Page 7 - John Walcott News Today

>> makes a lot of sense. chris whipple, in your study of presidencies, have you ever seen schedules like what was leaked about president trumps schedule now? and im not counting fdr when he was dying. im not counting woodrow wilson when he was physically incapacitated. im talking about physically capable presidents who spent as much lecture time as donald trump. >> no, nothing like it. even ronald reagan, who was famously detached as president, would show up at 9:00 sharp in the oval office ever...

What with calls ignorance when presented withal knees generated by americas $81 million a year. they describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible. and leading off our discussion now are john walcott, who broke that story for "time" magazine about what senior intelligence fficials call trumps willful ignorance that cannot be overcome by senior intelligence an...

White house chiefs. because you think about it, these guys are the last line of defense. they are the thin line between the president and his own delusions and really his own fantasyland. this is a president for whom discipline and process are anathema, and in a crisis that relays disaster. >> president obama, for example, served on the senate armed services committee. donald trump, there is no evidence that hes ever even read an article about any of the subjects that presidents have to deal wit...

Disagreed with or taken a different stance on, youre in danger of losing your access to him. he doesnt want to hear from you anymore. so the tough decision that all these people face and that the chiefs of the intelligence services faced when they testified last week on the hill, is do i tell it straight or do i try to maintain my access to this guy? jim mattis at defense had that problem, john kelly and h.r. mcmaster had that problem, and where are they now? >> but, john, on the intelligence br...

Intelligence briefings in case one of them wins so they understand whats going on in the world. what you see in trump is hes not been interested in understanding the way the world works. he does not ask follow-up questions about the consequences of the course of action hes going to take, and so you see the world not reacting in the way that he wants to this world that he is trying to invent. >> and john walcott, you have briefers telling you that they have been warned, as you report. theyve been...

Im not counting woodrow wilson when he was physically incapacitated. im talking about physically capable presidents who spent as much lecture time as donald trump. >> no, nothing like it. even ronald reagan, who was famously detached as president, would show up at 9:00 sharp in the oval office every day, and he would hilt his marks. as long as he had a good director like jim baker around. so its unprecedented. both of these stories, johns story on the sbel briefings, the story of donald trump un...

Also seen it on the outside. he tends to reject opinions and analysis that conflicts with his own opinions and beliefs. >> chris whipple, youve spoken to people in the trump white house as well as the obama white house. i think in your experience its impossible to compare donald trumps ignorance to any other president who has preceded him. >> no, its true. hes in a class of his own, as we know. and, you know, weve had three white house chiefs of staff under donald trump who were all of them unab...

John whipple literally wrote the book called "the gatekeepers: how the chiefs of staff define intelligence." and we have years of intelligence on the intelligence committee of the house of representatives. john walcott, i want to start with you, and the sources youre using here are people who -- some of them are people who have actually been in the room briefing the president, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> and they are telling you that among other things they have to try to reduce it t...

At the cia, its really only the intelligence community that can give him that raw data and that analysis that he needs to understand the world. >> and, john walcott, your reporting follows a week in which the president publicly attacked the leaders and presumably everyone working within the intelligence community, saying that they are wrong -- those are his words after they testified publicly about the threat assessment worldwide to the united states. he also said they should go back to school a...

Were learning a lot more about those as well. not all of it good. according to "time" magazine, and we quote, "intelligence officials say trump displays what one called willful ignorance when presented with analyses generated by americas $81 billion a year intelligence services. the officials describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible. what is most troubli...