Last Updated on November 13, 2020
The office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed this week that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is not receiving sensitive national security information and related intelligence reports because the General Services Administration has not confirmed the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
“ODNI follows the statutory direction provided in the Presidential Transition Act, which requires ascertainment of the candidate by the administrator of GSA prior to supporting a potential presidential transition,” the office of Director National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told NBC News in a statement this week. “ODNI would not have contact with any transition team until notified by the GSA administrator.”
Biden is also not receiving the President’s Daily Brief because President Donald Trump has not authorized the release of the various intelligence reports contained within to the Biden team.
An National File reported earlier this week, the office of GSA head administrator Emily Murphy has not signed an official letter of ascertainment declaring Biden as the president-elect, drawing the ire of Democrat activists and left-wing media outlets as well as several Republican senators.
“An ascertainment has not yet been made. GSA and its administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law,” a spokesman with the GSA told reporters, adding that GSA administrator, Emily Murphy, will only execute a transition of power when a “clear winner is clear based on the process laid out in the Constitution.”
If the GSA were to have made a determination that a transition of power was to be executed, the Biden campaign would be provided federal tax dollars for travel and salaries.
Republican senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN this week that he thinks Biden should begin receiving sensitive national security intel right way, stating, “Yeah, I think he should.”
Oklahoma senator James Lankford (R-OK) has gone even further, threatening to “step in” to force the GSA to certify a Biden election win because he’s “on the committee of oversight.”
However, the decision of ascertaining the winner of the presidential election for the purposes of distributing classified information does not fall to the Senate, but rather to the GSA.
