White House pressed again about Biden vacationing amid Hawaii disaster
Haisten Willis
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For the second day in a row, the White House was questioned about the president’s vacation amid disastrous wildfires in Hawaii, which are estimated to have killed at least 99 people.
President Joe Biden has no plans to visit the Hawaii disaster area but does plan to spend his second full week of August on vacation in Nevada. Reporters brought up the topic during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One.
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“Does the president intend to address at all the criticism that it’s taking a long time to actually make a comment about the Hawaiian fires?” a reporter asked.
Deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said the president has in fact addressed it.
“The president first addressed the wildfires in public remarks last Thursday in Salt Lake City,” she said. “He spoke to this. He put out a statement last week, and he began marshaling a whole-of-government response from day one.”
Biden has no plans to visit Hawaii, though Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell briefed reporters from Maui at the top of Monday’s White House news briefing.
Former President George W. Bush was widely criticized for his response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during which he initially stayed on vacation before touring New Orleans. Some have made the same criticisms of Biden.
“Joe Biden couldn’t be bothered to comment on the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history — he was at the beach,” Republican National Committee spokesman Jake Schneider said. “‘No comment,’ responded Biden, who had just spent hours picnicking on the beach, when a reporter asked about Maui’s rising death toll.
“The brushoff from a man whose campaign was centered on false premises of ’empathy’ and ‘compassion’ is as unsurprising as it is callous,” Schneider continued.
Dalton pointed to efforts by FEMA and other government agencies to address the disaster, which has claimed 99 lives as of the most recent count.
“[The president has] been in regular contact with the governor, with other officials, with his senior team, and we have provided and are continuing to provide everything that the state is asking for,” she said.
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Biden is speaking in Milwaukee this afternoon about Bidenomics, though the deputy press secretary said he’ll speak about Hawaii during those remarks as well.
The president spent last weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, just days after returning from a weeklong vacation there, and this Friday, he will head to Lake Tahoe for a six-day stay.