House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the warning raised by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner about a national security threat, telling reporters at a hastily called press conference Wednesday that there was “no need for public alarm.”
Mr. Turner, Ohio Republican, called on President Biden to go public with a classified national security threat in a cryptic message earlier in the day, but gave little detail about the danger.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, didn’t go into what prompted Mr. Turner’s message and said he couldn’t discuss the peril’s particulars.
But Mr. Johnson noted that his meeting Thursday with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, along with Mr. Turner, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes, Connecticut Democrat, was spurred by a letter the speaker sent a month ago to Mr. Biden regarding the threat.
That suggests that information on the threat has been floating on the Hill for some time.
The speaker said he plans to press the Biden administration to take “appropriate action,” but urged that the public shouldn’t be alarmed by the classified threat.
“We just want to assure everyone [that] steady hands are at the wheel, we’re working on it and there’s no need for alarm,” Mr. Johnson said.