WASHINGTON – President Biden said that former President Donald Trump should not have access to intelligence briefings due to his “erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection”.
Biden told CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell that he saw no reason for his predecessor to receive briefings, saying, “What’s the point of giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does it have, other than the fact that he can slip and say something? “
CBS released excerpts from the interview, which will air in full on Sunday, Friday night.
Trump officials did not comment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that Biden’s national security team was considering extending intelligence briefings to Trump.
“It is something that is obviously under review, but there was no conclusion the last time I asked them about it,” said Psaki.
Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives on charges of inciting an uprising last month on the United States Capitol. Protesters broke into the building on January 6, after Trump encouraged them to march there and pressure Congress to overturn Biden’s victory.
Susan Gordon, who served as chief deputy director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019, wrote in the Washington Post last month that every modern president was given access to intelligence briefings and confidential information after leaving office, but she recommended that the privilege not be granted to Mr. Trump.
“With this simple act – which is the exclusive prerogative of the new president – Joe Biden can mitigate an aspect of the potential national security risk posed by ordinary Donald Trump,” she wrote.
Briefings for ex-presidents take place at the sole discretion of the incumbent president, and while they contain confidential information, they do not have the highest level of secrets contained in the president’s Daily Brief, said David Priess, a former Central Intelligence Agency official who informed the late President George HW Bush years after he left office.
Mr. Priess said that briefings by former presidents occur for two reasons. If current presidents want to speak to a predecessor, those conversations will be more worthwhile if that predecessor is up to date on current intelligence. Second, former presidents sometimes travel abroad in semi-official roles.
In the case of Trump, “the two reasons for doing this do not work,” said Priess. Biden is unlikely to ask Trump for advice on world events, nor will Trump likely be seen as a representative of Biden if he travels abroad, Priess said.
—Warren Strobel contributed to this article.
Write to Catherine Lucey at [email protected]
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Published in the February 6, 2021 print edition as ‘Biden to deny Trump’s intelligence reports.’