No White House enjoys split-screen situations like this one.
President Joe Biden went to a Delaware beach, peddled his bicycle, and mentioned almost nothing regarding the biggest wildfire to strike the United States in a century as Maui began to count its casualties on Sunday.
He pedaled past the shouting reporters and remarked, “We’re observing it,” as he went by.
Earlier Thursday, Biden spoke for the first time about the devastating fire in Hawaii. The following day, his son was the focus of an inquiry by a federal special counsel. Biden has hardly spoken to the press regarding Hunter, the fires, or whatever else until that time.
Republicans are piling on criticism that Biden has failed to deal with the damage caused, and conservative publications have compared images of Biden at the shore with a video of the disaster on Tuesday. 4 days of quietness didn’t go unnoticed, as evidenced by the journalists who questioned White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday regarding why he isn’t speaking out more.