ADVERTISEMENT

Chelsea Clinton Criticizes Trump's Response to North Korea Missile Test as Careless

Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Clinton / AP
February 13, 2017

Chelsea Clinton criticized President Donald Trump on Sunday night for scrambling to respond to North Korea's latest ballistic missile test while eating dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Trump was huddled with aides Sunday during his meal at Mar-a-Lago to plan a response after he learned that Pyongyang test-fired a new type of medium- to long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile.

Senior White House aides, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, used their cell phone lights to look through documents with Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was dining with the president in the middle of the restaurant terrace, surrounded by other diners, CNN reported. The dinner continued as the waiters brought the main courses to the table, until both leaders went to a ballroom to make statements on North Korea's latest provocation.

Clinton slammed Trump for his immediate handling of the missile test in a public setting, writing on Twitter, "How many of Mar-a-Lago's new members will be (already are?) members of foreign intelligence agencies & media organizations?"

After North Korea launched the missile, Trump and Abe quickly prepared brief statements that they issued in a ballroom at Mar-a-Lago.

"North Korea's most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable," said Abe, whose country views North Korea as a primary security threat. He affirmed Trump's commitment to the U.S.-Japan alliance and said Pyongyang must abide by all relevant existing United Nations Security Council resolutions on its nuclear and missile activity.

Trump pledged his support to America's alliance with Japan but did not condemn the North Korean launch.

"I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent," Trump said.

Clinton's tweet appeared to describe Trump's response to the missile test as careless, suggesting that foreign operatives will now try to plant themselves at Mar-a-Lago to learn U.S. national security secrets.

Clinton's mother, Hillary Clinton, received similar criticism during her failed 2016 presidential bid because of her private email server. As secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used a private server for her email exchanges, which experts and others familiar with the matter said compromised sensitive national security information.

FBI Director James Comey said in July that Clinton and her State Department aides were "extremely carless" with classified information. He also said that the FBI probe into Clinton's private server found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time it was sent or received.

Chelsea Clinton's criticism of Trump has not been her first since the president entered the White House, the Daily Mail noted. The former first daughter retweeted earlier on Sunday a link to a story about the Department of Education misspelling the name of WEB Du Bois and has publicized her opposition to Trump's travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries over terrorism concerns.

Clinton also got into a Twitter spat with Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, earlier this month

Clinton called out Conway on Feb. 3 for falsely citing the "Bowling Green Massacre" as one of the main reasons for Trump's ban. Conway had said on television that two Iraqi refugees carried out an attack at Bowling Green, Ky. No such incident occurred.

Clinton tweeted, "Very grateful no one seriously hurt in the Louvre attack ... or the (completely fake) Bowling Green Massacre. Please don't make up attacks."

The "Louvre attack" was a reference to an incident in Paris where a man wounded one person while wielding a machete near the Louvre museum. A soldier who was nearby shot the assailant, wounding him.

Conway struck back by reminding Clinton that Trump won the presidential election and that her mother has been embroiled in a fake attack scandal of her own.

Conway was referencing Hillary Clinton's false claim that she landed under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996.