Miles Neale (11/19/2014)
Matt Miller (#4) (11/18/2014)
John Hanrahan (11/18/2014)
Actually members of Congress have to pass background checks to get access to Top Secret information. I don't believe the President has similar requirements.They've already been checked by the time they become candidates (as soon as the nominations are locked in). really no sense in doing it again 🙂
Matt, as candidates I thought they are cleared for Secret clearance which covers both a clearing of the background and availability for office, and then later depending on the role and what committees they are seated in they may or may not be cleared for Top Secret clearance. I am probably wrong and things changed after Homeland Security changed almost everything, but that is what I believe happens.
M.
There's a similar process when they are nominated as a presidential candidate. I am not entirely clear what level of clearance they are physically granted, but the intent is for them to have reasonable access to current info and to know what they can or cannot discuss. Without specifically denoting how deep that clearance goes, it did seem to be more than the secret clearance for those candidates than the ones for congress. It came up during the last campaign because Romney didn't have an active clearance at the time.
There isn't a public statement on it, but then again - the fact that you have a security clearance and what level in itself is confidential in nature. Besides - it's hard to imagine being able to get through a presidential campaign without every bit of your dirty laundry ever popping up on at least one of the news outlets.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?