Biden: Trump shouldn’t be given intel briefings
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden feels there’s “no need” for his predecessor Donald Trump to receive intelligence briefings which are traditionally given to former presidents - because of his “erratic behaviour”. It wasn’t immediately clear if Trump wanted the briefings at all.
“I think not,” Biden said in an interview to CBS on Friday when asked if Trump should receive intelligence briefings. “Because of his erratic behaviour unrelated to the insurrection,” Biden said when asked why not. He was referring to the January 6 storming of the US Capitol, after which Trump was impeached.
“I’d rather not speculate out loud,” Biden said when the interviewer pressed him further. “I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Former presidents are given intelligence briefings partly as a courtesy and partly to keep them updated should the sitting president reach out to them for advice, as The New York Times reported. Jimmy Carter, George W Bush and Barack Obama continue to receive briefings.
Concerns about Trump’s past handling of classified information was a cause for concern for the White House, Democrats and the intelligence community. Early in his presidency, Trump had reportedly shared with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and then ambassador Sergey Kislyak classified information on the IS group that the US had received from Israel.
Susan Gordon, a former principal deputy director of national intelligence, had argued against giving Trump intelligence briefings after he left office, in an opinion piece in The Washington Post on January 15, saying, “These briefings have been a matter of respectful convention and were granted by the new president to the old. But convention left the premises a long time ago with President Trump.”
“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?
US President