President Joe Biden will leave the decisions about what intelligence briefings, if any, former President Donald Trump will receive to individual intelligence offices, sources at the White House confirmed Saturday after the president said he doesn't think his predecessor should receive them.
"The president was expressing his concern about former president Trump receiving access to sensitive intelligence, but he also has deep trust in his own intelligence team to make a determination about how to provide intelligence information if at any point the former president Trump requests a briefing," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday, reports The Washington Post.
Biden, during an interview airing in part Friday on "CBS Evening News" told Norah O'Donnell that he doesn't think Trump should have access to the briefings "because of his erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection" at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
"What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?" Biden said. "What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?"
Biden, as president, can unilaterally deny intelligence information to Trump or anyone else he chooses, but his aides said Saturday said he'll leave those decisions up to his intelligence team.
Psaki said earlier that the matter of giving Trump access to sensitive material is "under review." Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred questions to the White House, and a Trump spokesman didn't respond to requests for comments.
Traditionally, former presidents don't get the same classified daily briefing that a sitting president does, but often, intelligence officers deliver briefings to former commanders-in-chief so they'll be prepared to give advice or to represent the administration elsewhere, notes The Post.
via newsmax