Ex-Obama defense official on Hawaii false alarm: ‘Thank God the President was playing golf’

A former Defense Department official under former President Obama reacted to the false alert that a ballistic missile was headed toward Hawaii on Saturday by saying “thank God the President was playing golf.”

Patrick Granfield, a former strategic communications director at the Pentagon, posted the tweet after Hawaii officials declared the emergency alert was a false alarm.

Thank God the President was playing golf. pic.twitter.com/K7wPtsevGO

— Patrick Granfield (@pgranfield) January 13, 2018

Critics went after Trump for being at his Trump International Golf Course in Florida when the false alarm alert was sent out on Saturday.

The false alarm came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program and continued testing of ballistic missiles.

{mosads}

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) accused Trump of not taking the threat of North Korea’s nuclear program seriously during a phone interview with CNN minutes after the false alarm.

Gabbard had posted a tweet saying that “there is no incoming missile to Hawaii” and adding she confirmed with officials that the alert, sent to mobile devices and televisions across Hawaii, was a false alarm.

U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Cmdr. David Benham said in a statement that the military “has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii” and that an “earlier message was sent in error.”

Another alert was sent out on Hawaii’s emergency system 38 minutes later calling the initial alert a false alarm.