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WASHINGTON (AP) – The presidential race was in limbo in 2000 when outgoing President Bill Clinton decided to leave the then governor. George W. Bush read the top-secret daily summary of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.
Clinton was a Democrat and his vice president, Al Gore, was running against Republican Bush. Gore had been reading the president’s so-called Daily Brief for eight years; Clinton decided to bring Bush into the fold should he win, and he did.
President Donald Trump has not followed Clinton’s lead. While questioning the results of this year’s election, Trump has not authorized President-elect Joe Biden to view the report.
National security and intelligence experts hope Trump will change his mind, citing the need for an incoming president to be fully prepared to deal with any national security issue on day one.
“Our adversaries are not waiting for the transition to take place,” says former Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the House intelligence committee. “Joe Biden should receive the daily summary from the president starting today. You need to know what the latest threats are and start planning accordingly. It is not about politics; it’s about national security. “
American adversaries can take advantage of the country during an American presidential transition, and key foreign issues will hit Biden the moment he enters the Oval Office.
Among them: Unless Trump extends or negotiates a new nuclear weapons deal with Russia before Opening Day, Biden will have just 16 days to act before the expiration of the last remaining treaty controlling the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. . Perhaps American spies have learned of the Russians’ red lines in the negotiations, or the weapons they really want to keep out of the treaty.
That’s the kind of information that could be in the PDB, a daily summary of classified high-level information and analysis on national security issues that has been offered to presidents since 1946. It is coordinated and delivered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. with input from the CIA and other agencies. It is tailor-made for each president, depending on whether they prefer oral or written summaries or both, short summaries or long reports on paper or electronically.
Having access to the AP could also help Biden engineer a possible response to North Korea, which has a history of firing missiles or conducting nuclear tests shortly before or after the new presidents take office.
Biden has decades of experience in foreign affairs and national security, but has probably not been up to date with the latest details about how Iran has returned to uranium enrichment, or the active cyber-attack operations of Russia, China and Iran. China’s crackdown on Hong Kong is intensifying. And the threat from Islamic extremists, although suppressed, still remains.
Biden is trying to downplay the importance of the delay in access to the PDB.
“Obviously the AP would be useful, but it is not necessary. I’m not the acting president right now, ”Biden said Tuesday. He did not respond to a question about whether he had tried to communicate with Trump himself on this or any other issue, saying only, “Mr. President, I look forward to speaking with you. “
He was also asked about the need to access classified information as soon as possible if Trump does not grant the race.
Look, access to classified information is useful. But I am not in a position to make decisions on those issues anyway, ”Biden said. “Like I said, one president at a time. He will be president until January 20. It would be nice to have it, but it is not critical ”.
Biden is familiar with the PDB, having read it during his eight years as vice president. But the threats are constantly changing, and as Inauguration Day approaches, his need for Trump to allow him to see the intelligence report will become more critical.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, predicted that the question of whether Biden will have access to the intelligence report will be resolved soon.
“I have already started to get involved in this area … And if that doesn’t happen by Friday, I will step in and put pressure on it and say that this must happen so that regardless of the outcome of the elections, in whatever way it may be, the people can be prepared. for that task, ”Lankford told KRMG in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday.
He said Vice President-elect Kamala Harris should also host the briefings, which shouldn’t be a problem because she already has security clearances as a member of the Senate intelligence committee.
Although the Bush team had access to the intelligence report in 2000, an electoral recount delayed the Bush team’s access to government agencies and resources for more than five weeks. Biden is missing every aspect: More than a week after his transition, Biden has no access to the PDB, government agencies or resources to help him prepare to take over.
“President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team should not suffer a similar delay,” wrote John Podesta, who served as White House chief of staff during the Clinton presidency, and Bush chief of staff Andrew Card. , in a joint opinion piece published this week in The Washington Post.
“Since then we have learned the serious costs of a delayed transition,” they wrote. “Less than eight months after Bush’s inauguration, two planes flew into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 Americans.”
The 9/11 Commission Report on the September 11, 2001 attacks warns of the danger in slow presidential transition work in general, not just the intelligence piece. The Bush administration did not have its deputy cabinet officers until the spring of 2001, and critical positions by sub-cabinets were not confirmed until that summer, if at all, according to the report.
For now, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, says it cannot begin speaking with Biden’s transition team until a federal agency begins the transition process, which the Trump administration is delaying.
The bureau, which oversees more than a dozen US intelligence agencies, said it must follow the Presidential Transition Act, which requires the General Services Administration to first determine the winner of the election, which Trump is contesting. GSA administrator Emily Murphy, who was appointed by Trump, has yet to officially appoint Biden as president-elect.
Intelligence agencies have provided widespread intelligence reports, less information on covert operations and sources and methods, for presidential nominees since 1952. President Harry S. Truman authorized them for candidates of both parties because he was upset that he did not know about the US effort to develop an atomic bomb up to 12 days after his presidency.
“It is an important and significant tradition, and I am concerned that it will not continue,” said Denis McDonough, a former White House chief of staff during the Obama administration who oversaw the 2017 transition.
Biden began receiving these more general security reports after he became the Democratic presidential nominee, but it is unclear if he will still receive them. A spokesperson for Biden’s transition team declined to comment.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Will Weissert in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report.
