


This scumbag can't help himself.
President Joe Biden finally traveled to Maui on Monday, almost two weeks after wildfires killed over 100 people, left 850 people unaccounted for, and cost billions of dollars in property damage. Over the weekend, Sarah covered some responses of Lāhainā residents, including those who didn't want the president to come, with Jay Awan pointing out Biden is "just coming to Maui to look good in front of the cameras." Biden's actual visit was met with some less than welcome responses from Maui residents.
Reporting from on the ground pointed to how residents had been there "for hours" with Hawaiian flags and signs proclaiming "he's too late," "he should've been here much earlier," and "actions speak louder than words."
Of course it's worth reminding Biden didn't even have any words to say for days about the wildfires. He's been on several vacations, including to Rehoboth Beach and Lake Tahoe, where his spokespeople say he's spending "some valuable, quality family time." He also notoriously told the press "no comment" on several occasions when asked about the fires, even doing so with smirks and silence that continues to this day.
Despite such a piss poor response, the White House and even Biden himself have been trying to hit people over the head with claims that the administration has done such a fitting job, from the start, and that they're to be commended. Countless statements, fact-sheets and tweets have gone out, but much of it has been too little too late.
The start of one Twitter thread, from Sunday, wanted users to believe that Biden has been involved "[s]ince the onset of the Maui wildfires."
Another tweet, from earlier on Monday claimed that the administration was working "around the clock."
...
During a more recent press gaggle, aboard Air Force One on Monday, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton insisted "it's important to remember that the president has been there from day one." It's a view she thinks that residents of Maui need to believe too.
And then Biden showed why he's called the Cicero of Scranton.
As expected, his remarks were full of stumbles and pitfalls, with Biden not only mispronouncing the word "tragedy," but the names of Hawaiian officials as well.
During that "community event," the president said "I don't want to compare difficulties," and then proceeded to do just that, by claiming he lost his house in a fire. In reality, that "small fire" caused by a lightning strike was "contained to the kitchen" and "was under control in 20 minutes." That sounds much different from how the fires raged in Maui, as Hawaiian official M. Kaleo Manuel didn't want to let water be used to put out the flames.
Biden also recounted his Political Origin Story, again, about his wife dying in a car crash.
Mr Biden also said that he was no stranger to grief, and recalled the phone call he received after his first wife and young daughter were killed in a car crash.
What's the expiration date on this? Does he get to keep cynically exploiting a death forever?
I'm surprised he didn't regale the crowd with the tale of Beau Biden being heroically killed in Iraq.
He also "joked" about the ground being hot.
What a funny, empathetic leader.
President Joe Biden waded through the aftermath of the wildfires in Maui where he appeared to joke about the "hot ground."
The moment occurred on Monday as the president mingled with a first responder, prompting laughter from people nearby.
"You guys catch the boots out here? That's a hot ground, man," he joked.
A Biden spokesperson falsely declared that Biden has "been there since day one."
FACT CHECK: Since Day One, Biden has been on vacation twice and refused to speak about Maui at all, brusquely issuing a "no comment" to a reporter rather than express his sadness at the 111+ people killed Maui.
Biden then attempted to connect with people whose lives have been disrupted -- or even destroyed -- by a fire, noting that he once had a house fire and that the floor "almost collapsed."
FACT CHECK: This was a very small and very minor fire confined to a single room. Biden was never in any danger, nor was anyone else, not even Beau Biden.
In addition, it is factually stupid to talk about a fucking kitchen fire when you're supposedly consoling people who have lost homes, businesses, and family members to a roaring wildfire.
Biden then declared the fires to have been "unimaginable travedy."
FACT CHECK: The word "travedy" does not exist. Biden routinely reduces consonant clusters, such as the -dj- sound in tragedy, which he cannot pronounce, into slurs and entirely made-up pronunciations that are wrong but which his fucked-up strokemouth is capable of pronouncing.
Then the press tells us this is due to his "childhood stutter."
Biden also indulged his favorite pastime of badly mangling the names of local officials he's reading for the first time. Apparently he doesn't even bother to go over the pronunciation of the names before the speech. He just goes straight into claiming he's such a huge fan of people whose names sit as uncomfortably in his mouth as his wife-slash-nurse's finger.