For more than 60 years, presidential nominees have received intelligence briefings after clinching the nomination. Well, the Democratic and Republican nominees at least. And now the Libertarians are calling foul.
The chair of the party, Nicholas Sarwark, sent a letter to the General Services Administration requesting its ticket, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, be allowed to receive the same briefings that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have already received.
Sarwark told The Washington Times: "The old party candidates have had access to security briefings for weeks now. Gary Johnson is a major party candidate ... and he needs access to the same information as his challengers so the American people can hear his take on a level playing field."
The briefings started in 1952, thanks to President Harry S. Truman. He took office after President Franklin Roosevelt died, but he said he was basically clueless on day one. So he invited the two major party nominees to get the briefings. And it was put into federal law not too long after that.
As of right now, the briefings are given to nominees of major parties and anyone "who has been determined by the Administrator to be among the principal contenders for the general election." So basically, the one person standing between Libertarians and security briefings is this woman — GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth.
And the guidelines Roth uses to decide who's eligible include a pretty vague rule saying the candidate must have a "significant" level of support.
It's not clear what that is, but seeing as Johnson doesn't have enough support to even get on the debate stage at this point, getting the briefings might be tricky. The Libertarians want a reply by Sept. 26.
