Politics
WATCH: Smirking Biden Once Again Refuses To Answer About Maui, Skirts Off To Vacation
President Joe Biden is off for another vacation, but not before breezing by reporters with a casual smirk and a wave when asked about his responsibility to the victims of the Maui fires.
“Mr. President, will you be going to Maui?” shouted one reporter as the president shuffled to a waiting helicopter. “What are you doing in Nevada?” she continued.
WATCH:
Biden, who has spent most of the past two weeks on vacation, again refuses to take questions from the press.
What's he hiding?pic.twitter.com/0zTla5PjLo
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 15, 2023
WATCH: Biden once again SMIRKS then runs away from reporters asking about the rising death toll of Americans from the Maui wildfires— quickly zips away in helicopter for a ONE WEEK vacation in Lake Tahoe
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 15, 2023
The president, who has spent most of the past two weeks on vacation, will be taking another week of vacation in Lake Tahoe. The optics have contrasted the Democratic leader sitting on a beach while fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui have claimed nearly 100 lives.
Going to the beach in Delaware while having "no comment" on going to the beach in Maui.
That's Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/zLim2hLRKR— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) August 14, 2023
On Monday the president was asked about the federal government’s response to the disaster, offering a tepid wave and curt “no comment” before boarding a waiting vehicle. White House spokespersons have since tried to walk back the statement, posting for the president that he is “laser-focused” on delivering aid to the island state.
Asked aboard Air Force One whether the president intends to address the criticism, spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said he “has been on it from the beginning.”
“The president first addressed in public the wildfires last Thursday in Salt Lake City. He spoke to this, he put out a statement last week. And he began marshaling a whole of government response from day one. The fact of the matter is this president has been on it from the beginning,” Dalton said.
"Does the president intend to address at all the criticism that it's taken a long time to actually make comment about the Hawaiian fires?"
Biden spokesperson Olivia Dalton: "This president has been on it from the beginning!" pic.twitter.com/lScm5fJJVq
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 15, 2023
Still, comparisons to President Biden’s slow recognization of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year have voters wondering whether the incumbent has the fortitude and stamina to protect the nation when emergency disaster response is required. After the president failed to visit East Palestine, Mayor Trent Conaway offered a public endorsement to former President Donald Trump.
“I would first like to thank Joe Biden and Hunter Biden – oh that’s right, they were busy,” said Conaway as a crowd laughed. Turning to Eric Trump, Jr., he added, “Your father and you really changed the way people saw us in town. People realized that we needed help. We’d been asking for help and we had the EPA there and other agencies, but we truly got help after you… without you this could have been a worse situation.”
