Former US vice president Joe Biden on Friday night said that he has begun receiving intelligence briefings as he warned that Russia, China and other adversaries were attempting to undermine the US presidential election in November.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was not specific and offered no evidence while addressing a virtual fundraiser with more than 200 attendees.
However, in the process, he confirmed receiving classified briefings after saying as recently as late last month that he was not getting them, but might request one about reports of Russian bounties being offered on US troops in Afghanistan.
Photo: AFP
“We know from before, and I guarantee you I know now, because now I get briefings again. The Russians are still engaged, trying to delegitimize our electoral process,” Biden said.
“China and others are engaged as well in activities designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome,” he added.
The White House and the US National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Biden’s statement.
Reached by telephone, a Biden spokesperson did not immediately provide further details.
Biden received intelligence briefings while vice president, but told reporters he was not getting them as of June 30.
He then said that US President Donald Trump’s administration had not offered classified briefings, even though they are traditionally provided to major-party nominees once they win the primary.
Biden would not formally become the Democratic presidential nominee until the party’s convention next month.
Biden has previously suggested that Trump could hold up emergency funding to help the US Postal Service continue normal operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated the agency’s finances and contributed to a huge drop in mail volumes.
Trump has repeatedly said he opposes expanding mail-in balloting during the pandemic, suggesting without evidence that doing so could lead to widespread fraud — even though there is equally no evidence the president or White House will use Postal Service funding to do what Biden is suggesting.
Biden lobbed similar charges on Friday, saying that Trump might try to “defund the post office so they can’t deliver mail-in ballots.”
“Frankly, this is the thing that keeps me up most at night,” Biden added. “Making sure everyone who wants to vote can vote, making sure that the vote is counted, making sure we’re all trusting in the integrity of the results of the election.”
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