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Washington – With the transition to President-elect Joe Biden officially underway, the new president is now getting “all the same information,” as President Trump, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told CBS News in an interview on Thursday.
“He has all the same information,” Ratcliffe said. “He receives full security briefings from my office, which briefs the president, who now briefs Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They receive full classified briefings.”
Ratcliffe also told CBS News that the intelligence community has so far not “been able to determine” that a foreign adversary or criminal group has the capacity to change the outcome of the election. But he sounded the alarm on China, calling it “the country’s greatest adversary”. Beijing, he said, is prepared to use blackmail, corruption and covert and overt influence to ensure that the United States enacts laws favorable to Chinese interests.
While Mr. Biden was projected the winner of the November 7 presidential election as he secured the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, the official start of his transition was delayed due to the General Service Administration (GSA) decision not to not quickly determine him as the likely winner of the election.
The office of the director of national intelligence said at the time that it would not have contact with Mr Biden’s transition team until he was notified by the head of the GSA, delaying the president-elect’s access to the President’s Daily Brief, a daily intelligence summary that contains the country’s most sensitive information. The GSA has since initiated the formal transition process, and Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris began receiving the daily report on Monday.
Ratcliffe declined to say whether Mr Biden and Harris requested information on specific topics, but said his office had “granted all requests.”
As Mr. Biden began to shape his national security, foreign policy and economic teams, and announced those who serve in key roles in the White HouseMr. Trump has yet to concede and instead continues to allege that the presidential election was marked by fraud. However, many state and federal courts have dismissed the fraud claims raised by the presidential campaign, and more than three dozen states approved their election results.
Pressed to know if intelligence shows that a foreign opponent or a criminal group had the ability to change the outcome of the election, Ratcliffe said no.
“Not that we were able to determine,” he said. “Now at this point we are still analyzing all the information.”
Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas, also noted that voter fraud is an area more covered by agencies such as the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice and the FBI.
“I cannot tell you the specific information I am giving to the president,” he said. “But voter fraud is not a problem for the intelligence community per se. It is a problem of national law enforcement.”
In the run-up to the November general election, senior national security and intelligence officials, including Ratcliffe, have warned of possible foreign interference in the election race. Days before voters went to the polls on November 3, Ratcliffe appeared alongside FBI Director Chris Wray to warn of Iran and Russia’s efforts to try to undermine the election, including by sending threatening emails to voters in Florida, and said countries had obtained voter registration data.
In addition to Iran and Russia, the Trump administration has also warned of attempts by China to interfere.
In an editorial published Thursday by the Wall Street Journal, Ratcliffe called China “the No. 1 national security threat” and revealed that it targets members of Congress with six times the frequency of Russia and 12 times the frequency of frequency of Iran.
“They want laws and policies outside the United States that are pro-China,” Ratcliffe told CBS News. “And what they’re really trying to do is blackmail, corrupt, open and covert influence, trying to make sure only laws favorable to China are passed.
Ratcliffe said he was “troubled” by what he saw in his post as Director of National Intelligence, and this led him to brief the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, “what they found surprising and disturbing “.
“We have to recognize China for the threat it poses. It is the biggest threat this country has faced since World War II. It is our biggest challenge,” he said. “Every generation has a challenge – Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain. The challenge for this generation is China’s intention to replace the United States as the world’s superpower.
Passing on a message to Mr Biden’s team, Ratcliffe called China “the country’s biggest adversary.”
“They threatened the American way of life,” he said. “We have seen that with COVID, this is the result of the actions of the Chinese Communist Party. The lives of Americans have already been irreparably affected because of the actions of China. They are only just beginning. It will get worse.”
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