UPDATE: 2:35 p.m. January 13, 2017 Governor of Hawaii addresses false missile threat
After hours without answers, Hawaii Governor, David Ige is addressing the error of the false 'missile alarm.'
"While I am thankful this morning's alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system. I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future," he said.
Ige met with top officials of the State Department of Defense and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency throughout the day to further investigate the false alarm.
The Governor publicly addressed the situation in detail from the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management over Facebook LIVE stating that if this happens again, the public will only have 12 to 15 minutes to prepare.
During the incident, President Trump was golfing in Florida and was briefed on the missile debacle by White House spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters, who said it was "purely a state exercise."
CNN reported that Governor Ige was told an employee pushed the wrong button during a shift change.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was the first to get the message out that it was a false alarm.
According to Gabbard, if it were a real attack, the public would only have 15 minutes to prepare.
In a phone interview with CNN, she slammed Trump for not taking action sooner.
"We're still getting to the bottom of the details," says Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard after a false alert is sent to Hawaiians informing them of an incoming ballistic missile strike https://t.co/94g2KjEfqr https://t.co/iyEAN9kJqG
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) January 13, 2018
Trump has not yet addressed the false alarm in Hawaii.
Instead, his recent tweet refers to fake news being reported and attempts to defend his mental stability.
So much Fake News is being reported. They don’t even try to get it right, or correct it when they are wrong. They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author, who knowingly writes false information. The Mainstream Media is crazed that WE won the election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2018
Last fall, the U.S. president tweeted that North Korea would be met with "fire and fury," the title of Michael Wolff's new bestseller.
Questions are rising as to whether North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un is taking his cue from the title and preparing to strike back.
North Korea has refused to shut down its nuclear weapons development program, regardless of warnings from the international community.
In Nov. 2017, Trump visited Hawaii and the site of Pearl Harbour.
During that time, the U.S. was receiving increasing threats from North Korea.
While in Hawaii, U.S. Pacific Command officers briefed him on the concerns of a potential nuclear missile strike from North Korea targeting Hawaii and Alaska.
On Nov. 28, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, which flew for 50 minutes and landed in the sea of Japan. This was the first missile since September.
The country has fired 23 missiles since last February.
This fall, Hawaii announced it would begin monthly testing of all Cold War-era nuclear warning sirens - an protocol that hasn't been done in more than 50 years.
Regarding today's false alarm, Senator Mazie Hirono tweeted that officials are still working to get to the bottom of what happened and were cautious to release information at this time.
Today’s alert was a false alarm. At a time of heightened tensions, we need to make sure all information released to the community is accurate. We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) January 13, 2018
It's been more than 70 years since the Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbour, killing more than 2,400 people and leaving another 1,100 wounded.
Following that fateful Dec. 7, 1941 in Oahu, Hawaii, America aggressively joined World War Two.
