The full Senate is set to make a "field trip" to the White House Wednesday afternoon for a security briefing on the North Korean threat.
The senators were invited at the personal invitation of President Donald Trump after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, requested a briefing. The president is scheduled to "stop by" the briefing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds.
White House officials say the South Auditorium will be turned into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or "SCIF," and the briefing will be led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats.
Using the White House grounds for a full briefing with the Senate is a rare move, but administration officials told ABC News that too much shouldn't be read into the choice of location.
Officials said that after hearing of McConnell's request, the president suggested nonchalantly that the senators should come to the White House because he's a "gracious host." Trump has cultivated a reputation in his meetings at the White House for relishing the opportunity to show off his historic digs.
Separately, the optics of inviting the full Senate to meet at the White House in advance of the president's 100-day marker are not being ignored.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, discussed the North Korea briefing during a dinner Monday evening at the White House with President Trump, was asked on Capitol Hill whether the off-campus trip seemed normal.
"It’s not a normal administration," McCain replied.
Graham said he expects senators will get a chance to hear the Trump administration's stance on countering North Korea's latest aggressive moves.
“It's clear to me that this president will not allow North Korea to develop an [intercontinental ballistic missile] with a nuclear weapon on top to hit America," Graham told Fox News Tuesday. "And I think the senators are gonna hear that tomorrow night, and I hope the senators will understand if nothing changes, Kim Jong-un will have that capability relatively soon.”
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2q720vt
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