AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Donald Trump pulled former President Joe Biden’s security clearances Friday night during an announcement in which he claimed his predecessor could not be trusted with classified information.
Trump also signaled he decided to pull Biden’s access to classified information because the country’s 46th president denied him access to such information. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote:
There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings. He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.
The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from “poor memory” and, even in his “prime,” could not be trusted with sensitive information. I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Last February, Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Hur recommended against charging Biden with mishandling classified documents. Hur described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited” in his report. Hur wrote:
We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.
When announcing Trump would cease to receive intelligence briefings in February 2021, Biden called Trump’s behavior “erratic.”
