November 12, 2020

So the petty Mango Man Child's administration is preventing President-elect Joe Biden from even accessing messages from foreign leaders, according to CNN.

"They're calling the State Department, they're not giving the president-elect the messages. In addition, they're blocking the president-elect from receiving these critically important daily intelligence briefings, all while the outgoing president has engaged in what's described as a mass beheading at the Pentagon, deinstalling the top-level brass and installing largely political loyalists," John Berman said.

He asked Sen. Angus King what's going on with the daily intelligence briefings.

"You were on the intelligence committee. The president-elect is not being given access to them. What's at stake here?" Berman asked.

"Well, what's at stake is the security of the United States. If you look back through history, for example, Bay of Pigs, Blackhawk down, September 11th. What do those have in common? They all occurred in the first year of a new administration," Sen. King said.

"In fact, the September 11th commission expressly found that the slow transition between going into -- between Clinton and Bush contributed to the problems that led up to September 11th. So this is really trifling with national security, for no real reason. there's no -- you know, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. If the president wants to condition test these ballots in various states, he can do so. But at the same time, you can do the transition, you can allow the daily briefings so that the president-elect will have the information necessary.

He called the transition "a moment of vulnerability."

"The transition, any transition, is a moment of vulnerability when our adversaries look to take advantage. And this is being done for, as I say, no reason except for apparently it's sort of the pique of the president and it's dangerous. It's just downright dangerous for national security."

Berman said Republican Senator James Langford now says that if it's still happening tomorrow, he's going to say something. "Is that enough?"

"Well, listen. It's a start. James Langford is one of the most thoughtful people in the Senate. And for him to speak out like that, he's from Oklahoma, very red state, I think is significant," King said.

"But he ought to be joined by all of his colleagues, by people that are involved in national security. But you've got to remember, John, this is a president who has expressed very little interest in the daily -- the president's daily brief, in terms of intelligence throughout his term. So maybe he just doesn't think it's a big deal, because he hasn't paid much attention to it himself. But again, if there were some policy reason, if there were some basis for this other than just, you know, we're just going to stiff arm this guy, who apparently beat us, you know, you can understand it. But there's no argument.

"John, all of this week, all of the discussion, all the tweets and everything else, nothing has ever mentioned the national interest. There's been no discussion from this president about what's in the country's interests. And that's what's so disappointing about this, as well as being dangerous."

King said this is a "moment of danger" for the country, and he would ask his colleagues if they want their legacy to be silence.

"So my colleagues, by being silent, are just -- they're not serving the country. And I hate to say that, because I'm very close to a lot of these folks, and, you know, I understand the politics, I understand they're worried about the Senate seats in Georgia and they're worried about President Trump coming after them in a primary or something, but at some point, it seems to me, the country has to come first.

"And right now, it's clearly that every day that this goes on is putting the country in more danger. And to stand back and to allow the decapitation of the Defense Department in the middle of a transition, it's just, you know, it's pretty shocking, as you can tell. I'm not usually speechless, but this is -- this is putting the country at risk."

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