Randy Bryce, the Democratic candidate challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), revealed in a CNN interview Wednesday that he does not have "specifics" on the escalating nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
Bryce was asked about North Korea's ongoing nuclear weapons program, in contravention of international law.
North Korea said on Wednesday that it had conducted a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could carry a large nuclear payload. A spokeswoman for the Pentagon confirmed the test and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for new international sanctions.
CNN host Poppy Harlow asked Bryce how President Donald Trump's White House should respond to the missile test.
"I don't have specifics, I haven't seen exactly what—I don't have information on what North Korea launched," Bryce said.
"I have ideas, and there's things I'd like to say, but right now it would honestly be speculation, and I don't feel comfortable just going based off of what I saw on social media," he said.
"You have no specifics?" Harlow asked.
"I don't have specifics on what's going on in North Korea," Bryce said. "I feel that we need to be able to defend ourselves."
He did mention awareness of U.S. presence in the Korean demilitarized zone, saying that "we need to look at ways to take care of them when they come home."
Bryce, a union worker and Democratic organizer from Wisconsin, announced he was running for Congress in a video that quickly went viral. Bryce has run for an education board and twice for state legislature, and has lost each time.