The country’s secrets would be sold “to the highest bidder” by Donald Trump if he continued to receive intelligence briefings, a senior Democrat has claimed.
The remarks by Democratic congresswoman Val Demings on Saturday came after Joe Biden suggested there was “no need” to provide Mr Trump with intelligence briefings and that they should be stopped.
Mr Biden, whose comments to CBS will air on Sunday, said there was a possibility that Mr Trump would “slip up and say something” he shouldn’t if he was briefed with sensitive intelligence, which he is able to request.
Ms Demings, agreeing with the president, told MSNBC that she believed Mr Trump might even “sell” any intelligence to whoever bid the highest, while mentioning Mr Trump's alleged connections to Russia.
In 2017 Mr Trump hosted a meeting in the Oval Office with Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow's then-ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, where he revealed secret intelligence, as the Washington Post reported.
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Mr Trump also owes around $400 million, as reported by the New York Times, which also caused concern among Democrats about national security implications tied to any loans.
"We saw him stand on the stage with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and basically do everything but ask the Russian dictator for his autograph,” Ms Demings said of the pair’s meeting in 2018, while adding that Mr Biden had been “kind” with his remarks.
“I believe this former president — and I believe it with all of my heart — that he would use intelligence as a bargaining chip or sell it to the highest bidder,” Ms Demings continued.
"I prefer to join in on the words of my Intelligence Committee chairman [Adam Schiff], there is no need — there's no circumstance where the former president should receive any intelligence, not now, or quite frankly, in the future," added the Democrat.
Asked about Mr Biden’s comments to CBS, White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested on Saturday there would be no change to a policy allowing former presidents to request intelligence, CNN reported.
Mr Biden “has deep trust in his own intelligence team to make a determination about how to provide intelligence information if at any point the former president Trump requests a briefing," she added.
