Mark Meadows told Biden's incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, during the presidential transition that 'no president' received a daily intelligence briefing, book says

Mark Meadows told Ron Klain "no president" received a daily intelligence briefing, a new book says.

In "Confidence Man," Maggie Haberman says Klain asked for Biden to get a daily intelligence brief.

"No president ever does that. That's never happened," Meadows responded, according to the book.

Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

In November 2020, then-President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told then-President-elect Joe Biden's incoming White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, that "no president" received a daily intelligence briefing after the longtime Democratic aide told his GOP counterpart that Biden wanted to be briefed daily, a new book by the New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman says.

The transition between the administrations of Trump and Biden had already been rocky, as Trump refused to concede the race in public, and his campaign attorneys were still trying to figure out ways to overturn the results in several swing states.

Meadows, a former GOP congressman from North Carolina, and Klain, a longtime confidant of Biden who had been a chief of staff to both Vice President Al Gore and Biden when he was vice president, were in communication to work together in navigating the transition process.

But Trump's continued insistence that he had won the election complicated the situation, the book, "Confidence Man," says.

"I know the president's saying these things," Meadows told Klain at the time, according to the book. "We will get it worked out."

But Biden's transition staffers continued running into issues as they received critical updates from the Pentagon later than desired and encountered delays in getting COVID-19 vaccinations set up for incoming staffers in the Democratic administration.

However, there was one area where Meadows sought clarity and seemed surprised by the response — as it pertained to the president's daily briefing.

In April 2020, The New York Times reported that Trump generally did not complete reading the intelligence reports, with several former intelligence officials telling the newspaper at the time that the then-president had a short attention span and was prone to veering off into different subjects.

The Times' report said Trump often eschewed reading through detailed reports but was attracted to graphics, charts, and other data-driven visuals.

In November 2020, after Biden had been declared the president-elect by virtually every major news outlet, Klain informed Meadows that Biden needed to begin getting the daily intelligence briefing, according to Haberman's book.

"How many days a week is Vice President Biden gonna want this daily brief?" Meadows asked, the book says.

Klain was taken aback by the question, telling Meadows that Biden — a chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his days in the upper chamber — would want to get a briefing daily.

Biden also received daily briefings during his time as vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

The book says Meadows responded: "No president ever does that. That's never happened."

Haberman writes that Klain's request "seemed so beyond Meadows's own experience that he could not comprehend it."