The modern presidency has become more and more concerned with showing sympathy to victims of tragedies. The president, usually in the company of Mrs. President, steps out of an Air Force One or helicopter to be greeted by dignitaries from the locality and the highest-ranking member of his party. This signifies the political nature of the trip, and the survivors end up being little more than props in the disaster reality show created by the president’s political staff.

The schmaltz that is smeared on during election time tends to obscure the horror of the actual disaster. For the president, there is a fine balance between sentimentality and genuine sympathy.

Some presidents are masters at making tragedy a public spectacle. Bill Clinton is said to excel at being the chief mourner, but I couldn’t get past his lack of sincerity. When he appeared at the Oklahoma City memorial, for example, you could tell that he was thinking about how to turn the unimaginable crime into an attack on Republicans. Democrats are still trying to link Republicans to terrorism.

Ronald Reagan on the other had the perfect balance between presidential solemnity and personal empathy. He did not try to be the most emotional in showing his feelings. He was visiting the site of a tragic event. I wish that the presidents who followed him had done so.

Joe Biden never really mastered being a “presidential Comforter”. He appears to think that telling anecdotes about his own life, which are completely unrelated to the tragedies that others have suffered, shows empathy. When he addressed the Afghan exit debacle, he told a bizarre story about his dying son Beau.

“I don’t compare difficulties,” said he. Then he did exactly that.

Jill and I have experienced what it is like to lose your home. His house, in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, was struck by lightning. A small fire started in the kitchen. “I nearly lost my wife, my Corvette ’67, and my cat.”

David Strom, Hot Air

Biden? It’s all a show and his pretense is so thin he cannot even sound convincing. He tells himself stories as if he can relate to the victims that he is pretending to comfort.

Biden’s political career has been built on his ability to show empathy. But that empathy is almost completely fake. It is heartbreaking to lose his first wife and child, and I am sure that this has had a personal impact on his life.

The stories he tells about things that have never happened are totally fake because his empathy at these moments is completely fake.

A kitchen fire in 2004? A town being wiped off of the map is not the same as a kitchen fire in 2004.

Does he not know how to show empathy and compassion?

The Washington Post reported this week that Biden has been viewed as a leader who is “uniquely adept” at leading with compassion in the face of tragedies such as this. He is “uniquely skilled” at lying.

Biden announced to those who had lost everything, that his administration would give Lahaina residents a total of $700 to “help survivors with immediate necessities, such as clothing, food, or transportation,” according to USA Today.

“To be honest, when he told me $700 per family, I was like, What are we supposed do with that?” Ashley Correa, 32, is a realtor who spent the past two weeks organizing help for her friends and neighbors because the federal government and the state government were nowhere to be seen.

The media made sure to make sure that the Lahaina fire would not become Joe Biden’s Katrina, even though Bush’s (slow) response to Katrina was at least as effective as Biden’s response to this wildfire.

Biden’s name has a “D”. It makes a huge difference.