Democratic Senator to Trump: This Is ‘Not a Game’
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has just directly contradicted the Commander-in-Chief on what the U.S. response to North Korea’s nuclear threat should be. Earlier Wednesday morning President Trump startled many when he declared on Twitter diplomatic efforts toward a solution on North Korea’s rapidly-advancing program to become a full-fledged nuclear power are no longer possible.
“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,” Trump tweeted. “Talking is not the answer!” he concluded.
Secretary Mattis, however, apparently disagrees, as this ABC News video taken moments ago shows:
“We’re never out of diplomatic solutions,” Mattis said.
NBC Nightly News’Â Micah Grimes reports that Mattis made his remarks “while sitting in front of” South Korean officials at a meeting in South Korea.
In other words, Trump just really embarrassed himself.
Worse, however, as U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) notes, Trump’s tweet was downright dangerous.
Senator Murphy sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
Experts and the U.S. government believe North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear weapon and is very close to being able to successfully launch intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads accurately enough to hit the United States. The U.S. territory of Guam is reportedly already within the reach of Kim Jong-un’s missiles, and North Korea claims rocket tests show it can hit all of the U.S. mainland. U.S. experts disagree, but a large portion may be in range. ABC News cautions that “it remains unknown if the North Koreans have the re-entry or target technology necessary for such an attack.”
UPDATE: 12:03 PM EDT –
Longer clip of the Q&A with Sec. Mattis, questions by Military Times Pentagon Bureau Chief Tara Copp:
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