David Priess
@DavidPriess
Followers
77,765
Following
474
Media
5,621
Statuses
30,108
Former CIA | Dir of Intel @BedrockSaaS | Senior Fellow @MVHaydenCenter | Co-host @ThatWasChatter pod | Duke PhD | Links to my books below 👇
In orbit around DC
Joined May 2014
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
WE LOVE YOU YOONGI
• 754161 Tweets
#MyLoveMixUpTHFinalEP
• 652187 Tweets
WE LOVE YOU AGUST D
• 646174 Tweets
MLMU LAST EPISODE
• 409263 Tweets
sabrina
• 394838 Tweets
jenna
• 124150 Tweets
Boulos
• 113448 Tweets
#4MINUTES_EP5
• 83942 Tweets
camila
• 82438 Tweets
ラストマイル
• 80752 Tweets
shawn
• 73042 Tweets
ジェンティルドンナ
• 70177 Tweets
Powell
• 65507 Tweets
#ساعه_استجابه
• 40869 Tweets
Davo
• 29697 Tweets
バブルガムフェロー
• 26974 Tweets
Ferdi Kadıoğlu
• 25189 Tweets
#末澤誠也誕生祭2024
• 24624 Tweets
シングレアニメ化
• 23468 Tweets
Maxwell
• 22752 Tweets
ネコバス
• 19768 Tweets
Scraps
• 18689 Tweets
Vieira
• 15636 Tweets
ラピュタ
• 15389 Tweets
Celta
• 13462 Tweets
PRIDE OF INDIAN CINEMA PRABHAS
• 12227 Tweets
BRAZIL DEMAND KQ RESPECT
• 12092 Tweets
Mehmet Şimşek
• 11846 Tweets
Danilo
• 11735 Tweets
Raphinha
• 10445 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”
— Winston Churchill
1
37
101
Each president in this photo did things I disagreed with politically. Quite a lot, in fact, for most of them.
And yet I never doubted that every single one of them acted based on core values, including love of country—not, primarily, love of self.
2K
15K
74K
OK, this is bonkers: During a brief window in 1950-51, children could get the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab—a kit allowing them to make nuclear reactions at home using ACTUAL RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL.
It was removed from shelves in 1951.
1K
6K
33K
4 U.S. Code § 8(b):
“The flag should never touch anything beneath it”
958
6K
26K
Thinking a lot today about that Senate vote in February 2020 to acquit the impeached Donald Trump and allow him to remain in office.
609
4K
26K
“Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good.”
—Benjamin Franklin
151
6K
25K
You’ve gotta admit, notifying the Russians in advance but not congressional leadership is totally on brand.
424
6K
24K
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
—George Orwell
Quote of the day:
"Just remember what you’re seeing and what you're reading is not what’s happening."
-President Trump
212
911
3K
249
11K
24K
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
—US Constitution, Article II, Secrion 4
609
7K
22K
I feel sick. Not figuratively. I’m actually nauseated by this.
This isn’t merely a “how embarrassing” moment.
This is “how shameful.” This is “how disgraceful.” This is “how inhumane.”
...I'm also told that Turkish attack appears coordinated with the Russians. Russian-backed forces are mobilizing to invade the Kurdish area from the south — towards Tabqa and other spots. Meanwhile, ISIS is mobilizing sleeper cells in Raqqa and attacks have taken place tonight.
612
7K
9K
889
7K
19K
I feel physically ill.
“McConnell asked a ‘personal favor’ for Republican senators to vote against Jan. 6 commission”
3K
5K
19K
It’s revealing that many people decrying the removal of Confederate statues out of a supposed concern that we are “erasing history” also vehemently protest the teaching of that very history in our schools
291
4K
18K
Hi. It’s the President’s Daily Brief guy.
Let’s look at the logic and the implications of the claim that neither Trump nor Pence were briefed on the intelligence assessment that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill US/coalition troops in Afghanistan.
1/10
JUST IN -
@PressSec
says neither Trump nor Pence were briefed on the "alleged Russian bounty intelligence" first reported by NYT
14K
5K
21K
537
7K
18K
Constitutional amendment must get rid of electoral college NOW! Allows 8 states to control country. Popular vote winners don't win. A JOKE!
Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE!
14K
10K
41K
299
7K
17K
For anyone who dares complain about “how long the Mueller investigation is taking,” I again offer this chart.
[
@FiveThirtyEight
]
288
9K
15K
Kind of puts that whole story about Jared’s security clearance into perspective, doesn’t it?
EXCLUSIVE: In the last 4 years, Jared Kushner and a Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev have communicated in private about ways the U.S. and Russia could work together
588
9K
11K
165
5K
15K
Anyone claiming these things about the PDB is either profoundly ignorant or is knowingly lying to you.
The core PDB, even for presidents who *did* read it voraciously, rarely even reached 20 pages.
And for 55 years, *every* POTUS (possibly excepting of Nixon) has read it.
@PreetBharara
Republicans are claiming that it's 60 pages and NO president has ever read it.
273
46
220
407
5K
14K
Wow.
Read this, in which Dave Grohl
@FooFighters
brings the heat:
“Teachers want to teach, not die, and we should support and protect them like the national treasures that they are.... May we show these tireless altruists a little altruism in return.”
240
5K
13K
It would’ve been easier if Trump would have just pardoned Flynn along with the turkey yesterday, for the complete fowl play.
175
856
12K
One of my favorite Dwight Eisenhower quotes:
“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
84
2K
12K
Sorry, sir. My post-employment security clearance, when I had it, granted me neither “great prestige” nor “big dollars” nor “board seats.”
I can’t speak for other signers, but *this* certain person came forward not for any of that, but to voice concern about an abuse of power.
Everybody wants to keep their Security Clearance, it’s worth great prestige and big dollars, even board seats, and that is why certain people are coming forward to protect Brennan. It certainly isn’t because of the good job he did! He is a political “hack.”
18K
13K
61K
223
3K
12K
Yes, this is the most distant object yet visited by human spacecraft.
Yes, the image was processed by astrophysicist Dr. Brian May.
Yes, that’s the same Brian May from the band Queen.
Yes, that’s awesome.
The two best color images of
#MU69
so far. Much more detailed views are coming later in the month. (My favorite part: the image processing credit to
@DrBrianMay
.)
32
181
741
149
5K
12K
I always wear a wire.
Mostly in case I ever bump into Matt Gaetz. It just seems like a reasonable precaution.
90
710
11K
After a long and grueling struggle, my mother’s fight has finally ended.
It’s a blessing, truly, that she’s no longer suffering. But oh, how it still hurts.
1K
302
12K
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics ...”
— Erma Bombeck
212
4K
11K
Ted Cruz says about the Russia investigation, “When you get outside the Beltway, I don't find anybody concerned with this at all.”
Those of you not in Washington, DC: Do you care about Trump’s ties to Russia?
5K
2K
10K
Two things I have reason to be confident about:
1.
@RepAdamSchiff
would not take this action, in such a public-facing way, with this much energy, absent legitimate concern.
2. Schiff and his staff will pursue this relentlessly.
This is not a false alarm. This is not a test.
@K8brannen
Schiff: "So far as the Committee is aware, this marks the first time a Director of National Intelligence has ever sought to overrule the IC IG and conceal from Congress a whistleblower complaint—in this case, one the IC IG has already determined to be a credible urgent concern."
55
822
2K
331
3K
10K
Words from
@GenMhayden
, rehabilitating from his stroke, read to us at tonight’s
@IntlSpyMuseum
event honoring Bill McRaven:
“I look forward the day when I will contribute again to the national conversation.”
So say we all, sir. So say we all.
134
1K
10K
I’ve been less active here lately while helping my father endure an difficult struggle.
He has now passed. And even while celebrating his long life, my heart is broken.
1K
198
9K
Hmmm, I wonder what has changed in the past couple of days
1K
2K
9K
BREAKING NEWS THREAD: Along with many of my former colleagues, I’m standing up with
@GenMhayden
,
@jmclaughlinSAIS
,
@MichaelJMorell
, and other former CIA leaders to oppose the politicization of security clearances. This is our *new* open letter:
252
3K
9K
Don’t use the words “intelligence failure“ again about the events of January 6.
Don’t.
It was a decision-maker failure to act adequately based on warnings received.
192
2K
9K
Hi. President Daily Brief guy here.
It is in no way highly unusual for the vice president to receive the full PDB daily.
In fact, it is highly *usual*—it’s been the default for the vast majority of the PDB’s history, decade after decade after decade....
Have heard from multiple White House and national security officials that Kamala is getting the full PDB daily. Highly unusual and Biden didn’t even get that himself when he was VP.
2K
3K
12K
195
2K
9K
I can’t tell you name of this band, but I know they’re opening for The Police.
836
799
8K
This is absolutely bonkers:
“When Reagan Foundation officials were made aware of the Trump email solicitation [using Reagan’s name and likeness], they decided ‘within seconds’ to put a stop to it.... and may still decide to get lawyers involved.”
174
3K
8K
White House officials tell ABC: Within hours of Omarosa's airing of secret recordings, former colleagues are seeking legal options to stop her.
OK. But where was this urgency when it was about ending child separations... or aiding Hurricane Maria victims?
226
3K
8K
The fact that Grenell conflates a clear reference to the PDB support presidents-elect traditionally get with the overview briefings candidates get during campaigns reminds us that he shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Director of National Intelligence job in the first place.
118
1K
8K
Whoa.
Biden on Putin:
“For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
That’s a big change in policy.
667
972
7K
The finest of companions has left us after 14 years. My heart is broken.
She was a very, very good dog.
879
110
7K
“You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is. Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less, and decency matters not at all... He will not change and you know it.”
—
@RepAdamSchiff
at President Trump’s impeachment trial, two months ago today
The president has notified Congress that he is removing the inspector general for the intelligence community, the official who helped make sure Congress got the Ukraine whistleblower complaint. The firing will take effect in 30 days, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
795
5K
9K
97
3K
7K
Hi. It’s the President’s Daily Brief guy again.
I’m here to explain how Mark Meadows’s newly reported remark about presidents and the PDB is woefully wrong—and reveals why he never should’ve been chief of staff in the first place.
Grab a drink. Let’s take a PDB journey.
1/13
173
2K
7K
Or maybe the assessment was in the PDB and other regular PDB readers saw it, but it wasn’t orally briefed to POTUS so he never got it, and nobody in the system wanted this commander in chief to get it, because they were afraid of what he’d do, or *not* do, after getting it.
/end
312
768
7K
NEW: More than 175 former officials from across the national security community have added their names to the nonpartisan list of those deeply concerned by the politicization of security clearances.
Full link here:
150
3K
7K
“What has she done for Americans that justifies paying for the travel, office, resources and access that she enjoys solely as a result of occupying a job for which she has no obvious qualifications beyond being the president’s daughter?” —
@espiers
325
3K
6K
Question: What do you call a government official refusing to lie to the American people, instead resigning on ethical grounds?
Answer: A good start.
126
3K
6K
The antidote for too much death lately in the family is … adding new life to the family.
So today, I proudly introduce Ollie, our rescue dog—who, really, is here to rescue us.
We know him well enough already to affirm that he is a very good boy.
246
161
7K
The article claims Trump was briefed on the assessment.
The White House claims he wasn’t.
Normally, presidential aides would want to *avoid* telling the world he’s ill-informed. That doing so looks like their best strategy here reveals much.
Let’s examine the options.
3/10
25
1K
6K
The Bob Mueller that I know will have prepared for this contingency long ago—and, even if he looked up briefly to acknowledge this afternoon’s development, has already put his head back down to keep doing his job.
117
2K
6K
We should all thank
@AVindman
for his service, which ended differently than he’d ever expected or should have had to endure.
Today I officially requested retirement from the US Army, an organization I love. My family and I look forward to the next chapter of our lives.
46K
19K
180K
142
516
6K
“There is a certain delicious irony,”
@MollyJongFast
writes, “to the fact that the guy who traded in wives as if they were auto leases is having his impeachment being led by a 79-year-old pantsuit-wearing feminist.”
97
1K
6K
Worth posting on your wall, to remind yourself every day:
“Hatred corrodes the container it's carried in.”
Thank you, Alan Simpson, for your choice of words today.
113
2K
6K
The arc of Bill Barr’s career is long, but it bends toward injustice.
297
857
6K
THREAD: Today, I tried to recall other presidents’ reactions to national tragedies.
Because what I heard today sounded a bit ... different than my memories of how other presidents have risen to occasion.
Here’s some of what I found:
151
3K
6K
A reminder that it’s been 124 days since we had a Senate-confirmed Secretary of Defense.
No nomination yet.
JUST IN: Trump backs Kim Jong Un after North Korea fires projectiles toward Japan: "He knows that I am with him"
296
324
292
265
3K
6K
I’m proud to welcome
@AVindman
to Lawfare.
Those who serve our nation, in and out of uniform, deserve respect. This president’s treatment of so many who have served honorably has been shameful.
Alex’s courage and sacrifices embolden and inspire us.
125
754
6K
“Too many people don't care what happens so long as it doesn't happen to them.”
— William Howard Taft
83
2K
6K
I’ve read this ten times. It’s not getting any easier to process.
“... authorized the Russian leader to speak on his behalf...”
455
4K
5K
Through most of US history, the president raising even the possibility of military deployments to overturn his election defeat would be grounds for rapid impeachment and removal.
That Congress is *not* meeting immediately about this shows how ahistorical our times have become.
During the meeting, the president asked about Flynn’s suggestion of deploying the military, those briefed said. That was also shot down.
1K
3K
10K
141
2K
6K
Dan Coats speaks out; pay attention:
“No American, and certainly no American leader, should want such an outcome. Total destruction and sowing salt in the earth of American democracy is a catastrophe well beyond simple defeat and a poison for generations.”
147
3K
5K
4 U.S. Code § 8(b):
“The flag should never touch anything beneath it”
184
1K
5K
“Until now, there was room for reasonable disagreement over impeachment,” writes
@RadioFreeTom
. “Now, however, we face an entirely new situation.... If this in itself is not impeachable, then the concept has no meaning.”
141
2K
5K
Eight years ago today: President Obama appeared at a White House news conference dressed in a tan suit.
This clearly remains the greatest scandal in presidential history, if not in all of human history.
223
606
5K
Just a reminder that whoever occupies the White House Chief of Staff position has, for decades, been one of the few regular recipients of the President’s Daily Brief, containing the nation’s most sensitive intelligence information.
Sleep well, everyone!
372
2K
5K
So if Barr says that the president has fired him, but the president tells reporters that in fact he is “not involved,” doesn’t that mean Berman is still US attorney for SDNY?
NOW: AG Barr says in a letter to Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman that Trump has now officially fired him, and that's that, rejecting any argument by Berman that a judicial appointment means he can't be removed.
Previously:
1K
4K
6K
290
1K
5K
When the country suffers a tragedy and enters a period of national mourning, presidents don’t always do the right things.
But at such times, the least we can expect is for the president to elevate the rhetoric to something greater than himself.
That’s all.
/end thread
129
731
5K
No former president that Cruz mentions did what he claims.
Cruz (1) doesn’t know better, in which case basic decency dictates he shouldn’t say such things; or (2) he knows the truth and is blatantly lying.
Either way, this is unbecoming of a US Senator. And deeply embarrassing.
Cruz: This was a fishing expedition. Every former President has taken documents from his administration. Obama did that. Clinton did that. Bush did that…
3K
346
2K
361
1K
5K
Maybe POTUS was, in fact, orally briefed on it—but White House officials have decided to lie about it, perhaps in a weak attempt to avoid the logical next question: Why hasn’t the commander in chief responded to such a grave development?
If so, shame on them. And on him.
6/10
32
585
5K
I’d truly like to hear a legitimate justification, *any* legitimate justification, for the apparent firing today of Colonel Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman.
250
799
5K
Which one is scariest? (Note, these are the *only* choices):
1. He knows what he’s saying is false, and he blatantly lies.
2. He doesn’t know if what he’s saying is true, and he doesn’t care.
3. He’s unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
Have a good night!
NEW: Over the past couple weeks, Trump has begun telling supporters he's already spent $3.2 billion on the wall--twice the amount Congress has authorized. He said it twice last night at a rally in Montana.
339
2K
3K
384
2K
5K
Shilling for a product because the CEO of its company said nice things about your daddy.
How embarrassing.
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.
65K
17K
108K
395
514
5K
Maybe POTUS was “briefed” on it—not orally but only in writing, presumably (but not necessarily) in the President’s Daily Brief.
If so, White House officials now pushing the line that he wasn’t briefed on it are playing semantic games.
If so, shame on them. And on him.
7/10
31
531
4K
“U.S. officials said he has privately grimaced that his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s close relationship with the crown prince has ... left the White House with no good options.”
A good start: Get your daughter and son-in-law out of White House positions.
153
1K
4K
Maybe it was in the written PDB, but Trump didn’t see it (reports say he doesn’t read it, preferring irregular oral briefings) *and* readers like the NatSec Advisor, SecState, and SecDef saw it *and* they forgot to ensure he knew about it.
If so, shame on them. And on him.
8/10
23
516
4K
That’s not the way this works.
The Afghanistan briefing this afternoon at the White House is for House Rs only.
6K
9K
19K
192
814
4K
Relax, folks. Mueller played this right:
If he’d appeared eager to testify, he’d have opened himself up to claims of being political.
If compelled to appear, he will deliver the damning lines from the report on live TV without such claims.
The next step is yours, Congress.
129
1K
4K
There have been articles of impeachment passed for less.
BREAKING: In Calexico, CA last week, where POTUS told border agents to block asylum-seekers from entering the US contrary to law, Trump told CBP head McAleenan if he were sent to jail as a result, the president would pardon him, 2 Sr admin officials tell me.
More on
@CNN
...
4K
10K
20K
74
858
4K
Maybe it was deemed too sensitive to put in the PDB and restricted to a memo/oral briefing only for POTUS and 1-2 others.
Then how was it debated, as reports indicate, at an NSC interagency meeting?
Any explanation like this returns us to one or more of the shames above.
9/10
21
525
4K
THREAD: A wealth of new information about the intelligence briefings for Donald Trump and those around him as a presidential candidate in 2016, as president-elect in 2016-17, and as president has just hit the CIA’s public website.
Here are the most newsworthy details:
1/16
130
2K
4K
Fun historical fact: The articles of impeachment drawn up against both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton included "obstruction of justice"
70
2K
4K
Mark my words: With his silence on the most important measures we need to take as a nation and his focus on lesser concerns, Trump ensured that his address tonight will go down as one of the greatest missed opportunities of presidential leadership in US history.
87
740
4K
“The president’s conduct is a national embarrassment.... All he has to do is give us a day of honesty, to come out and say this is what happened.”
— Lamar Alexander, speaking about President Bill Clinton in 1998
172
2K
4K
Maybe the assessment was briefed only sub-POTUS because it was judged not to merit his attention.
(This would be at odds with reporting just now by the same NYT trio—that it was, in fact, in the President’s Daily Brief.)
If so, shame on the system.
5/10
21
497
4K
An almost unbelievable story, written smartly by
@NatashaBertrand
:
“Nunes, however, continues to focus his attention on the investigators themselves—all in the name, many argue, of protecting the president at all costs.”
251
2K
4K
Maybe multiple sources are all wrong and there is no such assessment. (Neither the White House nor other entities have denied the core of the reporting, making this option quite unlikely, but it’s theoretically possible.)
If so, shame on the sources.
4/10
24
431
4K
First, read the NYT article by
@charlie_savage
,
@EricSchmittNYT
, and
@mschwirtz
, with details about the reported Russian military intel unit behind this, the high-level USG discussions about responses, and the White House not authorizing any of them.
2/10
25
744
4K
Who’s gonna tell him?
“It used to be, you know, women were attracted to your strength because you could defend them from dinosaurs.”
2K
797
4K
I’m a national security junkie. So I’ll admit being drawn to news/analysis on Helsinki, Iran, the special counsel, etc.
Still, it’s shocking how the separation of families at the border has virtually vanished from my TL.
This is why bad policies endure. No sustained pressure.
118
1K
4K
The inability to even nominate a Secretary of Defense eventually becomes a violation of the oath of office, a solemn vow to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States”
71
1K
4K
A simple question for the journalists out there:
When the president refuses to take a question from a prominent network, calling it out as “fake news,” why don’t all other reporters refuse to pose the next question?
214
1K
4K
Let me repeat it for those in the back:
There’s no mechanism, short of a coup, by which an incumbent president can be ousted from office after inauguration and replaced by the person he soundly defeated.
Trump suggests he'll be returned to office following state-level audits of the 2020 election (he won't be returned to office)
1K
485
4K
188
637
4K
No. The Founders did not see impeachment and removal as dependent on the election cycle.
It is designed to quickly eject the president when he has shown himself unfit for office by treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors—regardless of when in his term he commits them.
Fox guest John Yoo says the framers of the Constitution "would never have wanted impeachment within a year of an election"
4K
406
1K
157
733
4K
THREAD: 20 years ago today, the best known daily intelligence item in history—the article "Bin Laden is Determined to Strike"—appeared in George W. Bush’s President’s Daily Brief.
Here’s the story of its creation, based on my interviews with its author and intel leaders:
1/12
82
1K
4K
So Meadows’s remark applied to only one recent POTUS: Trump.
That means he was either lying to Klain (maybe to try to reduce Biden’s access to intel) or simply ignorant of other presidents’ experiences. Either option demonstrates he was unfit to serve as chief of staff.
12/13
43
419
4K
Mitt Romney, two months ago:
“The President is guilty of an appalling abuse of the public trust. What he did was not ‘perfect’—No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security interests, and our fundamental values.“
52
774
4K
As Bob Mueller’s daily intel briefer while I was a CIA officer, I presented complex information to him, watched him digest it, and answered his inevitable questions.
That experience gives me confidence now in his work as special counsel.
Please read why:
103
1K
3K
Intelligence officers in the United States take an oath to support and defend the Constitution—thus, they work apolitically for the American people, not for a person or party in power.
What‘s something that seems obvious within your profession, but the general public seems to misunderstand?
8K
1K
10K
46
817
3K
“If he be not impeachable whilst in office,” North Carolina’s William Davie said when discussing the position of president at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “he will spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself re-elected.”
54
2K
3K
Something to watch:
House intel chairman claims NSA is withholding documents on Ukraine potentially relevant to oversight responsibilities—and potentially relevant for senators during the forthcoming impeachment trial.
79
2K
3K
“I look at the faces of my colleagues, wondering could we indeed do ‘impartial justice’? Could we cast aside partisan labels and hear the evidence, not as Republicans and Democrats, but as American jurors?”
—From Susan Collins’ diary during Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial
138
1K
3K