U.S. President Joe Biden is looking at removing former U.S. President Donald Trump's access to intelligence briefings as a result of the Capitol building riots.
Biden's national security team is evaluating the former leader's access, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. "It is something obviously that's under review," Psaki said in remarks quoted by the New York Post.
Meanwhile, several Republicans in former President George W. Bush's administration are abandoning the party, upset by a failure of many members to reject Trump after his allegations of election fraud triggered the Capitol riots.
The Republican Party "as I knew it no longer exists. I would call it the cult of Trump," according to Jimmy Gurule, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.
The intelligence briefings are normally extended to former presidents as a courtesy. Fears about giving Trump classified information escalated following the events at the Capitol and after Congress impeached him for "incitement of insurrection."
Some former Trump administration officials said he can't be trusted with national security secrets.
Democratic House Intelligence Committee chairperson Rep. Adam Schiff (California) last month said that the former president should not be provided with intelligence reports.
Susan Gordon, former Trump principal deputy chief of national intelligence, shared that view in an editorial in The Washington Post and recommended Trump be "cut off."
