President Biden doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump should receive intelligence briefings now that he’s out of office.
Biden’s opinion is based on Trump’s “erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection,” according to an interview aired Friday.
Biden told CBS he wouldn’t speculate on his “worst fear” should Trump be briefed, insisting Trump had “no need” for the information.
“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?” Biden said.
Trump, like former presidents before him, can ask for briefings, and those requests have typically been granted by the intelligence community.
“The intelligence community supports requests for intelligence briefings by former presidents and will review any incoming requests, as they always have,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told CNN on Thursday.
The Biden administration’s stance regarding potential applications from Trump has been questioned after Trump’s principal deputy director of national intelligence Sue Gordon wrote a Washington Post op-ed following the Jan. 6 the U.S. Capitol attack arguing that he should be denied access.
Biden’s Friday interview, a teaser for the customary pre-Super Bowl presidential sit-down, also contained an admission that his $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” may be rammed through Congress without a provision hiking the federal minimum wage to $15.
“I put it in, but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden said, blaming Senate procedure. He added he would be open to a separate negotiation on the issue.
Congressional Democrats are forging ahead with a budgetary process called reconciliation. Using reconciliation means Biden can pass his proposal with a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate rather than a filibuster-proof threshold of 60 votes.
