Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said President Joe Biden and other government leaders need to rebuild the “huge deficit in trust” in the aftermath of the wildfires that devastated Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
While speaking on Fox and Friends on Monday, Gabbard said the residents of Maui were left without help from the government and that government officials must win back the trust of the people of Maui.
UP FOR DEBATE: TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND 2024 GOP HOPEFULS’ STANCE ON CRIME
“There’s a lack of trust because of the failure to communicate, the failure to provide services. The people in these surrounding communities have been faced with a situation where they had no power. They were told they couldn’t drink the water out of the faucet. Roadblocks were being put in place. So they had to turn to each other as a community to get food and to get the kind of immediate, basic support they needed. They didn’t see anybody from any level of the government for over a week after this catastrophe happened,” Gabbard said.
“There is a huge deficit in trust. That trust needs to be rebuilt. The leaders, all the way from President Joe Biden down to the local level, need to be present, need to be there, and then need to act on what they’re hearing from their communities,” she continued.
Gabbard also said she was hopeful that Biden would get a “real, honest assessment” of the devastation on the island rather than just a “photo-op,” adding that the federal government’s first announcement following the disaster damaged trust between residents and government officials.
“I sure hope so. I do know how these visits can be more of a photo-op than an actual, real, honest assessment of the harshness and the hardship the people there are going through. I have been talking to my friends there on Maui, and I know that there are those who want the opportunity to be able to tell them the actual truth and not-so-rosy picture that may be painted for him.”
“Unfortunately, again, there is a trust deficit because not only have people not shown up, but it was almost a slap in the face of the people there when the big announcement from FEMA was, ‘Hey, we are going to give you a one-time payment of $700.’ Anybody who has been to Hawaii knows that $700 does not go very far at a time when so many have lost everything.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Officials in Maui said on Sunday night local time that 850 people are still reported as missing as the search-and-rescue effort continues in the fire-ravaged communities. The fire is confirmed to have killed 114 people, but that number could increase as search and rescue continues.
The fire on Maui is the deadliest in the United States in the past 100 years. Biden is expected to meet with local officials and see the devastation firsthand in a visit to Maui on Monday.
