Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would not accept intelligence briefings as a Republican presidential candidate for fear of being accused of leaking classified information.
U.S. spy agencies provide briefings to presidential candidates once they have secured their party’s nomination to prepare them for life as commander-in-chief.
But after the FBI recovered government documents, including classified documents, from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, critics questioned whether Trump could be trusted with sensitive information.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the former president said he could now get information if he wanted it, but felt he was being set up.
“I don’t want them because, first of all, I know what’s going on. It’s very easy to see what’s going on,” he said before attacking President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his new electoral opponent.
As the Republican Party’s official presidential candidate, Donald Trump is entitled to intelligence briefings. He told DailyMail.com that he does not want them.
We have one incompetent leader and we have two incompetent leaders.
‘We have a Marxist who is going to try to be president, and this country is not ready for a Marxist or a communist president, and that is what she is.
‘She destroyed San Francisco, she destroyed Californiaand this country is not prepared for it.
-So I don’t want that, because as soon as I get it, they’ll say I leaked it.
‘So the best way to handle that situation is: I don’t need that information. They come, they give you information, and then two days later, they leak it and then they say, ‘You leaked it.’
“So the only way to solve that problem is to not accept it. I don’t want it to be understood. I’ll have a lot of them when I get there.”
Trump made his comments after a major speech in Asheboro, North Carolina, where he laid out his national security priorities, including demanding the resignations of officials involved in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Presidential candidates have received intelligence briefings since President Harry Truman presented them in the early 1950s.
They are designed to prepare candidates for public office and ensure a smooth transition of power.
The briefings are conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Trump spoke to DailyMail.com at the North Carolina Aviation Museum on Wednesday
Trump talked about the economy on Monday, law and order on Tuesday, and laid out his national security message of “peace through strength” on Wednesday.
And unlike the president’s daily briefing, when the commander in chief gets up to speed on threats to the nation and other developments each morning, these tend to be one-off sessions as matters dictate.
Former presidents are also generally offered the courtesy of receiving briefings to keep them informed of national security developments.
However, in 2021, Biden said he had banned his successor from attending briefings because of his “erratic behavior.”
“I just don’t think it’s necessary for me to receive intelligence briefings,” he said, weeks after taking power.
This unleashed a firestorm of accusations that Trump was subject to double standards, when Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were all receiving briefings.
Two years later, Trump was charged with misappropriating government documents following an FBI raid on his home. The charges were dismissed by a Florida court last month.
By then, the allegations had already raised new questions about whether Trump should be given any information as a Republican candidate.
Thousands of people waited for hours to hear Trump speak on Wednesday as he toured battleground states while Democrats held their convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Trump faced 40 felony counts accusing him of deliberately withholding documents after leaving office. But the case was dismissed last month, though prosecutors appealed that decision.
And the matter took on added urgency earlier this year, when Trump won a landslide victory in his party’s primary. Intelligence officials were quick to say that he would be offered briefings after party conventions, as usual, regardless of whether or not he was convicted of misusing documents.
The goal is more complicated than preparing candidates for office, according to Mike Morrell, a former deputy director of the CIA who conducted the daily intelligence briefing to President George W. Bush.
“The goal is to protect national security during the campaign by giving candidates a keen sense of the national security landscape,” he said. Brief figure.
‘Let me explain: Our adversaries, our allies and our partners will all be listening very closely, very closely, to what the candidates say on the issues during the campaign, and saying the wrong thing could harm our national security.
“The briefings are intended to help prevent that.”