Fox News aired an in-depth interview between Chris Wallace and President-elect Donald Trump this morning, the first one Trump has done with Wallace since the election. In the interview, not only did Trump continue pushing the “big league” lie that he won in a landslide, he also let us all know that he’s too “smart” to bother reading the Presidential Daily Brief.
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Trump is in a defensive stance this weekend, after the bombshell news that Russia hacked our election in his favor. That news broke on Friday, and Trump’s team has been in spin mode ever since.
So, when Wallace asked him about his “skepticism” of the intelligence community and asked him about getting the Presidential Daily Brief only once a week, Trump interrupted with:
“Well, I get it when I need it. First of all, these are very good people that are giving me the briefings. And I say if something should change from this point, immediately call me, I’m available on one minute’s notice. I don’t have to be told, you know, I’m like a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next eight years. Could be eight years, but eight years. I don’t need that. But, I do say, if something should change, let us know.”
Are you kidding me?
The President’s Daily Brief (PDB) is not some throwaway document, to be read if the president feels like reading it. It’s a compendium of information from the intelligence community, delivered to the president at a specific time each day.
In other words, it’s not optional reading for the President of the United States.
Maybe It Was, Maybe It Wasn’t
Trump seems to think that the CIA gets their information the same way private citizens do. Not only that, he told Chris Wallace that he’s not sure that the CIA is actually the agency that released the report about Russia:
“I’m not sure they put it out. I think the Democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country, and frankly I think they’re putting it out.”
Maybe if he actually read his PDB, he would know what the CIA (and the intelligence community as a whole) was doing.
And today, several top Republican senators joined with the Democrats in asking for further investigation into the matter.
By the way, that was the second time in as many minutes in the interview that Trump pushed the lie that he won in a “landslide.” He lost the popular vote by 2.5 million votes (and counting), and his projected Electoral College win ranks 46th of 58 presidential elections. Not quite a landslide.
You can watch the entire interview with Chris Wallace here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lysx7s9ocJU
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video
