Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has received his first classified intelligence briefing which he said he is unlikely to “use” if he is elected in November’s general election.
As per the US laws, presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties receive classified presidential briefings which prepares them for presidency if elected.
Given some of his rhetoric in the past, his opponents have urged the US Government not to provide him with intelligence briefing. However, the FBI went ahead with its well established tradition of providing classified briefings to the GOP candidate, which happened at the FBI office in New York.
Trump was accompanied by two of his confidants New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn. The briefing that reportedly lasted for more than two hours was led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
While there was no word, these classified intelligence briefings normally includes on threats to the US and other security issues. It is not secret intelligence briefings which includes operational intelligence.
Before the briefing, Donald Trump said he would not much depend on such intelligence briefings. “Very easy to use them, but I won’t use them, because they’ve made such bad decisions. If we would have never touched it, it would have been a lot better,” Trump told Fox News in an interview.
Before headed for intelligence briefing, Trump held round table with his national security team on defeating radical Islam, his campaign said.
“Today, Mr. Trump convened a meeting of some of the top foreign policy and national security experts in the country to discuss how to win the war against Radical Islamic Terrorism,” said his national policy director Stephen Miller.
“The participants talked about improving immigration screening and standards to keep out radicals, working with moderate Muslims to foster reforms, and partnering with friendly regimes in the Middle East to stamp out ISIS,” he said.
“This is a stark contrast to Hillary Clinton who wants to bring in 620,000 refugees with no way to screen them, who refuses to say radical Islam, and who bears direct responsibility for the rise of ISIS with her disastrous interventions overseas,” Miller said.
It was not immediately known when Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would receive such a briefing or when it has been scheduled for. Several Republican leaders have called for Clinton not to be given classified information in view of the email scandal.
PTI