Story highlights Ostensibly the reason for the trip was a classified briefing on the growing threat posed by North Korea

But the reviews coming out of the briefing from senators suggested that it wasn't deeply revelatory

Washington (CNN) It was quite the spectacle.

Nearly every member of the world's greatest deliberative body piling onto buses to take the mile-long ride to the White House on Wednesday afternoon was the definition of a made-for-TV moment. And every network carried it -- from the motorcade up Pennsylvania Avenue to the buses parked at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Ostensibly the reason for the trip was a classified briefing on the growing threat posed by North Korea and its quest for nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led the briefing. (The quartet later briefed House members -- on Capitol Hill.)

And there's no question that the situation with North Korea not only appears to be growing more urgent but has also turned into a front-of-the-mind issue for this President and his top advisers.

But the reviews coming out of the briefing from senators suggested that it wasn't deeply revelatory.

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