The president picks and chooses which intelligence he wants to follow as it suits him, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
In a Wednesday appearance on his former sidekick’s podcast, The Dan Bongino Show, Patel gave an odd explanation for why the “President’s Daily Briefing” is referred to as such.
“You know why it’s called the President’s Daily Briefing? Because the president decides what are the intel priorities in that briefing,” Patel told the former deputy director of the FBI.
“And President Trump has decided what intel priorities are agencies like the FBI and CIA are to act upon,” he continued.
The goal of the president’s daily briefing, since its inception in 1946, is not for the president to pick and choose what is of interest, but to inform the president and key Cabinet members of any and all threats that could impact national security.
Last year, NBC News reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was working on ways to better engage Trump with the intelligence briefing to make it more in line with how he receives information. Gabbard considered creating a video version of the briefing to mimic a segment on Fox News. The president’s TV habits have long been documented—including how he’s gotten policy ideas straight from the screen.
During Trump’s first term, the daily briefing was also tailored to his preferences, with more pictures and graphics than text.
As of last June, Trump averaged just one briefing a week during his second term, fewer than his predecessors and even fewer than during his first term.
Patel asserted that Trump’s picking and choosing what intelligence to be briefed on has led to “the historic reduction in crime.”
“What the president doesn’t get enough credit for is, he’s the one that directs the intelligence in the Presidential Daily Briefing to set the priorities for this FBI to act,” Patel said.
Patel and Bongino, who left the FBI earlier this year after a tumultuous 10-month stint, spent most of their time on the show gushing to each other over their work at the agency.
Several times throughout the show, Patel held up a card detailing the FBI’s “Historic Year.”
“I think you and I did a pretty good job, but you know, it really isn’t hard when you focus on the bad guys,” Bongino said of Patel’s time thus far at the FBI.
“It’s not hard to do the job you signed up for if you’re allowed to do the job you signed up for,” Patel responded.
At one point, Patel claimed that when he and Bongino traveled across the country, they were profusely thanked for their work at the FBI.
“People came up to us, moms and pops from every town,” Patel claimed. “And said, ‘Thank you to you and this Trump administration for keeping our kids safe and keeping murderers off the streets and keeping drugs out of our communities and letting our children have a safe environment to grow up in.’”
