Maui County Mayor: I ‘Accept all’ Criticism on Fires, ‘Wish I Knew How to Do All This Stuff Before I Became Mayor’

During portions of an interview with PBS aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of “PBS NewsHour,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen stated that “No one was prepared for” something like the Maui fires to take place and that while he accepts “all the criticism” he’s received, “I wish I knew how to do all this stuff before I became Mayor.”

Bissen said, “No one was prepared for something like this to happen, but we’re learning. And we’re sticking together.”

“NewsHour” Correspondent William Brangham then stated in a voiceover, “But the Mayor, who has been in office less than a year, has also faced criticism for how the county initially responded to the fires and for a lack of transparency in the weeks since.”

Brangham then played a clip of himself asking Bissen, “Obviously, people trusting you and believing what you say and how you are leading is critical. Do you feel that you have regained the public’s trust?

Bissen responded, “I, first of all, accept all the criticism. I wish I knew how to do all this stuff before I became Mayor. There is no shortage of investigations about what happened here. We never want this to happen again. We want to do everything we can to, not just restore trust, but to prevent something like this from happening.”

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