President Biden took a break from the long vacation of his presidency to fly to Maui for a couple of hours yesterday. He spoke at the Lahaina Civic Center. The White House has posted the text as “Remarks by President Biden at Community Engagement with Residents Impacts by Wildfires.”

When is “no comment” better than remarks geared for the occasion? When you can’t help talking about yourself and making up stories, “no comment” might have the edge. Engage this:

I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it’s like to lose a home. Years ago — now 15 years ago — I was in Washington doing “Meet the Press.” It was a sunny Sunday, and lightning struck at home on a little lake that’s outside of our home — not a lake, a big pond — and hit a wire and came up underneath our home into the heating ducts — the air conditioning ducts.

To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette, and my cat. But all kidding aside, I watched the firefighters, the way they responded.,,,

The smoke — and the firefighters here can tell you — sometimes smoke is so thick. From the windows out, it was that thick inside the home. And we were — we were insured. We did not have any problem, but being out of our home for a better part of a year was difficult.

What a doddering loon.

Biden also recalled the death of this first wife and daughter Naomi were killed in the accident before he was first sworn in as a Senator.

I was a young senator being taken care of — not a joke — by Danny Inouye, who was my mentor. I was 29 years old. I wasn’t old enough to be sworn in as a senator yet. And for — by the way, for 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress, so I didn’t get there based on my income.

It kind of makes you wonder how he became a millionaire after a lifetime in “public service.”

I’m not sure Biden’s remarks comforted the afflicted. The New York Post headline puts it this way: “Angry Maui residents slam Biden, hold ‘no comment’ signs during president’s fire tour.” The New York Post evaluates Biden’s vacation break in the editorial “Joe Antoinette Biden lies to survivors, makes it all about himself in Hawaii.” They do not give him credit for omitting reference to Beau Biden’s flag-draped coffin.