Former CIA chief: No concern over trusting candidates with briefings

Both major presidential candidates are qualified to receive briefings on classified intelligence, according to a former CIA director who said he has never been concerned about the issue.

“I have not had concerns like that in the past,” John McLaughlin, who served as acting director of the CIA in 2004, said Monday in a CSPAN interview. “I think what would really disqualify them would be breaking the rules after the briefing. In other words, if after such a briefing they simply went out and talked openly about everything that had been discussed in terms of [that] violated the understanding that they were to be discreet about what they heard.