 | BY MARC NOVICOFF | | 
President Joe Biden will travel to Hawaii on Monday to meet with first responders, survivors, as well as federal, state, and local officials | Scott Olson/Getty Images | DISASTER RESPONSE — It’s been over a week since wildfires tore through Maui in Hawaii, devastating the historic town of Lahaina and leading to the deaths of at least 111 victims . The disaster already rates as the deadliest wildfire in modern American history, and only 38 percent of the burn site has been searched — over 1,000 are still missing. Yet not even a human tragedy such as this one is immune from politics in this polarized era, not with a presidential election on the horizon. Both the White House and Democrats in Hawaii are taking great care to highlight the administration’s responsiveness and mobilization in the wake of early criticism of President Joe Biden’s initial reaction to the events, and the White House announced Wednesday that the president and the first lady will travel to Hawaii on Monday to meet with first responders, survivors, as well as federal, state, and local officials. Biden approved a disaster declaration as early as August 10, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. But his response days later to a press pool request for comment left him exposed to criticism . As Biden approached a car in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he was on vacation, reporters asked him if he had any comment on “the rising death toll in Maui,” to which he responded “no, no comment” before cracking a smile. In a since-deleted social media post, former Democratic state Rep. Mark Kaniela Ing wrote , “I campaigned for you. Now, when I lose dozens of my friends, family, and neighbors. This?” Even MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who once described Joe Biden as “the most impressive president of my lifetime” , called the “no comment”-and-smile an unforced error that would “hurt him.” The conservative media also piled on, portraying Biden’s response as cavalier disregard for Hawaii. Former President Donald Trump, whose own term was marked by criticism that he politicized natural disasters , took it one step further. He seized the opportunity to post a 2-minute video on Truth Social expressing his “sympathy and warmest regards to the people of Hawaii.” However, consoling the Hawaiian victims perhaps wasn’t the only motivating force for Trump — he was also trying to score political points. He used the video largely to lambaste Biden and criticize him for spending “a great deal of time” at the beach. “Crooked Joe Biden, the most incompetent president in the history of our country, with a laugh and a smile, said he had no comment on the death and the tragedy,” Trump said in his direct-to-camera video. “It is a disgraceful thing that Joe Biden refuses to help or comment on the tragedy in Maui, just as he refused to help or comment on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, for a very long time.” The next day, Biden announced that he would go to Maui “as soon as we can.” The day after that, the White House found a date for his visit : Monday, August 21. It won’t be an easy trip for the octogenarian president. It’s a roughly 5,000-mile journey from Washington, D.C. that will require the president to fly through six time zones. Biden’s only previous trip to Hawaii as president was a short refueling stop in Nov. 2022 on the way back from Asia. For now, top Democrats in this blue-state stronghold are firm in their support for the administration’s response. Shortly after Trump released his video on Monday, Sen. Mazie Hirono posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “To be clear, @POTUS and his administration have been incredibly helpful over the past week.” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green wrote on Facebook on Tuesday , “Mahalo for having our backs in this time of need with the full force of the federal government.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at mnovicoff@politico.com on Twitter at @MarcNovicoff . | |
| | YOUR TICKET INSIDE THE GOLDEN STATE POLITICAL ARENA: California Playbook delivers the latest intel, buzzy scoops and exclusive coverage from Sacramento and Los Angeles to Silicon Valley and across the state. Don't miss out on the daily must-read for political aficionados and professionals with an outsized interest in California politics, policy and power. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | — Biden’s fall Covid vaccine rollout for the uninsured won’t include pharmacies at first: The Biden administration’s effort to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to the uninsured will not start at retail pharmacies until mid-October , weeks after the government plans to make an updated version of the shot available to the broader public. The gap in timing, which comes as Covid hospitalizations have ticked up in recent weeks, means that millions of Americans without health coverage will not be able to immediately get a no-cost vaccine at popular places like CVS and Walgreens, even as it will be widely available for those who have insurance. — Poll: Biden’s approval rating for the economy remains at about a third: President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” remains a tough sell to the public so far, with a new poll showing that still just over a third of Americans approve of his handling of the economy . A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published Thursday found only 36 percent of surveyed Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy — and only 42 percent approve of his overall performance.
THIS IS DOMESTIC TERRORISM!
INVESTIGATE, IDENTIFY, PROSECUTE, INCARCERATE!
tRUMP, REPUBLICANS, FOX NEWS = FAKE NEWS & OTHERS CONTINUE TO INCITE VIOLENCE
IT NEEDS TO STOP TO KEEP AMERICANS SAFE! — Authorities investigating threats to grand jurors who indicted Trump in Georgia: Authorities in Georgia said Thursday they’re investigating threats targeting members of the grand jury that indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat’s office said investigators are working to trace the origin of the threats after the names of grand jury members and other personal information were posted online. The sheriff’s office said other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were assisting. Though the grand jury proceedings were secret, the unredacted names of the grand jury members were included in the indictment. That’s standard practice in Georgia, in part because it gives criminal defendants a chance to challenge the composition of the grand jury. The indictment itself is a public record. | | DEBATE TROLLING TACTICS — President Joe Biden’s campaign plans to launch a paid media blitz contrasting with “MAGA Republicans” around the first GOP presidential debate next week, a campaign official confirmed to The Messenger on Thursday. Together with the Democratic National Committee, the campaign will attempt to seize on the pivotal moment of the 2024 election cycle with a “new, aggressive paid media campaign” as well as organizing and fundraising efforts. Democratic officials will also be in Milwaukee, the city hosting the first Republican debate, to meet with the local leaders and key constituencies. They will also run a war room to “hold Republican candidates accountable for the extreme views the Republican candidates espouse from the debate stage.” MUST ACT LIKABLE — The New York Times reports a firm associated with the super PAC that has effectively taken over Mr. DeSantis’ presidential campaign posted online hundreds of pages of blunt advice, research memos and internal polling in early nominating states to guide the Florida governor ahead of the high-stakes Republican presidential debate next Wednesday in Milwaukee. “There are four basic must-dos,” one of the memos urges Mr. DeSantis. “1. Attack Joe Biden and the media 3-5 times. 2. State GRD’s positive vision 2-3 times. 3. Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response. 4. Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack.” The documents were posted this week on the website of Axiom Strategies, the company owned by Jeff Roe, the chief strategist of Mr. DeSantis’ super PAC, Never Back Down. FIRED FOR CRITICIZING TRUMP — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the most prominent Republican in the race to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown next year, has fired one of his top aides after social media posts surfaced in which the staffer criticized Donald Trump , reports The Associated Press. LaRose’s office confirmed press secretary Rob Nichols’s departure on Wednesday. A longtime Republican operative in the state, Nichols held a similar position with then-Republican Gov. John Kasich before he ran for president and became a vocal Trump detractor. | | | 
Swedish Security Police Chief Charlotte von Essen addresses a press conference in Stockholm as the terror threat level in Sweden was raised to four on a five-point scale on August 17, 2023, following recent Koran burnings. | Henrik Montgomery/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images | HEIGHTENED THREAT — Sweden has raised its security threat level following a number of Quran burnings in the country, writes Laura Hülsemann . The head of the Swedish security service (Säpo), Charlotte von Essen, said Thursday that “we have gone from being considered a legitimate target to a priority target for violent Islamism.” She said the security level was being raised from three to four — described as “high threat.” The highest level is five. In recent weeks, Sweden and Denmark have witnessed several Quran burnings often led by far-right protesters, which were condemned by the EU. The incidents have caused backlash in Muslim-majority countries and last month protestors stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in light of a planned Quran burning in Sweden. RUSSIA LEVIES FINES ON SOCIAL MEDIA — Russia has fined Google 3 million rubles — around €30,000 — for not deleting what it says is fake news about the war in Ukraine, reports Claudia Chiappa . A Moscow court found Google guilty on Thursday for failing to remove from YouTube what it considers “prohibited information” — allegedly detailing how to enter certain protected facilities — and "false information" about the "special military operation in Ukraine," despite having been ordered to do so by Russian authorities, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS. Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has ramped up its efforts to control online content that does not agree with its narrative. On Tuesday, social media site Reddit was fined for the first time for not removing “false content.” Earlier this month, a Russian court fined Apple and Wikipedia for similar reasons.
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| | | X MARKS THE SPOT — Even though x is one of the least-used letters in the English alphabet, it appears throughout American culture — from Stan Lee’s X-Men superheroes to The X-Files TV series. The letter x often symbolizes something unknown, with an air of mystery that can be appealing — just look at Elon Musk with SpaceX, Tesla’s Model X, and now X as a new name for Twitter. You might be most familiar with x from math class. Many algebra problems use x as a variable, to stand in for an unknown quantity. But why is x the letter chosen for this role? When and where did this convention begin? How did the letter “X” become so fascinating and mysterious? Peter Schumer attempts to explain in Big Think
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On this date in 1960: Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, wave as they arrive at the War Memorial Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. The GOP presidential nominee made a trip to North Carolina to open his campaign in the south. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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