As of Wednesday, the death toll in the Maui wildfires had risen to 115, with many young children among the 850 people still missing.
The sheer devastation caused by what is shaping up to be quite likely the most devastating fire in the history of the United States is almost incomprehensible.
And Joe Biden’s effort to comfort loved ones of those lost went off the rails after one stomach-turning laugh line left listeners hoping the President really is as senile as he appears to be.
As Commander-in-Chief, Joe Biden has a key role to play during national disasters to both assess the damage and comfort devastated communities.
But his recent trip to Maui turned into one ridiculous hot mess.
Ahead of giving a speech on the state of things on the Hawaiian island, Biden spent time shaking hands with local officials—an activity his handlers likely thought he could pull off without incident.
However, that assumption was quickly proven false when Biden reached out to pet a rescue dog and cracked a joke about protective boots the animal was wearing.
“You guys catch the boots out here?” Biden asked the dog. “That’s some hot ground, man.”
Of course, joking about the site of one of the most devastating disasters ever as “some hot ground” didn’t earn Biden any points on social media.
“Nothing says leadership like yukking it up with the human-remains-sniffing dogs,” Michael Dearing, the founder of Harrison Metal, quipped.
“Imagine your loved one burned to death less than a month ago and when Biden finally visits after TWO vacations, he jokes around about how hot the ground is,” Conservative commentator Robby Starbuck pointed out. “Sick.”
Considering his numerous decades as a career politician, you’d expect even in a state of senility he’d be able to perform at a higher level out of basic instinct.
Yet somehow, as conservative commentator Steve Guest, pointed out, the President failed to “read the room.”
Meanwhile, RedState writer Bonchie wrote a post imploring “Dear Lord, let this just be the senility.”
Buzz Patterson, also with Redstate, wrote, “Can’t take him anywhere.”
Fox News Radio host Jimmy Falla took Biden to task noting that, “Biden landed in Maui and made a joke about how hot the ground was. Up next, he’ll head to Pearl Harbor and order a round of Kamikaze’s.”
Unsurprisingly, as soon as the video started going viral, White House staff started working on their damage control protocol.
White House deputy press secretary and senior communications adviser Andrew Bates called the online commentary “classless and stupid.”
He failed to address exactly how his boss’s comments should be interpreted.
This is only Joe Biden’s latest effort to bumble his response to the devastating situation Maui is facing.
When he was questioned about the rising death toll on August 14th, Biden shrugged it off with a cold “no comment.”
The next day he attempted to cover his tracks by assuring the press that he and First Lady Jill Biden would be heading to the island “as soon as we can.”
Incredibly, joking about “hot ground” wasn’t even the President’s worst performance during his visit to the devastated community.
He also tried to convince the audience that he knows what it’s like to “lose a home.”
Unfortunately, he was blowing a small kitchen fire that took place 19 years ago way out of proportion.
“Years ago, now, 15 years, I was in Washington doing Meet the Press . . . Lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home, not a lake a big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home, into the…air condition ducts,” Biden claimed. “To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my 67 Corvette, and my cat.”
No doubt, considering how his brand of “comfort” played out, those living in a tight-knit community of less than 166,000 people—with nearly a thousand of their citizens either deceased or missing—couldn’t wait to send Biden packing as soon as possible.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
