(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Disgraced former House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has called on U.S. agencies to “dumb down” pre-election intelligence briefings intended for former President Donald Trump, a practice observed by past presidents since the 1950s.
Schiff’s statements were made during a Sunday interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, amid left-wing and anti-Trump concerns surrounding such briefings.
“I have to hope—and knowing the intelligence community as I do—that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump,” Schiff remarked. “That is, they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary, nothing that would reveal sources or methods, because we can’t trust that he will do the right thing with that information.”
Adam Schiff Calls for Withholding Classified Information from Donald Trump When He is Nominated for President
“We’ve never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling — if not worse — when it comes to… pic.twitter.com/ttahihHY8x
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 10, 2024
Schiff’s remarks came after the Biden administration chose not to block Trump, the GOP presidential candidate, from receiving briefings on national security and other critical topics. Opting otherwise would have represented a departure from the customary practice for major presidential candidates.
While these briefings aim to prepare candidates for the presidency, the Biden administration initially deliberated on whether to prevent Trump from receiving such briefings.
These briefings are offered to former presidents and the presidential nominees of major political parties. However, President Joe Biden suspended these briefings for Trump, expressing concerns about the potential leakage of sensitive information.
“There’s no need for him to have that intelligence briefing,” Biden stated in February 2021. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact that he might slip and say something?”
Asked whether former Pres. Trump should still receive intelligence briefings, Pres. Biden tells no “because of his erratic behavior unrelated to the insurrection.”
Pres. Biden: “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” pic.twitter.com/0PCkQuM0u0
— Norah O’Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) February 5, 2021
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated on Wednesday that Biden stands by his 2021 remarks. “I think the president words stand today as he stated them however long ago,” she claimed. “I don’t think his mind has changed on that.”
Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden still thinks President Trump — now the presumptive Republican nominee — should not be given the traditional intelligence briefings pic.twitter.com/Nl4RDg2uyz
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 6, 2024
Contrary to these assertions, Politico reported on Thursday that the administration has agreed to offer the briefings to Trump.
Left-wing critics point to the ongoing criminal case involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Such criticism ignores the facts that Biden was eventually caught mishandling classified documents himself.
In contrast to Trump, Biden never possessed the authority to declassify documents found in his Delaware home.
