Trump Just Held A Pathetic Korea Briefing, And Even Republicans Are Pissed
President Trump’s unusual decision to bus all 100 Senators to the White House for a North Korea briefing in an unsecured room was met with intrigue from the attendees.
At least, they were intrigued in the lead-up. After the fact, the seem annoyed at best.
Even Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker (R-TN) declined to tell a reporter if the excursion amounted to any more than a glorified field trip:
When I asked Chairman Corker if the North Korea briefing trip to the White House was worthwhile, he told me "I'm not sure"
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) April 26, 2017
Another reporter got a similar response from the Trump ally:
CORKER on North Korea briefing at WH: "It was an OK briefing"
Q: What do you mean, you didn't really learn much?
CORKER: "I–it was OK…"
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) April 26, 2017
For his part, President Trump only spent 14 minutes in the meeting, per multiple sources, and apparently did nothing to improve the situation:
Dem senator says Trump briefly showed at NoKo briefing, did his "ridiculous adjective" bit.
"about 80 sets of invisible eyes rolling"
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 26, 2017
Anonymous responses from Republicans are just as discouraging:
GOP sen. on N Korea briefing: "Several senators asked specifically, 'What is the policy?' and the briefers gave us very, very few details"
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) April 26, 2017
GOP senator on N. Korea briefing: Briefing lacked "even straight answers on what the policy is regarding N. Korea and its testing of ICBMs"
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) April 26, 2017
“It’s not like we learned some earth-shaking thing that’s going to happen tomorrow," said the senator about the N. Korea briefing.
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) April 26, 2017
Even a Senator who did not intentionally disparage the meeting had to imply that he was previously ignorant of the situation in order to justify the meeting:
Sen. Lindsey Graham on the North Korea briefing being held at the WH: "This lets the Congress know and us know this is a very big deal."
— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) April 26, 2017
Hopefully, North Korea’s status as a “very big deal” is not news to Graham — the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
One thing that has been confirmed by the briefing, however, is that even when it comes to North Korea, one of the planet’s most oppressive and aggressive regimes, Trump sees nothing but political theater.
Hopefully, this is just the start of Senators refusing to play along. The stakes could not be higher.
