Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
WASHINGTON — Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have joined some notable Republicans in saying Democrat Joe Biden should be receiving presidential-level intelligence briefings, even as they continue to stand by President Donald Trump as he challenges the election’s outcome.
The Texans said it comes down to national security.
Biden, the president-elect, has been getting intelligence briefings ever since he became the Democratic presidential nominee. But he hasn’t been receiving the high-level information provided to Trump – and typically offered to an incoming president after an election.
Cornyn on Thursday told reporters that whether Biden “actually gets the product itself, I think the information needs to be communicated.”
“I don’t see it as a high-risk proposition, and if in fact he does win in the end, I think they need to be able to hit the ground running,” said Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who just won reelection to a fourth term.
Cruz on Thursday offered a similar view.
“I think that’s very reasonable,” he told Dallas talk radio host Mark Davis on 660-AM “The Answer.”
Those takes – echoed by several other top Republicans – represent a subtle bit of pushback against Trump, who has blocked all assistance toward Biden’s transition as he wages legal fights in multiple states over his unfounded claims that widespread fraud led to a stolen election.
Republicans have generally given Trump a wide berth since the White House race was called.
Consider that the most prominent Texas Republican to even confirm the outcome’s legitimacy is one who no longer holds public office: former President George W. Bush, who on Sunday said that Biden is a “a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”
Cruz, by comparison, has been a loud supporter of Trump’s post-election efforts, even while conceding that “it’s not an easy path” for the president to somehow emerge victorious.
“The media very much wants you and me and all of us to give up on it,” Cruz told Davis. “That is not right. It’s not the mainstream media that picks our next president. It’s the American people who elect the president. And what’s occurring now is part of the process.”
He added: “An election isn’t over until the results are final.”
But Democrats have ripped the GOP for not accepting that Trump lost. Some Republicans have also started nudging Trump down the path to a transition, encouraging him to take steps that could proceed on a parallel track until the election results are certified in some key states.
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford has been the most vocal Republican senator on that front. He’s vowed to somehow step in if that info isn’t soon made available to Biden – a decision that apparently hinges on the U.S. General Services Administration making a technical designation about the election.
Both Trump and Biden “have got to be ready to serve, if selected,” Lankford said, per Politico.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, agreed.
“I have no problem with that,” he told The Wall Street Journal when asked if Biden should be receiving presidential-level intelligence briefings.
Ditto for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“I think so,” he said, per The Journal.
Cruz, in his appearance on Davis’ radio show, pointed out that the major-party presidential nominees start getting some level of security briefings even before the election.
“Because for the sake of protecting the country, you want whoever is going to assume that office to be aware of the significant threats,” he said. “Because the first responsibility of any president is to keep the American president safe.”