Trump must be cut from intelligence briefings, Democrat says

Regardless of the outcome of his impeachment trial, President Donald Trump should be immediately excluded from intelligence briefings, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said.

“There is no circumstance under which this president should get another intelligence briefing,” Rep. Adam Schiff said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I don’t think he can be trusted now and in the future.”

Some intelligence partners had “probably” started withholding information in the United States because they feared their sources and methods were not protected, Schiff said.

His comments echoed those of Sue Gordon, the former senior deputy director of national intelligence, who wrote a Washington Post op-ed last week saying Trump should be cut off from intelligence.

Ron Klain, the new White House chief of staff, told CNN on Sunday that Biden would await a recommendation from his advisers on the matter.

With articles of impeachment yet to be sent to the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois said his fellow Democrats should “follow their own conscience” on whether to support Trump’s conviction for incitement to the insurrection.

Senate Democrat No.2 said he had not told his party members how to vote in the next trial. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Durbin said he agreed with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s position that voting is a “matter of conscience.”

It’s unclear whether at least 17 Republicans would vote with Democrats to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to find Trump guilty. McConnell said he was undecided. Most Republicans in the House voted against impeachment.

A conviction would allow a simple majority vote to bar Trump from running again, although some legal scholars say it could be done outside of the impeachment process.

“It was a traumatic event for many members of Congress,” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, told NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

Mace said if it was “complicated” to attempt to bar Trump from re-assuming federal office without a conviction, she is encouraged that it is possible. “We have to find a way to hold the president accountable,” she said.