the one made public by the 9/11 Commission in 2004. It's title: "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US."The intelligence was shared with the then-President Bush on Aug. 6, 2001, more than a month before the hijackers carried out the 9/11 attacks.When authorities gave President Kennedy the first version of the intel briefing in 1961, it was then called the President’s Intelligence Checklist, or PICL (pronounced “pickle”). This jokingly led to the CIA being called the "pickle farm."According to a report in Time, the Bay of Pigs Invasion had just taken place in April, and Kennedy — young and sharp — wanted to be sure he was receiving succinct information about national security threats daily, according to the CIA.His Senior Military Aide, Major Gen. Chester Clifton, suggested the information should come in a form small enough to slip into the President’s pocket, so he could carry it with him throughout the day.As a result, Kennedy received the first PICL on June 17, 1961.At 8-by-8.5 inches and with three or four items per page, the pamphlet contained 14 summaries of activity around the world. .After Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson started receiving slightly longer reports less frequently and did not rely as much on the PICL, until the CIA revamped the PICL as the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), which would combine the brevity of the PICL with the analysis that Johnson favoured.Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon, for example, pushed for perfection — longer versions with more context and analysis.Aides recall that he would not even look at a report, unless it was the absolute best that could be produced.George H.W. Bush preferred an in-person briefing, so he could communicate with the briefer and request more information. Starting in 2014, President Obama read his briefings daily on a tablet.Former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, Leon Panetta, called the PDB "incredibly important.""It's not a good way to start your day," Panetta told ABC News. "It can put a lot of worry into your head, by virtue of just reading about all the potential threats that the country is facing."Bruce Riedel, a former national security official, told ABC News that even today, the PDB has the same goal it did in the 1960s."It's purpose is really the same as it was back in the Kennedy administration — to give the president a fairly short and concise summary of the most important intelligence."In the Trump White House, Riedel said when now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was CIA director, he knew how to get through to the president."My understanding is that Mike Pompeo was very good at this, when he was director," he said. "He understood how to read the president's mood, and understood how you could get information that the president would absorb," he explained, adding he has "no idea how it works in the current environment."That, is the question many Republicans and Democrats are asking themselves today, in this chaotic US election campaign.Knowing what we now know, is President Biden up to the task?
