Midnight Warning: Leo Flags NSC PDD Vulnerability
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet exits and encounters Leo, shifting the focus to a more serious discussion about executive orders and political tensions.
Leo informs Bartlet about a technicality involving NSC Presidential Decision Directives, revealing political maneuvering.
Leo warns Bartlet about potential political threats, but Bartlet dismisses his concerns as paranoia, escalating their disagreement.
Bartlet tries to downplay Leo's concerns, but Leo insists on the seriousness of the situation, leading to Bartlet ending the conversation.
Leo attempts to lighten the mood with a poetic Supreme Court opinion, but Bartlet walks away, ending the scene on a note of unresolved tension.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not present; implied calm and professional competence through Leo's reference.
C.J. is referenced as having been able to truthfully deny a rescission to the press; she is not physically present but functions as the communications touchstone Leo invokes to prove the tactical advantage of the routing distinction.
- • Maintain consistent public messaging that shields the President from wrongdoing.
- • Preserve the administration's credibility with the press.
- • Precise legal and procedural distinctions matter for public defense.
- • Careful wording can buy the administration political breathing room.
Not present; inferred neutral/independent journalistic intent via Leo's accusation.
Danny Concannon is invoked as the recipient and publisher of the targeted material; he is off-stage but functions as the conduit that turned the bureaucratic technicality into a public story.
- • Report newsworthy material to the public.
- • Hold the administration accountable by publishing leaked documents.
- • Scoop-worthy intelligence is pursued and published by reporters regardless of political consequences.
- • Sources and bylines can shape public perception of policy decisions.
Bemused and practical—he treats ceremonial oddities as logistical puzzles rather than ideological problems.
Charlie opens the scene with the Washington Bible logistics, offering procedural facts that set the lighter tone immediately before Bartlet's portico exit and the subsequent Leo confrontation.
- • Solve the Bible transportation issue for the inauguration.
- • De-escalate any ceremony-related friction and reassure the President.
- • Tradition and protocol matter and must be handled correctly.
- • Small procedural problems should be solved calmly, not dramatized.
Not present; the reference supplies levity and contrasts the seriousness of Leo's warning.
The Chief Justice is invoked by Leo as the source of comic relief—an opinion in verse—used to try to ease the tension; he is not present and purely referenced.
- • (Implied) Provide ceremonial or judicial color that humanizes institutional actors.
- • Serve as a conversational relief valve during tense moments.
- • Institutional figures sometimes undercut formality with eccentric personal touches.
- • Small absurdities can diffuse tension in high-pressure environments.
Tired and mildly amused on the surface; defensive and unwilling to be rattled by worst-case political scenarios.
President Bartlet moves from a playful Bible argument into the portico, receives Leo's warning, argues dismissively, and chooses to leave for bed, minimizing Leo's alarm despite the risk Leo outlines.
- • End the night and return to Abbey to rest.
- • Avoid overreacting to what he perceives as bureaucratic hair-splitting and maintain composure.
- • Technicalities should not be allowed to dictate political panic.
- • His judgment—about what constitutes a true political hit—is reliable.
Alarmed and insistent outwardly; frustrated that the President minimizes the tactical exposure.
Leo intercepts Bartlet on the portico, bluntly explains that an NSC routing decision provides plausible deniability that opponents exploited, insists this was a deliberate political shot, and presses Bartlet for seriousness before offering a joke to lighten the mood.
- • Warn the President that the administration has been exposed by a calculated leak.
- • Prevent complacency and force acknowledgment so staff can prepare a response.
- • Bureaucratic technicalities can be weaponized against the White House.
- • Failure to act on such vulnerabilities will result in political and operational damage.
Not present; characterized by Bartlet as furious and potentially retaliatory.
Miles Hutchinson is named by Bartlet as a likely angry source of retaliation; he is not present but is cast as the possible antagonist whose fury over the Depletion Report could motivate leaks.
- • (Inferred by participants) Push back against executive constraints and assert operational autonomy.
- • Hold the administration politically and operationally accountable by leaking damaging information.
- • Pentagon or bureaucratic actors will use leaks to influence policy outcomes.
- • Operational prerogatives can clash with presidential directives.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Washington Bible is the comic-ceremonial object around which the scene begins; its travel restrictions create light-hearted procedural banter that sets the tone before the portico warning, and underline how ritual constraints puncture the administration's night.
The Forced Depletion Report is explicitly mentioned by Bartlet as the document that angered Hutchinson and may have provoked retaliatory leaks; it functions narratively as the likely motive for the targeted shot Leo describes.
The Chief Justice's dissent printed in verse is referenced by Leo as an attempt at levity at the end of the exchange; it functions as a tonal counterbalance to the confrontation and a device Leo uses to soften Bartlet's dismissal.
Executive Orders 11905/12333 are invoked as the public policy anchors Leo and Bartlet reference; Leo stresses that the President did not rescind these, while the routing distinction focused attention on the PDD instead of the orders themselves.
The NSC Presidential Decision Directive is named by Leo as the routing classification that provided plausible deniability; its particular bureaucratic routing is the technical fulcrum of Leo's alarm and the reason opponents could truthfully accuse the administration.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Outer Office functions as Leo's origin point; his walking out from it to intercept Bartlet on the portico frames him as the conduit between staff operations and the President, emphasizing procedural urgency and chain-of-command.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The National Security Council is central to the event by virtue of its routing protocols: an NSC Presidential Decision Directive's classification and handling created the technical opening Leo describes. The NSC's procedural footprint, rather than intent, is being used by opponents to shape public narrative.
The New York Freemasons are invoked as the custodians of the Washington Bible whose rules prevent air travel; they catalyze the scene's opening banter and underline how private ceremonial custodians can shape presidential logistics.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Leo's warning about political threats and NSC directives directly leads to his later discussion with Bartlet about Pentagon leaks and potential casualties, showing the escalating stakes of their decisions."
"Leo's warning about political threats and NSC directives directly leads to his later discussion with Bartlet about Pentagon leaks and potential casualties, showing the escalating stakes of their decisions."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "It was an NSC Presidential Decision Directive-- it's different.""
"LEO: "No, sir, we didn't dodge nothing. They hit what they aimed at.""
"BARTLET: "You're being paranoid." / LEO: "And you're being unbelievably naive, sir.""