The Morning Wire: An American Citizen Murdered by Hamas, Arlington Imbroglio, and Aged Angus

During the Biden-Harris administration’s Labor Day weekend celebrations, 23-year-old American-Israeli dual citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin was executed by Hamas terrorists after being held hostage in a terror tunnel. Both the White House and the corporate cable news media responses to this execution were noticeably weaker compared to the reaction to the death of George Floyd.

Goldberg-Polin, along with five other Israeli hostages, was found deceased beneath the city of Rafah in Gaza on Sunday. He had been held captive by Hamas for nearly a year since being abducted at a music festival on Oct. 7. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement claiming that the hostages were executed shortly before their bodies were discovered. For more details, you can refer to the statement issued by the IDF.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both issued statements offering their condolences following the murder of Goldberg-Polin. The somber statements offered no indication that the White House plans to change its approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Instead of proposing a plan to hold Hamas accountable for the murders, Biden accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure a deal with the Palestinian terrorists who continue to hold both American and Israeli citizens hostage.

Following the tragic murder, Biden’s social media manager posted a strong condemnation of Hamas and pledged to ensure the safe return of the surviving hostages. However, within just two minutes, the focus shifted to posts celebrating Labor Day. As with other communications from the White House’s official accounts since Biden resigned from the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, it’s unclear who is responsible for managing these posts or whether President Biden is aware of the content being published under his name.

Conservative critics and pro-Israel commentators in America have long complained that Hamas’s hostages are not getting the same level of attention afforded to victims of other high-profile crimes. The White House’s tepid reaction to the death of Goldberg-Polin has done little to assuage their ire.

The muted reaction to this death starkly contrasts with the widespread public mourning following the 2020 death of George Floyd, a career criminal who had an altercation with a police officer and later died at a hospital with a lethal level of fentanyl in his blood.

Floyd’s death prompted annual commemorations by President Biden, including a somber statement on what would have been his 50th birthday. Vice President Harris openly supported the Black Lives Matter riots, and a law named in Floyd’s honor was proposed by both Biden and Harris. Floyd’s death received a high degree of attention from national Democrats for the same reason Goldberg-Polin’s death will go mostly unnoticed in popular culture: only deaths that benefit Democratic politicians’ agendas get the George Floyd treatment. In this case, it appears that Floyd’s death — and its potential to promote national racial divisions at a politically opportune moment — elicited considerably more action from national Democrats than the execution of an innocent American by anti-Semitic Palestinian terrorists.

Former President Trump responded to the murder, expressing his grief and blaming the Biden-Harris regime’s poor foreign policy decisions for the death.

“We grieve the senseless death of the Israeli Hostages, horrifically including a wonderful American Citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, murdered by Hamas due to a complete lack of American Strength and Leadership. Make no mistake — This happened because Comrade Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are poor Leaders,” said Trump on X.

“This terror would have never happened if I were President, and it will stop the day I am back in the Oval Office,” he added.

The death of Goldberg-Polin highlights another instance that Republicans cite as evidence of the Biden-Harris administration’s failed foreign policy. A principal example often referenced is the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, which tragically resulted in the deaths of 13 Americans. Although Biden’s presidency has been characterized by heightened global tensions, new foreign wars, and general global unrest, it’s unclear how much of a factor international politics will play in the November presidential election.

The Pine Tree Pulse

While Mainers reveled in their extended Labor Day weekend, the state continued to operate as usual. Vacationers poured in, resulting in steady traffic on the Maine Turnpike, and unfortunately, the number of drug overdoses continued to climb. Perhaps the biggest news was a deadly police standoff, culminating in a fatal shooting on the major bridge leading into Maine from New Hampshire.

WGME has the latest on the tragic overdose of a 9-month-old baby in Mexico, Maine. The baby was having difficulty breathing and was turning blue, as reported by Oxford County Sheriff’s deputies who arrived at the scene. Fortunately, the infant survived and was taken to Rumford Hospital, where she was administered NARCAN. Toxicology tests revealed that the baby was experiencing an opioid overdose and tested positive for cocaine and marijuana, as well. On-site, police apprehended 28-year-old Timothy Child of Dixfield, who was already out on bail for a prior offense.

Maine Public concentrated its reporting on the state’s tourism industry as vacationers flocked to the region for what is traditionally considered the last major weekend of Maine’s tourist season.

On Tuesday, the outlet reported on a new ordinance approved by the Bar Harbor town council, which could increase the daily limit for cruise ship passengers to 3,200. While some residents employed in the tourism sector view the increase as beneficial, others are staunchly against it. Just two years ago, a majority of the community voted to establish a daily cap of 1,000 passengers. This restriction must be repealed before the new ordinance can be implemented. The Maine Wire’s Libby Palanza has reported on Bar Harbor’s ongoing cruise-ship kerfuffle here.

The outlet also highlighted new data from the U.S. Interior Department detailing the number of visitors to national parks. That report claimed that nearly 4 million people came to Maine’s Acadia National Park last year, spending an estimated $479 million while visiting the state.

Despite the influx of tourists, Labor Day weekend didn’t just bring success for the state’s tourism industry.

News Center Maine reported on a fire that burned down Damariscotta’s beloved Schooner Landing Restaurant and Marina on Sunday. No one was injured in the fire, and investigations into its cause remain ongoing.

The Portland Press Herald focused its post-Labor Day reporting on a minor dispute surrounding the transfer of a rehabilitated loon from Maine to Massachusetts, against the objections of some loon enthusiasts who wanted the bird to stay in state. The Press Herald also has a report on the catastrophic understaffing issues in Maine’s RSU 21 school district. In desperation, the district has increased its pay for bus drivers from a maximum of $20.82 per hour to $30.50 amid a hiring crisis.

From the Bangor Daily News comes a glowing report on U.S. Sen. Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats. At 80-years-old, King is nonetheless pursuing re-election for another six-year term in the U.S. Senate. King is currently the 6th oldest member of the Senate, a spot he claimed after 90-year-old California Sen. Diane Feinstein died in office after casting her final vote from her wheelchair.

King, who was born at the same time the allied Soviet Army was advancing through Romania to pressure the eastern flank of Nazi Germany, has dedicated most of his term in office to stumping for the military-industrial complex and escalating the U.S.’s involvement in the Ukraine-Russia NATO proxy war. The junior senator also has a peculiar fascination with laser beams.

As reported by the Bangor Daily News, Mainers appear unconcerned that King came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Should he secure reelection, King would become Maine’s oldest senator in history, reaching the age of 87 by the conclusion of his term in 2030, unless he pulls a Feinstein.

Around The World

Read: The U.K. has suspended some arms exports to Israel, citing concerns over the civilian toll of Israel’s war against Hamas. The announcement came just one day after Israeli forces found five hostages, including an American citizen, executed.

Read: Salvage crews were forced to abandon efforts to stop an oil tanker struck by Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea from spilling oil. U.S. officials warn that the spill could be four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska. Oddly, American environmentalists seem not to have noticed the unfolding environmental calamity.

Watch: Kamala Harris changes her accent once again while speaking to a Detroit audience. In a viral video, Harris seems to speak in a stereotypically “black” dialect before changing to a more non-regional diction less than 12 hours later. The video led to widespread allegations that Harris may be really, really bad at politics.

READ: Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accuse Kamala Harris of threatening to shut down X if Musk doesn’t comply with censorship rules. The threat of online censorship by central governments comes as the government of France has arrested the founder of Telegram for failing to adequately censor material posted on that social media app. Critics have alleged that arresting the inventors of social media platforms over disagreeable speech would be akin to jailing the inventor of the ball-point pen for disagreeing with a nasty letter.

READ: The late Sen. John McCain’s son condemns Trump’s appearance at Arlington Cemetery honoring soldiers killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. This comes after Trump came under fire for allegedly using the ceremony as a campaign event, despite being invited by the families of the fallen soldiers. The Harris campaign issued a rare, lengthy statement on X rebuking Trump’s visit, a stunt that backfired spectacularly when several Gold Star families responded with videos excoriating Harris and Biden for failing to commemorate the anniversary of the deadly Afghanistan surrender.

READ: Two American Marines were assaulted by members of an anti-American student group while in civilian clothes in Turkey.

READ: A former aide of New York’s far-left Governor Kathy Hochul was indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly serving as a foreign agent for the Chinese Communist Party.

Watch: Join The Maine Wire for the premiere of Triad Weed the movie on September 20 at the Saco Drive-in Theatre.

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