Will Cain Country - President Biden Makes A Tragedy About Himself & 3 GOP Debate Predictions

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Story #1: 1 and 4 school children missing. Towns reduced to ash. President Biden compares it to his kitchen fire. Story #2: 3 Predictions for the Republican Presidential Primary Debate Story #3: We are not doing this again. We are not wearing masks and we are not locking down.   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

One, 500 to 800 people reduced to ash. One in four school children missing in Lahaina. And it's compared to the almost loss of a 67 Corvette in a kitchen fire by President Joe Biden. Two, three predictions for the Republican primary presidential debate. Three, we are not doing this again. We are not wearing masks. We are not locking down. It's the Will Kane podcast on Fox News Podcast.

What's up? And welcome to Wednesday. As always, I hope 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 Will Kane podcast on Rumble or our podcast. on YouTube and follow me on X, formerly known as Twitter at Will Kane. I've taken a couple of days off after the epic New York City seal swim. I've eaten some cheese and caramel popcorn. I've enjoyed myself with a chocolate croissant.

Interestingly, I haven't really partaken in many adult beverages, but I've let myself go. The goal now is to not let myself go for too long. to get back on that horse. And I know that the only way I'm going to be able to get back on that horse to eat right and exercise right is to say yes, is to find that next thing. I do know coming this fall, it's time for another rowing challenge. I do know that come this next winter, perhaps another swim with the seals. But it's time to say yes so that we can create some accountability. Eat right, get right.

Soon with Wilcane. Story number one. the news media moves on it's the way it works we move on to the next story and perhaps even within 24 hours we'll move on to horse race politics after the republican presidential primary debate but i will not i cannot move on from mowie there's too much accountability there's too much to learn there's too many stories there's too much loss in lehaina right now it looks like like the loss of life will probably land somewhere between five and eight hundred individuals. 114 have been pronounced dead, and the number of missing has been reduced from 1,000 to about

800. Every local person that I have talked to, and even though I've returned to the mainland, I've managed to continue to have conversations with people that are literally on the ground in Lahaina. I told you in the last episode of the Will Kane podcast about my new, friend Kimo Clark. Kimo Clark is born and bred Lahaina. He has an excavation business, truth excavation. He fought the fire that night with one of his water trucks, his crews, and he separated and fought to, in fact, save entire neighborhoods of Lahaina. He now has a contract

working with FEMA on the ground in Lahaina. And Kimo shared with me that the task is impossible, but the competency on the ground is incredible. He's incredibly impressed with the work and professionalism of FEMA. He's described to me that these are experts in what they do in looking for human remains in removing debris. He's lent his trucks. He's lent not his crews, but his machinery to that effort in West Maui. As he describes it, buildings are being lifted off of one another,

second stories off of ground floor. Because what they're looking for in allowing these incredible dogs to have access to is the potential for DNA. It's just not much left of anyone. Lahaina was, in essence, turned into a crematorium. Everyone was incinerated. They're looking for, in his words, a finger, a piece of bone, DNA, and apparently these dogs can dig down into the earth and notice and bark. at the alert of an individual. It is suspected by most that I have spoken to who are still in Lahaina that the number of dead will arrive at some point at the number of missing.

I told you in the last episode, and it continues to be the case, that this is accompanied by a bit of a mystery for me. And when I've talked to locals, they say it's a very valid point. Of course, when you talk to someone, and this week I've spoken to Pastor Kawi Kiahi, it's on Krupnik. and Kimo Clark, when you talk to someone, they can tell you people that have been lost, but almost to a person, their friends and family have been saved. It's more like a friend of a friend or a half a dozen members of a congregation. But it's hard to add up any anecdotal stories or word of mouth or official list that does give you, the impression there's still 800 people lying in Lahaina. It's the same story when it comes to

the children. There's reports out that kids have already begun to re-enroll in school. That's going to be very difficult, obviously, because most of the public schools in Lahaina are inaccessible. So private schools are accepting enrollment, and people are applying to homeschool. For many reports, Reuters says about 200 students have signed up for distus learning, and only 400 students, students in the area have re-enrolled in public schools. There's about 3,300 students in the Lahaina school system. They added up to say at some point we're going to re-enroll in school, and when we arrive, there's going to be something like one in four kids missing from school.

Does that mean those children are gone, gone from this world, perhaps lying still in Lahaina? Or does that mean they have left the islands or not checked in? Pastor Kauai Kiahi told me these are not the kind of people. that don't stand up and come back to church. These are not the kind of people who stay silent. On the other hand, I have heard from others, a videographer that I've gotten to know in Hawaii who said to me, you know, a lot of in Asian culture, it is don't speak out, don't cause problems. So are there people that are remaining silent? Are there people below the radar, illegal immigrants who are missing in the rubble it's hard to imagine there wouldn't be moms on

television screaming about their missing child but on the other hand as many have pointed out what we could be witnessing here is the loss of entire families units of six seven members of aunties and uncles and cousins and perhaps multi-generational simply gone we've heard about the people that die died in, we've heard about the people that died in cars. We've heard about the people that died in the ocean. What I'm beginning to learn about is also the people that died in the buildings. There are many people that barricaded themselves on a second floor. As I've been told, there were people that barricaded themselves in showers. And in essence, what happened as the flames bore down on Lahaina, those showers, those rooms,

turned into ovens. It's just a horrific inferno, a horrific hellscape, a horrific scene in Maui. But what I've also been told is there's inspiration that those FEMA members on the ground are incredible in knowing what they do. Those FEMA members are from states like Washington or California or all across the mainland United States,

and they're highly trained, highly professional individuals. who are respectful of local culture. But while those people seem to be leaving a good impression in getting a very difficult task accomplished, there are others who have pointed out to me that the incompetency of that day, where some of the blame lies, lies in a system and a culture of patronage on Maui,

that everybody got jobs. Everybody got jobs based upon who they know. Everybody got jobs based upon their connections. based upon their family. And what that does is it cuts out merit, it cuts out competition. It cuts out putting the best man in the role for the job. And perhaps that's what we saw on a very chaotic day

on August 8th when the fires broke out. There were barricades that forced people down to Front Street. It became a trap, a fire ring, where people died that morning because they couldn't get out of town. But that wasn't necessarily a conspiracy as much as it was incompetence or even simply understandable human chaos. Kimo Clark told me that night, there was just fires breaking out all over town. The minute you thought one thing was addressed or even recognize another was sprouting

up somewhere else in town, that it's impossible to truly, unless you were there, understand the level of chaos. There were trees down in the streets and power lines laying across the highway. Eton Kropnik told me that he drove over those power lines. and then ended up leading a caravan of people, including six members of his family, escaped their neighborhood. But others probably would have had some fear to run over power lines or to disobey an officer's order. And those officers would have been trying to do what is best. It's not wise to run over power lines.

People have pointed out, well, the power was out that day. Yes, but also the power lines are part of the suspicion of what caused the power. So I'm not sure how that works. Could there still be power running to some substation in West Maui, but from the substation down to the residences and businesses in Lahaina, it was shut off? Could the power lines have still remained dangerous, and therefore the officers had a legitimate point to point everyone down towards Front Street, which in retrospect ended up being a mistake? But were these incompetencies, were these chaotic, understandable human error, were these results of unqualified individuals, the recipients of patronage, None of this adds up to easy answers. But when we look for what went wrong and what we can do in the future, certainly doing a way with patronage, favoritism, and deprioritizing merit is not just a step forward for Lahaina and Maui, but a step forward for the United States of America, because in that way, it's symbolic of Washington, D.C.

In that way, it's symbolic of the mainland, of greater United States of America. As is the case of climate change in renewable energy. I do firmly believe that any leader today that points to the role of climate change in this tragedy is fundamentally unsirious and probably one that is looking to avoid any personal accountability. Climate change is a mystic religion at this point that is used both to accumulate power and to avoid blame. and climate change, in essence, contributed to this catastrophe, this disaster that's one of the three worst of the 21st century in America. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times reporting that Hawaiian Electric, the company, the electric company of the islands that ran all that power, ran all those power lines, had known for years of the risk of wildfire damage from a downed line. and yet little had been done.

Only $245,000 had been spent, according to the Wall Street Journal from 2019 to 2022. This is despite a very dangerous fire having broken out in 2018. All the warning signs were there. So why wasn't Hawaii in electric yet spending money on clearing vegetation, replacing old, wooden, splintered, for that matter,

power line poles that you can see in videos buckling under the winds? once again in all fairness we want to understand the chaos of that day everyone has told me that was unprecedented levels of wind 45 65 80 mile an hour winds that people that have lived there not just their entire lives but for generations have said they never had experienced but hawaiian electric still knew of the risk of wildfires and yet why had they only spent 245,000 dollars Apparently, some other funds had been earmarked, but hadn't yet been spent. Well, why is that?

Well, according to journalists like Michael Schellenberger and the Wall Street Journal, it's because so much focus and priority and attention was given to renewables. They were trying to move Hawaii to renewable energy off of oil and gas, primarily solar. But you can't even store solar to an appropriate percentage there on Maui. 20% of energy apparently had been derived from renewable energies. And over the last couple of years, Maui had risen that up to 40%. But at a cost, at a cost of updating this system and clearing away vegetation, which most people suspect right now is the cause of the fire.

Who knows, it could have been a cigarette butt, but there are videos of down the power lines sparking into dry grass and starting an initial fire. The New York Times reports that this happened as well in California. Hawaiian Electric is already experiencing what happened with PG&E. PG&E in California after the campfire, which up until now was, I think, the deadliest fire in the last hundred years in America, killed 84, sent PG&E for liability for all of that damage and loss of life into bankruptcy. Hawaiian Electric stocks and bonds are already trading down because of the potential liability here.

Way, way, way more liability than that of the campfire. any focus on climate change any focus on renewables came at a cost attention is a zero-sum game what you give to a you deprived from b and what we gave to the mystic arts of renewables and climate change deletree is we took away from the practicalities of warnings that were already given of problems that were known to exist and realities has such a rude way of interrupting modern day political mysticism reality rudely interrupted in Lahaina patronage displaced priorities climate change

zealotry horrific natural disaster dealing with those winds a chaotic environment a town with very little ingress or egress human error

all seems to have led to what looks like who knows how many children and possibly somewhere between 500 and 800 people incinerated in Lahaina I will not leave this story behind I cannot leave the story behind I will continue to tell these stories on my Instagram at see Wilkane on my ex my Twitter at Wilkane on Facebook and with you here on the Wilkane podcast it's not just because so much of my heart is in Maui but because I think there's so much here for all us to learn. And one of those lessons as well is about leadership. Joe Biden made his way to Maui. While there is praise that I have received on the ground for FEMA, there is no praise

that I have heard for Joe Biden. I saw somebody on Twitter say, why is it only see white people complaining about the federal government in AAPI, Asian American Pacific Islanders, praising the response from the federal government. That's because that's someone spouting off on Twitter about the worldview they hold through the false reality of social media, a racist, false reality. I've been there. Nobody's talking about race. Look, I'm not painting a kumbaya of Hawaii that is totally devoid of racial divide. No, everyone well knows.

There is and has been racial tension in Hawaii for quite some time, but it does not exist today. I will tell you that. I've been there. You know what I heard? I sat in a tent and a cul-de-sac out of Uncle Archie's house, and I heard a man turn to me and go, brown and white, it doesn't matter, right? Nobody thinks any of that matters.

It's Aloha. It's what's in your heart. I heard Etawn Krepnick tell me, everybody overplays this race thing. It's about how you come. It's how you live. It's how you believe, again, about Aloha. Race never came up.

It doesn't come up. But you know what does in almost a unified fashion? A condemnation of our leadership. Joe Biden showed up to Hawaii. He's 80 years old, and it's a rough flight. I just did it. It's 12 hours from the East Coast. Of course, he has Air Force One, which I'm sure has its own bedroom.

But it's a six-hour time difference, and I do think that we've seen through his presidency. He flags at the end of the day. It's fair. Old people flag at the end of the day. The nation has chosen to elect an 80-year-old, an octogenarian. He gets tired. So I'm sure that he was tired, and that probably explains some of the word slurring. Some of the inability to get people's names.

right, like the mayor of Maui, Richard Bisson. It's harder to explain, using age, his tone-deaf jokes. All kidding aside, did you see the boots on the dog? Looks like the mayor of Maui could have played defensive tackle for, I don't know, he said, someone good. Read the room, Joe. Lead. Lead a people. Show empathy. And so when he did, this is what he said. He told the story of a kitchen fire in Delaware. To start with, it was full of lies. He said that he was on Meet the Press and the kitchen fire broke out in his home in Delaware. Somehow, a fire that all reports say was put out

within 20 minutes, he finished his hit on Meet the Press and made it home in time to watch the firefighters, which he apparently saw with his own eyes in awe, highly improbable. Then he shared something that he had a saying, you know, first God made man, then he made the firefighter never heard that before in my life as a saying but then he compared his kitchen fire that was put out in 20 minutes and said that he almost lost his wife he almost i'm direct quoting here almost lost his 67 corvette almost lost his cat to the people of lehina that have seen 500 800 people reduced to ash who knows how many children missing old age does not forgive those lies old age does not forgive, personalizing a tragedy and making it about you, putting it in first person, even if it's a failed attempt to empathize, come on, we all know.

If you showed up at someone's house whose house had just burned down and some of their family was missing, would you tell them about the time you left a burner on? And your kitchen filled with smoke and you guys had to call 9-1-1? Would you tell them your story in that moment? Because in some way, you think it's related to their story only because of the existence of flame? This is not leadership. What is a president to do in this moment? Yes, sympathize. To be there for our people.

to point the way to lead and it's a disgraceful failure from a man that is simply not up to the job we will

stay on the story of Maui we'll be right back with more of the Will Kane podcast for a limited time at McDonald's Enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax.

Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes iced coffee and delivery. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells a story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Fox Truecrime.com. story number two three predictions for the republican presidential primary debate the debate is

tonight you can watch me on fox nation breaking it down along the way with my fox and friends co-host pete heggseth and others tonight you can watch the debate on the fox news channel the debate will be without donald trump but his presence will be overwhelming donald trump leaves in his absence opportunity, someone will rise, someone will break through. It happens. It's happened before. Ron Paul broke through the format of debate, managed to attract a much wider audience. Donald Trump used the debates as his launching ground, his trampoline, to ultimately winning the presidency.

If Donald Trump were present at this Republican presidential primary debate, he would suck all the energy out of the room, all the attention, all the focus. So in that void now, who will step up? It's a bit like watching the minors without Donald Trump. But it's a bit like also watching prospects who could eventually get the call up for catastrophic injury. Something happens to Donald Trump. Or for the future. prediction number one there will be a ton of focus and success made hey put in the barn by the vake ramaswamy but vake is just really good he's really smooth he's really smart and he's never at a loss for words

he's attempted to have successfully some of his own rfk moments recently he wrapped m&m a few weeks ago did very well on social media he then posted this past week, a shirtless video of him playing tennis and got a mean forehand. I mean, he's hammering that ball. I've no idea if it was going in on the other side of the court. He's getting after it. Vake will, I'm sure, successfully go on offense, articulate a very clear vision of America. He has a set of principles that he lays out that are inspiring.

Number one is, God is real. He goes on to say capitalism lifted more people out of poverty. The U.S. Constitution is a sacred document. He goes on and on with several clear pillars of his platform. But he needs to be prepared for defense. If I were one of the other candidates, there's now attention focusing. And look, I like Vivek. He's been on this program.

I'm very friendly with Vivek. But I would challenge him the next time he comes on. He needs to answer questions about his praise for mask mandates, his praise for the vaccine, his acceptance of a scholarship from the Soros Foundation, when he'd already made apparently a million dollars in, tech in finance at the time he accepted that scholarship to move on to law school. Vivek has some questions he needs to answer about some inconsistencies, and I have no doubt that he's very smooth and capable of answering those questions, but we need to find out,

and someone on that debate stage should put Vivek on the defense to see what the answers are to these very important questions. I think the center of much of the attention in this debate will actually be on the vague Ramoswamy. Number two, Ron DeSantis has to thread a needle. There's been a release, an early leak of his strategy, and one of the things he's going to try to accomplish is actually to defend Donald Trump. They're anticipating an attack from Chris Christie, and in the absence of Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis expects to pick up that role in defending Trump.

But this is a hard, maybe impossible, needle to thread. I mean, he defends Trump. He gets credit, but not votes from the voters for Trump. They're not going to move from Trump to DeSantis because he defends Trump. Maybe he places himself in a position more favorable with voters for Trump in case something happens to Trump. But I don't see how he earns any votes away from Trump by defending Trump. And he can't join Chris Christie or Mike Pence in attacking Trump. Because the GOP frontrunner is pulling somewhere between 50 and 65 percent.

It's a failed path. And my humble estimation for guys like Chris Christie and Mike Pence and puts a guy like Ron DeSantis in a very difficult position going into this debate. Number three, there will be a surprise candidate that everyone talks about after this debate. Somebody that's not currently part of the national conversation. Let me make one suggestion about who that may be. It may be North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam. I've seen Doug Bergam praised in some small corners of social media by people in, for example, hedge fund finance areas.

And it led to some intrigues, some curiosity on my behalf. So he was on Fox and Friends weekend this past weekend. I wanted to ask who you are. What's your path? What do you hope to accomplish this debate? Governor Bergam. And let me just tell you this. He does his research.

So the guys in the debate stage better be ready. In that four to five minute conversation, he brought up the fact that I think I went to law school, that I was a small business owner. He brought up the fact that I worked at ranch in Montana, and he brought up the fact that my father died when I was young. He brought all those stories up as portals into his own story. in his own case to be president of the United States.

Everyone on set. And behind the scenes was a little bit taken aback. I got text. Wow, he really did his research on you, Will. And by the way, he was likable and smart and smooth. I think that he needs more oomph. Can't be North Dakota nice. Can't be Minnesota nice.

You're going to have to find a haymaker. You're going to have to throw that punch. This is what I stand for, and this is how I'll fight. And I'll start tonight. against these other candidates, even though they're Republicans. But I do find him a little bit intriguing, and I think everybody else on that debate stage you better be prepared because he will be prepared.

North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam. We're going to step aside here for a moment. Stay tuned. The new BMO VI Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more flights, more flights. more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card and then some get your ticket to more with the new bemo v i porter mastercard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months

terms and conditions apply visit bemo.com slash viporter to learn more story number three they're not doing this again we're not masking up We're not shutting down. Reports are this week that the Atlanta Journal Constitution is saying Morris Brown College, a black private liberal arts college, has reinstated the measures to mask, to mandate mask wearing as a precautionary step against a new strain of COVID this fall. Here's a notice from Morris Brown College to students, all faculty, staff, and students. Effective immediately, it's reinstated its COVID-19 mask mandate due to reports of positive cases among students in the Atlanta University Center. Over the next 14 days, the rules to be the protocols.

One, mask wearing. Two, physical distancing. We're going to start drawing lines around ATMs again. A prohibition on large gatherings. isolation and quarantine if you're sick contact tracing symptom monitoring that's not from 2020 that's from today now the summer of 2023 apparently there are now businesses as well in California moving back towards mask mandates I think it's Lionsgate according to deadline the entertainment magazine website Lionsgate Santa Monica headquarters

That's their corporate offices. Reinstating mask mandates. Daily self-screening. Quarantine for 10 days after international travel, contact tracing. They're moving back. LA Public Health is putting out notices again about COVID-19, moving back into this direction. And there is talk out there. I don't know that it's confirmed yet, but there is talk out that the TSA by October will also begin to adopt these measures.

no they won't it's trending on social media do not comply this is not coming back it was nonsense and BS the first time and we went through this nightly called conspiracy theorist and proved correct the science went back and did retrospectives the masks do not work physical distancing was a joke none of it especially shutdowns were worth the cost we're not doing this again for a disease whose mortality rate was less than a percentage of 1%. No, we will not comply. We're not doing this again with COVID. That's going to do it for me today here on the Will Cain podcast.

I'll see you on the Fox Nation Republican primary debate coverage, and I'll see you on here again next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast, and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad-free. on the Amazon Music app. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gatti 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.