Imagine all the reasons former Presidents were given access to intelligence briefings. (I didn’t know this was a thing.) But it makes sense:
A former President would be presumed to be the patriotic, expert, qualified, dedicated, discreet. He would be a great asset to the next President. You’d give him the intel so that the current President and his staff could then go to the former President for his opinion and advice, since both former and current President have the same goal: the security and success of the United States.
Then, look at the former president and laugh at how ridiculous that presumption is.
You have triggered a childhood memory in me, if that helps.
When I was a kid growing up in Britain I didn’t really know much about US presidents. There was Reagan, who was the current president. Washington and Lincoln I learned a bit about from US television shows, and that was it, except for one other. Woodrow Wilson.
If you visit Carlisle you will notice that there are a few signs referencing Woodrow Wilson, and there is a pub named after him. When I was learning to read I noticed one sign and asked my parents about it. They told me that he helped Britain win WW1 and that when he came to Europe for the peace negotiations he insisted on taking a full day to visit the place where his mother was born. I took pride in an American president visiting my small Northern English city when he had other important things to do.
I didn’t learn about him being a racist POS for another 20 years.
No, no, no–the words t***p and intelligence should never be used in the same sentence unless preceded by “lack of”. I’m sorry to be a grammar Republican, but it had to be pointed out.
Are we talking about the enemies within the US or outside? If we are talking about the hardcore GOP, I am really not sure what toxic untruths we could feed them that would top what they already have. Get them to fight the Scientologists? Send them into active volcanoes to look for hidden evidence and weapons? Nothing I can come up with comes close to the baroque insanity of Jewish Space Lasers for Starting Brushfires.
The same guy who repeatedly leaked classified information from the Manchester arena bombing investigation despite the UK government repeatedly telling him not with the result that the UK nearly cut off all security cooperation with the US? Yeah that guy…
I think they should give him some intelligence briefings. (Trying to avoid the obvious comment that it’s the only possible way he’d ever have any intelligence in general.)
They should give him some carefully prepared plausible but bullshit intel, that will confuse, mislead and dismay the Putinocracy. A bit like a trap street on a map.
Then the US intelligence services would know whether or not the lines of communication are there. And any of the orange shitgibbon’s acolytes who had access and tried to use it for commercial gain would be (a) fucked and (b) exposed.
The reason for withholding should be crystal clear, but no matter what is said, the next president from the Other Side™ will probably use the same statement, exact same phrasing, to shut out Biden (or Harris) from future intelligence briefings.
I can’t stomach the idea of 45 getting intel that he’ll accidentally blab about, step right into the muck, or lay down plans for sabotage, but this is setting a rather unfortunate precedent, and all future former presidents from opposing parties will be in the dark from now on, because as far as I know, this isn’t a legally mandated thing.
Yes. It’s not an on-going stream of info, but an employer I spent a few years working for full-time more than a decade ago still shares very sensitive information with me when they bring me back for consulting work.
This Presidential courtesy is likely predicated on the same idea, with assumption that the predecessors are trustworthy and have the required core competencies. Not the case with Biff, obviously.
I’m all for sending weekly coloring books all about how elections work. Perhaps a series on the Constitution, too. And a box of Crayons™ (the good ones with the metallic colors and built-in sharpener). Or perhaps just tell The Fanta Menace that as a cost-saving measure his intel briefings will now be mailed to him through the mangled up U.S. Postal Service.
Although he’s missing an epic opportunity to feed him real, actual news published in The Guardian and MSNBC, and just call it “intelligence briefings”.
I think anyone who’s been paying attention for the past several years knows that in American politics, there is no harm of setting any more “unfortunate precedent” than the GOP have been giddily doing for ages. Leaving all those judicial appointments vacant for years, that alone should’ve been an ongoing top headline. Shutting down the government, I lost count but I think at least 4 times?
Unfortunate precedent has lost all meaning when used in terms of D’s doing anything that might possibly make R’s behave even more badly.
I think it started with Harry Truman. FDR kept him so out of the loop (irresponsibly so, FDR knew he was dying), that Truman had an incredibly steep learning curve once he assumed office. Truman not only kept his VP in the loop, but started a “Presidents Club.” He consulted with Herbert Hoover during his time in office. Since then, these guys have called on one another at various times. They don’t publicize it, but they do it. I don’t mean to put them on a pedestal, but they are in a very select group. Only someone who’s been in that office can fully relate.
Trump never grew into the office. Quite the opposite. He doesn’t deserve to get the briefings, and only a fool would ever consult with him on matters of national importance.
The Two Letter Joke: According to an old joke, Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) gave to Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)—or a corporate CEO gives to a successor—two letters to open in case of emergency and extreme emergency. The first letter is opened and reads, “blame it all on me.” However, things get worse and the second letter is opened. It reads, “write two letters.”
