Rep. Brooks: We Would Have Incinerated NK in an Attack

Rep. Mo Brooks said he doesn’t believe the nuclear threat from North Korea was ever as serious as some believed.

"Well, I’m not confident that it really was the kind of threat it was hyped up to be," the Alabama Republican said during a Thursday interview on CNN's "New Day."

And Brooks added: "I'm confident that the North Korean leadership wants to live. And they know if they were to attack the United States of America, we would retaliate and we would incinerate their country and they would die."

Still, despite President Donald Trump's declaration that the nuclear threat from North Korea has ended, Brooks remained concerned.

"I don’t think (the threat) was as great as it was perceived to be by people in the media. … Nonetheless, do I think it is completely gone? No, we still need to worry about it."

Meanwhile, Brooks said he preferred labeling the press as a "political foe" rather than an "enemy."

"I would use the term more as a political foe,” he said. “That’s the language I would tend to feel more comfortable with."

On Wednesday, Trump called "fake news" the nation's "biggest enemy."

• Ex-Energy Sec. Moniz: Trump Wrong on NKorea No Longer Nuclear Threat
• George Mitchell: Saying NKorea No Longer Nuclear Threat Unwise, Premature