Sen. Chris Murphy on Wednesday was not impressed with President Trump’s display of urgency about the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
“On board the bus to the 100 days photo op/North Korea briefing,” the Connecticut Democrat tweeted Wednesday while shuttling to the White House.
On board the bus to the 100 days photo op/North Korea briefing. pic.twitter.com/v3Mg7yqrdX
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 26, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other members of Trump’s national security team met with all 100 senators on Wednesday to update them on the North Korean threat as part of a blitz of diplomatic and congressional engagement designed to produce increased international pressure on the rogue regime. Tillerson will also chair a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, following a Trump-led working lunch with diplomats from the Security Council nations on Monday.
“I don’t want to say this is all about optics, but there is clearly a message coming out of this week,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. “There’s a clear message being sent that this is front and center on our national security radar.”
Still, the Senate briefing should feature insight into the military options available regarding North Korea, he added.
“The secretary, as well as the others who will be participating in these [briefings], will just attempt to frame how we’ve gotten to this point that we’re looking at, this shift in our policy, that there is an urgency here that there necessarily wasn’t a year or so ago, and basically laying out the rationale behind our increasing concern over North Korea’s behavior,” Toner said. “And, I think, looking at efforts to apply pressure across a number of fronts. That includes diplomatic, that includes economic, it could include military as well, in order to force Pyongyang — or [rather] convince Pyongyang to negotiate.”
That’s in addition to briefings that lawmakers receive in their natural Capitol Hill habitat, where the top U.S. commander in the Pacific suggested that Congress should enhance the defenses of Hawaii to protect against North Korean missiles.
“I believe the missile interceptors that we have to defend our homeland directly in Alaska and California are critical,” Adm. Harry Harris told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. “I have suggested that we consider putting interceptors in Hawaii that defend Hawaii directly and we look at defensive Hawaii radar that improve Hawaii’s capability.”
