Biden tells Maui survivors firemen ‘ran into flames’ at his own home to save Jill

President Biden instructed a room filled with Maui wildfire survivors that he might commiserate with their plight as a result of years in the past firefighters “bumped into flames” at his own residence to rescue first girl Jill Biden — retelling a narrative that for years has drawn unflattering fact-checks.

The 80-year-old president was trying to make frequent floor together with his viewers by invoking a small kitchen fireplace in 2004 at his Wilmington, Del., residence that the native fireplace division mentioned “could be considered an insignificant fire” as a result of it was shortly doused.

“I don’t wish to evaluate difficulties, however now we have a bit of sense — Jill and I — what it’s wish to lose a house,” Biden instructed the Lahaina residents, whose historic city was destroyed on Aug. 8 in wildfires that killed at the very least 114 folks.

“Years in the past now — 15 years in the past — I used to be in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press.’ It was a sunny Sunday and lightning struck at residence on a bit of lake that’s outdoors of our residence — not on a lake, an enormous pond,” Biden mentioned.

“And it hit a wire and got here up beneath our residence into the heating ducts, air-con ducts. And to make an extended story brief, I virtually misplaced my spouse, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.”

Biden added that firefighters who responded “bumped into flames to save lots of my spouse and save my household. Not a joke.”

The president was greeted earlier within the day by a number of dozen protesters who chanted “Go residence Joe” and held signs saying “No Comment” in reference to Bidne’s repeated refusal to touch upon the catastrophe when requested final week concerning the mounting demise toll.

On the time of Biden’s small residence fireplace, native fireplace chief George Lamborn told the Associated Press, “Fortunately, we acquired it fairly early. The fireplace was beneath management in 20 minutes.”

The AP reported that it was a “small fireplace that was contained to the kitchen” and that Jill Biden reported it to the emergency providers.

The information wire didn’t report that she was trapped inside the house and mentioned nobody was injured.

The president had instructed variations of the story over time.

At a fireplace prevention summit in October he claimed, “We virtually misplaced a pair firefighters” throughout the blaze.

At an infrastructure-focused occasion in 2021, he mentioned he “had a home burn down with my spouse in it.”

In a gently worded assertion final 12 months, Delaware’s Cranston Heights Fireplace Firm mentioned: “For the hearth service, this might be thought-about an insignificant fireplace because it didn’t result in a number of alarms and didn’t want a widespread incident response all through the county. Nevertheless, within the case for any house owner, it was clearly vital on the time and was shortly responded to by the native firefighters.”

Biden has a behavior of telling factually questionable tales when trying to narrate to his audiences.

Biden mentioned in Puerto Rico final 12 months that “I used to be type of raised in the Puerto Rican group at residence, politically,” regardless that only 2,000 Puerto Ricans lived in Delaware when he was launching his profession and his books include no details about interacting with the small group.

Additionally final 12 months, Biden instructed college students at traditionally black faculties in Atlanta that he was arrested a number of occasions whereas protesting in favor of civil rights — one other declare for which there is no evidence.

Biden in 2021 told Jewish leaders that he remembered “spending time at” and “going to” Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 after the worst anti-Semitic assault in US historical past, in which 11 folks have been murdered.

The synagogue mentioned he by no means visited and the White Home later said he was considering about a 2019 cellphone name to the synagogue’s rabbi.

Later that month, Biden told an Idaho audience that his “first job supply” got here from native lumber and wooden merchandise enterprise Boise Cascade. The corporate mentioned it was information to them.

Biden mentioned on the Naval Academy’s commencement ceremony final Could — and again on the Air Pressure Academy this June — that he was appointed to the prestigious Annapolis military college by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs’ archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment.