‘I Don’t Want To Get In The Way’: Biden Commits To Hawaii Trip After Delaying Visit During Fire Recovery Efforts

President Joe Biden responded to criticism that he hasn’t yet visited Maui to survey the wildfire devastation by saying he didn’t want to “get in the way” of ongoing recovery efforts.

“My wife Jill and I are going to travel to Hawaii as soon as we can,” Biden said at a news conference in Milwaukee, WI, on Tuesday. “That’s what I’ve been talking to the governor about. I don’t want to get in the way. I’ve been to too many disaster areas. But I want to go and make sure we get everything they need. I want to be sure we don’t disrupt the ongoing recovery efforts.”

Earlier, Biden said he has assured Hawaii’s governor that the federal government will do everything it can to help in the efforts.

“I’ve spoken to Governor Josh Green multiple times and reassured him the state will have everything it needs from the federal government. I immediately approved the governor’s request for an expedited major disaster declaration. That’s a fancy way of saying, whatever you need you’re going to get. And that’ll get aid into the hands of people who desperately need it, who have lost their loved ones, who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, who have been damaged and destroyed.”

Biden then discussed the grisly realities of recovery.

“And think about this,” he said. “All that area they’ve got to plow up, they can’t do it now because they don’t know how many bodies are there. They don’t know what’s left. Imagine being a mom or dad wondering where your child is. Imagine being a husband or wife, a mother, father. It’s really tough stuff.”

On Sunday, although it was hard to hear, the president appeared to reply, “No. No comment,” when a member of the White House press corps asked if he had “any comment on the death toll in Maui” while he spent the weekend at the beach in Delaware. Despite earlier remarks about the disaster, the moment led to heavy criticism.

Watch the clip above via CNN.