Congress learned about Russian anti-satellite weapons weeks ago — Johnson

"This is a matter that we’ve known about for a few weeks,” he told reporters on Feb. 14 following a classified briefing.

“We requested a meeting with the president. I did, we did in writing in January."

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner recently made public a disclosure, issuing a cryptic statement about a ‘serious threat to national security’ on Feb. 13. He called on U.S. President Joe Biden to declassify information about the threat so that potential U.S. responses could be publicly discussed.

The U.S. response to this threat must be immediate, Johnson said.

"The United States can’t rely on other nations to handle matters like this,” he said.

“We must do it ourselves, and we will."

Turner described the threat as a "Russian anti-satellite weapon," and shortly after, ABC reported that Russia intends to deploy nuclear weapons into space to threaten satellites.

White House spokesperson John Kirby confirmed during a Feb. 15 briefing that the threat is related to anti-satellite capabilities being developed by Russia, but did not fully disclose the nature of the threat.