FYI.
– Trump Explains Why He Doesn’t Trust US Intelligence Hours Before First Briefing:
Hours before receiving his first security briefing Trump decided to trash the U.S. intelligence community, in an interview with Fox News, while declaring that he “won’t use them.” Per an article published by The Hill, when asked whether he trusts U.S. intelligence, Trump responded:
“Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country. I mean, look what’s happened over the last 10 years. … It’s been catastrophic. Very easy to use them, but I won’t use them, because they’ve made such bad decisions.”
Trump plans to attend the security briefing with former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency earlier in the Obama administration, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Trump’s comments come just days after the Joint Task Force found that CENTCOM leaders “distorted, suppressed, or substantially altered analytic products” to paint U.S. efforts to combat ISIS in a more positive light (see our prior post “Shocking Report Finds U.S. Military Consistently “Distorted, Suppressed, Or Substantially Altered” ISIS-Related Intel“).
Meanwhile, Democrats downplayed the value of Trump’s “security breifing” in an obvious attempt to paint Trump as someone who can’t be trusted with sensitive information. Per The Hill:
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is downplaying Donald Trump’s first classified intelligence briefing, saying the GOP presidential nominee likely received few sensitive details.
“I think it will go, frankly, not much beyond what you would find on MSNBC, CNN or Fox any day of the week when you turn in to hear a national security discussion,” said Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Wednesday on MSNBC.
“I think what he’s going to get is a very top-line briefing that will set the context for what the national security challenges are that face the country but won’t go into anything that might reveal a source of information, a method of how we got that information, nothing of that level of specificity,” he said.
“Both because there will be a real sensitivity about the risk of disclosure of those sources and methods. But also because it’s really not necessary to give the kind of briefing that would frankly be of any value to that particular candidate.”
We assume that Schiff has no concerns about Hillary’s security briefings despite that pesky little FBI investigation that just wrapped up.
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