Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard excoriated President Biden for his lackluster and uncaring response to the tragedy that took place on Maui as a wildfire turned Lahaina into a mass graveyard.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
She made her comments on “Fox & Friends” on Monday, telling Biden and other government leaders that they need to rebuild the “huge deficit in trust” following the wildfires.
Gabbard bluntly stated that the residents of Lahaina were left without food, water, or even basic help from the government.
“There’s a lack of trust because of the failure to communicate, the failure to provide services. The people in these surrounding communities have been faced with a situation where they had no power. They were told they couldn’t drink the water out of the faucet. Roadblocks were being put in place. So they had to turn to each other as a community to get food and to get the kind of immediate, basic support they needed. They didn’t see anybody from any level of the government for over a week after this catastrophe happened,” she recounted.
“There is a huge deficit in trust. That trust needs to be rebuilt. The leaders, all the way from President Joe Biden down to the local level, need to be present, need to be there, and then need to act on what they’re hearing from their communities,” Gabbard added.
My heart is with Maui #MauiStrong pic.twitter.com/XEnUafQC9V
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) August 20, 2023
Gabbard also wants Biden to get a “real, honest assessment” of the devastation on Maui rather than just a “photo-op” when he finally gets there.
“I do know how these visits can be more of a photo-op than an actual, real, honest assessment of the harshness and the hardship the people there are going through. I have been talking to my friends there on Maui, and I know that there are those who want the opportunity to be able to tell them the actual truth and not-so-rosy picture that may be painted for him,” she said referring to Biden’s scheduled Monday visit to the disaster zone.
“Unfortunately, again, there is a trust deficit because not only have people not shown up, but it was almost a slap in the face of the people there when the big announcement from FEMA was, ‘Hey, we are going to give you a one-time payment of $700.’ Anybody who has been to Hawaii knows that $700 does not go very far at a time when so many have lost everything,” she noted.
Gabbard appeared on a number of shows spanking Biden for shirking his duty as president during such a cataclysmic event.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“I also want to speak to the many, many families who live in the community surrounding Lahaina, just north of that historic town, who are continuing to struggle. Many of them did not have power for days. They were told the water was contaminated, having to shower and bathe their children with bottled water, cut off from communication,” Gabbard told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “The cell phone towers were down. They had no Wi-Fi or internet connectivity.”
“These are people who stood up in the midst of this tragedy and did everything they could to help each other. The sad part is, we are eight days past this wildfire. And I’m in constant touch with these community members and leaders. They are still not seeing a response from the county, the state, the federal government, to be able to go out and help them,” she remarked.
“The community support hubs that they have are 100 percent community-led, volunteer supply collections, conducting all these co-ordinations on their own. They feel like the government doesn’t care about them, and that’s a horrible, horrible disservice to people who have gone through a kind of loss that we can’t even imagine,” Gabbard declared.
I can’t help but call BS on the Hawai’i director of the Dept of Emergency excuses for not sounding the emergency sirens before devastating Maui Fires. Officials who don’t prioritize the safety and well-being of their constituents must be held accountable for their actions, or… pic.twitter.com/Yz3wIERPwA
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) August 20, 2023
On Sunday, officials on Maui said there are still 850 missing. So far, 114 have been declared dead and that number is bound to increase as emergency personnel dig through the rubble.
The fire that ravaged Lahaina is now the deadliest one in the U.S. in the past 100 years.
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