President Joe Biden’s Visit to Hawaii Sparks Outrage – Democrats have been able to count on Hawaii in every presidential election since 1960 – with the exceptions of the GOP landslides in 1972 and 1984.
And yet, on Monday, President Joe Biden may have left many voters dismayed by his recent visit to tour the devastation on Maui.
In fact, even before Joe Biden traveled to the island to see the carnage firsthand, he appeared essentially tone-deaf as he spent the weekend at his beach house in Delaware, and then responded “no comment” when asked how he felt about the wildfires that tore through neighborhoods, leaving thousands homeless.
The situation didn’t get much better when he arrived in Maui.
Biden offered a quip that was seen as ill-timed as it was in bad taste.
While greeting officials, the president stopped to pet a dog and noted the special boots the canine was wearing, stating “You guys catch the boots out here? That’s some hot ground, man.”
Biden was slammed for the joke, and his failure to “read the room.”
Joe Biden Making it All About Him!
During the president’s five-hour tour of Hawaii, he gave a speech at a charred yet sacred Banyan tree – and he switched into true “Biden mode,” where he attempted to make a connection by sharing a moment from his past that seemed (like so many others) too good to be true for the situation.
Biden told the story of how his home in Wilmington, Delaware was hit by lightning, which caused a small kitchen fire, and attempted to compare it to the loss of life and property in Maui, where at least 114 people were killed and every building has been reduced to ash and rubble.
“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,” the president said, adding, “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.”
While he went on to say he could only “imagine what it’s like to lose your home,” it did sound like he was actually comparing the difficulties.
Throwing in his beloved Corvette when people have literally lost everything they owned certainly didn’t help matters – and Biden’s comments received quite the backlash on social media where was mocked for the comparison.
“He has to make everything about him. Narcissists… can never be sincere in their support for others,” one user on Twitter suggested.
President Joe Biden has in the past been accused of greatly embellishing the house-fire story and previously said he knew what it was like to have a house burn down with his wife in it, and last year he told survivors of Hurricane Ian in Florida that he “lost” much of his home in a fire.
Instead of connecting with the audience, yet again Joe Biden is facing pushback for these remarks.
Though the joke about the boots was unscripted, it should be noted that the rest of the speech was prepared in advance.
It begs the question of why no one in the administration ever attempts to tone down these tone-deaf comments – especially as these personalized tales are almost always met with swift condemnation.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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