President-elect Joe Biden will receive briefings by national security experts next week after he was denied access to daily presidential intelligence briefings by the Trump administration, a member of his transition team said.
The delayed transition is viewed by some as being a national security risk. Prominent Republicans and former Trump chief of staff John Kelly have spoken out about the risks of not at least giving Biden a briefing of the threats facing the nation.
Biden transition official Jen Psaki said the delayed transition might hurt Biden’s preparedness when he is set to take office in January. Psaki cited the 9/11 Commission Report listing a delayed transition after the 2000 election as to why officials weren’t as prepared for the terror attacks that left almost 3,000 people dead, according to Reuters.
“It’s been six days, but with every day that passes on, it becomes more concerning that our national security team and the president-elect and the vice president-elect don’t have access to those threat assessments, intelligence briefings, real-time information about our engagements around the world,” Psaki said on a call with reporters.
President Trump has yet to concede to Biden after media outlets declared him victorious on Saturday. The president has cited allegations of voter fraud as to why he has become entangled in legal battles in several states, which he said he would have won with better oversight at the polls and on mail-in ballots.
Psaki did not name the national security experts whom Biden would be meeting with.
So far, there’s been mostly speculation as to whom the former vice president would name in his Cabinet, but Biden did name Ron Klain to serve as his White House chief of staff.
Biden has also named a task force of doctors and medical experts to help him maneuver the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected over 10 million people in the United States.
Biden has not yet been recognized by the General Services Administration, the federal agency that releases funding to an incoming president, which means he can’t access federal office space and resources.
Psaki called on Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed administrator for the GSA, to sign off on the transition. The Biden team said it hopes it won’t have to resort to legal action to get the process rolling, but it hasn’t directly ruled it out.
