Since the mistaken missile alert in Hawaii yesterday, Donald Trump has tweeted about:
- DACA being dead because the “Democrats don’t really want it.”
- No more immigration lotteries
- Not getting enough credit for the economy
- Being “misquoted” in his interview with the Wall St. Journal
Anything missing here? For example, “my administration is doing everything it can to ensure that what happened yesterday with the terrifying alert being broadcast in Hawaii never happens again?” We must have missed that one. Can you imagine any other president remaining silent in such a moment of crisis? CNN is reporting that at the time the emergency alert was issued, Trump was on the golf course. And there is no indication Trump paused his round to determine if the 50th state was about to be obliterated.
Despite Trump’s lack of concern, the head of the F.C.C., Ajit Pai, said his agency would investigate what happened in Hawaii. Sen. Brian Schatz, (D-HI), said in a tweet, “This system failed miserably and we need to start over.”
F.C.C. commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also expressed concern about the system’s failure. “Emergency alerts are meant to keep us and our families safe, not to create false panic,” she wrote on Twitter. “We must investigate and we must do better.”
While yesterday’s incident was by far the most serious misfire of the emergency alert system, it is not the first. The New York Times has an examination of an alert apparatus in serious need of an upgrade.