Obama: President without briefings would be ‘flying blind’
NEW YORK — President Barack Obama says any president who shuns daily intelligence briefings would be “flying blind” on national security matters, a stiff push-back against Donald Trump’s suggestion that that he doesn’t need daily read-ins to fulfil his campaign pledge to “make America safe again.”
“I think the president-elect may say one thing and do another once he’s here” in the White House,” Obama said late Monday on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
Intelligence agencies, Obama said, “are not perfect, they would be the first to acknowledge that. If you’re not getting their perspective, their detailed perspective, then you are flying blind.”
Trump said on “Fox News Sunday” he’s not interested in daily intelligence briefings unless developments have changed enough to merit his attention. Trump campaigned heavily on making national security his priority, crafting one widely seen ad around the phrasing that he’ll “make America safe again.” He wrapped several campaign proposals in the national security theme, including a temporary ban on Muslim immigration and immediate deportation of millions of people in the country illegally.