President Joe Biden has said his predecessor Donald Trump should not be given access to intelligence briefings because of his "erratic behaviour".
US President Joe Biden is refusing to give former president Donald Trump access to intelligence briefings. Photo: AFP
The US has a tradition of allowing former presidents to be briefed on the nation's security issues - as a courtesy extended by the incumbent.
But when asked by CBS News if Trump would receive the same courtesy, President Biden said: "I think not".
He cited Trump's "erratic behaviour" as his reason for refusing access.
"I don't think there's any need for him to have an intelligence briefing," Biden said in his first sit-down interview since becoming president.
He declined to speculate on what his worst fears would be if Trump were allowed to see classified reports, but he suggested the former president could not be trusted to keep confidential information to himself.
"What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?" Biden said.
The move is the first time a former president has been excluded from the tradition of being granted continued access to the briefings, according to the New York Times.
For weeks after the 3 November presidential election, Trump himself broke with tradition by failing to include his successor in security and intelligence briefings.
Trump eventually agreed to allow the formal transition process to take place, but his administration was still accused of blocking Biden's access to intelligence.
Trump feuded with the intelligence community throughout his four-year presidency and went through six national intelligence directors.
He questioned reports by US agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, and assailed intelligence chiefs for being "extremely passive and naive" over Iran.
In 2017, he disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister about an Islamic State operation in what was seen as a breach of trust by many in the US intelligence community.
During his CBS interview, Biden was asked about the impeachment trial Trump is facing in the US Senate for his role in the riot at the Capitol in Washington on 6 January.
Biden said he "ran like hell to defeat" Trump in the election "because I thought he was unfit to be president", but he would leave the Senate to decide whether the Republican should be barred from ever holding public office again.
Fox cancels vocal Trump supporter Lou Dobbs' show
US broadcaster Fox has cancelled the TV programme hosted by Lou Dobbs, a vocal Trump supporter who is accused of using his platform to spread baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
The news emerged a day after Dobbs was named in a defamation lawsuit filed by the voting machine maker Smartmatic.
The $US2.7 billion lawsuit claims the presenter was part of a "disinformation campaign" against the company.
Fox, which denies the allegations, says the decision to drop Lou Dobbs Tonight was not linked.
The veteran financial journalist, 75, has presented Lou Dobbs Tonight on the Fox Business Network since 2011. He was also an occasional commentator on Fox News, the conservative channel that has been home to several staunch supporters of Trump.
- BBC
Queensland could host Australia's first purpose-built quarantine facility
Queensland could be host to Australia’s first purpose-built privately run Covid-19 isolation and quarantine centre – with potential capacity for 6000 people.
Construction firm Wagners wants to build the centre on its land next to the international airport in Toowoomba, a city of more than 130,000 people west of Brisbane. The state and federal government’s are currently talking through the proposal.
Wagners chair John Wagner said a purpose-built complex was the best option.
He said the company had the ability to build something quickly, and stage one of the project could consist of 1000 rooms which would include single and family rooms.
Wagner proposed there would also be rooms available for staff, such as chefs, cleaners, and security staff, who would live on-site.
“They all stay on-site and what we think is instead of those people going home into their communities each night, they do like a fly-in fly-out or drive-in drive-out type roster and it would minimise the [risk] that the Covid-19 contagion would get out.
“So if you imagine that an aircraft could land, they walk down the steps of the aircraft, shove them on a bus, three minutes later they’re in a quarantine facility, they get processed there for customs and immigration, they go straight to their rooms and then they do their 14 days.”
If Toowoomba had a purpose-built quarantine facility people would be able to get off the plane and then take a three minute bus trip to the facility, John Wagner said. Photo: 123RF
Wagner said it made sense to try and manage one facility instead of having five or six hotels in Brisbane, which need police, army, and 24/7 care.
He said ultimately, the 1000 beds could be added to because the infrastructure would be in place to support up to 6000 beds.
“I think what we can do is start with 1000, get the systems right, then if we want to start bringing students back, start bringing farm workers back or if we want to start bringing international visitors back in, which we desperately need, particularly from your country [New Zealand], then we can use this facility as well.”
He said talks were underway and at this stage he could not divulge the possible cost of such a facility because it was commercially sensitive.
Wagner said the local newspaper, The Toowoomba Chronicle, ran a poll and 80 percent of the people supported the idea of such a facility.
He said ultimately it would be the federal government which would decide whether the project could go ahead.
Wagner said if they got approval, the first tranche of the building could be off the ground in five to six weeks.
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