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President Biden on Wednesday again compared the catastrophic Maui wildfire to a small kitchen fire at his Delaware home, despite being widely blasted on social media for having told the same story last week.
Speaking at the White House about his administration’s response to the devastating wildfire, Mr. Biden again sought to console Maui residents by talking about his kitchen fire.
The president said he could sympathize with those who’ve lost everything in the wildfire because his kitchen once caught on fire nearly 20 years ago.
“Lighting struck my house. We had to be out of that house for about seven months of repairs because so much damage was done to the house and half the house collapsed. You know, and you wonder what’s going to happen,” Mr. Biden said.
Though saying “half the house collapsed” was a new twist, it was virtually identical to the same story Mr. Biden told last week while in Maui to meet with wildfire victims.
“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to lose a home,” Mr. Biden said. “Years ago, now 15 years, I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press.’ … Lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home. Not a lake, a big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home, into the … air condition ducts.”
“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette, and my cat,” he continued.
Critics blasted the president on social media after the remarks, with many calling it tone-deaf to compare the minor home fire to massive wildfires that have killed more than 115 people with 338 more missing.
Some also questioned whether or not the story was true. An Associated Press story in 2004 described the incident as “a small fire … contained to the kitchen” that was “under control in 20 minutes.”
“Joe Biden is lying about his kitchen fire … again,” conservative commentator Steve Guest wrote on X, the social-media site formerly known as Twitter, after Mr. Biden’s remarks Wednesday.
“Joe Biden just compared what people are going through with the hurricane and the Maui wildfires … to the small kitchen fire he had 20 years ago! This time he claims that his house almost collapsed. What the hell is wrong with him?!?,” another Twitter user wrote.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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