Monster Joe Biden Personally Setting Wildfires In Hawaii, At Least According To Reliable GOP
And if you can’t trust those guys.
It’s been two weeks since horrific wildfires blazed through Maui, killing 114 people in Lahaina and reducing the historic city to so much ash. This should’ve been a time for collective American grief and commitment to helping those affected in Hawaii, but Republicans exist and are terrible. They immediately seized on this catastrophe as a political cudgel against President Joe Biden.
First, and most obviously, pro-Putin Republicans claimed that Biden cared more about Ukraine than Hawaii. American Troll Doll Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Xitter last week, “Joe Biden: Send more billions to Ukraine. No comment for Maui.” This was, of course, a lie. Just days earlier, Biden had expanded federal aid to Hawaii, and during remarks in Utah, he’d said, “Anyone who’s lost a loved one, whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.”
Greene’s post was part of larger Republican talking points that Biden was out of touch and callous, which obviously doesn’t sound like him hence all the blatant lies. They latched onto footage of a Bloomberg reporter asking Biden about the wildfires’ rising death toll and the president responding curtly, “No comment.” You can debate whether that was a “gaffe” and maybe he should’ve said something brief in the moment. But it’s not like he refused to acknowledge the wildfires.
On August 9, Biden posted his “deepest condolences” on Elon Musk’s perpetual vanity machine. He clearly stated that he’d “ordered all available assets on the Island to help with response.”
As soon as it was safe, Biden visited Maui and saw firsthand the devastation. He praised the residents’ resilience in the wake of immeasurable tragedy while empathizing with what he called that “hollow feeling you have in your chest like you’re being sucked into a black hole, wondering, ‘Will I ever get by this?’”
But Republicans mocked him for playing with a dog.
This was one of the “cadaver dogs,” charged with the unpleasant yet necessary task of finding human remains amidst the destruction.
Mary Cablk, a professor emeritus at the Desert Research Institute whose work focuses on canine detection skills, told CNN that cadaver dogs can “go into a structure that is pretty much just ash and metal with a very smoky contaminated background, contamination from the smoke but also the burnt chemicals” and “weed through all that background noise” to find human remains.
In an environment like the Maui wildfires, dogs are particularly important because they can search an area non-destructively, preserving evidence that may prove important for an investigation, she added.
“Cadaver dogs” help provide anguished families with closure, and Biden, a known dog lover, was simply trying to lighten the mood. Republicans are more interested in cheap shots.
Biden was also roundly ridiculed for his attempt to connect with survivors by discussing how he’d almost lost everything in a house fire, including his wife, his ‘67 Corvette, and his cat. (He mentioned the car as a joke, obviously.) The New York Post ruled Biden’s anecdote a “failed attempt to console Maui wildfire survivors.” I’m sure the Post interviewed everyone present and got their opinion before reaching this conclusion.
Republican ghouls also shared a video that seemingly showed Biden falling asleep while meeting survivors. Before they label this Exhibit Whatever in their sham impeachment, they could remember that their lord and master Donald Trump often canoodled with the Sandman during public meetings, including during a speech from the late Queen Elizabeth and a COVID-19 briefing.
But I’m sure Republicans will point out that when Trump was awake and rested, he had the presence of mind to hurl paper towels at hurricane victims like it was a game of rich man’s dodgeball.
There is a constructive discussion to have about Hawaii’s infrastructure and local utility mismanagement leading up to the wildfires, but that is obviously beyond the capacity of today’s Republican Party. They’re just in this for the trolling.
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MTG, you do for the gotcha what Michaelangelo did for the fresco. How I'll miss seeing your southern-anthropoid face after you get voted out. Don't worry, you can take out your rage on the elipiticals at God's Gym.
So Joe didn't just show up and toss rolls of paper towels to the masses?