Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the U.S. Intelligence Community should “dumb down” briefings for former President Trump when he receives classified information as the eventual GOP nominee, voicing concerns about whether Trump could share the information.
Schiff hit Trump on his criminal charges for mishandling classified information and other legal cases in an NBC “Meet the Press” interview Sunday.
“We’ve never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling — if not worse — classified information,” Schiff said. “So I have to hope, and knowing the Intelligence Community as I do, that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump.”
I understand where he’s coming from but this sounds like actively planning to fail to meet their obligation to brief the presidential nominee. That’s not a great precedent to set, the tables could be turned in the future.
The “normal” government machine is broken. Attempting to rely on long established norms as guardrails is not something that will turn out well. “The tables could be turned” is not an argument that applies to the current state of US politics.
The Republican party literally told the Obama white house that they wouldn’t even hold a hearing for his supreme Court nominee (Garland March of 2016) “because the American people needed to weigh in since it was an election year.” Which many people properly identified as complete and utter bullshit.
Then Republicans went from a nomination on September 29th, 2020, to a confirmation on October 26th, 2020, of Amy Coney Barret, who I’m sure is eminently qualified for the position.
Less than a month.
The Supreme Court is effectively meaningless as an institution attempting to maintain a facade of impartiality.
The “system” as it once existed is gone now. Republicans have been waging a war on public institutions for decades and they’ve won. It’s over.
Attempting to continue to play by the old rules doesn’t do anything but multiply the effectiveness of the grift.
That’s not an obligation, it’s a tradition, and someone with his history and debts would never be given classified information. If he wins it’s inescapable, but you don’t need to just blindly follow tradition when the dangers are obvious.