White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has had about enough from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.
On Thursday, KJP snapped on Doocy for questioning President Biden’s response to the disastrous Maui wildfires, which were the most deadly in modern U.S. history.
“It seems like the hurricane response so far is robust,” Doocy said about Hurricane Idalia.
“Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaii wildfire response was not that good?” Doocy asked. “Or is it just easier for people to get help from the White House when the President is not on vacation?”
“So, the premise of the question and the way you pose your question, I disagree,” KJP fired back. “Just for the record.”
“So, if you talk to… if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of Hawaii, the senators of Hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the president reacted in ‘record time’ when it came to dealing with the wildfires, when it came to dealing and making sure that they got everything they need on a federal level to deal with what was going on the ground,” she said.
“So, your question is wrong, it’s flawed in many, many ways,” she claimed. “And I would advice you to speak to the local and state officials in Hawaii.”
Here is one resident, Kula Ross, talking about the water being shut down during the wildfires when locals tried to put out fires.
Hawaii ??
This Kula resident describes his desperation when he discovered that there was no water supply when locals tried to put out the fires. Absolutely horrendous. #MauiFires #LahainaFires #KulaFires
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) August 31, 2023
Herman Andaya, the administrator of Maui County Emergency Management, who had faced intense criticism for his office’s failure to activate warning sirens during the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, announced his resignation in mid-August.
During a press conference, Andaya stated, “When the siren is sounded, the public is instructed to move to higher ground. Our concern was that had we triggered the siren that night, people might have headed mauka (toward the mountainside), putting them in the path of the fire.”
In another development, Kaleo Manuel, a significant figure in Hawaii’s senior water management, was reassigned to a different role, as stated by the state’s land and natural resources department.
Here is M. Kaleo Manuel, the Hawaii water official who refused to release water resources and let landowners fight the Maui fire, explaining his “philosophy” about water:
“Native Hawaiians treated water as one of the earthly manifestations of a god…We’ve become used to looking… pic.twitter.com/hjsWqdVtxf
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 17, 2023
Although Manuel has been reassigned, the department has defended him against allegations of misconduct. The department’s statement emphasized: “This deployment does not suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong.”
Manuel’s comments on his water resource management philosophy raised eyebrows with those who witnessed the fire response debacle.
“Native Hawaiians treated water as one of the earthly manifestations of a god…We’ve become used to looking at water as something that we use, and not something that we revere… We can reconnect to that traditional value set,” he said.
Numerous Maui residents have voiced dissatisfaction with the government’s response, asserting that activating the warning sirens appropriately could have potentially saved many lives.
President Biden was on vacation at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware during the first weekend when the fire decimated the Lahaina area of Maui. Biden has taken more vacation time in his first term than any other president in modern history.
