Doocy: Was Maui Help Slow Because Biden Was on Vacation? Jean-Pierre: 'Your Question Is Wrong' (August 30, 2023)

With Hurricane Idalia slamming Florida and the federal response in high gear, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked about the response to the deadly Maui wildfires three weeks earlier. “Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaii wildfire response was not that good or is it just easier for people to get help from the White House when the President is not on vacation?” [1][2]

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shot back: “So, your question is — is wrong — it’s flawed in many, many ways.” The video above shows the Aug. 30, 2023, exchange. Quotes from the briefing are from the official White House transcript [1], and Fox News identified Doocy as the questioner [2].

”I Disagree, Just for the Record”

Doocy set it up by praising the hurricane response. “And it seems like the hurricane response so far is robust,” he said, before asking about Hawaii [1].

“So, the premise of your question and the way you pose your question, I disagree, just for the record,” Jean-Pierre answered [1].

“So, if you talk to — if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of Hawaii, the senators of Hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the President reacted in record time when it came to dealing with the wildfires,” she said. “Let’s not forget, there were more than 600 federal employees on the ground already to assist with the wildfires in Maui” [1].

“And I would — I would — I would advise you to go speak to the governor and the local and state officials in — in Hawaii,” she said, before moving to the next question [1].

”Who Was in Charge”

Doocy was not the only reporter pressing on Maui that day. Another asked FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the “questions among officials in Maui and Lahaina and across Hawaii about who was in charge in the hours as the fires burned,” and whether her agency would cooperate if congressional Republicans investigated [1].

“Again, I was not there during the response, and so I would be out of line to assess how they responded during the time,” Criswell said. “What the federal government does is: We come in and we support their efforts, and that’s exactly what we did.” Asked whether she would testify, she said she was happy to “testify on what the federal role was in this process” [1].

The contrast with Florida was on display at the same podium. Criswell said more than 1,500 federal responders were on the ground for Idalia, and that while she was briefing Biden just before the press briefing, he called Gov. Ron DeSantis and ordered her to travel to the storm zone immediately [1].

”No Comment”

Doocy’s point traced back to a moment earlier in the month. While Biden was vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a reporter called out: “Mr. President, any comment on the rising death toll in Maui?” [3]

“No. No comment,” Biden responded with a smile as he got into a vehicle, Fox News reported [3].

The White House waited nearly two weeks to explain. “He didn’t hear the question,” deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told The New York Times. “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” [3].

The Timeline

Aug. 8: The wildfire destroyed the historic town of Lahaina [6].
Aug. 9: Biden issued a written statement. “I have ordered all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response,” he said, listing National Guard Chinook helicopters, the Coast Guard, the Navy’s Third Fleet and Army Black Hawks [4].
Mid-August: Biden’s “no comment” while vacationing in Rehoboth Beach [3].
Aug. 21: Biden visited Lahaina [5].
Aug. 30: Doocy’s question, with Hurricane Idalia hitting Florida [1][2].

The Corvette Story

When Biden finally reached Lahaina, he tried to connect with residents who had lost everything. “I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it’s like to lose a home,” he said, according to the White House transcript. “Years ago — now 15 years ago — I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press.’ It was a sunny Sunday, and lightning struck at home on a little lake that’s outside” [5].

“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette, and my cat,” he said. “But all kidding aside, I watched the firefighters, the way they responded” [5].

Biden was blasted on social media for the comparison. “People have mistaken self-centeredness for empathy for decades,” New York Post columnist Miranda Devine wrote, Fox News reported [7].

By the Numbers

102: people killed in the Lahaina fire, the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century, according to the AP [6].
2,200-plus: homes destroyed, leaving 12,000 people without housing [6].
600-plus: federal employees Jean-Pierre said were on the ground in Maui [1].
$700: the Critical Needs Assistance payment FEMA was providing to individuals, a figure a reporter at the same briefing questioned given Hawaii’s cost of living [1].
12,000 and $15 million: the people registered for FEMA assistance in Maui and the aid already paid out, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said at the briefing [1].

What Happened Next

The $700 question. At the same briefing, a reporter pressed Criswell on whether FEMA would raise the $700 payment given Hawaii’s cost of living. She said the payment was “really just that amount of funding for some of the very immediate needs,” and that the main household program, capped at $41,000 that year, adjusts annually for inflation [1].

A slow rebuild. A year after the fire, the county had begun issuing building permits in the burn zone, but rebuilding was expected to take years. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement estimated that at least 1,500 Lahaina households, about a quarter of those who lost homes, had left Maui [6].

Remembering the 102. On the anniversary, surfers and canoe paddlers gathered off Lahaina for a paddle-out. “Today we’re remembering the 102 loved ones we lost, the many injured, those who lost their homes,” Gov. Josh Green said. “We are grieving for them, still” [6].

For more of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record, see the Karine Jean-Pierre record page.