Former WH Chief of Staff John Kelly Says Trump ‘Hurts Our National Security’ by Blocking Biden Transition: You Can’t ‘Go From Zero to 1,000 MPH’
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Retired four-star general and former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly offered a sharp rebuke of his former boss, saying the president “hurts our national security” with his insistence on blocking the official Biden transition to pursue absurd conspiracy theories to try to overturn his election loss.
According to an interview Kelly did with Politico, Trump’s previous top White House staffer insisted that the president should immediately allow his successor to receive intelligence briefings and begin the process of transitioning the federal government.
“You lose a lot if the transition is delayed because the new people are not allowed to get their head in the game,” Kelly told Politico. “The president, with all due respect, does not have to concede. But it’s about the nation. It hurts our national security because the people who should be getting [up to speed], it’s not a process where you go from zero to 1,000 miles per hour.”
Kelly, like an overwhelming number of former White House officials, has become a something of a Trump critic since leaving the president’s inner circle, disputing his integrity and reportedly trashing him in private as ‘the most flawed person I have ever met.”
Continuing in this vein, Kelly went on to say the ongoing delays would have an accumulating affect on the Biden administration’s ability to govern on day one. It’s a sentiment Republican senators have expressed as well.
“The transition, in the national security realm in particular and the homeland security realm, is just so important that every day that the transition is delayed really kind of handicaps,” Kelly said in the interview. “I know Mr. Trump better than most people do. I know that he’ll never accept defeat and, in fact, he doesn’t have to accept defeat here. He just has to do what’s best for the country and in the country’s interest.”
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