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Lankford, who chairs a homeland security subcommittee, noted that in 2000 then-President Bill Clinton authorized George W. Bush to begin receiving briefings at the presidential level during the recount in Florida. Lankford added that he plans to question the government agency responsible for restarting the transition process if a certification is not made by Friday.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has previously said that Biden should start receiving the Presidential Daily Brief, an intelligence report organized for the president and senior White House officials . Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Senate Intelligence Committee Member and Republican No.4, agreed Thursday.
“Whether [Biden] actually gets the product itself, I think the information needs to be released somehow, ”said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Intelligence Committee. “I don’t see it as a high risk proposition, and if he actually wins in the end I think they have to be able to hit the pitch.
Other Republicans were less engaged, saying only that they would have no problem if Biden started receiving the briefings.
“All trends seem is going to be the President of the United States, ”said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).
“I don’t see any problem with that,” added Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.), Who said the election results will be known in December when the Electoral College members meet. “I think there is a process.”
Trump has continued to complain about the election results since Biden got enough Electoral College votes on Saturday to take the White House, and Republicans this week have mostly backed the president.
By law, the General Service Administration alone is empowered to initiate a presidential transition by releasing federal funds and allowing transitional officials access to agencies and departments. But a Trump-appointed person who heads the GSA, Emily Murphy, has yet to certify that Biden is the president-elect, preventing his team from speaking with the government agencies she will soon head. Without the president’s approval, Biden also cannot receive the intelligence briefings that are typically given to the president-elect. The briefings take on increased importance now as the new president will need to be aware of the multiple crises facing the country, including skyrocketing coronavirus infections and other national security issues.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine.), One of the few Republicans to congratulate Biden on his White House victory, has criticized the GSA’s handling of the transition.
“The GSA, in my opinion, is not doing the right thing in denying the Biden team access to office space and materials, traditional services, that a president-elect would receive,” Collins said, adding that Intelligence briefings should “begin immediately.” For reasons of national security.
While Republicans privately admit that Trump’s chances of overturning the election results are close to zero, no one is asking him to back down. Instead, the GOP is laser-focused on two Senate races in Georgia, where the president’s voters will be crucial and determine which party controls the upper house in January.
Some Republicans argue it’s too early to start the transition process, arguing that the vote recount and court challenges are still ongoing.
“Hopefully we’re not very far from making these accounts, we’ll find out what happened,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Who doesn’t think Biden should start receiving briefings for the moment. “My belief is, let’s go through the normal process and find out.”
Senses. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) And Rob Portman (R-Ohio) – the current and future chairmen, respectively, of the committee that oversees the GSA – said they had no problem with Biden receiving high-level briefings, but don’t call on the GSA to do the verification.
The Biden transition is progressing further by forming “review teams” that meet with former federal employees, as well as think tanks, unions and professional groups to learn about the agencies.
Senator Mike Rounds (RS.D.) said Thursday that Biden had “a good chance” of being the next president and suggested that the issue of briefings should be resolved as soon as possible.
“I think they’re going to have to sort this out pretty quickly because I think it’s going to come very soon, that they’re going to need to sort this out,” Rounds said.
Martin Matishak and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.
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