Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is ripping Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for suggesting that the intelligence community give fake briefings to Donald Trump, calling it a “dangerous game.”
“It’s disturbing that Harry Reid is pressuring intelligence agencies to inject politics into their briefings,” he said in a statement released Thursday.
{mosads}“It is the duty of the intelligence community to present information and analysis to policymakers free from political bias,” Cotton added.
“Harry Reid is playing a dangerous game when he tells intelligence officials to refuse to provide these briefings to a presidential nominee or to provide false information.”
Reid on Wednesday said intelligence agencies should consider faking the classified briefings Trump will receive as the GOP’s presidential nominee, arguing he can’t be trusted with national secrets.
“I would suggest, if you’re the intelligence agencies, if you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything,” he said in Philadelphia, where Democrats are holding their party’s national convention this week.
“Fake it, pretend you’re doing a briefing, but you can’t give the guy any information.”
Cotton slammed the idea, saying it’s the kind of disinformation campaign that happens in authoritarian states like Russia.
“The system of government Harry Reid is advocating — where the intelligence apparatus provides disinformation to one party and actively supports the other — does indeed exist: in Putin’s Russia, not in the United States.”
Cotton has endorsed Trump for president.