[Washington Examiner] Former CIA Director Michael Hayden cheered after President Biden said former President Donald Trump should not receive intelligence briefings, a much different response than he gave to a similar proposal just two and a half years ago.Biden told CBS News that Trump's "erratic behavior" justified pulling his access to intelligence briefings. Hayden reacted to the news with a tweet, saying, "It’s about time!"
But he wasn't so enthused two and a half years ago, when Trump was the one who reportedly considered restricting former President Barack Obama's access.
In August 2018, Hayden told CNN the idea was "an almost unspeakable proposal" that is "so un-American. It’s hard to imagine that happening in any but the most autocratic governments in the world."
The New Yorker reported that some of Trump's advisers proposed denying Obama access to intelligence briefings, while others told him of the importance of keeping his predecessors well informed as they met with world leaders. The report said then-White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster convinced Trump not to pull Obama's access. After the report came out, Trump denied ever thinking about or discussing the idea, calling the report "fake news."
Hayden is a retired four-star Air Force general who served as director of the National Security Agency and later the CIA under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama.
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