(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, will receive regular intelligence briefings from the Obama administration starting next week.
It's customary for major-party presidential candidates to receive national security briefings from the current administration after they are formally nominated at their party's national convention—regardless of their political party.
As the Associated Press was first to report, Romney and Ryan are in the final stages of a required security clearance process that will give them access to those intel briefings.
"For the last several weeks, the Romney campaign has been in touch with the intelligence community to arrange intelligence briefings for Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, consistent with tradition," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement to reporters. "They will begin next week and, beyond that, we will have no further comment."
The statement comes just days after Romney came under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for his response to the attacks on United States diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya.