President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, is arguing his refusal to concede the election is affecting the nation’s national security.
“You lose a lot if the transition is delayed because the new people are not allowed to get their head in the game,” Kelly told Politico Friday.
He added, “The president, with all due respect, does not have to concede. But it’s about the nation. It hurts our national security because the people who should be getting [up to speed], it’s not a process where you go from zero to 1,000 miles per hour.”
Kelly acknowledged Trump “doesn’t have to concede if he doesn’t want to, I guess, until the full election process is complete.”
He continued, “But there’s nothing wrong with starting the transition, starting to get people like the national security people, obviously the president and the vice president-elect, if they are in fact elected, to start getting them [up to speed] on the intelligence.”
Kelly claimed to know Trump “better than most people do.”
He explained Trump will “never accept defeat and, in fact, he doesn’t have to accept defeat here. He just has to do what’s best for the country and in the country’s interest.”
Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan also claimed Trump’s refusal to concede is hurting the nation’s national security, as IJR previously reported.
“This is something that, as you pointed out, can be very damaging to our national security because this period of transition from one administration to the other is critically important for our country,” Brennan said during an interview with CNN Wednesday.
According to transition official Jen Psaki, national security experts will brief President-elect Joe Biden next week, as IJR previously reported.
“It’s been six days, but with every day that passes on, it becomes more concerning that our national security team and the president-elect and the vice president-elect don’t have access to those threat assessments, intelligence briefings, real time information about our engagements around the world,” Psaki said on Friday.