White House Misled Public About Defensive Measures Against North Korea: Report

WASHINGTON, DC — While the White House said it was sending an aircraft carrier to serve as a deterrent against North Korean missile launches last week, the ship was actually heading away from the peninsula toward the Indian Ocean, according to a report from the New York Times. Officials from the White House told the Times that its information about the ship, Carl Vinson, along with four other warships, came from the Defense Department.

"Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from a premature announcement of the deployment by the military’s Pacific Command to an erroneous explanation by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — all of which perpetuated the false narrative that an American armada was racing toward the waters off North Korea," Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt reported in the article Tuesday.

These missteps were revealed after the Navy posted a photo, taken Saturday, showing the Carl Vinson in the Indian Ocean, far from North Korea. Though the White House directed any comments on the matter to the Pentagon, the reporters note that they were told that officials were puzzled about why the Pentagon had not corrected the timeline of events in light of the incorrect comments coming from the White House.

Read the full report at the New York Times.

Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matt Brown/U.S. Navy via Getty Images