MAUREEN CALLAHAN: I demanded doddery Biden get off his sun lounger and go to Hawaii. But after THAT shambolic visit, I take it all back… The people of Maui have suffered enough
Last week we all clamored for the president. Where was he days after the apocalyptic wildfires in Maui?
In fact, we knew where he was: on the beach at his coastal home in Delaware. He is preparing for his next vacation in Lake Tahoe. He gave a reptilian “no comment” when asked about the 1,000+ missing and the Pompeii-like damage and what his plan was.
When would he visit?
For what it’s worth, I wrote an impassioned column begging the president to go.
Now I take it all back. The people of Maui have suffered enough.
Joe Biden finally felt it necessary to take a break from his second vacation since the wildfires, to put on his threadbare robe as Empathizer-in-Chief, put his feet up in Hawaii and comfort the survivors, 13 days after the fires .
It didn’t go well.
“F**k you!” was the predominant salute of his column. Residents held unwelcoming signs: “It’s too late.” ‘Actions rather than words’.
They are right.
Last week we all clamored for the president. Where was he days after the apocalyptic wildfires in Maui? I wrote an impassioned column begging the president to go. Now I take it all back. The people of Maui have suffered enough.
Joe Biden finally felt it necessary to take a break from his second vacation since the wildfires to don his worn-out robe as Empathizer-in-Chief and comfort the survivors, 13 days after the fires. It didn’t go well. “F**k you!” was the predominant salute of his column.
Yet Joe Biden was not humiliated. Joe Biden knows no shame. Instead, he delivered a meandering speech in which he again appealed to his own tragedies, dosed as usual with a touch of exaggeration.
“I don’t want to compare the difficulties,” he said. Spoiler alert: he compared difficulties.
Once upon a time, he and Jill had a kitchen fire while he was away for a glamorous TV spot on “Meet the Press.” He almost lost his classic Corvette! Parked at his house on the water!
Would the citizens of Maui, feeling the pain of entire families burned to ashes in their homes, of the body of a 14-year-old boy discovered alone and holding his dead dog, want to hear those details?
“It was a sunny Sunday,” Biden said — oh my God, is there no one in this White House who can keep this president in the loop? – ‘and the lightning hit a small lake outside our house at home – not a lake, a large pond – and hit a wire and went under our house into our heating ducts, the air conditioning ducts.
Long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette, and my cat. But all jokes aside’ – is there a joke in this? — “I’ve watched the firefighters, the way they reacted…they came up in flames to save my wife and my family…sometimes the smoke is so thick…that’s how thick the house was.”
That is not the case, said the firefighters who responded. The kitchen fire in Biden was “insignificant,” according to the Cranston Heights Fire Company, and was extinguished in just 20 minutes.
Anyway, Joe Biden never lets facts get in the way of a good story. And no one’s suffering can ever be compared to his own.
His speech to the people of Maui was disgusting. It was all about him. Note this line: “I give you my word, as Biden.”
Like Biden? What about being president of the United States?
He had such a low bar that he had to overcome: sit on the floor, shake hands and offer hugs, look the survivors in the eye and listen to their stories, and offer a clear plan of action.
All he had to do was deliver a short, closed speech and cede the stage to local heroes—take a page from George W. Bush’s pledge on the post-9/11 World Trade Center pile.
But he can’t. Joe Biden is fundamentally and constitutionally incapable of allowing others their grief. He literally claimed to have had “a similar experience” to the Maui survivors.
He had such a low bar that he had to overcome: Lie on the floor, shake hands, offer hugs – and a clear plan of action. But he can’t. Joe Biden is fundamentally and constitutionally incapable of allowing others their grief. (Image: Flames devastate Lahaina, Hawaii, earlier this month).
“By the way,” he continued, “I’ve been on the list of the poorest man in Congress for 36 years, so based on my income, I didn’t get there.”
Can you believe this was part of his speech to the survivors? How is it German? Remotely relevant? Does Biden really want to appeal to his family’s suspicious wealth?
To quote Barack Obama, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to screw things up.”
Biden went on to lose his first wife and infant daughter in a car accident — a tragedy he blamed on the other driver, who infamously falsely accused Biden of being drunk.
“So I kind of have an idea of what it’s like.”
No, Mr. President, you don’t.
The same was true when he met Gold Star families whose loved ones died during his failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, repeatedly appealing to his late son Beau, who he often claims died in Iraq. (Beau died of a brain tumor.)
The same thing happened when he was caught looking at his watch every time one of those thirteen flag-draped boxes was unloaded from military jets at Dover.
“The most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen,” said Darin Hoover, father of fallen Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover. They released the salute, and he looked at his watch with each last salute. All thirteen, he looked at his watch.’
So now I know: Joe Biden should have stayed away from Maui. He should have sent thoughts and prayers and much more than a $700 check to each surviving family. He should have begged Barack Obama or some other esteemed Hawaiian to go.
The Rock would have done better. Jason Momoa. Everyone except the tone-deaf, crusty old Joe.
Watching a rescue and recovery dog with protective paw gear, Biden “joked” to the press, “Y’all catching the boots here? That’s hot ground, man.’
Ugh, that ‘man’. Joe is such a cool cat, don’t you know, just one of us. Amtrak Joe. Watch out: he can beat you up in the parking lot after the fourth period. Remember ‘CornPop’? The gang leader with a razor blade at the community pool in 1962? The ‘bad guy’ Joe Biden hit back with a six foot chain?
Joe Biden, pathological fabulist, national shame.
He should have stayed away from Maui. He should have sent thoughts and prayers and much more than a $700 check to each surviving family. He should have begged Barack Obama or some other esteemed Hawaiian to go. The Rock would have done better. Everyone except the tone-deaf, crusty old Joe. (Photo: Joe and Jill on the beach in Delaware earlier this month).
Those canines, by the way, have only been able to work short shifts because the ground in Lahaina remains very hot. That’s cause for concern, not a comical bit.
What about that climate crisis, Mr. President?
Speaking of, please stay away from Palm Springs and Los Angeles and all future disaster areas in general, for the love of all things sacred. The American people don’t need to see its evasive, probably demented president wandering off a podium, slack-mouthed and empty-eyed, needing guidance, as we saw Monday.
This sad display is a microcosm of the Biden presidency: no one is in the driver’s seat. The whole world can see it. Is this who the Democrats really want to support in 2024?
And where is Jill Biden in all of this? Most wives gently took their husbands by the hand and said, “Time is up. You did your best, but it’s time to leave.’
Most women would want to protect what’s left of their husbands’ dignity. legacy.
Not so with the Bidens, who are now safely tucked away in an $18 million vacation home, out of sight.
After all, that’s where their priorities lie: grafting and grafting, all under the guise of national service. What this must look like for the homeless of Maui, whose only relief is that Joe Biden has left.