Joe Biden Receives Approval Rating Boost Over Maui Wildfire Response

More Americans feel that the federal government is doing enough to help the Hawaiian island of Maui recover from devastating wildfires that ripped across it earlier in August than those who do not, according to a new poll. It comes after President Joe Biden faced harsh criticism over his response to the disaster.

A survey of 1,500 U.S. adults, conducted on behalf of Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, found that 47 percent felt Maui was receiving adequate federal support compared to 29 percent who said it could use more.

Meanwhile, a majority of Americans approved of Biden's visit to the island on Monday to survey the ongoing recovery efforts, despite it being marred by gaffes. The poll was conducted on August 22-23—the days immediately following his trip.

Biden was subject to outrage after not explicitly committing to visiting Maui in a speech in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. It was coupled with what some saw as a dismissive response to the death toll on the island when commenting from his Delaware beach house earlier in the month.

His announcement that affected households in Maui would be eligible for a one-off $700 payment on August 14 was described as "insulting" by detractors.

After largely specious comparisons were made between the seemingly paltry aid appropriation and the more than $100 billion in aid to Ukraine, the White House noted ahead of Biden's trip that it had approved over $8 million in assistance to nearly 2,500 households on the Hawaiian island—which included $3 million for renting temporary accommodation.

It also said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had shipped in around 50,000 meals, nearly 20,000 gallons of water and 10,000 blankets for survivors, around half of whom were still in evacuation shelters as of Thursday.

In a statement, Biden stressed that he had "mobilized a whole-of-government response effort" to the wildfires.

The blazes on Maui have so far resulted in the deaths of 116 people, according to the latest update from the island's police force, with 388 people still unaccounted for.

The wildfires caused power outages, mass evacuations and extensive destruction to the historic resort town of Lahaina. The fires broke out earlier in August and spread rapidly on powerful winds from a passing hurricane.

The poll found that, as a proportion of Republican and Democrat voters respectively, marginally more GOP supporters thought the federal government had offered enough support to Maui than those who did not—38 percent to 37 percent who disagreed—while 62 percent of Biden voters were supportive of his response.

Overall, 40 percent of U.S. adults polled approved of the federal government's response to the disaster, compared to just 16 percent who disapproved.

Meanwhile, some 61 percent of respondents approved of Biden's trip, as opposed to just 9 percent who expressed disapproval.

The president was further criticized after struggling to pronounce the names of several elected officials during a speech in Lahaina, raising fresh questions of the 80-year-old's mental acuity. Biden has previously brushed off concerns about his age.

When asked about the reasons the blazes had been so devastating, 84 percent of U.S. adults said climate change was at least somewhat to blame, compared to just 16 percent who thought it had played no part. Experts have said that climate change had created the conditions that allowed the fires to spread so rapidly.

Some 84 percent also attributed poor emergency management and preparation on the part of the local government to the severity of the disaster.

The Maui Emergency Management Agency faced scrutiny over the decision to not sound alarms warning Lahaina residents of the encroaching wildfires.

Herman Andaya, the head of the agency, defended the decision, saying people were trained to head for the mountains, which would have led them into the path of the fires, but resigned the following day amid mounting pressure, citing health reasons.