Lawmakers to receive briefing from Biden administration on Thursday

Lawmakers are slated to receive a briefing from members of the Biden administration on Thursday after Russia announced it was launching a military operation into Ukraine.  

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed to CNN in an interview late Wednesday that lawmakers would be getting a full briefing on Thursday.

“There will be a senator’s briefing tomorrow that we will be participating in with the White House. So we will be getting a full briefing tomorrow to update us as to the current plans, but this administration — the Biden administration has been briefing us almost on a daily basis, giving us information on a daily basis to the members of the Senate. So we’re fully aware of what was transpiring,” Cardin said in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon. 

Lemon asked him if he could verify reporting from CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju that House members would be briefed on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and would include Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. 

Raju had noted that a separate briefing would be held for senators at 5 p.m. and that both calls would be unclassified. 

“Can you confirm?” Lemon asked Cardin.

“I think that’s accurate. As I said … we’ve been informed there will be a briefing tomorrow. The information you have is accurate. It will be unclassified,” Cardin replied. 

Sources also confirmed both meetings to The Hill. 

The development comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced early Thursday morning in Russia that a military operation in Ukraine would be launched despite a plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for peace.

The move was condemned by President Biden, who said that Putin had “chosen a premeditated war” and vowed that the “world will hold Russia accountable.”

The moves were also condemned by U.S. lawmakers in both parties and they called for more severe economic punishment to be administered to Russia. 

“President Biden has already imposed an initial tranche of sanctions, and it is now time for us to up the pain level for the Russian government,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement. 

“America and our allies must answer the call to protect freedom by subjecting Putin and Russia to the harshest economic penalties, by expelling them  from global institutions, and by committing ourselves to the expansion and modernization of our national defense,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement issued through Twitter.

Jordain Carney and Rebecca Beitsch contributed to this report