President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Maui on Monday, Aug. 21, to see firsthand the devastation from recent wildfires following criticism of the White House response to the disaster.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Maui on Monday, Aug. 21, to see firsthand the devastation from recent wildfires following criticism of the White House response to the disaster.
Biden plans to meet with state and local leaders and discuss steps to aid in the recovery effort, the White House said in a statement Wednesday announcing the trip.
“The president continues to marshal a whole-of-government response to the deadly Maui fires, and he has committed to delivering everything that the people of Hawaii need from the federal government as they recover from this disaster,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement.
The White House has faced pressure over whether Biden would travel to Maui since this weekend when he was asked about the rising death toll while vacationing at the beach in Delaware. Biden told reporters “no comment,” before heading home, a remark that sparked criticism from Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, the GOP primary frontrunner.
More than 100 people have been killed in Hawaii, making last week’s disaster the deadliest US wildfire in the last century.
Read more: Maui Death Toll Tops 100 as Investigators Work to ID Victims
Biden sought to tamp down on the controversy Tuesday, addressing it before a speech on the Inflation Reduction Act and his economic agenda in Milwaukee. Biden said he was waiting for the right time to visit the island and did not want to distract from the ongoing search efforts there.
“That’s what I’ve been talking to the governor about. I don’t want to get in the way,” Biden said. “I’ve been to too many disaster areas. But I want to go, make sure we got everything they need. Want to be sure we don’t disrupt the ongoing recovery efforts.”
“We’ll be there in Maui as long as it takes,” Biden said.
Earlier: Biden Says He Will Visit Hawaii to See Damage From Wildfires
The controversy has overshadowed the president’s plans to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive climate, tax and health-care bill, the White House has touted as the most significant US investment in clean-energy and combating global warming.
The announcement of his trip to Hawaii came just hours before Biden is hosting an event marking the law’s anniversary at the White House.
The president often speaks about the miles of land destroyed by wildfires he has surveyed during his time in office, citing it as an example of the extreme weather events being caused by climate change. The US has faced a wave of extreme weather this summer, including a blistering heat wave that saw cities across the country top 100F and a cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires that blanketed the East Coast and Midwest.
(Updates with additional details from fourth paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.