Unavoidable for Comment: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Wants You to Know She Watched a Missile Test—on TV

Photo: Courtesy Tulsi Gabbard
 

While the rest of us were taking photos of mystery lights in the western skies on May 20, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attended a live simulcast of a missile flight test off Kauai at Fort Belvoir, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C. And apparently this news was worth a whole press release.

We now know those squiggly contrails over Hawaii skies were not caused by visitors from another planet, but by a flight test of the land-based Aegis ballistic missile defense system. Rep. Gabbard’s press office wants you all to know that she took a half-hour drive to watch the test on a TV screen.

Kidding aside, the test was serious business: The Aegis facility on Kauai is part of the nation’s missile defense strategy, especially in light of recent threats from North Korea. “Not only have missile threats from North Korea been increasing, so are their capabilities—putting the U.S. and the people and national defense assets in Hawai‘i, under threat,” Gabbard says in the news release.

Still, Gabbard’s press office is quite prolific. According to our unofficial tallies, we received eight press releases, media advisories and statements from Gabbard last week. The week before we received 11.

To be fair, it’s election time, and all of our elected officials are clamoring for attention. ‘Tis the season.