Biden slammed for silence on Maui wildfire catastrophe
President Biden had yet to offer a verbal statement Monday evening in response to the mounting death toll in the catastrophic Maui wildfires — the deadliest US blaze in more than a century — after spending the weekend sunning himself on the beach near his Delaware vacation home.
The 80-year-old commander-in-chief avoided reporters upon his return to Washington Monday morning, walking directly across the White House lawn to the Oval Office without approaching the press to give a statement on the tragedy, as US leaders often do.
The White House later put out a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, taking note of the carnage in Maui and detailing government resources on offer to beleaguered residents.
“As residents of Hawai’i mourn the loss of life and devastation taking place across their beautiful home, we mourn with them. Like I’ve said, not only our prayers are with those impacted – but every asset we have will be available to them,” read the statement attributed to Biden.
A day earlier, the president offered a stony-hearted “No comment” when asked about the death toll, which has climbed to at least 96. During a bike ride Sunday morning, Biden gave a similar unfeeling answer when asked about the tragedy.
“We’re looking at it,” he said when asked if he planned to visit the Aloha State.
Biden is currently scheduled to visit Wisconsin Tuesday and travel to Camp David Thursday to meet with the leaders of South Korea and Japan the following day. He is then due to travel to Lake Tahoe, Nev. and remain there until Aug. 24.
Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink posted a photo of Biden lounging with a group of people on Rehoboth Beach Sunday afternoon, triggering outrage on social media.
“I campaigned for you,” raged former Hawaii legislator Kaniela Ing early Monday. “Now, when I lose dozens of my friends, family, and neighbors. This?”
“Biden doesn’t give AF [a f–k] about the suffering people of Maui,” tweeted Monica Crowley, former US Treasury Department assistant secretary for public affairs during the Trump administration.
“Or the suffering people of East Palestine, Ohio. Or the suffering people in border towns. Or the suffering people anywhere in America,” she added.
Republican Kari Lake, who lost her 2022 bid to be Arizona’s governor, also ripped the commander-in-chief.
“One of the most beautiful places on earth has been reduced to cinders. In Delaware: @JoeBiden can’t be bothered to care. Putting America First means getting this joker out of the White House,” Lake wrote on X.
The president “rode his bike to the beach while the people of Lahaina, Hawaii dug through the ashes of their shattered community. And Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” she added.
Stephen L. Miller, an editor at conservative outlet The Spectator, tweeted that Biden “just came back from a 14-day beach vacation. Spent 4 days in DC, now is back on the beach and has no comment for wildfires that wiped out entire communities. Just incredible stuff.”
Another furious commentator compared Biden’s response to the war in Ukraine.
“Biden in a nutshell. East Palestine: No comment. Maui: No comment. Ukraine: send them another 24 billion,” the X user wrote.
The criticism of the president enjoying the beach while declining to offer words of consolation put White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the defensive at her regular briefing Monday.
“You’ll hear from the president on this,” Jean-Pierre promised. “I don’t have anything to announce at this time, but certainly, he’s the president and you’re going to hear from him.”
“It’s been a devastating devastation,”the chief spokesperson added of the fire — before bungling the names of both of Hawaii’s Democratic US senators, bestowing onto Sen. Mazie Hirono the surname “Harino” and using the pronoun “he” for the female legislator.
Jean-Pierre also referred to Sen. Brian Schatz as “Senator Shorts, Shwots, Sharts, Schatz” in a bumbling series of attempted pronunciations.
An apparent lack of White House focus during natural disasters can morph into major political blowback — as happened following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when then-President George W. Bush was attacked for praising FEMA’s response amid mounting frustrations over the response.
The grim tally in Hawaii — which is expected to rise as search and rescue operations frantically continue — made the inferno the state’s worst-ever natural disaster.
It is also the deadliest US wildfire since 1918, when 453 people died in the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association.
During a bike ride earlier Sunday, Biden gave a similar unfeeling answer when asked about the tragedy.
“We’re looking at it,” he said when asked if he planned to visit the Aloha State.
Biden is currently scheduled to visit Wisconsin Tuesday and travel to Camp David Thursday to meet with the leaders of South Korea and Japan the following day. He is then due to travel to Lake Tahoe, Nev. and remain there until Aug. 24.
The president last week declared a major disaster on Maui, pledging that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.”
