Eleven days after President Biden drew criticism for showing to brush off a question concerning the lethal wildfires in Hawaii with a “no comment,” a White House spokeswoman mentioned on Thursday that the president by no means heard the query.
Olivia Dalton, the deputy White House press secretary, made the clarification in response to a query from The New York Times. The White House has battled accusations that its response to the deadliest U.S. wildfire in additional than a century has not been quick or forceful sufficient, and the controversy over Mr. Biden’s comment gained new life on Wednesday because it grew to become a Republican assault line in entrance of hundreds of thousands of viewers on the G.O.P. presidential debate.
On Aug. 13, simply days after an inferno scorched the historic city of Lahaina on the island of Maui, one of many reporters touring with the president on trip in Rehoboth Beach, Del., shouted the query about his response to the rising dying toll whereas Mr. Biden was getting into a car.
“He didn’t hear the question,” Ms. Dalton mentioned. “He absolutely didn’t say ‘no comment’ in relation to Maui. And in fact, he had already spoken to the nation about Maui at that point, in addition to being in daily contact with senior staff, FEMA and state officials as he marshaled a whole-of-government response to the fires.”
To critics, Mr. Biden’s comment appeared unusually insensitive for a president who prides himself on empathy, and emblematic of what they see as a muted response within the days instantly after the hearth. For days, the White House defended the president’s response to the wildfires with out publicly addressing the obvious misunderstanding, even because the dying toll climbed to 115, with greater than 1,000 nonetheless lacking.
Republicans, particularly those that are looking for to unseat Mr. Biden, have seized on the feedback as proof of his dereliction of obligation. Former President Donald J. Trump, the main contender for the Republican nomination, put out a video assertion the day after Mr. Biden’s reported remarks.
“To say ‘no comment’ is oftentimes fine, but to be smiling when you say it, especially against such a tragedy as this, is absolutely horrible and unacceptable,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
During the Republican major debate on Wednesday evening, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida used Mr. Biden’s response to deflect questions posed by the moderator about local weather change.
“Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering,” Mr. DeSantis mentioned. “He was asked about it and he said, ‘No comment.’ Are you kidding me? As somebody that’s handled disasters in Florida, you’ve got to be activated. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to be present. You’ve got to be helping people who are doing this.”
Mr. Biden broke away from his trip in Lake Tahoe to go to Maui on Monday, the place he was praised by native leaders for a swift federal response. But the frustrations of a minimum of some residents had been nonetheless uncooked.
Among the crowds that lined the scorched streets of Lahaina as Mr. Biden’s motorcade drove by way of had been individuals holding indicators with messages reminiscent of “Lahaina needs relief now.” At least one merely mentioned: “No comment.”
Source: www.nytimes.com