In Another Stark Break With Trump, Biden Lavishes Praise On US Intelligence Community
President predicts next "shooting war" could be the result of a cyber breach of "great consequence"
Donald Trump famously spent his four years as president essentially at war with his own intelligence apparatus.
He derided the US intelligence community as “passive and naive.”
Trump notoriously also frequently ignored the daily briefings the intelligence agencies would prepare for him, known as the President's Daily Brief or PDB.
In all, intelligence and national security experts agreed that Trump's treatment of the US intelligence community ultimately damaged and eroded what has long been a crown jewel in the American national security crown.
However, Tuesday, Trump's successor traveled to the nerve center of that intelligence community to thank them, lavish praise on their work — often carried out in the shadows — as well as offer a rather ominous warning.
“Folks, the main reason I came — and I mean this sincerely — is to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Biden told a crowd of intelligence professionals gathered for his visit to the National Counterterrorism Center at the Liberty Crossing Intelligence Campus, just outside Washington DC. “The American people, almost by definition, are not able to know what you do. And you devote so much of your time, your effort, and many of you end up risking your lives in the intelligence community to do things to make sure that your families and people back here are safe — make a difference.”
In the wake of Trump's caustic treatment of the intelligence community, Biden offered a promise.
“I promise you: You will never see a time, while I’m president of the United States, when my administration in any way tries to affect or alter your judgments about what you think the situation we face is. I’ll never politicize the work you do,” he said. “You have my word on that. It’s too important for our country.”
In another notable break with his successor, Biden told his audience just how much he has valued their daily briefings.
“You know, one of the things I miss most during the four years between my time serving as vice president and being a professor in a college — and I mean this sincerely: From the time I was 31 years old, every morning I woke up and got in the train to come to — I commuted every day from Delaware after my wife and daughter were killed. And I’d come every day, and one of the things I would get — I’d get a brief in the morning. And I was more informed than 99 percent of the American people. You know what I miss most, for real, from those four years of being a professor? The PDB,” Biden said to laughter. “No, you think I’m joking. I am not. A sense of knowing where all the pieces were. Whether we had it all down, we knew where all the pieces were. We knew where the pieces were.
“And so now I have access again — and to the chagrin of many of you, I read it in detail. And I ask questions of my briefers and follow up with my team. And I ask each of you the same thing I asked [National] Director [of Intelligence Avril] Haines, ‘Just give it to me straight.’ I’m not looking for pablum; I’m looking for straight-from-the-shoulder assessments,” the president said. “And when you’re not sure, say you’re not sure. But give me your best judgment of what you think is — your best judgment is better than almost anybody else’s judgment in the whole world — even if the news is hard, even if the news is bad.”
In his remarks, Biden also revealed a startling and dire prediction — particularly given that cybersecurity breaches have become an increasing, prevalent and dangerous threat over his tenure, such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware cyberattack which touched off temporary fuel shortages in some parts of the United States.
“I can’t guarantee this, and you’re as informed as I am, but I think it’s more likely if we end up in a war, a real shooting war with a major power, it’s going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach of great consequence,” Biden said.
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