Why no discussion of bogus ICBM alert in State of the State? Ige says he's talked about it enough
Gov. David Ige says he didn't discuss the missile alert mistake during his State of the State address because he's already talked about it.
"I didn't think it was appropriate. I made lots of press statements Monday, last week and we had a hearing," said Ige.
Some lawmakers say he should have addressed it, but others disagreed.
"The elephant in the room was that there was no mention of the fiasco missile alert," said state Rep. Gene Ward, a Republican.
"I think so far we haven't had a good explanation from the Governor. I was very disappointed with the hearing we had on Friday. I felt like it was sort of perfunctory. Almost like it was set up to be nothing," said Democratic state Rep. Beth Fukumoto.
"He's done a number of press availabilities, a number of statements. I think that covering other big issues just helps us to highlight the many other issues," said Senate Majority Leader Kalani English.
Political analyst Colin Moore says not mentioning the false alert made it an even bigger distraction.
He's taken this monumental error and then magnified it by not addressing it directly,' he said.
Despite the controversy and criticism over the missile alert mistake, the Governor insists it will not detract from his priorities.
"We will be advocating for our priorities that we believe that the people of Hawaii share," said Ige.
Copyright 2018 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
