While many rush to judgment and would have the press decide who the next president will be, the American Intelligence community is not playing partisan politics. They are going by the book and the book says Joe Biden has, so far, been elected to Jack Squat.
Biden team not yet receiving same intel briefings as Trump, per ODNI, which says ascertainment of candidate by GSA administrator is required first.
"ODNI would not have contact with any transition team until notified by the GSA Administrator,” ODNI spox says. w/ @MarquardtA. pic.twitter.com/BYFwrsmSIX
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) November 9, 2020
Newsmax: “Joe Biden is not getting top-level national security information until the General Services Administration ascertains that he officially defeated President Donald Trump, the office of Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has confirmed. ‘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,’ Ratcliffe’s office said in a statement to NBC News Tuesday. “ODNI would not have contact with any transition team until notified by the GSA administrator.’ ”
GSA honcho Emily Murphy has not yet signed a letter of ascertainment. That has been the requirement since the Transition Act was passed to provide information and to allocate funds used in the transition operation.
Biden will not receive the President’s Daily Brief, intelligence reporting for the most senior officials in the government, until he is certified as the winner. Trump hasn’t authorized its release, nor should he until the election is over.
In other very possibly premature transition news, Joe isn’t getting his mail. Not yet, anyway.
Newsmax: “Foreign leaders are sending congratulatory messages for Joe Biden to the State Department, where they are being held, sources told CNN, as President Donald Trump has not conceded the presidential election. Dozens of messages have been received, but Biden’s team is eschewing official State Department channels to communicate with foreign leaders, per the report. Also, foreign leaders are working about normal State Department channels, communication with Obama-era holdovers to get messages and communicate with the Biden transition team, per the report.”
“They would prefer to be using the State Department resources. It was helpful to have State ops place the calls and to provide translation services, and we were grateful for the cooperation from the Bush administration for making that happen,” Obama administration transition official Denis McDonough told press. “These calls in the past have been handled on open lines. They are congratulatory calls.”
One note: a main American ally and massive trading partner, not to mention next door neighbor, has not sent a kudos to Joe Biden. Mexico has witheld a congratulatory message to Biden, as they intelligently realize that Biden is not president-elect as of yet and that the actual president may take a dim view of these missives if he remains in office.
Also, in response to Biden’s premature transition issues, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quipped Tuesday, “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
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