The Trump administration’s continued refusal to give President-elect Biden and his Transition Team access to the Presidential Daily Briefing is unsurprising in its pettiness but stunning in its abject disregard for national security – particularly at the height of a public health crisis and corresponding economic downturn that has left the United States especially vulnerable. At the direction of the president, the head of the General Services Administration has refused to certify the results of the presidential election, blocking Biden’s access to daily briefings and classified intelligence.
Vice President-elect Harris is in a strange position given that she is a sitting senator and receives regular classified briefings but is bound by congressional rules not to share the information with Biden – creating an unprecedented information gap between the two. Luckily, Biden has access to some of the best minds in the world of policy and academia (Rice, Powers, Blinken, McCrystal, and a deep bench of experts who served the Obama and Clinton administrations). Nonetheless, these experts are not currently serving in government and thus have no access to real-time classified reports or cable traffic.
This is extremely unsettling amidst a shake up and purging of top officials at the Pentagon, DHS, and intelligence agencies, a drawdown in Afghanistan, and reports that Trump was seriously considering (though apparently dissuaded from) a strike on Iran to cap off four turbulent years in office. To say nothing of the need for close coordination to combat COVID-19 and organize a countrywide vaccine distribution.
I recognize this has subject has little connection to the readings assigned for this week, however, it’s a pressing security issue of immediate concern. There is a deep and tragic irony that in an election year in which we saw so little foreign meddling, the U.S. has managed to do so much harm to itself by sowing distrust in the democratic process, disregarding norms, and dispensing with decency.
Shana,
I always have welcomed blog posts on ANY international or national security subject that interested you. And your comments on the outrageous and unprecedented situation are right on the mark. At this point, this is not even a Republican vs. Democrat thing. There are serious national security threats that could arise the longer this goes on. It has been pointed out that when George W. Bush’s transition was delayed due to the conflict over the outcome in Florida, the White House staff did not have its eye on the ball. And this may have been a factor leading to the intelligence failure that preceded 9/11.
President Trump seems intent on fighting to the bitter end, no matter what the cost to our democracy and our national security. In my view, he will go down in infamy for this. In fact, I have argued on social media that historians will literally have to invent an entirely new category for him, because there is no previous president with whom he can be compared (and that is NOT a compliment!).
–Professor Wallerstein
Thankfully my post has been overtaken by events and the transition has the green light from GSA.
Finally!