"One of the most tone-deaf speeches ever given": Joe Biden Kitchen fire comparison with Maui wildfires sparks outrage online 

President Joe Biden is currently visiting Maui in the aftermath of the region’s worst and largest wildfire in history. On Monday, August 21, he was on stage addressing the people of Maui, trying to show his compassion for the loss they have incurred, but instead landed himself in a controversy due to the manner in which a part of his speech was worded.

“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill [his wife] and I, of what it was like to lose a home,” he said.

He then went on to narrate a story about how 15 years back, his home in Delaware caught fire due to lightning and he almost lost his wife and cat who were stuck inside at the time. He also mentioned how he was on his political duty in Washington, attending a “Meet the Press” event when the incident happened.

As soon as Biden’s story surfaced on social media, netizens dug up more information about the fire, revealing that it was limited to just the kitchen area of his house. They then criticized him for comparing a large-scale calamity to his personal tragedy. One X user even commented:

A netizen calls Biden's Maui speech tone deaf. (Image via X/Freedom_Land2)

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Joe Biden’s speech in Maui about his own experiences with fires triggers online backlash

While addressing a room full of wildfire survivors in Mau, President Joe Biden said that he could relate to their tragedy as a decade and a half ago, his own residence in Wilmington, Delaware, located along a big pond, was under blazes. He recalled how the firefighters did a heroic job to save his family, which was “not a joke.”

“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette, and my cat,” the President said.

The President also added how the fire started due to lightning, that hit the wire underneath the home, touching up the air conditioning ducts and spreading to the kitchen.

However, as per the New York Post, it was a small fire, restricted to the kitchen. In fact, back then, the local fire department had even described it as “an insignificant fire” as it took less than half an hour to put it out entirely.

While Biden may have tried to find common ground with his audience by retelling this story, it has earned him severe backlash online. What’s interesting is that Biden not only narrated the story of the kitchen fire but also shared an anecdote about the death of his first wife, Neilia, and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, in 1972, in a car accident ahead of Christmas.

This too was slammed by internet users who felt that Biden tried to make the speech “all about him.”

This was not the first time Joe Biden reminisced the story of the kitchen at his Delaware home. In November 2021, he said that his house had burned down with his second wife inside, before trying to rectify himself. Back then, he was speaking about the bipartisan infrastructure plan in New Hampshire.

Prior to that, he also recalled the tale in 2013 during a press conference, and claimed that a fire “destroyed a significant portion” of his New Hampshire home and even took the lives of a couple of firefighters, allegedly giving a different variation of the real incident.

When Biden arrived in Maui for his speech and to check up on the fire-ravaged region, many protestors chanted “Go home Joe” and held signs stating “No Comment” mocking him for his repeated denial to comment on the catastrophe and the rising death toll.

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The Maui fires occurred on August 8 and ruined the island' western parts, especially the historic town of Lahaina. The inferno has claimed the lives of 114 people so far, with the number rising every day. Over 1300 people still remain missing and billions of dollars worth of public and private properties have been destroyed.