Search results for ""author david priess""

To limit executive power, the Founding Fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Americans also discovered more dramatic paths for disempowering--or coming razor-close to removing--chief executives: undermining the president's authority, a preemptive strike to derail a presidential candidacy, assassination, impeachment, resignation, and declaration of inability. Although the United States has gone decades without assassination or resignation, the most dramatic forms of presidential removal, getting rid of a president or a potential president is a political reality-just ask not president Hillary Clinton.How To Get Rid of a President presents the dark side of the nation's history, from the Constitutional Convention through the aftermath of the shocking 2016 election, a stew of election dramas, national tragedies and presidential exits mixed with party intrigue, political betrayal and backroom scheming. It is a briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage through historical events relevant to today's headlines, highlighting the many ways that presidents have been undermined and nearly kicked out, how each method of removal offers opportunities and dangers for the republic and the thorny ethical issues that surround the choice to resist, disobey, or eject a president.

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"One of the most interesting, exhilarating, and informative aspects of the presidency was my time with the CIA analysts and my PDB briefers." -George W. Bush, correspondence with the author, November 2012.Every day, a member of the CIA presents to the president a report detailing the most sensitive activities and analysis of world events. These can range from the behavior of America's allies to the maneuvering of its adversaries, from imminent dangers to long-term strategic opportunities, and are often based on the words of highly placed sources or the interceptions of astonishingly nimble technologies.This report - for the president's eyes only-forms the basis of the president's assessment of US intelligence and strength. The story of the President's Daily Brief-the PDB, in the jargon-is a window into the character of each president and his administration, and the degree to which his worldview and policy was shaped by the information from the security services.It is a story that could only be told by a trusted insider. David Priess served during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations as an award-winning intelligence officer, manager and daily intelligence briefer at the CIA. The CIA, despite its mission of secrecy, has diligently declassified and posted millions of pages of raw intelligence reports, analytic assessments, and memos from the late 1940s through the 1980s. These agency papers have been awaiting examination in a nondescript corner of the CIA's public website. Many more sit on an antiquated database terminal at the National Archives annex in College Park, Maryland.Few people know such documents exist. Fewer still have made the effort to dig through them as Priess has, hauling in never-before-revealed insights about the PDB. The information base for this book includes largely untapped oral histories, memoirs from PDB recipients and intelligence leaders, publicly released CIA internal studies, and tidbits about key personalities and locations from previously published works.

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