Fox News criticised for using disgraced ex-FEMA head to attack Biden’s response to Hawaii wildfires

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The former FEMA administrator who was critcised for slow rescue efforts amid the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has been accused of hypocrisy after he called President Joe Biden’s response to the Maui wildfires an “abject failure”.

Despite facing his own barrage of criticism when he headed FEMA, Michael D Brown lambasted the president’s response to the fatal fires on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle. The fires have claimed the lives of at least 111 people, while thousands more have been displaced.

“If he wants to go to Honolulu and meet with the governor, that’s fine. But I can tell you from personal experience that if he goes to Maui, it will interrupt operations because the United States Secret Service will put an air cap over Maui,” Mr Brown said. “They won’t let any helicopters fly. It will be a complete disaster,” he added.

Mr Biden said on Good Morning America on Thursday, “We’ll be with you for as long as it takes, I promise you ... That’s why we took immediate action.” The president has deployed federal assets and acted quickly in response to the disaster, but still has faced backlash.

While relaxing at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home, reporters asked him whether he had a trip to Hawaii in the works; the president gave a vague response, saying he had “no comment.”

Talking to Mr Brown, host Laura Ingraham said she wasn’t sure “anyone was expecting” Mr Biden to “descend on the ruins” anyway.

“Mr Biden is supposed to be Mr Empathy,” Ingraham continued. “And you don’t see it when you are at the beach. This is a horrific event for the United States. If Donald Trump was at the beach when something like this happened under his watch — I mean, they always criticise him for being on the golf course, I know — but this really took the cake.”

The former FEMA administrator concurred, accusing the president of not knowing how to use “the bully pulpit to talk about everything that’s going on and assuring the people in Maui — and frankly all Americans — that the federal government is doing every single thing that they should be doing.”

Social media users were quick to call back to the Katrina era, calling out the irony that Fox News used Mr Brown to blast Mr Biden’s response.

“The guy from Katrina? OMG, can you pick ‘em!” one user on X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote. “I guess Brownie is well versed in abject failures, seeing that he was one,” another slammed.

Another went so far as to comment, “sad loser, he was in charge when katrina came and he shows his face now? jesus.”

On Thursday, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, Herman Andaya, resigned after facing scrutiny over his handling of the fires. Some Maui residents say lives could have been saved had emergency alarms sounded, but Mr Andaya’s agency did not use them. Richard Bissen, mayor of Maui County, explained Mr Andaya had resigned because of health reasons, which were not specified.