House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is the latest person of note to call for an immediate end to President Donald Trump’s daily intelligence briefings. He went on to say that the outgoing commander-in-chief “can’t be trusted” with the sensitive information he receives — now or after he officially vacates the office of the presidency on Wednesday.
The California Democrat shared his views on the subject during an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS News ‘ Face the Nation .
“There’s no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now, not in the future,” Schiff said. “I don’t think he can be trusted with it now and in the future, he certainly can’t be trusted.”
Schiff went on to state that some of the country’s global intelligence partners may have been withholding information out of fear of Trump’s status as a possible security risk. In his opinion, there was likely concern on their part that Trump would not safeguard info or protect the sources and/or methods used to acquire it.
“That makes us less safe,” Schiff explained. “We’ve seen this president politicize intelligence, and that’s another risk to the country.”
As relayed recently by The Inquisitr , Trump allegedly “declassified” documents he felt would show that efforts to push a Russian narrative in 2016 and Robert Mueller’s subsequent investigation aimed to distract from the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
Schiff, a 10-term congressman who currently represents California’s 28th congressional district, is just the latest official to express concern over the nation’s current top executive’s continued briefings. On Friday, Susan M. Gordon — the Trump Administration’s principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019 — penned an op-ed for The Washington Post sharing her view that Trump should be cut off on January 20.
As noted by Gordon, modern former presidents have retained access to certain classified intel to support their continued involvement in advancing the American agenda. However, it is her belief as a veteran of three decades in the intelligence community that Trump is a special case that poses potential threats to national security.
Gordon cited Trump’s desire to continue as a political actor immediately after leaving office, “significant business entanglements” with foreign entities, and a possible lack of understanding of the tradecraft and intel he has been exposed to as reasons for not allowing him to maintain access.
She did write, though, that Trump could still receive certain intel outside of daily briefings in the event that the sitting chief executive deems it prudent or in service of the nation’s purpose.
