Biden says Trump should not receive intelligence briefings

Source: Politico | February 5, 2021 | Benjamin Din

“What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” Biden said in an interview excerpt released Friday.

President Joe Biden says Donald Trump should not receive intelligence briefings now that he’s no longer in office.

The former president’s “erratic behavior, unrelated to the insurrection” disqualified him from receiving intelligence briefings, a courtesy typically extended to former presidents after they have left office, Biden told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview excerpt that aired Friday.

In the clip, Biden questioned why Trump would need to receive the briefings.

“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?” he said. “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

Biden’s remarks in his first sit-down network interview as president — set to air in full before Sunday’s Super Bowl game — are his strongest to date on the topic. In a previous White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said the decision to restrict Trump’s access to intelligence briefings was still under review and would be up to the discretion of intelligence officials.

“You’ve called him an existential threat,” O’Donnell said in the interview. “You’ve called him dangerous. You’ve called him reckless.”

“Yeah, I have. And I believe it,” the president responded.

Even before Trump left office, several high-profile Democrats had called on Biden to take the action.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Trump should be barred from intelligence briefings.

“There’s no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now, not in the future,” Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said days before the inauguration. “I don’t think he can be trusted with it now and in the future.”

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