


The White House on Monday defended President Joe Biden's vacation amid the Hawaii wildfire disaster.
Biden spent last weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, just days after returning from a weeklong vacation there, and this Friday, he will head to Lake Tahoe for a six-day stay. Meanwhile, the death toll from wildfires in Hawaii has climbed to 93.
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"What is your response to critics who suggested that the president should not have been vacationing at the beach over the weekend as the Maui crisis became the worst wildfire in a century?" a reporter asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre responded that the president is deeply concerned and pointed to the administrationwide response to the crisis.
"The president and the first lady have been very clear about offering their condolences in making sure that we continue this whole-of-government approach," she said. "That is not going to stop. The president has also committed to being there for the government of Hawaii, the people of Maui, for as long as it takes."
Biden has no plans to visit Hawaii, though Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell briefed reporters from Maui at the top of Monday's White House news briefing.
Former President George W. Bush was widely criticized for his response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during which he initially stayed on vacation before touring New Orleans. Some have made the same criticisms of Biden.
"Joe Biden couldn’t be bothered to comment on the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history — he was at the beach," Republican National Committee spokesman Jake Schneider wrote in an email blast. "'No comment,' responded Biden — who had just spent hours picnicking on the beach — when a reporter asked about Maui’s rising death toll."
"The brushoff from a man whose campaign was centered on false premises of 'empathy' and 'compassion' is as unsurprising as it is callous," Schneider continued.
Biden has ordered a host of federal agencies to assist in Hawaii, and Jean-Pierre also pointed to firefighters and first responders who are working to respond to the disaster.
The reporter then pressed the matter a second time.
"Should the American people be seeing the president on the phone, working the phones, talking to officials rather than seeing him on the beach?" she asked.
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Jean-Pierre pointed to reports showing that he has spoken with many officials in the wake of the wildfires.
"A dozen agencies are on the ground, helping and assisting, as are hundreds of FEMA personnel," she said. "That's what matters."