President Biden Regales Maui Residents Who Lost Everything With The Time His Kitchen Briefly Caught On Fire

President Joe Biden was in Maui on Monday to visit victims of the horrific wildfires that swept across the island, and like so many other things, he screwed it up and made it about himself.

Visiting victims of a tragedy is always difficult from an emotional standpoint. Still, the playbook for how to go about it is one of the simplest that a president deals with: show up, show support, and remember that this is about the victims, not you.

Joe Biden didn't do this.

“I don’t want to compare difficulties," Biden said, before comparing difficulties. "But we have a little sense — Jill and I — what it’s like to lose a home.”

Before any of his handlers could stop him, Biden launched into a story about how he knows what the people of Maui — many of whom completely lost their homes or businesses — are going through because one time his kitchen caught on fire.

Seriously.

Maui Destruction Reminds The President Of An 'Insignificant' Kitchen Fire

"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, per The New York Post.

“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.”

This a story Biden has told numerous times, and in 2022 the Cranston Heights Fire Company — which dealt with the fire — said it "could be considered an insignificant fire as it did not lead to multiple alarms and did not need a widespread incident response throughout the county.”

Additionally, fire chief George Lamborn told the Associated Press at the time it happened, “Luckily, we got it pretty early. The fire was under control in 20 minutes.”

Undeterred by facts from experts — which I thought you were supposed to listen to, but maybe that only applies when it suits his needs — the president has told that story numerous times, pumping it up to the point of even claiming that some firefighters nearly died in the incident.

Of course, the fire department probably wouldn't consider it "insignificant" if that was true.

Now, he's using that same yarn of his to try to tell people who had their homes decimated that he knows what they're going through.

President Joe Biden saw this kind of destruction and it reminded him of the time his kitchen caught on fire. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

No A Kitchen Fire Isn't The Same As What The People Of Maui Have Gone Through

This is completely insane and in horrible taste. It'd be like if he met with tornado victims and told them about the time some papers flew off his desk, but fortunately, he caught them and dropped a nice, heavy Swingline stapler on them.

Or imagine him regaling people who had to stand and watch helplessly as flood waters swallowed up the home they worked so hard to buy with some story about a minor plumbing issue.

In the words of a hacky 1980s impressionist; I think it might sound a little something like this...

"At our place in Delaware, we've got this upstairs bathroom — maybe it's more of a powder room; it's just a sink and a toilet. Anyway, one day, Hunter was up there and he kept flushing the toilet trying to get something down the drain — I'm not sure what he was trying to flush — but next thing you know, we've got some water on the floor in there. A couple of paper towels mopped it up, but still, it was a bit of a headache, so I get what you folks are dealing with during this trying time."

*End Scene*

The President Has Completely Bungled His Response To The Wildfires

Joe's attempt to tie his kitchen fire to the widespread devastation in Maui comes just days after the President was asked if he had any comment on the situation in Maui, to which he now infamously responded, "No comment."

According to The New York Post, some Maui residents greeted him with signs with the same phrase.

See what I'm saying about why the playbook for these situations is so simple? Most of us with an ounce of social acumen could have handled those two moments better than the president did. Instead of saying "no comment," all he had to do was say something about how terrible it was and how the administration would do anything it could to help.

Then, instead of telling his own story about a minor flare-up in his kitchen, the president could have expounded on how much support the federal government was going to give them.

Oh wait, that's right. Ukraine is a higher priority for the administration than the people of Maui.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle