Reynolds: Voters Not Giving Trump A ‘Pass’ For Skipping Events; Need Fewer Candidates; Could Endorse

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds generated news waves this weekend over three things that she said during an interview about the Republican Party’s presidential primary.

Reynolds — who is the most powerful and influential Republican in Iowa — was asked by Fox News host Shannon Bream about Trump “skip[ping] a lot of the big stuff” in the state and whether voters in Iowa are “giving him a pass” to skip having to show up and put in the work.

“No,” Reynolds said. “I think they still, they expect him to be here, they want to interact, they want to interact with all of the candidates. We had great turnout at the Fair Side Chats. I had a lot of Iowans, and people outside of the state, come up and just say, ‘thank you for doing that, it was a great opportunity to hear from the candidates.’ And so, Iowans take it very seriously, they’re very knowledgable and they want to interact with the candidates.”

Bream noted that Reynold’s endorsement in the state is viewed as a “game changer” among the Republican presidential candidates and then she highlighted recent attacks that former President Donald Trump has made against Reynolds. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has defended Reynolds from the attacks.

Reynolds said that for now she is “remaining neutral” but she does not want to rule out making an endorsement because right now her focus is trying to  “encourage all of the candidates to come to Iowa.”

Reynolds responded to attacks from the former president during an interview earlier this month after he tried to take credit for her becoming the state’s governor.

“It’s actually Iowans who made the decision to elect me in a really tough year,” she said. “2018 was not a good year for Republicans. I squeaked by.”

Reynolds was later asked about a report that some donors are trying to pressure Georgia Governor Brian Kemp or Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to get into the race.

“I think we have a great field of candidates right now, and I think we don’t need more candidates in the field,” Reynolds said. “We probably need less.”

Hawaii Governor Josh Green: 1,000+ People Still Unaccounted For After Devastating Maui Fire

Hawaii Governor Josh Green said during an interview over the weekend that more than 1,000 people are still unaccounted for following the devastating Maui fire that struck the small town of Lahaina earlier this month.

The fire from a couple of weeks ago has already been designated as the deadliest fire in the U.S. in over a century with well over 100 lives confirmed lost and it has triggered intense criticism of President Joe Biden over his lack of response to the tragedy.

Margaret Brennan, host of CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” asked Green on Sunday, “how many are still unaccounted for, and how long will it take to identify remains?”

“More than 1,000 are unaccounted for, about 1,050. It will take several weeks still,” Green said. “Some of the challenges are going to be extraordinary. As you reported, 85 percent of the — of the land of the impact zone has been covered now by what amounts to an army of search and rescue teams and 41 dogs. So, 85 percent of the land has been covered.”

“Now we go into the larger buildings, which require peeling back some of the floors and structures,” he continued. “That last 15 percent could take weeks. We do have extreme concerns that, because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully.”

Green said that there are going to be people that will never be found because of how intense the fire was but he assured viewers that state officials were doing everything they could with the FBI to try to identify any remains they happen to find.

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