President Joe Biden was greeted by angry protesters Monday when he finally visited Maui to tour the catastrophic damage caused by the devastating Hawaiian wildfires that killed at least 114 people, with 1,000 people missing.
Several dozen residents heckled the octogenarian’s motorcade when he departed the Kapalua Airport en route to Lahaina, which went up in flames on Aug. 8.
“As he drove toward downtown Lahaina, Biden passed signs that said ‘NO COMMENT,’ ‘REALLY $7?,’ ‘ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS,’ and ‘FJB,’ as well as at least two flags promoting the 2024 candidacy of former President Donald Trump,” the New York Post reported.
Other protesters unleashed their pent-up anger over Biden’s delayed response by chanting, “Go home, Joe!”
According to Hawaii News Now, Maui residents lined the streets with signs that read, “He’s too late” and “He should’ve been here much earlier.”
As Joe Biden finally arrives in Maui, he’s met by OUTRAGED locals holding signs that read:
“You’re too late!”
“Actions speak louder than words.”Just brutal. pic.twitter.com/tSVWcdKyq3
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 21, 2023
Local resident Dennis Mullen was furious, telling the Post there have been few supply deliveries to the airport hosting the presidential helicopter.
“Where has the president been?” he said. “Any number of military aircraft, planes and helicopters could have flown in here. To leave a town that was just devastated shut down was just ridiculous.”
Mullen added: “On the west side of Maui, where neighborhoods had burned down, there was desperate need and no one came to help.”
The hostility Biden is facing from Maui residents is unusual since Hawaii has been a blue state for the past 60 years.
However, the resentment is understandable, given the president’s delayed, apathetic reaction to the deadly wildfires.
Biden blithely remained on vacation in Delaware as flames engulfed Maui.
He exacerbated the situation by cavalierly saying “No comment” when repeatedly asked for a reaction to the tragedy.
Since it took the president almost two weeks to finally visit Hawaii, it’s no surprise that locals were enraged.
NEW: Maui resident displays a “Traitor Joe Must Go” sign in their lawn as Biden takes a break from his month of vacations to visit the Hawaiian island.
Despite sending $100B+ to Ukraine, Biden is only giving $700 a household to Maui residents impacted by the fires.
No wonder… pic.twitter.com/kCuxamAQBQ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2023
Some commentators, such as former Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, believe Biden’s tone-deaf callousness is a clear indication that he plans to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
“Biden’s inextricable response to the Maui fires from his vacation on the beach of ‘No comment’ ricocheted around the nation,” Chaffetz wrote in an Op-Ed for Fox News. “Did he really not have anything to say to those desperate people fighting for their lives as he sunned himself on the beach? This was an opportunity for a president to flex his political muscle.”
He continued: “Though this could be a basement-to-beach campaign strategy, it’s more likely that Biden will not run … He is hiding – hiding from the press, hiding from the scandals and hiding from his own incompetence as a commander in chief … By the end of this calendar year, I, for one, anticipate he won’t be a candidate in 2024.”
If Biden is not planning to drop out, he certainly shot himself in the foot with this latest debacle, which once again sends the message that the safety and well-being of Americans are not his top priority.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.