President Joe Biden is once again bringing up a story he told in Hawaii that resulted in a barrage of criticism.
Last week, the president and the first lady visited the wildfire-ravaged island of Maui, where the president tried to move past days’ worth of criticism for taking so long to respond to the disaster with a lame attempt at relatability.
Speaking to devastated Hawaiians who lost everything in the fires, Biden tried to compare their ordeal to the time lightning struck his home resulting in a small kitchen fire and his ’67 Corvette was almost destroyed.
Biden says “Jill and I have a little sense of what it’s like to lose a home” and then tells the story of when lightning struck his house in 2004 and says “I almost lost my ’67 corvette and my cat.”
According to a report from the time, the lighting strike caused “a small fire… pic.twitter.com/V8IBfoZuEW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 22, 2023
Biden received backlash for this comparison, as the fire was mainly confined to the kitchen, was resolved in 20 minutes, and was in no way comparable to the devastation on Maui.
But now, a little over a week after first sharing the exaggerated story, Biden tried it once again.
On Wednesday, at a press conference concerning the Hawaiian wildfires and Hurrican Idalia, which is currently battering Florida, Biden brought up the story again, but this time he added that they had to move out of the house for seven months and claimed that “half the house almost collapsed.”
🚨Biden once again mentions the lightning that struck his home – comparing it to the devastation in Maui pic.twitter.com/HIDOpTPncV
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 30, 2023
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Once again, Biden received backlash for this tall tale, with many seeing it as self-centered and narcissistic to compare losing a kitchen in a small fire to losing absolutely everything in a wildfire.
He lost a kitchen, they lost lives and some lost everything they owned. No comparison..
— CindyK💬 (@IamCindyKay1) August 30, 2023
me me me me me me me me me
— SOcean 🇺🇸 (@SOcean5) August 30, 2023
It is hard to imagine that the people of Hawaii will appreciate this comparison. To put this into context, Biden said in the initial story that the incident happened “15 years ago.”
If that’s true, that would mean it happened in 2008, when then-Sen. Biden had already been in Congress for decades and was on the verge of becoming the vice president.
Being asked to move out of the house for a few months while they repaired the damage is a small sacrifice for the Biden family. He probably had another nice place in Washington or elsewhere that he could stay at.
Also, the Bidens did not lose the house. The damage was quickly repaired and the family was able to resume life as usual.
The people of Maui, by contrast, lost absolutely everything in the fire — their homes, their businesses, and in some cases their lives. There is no way a kitchen fire is comparable to this.
Biden seems to be more concerned with people having sympathy for him over an incident that happened years ago, than with people actually helping the victims of the wildfire who are desperately trying to pick up the pieces.
