Will Cain Country - Devastation & Inspiration: An Inside Look At Maui

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

As Will returns from his trip to see the inside story of the devastating wildfires that pillaged the island of Maui, he discusses the shocking details he uncovered. He states who he believes might be responsible for the devastation, how the community will go about rebuilding, and the inspiring stories of people who have stepped up and helped.   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail].   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Devastation and inspiration. A look back into the past to find Blaine and a look into the future of the development of Maui. It's the Will Kane podcast on Fox News podcast. What's up? And welcome to the weekend. Welcome to Friday. As always, I hope you.

You will download rate and review this podcast wherever you get your audio entertainment at Apple Spotify or at Fox News podcast. You can watch the Will Kane podcast on Rumble or on YouTube, and you can follow me for all the latest on Twitter or X at Will Kane. I just got back from Maui, and it's fair to say I'm not ready for peak athletic performance. Saturday, tomorrow. I'm set to take place in the New York City Seal Swim with Pete Higgs at 50 Navy Seals and 200 other military, veteran, and patriots who support the Navy Seal Foundation. As you know, there's been quite a lead-up to this swim for several months. We've talked about my training. I've been back in the pool.

I was swimming two to three times a week trying to hit the gym. I was getting ready, and to the point where I was even beginning to taunt Pete Hegseth, that they were going to have to get two camera crews so that they could keep up with both of us as I pulled away towards Manhattan. The race, if you will remember, kicks off from Liberty State Park in New Jersey, a two-mile run with the American flag. From where we launch into the Hudson River with our first stop at the Statue of Liberty. At the Statue of Liberty, we get out onto a barge where we do 100-pour. push-ups and 22 pull-ups. There's a bit of a reconvening, everyone coming back together, taking a moment to revere

and recognize the place that you are and those that have given so much to this country, specifically those who were lost on 9-11 and the Navy SEALs who were lost in extortion 17. Then we didn't jump back into the water and swim to Ellis Island in honor of our nation's diversity, the immigration point of the United States of America, where we do another 100 push-ups and 22 pull-ups each leg so far three-quarters of a mile then we jump in and we swim the final mile and a half to manhattan where we get out and run to the 9-11 memorial and do once more one more time 100 push-ups and 22 pull-ups it is in total three miles swimming two and a half miles running 300 push-ups and 66 pull-ups and then it's toga party at the bar

Man, I've been looking forward to this. I've been hoping to go fast. I was hoping to be in shape. I was hoping to look good on television, shirtless. But my week has been interrupted. My life has been interrupted. On Sunday, right after Fox and Friends, I got in a plane. In fact, I left half an hour early from Fox and Friends to fly to Maui.

The story was too near and dear, too devastating, that I needed to be there. I needed to share with you my stories, which I will, which I have. I'm in this story for the long haul, not just to get the story right, but to do right by Maui, by Lahaina. But man, it was not right for my body. This isn't a, oh, woe is me, especially in the context of many, many people who have had their life turned upside down. But only as it relates or matters to attempting to perform admirably in the New York City Seal Swim, do I share the information that I slept on average, I would say, three to four hours a night, and those were not consecutive hours. I was running and gunning for three and a half days straight in Maui.

We pulled an all-nighter the first night when we got there on Sunday night, live from the north side of the island, Kahului. We left at 3.30 a.m. to drive to the west side, which was cut off physically in communication from the rest of the island and the world. got through a security checkpoint, and the only way you could access West Maui at that time, which was around the top, winding curvy road in the middle of the night, hairpin turns that drop off cliffs thousands of feet into the ocean and were driving a suburban. I was driving a suburban, and I was not tired. I was wired, but it was scary hour and 45 minute drive to our spot just outside of Lahaina in Kanapali. Every night we went live from midnight to about 4 to 5 a.m.

That was for Fox and Friends and Hits on America Newsroom and Fox Business. Then we grabbed a few hours asleep. We hit the road then and started filming all day long, you know, from a boat, from an airplane, from the car, talking to people all up and down the west side. I've told you about our interactions with the Maui mayor's office and attempting to silence our speech. We had power. We had spotty cell service, but we didn't have groceries. We picked those up on the other side of the island. So the point was it was three dudes.

It's me, Hollywood, my cameraman, Ariel, my producer, and not a one of us could cook. Not a one. We bought some steaks and some chicken to help you throw on a grill at some point, which we did. It wasn't very good because each of us looked at one another and like, who's going to do this? So, slept poorly, ate poorly. Circadian rhythm, all thrown off. Sleeping, I think it was usually from 9 p.m. at night to 11 p.m. at night. and then again from like I'd say five or six a.m. These are Hawaiian standard time to about 9 a.m. every single day.

eating no bueno and exercising very little i did go for one run on the beach i posted about that on my instagram page where you can see i ran into a turtle the symbol of wisdom and protection hanu in hawaiian which i thought was pretty symbolic as it lay there on the sand on an abandoned canopali beach i mean nobody you don't normally see a turtle roll up onto the shores of the beach there because there's usually people and he was just set between me and lehina wisdom and protection And I went to the gym twice. So, we'll see. I would be lying to you if I didn't say,

we ripped a heater on a boat as I looked out over Lahaina with the boat captain. I just feel like when you're at sea, not just on a boat, when you're at sea and the captain's smoking a cigarette, it's rude if you don't also smoke a cigarette. So, in short, my body is a temple. I'm in peak athletic performance. I'm ready to go keep up with some Navy SEALs. That is Saturday morning on Fox and Friends.

You can watch us as Pete and I swim the Hudson. Now, stories of devastation and inspiration. Look back into the past so we can start to assess blame, but also look into the future on how we redevelop Lahaina and West Maui here on the Will Cain podcast. It is time to begin to talk about what went wrong. Who is to blame? It's an unseemly part of these stories, but anybody who has any experience in the military or any experience in creating a successful enterprise or anybody that's simply interested in personal growth understands the idea of an after-action assessment. What happened here?

How is it possible that an entire town of 13,000 people that dated back over 200 years was essentially wiped off the face of the map? How is it we lost? who knows how many souls at this point it's well over a hundred was still hundreds missing what went wrong as we talked about in the last episode of the Will Kane podcast when you suppress free speech

you open up space for conspiracy and I do not throw that word around as a slur no one's been on more of a heater no one's had a hot run like conspiracy theorist but there's some nonsense that's filling

the gap of censorship when it came down to what happened in Hawaii. There was not a space laser that burned out the natives to get the land for rich developers in the government. We did not use a direct energy weapon. There is such thing. The United States of America does have direct energy weapons.

But that is not what happened in Maui. Can I prove a negative? No, but can I prove that the evidence is nonsense? Yes. The pictures that are floating around the internet that show a light beam going down to the hills above Lahaina are images that are manipulated using SpaceX launches, for example. The trail of flames from a rocket ship going up into a sky reversed into creating a fire on the

ground from above. They're just nonsense. It's just not real. I do not believe that what happened in Lahaina was intentional. I don't think we should ever ascribe to intention. that which can be easily explained by incompetence. But don't let that make you think that I don't think there's potential nefarious motivations ready to pounce. There's already stories going around about who dropped the ball when it comes to Lahaina. It appears that a Hawaiian electric company is one of the suspects. It's pretty certain in high probability that the way this fire, was started on the hills above Maui was that power lines were blown down by 65 mile an hour

hurricane force winds coming from Hurricane Dora several hundred miles off the coast of Maui. Those winds that day from everyone I spoke to, and I was on the ground, including having family in Conopoli just next to La Hina that day, was that the winds were incredible, uncomfortable to be outside. In some situations, people were telling me it was hard to stand up. I saw homes where the roofs had been blown off. They looked more like hurricane damage, not fire damage. where tile roofing had been blown off. And it was rocking wooden power lines. They're running above Maui.

People have said to me, how did trees stand when buildings and cars melted? Well, first of all, they may be standing, but they're dead. They're burned. They're charred. Are there examples of living trees? Like, for example, hopefully the banyan tree, you know, the oldest living banyan tree in America dates back to 1873, commemorates the Christian missionaries. It's a gigantic tree right there at the harbor.

It may yet still survive. They're trying to save it. We saw them spraying it with water this past week. Of course, there are random trees that might have survived. There are random houses that didn't burn down. It's the weirdest thing. Anyone who's ever been around a natural disaster understands how random, capricious, and yet destructive is Mother Nature.

Let me give you a couple of examples. I couldn't really access downtown Lahaina by foot. They have that still in recovery mission. Last I saw cadaver dogs had only gotten to about 38% of the town. I don't know. I don't have the expertise and haven't yet had the question answered of how a cadaver dog does locate people if the fire burns so hot that basically there's nothing that remains of that person.

My fear is we're never going to have the full tally. We're never going to have the full number. I will tell you, I've been on that ground, and I've been all over West Maui. I don't know that you can find that many people. They're probably local reporters. There's some very, very good local reports. Hawaii News now, Maui now, who've been out there.

But you can't find very many people who have talked to more survivors and heroes and residents of Lahaina than I did. And it's a weird observation to share with you that not a ton of them told me, yeah, I'm missing my auntie, I'm missing my nephew, I'm missing my cousin. I mean, yes, there are definitely people missing, and they know in most cases those that have died, but I didn't run into a lot of people saying, I'm missing 10 members of my family, haven't yet accounted for them. And if the numbers are incredibly high, you would think that story, anecdotally, would be much more common. Their stories, by the way, about children. School was called off that day because of the high winds. And so, you know, people have talked about this online, that a lot of children were home,

and they were home alone because parents went on to work. I do know, for example, I took to a general manager at a hotel on Kondapali who said, actually that day, all of our employees brought their kids to work. It's really important. It was an unusual day before the fire. Power went off at like 6 a.m. in the morning. Cell service went out midday. Winds howling where you did not want to be outside,

which meant fewer tourists roaming up. and down front street that day, but it might have meant more people at home inside, including children who had school called off. But again, if there were hundreds and maybe even dozens of kids still missing, I just think you would have a big community outcry talking about it. It wouldn't go left in the world of sort of speculation and rumor. Now, I will tell you, I will tell you, I had an interview, which you'll find on my social media this weekend with well a hero his name is uh kemo clark he has excavation business a water truck and he's a private individual and he fought that fire all night long and of all the interviews i did and i did many

and you'll see you can see many of them on my social media okay many many which i'm going to tell you about some of them here on this podcast chemo was the most shook because he saw a lot and i talked to a guy named sean sarabay who funny guy big character former MMA fighter saved a lot of people and he did say I saw myself a lot of bodies a lot of bodies I've heard

there are kids lost in that town but it's still not confirmed and again there's still not a lot of parents out there screaming so maybe entire families were lost maybe tourists who didn't have strong connections to many people out there in the world

and therefore their families aren't on the news screaming about where is my grandfather who was vacationing in Maui. Those people exist, trust me. But just anecdotally, you would think if the numbers were incredibly higher, you'd be hearing more. But I'll stay all over that. But back to the random nature and people saying, oh, why'd this tree stand or that tree fall? Why'd that building stand? Why'd that building fall? Mother nature is random. So here's a couple of examples. The part that you could access was the northern side of Lahaina towards Kanapali. And it kind of goes like this as you're going. From the north side, there's a

neighborhood called Hawaiian Homes. And then the next neighborhood's called Waiha Kuli. Waih Kuli looks like a war zone. Cars bombed out. Buildings to the ash, to ground. Not even much framing left in many situations. It's awful. Right next door to it in Hawaiian homes. I mean, when I say right next door, I'm going to explain to you in just a moment. But right next door in Hawaiian homes, only two of 102 homes burned out. And those two, I was there, I was in the neighborhood, were sort of in the center of Hawaiian homes. For what it's worth, that neighborhood, Hawaiian homes is called that because it's largely occupied by Hawaiians. It's local, everybody's local, but those who ethnically identify as Hawaiians. It's random, mother nature. It's cruel.

Why does this house stand in that house falls? It's always the case. I saw front street. I saw it from boat. I saw it from plane. It's odd like you'll be going along and all of a sudden. One home. Boom. Didn't burn. Why? I don't know. Different construction materials. Why? I don't know. Fire just danced. I don't know. It's cruel. It's not conspiracy. Because honestly, we're talking about the exception here. It's total devastation of the town of Lahaina. So Hawaiian Electric, you can see the videos out there. Power lines down that day in those high winds. There's videos of some of the first power lines to fall. You can see them sparking and dry grass. It's kind of innocuous in the beginning. It's just

like little grass smoking, little flames coming up. The quick timeline on this is there was a fire earlier that morning as the first power line went down, caught a fire at something like 6 to 8 a.m. in the morning was put out. They thought it was put out. I think it sparked up later in the day. Comes back at like 3 p.m. roughly by 4 p.m. It starts to catch building fires on the outskirts of Lahaina. By 5.30, it's ripped through town. As far as we can tell from social media videos, I can already see people piling into the sea by 535. It burns all night from there. And various parts of town probably burned at different points in the night. But that's kind of how that worked. And there's videos. You can see of these power lines down. Again, by the way,

it's 2023. Everyone has a cell phone. There's incredible footage out there. And causes of crimes are easy to solve, which just as a quick aside, can't find coke in the White House, a bunch of security cameras, and one of the nation's most protected institutions, but can't find who drops from Coke in the White House. But we can't see some power lines fall at the exact moment it happens in Hawaii in high winds. We'll be right back with more of the Will Kane podcast. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Trade Gowdy podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side.

Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms and have helped raise $7 million. Visit go.com forward slash TX flood relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts. Now, Hawaiian Electric, for what it's worth, has investors in it like Black Vanguard and Black Rock. now these are big financial institutions that come at the center of a lot of controversies these days as they seem to own all the homes and all the investments and all the real estate in America and so people start looking hey you know what could be the motivation behind people that are suddenly incompetent and I will tell you you can have incompetence at the front end and you can have nefarious motivations on the back end with the result

There's videos out there of a Maui Water Authority County official, M. Kaleo Manual. He's talking about water issues. Hawaii is full of water issues. Who has rights? Where does the water flow? And he's saying stuff like he wants to take a holistic approach to water. He believes in one water, equity, that water is to be revered, not so much used. I believe this individual was a recipient or educated through the Obama Foundation,

the big believer in inequity. He happens to be also the individual that supposedly, right now the investigations are there, deprived firefighters of the full use of water in the beginning. Again, I spoke to Kimo Clark, who was a private citizen, longtime Lahaina, local boy, knows where all the outlets, knows where tied in. He talked about fighting that fire, and then eventually the water pressure was lost. Now, was it this guy's incompetence?

This guy's motivations. Who knows? Kimo Clark said, look, I think it's just got so hot. The pumps, the generators, everything that runs it, just everything melted. I tend to trust somebody that fought all night and knew that town like the back of his hand. But I also think that when you run an enterprise, a government, an institution, with your motivation's not in line with the people, you are courting disaster. Here's what I mean by that. Look, this climate change talk, this equity talk, this stuff is pandering for politicians.

It's making people think you're for the people. And yet when they're burning alive, you don't have the competency to sound sirens, the alarms. Once a month, the alarms go off in Hawaii. Sirens, emergency management system. It's an island in the middle of the Pacific, closest to North Korea, closest to China. China, closest to Asia, missile, hurricane, tsunami, wildfire, it needs to be prepared for emergency. And they have an emergency warning system they test once a month. Anybody who's been in Hawaii knows, as used to, that once a month test.

But when an actual emergency emerges, with a siren sound, no, nothing. Hawaii's leader of emergency management said he does not regret it, that it wouldn't have saved lives. It's not what you hear from locals. It would have had time. He said it's primary for tsunami. Most people think of it as for tsunami warning. So they would have ran uphill toward the fire. It wouldn't have worked.

No. It's not exclusively understood to be about tsunami because there's video recordings out there, audio recordings where you can hear the emergency management system message. You're familiar with it. You know, the long beeps. It mentions wildfire. You better have some regrets about not sounding that siren.

But once again, I think what can be, be explained by conspiracy should nine times out of ten be explained by gross incompetence. And those having their priorities jacked, pandering, selling you ambiguous concepts like equity that trade upon grievances in exchange for your vote. Honestly, in exchange for you bequeathing them power, climate change. We're going to control the temperature of the earth by reducing carbon emissions. I'm telling you what more... I consider and say today that the climate changes, a man contributes to that climate change,

and it is one of the most hubristic at this point, gathering to the point of a con, concepts played upon largely the American people, but the people of the planet, that we can control the thermostat of the earth. We can't sound the sirens outside of town. And make no mistake, no matter how much they talked about the experts and the climate scientists, this are the same people. these are the same people the ones that want power do you think that they're staffed with geniuses from top to bottom do you even after this can you sit back and go you know what that's the people I want to put in charge of the earth and our temperature yeah they can control it they can control carbon emissions they can control the climate yeah we got enough experts while they can't sound the siren these are just cons again to trade on our grief

in exchange for votes and ultimately power. And their priorities are not really with the people. How would you ever deprive water? How would you ever not sound a siren if you're for the people? You're standing between fire and devastation. The lives of children. But yeah, you're one with water, holistically. And the people.

Everybody I've talked to has said the following. While there is gross incompetence when it comes to the political class and the power class that the first responders as they always do didn't just act admirably but most situations acted heroically those same dudes fighting that fire from the maui fire department and the maui police department are all the same guys by the way that lost their homes as well and in many cases had to end up running from that fire themselves i'm telling you i'm telling you again i've spoken to men like kemo clark who stood side by side with those firemen that night and saw first hand not somebody on social media i'm talking about first hand you can see you can see

it in his eyes, okay? When you see that in someone's eyes, it inspires a bit of trust about what they saw that night in the way those first responders fought. The land in Hawaii is part of the gross incompetence. I've been going there for over 40 years.

I remember when I was a kid sitting on the beach, anybody lived in Lahaina, anyone in the vacation there on a regular basis knew this. There was a time in your life when it started raining black ash. You'd sit there and all of a sudden it was like snow, black snow, long strand. of sugarcane grass.

Cell used to harvest the sugar cane that grew on the hill. Industrial agiculture. It was pineapple plantations at one time in some parts. It was sugar cane fields and others. The way you harvest sugar canes, you light it on fire. Grass all burns away. Cain stock is there. Running over to the mill, which was in town before it was expired.

But you see in the images of burned out Lahaina. You can see the smokestack. That's a sugar cane mill. And so when this fire first started, many people said in these interviews, I remember Sean Serebe saying, oh, in the beginning, it reminded me of sugarcane days. Those lands that used to be pineapple plantations and sugar cane fields, well, NAFTA, regulation, talking about agricultural regulation. It became cheaper and easier.

To move all that stuff, fall in Central America, Costa Rica. And what happened to the lands of Hawaii? The hills. By the way, a lot of people bring up the hills to me, because you're just seeing pictures. And I guess you're not familiar with the west side of Maui. It's a dry side. It is a drought side. I said this before, Lahaina means cruel sun.

And it's like, oh, well, how could it be so green there? Look at the hillside, okay? Behind you is the West Maui Mountains. Those are some of the wettest spots on Earth. You have a windward and a leeward side of the mountain, okay? The windward side essentially brings all the clouds blowing towards the mountains and catching on, across the ocean, catching on the West Maui Mountains or Halea on the other side of Maui. And it essentially rings the clouds of all their moisture.

Okay? they dump rain on the windward side of those mountains. Some of the wettest spot on earth, lush, green. But then on the other side, they're already dried out. Now, you'll see in the mountains, the mountains still get some of it, so it's green. But as it goes lower, down the hillside, it gets brown, yellow. That was what was once sugar cane. Now it's dry grass, non-native grass.

Some of it, I mean, anybody's been around the nose, I mean, it's shoulder high. It's dead. This is the stuff. blowing around at the base of these power lines, right? Not properly maintained. Incompetence. Shouldn't be around power lines like that. Should find greater uses for this land.

I don't know. Hell, maybe industrial agriculture shouldn't have drained the whole thing, depleted the soil, used up all the water. There's a lot of incompetence and misuse of land. And that led to this, contributed to this devastation. And then there is, despite all this incompetence, what I said at the back end, nefarious motivations, and will they play in the end result of what comes of Lahaina?

Let me tell you about some people that I met over the last couple of days. I mentioned Sean Serebe. Sean's got face tattoos, doesn't wear a shirt, tattoos all over his body, you know, thick guy, because he's an M.MA fighter, right? Saw him on social media first, ended up meeting him later. Sean's big character, funny, making jokes. But here's who he was on the night of the fires. Go to my Instagram, see Will Kane, go to my Twitter, my ex at Wilcane.

He was out there with a hose fighting fires, trying to say first the first United Methodist Church, where, by the way, I went as a kid. Later, home after home. When I was sitting there talking to Sean about what he did that night with a hose and talking and taking videos, I'm literally on the line with flames. This lady comes up. Their name was Leanne. Leanne kind of interrupts, but not bad, you know. And she goes, hey, we saw you. It was you. We saw you on the roof.

And he's like, what? Yeah. That was me. You saved my mom's home. Oh, yeah? Yeah, we saw you up on the roof with the water hose. You saved my mom's home. And then she cries. And she grabs, Sean. Gives him a hug. They both talk. You pigeon. It's a real moment of love and heroism. We're going to step aside here for a moment. Stay tuned.

This is Jimmy Phala, inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com. Yeah, so Sean fought that fire, saved her mom's house, while Leanne's house right next door, neighborhood-wise, in Wahakouli burned to the ground.

She said he gave us hope. I met Sean in the cul-de-sac of Uncle Archie's house. Now, Uncle Archie is a community leader. Let's leave that term and let it sit there for a minute. a community leader in West Maui. He's Hawaiian. He lives in Hawaiian homes. When I approached Hawaiian homes after making a connect to get up there and talk,

there is a big sign spray painted with tourists keep out and an upside-down Hawaiian flag, which is usually a sign for like a Hawaiian separation movement. I was welcomed with open arms. I'm here to see Mish, I said. As it turns out, Mish was working essentially as Uncle Archie's chief of staff. Oh, you got the golden ticket. Come on in. Smiles and warmth.

an entire civilian volunteer army met me in that neighborhood working security women and men green vests walkie-talkies brought me through the neighborhood pointed the way guys on motorcycles ATVs and took me down to the cul-de-sac for what I saw was absolutely amazing on our way in a car full of a couple doctors opened the trunk and turned over IV bags medicines gave instructions only gives a little bit of of this, to the civilian community, to the army, to take care of their community, their neighborhood, their people. You get to Uncle Archie's house, Archie Kalepa, there's a pharmacy, I'm telling you, a makeshift tent, little table, nice lady sitting there, eating noodles, it's now the pharmacy for the community. There's the baby section with diapers and formula. There's the bedding section where you go if you need a sleeping bag or you need a mattress.

There is the cleaning supplies. There is every single thing that you can imagine. You walk through his backyard is now a shopping center. As I walk through the back of the shopping center again, you can see this on my ex or my Twitter or my Facebook or my Instagram. As I got to the back, this thriving, bustling sense of community, right at the back, I'm telling you, right at the property line. Boom. Warzone.

Burned out. Wahakuli. I'm telling you, you have to see this dark contrast between this community, this beautiful thing of people being there for people. And next door, right there, the end of death and destruction. Right there. This whole week I've struggled with the concept of fate. Do I believe in fate?

Well, how about it sparing Hawaiian homes? How about it sparing Archie Kaleppa's house? You know, it's kind of interesting. We've fallen so far into conspiracy that somebody said to me, oh, didn't burn the community leader's house. I'm like, do you understand what I'm telling you? Do you understand? This looks like about a two, three-bedroom house on a quarter-acre lot.

in a subdivision of a man with no elected office no official title just reverence just respect just a community leader and get this

at some point I was having trouble connecting I said Mitch I've seen you kind of hoarding a couple passwords to the internet can I get on she was come here come here and she gives me the password

and then it hits me why we got so good internet right here everywhere you go the only thing it was working Starlink Starlink's everywhere. They had 50 Starlink's in Hawaiian homes. And as I watched it in the corner, it was powered by two gigantic Tesla batteries.

Now, how does that happen? Here's how that happens. A private entrepreneur named Elon Musk invent something incredible and extremely affordable for what it's worth. Starlings are only like two or three hundred bucks, and there's a monthly fee of like $100. I know this because we used it all week. I don't know how much the batteries cost. But Elon Musk has done something that drops into catastrophe and crisis, be it Ukraine or or Maui, and immediately gets people doing the one thing they need the most, which is communication.

You need logistics. What do we need? Where? And local guys. Canoe crews. Canoeing is really big in Hawaii. It's like, because how the ancestors from Tahiti arrived at Hawaii in these gigantic canoes, right? And now canoe races and canoeing culture is very big.

They canoed some of these supplies from Oahu. They canoed it. Canoe crews came in who had expertise in the solar technology and, and electrical work, and they installed these gigantic Tesla batteries and turned not only Uncle Archie's cul-de-sac into a pharmacy and a supply store, but a communication hub. It's absolutely incredible. And as I sat there and I talked to Uncle Archie, we talked about what's supposed to happen, what will happen, and it's terrifying. It is, you can't recapture history, you can't recapture the lives that were lost. Can you in any way recapture Lahaina? Can you,

insure the Hawaii will always have Hawaiians. Look, some of those homes, I don't know how much. Not insured. Why old plantation-style homes, 200 years old, grandfathered past codes, five-foot lot lines, all kinds of, all the stuff like in every aspect of life that's dangerous and charming, you know, charming in danger or charming and not up to OSHA, code, but not insured. because of that. So how do they afford to build back? How do they do that? You know?

And I was told, Sean Serebe told me, said I've gotten 15 calls already to buy my spot. There's predators, man. It's people already looking to buy on the cheap. It's happening. These people's land is going, well, it's going to get offers. And it's going to be hard, hard for them not to sell.

but Kimo Clark Please Lahaina Don't leave That was his message Please don't go Please somehow Rebuild here

Stay We have to rebuild this town Archie Colepo You have to do things right In Hawaii that means Pono Not just Aloha in love But right

Pono You know You gotta respect someone's culture It doesn't have to mean In politics And I'm gonna tell you something About a lot of these people Not lefty

No sir Like Trump Now, I'm not, the individual names that I just said, I'm not saying that they do, but I'm telling you within the community. Like Fox, I'm telling you, why is it so reliably blue? Why is it always Democratic? Different effort-knit groups have different roles and powers in society in Hawaii. It's true. Anyone can look it up, and for what it's worth, politics in Hawaii is dominated by Japanese, and for whatever reason, Japanese, Democrat.

But not these people that I were speaking to. I'm not saying to a Republican either. Because hell with party. I want competent. I want principled. I want wisdom. And for me, what I saw in that community is not just quintessentially Hawaiian but quintessentially American. I'm conservative for many reasons.

Instincts, tradition, education, the constitution, understanding James Madison, you know, understanding Thomas Jefferson and their vision for America. But I'm also conserved because I believe in community. Now, what do I mean by community? I mean, I believe the people around me. My neighborhood, my church, my family. Those are the people that have my interest at heart. That when there's a death in my family, they're the ones that come over with food. My small town, Sherman, Texas.

When something goes bad and you have a catastrophe where you have a community leader like Archie Kaleppa. When you are in need, it is your community. It is not FEMA, which I never saw. It is not some far removed government. Empathy does not exist a world away. I'm telling you, I am skeptical of your Ukrainian flag flying in your driveway, especially if I do not see you in your community giving back. This is how we best design society.

This was a union of states loosely for common defense. But this was a federation of people, 50, and within that 50, counties and cities and governments, neighborhoods because that is how you build each other up we can't be isolated in our homes and into our phones and think that the only thing that matters is our election for president to me what i saw in hawaii is my vision of america that's community and that has to be ensured to come back this community cannot be scattered to las vegas in california to oahu to kaha louis on the other side of maui it needs to be there i share that vision politics or not i share preserving that community. It can't be Gucci stores. It can't be BlackRock. It can't be vanguard. It can't be rich developers.

I don't want this to be a race thing ever, you know? Look, I'm what they call Halley. I'm white, right? But I know the Hawaii isn't Hawaii without Hawaiians. And I don't think it should be all Hawaiians. I think it should be everyone together. But it needs to be back to tradition and the people and the community that's been there. And I think you all believe the same thing. Every message I've gotten, every text, Every social media message. Don't let the rich developers have it. Don't lose what it was. Don't let it become Wailea.

Don't let it become Disneyland. Don't let it become Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores. Another resort. Maybe it can never be what it was. But it can be Pono. It can be righteous. That's the fight going forward. We still have to assign blame on the past.

Now the devastation is in our past. But what I saw is inspiration. I'm telling you, that community is inspiration. And the future, the future. And what that looks like is not just about Lahaina and it's not just about Maui. It's actually about all of us. Are we all going to become generic strip outlet malls? Are we all going to become drones that listen to the same music, talk the same way, speak with the same accent, dress like the latest trend from some rap star on Instagram or TikTok?

Are we all going to be drones who think? think the exact same thing as we are told or are we going to retain our unique individual identities unique community identities with the people that care about us the most because that's about all of us that's about america and if that's what america is if in my humble estimation i am right well you've got to fight somewhere and that fight can't be a hundred plus billion dollars in ukraine and nothing for maui it can't be i don't want a government that cares more about Ukraine than it does about Hawaii. Because Hawaii is Arizona.

Arizona is South Dakota. South Dakota is Alabama. Alabama is West Virginia. West Virginia is Texas. Because if they will let that happen, if they care more about Ukraine than they do Lahaina, you think they won't care more about Ukraine than they do, Birmingham, Cheyenne, Rapid City, Tucson, Sherman.

So maybe, maybe it's Pono if we, preserve that community in Lahaina. I am going to do my best to ensure that that community stays in Lahaina. As you know, friends and family have all put together a go fund me, a fund that incredibly it touches my heart to say largely Fox News viewers have driven to over $1.7 million. I'm going to help oversee that that money goes directly to the people of Lahaina. I can't dictate where people build or how they rebuild their lives, but I know that I want to help the people there who've been just devastated, who have that shared vision of Lahaina.

I always appreciate your help. It's at help Maui Now.com or go fund me, help the people of Maui. I appreciate you very much. I'll see you again next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad free on the Amazon Music app. It is time to take the quiz.

It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz.