Thread: Dems lash Trump team for failing to hold North Korea briefing

Dems lash Trump team for failing to hold North Korea briefing

Senate Democrats are frustrated that the administration has still not scheduled a classified briefing on Trump’s nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un.

By ELANA SCHOR
07/18/2018 06:28 PM EDT

Even as Senate Democrats remain furious with President Donald Trump’s Russia strategy, their frustration is only growing when it comes to the other global hotspot in his sights: North Korea.

The Trump administration has yet to hold a private briefing for all senators about the president’s June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite weeks of efforts to get something scheduled, according to a source briefed on the talks.

And while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to testify next week in the Foreign Relations Committee about Trump’s Russia and North Korea meetings, Democrats are exasperated by the administration’s unwillingness to set a date for the classified briefing planned for all senators.

“We’ve been asking Secretary Pompeo to come and explain the Trump Administration’s strategy on North Korea for a long time, and they have failed to provide the necessary briefings or hearings to either the full Senate or the Foreign Relations Committee,” the panel’s top Democrat, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, said through a spokesman.

Republicans point to Pompeo’s committee appearance as a forum for Democrats to get answers. But that testimony would come six weeks after Trump sat down with Kim, and Democrats want more than a single hearing to dig into what was — or wasn’t — accomplished at the meeting. North Korea followed up the extraordinary summit by blasting the administration’s pitch for denuclearization.

Given that next week’s Pompeo hearing “is also intended to address a whole range of critical issues beyond North Korea — including Russia and Iran,” Menendez added, it is “not a substitute” for classified briefings to let senators know more about what happened during the much-touted Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.

“I think it’s unfortunate that it keeps slipping,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), another foreign relations panel member, said of the planned all-senators briefing on North Korea. “And it makes me wonder if that’s because there is nothing to report, because there is no substantive follow-up.”

One senior Senate Democratic aide described the elusive status of an all-senators briefing as “troubling.”

“What concessions did the president offer? What steps is Kim willing to take? Did they actually make any real progress or was this a glorified photo op?” the aide said. “It’s starting to feel like they are scared of pulling back the curtain.”

Democrats aren’t alone in wanting the Senate to weigh in on any final denuclearization deal the president may ultimately ink with North Korea.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said hours after Trump met with Kim that he would want any agreement “to come to Congress in some form.” The Senate GOP’s campaigns chief, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, has written legislation with Menendez that would require the submission of any deal to Congress and regular briefings from the administration.

But the Democratic clamor for a closed-door briefing on North Korea isn’t getting echoed too loudly by the GOP.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) suggested that Democrats “start with the secretary” testifying next week in the foreign relations panel “and see what else they reasonably would want.”

Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said that while “we had hoped to have a classified briefing first,” next week’s public hearing with Pompeo will have to suffice for the moment while the private North Korea huddle for all senators remains up in the air.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that although she has access to some classified material pertaining to North Korea through her seat on the intelligence committee, “I think it still would be useful to have the briefing.”

The Trump administration held closed-door briefings for large groups of lawmakers that touched on North Korea in April and August of last year, during Rex Tillerson’s tenure atop the State Department. One hurdle in scheduling such a briefing about the Trump-Kim meeting appears to be the intense travel schedule Pompeo has embarked on since his confirmation this April.

State spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Wednesday that Pompeo would use next week’s hearing to inform senators about recent trips to Japan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and the recent NATO summit in Brussels — in addition to the status of North Korea.

Nauert acknowledged that senators would also have questions about Trump’s polarizing Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but suggested that next week’s hearing would meet the briefing request that Pompeo and lawmakers had been “going back and forth” on. “This is, in fact, that meeting,” she said.

A White House spokesman referred questions on whether the briefing would be scheduled to the State Department.

Democrats are sure to fume at any assumption that next week’s hearing checks the box for briefing Congress on North Korea talks. Given the limited time for senators in both parties on only one committee to question Pompeo about a panoply of Trump foreign policy forays, they’re eager for more clarity.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a foreign relations panel member, said he is “angry” at the administration’s failure to more fully explain its approach to ongoing North Korea talks, which Trump previously described as more about “attitude” than “advance planning.”

“There’s no plan, there’s no set goals, there’s no timeline, there’s no verification,” Booker said in an interview.

Another Foreign Relations Democrat, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, stressed the "real value" of a continued conversation in a classified setting beyond next week's hearing.

“It would be valuable to have all 100 senators get answers on Singapore, and what happened in Helsinki, and what the heck he’s thinking with his tariff policy that’s driving us apart from our allies,” Coons said. “These are all connected.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...ongress-732323

LOL!! It's all been in the news, it's in the letter of understanding they signed which has been published. There's been a follow up letter from Kim to Trump, very nice, cordial, warm, respectful, reiterating commitments in general, and that has also been published. The return of the hostages was filmed live. We're a couple of weeks away from getting first group of Korean War veterans remains back home for relatives, but when that happens, it will be on the news. So .....

You're just a bunch of whining weasels who didn't do a damn thing on North Korea your entire Senate careers, yet after Trump gets all sorts of things started in a couple of months, you can't wait patiently for a timely briefing on what HE'S done? What a bunch of idiots.