Sen. James Lankford says former Vice President Joe Biden should start getting intelligence briefings in the interest of national security but says his words last week were misinterpreted when he said he would “step in” if the sessions had not started by Friday.
His comments triggered a slew of headlines that he was planning to intervene to ensure Biden got briefed coupled with criticism from Trump loyalists that he was prejudging the result of an election being challenged in the courts.
“It suddenly became that I’m out there undercutting the president, declaring … CNN ran a story that I was saying he’s ‘President-elect Biden’ and he needs to get this. And no, I never said, would never, say that,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“I referred to him as Joe Biden in all the interviews. We don’t know who the president is yet.”
He added that he had never set Friday as a deadline but merely used the date as the first opportunity to look into the process for triggering the presidential transition.
The General Services Administration typically issues a routine authorization letter soon after the election triggering the transition and preparations for Inauguration Day.
Since the 1960s, that has included offering the president-elect what is known as the president’s daily brief.
A former intelligence office, familiar with the way the briefs are prepared, said a candidate would begin to get more depth and breadth of information once designated president-elect. That might include ongoing covert actions as well as diplomatic agreements and military vulnerabilities to provide context.
But the GSA has not yet signed off on an “ascertainment.” And last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Biden would not be granted access without GSA authorization.
Lankford was asked about those briefings during an interview with KRMG radio in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last week.
“That should be resolved by Friday,” he said, adding that he would intervene if the GSA did not give the green light.
His was one of a number of voices warning of the danger to national security if an incoming president were not kept abreast of intelligence concerns.
Lankford’s stance, he said, was based on the 2000 election, when George W. Bush began being briefed even while votes in Florida were being recounted and before the Supreme Court had ruled.
And he appeared to say that Biden should be getting the same briefing as the president.
“There’s nothing wrong with Vice President Biden getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself so that he can be ready,” he said. “The president’s already getting those. There’s nothing wrong with the former vice president getting those.”
However, on Monday, he said both Biden should be getting the more limited briefings generally offered to election candidates.
“You don’t get the president’s daily briefings until you are the president-elect,” he said. “And he’s not the president-elect yet, but there’s no reason to cut off the other briefing.”
He added that his radio interview had been twisted to suggest that he could order the GSA to allow the briefings to begin. Instead, Lankford, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he was merely speaking in an oversight role.
“Whatever call they’re going to make is at the pleasure of the president. They are in the executive branch. I have oversight over their budgeting and other things,” he said.
“But I can step in, and that was the intent of it, and say, ‘What are your metrics, how are you going to make this decision, what’s the process, what’s the date?’”
Friday, he added, was the first time the GSA was in a position to make a determination, but it was impossible while recounts continued.
