Sue Gordon and John McLaughlin on Intelligence, Biden and Trump
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2021
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
The president's interactions with intelligence and public comments about intelligence are dramatically different in the first six months of the Biden administration than they were during the last presidency. To talk about those differences and why they matter for intelligence and national security, David Priess sat down with Sue Gordon and John McLaughlin. Sue Gordon, for two years during the Trump administration, was the principal deputy director of national intelligence, after decades of service at CIA and at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA. John McLaughlin served as the acting director of central intelligence during the Bush 43 administration, after a career as an analyst, manager and executive in the CIA.
They talked about the differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration when it comes to intelligence focused on the presidents themselves. And they talked about President Biden's recent comments at Liberty Crossing in McLean, Virginia, the home of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center, what he said and what he didn't say, and what it all reveals about intelligence and policymaking in the Biden years.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | Absolutely, it's Joe Biden as the over 40 years near a constant present as part of the |
| 0:42.6 | national security community and that's just his re-information of his view and his |
| 0:48.3 | commitment to how he uses intelligence. It is absolutely a message to the intelligence |
| 0:55.6 | community that you can breathe in and out. |
| 0:59.7 | I'm David Priest and this is the LawFair podcast August 2nd, 2021. |
| 1:06.4 | The President's interactions with intelligence and public comments about intelligence are |
| 1:11.5 | dramatically different in the first six months of the Biden administration than they were |
| 1:16.4 | during the last presidency. |
| 1:18.8 | To talk about those differences and why they matter for intelligence and national security, |
| 1:24.1 | I invited onto the LawFair podcast Sue Gordon and John McLaughlin. |
| 1:28.9 | Sue Gordon for two years during the Trump administration was the principal deputy director |
| 1:33.7 | of national intelligence after decades of service at CIA and at the national geospatial intelligence |
| 1:40.0 | agency or NGA. |
| 1:42.4 | John McLaughlin served as the acting director of central intelligence during the Bush 43 |
| 1:47.2 | administration after a career as an analyst, manager and executive in the CIA. |
| 1:53.6 | We talked about the differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration |
| 1:57.3 | when it comes to intelligence, focused on the presidents themselves and we talked quite |
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