WASHINGTON — President Biden bristled Monday when a journalist asked the retiring commander-in-chief about monitoring the fallout from deadly hurricane flooding from his Delaware vacation home rather than the White House — saying, “It’s called a telephone.”
“Why weren’t you and Vice President Harris here in Washington commanding this this weekend?” a journalist asked Biden, 81, at the White House.
“I was commanding it. I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it,” the president replied.
“It’s called a telephone,” he further snapped.
Biden defended his response as Harris, 59, flew back from a weekend trip to Arizona and Nevada.
He spoke at the White House about the disaster amid reports that more than 100 people may have died as a result of Hurricane Helene — most of them in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Biden said Monday that seeking recovery funds from Congress “is something I may have to request” — after saying the opposite on Sunday as he returned to Washington.
“Do you have any words to the victims of the hurricane?” a journalist asked Biden at Dover Air Force Base as he prepared to board Air Force One.
“It’s a tragedy … We’ve given them all that, everything that we have. We’re on the ground ahead of time. So we’re working hard,” Biden replied.
“Are there any more resources the federal government could be giving them?” a reporter followed up.
“No, we’ve given them — we preplanned a significant amount of it,” he said.
