Panetta: Trump Risks Blame For Any Attacks If He Skips Intel Briefings

FILE - In this June 13, 2012 file photo, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Last summer, gays in the military dared not admit their sexual orientation. This summer, the Pentagon w... FILE - In this June 13, 2012 file photo, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Last summer, gays in the military dared not admit their sexual orientation. This summer, the Pentagon will salute them, marking gay pride month just as it marks other celebrations honoring racial or ethnic groups. Officials said Thursday that they're planning the first-ever event to recognize gay and lesbian troops. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) MORE LESS
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Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Wednesday that if President-elect Donald Trump refuses to receive regular intelligence briefings, he risks being blamed in the wake of any potential attack on the United States.

Panetta told the Arab Strategy Forum that he has “never seen” a president with Trump’s active aversion to intelligence briefings, according to Reuters.

“If we endure another attack and the intelligence officials had indications or information regarding that attack and the president did not want to listen to that, for whatever reason, the responsibility for that attack would fall on the president,” he said.

Panetta reportedly told the forum that Trump’s refusal of presidential intelligence briefings “can’t last.”

“I’ve seen presidents who have asked questions about whether that intelligence is verifiable, what are the sources for that intelligence, but I have never seen a president who said, ‘I don’t want that stuff,'” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

According to U.S. officials cited by Reuters, Trump receives one intelligence briefing per week on average, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence receives around six per week.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump argued that he is “a smart person” and suggested that sitting for intelligence briefings would mean he was being told “the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”

President Barack Obama pushed back on that assumption in a Monday appearance on “The Daily Show,” where he said that any president who refuses daily intelligence briefings is “flying blind” as a result.

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Notable Replies

  1. Oh Leon, please, we all know everything bad that happens for at least the next decade is Obama’s fault.

  2. Or Hillary …
    She fucked it up as Secretary of State doncha know
    You heard it here first

  3. According to U.S. officials cited by Reuters, Trump receives one intelligence briefing per week on average, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence receives around six per week.

    new keywords for 2017: de facto president.

  4. Fuck that. I’m blaming him even if he goes to intel briefings three times a day. The dog caught the car. They now OWN this shit outright and we should be more than willing to serve them the same relentless blaming they leveled at Obama for the past 8 years. Merciless. NO QUARTER.

  5. He owns blame for attacks—period!
    Taking responsibility is part of the job.
    Although, as many people have noted, it is practically a no-brainer that his foreign Trump hotels are targets now—much softer.

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