WATCH: CNN’s Jim Sciutto Warns Trump Refusal to Concede Could Place America at Risk for Another 9/11

CNN anchor Jim Sciutto placed the stakes of President Donald Trump’s refusal to recognize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in stark terms when he pointed out that the delay places America at risk for an intelligence failure on a scale of the attacks of 9/11.

Trump’s denial of Biden’s victory has caused a delay in the start of the presidential transition, which caused Sciutto to raise the alarming possibility of such a failure when he interviewed Bush-era former assistant AG Jack Goldsmith Wednesday morning.

Co-anchor Poppy Harlow began by asking Goldsmith, referencing a quote from his book, “Yes or no, are the actions of the president is taking now putting this country in danger?”

“Clearly, it’s not great for our democracy,” Goldsmith replied, but did not elaborate.

“Fair,” Sciutto said, then added “Let’s put some teeth on that if we can for a moment, because they are sitting members of Congress who were around in their positions at the time of 9/11, and the 9/11 commission report specifically cited the shortened transition after the 2000 election for having an impact on national security.”

He then quoted the 9/11 Commission Report, which says that “The dispute over the election and the 36-day delay cut in half the normal transition period. Given that a presidential election in the United States brings wholesale change in personnel, this loss of time hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees.”

“The fact is, we have experience for how shortened transitions make a difference in national security,” Sciutto said, and asked Goldsmith “Why aren’t we hearing from Republicans about that, granting that potential danger?”

“I mean you’re absolutely right, the 9/11 commission were in a situation very analogous to this, where the General Services Administration would not certify the winner and therefore delayed access by the president-elect to intelligence briefings and early pre-clearances for classified information,” Goldsmith said. “They said that that was one of the reasons that may have led to 9/11, and we’re going to be doing basically the same thing because they’re not allowing the Biden– president-elect Biden to have access to these resources. I can’t explain why some Republicans are acting this way, maybe they don’t understand the implications. It’s a very dangerous game that they’re playing.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.