While not yet acknowledging President Trump's defeat in the election, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Wednesday that President-elect Joe Biden should receive daily intelligence briefings pending certification of election results.
Lankford said that was appropriate in 2000 when legal challenges were in progress for weeks following Election Day in the contest between Vice President Al Gore and eventual-President George W. Bush, and is appropriate now, even as the Trump campaign challenges election results in various courts.
"At the same time, the intelligence community was bringing up to speed both Gore, because he was already the vice president, obviously, and Bush as the challenger in there, he was also getting intelligence briefings," Lankford said in avideo posted on his Facebook Tuesday night. "So both of them could do their stuff, they could prepare for the next time to be able to get ready, but while they were also challenging all the process and going through the legal process."
"So, as a country, we've got to get ready, and that's entirely appropriate to do that, but we've also got to make sure that we get every legal vote counted and it's actually done the right way," Lankford said.
Meanwhile, asked for Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-Okla.) opinion on the matter, a spokesperson directed Public Radio Tulsa to a tweet from a CNN reporter who quoted Inhofe as saying, "I’ve always felt that any candidate should not necessarily be involved in those until that person becomes the President-elect. And he is not the President-elect."
President-elect Biden has, in fact, defeated Trump, winning more than the needed 270 electoral votes.
