President Biden on Tuesday traveled to New York and New Jersey to tour areas struck by deadly flooding from Tropical Storm Ida, but he received a hostile welcome from some North Jersey residents who heckled him and flashed middle fingers.
Biden repeatedly attributed the flooding that killed at least 50 people last week — 13 of them in New York City — to climate change as he pushed his $4.7 trillion infrastructure and social spending bills.
A Manville, NJ, man interrupted Biden’s message by shouting, “Resign, you tyrant!” as he toured a devastated neighborhood. The heckler stood in his yard with a campaign flag for former President Donald Trump. Reporters positioned between Biden and the man said Biden did not react to the taunts.
Other pro-Trump protesters had greeted Biden’s motorcade along its route through North Jersey.
Multiple protesters were photographed giving the president a middle finger as he drove from Hillsborough Township to nearby Manville.
One person held a protest banner that said “F— Biden And F— You for Voting For Him.” Another sign said “Biden go back 2 the basement.”
Still, other people appeared to appreciate the president’s visit. He gave out hugs and words of encouragement while walking past Manville front yards strewn with water-damaged furniture.
A young boy approached Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) for help delivering to Biden a handwritten note that said “I bet your parents are proud of you, Joe,” Politico journalist Eugene Daniels reported. Booker took the boy to Biden.
But Biden’s trip also contained confusing moments — including when the president said that the word “tornado” was antiquated.
“Looks like a tornado — they don’t call them that anymore — that hit the crops and wetlands in the middle of the country,” Biden said in New Jersey during a listening session with officials.
Biden got a warmer greeting later, in Queens, from Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mayor Bill de Blasio and the area’s congresswoman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
“Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy and the threat is here. It’s not going to get any better… [But] we can stop it from getting worse,” Biden said, surrounded by New York Democrats who have been pushing the same theme.
Biden turned to Ocasio-Cortez, a self-identified socialist and author of the controversial Green New Deal, saying, “I want to thank her personally for her gumption — the way she’s fought and hollered and fought so hard for all the people in this alley.”
Biden’s emphasis throughout the day was on blaming climate change and using the destruction to justify passage of his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion social spending bill. Both bills have money for climate change projects and are broadly branded by Biden as his “Build Back Better” agenda.
“One in every three Americans has been victimized by severe weather,” Biden said in Queens, motioning to Schumer and saying, “I’m working in Congress to pass two important pieces of legislation that this man here is honchoing through the Congress.”
In Queens, Biden greeted locals who approached his entourage of elected Democrats. Reporters were at a distance and could not relay most of the words that were exchanged with residents.
A 7-year-old boy holding an American flag on an alley porch waved at Biden and elicited a shouted reply from the nearly 79-year-old president.
“The neat thing about America: every time we end up with a problem going into a serious circumstance, we come out better than we went in. That’s because we’re so diverse. That’s America. Be proud of it,” Biden shouted at the child, adding, “And don’t jump!”
After he wrapped up his remarks, Biden apologetically told the cluster of Democratic officials behind him that he “didn’t get to mention all the names.” Among those not mentioned by name was Hochul, who got a shout-out only by job title.
Schumer, who is seeking to steer Biden’s massive $3.5 trillion bill through the evenly divided Senate, gave a passionate introduction to Biden and recounted tragedies that happened nearby as basements flooded, killing New Yorkers.
“In a matter of minutes, a place of safety and refuge became a coffin,” he said.
“We must attack the cancer of climate change that is driving these destructive storms. That means protecting our frontline communities that bear the brunt of pollution and decarbonizing our economy ASAP and implementing a just transition fueled by American workers being paid a fair wage,” Schumer said.
The senator gushed, “Let me welcome the man who will lead us out of [the] darkness of this present moment and help us achieve a brighter future for Queens or New York and the whole United States of America, our great President Joseph Robinette Biden.”
Earlier, in New Jersey, Biden said during a briefing with Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell that “for decades, scientists have warned of extreme weather and it would be more extreme and climate change was here, and we’re living through it now. We don’t have any more time.”
“We can’t turn it back very much, but we can prevent it from getting worse,” he said.
In Manville, residents dealt not only with catastrophic flooding but explosions caused by gas leaks that leveled a banquet hall.
Many Queens residents, meanwhile, focused their rage not on global warming but on the lack of government warning as flooding struck. Some blamed Mayor de Blasio for his focus on climate change over more immediate emergency alerts.
Jose Marrero, 54, who lives in a two-story building on the Queens alley that Biden visited, said, “Can I speak frankly? [De Blasio] is talking out of his ass. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Tell him to live here for a year and tell me it’s [the] climate warming. De Blasio doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He really is talking out of his ass.”
Marrero told The Post his son Anthony was living in the home’s basement and lost everything.
He gave more positive reviews to Hochul and Biden. “I agree 100 percent this is an infrastructure thing. We got to get to the bottom of this,” Marrero said of Biden. He added that Hochul “was down here talking to us” before Biden’s visit.”De Blasio was never here. He never came down here. He was just here for a picture opportunity with the president,” Marrero said.
Insurance broker Eduardo Giraldo, 58, who also lives nearby, told The Post that the basement apartment he shared with his two sons was completely destroyed.
“When Mayor de Blasio says the new way to confront storms is to give warning levels, [it] is a good step in the right direction. But for us it’s too late. It’s too late,” Giraldo said. “They knew it was a heavy one. They should have let us know that. If I’d known, then I would have taken my cars to higher ground.”
Angry Woodside residents on Monday ripped into Democrats including Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez and de Blasio for not doing enough to warn New Yorkers about preparing for the approaching storm and then blaming climate change.
“There was absolutely no warning. I wasn’t expecting water from my own drain to be the one that’s going to kill me,” Danette Rivera. 47, told The Post on Monday as she stood outside her Woodside home.
Biden last Friday toured parts of Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm and where thousands are still without power amid the devastation.
He took the opportunity to tout his infrastructure package that also includes programs to curb climate change.
“Hurricane Ida is another reminder that we need to be prepared for the next hurricane and superstorms that are going to come, and they’re going to come more frequently and more ferociously,” Biden said.
— Additional reporting by Steven Vago and Bernadette Hogan
