The Wall Street Journal: Republican Lankford abandons insistence that Biden begin receiving intelligence briefings
The Wall Street Journal
Oklahoma Republican senator suggests media twisted the meaning of his promise that he would ‘step in’ if briefings of the president-elect did not begin
Oklahoma Republican James Lankford confers with fellow Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in August.
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After saying he would step in if President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris still weren’t receiving detailed intelligence briefings Friday, Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) said over the weekend his comments had been blown out of proportion.
“I’m not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings, it’s been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term ‘step in.’ I happen to chair the committee that oversees GSA, that is the entity that has to be able to make this call,” Lankford said an interview with the pro-Trump Newsmax TV Saturday.
On Wednesday, in an interview with KRMG radio in Tulsa, Okla., Lankford said: “If that’s not occurring by Friday, I will step in as well and be able to push and say, this needs to occur.”
Lankford said he was using the term “step in” to ask the General Services Administration about their process and act as a sounding board for the agency.
President Donald Trump hasn’t conceded the election, and the Trump administration hasn’t issued the typically routine technical designation that would assist Biden’s staff in preparing to take over in January.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
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