Fox News reporter Peter Doocy was away for a bit while he and his wife were having a baby.
But now that he’s back, he’s clearly in great form as one of the few people who will pepper White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with tough questions. There are only a couple of other folks at the briefings who also ask good questions, but most seem content just to accept whatever the White House feeds them, whether it makes any sense or not. So much for doing their job.
Doocy posed what had to be one of the best questions he’s ever asked, something that went to the heart of a lot of the issues we have with the Biden response to the Maui fire.
Doocy: "It seems like the hurricane response so far is robust. Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaiian wildfire was not that good or is it just easier for people to get help from the WH when [Biden] is not on vacation."
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2023
In the next seat, NBC's Peter Alexander was unamused pic.twitter.com/FzTKY1JESx
“It seems like the hurricane response so far is robust. Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaiian wildfire was not that good or is it just easier for people to get help from the WH when [Biden] is not on vacation,” Doocy asked.
Oh, my. That’s a no-holds-barred question and right over the target. Biden’s responses are often bad, but we’ve seen now they’re worse when he’s on vacation, with examples like Maui and Afghanistan, both of which happened when he was on leisure time. Check out the face of NBC’s Peter Alexander to Doocy’s left — you can see his eyebrows go up that Doocy dared to say it that way. The female reporter behind them has an interesting response as well; she seemed to smile a bit as the clip ended.
The problem? Biden is on vacation almost 40 percent of the time, so this is a continuing problem, not just for Maui but for the future. When a leader can’t answer the call, a lot of bad things can happen in the interim.
Karine Jean-Pierre was not at all pleased with the question.
KJP to Doocy on whether #Idalia response is better than Hawaii's wildfires b/c Biden isn't on vacation: "So, the premise of your question & the way you posed [it], I disagree…If you talk to…the governor…the folks on the ground, they would say…[he] reacted in record time" pic.twitter.com/rhvoSsTFv9
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2023
She said she disagreed with the premise of the question and that if people were talking with the governor, senators, and other officials (virtually all Democrats), they would say the administration responded in record time. But that isn’t what the local people are saying, as we’ve reported. FEMA may have had boots on the ground quickly, but that didn’t mean that people needing help were getting it, which is why the people have been very upset with Biden.
Here are a few of the locals sounding off:
HAWAII: Maui natives and locals slam President Biden ahead of his visit to the island.
— Tony Kinnett (@TheTonus) August 21, 2023
We have yet to find one person who is excited/looking forward to his "hand shaking ceremony" at the Lahaina post office. pic.twitter.com/KZrP7u0gPc
Locals also protested Biden’s arrival, saying Biden was “late” and carrying other signs disparaging him; they even chanted “F**k you” and gave him the finger as his motorcade went by. Hawaiian Rent-All — the business with the sign that is the bellwether of Hawaiians — just decimated Biden and said in a Facebook post that it wasn’t all about him.
So Jean-Pierre may be slinging the spin, but the locals who are there know what’s up, and they’re not being quiet about it, even if she is disregarding or dismissing what they are saying. Good for Peter Doocy for pointing at a big continuing problem that needs to be addressed for the safety of our nation and our people.
