Amidst the ongoing situation in North Korea, President Trump summoned nearly the entire Senate to the White House for a briefing on the escalating intensity of the U.S.’s current standoff with the isolated and increasingly dangerous country. Lawmakers were seemingly expecting to come away from this briefing with new intelligence on how the White House would be moving forward in diplomacy or military action against Kim Jong Un’s regime, but most were left wondering why they were bussed into an auditorium that could barely fit them. Mostly, they didn’t know why the briefing took place at all.
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth discussed the (pointless?) briefing with Anderson Cooper:
“I seriously felt like I could have gotten all that information by reading a newspaper. I did not see any new information coming out of that briefing at all. It felt more like a dog and pony show to me than anything else.
I guess they successfully accomplished putting 100 people on three buses and tying up traffic in Washington, D.C. to get us over there for a briefing.”
Not everyone shared Duckworth’s dismissive feelings on the briefing. Democratic Senator Chris Coons called the briefing “sobering” and “an important opportunity for the entire Senate to hear the emerging plans of the Trump administration to confront what is a very real threat to our security.”
Meanwhile, Senator John McCain echoed the feelings of his peers that this was a relatively pointless briefing that could’ve been handled better: “I didn’t hear anything new because I have been heavily briefed before,” he said.