‘That is a lie!’ Biden tells wildfire victims the false story of how he ‘almost lost his home’ in a fire

President Joe Biden spoke with those affected by the wildfires in Colorado and, as usual, failed at an attempt to empathize.

The president’s efforts to console victims of the rare fire that damaged thousands of acres of land and destroyed hundreds of homes, fell flat as he once again shared his own personal story.

“Jill and I have not gone through what you have gone through. We have had lightning strike our home and almost lose our home,” Biden said during his remarks Friday.

“That is a lie!” the Republican National Committee’s Twitter account noted in a post including Biden’s comment and citing a 2004 Associated Press report that said it “was under control in 20 minutes.”

“Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the house, but were able to keep the flames from spreading beyond the kitchen,” the report had noted.

“We only lost about 25% of it. We were able to rebuild. But, you know, the hard part is the memorabilia you lost. The special things that you had put away that you lost,” Biden had gone on to say Friday.

The president had also brought up the house fire in remarks he made when talking up his infrastructure plan back in November.

“Without this bridge, as I said earlier, it’s a 10-mile detour just to get to the other side. And I know, having had a house burn down with my wife in it — she got out safely, God willing — that having a significant portion of it burn, I can tell, 10 minutes makes a hell of a difference,” he said.

At a Washington dinner for first responders back in 2013, he had referenced the lightning strike story as well, telling firefighters “lightning struck my home and destroyed a significant portion of it, and you got my wife out.”

“And in addition to my wife, you got my second-best love out of the house: my ‘67 Corvette, so thank you all. … I owe you. When I say I owe you, I mean I owe you,” he joked at the time.

In his remarks Friday at Louisville Recreation & Senior Center in Louisville, Colo., the president cited climate change as one of the reasons behind wildfires like the ones the state just experienced.

“We can’t ignore the reality that these fires are being supercharged, they’re being supercharged by change in the weather,” he claimed.

Frieda Powers

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