Joe Biden. Is there any event in the world that isn’t actually about the tough life he has had?
The loss of soldiers in the farce that was the Afghanistan exit? It was really about Joe’s loss of his son Beau Biden to brain cancer. Neil Kinnock’s life story? It was really Joe Biden’s.
And now the tragic wildfire in Maui? It is an awful reminder of how Joe Biden’s kitchen had a modest fire that almost cost him his Corvette.
Biden told a room full of Maui wildfire survivors that he could commiserate with their plight because years ago, firefighters “ran into flames” at his own home to rescue first lady Jill Biden — retelling a story that for years has drawn unflattering fact-checks.
The 80-year-old president was attempting to make common ground with his audience by invoking a small kitchen fire in 2004 at his Wilmington, Del., home that the local fire department said “could be considered an insignificant fire” because it was quickly doused.
“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense — Jill and I — what it’s like to lose a home,” Biden told the Lahaina residents, whose historic town was destroyed on Aug. 8 in wildfires that killed at least 114 people.
“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 is outside of our home — not on a lake, a big pond,” Biden said.
“And it hit a wire and came up underneath our home into the heating ducts, air conditioning ducts. And to make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.”
Of course, as is always the case with Biden, the story is complete crap. Almost none of what he described happened.
It is true that lightning struck and a small fire started in his kitchen, but the flames were quickly extinguished and there was minor damage to the home. Nobody’s life was at stake, including the cat, and his Corvette was just fine.
Biden has told versions of this story that almost exactly match the one he used to elicit sympathy in Maui, and at other times he has claimed his how was razed. None of them were true. It was a kitchen fire that was quickly contained.
In contrast, hundreds of people likely died in Lahaina. So far over a hundred incinerated bodies have been recovered, but hundreds of children and adults are missing. Two weeks after the fire the hope that most of those people are simply missing and not dead is likely to be in vain.
We often hear about how Trump is a narcissist, and he is. But Trump is at least an honest narcissist, and when he does reach out to comfort people he doesn’t pretend that it is about him. He is actually remarkably good at comforting the people he reaches out to because, after all, he so rarely does so. He doesn’t seem to be pretending because likely he isn’t. I am no Trump fan but about the only time he doesn’t engage in hyperbole is when he is trying to comfort anybody.
Biden? Not only is it all show, but the pretense is so thin that he can’t even sound convincing. He simply tells stories about himself as if his experience can match that of the victims he pretends to comfort.
Biden has built a political career on parading his empathy, but that empathy is almost entirely fake. The loss of his first wife and daughter is indeed heartbreaking and I have no doubt that it strikes close to home.
But the stories he tells are of things that never happened, and it is and comes off as totally fake because at those moments his empathy is totally fake.
A kitchen fire in 2004? It’s not quite the same thing as a town wiped off the map.
His son Beau’s cancer after leaving the military? Not quite the same thing as soldiers blown up due to his malfeasance in Afghanistan. Sad, yes, but in that context it is stolen valor. Why make the comparison to grieving parents at a time like that? Everybody knows it is fake.
It is exasperating to watch how the MSM slobbers all over Biden as he insults the people he claims to comfort. Biden is the president who checks his watch as the 13 soldiers he got killed are brought home for burial. He is the president who ignored the people of East Palestine Ohio as their town was poisoned. He still hasn’t visited.
And he is the president who compares his kitchen fire to the loss of people’s homes and families due to government malfeasance.
He almost lost his Corvette! He feels your pain. His kitchen had smoke damage too!
We will never know exactly how many people died in Lahaina, but I suspect that the number will approach or surpass a thousand, many of whom are children. We should know an approximate number–the authorities do and are hiding it–but they are going to release the numbers over weeks or months when it is old news. Even that strategy is transparent.
A thousand or more still missing. Weeks later.
Biden had to be bullied into even visiting Maui, and I suspect many wish he had never come. He insulted the victims with his sob story, as he insulted the families of those soldiers he got killed in Afghanistan.
Not that he seems to care. He gave his pathetic performance as was required.
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