President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit Hawaii for the first time since severe wildfires left more than 100 residents dead. The visit also comes amid criticism from both sides of the aisle that Biden has been publicly quiet toward Hawaii and its residents.

During the visit, the president and first lady are expected to meet emergency responders, survivors and community members, as well as federal, state and local officials, and survey the area devastated by deadly wildfires, which killed 114 people, according to a White House official.

The first couple will arrive in Maui in the morning and will take an aerial tour on helicopters of the impacted areas before landing near Lahaina. They will then visit Lahaina to see the wildfire damage firsthand and receive a briefing from the state and local officials.

‘Following the tour, the President will deliver remarks paying respects to the lives lost and reflecting on the tragic, lasting impacts of these wildfires on survivors and the community. In his remarks, he will announce the appointment of FEMA Region 9 Administrator Bob Fenton as the Chief Federal Response Coordinator to oversee a long-term coordinated federal recovery effort,’ the White House said in a statement.

The White House described Fenton as ‘one of the nation’s most experienced disaster response-and-recovery officials who has been on the ground in Hawaii from the day the wildfires started.’

Biden has tasked Fenton with overseeing Hawaii’s recovery, which includes rebuilding the devastated community and ensuring that it has access to everything the federal government can offer to expedite the process.

Following a speech, the President and the First Lady will meet with survivors, first responders, community members and other officials and volunteers who are supporting the recovery efforts.

The visit comes amid scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats over how President Biden has responded to the deadly fires.

The criticism started after the President — who was vacationing on a Delaware beach — was asked about Hawaii’s rising death toll and said he had ‘no comment.’

The remark was widely condemned as dismissive of the struggle Hawaiians were enduring.

Maui County and the Maui Police Department on Sunday confirmed that 114 people died in the devastating wildfires, but that number could increase as investigators continue to search the area.

‘More than 1,000 are unaccounted for, about 1,050,’ Hawaii governor Josh Green told CBS News on Sunday. ‘It will take several weeks still.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Biden administration reportedly has been selling off millions of dollars’ worth of border wall materials in a race against Republicans vying to pass legislation to finish its construction. 

Steel ‘square structural tubes’ photographed in a storage lot in Arizona were listed for sale on Gov Planet, an online auction marketplace run by publicly traded Canadian company Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, earlier this month. Those 28-foot-tall hollow beams are ‘excess border wall materials that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned over to the DLA for disposition and are now for sale,’ the Department of Defense’s logistics agency first confirmed to The Daily Upside and later the New York Post. 

Gov Planet, which specializes in military surplus, has sold 81 lots of those beams for about $2 million, according to the Post. 

The beams, intended as vertical bollards in the border wall’s 30-foot-tall panels, were sold in five separate lots on average of $212 each. Gov Planet netted $154,200 for 729 of them. Another 13 square structural tubes are to be auctioned off Aug. 23 and Aug. 30, the Gov Planet website says. 

‘The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is disposing of the excess border wall materials in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation,’ a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson said in an email to Fox News Digital Sunday. ‘USACE has already transferred approximately $154 million worth of the roughly $260 million of bollard panels and other materials in accordance with standard excess property disposition procedures. USACE stands ready to implement a decision regarding disposition of the remaining materials.’

Former President Donald Trump is said to have spent $15 billion to erect 450 miles of barriers along the southern border, with another 250 miles in construction when he left office. 

On the day he was sworn in, Biden stopped the taxpayer-funded project, denouncing the border wall construction as a ‘waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.’ 

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, noted that an investigation found the Department of Defense has been spending $47 million per year, or $130,000 per day, to store the leftover border wall panels in the Southwest United States. 

In May, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced the FINISH IT Act. The legislation would require the federal government to use previously purchased and unused border wall panels to extend the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or to transfer them to state governments – such as Texas — to be used for wall construction. 

The Post reported that the Gov Planet auction schedule picked up in May, when Wicker first introduced the FINISH IT Act, and again this month when the Democrat-led Senate passed the annual defense appropriations package that included the Republican sponsored bill to restart border wall construction. GOP lawmakers told the Post that the Biden administration is rushing to sell off more leftover border wall parts before the House, led by Republicans, can pass corresponding legislation. 

‘This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,’ Wicker said, condemning it as ‘outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.’

‘Leaving the border open to terrorists while selling border security materials at a loss is Bidenomics in a nutshell,’ Cotton, a co-sponsor of the bill, told the Post. 

‘The pennies made from selling the border wall will not be enough to pay the families who suffer from a criminal act committed by someone who crossed our open borders during the Biden administration,’ Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., added. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., denounced the first sale of border wall parts as ‘reckless.’ 

‘Our borders continue to be overrun by an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants, turning every district into a border district, and compromising our national security,’ Stefanik told the Post. 

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., whose district is where the border wall parts have been stored awaiting auction, criticized Biden for his ‘refusal to act.’ 

‘The federal government needs to be utilizing every tool in the toolbox to secure our border,’ he said. ‘Instead of putting these materials to their intended use, they have been squandered, first collecting dust in the desert and now being auctioned off.’

‘President Biden has no regard for taxpayer dollars — or how his open border is bankrupting communities across the country that are footing the bill for his failures,’ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., added. She is fighting to prevent migrants from being housed in New York City parks and miliary sites.  

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy changed his tune on former President Donald Trump over the weekend, saying he has ‘no problem’ with the GOP frontrunner skipping the first few primary debates.

Ramaswamy said Saturday he’s ‘fine’ with Trump not showing up at the first few debates despite declaring in May it would prove Trump’s not the candidate he once was.

‘This is my chance to introduce myself to the country & so I have no issue with whatever decision he wants to make,’ Ramaswamy said, according to a Semafor reporter. ‘If he’s on there, great. If not, I’m fine with that.’

Another reporter on X, formerly known as Twitter, chimed in on Ramaswamy’s recent comments, highlighting a May 5 clip of Ramaswamy saying he had an ‘expectation’ for Trump to be there.

‘I fully expect to see Donald Trump on that debate stage,’ he said at the time. ‘It is my expectation Trump will be there because as I’ve known him he’s not a man that I know of to be afraid. He’s not somebody who’s made a habit of himself to be a coward.

‘But if he doesn’t show up on that debate stage, that will be the best proof that the Donald Trump of today is not the same Donald Trump as in 2016.’

Ramaswamy’s campaign told Fox News Digital his comments Saturday are ‘not a departure at all’ from his previous statement.

‘This is not the only debate,’ said communications director Tricia McLaughlin.

Ramaswamy echoed his comments Sunday during an appearance on ‘Fox News Live,’ saying he’s ‘OK’ with Trump skipping the first few debates.

Trump has not yet confirmed whether he will be participating in the first GOP debate hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

The Republican National Committee, which is organizing all the presidential primary debates, requires that every candidate sign a pledge to support the GOP’s eventual presidential nominee — regardless of who it is — and not to take part in any debate not sanctioned by the national party committee. 

Trump, so far, has refused to sign the pledge.

‘Why would I sign it?’ Trump said in an interview earlier this month. ‘I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So, right there, there’s a problem.’

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on Sunday warned that the agency’s disaster relief fund could experience a shortage by mid-September. 

This comes as Maui is still reeling from deadly wildfires that devastated the Hawaiian island and as southern California braces for what is expected to be its first tropical storm in 84 years. 

‘We do still anticipate that we will have a shortage of funding at our current spending levels by mid-September, and so what we will do is we will continue to push. We will push projects, recovery projects to the next fiscal year so we always have enough money to support any of the immediate lifesaving needs,’ Criswell told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday. ‘We will take measures to ensure there will always be enough funding to support immediate responses to these sorts of severe weather events. And the administration is working with Congress on what we can do to help facilitate the recovery projects for the rest of this year but also going into next fiscal year.’ 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested last week that Congress could pass a short-term extension of last year’s spending priorities to avoid a government shutdown this fall, allowing more time for lawmakers to reach a deal for fiscal 2024. Meanwhile, Criswell is expected to travel Monday with President Biden for what will be his first visit to Maui since the wildfires killed at least 114 people. Hawaii’s governor had said more than 1,000 people remain unaccounted for, suggesting the official death toll could still climb dramatically.

During her Sunday appearance on CNN, Criswell said FEMA is 78% complete with the search of the burned area, and FBI, Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are on scene both helping to identify any remains and reunite family members. In previewing what Biden’s message would be during his Hawaii visit, Criswell insisted the federal government would support whatever the local vision would be for rebuilding the historic town of Lahaina. 

‘I think the biggest thing is he’s really going to be able to see the impact, right? Just feel this devastation in this community and how widespread it is across this community, and he’s going to be able to talk to families that have been impacted,’ Criswell said. ‘I think what he’s going to be able to do is he’s going to be able to reassure the people of Maui that the federal government is there to support them. But we’re doing it in a way that’s going to allow them to rebuild the way they want to rebuild. And I think that’s the biggest message he’s going to be able to get across, right? Is that we are here for them, and we are going to help them with their vision for how they want to rebuild Lahaina.’ 

‘The president has faced some criticism from Republicans because he spent about five days not talking about this as many of the devastating images and numbers were coming,’ CNN anchor Kasie Hunt noted Sunday. ‘Do you think the Republicans’ criticism of the president’s willingness to talk about this in public or lack thereof is fair criticism?’ 

‘The president directed me to go to Maui to assess the damage, meet with the governor, meet with the local officials, giving me the opportunity and the space to make sure that I can understand what’s going on, and then I report back to the president,’ Criswell said in response. ‘I was in complete communication with him throughout this event helping him understand what I was seeing and what resources needed to come in. And he directed me to make sure we are doing everything we can to help the people of Maui and bring in all of the federal resources to help with this immediate response but also to begin to think about what this long-term recovery and rebuilding is going to look like.’ 

Criswell also addressed Hurricane Hilary, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it barreled toward Baja California on Sunday.

Forecasters have warned the storm could result in ‘catastrophic and life-threatening’ flooding across a broad region of the southwestern United States. The FEMA administrator, who said her agency is working in ‘close coordination’ with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team, warned people to listen to local officials and take the storm seriously. 

‘California is a very capable state with a lot of resources,’ she said. Criswell also advocated for increased investment in mitigation projects as severe weather events become more frequent. ‘We have to look at what the change in the climate is doing to these real weather events,’ she said. 

With a deadline fast approaching, multiple Republican White House contenders are desperately trying to make the stage for Wednesday’s first GOP presidential nomination debate. 

Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, one of those candidates still aiming to qualify for the Fox News-hosted showdown in Milwaukee, emphasized that ‘for someone like me, it’s critical’ to make the debate stage.

Eight candidates have reached the polling and donor thresholds mandated by the Republican National Committee to qualify for the initial Aug. 23 encounter. 

They are former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and biotech entrepreneur and bestselling author Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump has yet to confirm whether he will attend the GOP debate Wednesday.

Joining Suarez in trying to make the debate stage are one-time CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Michigan businessman and quality control leader Perry Johnson and Larry Elder, a former talk radio host who was a candidate for governor in the 2021 California recall election.

Suarez and Johnson on Friday announced they had met the polling and donor criteria. Hutchinson declared on Sunday he met the thresholds to join the debate stage. However, there has been no confirmation from the RNC on them meeting the qualifications.

The candidates have until 9 p.m. ET Monday night — 48 hours before the primetime debate — to reach the RNC’s polling and donor thresholds and sign the pledge.

‘We’re planning as if we’re going to be there, and we’re excited about being there,’ Suarez told Fox News Digital last week.

For Suarez, who’s not well known outside South Florida, the debate’s ‘the first opportunity for me to introduce myself to the country, and it’s important. … People have a real opportunity to know my story, to get to know me as a person and to understand why I am the best person, the best choice, to lead this country into the future.’

Both Suarez and Hurd say they’ve hit the donor threshold but are still shy of reaching the polling criteria. 

But Hurd, a vocal GOP Trump critic, has repeatedly said he won’t take the loyalty pledge because he couldn’t support Trump if the former president wins the 2024 Republican nomination.

‘I made it very clear that my issue is not with supporting the Republican nominee. I’m not going to support Donald Trump. But Donald Trump hasn’t even agreed to sign the loyalty pledge, so we’ll see how all of this transpires,’ Hurd told Fox News last week.

Hutchinson, who served as a federal prosecutor, congressman and cabinet-level official in President George W. Bush’s administration, has reached the polling criteria and claimed during a CNN interview Sunday his campaign met the donor threshold and ‘submitted 42,000 individual donors’ to the RNC.

He said he was ‘delighted’ and ‘thankful’ for his supporters.

‘People want me on there as someone who’s going to speak the truth and also to be a counter to Donald Trump and talk about how he would be taking our country in the wrong direction. I want to be on there. We’re not there yet. We need everybody’s help,’ Hutchinson, another vocal Republican critic of the former president, told Fox News recently.

Elder, who’s yet to reach either of the donor and polling thresholds, emphasized that ‘it’s very important’ that he make the debate stage ‘because I think a lot of Americans haven’t seen me, haven’t heard my backstory.’

Making the debate stage only gets harder going forward, as the criteria rises for the second debate, a Fox Business-hosted showdown Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. 

Asked what’s next if he doesn’t qualify, Suarez pointedly noted that ‘if a candidate doesn’t make the debate stage, doesn’t make the minimum thresholds, they shouldn’t stay in the race.’

‘It’s very hard to get to a higher threshold to make the second debate if you’re not even on the first debate,’ Suarez noted. ‘I think any candidate that doesn’t make the first debate should think long and hard about it because time is valuable, and you shouldn’t be taking time — or trying to take away time from people who are fighting to get their message out there.’

Hurd would only say that if he’s not on the stage, he’ll ‘evaluate and go from there.’

Longtime Republican strategist Ryan Williams, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns, had a blunt message for the contenders who don’t earn a ticket to Milwaukee.

‘If you can’t make the debate stage, you’re not viewed as a serious candidate. End of story,’ Williams stressed.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence said he’s still hopeful that former President Donald Trump will appear at the GOP’s first 2024 presidential debate this week. 

‘My hope is when we get to that debate stage, and I’m still kind of hoping maybe [Trump will] come, is that we could really have a debate about the challenges facing the American people,’ Trump’s former vice president said Sunday morning.

Pence said a couple of times during his interview on ABC’s ‘This Week’ that he hopes the former president joins the debate stage, arguing that he and other candidates are ready to ‘square off, answer the tough questions.’

‘I served alongside the president for a long time, and one thing I realized about him is: It’s not over till it’s over. I’m actually still hoping he shows up,’ Pence said again of hoping Trump makes an appearance on Wednesday. 

Fox News is set to air the first Republican primary debate Wednesday in Milwaukee, which will be hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Trump has yet to confirm whether he will attend the GOP debate Wednesday.

Regardless of whether Trump joins his Republican primary challengers, the former vice president said he will stand out in the field by being himself. 

‘I’ve had a little bit of experience with nationally televised debates, but it’s different with a group on stage. And, look, I’m just going to be me,’ Pence said in response to the ABC News anchor when asked how he intends to ‘break through on that debate stage.’

‘I feel like I’ve been preparing for this first Republican presidential debate my whole life. And frankly, as [former second lady Karen Pence] and I have traveled all across the country, one of the things we’ve come to realize is that I’m well known, but I’m not known well,’ Pence added.

The former vice president said many Americans know his name and identify him as the ‘loyal vice president who fought alongside President Trump until the day came that my oath to the Constitution required me to stand apart.’

He said voters should also know his history as a ‘House conservative leader fighting big spenders in my own party’ and a ‘conservative governor showing you can balance budgets and cut taxes and expand educational choice.’

‘One of my goals in that debate is for the American people, Republican primary voters, to get to know me in a little bit broader context and demonstrate the kind of leadership that we bring to this,’ Pence said.

The first debate is to kick off Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. ET and air across FOX News Media’s platforms. In addition to Trump and Pence, GOP candidates Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum have all qualified to take part in the debate.

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Republicans in California, a state that has increasingly become known for espousing left-wing ideals, are seeking to nix certain anti-abortion and same-sex marriage positions from the state party’s platform in an apparent move to resonate with more voters.

Adopted by a party committee in late July, the California GOP proposal that would distance itself from the national party’s position on the subjects has the potential to be voted on at the Golden State GOP’s fall convention in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

A draft of the proposal highlights support for ‘traditional family values’ and a ‘strong and healthy family unit,’ but language dictating that ‘it is important to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman’ was removed.

The draft also seeks to eliminate the state Republican Party’s opposition to abortion being a federally protected right, the outlet reported. Language promoting ‘adoption as an alternative to abortion’ remains, however.

Additionally, the outlet reported that the proposal, which reduces the state party’s platform from 11 pages to four, removed some ‘language about taxpayer protection for homeowners and a plank about opposing racism.’

‘It’s a seismic shift but it’s a shift born out of practical necessity. Look at what’s happening not just in California but in much more conservative states, realizing antiabortion, anti-same-sex marriage stances are no longer tenable,’ Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School, told the outlet. ‘I think it shows their acknowledgment that the sand has shifted underneath their feet.’

Some, including Jon Fleischman, who served as executive director for the California GOP from 1999 to 2001, believe a debate over the proposal isn’t what the party currently needs.

‘This will be extremely controversial and will take a convention that is supposed to be about unifying the party and instead it ends up becoming a big feud,’ Fleischman said, according to the Times. ‘It’s the last thing the party needs.’

A vote to approve a draft of the proposal was reportedly held in Irvine on July 29 following a California GOP executive committee meeting to discuss how the state party’s presidential delegates will be awarded in the March primary.

If approved, the modifications outlined in the proposal could drastically shake up things ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The draft is slated to be voted on at the state party’s fall convention, which stretches from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 and includes appearances by several GOP presidential hopefuls, including former President Donald Trump, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and others.

The proposal also works to align the state party’s views with that of most California voters.

A 2021 poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 77% of adults in the Golden State did not want federal protections for abortion overturned. That figure included 59% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats.

A Gallup poll revealed in June that 71% of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal, up 44% from the same poll in March 1996.

The California GOP did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met with the governor of Georgia this week for a brief, private conversation. 

DeSantis, a candidate for the Republicans’ 2024 presidential ticket, met with Governor Brian Kemp at a hotel in Buckhead, Georgia, on Friday.

The Florida governor was in the area for an appearance alongside other presidential candidates on radio host Erick Erickson’s talk show.

The two governors did not discuss endorsements, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Politico.

Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’s and Kemp’s offices for comment on the private meeting.

Kemp additionally spoke Friday with former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also running for the Republican nomination.

Kemp is doing his best to stay out of his state’s ongoing racketeering case against former President Donald Trump.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis held a press conference late Monday after a Fulton County grand jury handed up charges against the former president and numerous others.

The Georgia district attorney gave Trump and the other 18 individuals charged in the indictment until noon on August 25 to surrender to law enforcement.

Willis said during the press conference that she would like a trial to take place within six months.

In a letter to the governor filed Thursday, state Sen. Colton Moore claimed to have the support of ‘3/5 of each respective house’ in the state legislature regarding his efforts to impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

‘We have not been provided any evidence to support that assertion,’ spokesman Garrison Douglas told Fox News Digital. 

Moore, in a statement to Fox News Digital, clarified that the statement in the letter alluding to having a majority in both houses was not accurate.

‘Tell Brian Kemp and his team to turn off CNN and open their eyes. I’ve done 25 TV, radio and podcast interviews with one identical message: I need 3/5 of my colleagues to sign the letter,’ Moore told Fox News Digital. ‘The people of Georgia want action, not more empty promises from fluff politicians.’

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Friday announced that there were 183,503 migrant encounters at the southern border in July — lower than the same period last year but significantly higher than June’s lower numbers, which the Biden administration had touted as a sign that its policies were working.

There were 183,503 encounters along the southern border in July, which marks a decrease from the 200,162 encountered last July, but an increase from the 144,566 seen in June. 

‘We remain vigilant and continue to adjust our operational plans to maximize enforcement efforts against those individuals who do not use lawful pathways or processes, knowing that smugglers continue to use disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals,’ acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. 

Numbers had dropped after the end of Title 42 on May 11, before which Border Patrol agents had been encountering record numbers of up to 10,000 a day. While there had been expectations of a new surge, numbers instead went down from May into June.

The Biden administration tied that drop to a slew of new policies, including expanded programs to parole migrants into the U.S. at ports of entry and elsewhere, efforts to tackle root causes in the Hemisphere, the restoration of punishments for illegal entry and a new asylum rule limiting asylum to some illegal entrants. That rule is currently facing multiple legal challenges, including from left-wing groups who say it limits a right to asylum. 

‘Our approach to managing the borders securely and humanely even within our fundamentally broken immigration system is working,’ Mayorkas said at a House hearing last month. ‘Unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half compared to the peak before the end of Title 42.’

In July, the number of those entering illegally between ports of entry also increased from 99,545 encounters in June to more than 132,000 in July. Officials noted, however, that the number is still 27% lower than July last year.

The latest release comes after numerous signs that numbers have surged at the border, in both July and August. Fox News reported last week that all four main Border Patrol sectors were either nearing full capacity or are already over capacity. Agents have encountered around 6,000 migrants a day.

Fox has also reported how DHS has put out requests for additional agency volunteers to potentially be deployed to the border, and has also increased the number of ICE special agents at the border.

The administration also included $4 billion for border processing and migration in its $40 billion supplemental budget request.

Republicans have hammered the administration for its handling of the crisis, blaming its rollback of Trump-era border security measures for the ongoing surge in migrants seeking entry to the U.S. Republican 2024 candidates have rallied around a number of stricter policies, including resuming wall construction, restoring the Migrant Protection Protocols and additional efforts to crack down on human smuggling. Recently, some Republicans have called for a freeze in DHS funding until efforts are made to secure the border.

The Biden administration has pushed back against the criticism, claiming that it is working within a ‘broken’ system that Congress has failed to fix — and has called for both additional funding and a comprehensive immigration-reform bill to be passed.

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.