90. Strawman wrote:
…he should also have to apply for a security clearance, just like any other federal employee. And if he doesn’t qualify according to the rules that apply to civil servants (i.e. past associations with revolutionaries, etc.), he shouldn’t be issued a security clearance, and shouldn’t be allowed access to classified information.
Peter writes: It wouldn’t be the first time. FDR prior to Pearl Harbor was taken off the list of individuals authorized to receive ULTRA intelligence (Intel obtained through the breaking of Japanese naval codes) when an ULTRA dispatch was found thrown out in an ordinary White House garbage can.
People will claim the President needs to be informed of all intel to do his job properly, but it has been shown time and time again that when politicians are given classified material, it winds up leaking to the public either purposely or accidentally. Several hundred submariners lost their lives because a US Senator decided it would be a good idea to tell newpaper reporters that Japanese depth charges were set 100 feet too shallow during WWII. A more recent example is someone in Congress leaking the CIA plan for killing Al Qaeda big-wigs that never got implemented but was still considered classified.
If the POTUS can’t pass the same requirements I had to pass to obtain a TS clearence, he should not be receiving classified materials.
