US Politics

Biden’s lavish lobster dinner doesn’t change his hostility to seafood industry, fish groups say

President Biden was on the receiving end of online criticism from Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden over his upcoming seafood dinner with Macron featuring Maine lobster.

FIRST ON FOX: A pair of fish and seafood associations weighed in on President Biden’s upcoming lavish lobster dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Biden faced backlash on Twitter on Wednesday night from Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden over his upcoming Thursday seafood dinner with Macron featuring Maine lobster.

Golden criticized the president for not meeting with Maine lobstermen after promising to protect the seafood industry in office.

DEM LAWMAKER CRITICIZES BIDEN FOR RITZY WHITE HOUSE STATE DINNER SERVING ‘200 MAINE LOBSTERS’

President Biden was on the receiving end of online criticism from Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden over his upcoming seafood dinner with Macron featuring Maine lobster.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, commended Golden for calling out Biden on the issue and said that his organization has had trouble meeting with the current administration.

Vanasse said that it’s not just lobster, but other seafood industries like tuna and swordfish, are having issues meeting with the White House.

“I applaud the congressman for calling out the administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to our domestic fisheries and their policies,” Vanasse said.

“This is not the first time that something like this has happened, but it is good to see, and particularly a Democrat pointing it out because this administration has frankly not been friendly or helpful to our domestic fishing industry,” he continued.

Vanasse said “the most egregious example of that was last summer with regard to the Atlantic Marine Monument, which President Obama created with very little scientific backing using the Antiquities Act.” He noted that the monument move prevents tuna, lobster and swordfish fishing and that America’s “sustainable red crab industry is being kicked out of that area,” as well.

“We spent three years working with the Trump administration to reverse President Obama’s ban on commercial fishing in that area,” Vanasse said. “And they did a very diligent job of looking at science before they agreed to remove the ban and allow our fishermen in that area.”

Vanasse said that the Biden administration has not followed through on its policymaking with science over politics, and that when they “were fighting for our offshore lobster industry, our red crab industry, our fishermen and our tuna fishermen” last summer, they “got one hour to defend the industry with staff at the Department of the Interior…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at FOX News : Politics…