Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

This Jewish Congressman’s Tweet About North Korea And Marijuana…Oy.

(JTA) — On Wednesday, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif, attended a classified briefing with Vice President Mike Pence on the North Korea nuclear threat.

By the next day, he’d become a target of Twitter snark, for a hypothetical challenge that sounded like something out of a Seth Rogen-James Franco movie.

Sherman, who comes from what he will tell you is the best-named city in the world, Sherman Oaks, California, was not reassured by his meeting with Pence. “At classified briefing @VP urged members to ‘convey the Administration’s level of resolve to confront N. Korea,’” Sherman reported Thursday on Twitter. “That resolve is weak, phony.”

And so, Sherman explained his anxieties to Pence.

“I raised two issues: No. Korea could smuggle nuke into U.S. rather than use ICBM. Could smuggle inside a bale of marijuana, and might sell nukes to Iran, which has billions of hard currency. Waiting for answers…”

Sherman got answers, stat, but not from Pence — as far as we know.

No, Twitterworld liked Sherman’s idea — lots — but also mocked the lawmaker for what might one day be optioned as “Brad and Kumar go to the DMZ.”

By Thursday’s end, Sherman tried to explain that he didn’t really think one could smuggle a nuke into the United States packed in weed, but that he was trying to make a point. “I don’t believe that NK is likely to send a bomb in weed,” he said. “People sneak things into the U.S. every day. Can’t rely solely on missile defense.”

Too late.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version