House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is urging President Biden to declassify information related to a “serious national security threat.”
“Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has made available to all Members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat,” Turner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Wednesday.
“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat,” he added.
Turner’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment and more information.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday at the White House press briefing that earlier in the week, he reached out to the Gang of Eight to offer himself for a personal briefing on the matter. That briefing will take place Thursday.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner. (AP)
“I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow. That’s his choice to do that,” Sullivan said.
“All I can tell you is that I’m focused on going to see him, sit with him, as well as the other House members of the Gang of Eight tomorrow, and I’m not in a position to say anything further from this podium at this time, other than to make the broad point that this administration has gone further, and in more creative, more strategic ways, dealt with the declassification of intelligence in the national interest of the United States than any administration in history,” Sullivan continued.
Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sullivan added: “You definitely are not going to find an unwillingness to do that when it’s in our national security interest to do so.”
Sullivan said, however, the administration has prioritized “the issue of sources and methods.”
“Ultimately, these are decisions for the president to make, but in the meantime, the most important thing is we have the opportunity to sit in a classified setting and have the kind of conversation with the House Intelligence leadership that I, in fact, had scheduled before Congressman Turner went out today,” Sullivan said.
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Sullivan again stressed that he “personally reached out” to Congress on the matter.
“It is highly unusual, in fact, for the national security adviser to do that,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Source: www.foxnews.com