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Congress divided on Trump's tit-for-tat nuclear tests with Russia, China

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The Big Story

Congress divided on Trump's tit-for-tat nuclear tests with Russia, China

President Trump’s decision to restart nuclear weapons testing as a warning to Moscow has divided Congress - Republicans cheering while Democrats see it as a dangerous retaliation.

© Illustration / Courtney Jones; Greg Nash; and Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via Associated Press

It’s an unsurprising public divide and represents another example of how partisan positioning has Congress speaking on opposite sides of national security and foreign policy issues.

While Republicans are praising Trump for pushing back on Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear saber-rattling, Democrats are questioning the utility, safety, financing and precedent of such a step.

“It would be a mistake for us to do this because we have nothing, we have very little to gain,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee with oversight of America’s nuclear arsenal.

“If we did a test and then China decided, OK, I’m going to start testing. They’ll start testing their nuclear weapons, then their strategic forces capability gets much better,” Kelly told reporters Thursday. “We have zero to gain. This would be a gift to China.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another........

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