Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) wrote a letter to President Obama on Wednesday, asking him to keep Donald Trump from receiving classified intelligence briefings, citing the Republican nominee’s Wednesday comments asking Russia to release Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“It is my belief that these statements, when considered in the broader context of the Republican nominee’s prior conduct, warrant a re-examination of his access to this sensitive intelligence,” Cicilline wrote in the letter. “These remarks reflect more than just a lack of good judgment—it is an explicit call for intervention from an adversarial foreign power to undermine the American democratic process, and represents an action just short of outright treason.”
“The Republican nominee’s call for hostile foreign action represents a step beyond mere partisan politics and represents a threat to the Republic itself. It suggests that he is unfit to receive sensitive intelligence, and may willingly compromise our national security if he is permitted to do so,” the congressman concluded in his letter. “With this in mind, I respectfully ask that you withhold the intelligence briefing to Mr. Trump in the interests of national security.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) also questioned whether Trump should receive classified briefings on Wednesday.
“How would the CIA and the other intelligence agencies brief this guy? How could they do that? I would suggest to the intelligence agencies, if you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything, just fake it, because this man is dangerous,” Reid told the Huffington Post. “Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information.”
Though it might sound partisan to some, these are serious concerns Rep. Cicilline and Sen. Reid (and others) bring up. This is very serious and Donald J. Trump is one of the most dangerous demagogic actors on the world stage we’ve seen in some time.
America must be protected. Good idea.
maybe they should just send Donnie’s briefings directly to Putin for his input and mark ups and then Putin could just pass them along to his good buddy…
I disagree. Trump has a chance to be president, and if he is he needs to know what is going on as soon as possible no matter how odious he is. If he does share with Russia, it will come out before the election and he will lose or it will come out after and he will be impeached.
He needs to be given some kind of info, just so he can’t cry foul when Hillary creams him in the debates.
Maybe those children’s books the right-wing uses to teach about the scary other-man.