Sen. James Lankford disagreed Friday with other lawmakers who complained they learned nothing new this week during a meeting between the full Senate and members of the Trump administration to discuss North Korea.
"For decades, we've done the same thing with North Korea, and they continue to be more and more belligerent and heading faster to a nuclear weapon," the Oklahoma Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
He continued that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump both said that day that a change of policy was needed on North Korea.
"They can call it a 'dog and pony show' of they want to," Lankford said, in response to comments made by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois after the meeting.
"Everyone had serious input. Many of the things we talk about in the Intelligence Committee were laid out to many members of the Senate as well."
Lankford said he does hope that it will not take military action to make North Korea back away from advancing its nuclear capabilities, even though that possibility has not been ruled out.
"You have military power there to back up your diplomatic power," said Lankford. "Your diplomacy is much more effective if you have a military option standing behind it as well. We want to push everyone to the table. Let's resolve it."
The Trump administration has reached out to North Korea and offered to meet face-to-face toward resolution, said Lankford, as the United States is not trying to solve the issue militarily, but "it needs to be resolved."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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