Biden bars 'erratic' Trump from receiving intelligence briefings
US President Joe Biden has banned "erratic" Donald Trump, who skipped his inauguration, from receiving classified intelligence.
Intelligence briefings have been traditionally passed on to former presidents by incumbents out of respect and in order to receive advice.
However, Biden said on Friday that the intelligence briefings that are traditionally given to all the former US presidents would not be offered to Trump.
He said Trump, who faces his second impeachment, could not be trusted with the classified White House intelligence briefings because of his “erratic behavior”.
The move was the first time that a former president had been cut out of the briefings which are offered on a regular basis to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Biden, who was speaking to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, said Trump’s “erratic behavior” worried him and barring him from the intelligence briefings was “unrelated to the insurrection” that gave rise to the second impeachment.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” he said.
“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?” Biden pointed out, warning, “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Last month, Biden invited then-vice president Mike Pence to attend the inauguration ceremony instead of Trump.
After Trump announced that he would skip the traditional inauguration ceremony, which marked the start of the new presidency, Biden said back then that it was good that the "incompetent" former US president was not coming to the inauguration ceremony.
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