GOP Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, called on Sunday for President-elect Joe Biden to begin receiving intelligence briefings that have been blocked by Donald Trump’s General Services Administration (GSA) at the direction of the president.
“I agree briefings should occur,” Cornyn, a leading Senate Republican, wrote on Twitter.
“Just a note: Senator Harris is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and has been present during classified briefings post Nov. 3rd,” he added.
The Texas Republican was responding to comments made earlier Sunday by Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, who said the former vice president’s team has not received intelligence briefings and thus cannot adequately prepare for his first days in office.
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“Those impacts escalate every day,” Klain said.
President Trump has refused to concede he lost the presidential election to Biden, alleging without evidence that widespread voter fraud led to a “rigged” election against him. The Trump campaign has filed several lawsuits in key battleground states Biden won with little success as of Sunday.
Most Senate Republicans have either peddled similar claims of voter fraud or declined to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect. Only a handful have condemned Trump’s refusal to concede.
Cornyn, who has aligned himself with Trump politically but survived a tough reelection fight for his Senate seat, said last week that Biden would “probably” be inaugurated in January.
“I have every confidence that come January the 20th, we’re going to inaugurate a new president,” he said. “And I think it will probably be Joe Biden.”
Biden has called Trump’s refusal to concede the election a national “embarrassment” and has brushed aside the proposition of suing the Trump administration to free up government resources to assist with his transition to the presidency.
