Panetta says he’s concerned Trump not receiving daily intelligence briefings
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that he is concerned that President-elect Donald Trump is not getting his daily intelligence briefings.
{mosads}”He’s taken a few of them, but he’s not getting them every day,” Panetta said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Panetta said a president has to be in touch on a daily basis with intelligence briefers.
“So that you have an understanding as to … what’s happening in the world,” he said, “what are the crises you have to pay attention to, and what steps do you have to take in order to deal with those crises.”
A president is always looking at a “series of threats that may be out there,” he added.
“Some of them may be credible, some may not be credible. But those threats change on a day-to-day basis with new intelligence, with new sources, with new assets that provide information,” he said.
“Every president I know, and I worked under nine presidents, every one has taken their intelligence daily brief because that sets the agenda for what you have to focus on as president of the United States.”
A report surfaced last month that said the president-elect had been turning away intelligence briefers since winning the presidency.
On Sunday though, incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus said the president-elect had been receiving intelligence briefings “about every day.”
Panetta during the Sunday interview also said he’s still trying to figure out the president-elect and how he will act when he assumes office.
“He’s very unconventional, and you know, and you’re just not quite sure which Donald Trump is going to walk into the Oval Office, whether it’s the, you know, the reality TV, tweeting president, or whether it’s the business president who will be serious-minded about approaching it,” he said.
“So it’s really … difficult right now to try to get a sense of just exactly what the president-elect is going to be like.”
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