In a grand display of political theater, the entirety of the Senate was loaded up into buses this week and escorted to a meeting with the President at the White House to discuss information related to North Korea.
Despite the mass accommodations meant to shuttle the 100 senators, some chose not to attend – namely, Senator Bernie Sanders. Speaking during an interview with Chris Hayes, Sanders explained that he chose not to attend the meeting because he felt it was pure theater with no real purpose.
“I did not want to be part of a road-show for the White House.”
The Senator went on to explain that though the White House claimed the documents they wanted to show the Senators were highly sensitive and could not leave the White House itself, usual procedure for sensitive materials like this involve remaining in the Senate.
“These highly classified briefings always take place in what is called the SCIF room in the Congress. What I did not want to be, is part of a photo opportunity or a political effort on the part of the White House.”
Senators who did attend the bizarre briefing said that they remained mystified about why they had to be bussed to a remote location in order to receive information that many already heard.
Senator Richard Blumenthal echoed many of the sentiments expressed by Senator Sanders in his remarks:
“I remain mystified about why the entire Senate had to be taken over to the White House rather than conducting it here [at the Capitol].”
In the future, we hope more Senators will be a bit more like Senator Sanders and refuse to bow to the theater and the B.S. from Trump’s White House.
