Traveling man: Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green just wrapped up his third trip to Washington, D.C., this year to advocate for national health care issues. This one also on Hawaiʻi taxpayers’ dime despite combining the trip with political business for the new political action committee the governor launched the last time he was in D.C. at the public’s expense.
The Sunshine Blog would love to tell you what happened at the press conference organized by the progressive nonprofit 314 Action, one of Green’s partners in the new Heal America PAC that was launched in late January. But the organizers wouldn’t let Civil Beat in despite accepting our RSVP and asking us to submit questions in advance.
The Zoom press conference was set for 5 a.m. HST Thursday. But, what the heck, The Blog thought, we can get up early. It’s important to hear what our governor has to say especially since, as his office told us, this trip is official state business.
Unfortunately, we were left out in the cyber-cold.
“Host has joined, we’ve let them know you’re here,” the sleepy but hopeful Blog was first told. Then … nothing.
After several more attempts to join the event, we tried a backup audio link. “You cannot be added until the host admits you to the meeting.” And that was it.
Civil Beat opinion writers are closely following efforts to bring more transparency and accountability to state and local government — at the Legislature, the county level and in the media. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.
Maybe we shouldn’t have sent this question: “Can you provide any update on the Heal America PAC that was formed in January by Gov. Green in partnership with 314 Action and other groups? Are any specific initiatives underway in connection with the PAC?”
Other than an organizational statement, no paperwork including records of contributions or expenditures is available on the Federal Election Commission search site even though it’s been in existence five months.
Green has yet to publicly announce the creation of the political action committee, which focuses on him and his interest in health care, homelessness, gun control and the election of “pro-science candidates for federal office,” according to its website. He did, however, use his campaign email and social media account to let people know he was making this trip back East before he put it out officially via the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Green was one of six expert witnesses at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the pandemic, appearing at the request of a Democrat on the panel. He was the only one who testified that the Covid-19 vaccine did more good than harm during the pandemic.
Perhaps not a surprise, considering the title of the hearing before an investigations subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee was “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated With the Covid-19 Vaccines.”
Green noted in his opening statement that “Hawaii’s vaccination rate was among the nation’s highest and its mortality rate among the lowest, saving thousands of lives in our state.”
He was up against not only the other five panelists but also the likes of subcommittee chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who said during one of many hostile exchanges with Green, “I could fill this room with people who are dead because of the Covid vaccination.”
How do you contend with that kind of imagery?
Gov. Josh Green seemed a little lonely as he testified in support of Covid-19 vaccines during a Senate hearing Wednesday. (Screenshot/2025)
Green was game, explaining that throughout the pandemic, he was not only helping to direct the state’s response as lieutenant governor, but also working weekends as an ER doctor. There’s no doubt, he said, that when the vaccine became available, it lessened both the number and severity of Covid cases.
“Everyone is talking about corruption, OK?” Green said. “I was doing the work.”
Alas, bipartisanship wasn’t meant to be on this day.
“Where is the science when I had to quarantine for 14 days?” asked Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio. “Tell me the science behind why you locked your residents up and did not allow them to go grocery shopping, why you closed your beaches and your parks?”
“Fourteen days was how long it took for people to get over the disease and people were still shedding the virus at that period,” Green said. But when he noted that actually, the state didn’t close the beach parks, the Honolulu mayor did, Moreno pounced again.
“Zero accountability,” said the senator. “It wasn’t me, it was the other guy.” When Green started to protest, Moreno shut him down, saying, “I’m done with you Governor.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio was Green’s chief antagonist at the hearing. (Screenshot/Hawaii News Now/2025)
In a video statement aired by Hawaii News Now after the hearing, Green was more into the contentious spirit of the day, saying Moreno “came in there so he could score some cheap points so he could put it on his Twitter feed, which he did immediately.”
The governor went on to describe the Ohio senator as “a son of a gun” and “a turkey.”
Green’s other two trips to D.C. this year have cost taxpayers more than $14,000 and we’ll be asking the governor’s office for travel records on this one as well.
This despite Green’s efforts to sidestep any talk of how much money he’s costing the state. Earlier this year, just after The Blog had an item on his travel costs, he told a Hawaiʻi Public Radio interviewer who was asking him about his advocacy against Trump nominees and policies: “It will mean I have to go to D.C. periodically, and notwithstanding the absurd complaint from our friends over at Civil Beat that I shouldn’t go to D.C. I have to. I have to be present occasionally.”
Correction, Governor: We’ve never said you shouldn’t go to D.C. We just want to know what you’re doing there (like quietly launching a new PAC aimed at boosting your national persona) and about how much it’s costing. The voters get to decide whether you should go or not.
Running man: In case you missed, state Sen. Brenton Awa took the opportunity on HNN’s “Spotlight Now” program last week to ask people if they think he should run for Congress.
The GOP lawmaker and former TV news anchor has become an interesting character at the Legislature, where despite being in a minority party that is practically nonexistent he’s managed to speak his mind on issues and events that have gotten the public’s attention.
Awa says he is inclined to run for Congressional District 2, where Jill Tokuda was just reelected without any serious opposition.
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