Daily US Times: US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday got his first President’s Daily Brief, a top-secret summary of US intelligence and world events — a document Michelle Obama, the former first lady, has called “The Death, Destruction, and Horrible Things Book.”
Joe Biden, a Democrat, has already had eyes on different iterations of the so-called PDB, which is tailored to the way each president likes to absorb information.
More than a decade ago, the former Vice President read President George W. Bush’s PDB during Biden’s transition into the vice presidency. After that, he read President Obama’s PDB for eight years. Now, after a four-year break, he’s reading President Trump’s PDB.
David Priess, author of “The President’s Book of Secrets,” a history of the PDB, said: “The briefers almost certainly will be asking Biden what he prefers in terms of format and style.”
“At a minimum, they’re seeing what seems to resonate most with him so that when they make the book his book, they can tailor it to him,” Mr Priess added.
President Barack Obama’s PDB was a 10-15-page document tucked in a leather binder, which he found waiting for him on his breakfast table. Later in his presidency, he liked reading the ultra-secret intelligence brief on a secured iPad.
“Michelle called it “The Death, Destruction, and Horrible Things Book,” Obama wrote in his recently released book, ”A Promised Land.”
Mr Obama wrote in his book: “On a given day, I might read about terrorist cells in Somalia or unrest in Iraq or the fact that the Chinese or Russians were developing new weapons systems.”
From now until Inauguration Day, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be reading the Daily Brief crafted for Trump, who had delayed giving Biden and Harris access to it as he contests the outcome of the election.
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