Biden moves forward without help from Trump’s intel team
The presidential race was hovering in limbo in 2000 when outgoing President Bill Clinton decided to let thenGov. George W. Bush read the ultra-secret daily brief of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.
Clinton was a Democrat and his vice president, Al Gore, was running against Republican Bush. Gore had been reading the so-called President’s Daily Brief for eight years; Clinton decided to bring Bush into the fold in case he won and he did.
President Donald Trump has not followed Clinton’s lead. As he contests this year’s election results, Trump has not authorized President-elect Joe Biden to lay eyes on the brief.
National-security and intelligence experts hope Trump changes his mind, citing the need for an incoming president to be fully prepared to confront any national-security issues on Day One.
“Our adversaries aren’t waiting for the transition to take place,” says former Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the House intelligence committee. “Joe Biden should receive the President’s Daily Brief starting today. He needs to know what the latest threats are and begin to plan accordingly. This isn’t about politics; this is about national security.”
U.S. adversaries can take advantage of the country during an American presidential transition and key foreign issues will be bearing down on Biden the moment he steps into the Oval Office.
Among them: Unless Trump extends or negotiates a new nuclear-arms accord with Russia before Inauguration Day, Biden will have only 16 days to act before the expiration of the last remaining treaty reining in the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. Perhaps U.S. spies have picked up tidbits about the Russians’ red lines in the negotiations, or about weapons it really wants to keep out of the treaty.
That’s the type of information that might be in the PDB, a daily summary of high-level, classified information and analysis on national-security issues. The brief has been offered to presidents since 1946. It is coordinated and delivered by the Office of the National
Intelligence Director with input from the CIA and other agencies. It is tailored for each president, depending on whether they prefer oral or written briefs or both, short summaries or long reports on paper or electronically.
Having access to the PDB also could help Biden craft a possible response to North Korea, which has a history of firing off missiles or conducting nuclear tests shortly before or after new presidents take office.
Biden has decades of experience in foreign affairs and national security, but he likely has not been privy to the latest details about how Iran is back to enriching uranium, or the cyber-attack operations of Russia, China and Iran. China’s crackdown on Hong Kong is heating up. And the threat from Islamic extremists, although curbed, still remains.
Biden is trying to play down the significance of the delay in getting access to the PDB.
“Obviously, the PDB would be useful but, it’s not necessary. I’m not the sitting president now,” Biden said Tuesday. He didn’t answer a question about whether he had tried to reach out to Trump on this or any other issue, saying only, “Mr. President, I look forward to speaking with you.”
He was also asked about needing access to classified information as soon as possible if Trump doesn’t concede the race.
“Look, access to classified information is useful. But
I’m not in a position to make any decisions on those issues anyway,” Biden said. “As I said, one president at a time. He will be president until Jan. 20. It would be nice to have it, but it’s not critical.”
As Inauguration Day nears, his need for Trump to let him get eyes on the intelligence brief will become more critical.
“It’s an important and meaningful tradition, and I’m concerned that it’s not being continued,” said Denis McDonough, who was a former White House chief of staff during the Obama administration and oversaw the 2017 transition.
The 9/11 Commission Report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks warned of the danger in slow-walking presidential transition work in general, not just the intelligence piece.