In an interview Friday, President Joe Biden stated, “There’s no need for [former President Donald Trump] to have intelligence briefings.”
In subsequent conversations, President Biden stated he was concerned that President Trump’s “erratic” behavior would cause him to mishandle the information or simply leak it.
“What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” Biden told interviewer Norah O’Donnell.
While the decision for who receives briefings is typically under Presidential authority, Biden walked back his previous statements Saturday. Without any additional explanation as to what changed, Biden stated intelligence community would determine what information will be passed along to the former president.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement: “The president was expressing his concern about former president Trump receiving access to sensitive intelligence, but he also has deep trust in his own intelligence team to make a determination about how to provide intelligence information if at any point the former president Trump requests a briefing.”
