New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted Wednesday that once Donald Trump is in office and has access to classified briefings, he would do an about-face on his pledge to have very few troops on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State.
In an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” Trump said, “We’re gonna declare war against ISIS. We have to wipe out ISIS.” He added, “I am going to have very few troops on the ground.”
But Christie said he expects Trump’s position to evolve once he has access to intelligence he doesn’t have now.
“My experience with Donald has been, when you sit and you talk with him dispassionately about facts, he listens he absorbs it, and then it alters his view on particular topics,” Christie said. “I think that’s what you want in political leaders, folks who are willing to listen and are not wed to having to do one thing in one particular way because I said it six months ago.”
Trump and Hillary Clinton will both begin getting classified briefings next month, after both national conventions are over, and both major party’s candidates have been officially nominated.
According to the office of the Director of National Intelligence, each candidate will be assigned a briefer, who is not a political appointee, who will provide briefings on the campaign trail, while the candidates are stumping.
A security clearance is not required to receive the briefings even though they will contain classified information.
Earlier this month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper turned down a request by House Speaker Paul Ryan to withhold briefings because of Clinton’s careless handling of classified material on her private email server, while secretary of state.
in a letter to Ryan, Clapper said he “does not intend to withhold briefings from any officially nominated, eligible candidate.”
