Joe Biden bars Trump from intelligence briefings, cites ‘erratic behaviour’

The move marked the first time that a former president had been cut out of the briefings, which are provided partly as a courtesy and partly for the moments when a sitting president reached out for advice.

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US President Joe Biden (Photo: AP/Evan Vucci)

President Biden said on Friday that he would bar his predecessor, former President Donald J Trump, from receiving the intelligence briefings traditionally conducted for former presidents, saying he could not be trusted because of his “erratic behaviour” even before the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The move marked the first time that a former president had been cut out of the briefings, which are provided partly as a courtesy and partly for the moments when a sitting president reached out for advice. Currently the briefings are offered on a regular basis to former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama.

Biden, speaking to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, said Mr. Trump’s behavior worried him “unrelated to the insurrection” that gave rise to the second impeachment of Mr. Trump.

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“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,’’ Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

The White House said earlier this week that it had been reviewing whether the former president, whose impeachment trial in the Senate begins on Tuesday, should receive the briefings. The chairman of the House intelligence committee, Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, said last month, just before the inauguration, that Trump’s access to any classified information should be cut off.

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