- Joe Biden and his wife Jill spent five hours on Maui on Monday, interrupting their Lake Tahoe vacation to fly the five hours to Hawaii
- The president was met with signs demanding he go home, and placards asking why Ukraine was receiving billions while they were in dire need
- Speaking near the charred ruins of the sacred Banyan Tree, Biden talked about the death of his wife in a car crash; he then made a joke about ‘hot ground’
Joe Biden has sparked outrage by comparing the Hawaiian blaze that killed at least 114 people to a kitchen fire – and joking about ‘hot ground’ to a rescuer.
The President’s motorcade was met with screams of ‘f*** you’ after he finally arrived in Maui – two weeks after the inferno which left 850 people missing and destroyed the historic city of Lahaina.
Biden compounded the anger in a garbled, meandering speech about the deaths of his wife and daughter in 1972, before comparing the horrific blaze to a kitchen fire at his Delaware home in 2004.
The 80-year-old capped off his disastrous five-hour tour by asking a rescue team whether their boots were reinforced, noting the ‘hot ground’ beneath their feet in a tone-deaf attempt at humor.
Hawaiian residents and politicians have unleashed a torrent of criticism over Biden’s failure to visit the island sooner and a paltry $700 offered to each affected family.
To date Biden has approved $8.2 million in assistance to 2,700 households, according to FEMA.
Republicans were quick to compare that to the $12.1billion in security assistance that has gone to Ukraine so far this year.
The President pledged a further $200million to Kyiv on the same day that people affected by the fires in Hawaii were offered the $700 checks.
Biden’s visit was always going to be contentious – with some bemoaning his decision not to visit earlier and opt to spend time at the beach. Others wanted him to stay away so resources weren’t pulled from search and rescue.
The President was criticized before his visit for failing to give the wildfires sufficient attention, and accused of a sluggish response to the crisis.
Last weekend, when asked as he left the beach in Delaware for his response to the fires, Biden replied: ‘No comment.’
He also appeared to forget the name of Maui, repeatedly referring to fires blazing on ‘the Big Island’.
On Thursday, an emotional Ella Sable Tacderan fought back tears as she told how she felt like the mainland was not treating her family like American citizens.
‘It’s really affecting me because where’s the president?’ she asked.
‘I mean, aren’t we Americans, too? We’re part of the United States. Why are we getting put in the back pocket?
‘Why are we being ignored?’
Even Democrats were demanding to know why the federal aid had been slow to arrive, and joined in their Republican colleagues in questioning Biden’s delay in arriving in Maui.
Biden refusing to talk to about Maui disaster, says ‘No comment’
Tacderan said the checks of $700 being handed to each affected household were insultingly low.
‘My parents received a check for $700, which was a slap in the face,’ she said.
‘Living in Hawaii, everything is so expensive. Groceries can be as much as $700 just for one grocery run. And it’s not enough.’
She added elderly families in Hawaii are basically ‘computer illiterate,’ which may explain why some people are being ‘turned away’ on their applications for FEMA assistance.
Some Hawaiians echoed Tacderan’s criticism on Monday, with one holding up a sign that compared assistance to Ukraine and Hawaii.
Ukraine has, per capita, received $1,700 per person, the author calculated, since the war began in February 2022.
Biden and his wife took a helicopter tour of the affected areas before addressing a gathering of local officials, senators and community officials. Biden did not speak to the media present.