For some reason or another, Obama has been absent to more than half of his intelligence briefings since January 2009.
The Government Accountability Institute updated an analysis on how much time Obama spends attending his daily briefs and surprisingly, he attends less than 43% of the meetings.
These meetings include information on national security and strategic planning from ranking generals and admirals.
Mark Thiessen asked National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor about the report:
I asked National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor about the findings, and whether there were any instances where the president attended the intelligence meeting that were not on his public schedule. Vietor did not dispute the numbers, but said the fact that the president, during a time of war, does not attend his daily intelligence meeting on a daily basis is “not particularly interesting or useful.” He says that the president reads his PDB every day, and he disagreed with the suggestion that there is any difference whatsoever between simply reading the briefing book and having an interactive discussion of its contents with top national security and intelligence officials where the president can probe assumptions and ask questions. “I actually don’t agree at all,” Vietor told me in an e-mail, “The president gets the information he needs from the intelligence community each day.”
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Tommy Vietor does not like being questioned about Obama’s schedule and where he is or is not. This dude also does not like to be questioned about talking points.
Obama was also absent, or campaigning, or where ever he was hours after the Benghazi attack. Vietor also gives us his account of where the president was at this time.
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