Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday that he doesn't believe President Donald Trump's threat of "fire and fury" towards North Korea has ramped up tensions with the country.
"I don't think they're increasing tensions at all," he said on CNN's "New Day" Thursday morning.
Trump said earlier this week of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, "he has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before."
His comment struck some, like CNN national security expert Phil Mudd, as problematic.
"What's he going to do about it? That's the problem with ratcheting it up," Mudd said on "The Situation Room" Wednesday. "The President ratchets it up and the North Koreans say, 'OK, you have got a pair or twos, we have got three threes. We are going to put them on the table.'"
Cole said Thursday, "Frankly, I think he meant to be crystal clear to the North Koreans and I think that was probably a good thing," adding that Trump had made his point "very clearly," and that "the North Koreans should understand that [if] they engage in provocative actions, that there'll be consequences to that."
He also said that Trump has "had more success than anybody else in getting the Chinese to take this seriously."