"The photo was taken Thursday in the Situation Room during Syria briefing," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on Twitter. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Sarah Sanders clarifies Syria strike photo tweet

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended a Saturday night tweet from her official account, saying the message, which contained an official photo of President Donald Trump and his team being "briefed" on Syria, is not misleading.

"It’s from Thursday meeting when he was briefed on Syria," Sanders said in an email to POLITICO. "So no, not misleading at all."


The missile strike on Syria occurred Friday night. On Saturday night, she tweeted the photo from her @PressSec account and wrote: “Last night the President put our adversaries on notice: when he draws a red line he enforces it."

Sanders herself clarified the tweet on Sunday: "As I said, the President put our adversaries on notice that he enforces red lines with the strike on Syria Friday night," she wrote on Twitter. "The photo was taken Thursday in the Situation Room during Syria briefing."

Last night the President put our adversaries on notice: when he draws a red line he enforces it. (Inside the Situation Room as President is briefed on Syria - Official WH photos by Shealah Craighead) pic.twitter.com/GzOSejdqQh — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) April 15, 2018

On Saturday and Sunday, White House reporters pondered whether the tweet was misleading and pointed out that Vice President Mike Pence, who is seated to the right of the president in the photo, was in Peru during the strike.

"Friday night @VP was off to Peru. @nikkihaley was in NY for UN," NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "@PressSec appeared to be wearing this striped blouse at Wednesday's briefing so this behind the scenes photo in Situation Room likely not taken 'last night' as tweet suggests but earlier in week."

O'Donnell later added that she had spoken with Sanders, who told her that the photo was from Thursday.

"This is a photo from a briefing earlier in the week because Pence was in Peru on Friday when Trump ordered the strikes in Syria," added Phillip Rucker, White House bureau chief for The Washington Post.

Shortly after the joint airstrikes against Syria on Friday night, the French presidential Twitter account published a photo of Emmanuel Macron, surrounded by advisers, watching the strikes on Syrian targets, along with a stern message outlining their response.

The image was reminiscent of the photo that was taken during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, showing President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top national security officials inside the White House Situation Room watching a live video feed of U.S. special forces carrying out the mission.