McCain and Feinstein have a surprising reaction to Trump's 'fire and fury' threat

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's issued a fiery warning to North Korea that many interpreted as a threat of nuclear strike. Senators from both sides of the aisle were not enthused with the statement.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) released statements saying Trump's threat was counter-productive to progress.

The situation on the Korean peninsula is already volatile enough. President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments.

— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) August 8, 2017

“Isolating the North Koreans has not halted their pursuit of nuclear weapons." Feinstein said. "And President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments. There is no question that North Korea is seeking to add a nuclear warhead to an ICBM capable of reaching the United States.

“What this tells me is that our policy of isolating North Korea has not worked," she said. "The United States must quickly engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions. Hopefully, Secretary [Rex] Tillerson is already discussing the possibility of reopening talks with our Asian partners during his current trip."

"In my view, diplomacy is the only sound path forward," she concluded.

Sen. McCain spoke to KTAR radio Tuesday about the comments from the president.

"I take exception to the president's comments because you gotta be able to do what you say you're gonna do," he said. "I don't think that's a way you attack an issue and a challenge like this.

"I don't know what he's saying and I've long ago given up trying to interpret what he says. It's not terrible but it's kind of the classic Trump in that he overstates things."

McCain indicated that escalating the rhetoric only put South Korea in more danger.

"They have 1,000 rockets aimed at Seoul that could set that city on fire,” he said.

North Korea responded to the threat from Trump by saying that they were looking at a pre-emptive strike at the U.S. territory of Guam if the U.S. showed any signs of provocation.