Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said on Wednesday that he was “dumbfounded” by the recent Government Accountability Institute (GAI) report that revealed President Barack Obama has attended just 42% of his daily intelligence briefings.
“I am dumbfounded at that statistic,” said Ryan.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked Ryan what the advantage of an oral briefing is compared to simply reading it. Ryan said the key is to get both.
“What I do is, I go down to the reading room in a classified room, I read the briefs, and then I go and get intelligence officers and pick and prod on them with questions. The key is, to getting an oral briefing, you can ask questions of the person who would be writing the briefing,” Ryan responded.
Ryan added, “This statistic about the daily brief, I have a hard time comprehending that, because the primary job of the commander-in-chief is to keep the country safe.”
When State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked on Tuesday about Obama’s 42% daily intelligence briefing attendance record, Psaki said, “There are a range of ways that you can get your intelligencebriefings on the road, in the White House, and I know that he receivesthose whenever he can.”
The RealClearPolitics average of polls finds that only 35% of Americans approve of Obama’s foreign policy.