President Biden, first lady head to Florida
What we know about the Bidens’ planned visit Thursday with first responders and families of victims.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will reprising his role as comforter-inchief Thursday as he heads to a south Florida community reeling from a deadly collapse of a condo building.
Biden, who is heading to Surfside, Florida, roughly a week after a 12-story condo building collapse left at least 18 people dead and 147 still missing, has throughout his presidency emphasized empathy and his story of loss. That will likely be front and center during the president’s visit, as local officials hope to put politics aside.
“I think that the President coming will bring some unity here for our community,” Miami-Dade Police Department Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez said at a news conference Wednesday. He added that it will bring support to the families to have “our governor, our mayor, all of us together.”
“It’s a great message for the family,” he said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday the president and first lady Jill Biden will be meeting with first responders and families “who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy.” It’s unclear whether he will meet with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Biden spoke on the phone with the governor last week.
It also is unclear whether the president will visit the site of the collapse. Psaki said the White House does not want to take resources away from the search and rescue mission.
Throughout the campaign trail and into his presidency, Biden has often shared his personal tragedies with America, which is in a pandemic that has left more than 600,000 dead. In 1972, Neilia Hunter Biden, Biden’s wife, and 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident. Beau, Biden’s oldest son, died of brain cancer in 2015.
Biden has used his story to empathize with those who have lost friends and family throughout the pandemic. In April, the president visited Atlanta, days after a rampage left eight dead. Biden gave advice to families.
“The day will come when their memory brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye, as unbelievable as that is now,” he said at the time. “It will take a while, but I promise you it will come, and when it does, that’s the day you know you’re going to make it.”
The Biden administration has sent resources to the state following the deadly collapse.
Last week, Biden declared a federal emergency in Florida that authorized federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts.
Psaki said Monday that the president believes the reasons for the collapse must be investigated.
“Certainly we want to play any constructive role we can play with federal resources in getting to the bottom of it and preventing it from happening in the future,” she said.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology sent a team to gather information that will determine if a full investigation will be conducted, Psaki said.
More than 50 personnel are on the ground, including building science experts, structural engineers and geotechnical experts, according to Psaki.