President Joe Biden said he doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump should continue to receive intelligence briefings due to his “erratic behavior,” in his first network news interview since the inauguration.
Former presidents traditionally have the opportunity to receive routine intelligence briefings as a courtesy.
Biden didn’t elaborate on the reasons or concerns he had about Trump continuing to receive the classified briefings. But he indicated he thought such access was unnecessary for the former president.
“I'd rather not speculate out loud,” he said. “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?”
Trump’s Office of the Former President didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said previously that the issue of whether to grant intelligence briefings to Trump was in the process of being looked at.
Other people have echoed Biden’s view on this, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Susan Gordon, Trump’s former principal deputy director of national intelligence.
She wrote that Trump shouldn’t be briefed because he intends to remain in politics, alleging, without offering evidence, that “it is not clear that he understands the tradecraft to which he has been exposed, the reasons the knowledge he has acquired must be protected from disclosure, or the intentions and capabilities of adversaries and competitors who will use any means to advance their interests at the expense of ours.”
White House chief of staff Ron Klain has previously said that the Biden team would check with intelligence professionals before making a decision. Klain has not ruled out stopping the briefings to Trump.
