There is a secure and large enough room at Capitol Hill for the entire Senate to fit in and be able to get briefed on important events. However, on Monday Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters during a daily press briefing that a meeting was convened by the Senate leadership to take place at the White House on Wednesday, over North Korea.
Going to Trump on bended knee
Lawmakers have reportedly wondered why; given that there wouldn't be much room the 100 senators, and some even suspected that it was for a photo-op for the President before he reached his 100-day mark.
In a report published by Blasting News about Devin Nunes' widely reported "midnight run" to the White House, it referred to a statement made by former CIA official Jeremy Bash which says that when he was asked about being invited to the White House for sensitive information. He said that the new information would have to be brought to Capitol Hill, that Congress doesn't go to the White House on bended knee.
As noted, Capitol Hill already has very secure rooms to view confidential information. In one report by the Washington Post, it points out that "Past administrations have often held briefings for smaller groups of about two dozen or fewer lawmakers in the White House Situation Room.
But the White House have traditionally sent high-level aides to Capitol Hill to hold discussions with larger groups in secure "underground locations."
Sensitive but already public information?
As to the security of the location, A Trump White House official said that they would be meeting with senators at the auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is next to the White House.
That is in the same building where most of the National Security Council is housed and according to the Washington Post, "The auditorium would temporarily be turned into a "sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF)."
Little was learned during a rare all-hands North Korea briefing at the White House, senators say https://t.co/lUw7hLVMsD pic.twitter.com/MSDEeA42t6
— CNN (@CNN) April 27, 2017
We come back to the question of why the White House couldn't hold the meeting at their Capitol's own secure rooms, with an official wondering if they were going to be providing classified information in a setting that is not secure or if they were even going to mention any classified information at all.
After the meeting took place, most senators said that the briefing didn't give them anything that they couldn't already get from the newspapers. Spicer would later say that the private briefing would not be about strategy and that it belonged to the Senate, they just offered their auditorium instead.
And while Spicer has also said that this was originally started by a Senate leader -- Mitch McConnell specifically -- another official said that it was the President's idea to have the meeting at the White House and that the Senate leadership had agreed. The tension between the U. S. and North Korea has increased since Trump threatened to take military action against them for their continued missile tests. Its been reported that Trump has been working with China to try and restrain the nuclear power but North Korea appears to be flexing their muscle as well.
