Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Friday that he doesn't really have an issue with President Donald Trump's tough rhetoric against North Korea, but he does think the president needs to be very serious to outweigh the issue.
He also told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, though, that he would not use the president's "fire and fury" language.
"I was in an event yesterday, [where] I was talking to a couple that cancelled their trip to Hawaii because they are afraid they will get nuked by North Korea," Kinzinger told show host Joe Scarborough. "I would say 'look, you don't have to lose sleep at night because we can defend ourselves against this.'"
However, he later told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," if the worst happens and If North Korea launches attacks on Guam it will not be because of Trump's rhetoric, he continued.
"The North Korean regime's behavior has been going on long before President Trump was even talking about running for president," said Kinzinger.
He also told Fox News that he believes there is a "freakout" over Trump's tough talk because people aren't used to hearing it.
"Tough talk needs to accompany a credible talk," Kinzinger said, "to hopefully compel the North Koreans to see that any provocative action will lead to the destruction not just of the regime, but Kim Jong Un will lose his life. That is a thing he treasures most."
Meanwhile, Kinzinger told Scarborough that Trump should be sticking to one message and uniting the American people, and not waging attacks against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over the Senate's failure to pass Obamacare repeal legislation.
Kinzinger said the United States needs to prepare in three ways to meet the North Korean threat, including stepping up pressure on China, boosting the U.S. military's missile defense system, making sure there is a "credible military option."
A military option, though, would lead to a "lot of bloodshed," Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan said, but he does think preparation on the three points he mentioned would make war less likely.
"We have to remember that it is the doomsday scenario we can't allow to happen," Kinzinger said, as the human cost of a war with North Korea would be "massive."
"War is something we always have to avoid, compared to what people think going in," said Kinzinger. "What's more horrific is North Korea with a nuclear weapon. It is where you could have the North Koreans selling it to other enemies, so the attack in the United States doesn't come to the West Coast."
The United States also must focus on showing China it is serious, and a war would be against its interest.
Kinzinger said he does think the United States should "be very afraid" and to look at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's actions as "highly rational."
"He has managed to keep his power," said Kinzinger. "He doesn't want to have that stripped away."
On Fox News, Kinzinger said he does believe years of failed diplomacy have led to the current tensions with North Korea.
"In order to have an effect with diplomacy you have to have a credible military option backing it up," he said. "It's the diplomatic instrument of power...diplomatic talk over the last couple of decades has led to a nuclear North Korea. That's the big issue."
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