White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused Wednesday to answer whether President Joe Biden will remain at the White House or depart for his private residence during Hurricane Milton’s landfall.
Biden postponed his upcoming trip for Germany and Angola as Hurricane Milton, a Category 4 storm, is set to make landfall and potentially cause destruction in Florida. Jean-Pierre said the president does not currently have any travel plans for Florida and did not make it clear whether he intends to remain at the White House.
“Will [Biden] be here the whole time, probably, is it possible he will go to Delaware over the weekend, are you guys talking about a possible trip to Florida at some point already?” CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee asked.
“The president’s gonna continue to get hurricane briefings, not just on Milton, and how we’re preparing and what’s happening. He is going to be laser focused on that as well as the vice president,” Jean-Pierre said. “So he will continue to be updated, continue to get those briefings, I don’t have any travel to read out to you at this time, whether it is to the impacted areas or outside of that. What I can say is the president is going to continue to be laser focused on the storms and what’s happening, the preparations, how we are still certainly responding to the immediate needs of folks who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene as well. That is also very much in front of us and what we’re trying to do and get done there, but that’s gonna be his focus.”
The press secretary further said the president will continue to address the American people regarding the administration’s response to the storm.
Hurricane Milton is expected to barrel through Florida’s west coast “as a powerful hurricane” late Wednesday and then move into the western Atlantic. It intensified into a Category 5 storm before attaining a Category 4 status.
More than 5.5 million people in western Florida were urged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local officials to evacuate their homes and escape the catastrophic storm hitting the area, The New York Times reported. Traffic slowed to 20 miles-per-hour on many highways throughout the state as residents evacuated their homes.
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