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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are on edge after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan this week—and some say they are disappointed in what they describe as the White House’s lackluster response.
The Department of Defense and State Department gave a classified briefing to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Monday evening, and, according to Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-WY) recollection, senators from both parties expressed concern that the Biden administration didn’t more full-heartedly back up Pelosi when China started issuing threats.
“Members were very clear—from both parties—with the White House and the administration as to our thoughts on the wisdom of Speaker Pelosi’s trip,” Barrasso told The Daily Beast. “The White House should have supported the Speaker of the House when the threats were made about the Speaker of the House. I thought the White House showed significant weakness by saying, well, we don’t know, as opposed to saying this is the Speaker of the House of the United States she’ll go if she decides to go.”