National press roasts Ige after he blamed Twitter login troubles for missile alert response
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The governor knew within two minutes that the missile alert sent to all Hawaii phones was a mistake.
So why did it take the state 15 minutes to head to social media and confirm the message was a false alarm?
The governor's response to that question Monday had some scratching their heads — and has garnered national headlines of its own.
"I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account login and passwords — so, certainly that's one of the changes that I've made. I've been putting that on my phone so I can access the social media directly," Gov. David Ige told reporters.
He added that during those 15 minutes, he was making calls to his leadership team.
"The focus really was on trying to get as many people informed about the fact that it was a false alert," Ige said.
Cue the national headlines puzzling over the governor's answer:
BBC: Hawaii missile alert standdown delayed by forgotten log-in
Huffington Post: Hawaii Missile Alert Update Delayed Because Governor Didn't Know His Twitter Password
Ouch.
Ige has faced lots of heat for his administration's handling of the false alert, including the length of time — 38 minutes — that it took for a correction to be sent. In its wake, the governor has apologized and pledged that a false alert about an inbound ballistic missile will never be sent to Hawaii phones again.
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