Joe Biden's Communications Team Under Pressure After Maui Speech Disaster

Joe Biden's communications team is under pressure after the president made a number of apparent gaffes during his visit to Maui, including struggling to pronounce the names of local politicians and suggesting he empathized with islanders because he almost lost his '67 Corvette in a minor house fire.

The president visited Maui on Monday with first lady Jill Biden following a devastating wildfire which killed at least 115 people, though that total is expected to rise as rescue workers continue making their way through the wreckage. Much of Lahaina, a town of Maui's western coast, was destroyed with over 1,700 buildings reportedly torched.

Republicans have been focusing heavily on the mental competency of 80-year-old Biden, who is also frontrunner for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, following a series of gaffes. A poll published in June found a majority of Americans don't want either Biden or Donald Trump, the current favorite to be the GOP candidate, to run again.

On Monday, Biden met with local officials and first responders on Maui, insisting the federal government will help the island "for as long as it takes" to recover from the inferno. Speaking by a 150-year-old banyan tree, which was damaged by the blaze, he said: "The country grieves with you, stands with you and will do everything possible to help you recover."

However, Biden struggled to pronounce the names of several Hawaiian members of Congress and local officials. He referred to Senator Brian Schatz as "Brian Schantz" before mentioning "Jill... er... To.. Tokuda" in an attempt to name a Hawaiian Democratic representative.

The president also suggested he empathized with islanders because of a minor 2004 housefire at his Delaware home.

He said: "I don't want to compare difficulties but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it's like to lose a home. Years ago now, 15 years ago, I was in Washington doing Meet the Press. It was a sunny Sunday.

"Lightning struck at home, on a little lake that's outside of our home—not a lake, a big pond—and hit a wire that came up underneath our home into the heating ducts and air conditioning ducts.

"To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my '67 Corvette, and my cat."

However in 2022, the Cranston Heights Fire Company told The New York Post the blaze had been easily brought under control.

They said: "For the fire service, this could be considered an insignificant fire as it did not lead to multiple alarms and did not need a widespread incident response throughout the county. However, in the case for any homeowner, it was obviously significant at the time and was quickly responded to by the local firefighters."

Shortly after the fire, then fire chief George Lamborn told the Associated Press the blaze had been brought "under control in 20 minutes."

Speaking to Newsweek, Thomas Gift, a leading political scientist who heads the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, said Biden's communications team will be kept busy "mopping up" after the president.

He said: "Biden is a gaffe machine. Everyone knows it, and—to some extent—accepts it. As evidenced by his recent comments in Hawaii, Biden's campaign team will be busy as ever in trying to obviate obvious blunders, and more often, mopping up after he's committed them.

"While critics will say it's more evidence of a decline in Biden's mental acuity, it's a hard case to make because he's been making such gaffes his whole career. That's not much of an excuse, but to the extent it hasn't derailed him yet, it's unlikely to be the pivotal factor in 2024."

However, David Andersen, who lectures on U.S. politics at Durham University in the U.K., argued the impact of "gaffes" by Biden will be limited. He said: "Biden's gaffes probably won't make much difference at all. They do play into the GOP's main campaign tactic of portraying him as too old and mentally infirm to command the presidency but it seems that this tactic is most effective among GOP partisans. Democrats are largely unswayed and Independents seem to be wary of Biden but are waiting to see who the Republicans nominate.

"Biden is broadly unpopular and the electorate seems to be largely in agreement that they want other options to old, white men. But most people also seem to accept that the contest is likely to be between Biden and Trump. Biden's age compared to Trump's behavior seems to fall in favor of Biden, at least for now."

Before his visit, Biden was also criticized for allegedly replying "no comment" when asked about the Hawaii wildfire whilst cycling near the seaside in Delaware.

Bloomberg correspondent Justin Sink said Biden was asked about the death toll, to which he said "no comment." Earlier when reporters asked Biden if he would stop cycling to talk about the then ongoing fire, he said: "We're looking at it."

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment by email.

Update 8/25/23, 2:35 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment.