Sen. Rubio: Biden Downplaying Leak; ‘It Is a Big Deal’

The Biden administration is being disingenuous, deflecting, or hiding fault in the recent intelligence leaks, Republicans and intelligence experts say.

President Joe Biden said Thursday there was nothing “of great consequence” released, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said intelligence sharing and diplomacy are “not affected” by the breach.

“This downplaying of the stuff — if it’s not a big deal, why did the FBI go raid the guy’s home and arrest him in an armored vehicle?” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a senior member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said Saturday night in a televised interview. “It is a big deal.”

Rubio is calling for a “comprehensive evaluation” of how the U.S. government classifies and handles information and documents and how they are compartmentalized, particularly with who gets to view the information.

“In this case, it was posted online by a 21-year-old guy,” Rubio continued. “It doesn’t sound like he was a spy for any country. He was trying to show off to his friends, but you see the damage that it’s done.”

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder did call the breach a “deliberate, criminal act,” but when the administration was pressed on potential malfeasance, culpability, or reckless negligence, they have deflected.

Biden’s lack of concern should concern us all, Rudy Giuliani warned.

“First of all, his administration has been telling us how dangerous this is and how bad it is,” Giuliani told Newsmax “Saturday Report” host Rita Cosby. “There was one administration official who said people could die as a result of this.”

Giuliani ticked down the myriad reports of global intelligence that could put lives in danger worldwide; yet, Biden is not that concerned.

“When you look at what was leaked — just the little bit that we know about, right — it’s devastating stuff about Ukraine, about Ukraine tactics, about their vulnerabilities in the air — very, very nasty things about our allies that they’re not going want to see.”

Giuliani puts the blame squarely on Biden’s compromised mental capacity.

“What it indicates is a man who doesn’t have a sound mind,” Giuliani continued. “I mean, you can’t be a man of sound mind and constantly dismiss these things as, ‘Oh, it was just contemporary.Nothing. Well, I don’t know, the plans of Ukraine in the war are not nothing.”

Foreign allies are now going to keep intelligence from being sharing with the U.S. in the future now, Giuliani said.

“Embarrassing leaks on your allies who trust you to keep that information secret, and that’s why they give it to you — usually what results about something like this, and I’ve worked in intelligence for three years during the Cold War — usually what results is a paucity of information for some time,” Giuliani said, saying Ukraine aid is ultimately going to be curtailed world-wide over this by other countries that have stood with the U.S. behind Ukraine and against Russian aggression.

“Plus, they wanted an excuse to sort of back out of Ukraine, back out of helping us. We sure gave them one.”

Among the leaks the Biden administration has sought to downplay is the revelation there have been four spy balloons over the U.S. military bases, nuclear sites, and warships before the famed one that got all the way across the U.S. before it was shot down.

“It is stunning, Rita, and it’s not just the president,” foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang told Cosby. “It’s also the senior leadership of the Pentagon, both in uniform and civilians who don’t understand the nature of the challenge from China.

“And therefore they’re not taking the steps that they need to defend us with urgency. So this is a failure in the Pentagon as well as in the Oval Office.”

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