Good morning. We are glad you are with us. Victor blackwell by my side as we get to the significant Breaking News. So much happening overnight. Here are the five things to know this morning. 36 people are confirmed dead in this devastating wildfire across hawaii. The flames charring hundreds of buildings. Black hawk helicopters have been deployed as paradise burns. Just out this morning, Supreme Court Clarence Thomas and His Luxurious Life Tstyle A who was funding it. 38 luxury vacations, 26 private jet flights and a dozen vip passes to Sporting Events. And a president ial candidate in ecuador assassinated at a rally. The anticorruption candidate was killed just ten days before the election. New video coming in of a deadly fbi raid, a man killed after making threats against President Biden and other elected officials. And new information in the atlanta area investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Sources tell cnn Prosecutor Fani Willis is seeking more than a dozen ind
hopes for a deal or fuel new fears that the u.s. could actually default for the first time in its history. ak kwused murderer bryan kohberger face-to-face with the parents of the students he s accused of stabbing to death. shocking new details in the case coming up. we start with the supercharged republican race. south carolina senator tim scott becoming the latest candidate to test the party s appetite for someone who isn t donald trump, officially launching his presidential campaign just a couple hours ago. that puts the official number of major candidates at six, but there s the potential for many more, with ron desantis set to announce in the coming days and others like mike pence and chris christie reportedly ready to jump in, the field could hit double digits within weeks. today belonged to senator scott, the only black republican in the u.s. senate. speaking in his hometown of north charleston and spreading a message he plans to spread early and often, already buyi
but right now it is midnight in hawaii. and so we ll do a big assessment in the morning tomorrow. but from the tourism standpoint, we just want to make sure that the message that goes out to your viewers throughout the united states and across the world is that hawaii is still open. it is west maui that is devastated. but travelers are understanding that it is their they are changing their vacation plays a plans. and some people came to the evacuation center here at the convention center and they have communicated with us that they are either staying here and some are going to the other islands. but we don t want your guests to think that the entire state of hawaii is closed. because it is not. oahu, one of the most famous
opponents may be concerned about and use against him to move into that second position against trump. matt, what impact do you think this could realistically have on the state of florida? you have the naacp ban, but there had been advisories from the league of latin american citizens. michael mentioned the whole brouhaha with disney. what does this mean when you put it together for the state you re in? depends how you want to frame that. from the sense of tourism which is what some of these warnings are trying to impact. florida had 28 million tourists in the first quarter of 2023, like a 40% increase from the year before. so that s happened during the desantis culture war push. culture wars from a tourism standpoint doesn t seem to be impacting things lear. but, of course, there s a political element and all this is timed to some degree with
governor desantis rolling out his presidential campaign later this week. the mayor of tampa and mayor of st. petersburg most recently have gone on twitter to emphasize their cities are inclusive and welcome folks of all religion, sexual orientation, race. i m not sure from a tourism standpoint this will have the desired effect. i think politically it s going to continue to amplify the perception from democrats that desantis has passed legislation and focused on already marginalized communities. michael, to that point, does this open an opportunity for democrats? we know already part of the strategy for team biden is they re looking at florida again. are there opportunities there that republicans might not have had i m sorry. that democrats might not have had? i think that s a very good question. it will be interesting to see how tactfully and actually