Press briefing in weeks. And there is a lot of news to cover. The fema administrator is going to join Karine Jeanpierre at the podium with an update on the governments response to the devastating wildfires in maui. Gillian also reporters first shot really to press the white house since Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland appointed a Special Counsel to investigate the president s son. Well take you to the briefing as soon as it begins. First the Campaign Trail in iowa. Way up in the polls and all over the country, thats a lot, over 50 points. I think im the most likely to beat biden and get this stuff done and the ability to serve two terms and will not be a Lame Duck President on day one. Leaders dont just give you the list of grievances that are the problem. They actually lead. Its going great. I think ive been here more than any other candidate and part of the reason is i actually enjoy it. John a little taste of republicans on the Campaign Trail five months now until the caucus is in iowa. America reports starts hour number two. John roberts, good to be back with you again. Gillian nice to see the candidates enjoying themselves. John the Vivek Ramaswamy rap was interesting. And like the casual dress, too. Gillian the current frontrunner donald trump is awaiting a fourth indictment out of georgia. Also he flew over the crowd in his jet, at one point we heard dueling chants between desantis and trump crowd. The former president holds a commanding lead in the hawk eye state, about 27 points, as they look for a breakthrough moment heading into the first debate next week on fox. Alexis mcadams is going oneonone with the candidates and joins us live from iowa where shes on her third corn dog. You caught up with trump. What did he tell you . Hi, john. Ive been running around so much, i could have a few more corn dogs, no one would notice. I have asked him if hes going to come to the fox news debate, could not get an answer yet, thats to be continued and talked with Governor Ron Desantis on the ground for hours, trump was only here a short time, the trump show was on full display. We asked ron desantis about his likeability, and there was a plane flying around that said be likeable, ron. Listen. Do you think you are a likeable candidate . I think thats a narrative, but you know, when you have trump doing that, hes got so many people that would never vote for him and ive seen that in florida. We were able to win the biggest republican landslide in governor history in the state. Other president ial hopefuls like Vivek Ramaswamy, nikki haley, robert f. Kennedy, jr. , and mike pence, spent the weekend Walking Around in the heat and humidity trying to connect with voters, losing their suits and ties and trying to be relateable and make or break moments as they prepare for the fox news debate. Kennedy tells us he wants biden on the debate stage. I want to debate joe biden. I think thats thats the contest that americans really need. And thats the contest that americans have a right to see. Thousands of people were here at the fairgrounds, trump surrounded by the big crowds in the short visit and desantis was talking with voters one on one, he tells me he plans to hit all 99 iowa counties. Trump tells me he feels right at home in the hawk eye state. Listen. How is it going in iowa . We love iowa. You are pretty popular in iowa . I guess so, the biggest crowd they have ever had, i love them and they love me. Thats a good combination. So tomorrow, Asa Hutchinson and also tim scott will be here. We are going to try and catch up with him and talk about how he plans to be relateable to voters in iowa. John desantis hitting 99 counties, refer to as a full grassley, well watch to see how that goes. Alexis, time for another corn dog, you are getting low. Thats right, got to go. John see you, thanks, good work. Gillian duke it out in iowa, lots of americans are feeling inflation pinch. Touting the president s legislative wins. Celebrating the oneyear anniversary of the inflation reduction act. Lets bring in box Business Correspondent ed lawrence at the white house with all the details. Ed, what is the president s messaging this week . So really, gillian, hes trying to message his way out of of the economic stresses that almost all americans feel every day. He wants to make bidenomics a Household Word but a good feeling when they hear about it. What they see is food prices are up about 20 since january of 2021, when the president took office. Overall inflation is up 16 in that time. This means people are making about 3 less in their paychecks, Everything Else is so expensive. Moody analytics said americans are spending 709 per month more than two years ago and now we have gas prices on the rise. In fact, if you not only look at food prices, but you look at fuel prices, the average fuel price today, 3. 84 a gallon across the United States. Almost a dollar and 0. 40 greater than when joe biden came into office. Bidenomics is doing nothing to help the average American Family deal with these increasing prices, in fact i argue it is added to inflation. Following the West Coast Swing by the president , the white house sending representatives out this week, all with the message that bidenomics will eventually work at some point in the future. The president will be in wisconsin tomorrow. You see the Vice President there in seattle. Treasury secretary yellen in las vegas today will talk about eventually moving Clean Energy Supply Chains to the United States, but with no timetable shes referencing actually china either sourcing or making pretty much everything related to clean energy, but as you remember, the jobs numbers, manufacturing lost 2,000 jobs last month, and in fact, the Labor Secretary tells me thats only because the plans are just ramping up now and at some point in the future it will be better. Back to you. Gillian the future always looks brighter from farther away. Ed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this hour, thank you. John jump to the white house, Karine Jeanpierre has just begun the briefing. We are expecting now the fema administrator and here she is, to give us an update on the situation, the terrible situation in maui. Listen in. Does this sound any better . All right. Thank you very much, and good morning, everybody. As you just heard, i did arrive here on the ground very Early Saturday Morning at the direction of the president. And gave me the opportunity to spend two full days, one full day with governor green and the second full day with my staff as well as members of the governors staff to get a true understanding what the impact is here on the ground. I met with some federal officials that have been deployed and also had an opportunity to talk to survivors and hear from them really some harrowing stories of survival as they evacuated from the area and sought shelter. While we are here and as we continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground we are continuing to prioritize the safety and the wellbeing of the hawaii residents in coordination with State Officials and federal partners. As residents continue to mourn the loss of their friends, loved ones, neighbors, loss of their homes and their way of life, we know and let them know we are mourning with them. Nothing can prepare you for what i saw during my time here and prepare them for the emotional toll this has taken on them. And ive been in communication with the president , giving him updates and his team updates letting him know what the federal family is doing to support everything that governor green has asked for. Part of that at the request of the state of hawaii, fema has activated our transitional sheltering assistance program, now available for eligible residents who were displaced from their home. Femas hotel program. And this will allow them to move from shelters into Preidentified Hotels and motels temporarily as they develop longterm housing strategies. This is in coordination with the governor as he has stood up a program to provide airbnb rooms or other hotel rooms to support residents and working in close coordination to make sure everyone finds a temporary solution as they begin to develop their plans for rebuilding. And getting funds into peoples hands so help with some of their critical urgent needs. This is called critical needs assistance, provides 700 to provide food, water, first aid, medical supplies, other critical needs they need right now. This is in addition to what they will also be able to be eligible for and Cash Assistance for the loss of their homes, or the loss of their personal property. So i encourage anybody who has not registered for fema assistance yet to go to disaster assistance. Gov or contact fema to get into the system and start the process. We also have over 300 personnel on the grounds. Many of those can help you also register as we understand that connectivity is still scarce in thresponse and recovery efforts, i just want to note, in hawaii are going to be a whole of government approach. We rely on the experts of dozens of our Partner Agencies to make sure that we have all of the right resources to support the recovery needs for this area and to make sure that we are successful in providing relief to survivors. We also wante we are getting all the appropriate information out to survivors so working with the state and local partners to ensure the outreach and messaging is also culturally responsive and we can get messages out to people so they know what is available to them. We have been on the ground since day one. We have an office here on oahu staffed with personnel and members that work sidebyside with the state of hawaii each and every day so we were able to quickly integrate with the Governors Team as the fires started to arise. Our Regional Administrator was also on the ground already for a preexisting meeting so he was able to connect with the governor as the fires were starting to make sure we were moving the right resources and our federal partners, the coast guard and the Department Of Defense, were providing lifesaving rescues as this fire was evolving. The coming days and the weeks, they are going to be tough. They are going to be difficult as people process what they have lost and what the road ahead looks like. But we are going to be with the people of hawaii as i committed to the governor every step of the way. We are already seeing a tremendous amount of efforts and resiliency across the community as they are coming together to support each other as they work through what this is going to look like in the future. And together with our Volunteer Agencies and our federal partners we will be in hawaii every step of the way to help residents take control of their recovery and help them rebuild in a way that is going to make them more resilient. And with that, ill turn it over to you for any questions. John so there is the fema administrator with an update on whats happening on the island of maui and hawaii, such a beautiful, beautiful place where the historic city of lahaina, the town of lahaina, was hawaiis original capital was burned to the ground in the wildfires. A lot of questions remaining why there was not more warning about what was unfolding, why there were no sirens to alert the people in the village and why some of the Fire Hydrants apparently did not have any water in them as firefighters hooked up to try to battle the flames. We will bring you news that comes out of the briefing. Back to politics and going on in the state of iowa so many of the republican candidates crisscrossing the state to try to get noticed in advance of the caucuses there, tammy bruce, Fox News Contributor and patrick murphy, former Pennsylvania Democratic congressman. Tim scott and Asa Hutchinson tomorrow, over the weekend it was ron desantis and President Trump, a former President Trump seemed to be trolling desantis about every opportunity he had. Desantis was there, trump dropped in for a very brief visit. Keeping in tow with him some florida lawmakers who have thrown support behind him and desantis was doing a fair side chat with kim reynolds, there was an airplane flying overhead with a banner behind it saying be likeable, ron. I mean tammy, this is turning into a cat fight. Well, no, its turning into an interesting and perhaps fun political season. This is what the campaigns are for is that you find out about peoples sense of humor, react under stress, what they do when the media attacks them. This is classic trump. Its what makes people smile. Now Ron Desantiss response, this is whats new, its very different when you are surrounded by supporters and everyone is telling you you are great and have done a great job in the state. Moving out to a nationwide Political Campaign is very different. Less protection if not any protection, the media will come after you and people were educated during the 2016 campaign. When we think about likeability and empathy, in an earlier report there was discussion about how you plan to be more likeable or more approachable. You cant plan those things. Either you are or youre not. Americans, iowan especially are use to this. And they can tell, and around the country trump is still leading. Ron desantis, we still have the debate coming up, which will be very important for every candidate. But if things could change, but at this point i think ron desantis is realizing that maybe this is a little different than what he expected. John on the point of polls, tammy, i want to pull up the rcp average for the state of iowa, donald trump 44 , thats 27 points ahead of ron desantis at 17, tim scott, ramaswamy, haley behind him. Desantis is planning on pulling a full grassley and full santorum, 99 county, did work out well for santorum in 2012, eeked out a victory or mitt romney, could he propel himself or close to trump in the caucuses . His open, he has to have a ground game, get the grassroots support. The problem, john, the cake is baked. I look at the other poll from New Hampshire just last week, 57 of republican primary voters in New Hampshire would vote for a former president , donald trump, even if he was in jail. So there is this toxic trans that desantis and other candidates are hard to break, we dont know as you mentioned the debate ten days away, see if former President Trump even debates. Hes up 27 points in iowa. New hampshire, 57 will still vote for him even if hes in jail, the cake is baked. John certainly it would be good for the democratic process if the former president showed up on the 23rd. What about joe biden . There was a moment yesterday he had spent all day or part of the day on the beach at rehobeth and he was asked as he was leaving about the situation on maui, which we know is so tragic. Watch his response here. Mr. President , any comments on the rising death toll in maui . Will you come talk about the hawaii response, mr. President . John he says there no comment. You would think he would say yes, its a tragic situation, mobilizing the federal government to respond. Weird. Its a shocking, you know, exposition of his disconnect and frankly lack of empathy. Some people say he doesnt know whats going on. He knows whats going on. Easier to dismiss the information he might have. But regardless, you know, you know something has happened in maui, you know people have died. It is the easiest thing in the world from a 5yearold on up to anybody in this country can express concern and that you hope, you know, that people are going to be, you know, helped, and that this is awful and yes, the government is there for them. It is a remarkable thing to see, especially since joe biden in sold was part to the American People in 2020 as the empathetic candidate, as the man who can understand you, who feels for you. Big stories on joe bidens empathy. Well, i think its empathy for himself. We are finding its not really there for anyone else. But this is the kind of reveal that theres no excuse for, theres no answer for it, and it explains also why so much in the federal government like Food Inflation is ignored by this government. Its not just joe biden. Its a government that only sees itself and the American People have become kind of this weird irritant. John patrick, what do you think about all of that . You would think the most catastrophic in terms of loss of human life, wildfire, in decades, if not centuries in this country, and his response is no comment . Yeah, john, i mean, i think all three of us agree that our hearts, our prayers, are going to the people in maui and hawaii. Our fellow americans are hurting and i wasnt there, you werent there, tammy wasnt there, maybe he didnt hear. We saw the video, the short clip. But you know joe biden. He is empathetic. He talked about the soul of the nation. He has been there and focused like a bulldog on a bone, not just about taking care of the folks in maui but also making sure the economy is back on the right track. When you look at unemployment from 9 down to 3. 5 , the lowest in five decades, stock market up 15 from 31,000, to 35,000. And inflation as tammy mentioned. Was it 9 , now down to 3 , we have more work to do. But come on. Food inflat