During the COVID-19 pandemic, then-Lt. Gov. Josh Green’s whiteboard briefings on Facebook were popular because he often imparted key factual information that the Ige administration was stingy in releasing.

His daily briefings in the Lahaina wildfire tragedy get more mixed reviews because he too frequently moves beyond facts and launches into speculation, promises he lacks the power to keep and self-­aggrandizement.

When he waded into questions to other officials on whether warning sirens should have been sounded or more water should have been released for the fire — subjects on which he lacks meaningful expertise — his anecdotal riffs potentially nudged the direction of supposedly independent future investigations.

Such freewheeling adds to the confusion, and can come across like the Donald Trump COVID-19 briefing at which he suggested toxic household cleansers could be consumed to protect against the virus.

There’s legitimate community concern that unscrupulous mainland buyers could take advantage of desperate fire victims by trying to grab their burned out properties for pennies on the dollar.

Green could have simply warned speculators off, put state agencies to work on fully utilizing regulations and the law to prevent swindles, and used land-use restrictions to discourage undesirable redevelopment.

Instead, he talked loosely about a moratorium on property sales to mainland buyers, which he had to walk back for obviously violating the U.S. Constitution — just as it would if Nevada banned Hawaii expatriates from buying real estate in Las Vegas.

The governor then spoke of a possible freeze on all land sales in the area, which is also questionable on legal and policy grounds.

We can’t assume all would-be buyers are scammers. What if respectable entities offer fair-market prices? Do we prevent landowners who have lost everything from accepting good offers that allow them to restart their lives?

We need to think these matters through carefully, not make policy by shooting from the hip at press briefings.

Then there’s the matter of the attorney general’s investigation into the fire’s origins and the state and county responses.

Green quickly made clear that he had instructed Attorney General Anne Lopez to undertake it, giving it more of a political sheen than a legal one. That impression grew when Green inexplicably announced the “comprehensive review” wasn’t intended to look for possible criminal or civil violations.

Why not? Criminal and civil cases are what lawyers in the attorney general’s office do, and legal charges have been brought in natural disasters on the mainland. Why rule it out here so soon, when we know so little about what happened? Why put a law enforcement agency in charge if law enforcement isn’t the purpose?

Lopez ultimately tossed the hot potato to an outside contractor to conduct what essentially is a performance audit. Lord knows what will happen if her contractor finds evidence of criminal or civil wrongdoing. Let the feds clean up our mess once more?

Green needs to recognize he’s not running for governor anymore; he’s running the state, and his tendency toward offhand comments to make himself look good are heard in an entirely different context.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.