Karine Jean-Pierre White House Press Briefing on 9/30/24

All right. Good afternoon everyone.

Good afternoon.

Okay, a couple things at the top and then we’ll get started. So today the First Lady is traveling to Mexico City to lead the US Presidential Delegation for the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum. The visit will highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to strengthening the partnership between the United States and Mexico. Our countries have a strong and productive partnership and we look forward to building on the relationship under the new President of Mexico to advance our shared priorities. As you heard from the president earlier today, we are focused on doing everything we can to deliver critical resources to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. To date, the president has approved requests for federal assistance for seven states, including three major disaster declaration requests from North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as Florida. Over the last several days, we have read out consistent briefings that the president has received from his team, including FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and his Homeland Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, who is here with us today, as you can see to my right.

(01:17)
The president also spoke with North Carolina Governor Ray Cooper and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, along with other state and local officials in the impacted areas to offer further assistance as needed. This afternoon at 3:30, FEMA Administrator Criswell and Governor Cooper will hold a press conference on the latest operational updates out of North Carolina. In the 4:00 PM hour, Criswell and Governor Cooper will brief President Biden and then he will have an Oval spray to read out additional updates to the pool. And later this afternoon, the vice president will receive an in-person briefing at FEMA later today, as you all know. As the president said earlier today, the nation has your back and the Biden-Harris Administration will be with you as long as it takes. With that, it’s my pleasure to welcome back LSR, as we call her here.

Absolutely. Thanks, Karine. I’m going to move that a little bit, Karine.

Why don’t I do this? I know you have a lot to share today-

Thank you.

… so I’ll move that out of your way.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

I’m here today to brief you on the federal response to Hurricane Helene, but first I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the lives lost across the region impacted by the hurricane and those survivors whose lives will never be the same. My heart goes out to those who’ve lost loved ones and those who are worrying about whether their loved ones are still alive. And our administration and our nation is standing with the people impacted by this hurricane. To the disaster survivors across the region, the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting you every step of the way as you begin your recovery and you start to heal. For survivors in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina whose governors have requested major disaster declarations, the president approved them immediately over the weekend. And we urge those citizens who are seeking FEMA assistance to sign up for that assistance as quickly as possible. You can do that either by calling 1-800-621-3362, registering on disasterassistance.gov or by filling out an application on your mobile device through the FEMA app.

(03:45)
And that brings me to our response. Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, we are providing urgent and extensive federal support for the ongoing response and recovery efforts to Hurricane Helene. Over the weekend, at the president’s direction, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell traveled to Florida on Saturday, to Georgia on Sunday, and today she is in North Carolina accompanying Governor Cooper in surveying impacts to the affected communities in Western North Carolina. The president has asked Deanne Criswell to remain in Asheville, North Carolina, given how acute the situation is on the ground there. And he will receive an update from her this afternoon and from Governor Cooper in addition to the press conference that the administrator and the governor will hold today. Also, as the president said earlier today, he is committed to traveling to impacted areas later this week as soon as his presence will not disrupt vital emergency response operations.

(04:49)
So I want to walk you through what happens as we’re facing a hurricane predicted to have the kind of impacts that Helene has had. First of all, what we do before a storm. As Helene was developing in the Gulf, the president directed FEMA to pre-position specialized capabilities across the region, including deploying incident management assistance teams to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. These teams support our state partners in planning, in logistics, and in conducting their emergency response operations. This included pre-positioning a number of search and rescue teams, federal search and rescue teams in addition to the state and local teams, temporary power teams, generators and health and medical assessment teams. These efforts focused on the Big Bend area of Florida, saved lives in the state, and they prepared us to respond elsewhere in the region. Now, if we know anything about storms, and we’ve learned a lot in our years in service together, it’s that Mother Nature has a mind of her own.

(05:57)
As good as our technologies are, as good as our National Hurricane Center is, it’s just a forecast and when a storm hits, we have to adapt and respond in real time just as the storm has the effects in real time that it is having, and then there are knock-on effects of that storm such as flooding. As we evaluated impacts from the storm, we shifted into the post-landfall phase of our process and we began to surge capacity to where it was needed the most. As of today, we have more than 3,500 federal response personnel deployed and supporting response efforts across the region, including more than 1,000 personnel from FEMA. Search and rescue efforts by state, local, and federal partners are ongoing, and nearly 600 additional personnel will arrive in the region in the coming days, increasing the total number of urban search and rescue personnel to over 1,250. And as search and rescue missions in other states wind down, these teams are focusing on the areas of greatest need, including North Carolina, where our federal teams continue to support state and local teams with rescues where the devastation is most acute.

(07:11)
Also, at the president’s direction, the Department of Defense has activated additional helicopters to aid in search and rescue operations and has provided dozens of high-water vehicles to get into areas that it’s difficult to access. The National Guard in their state capacity is also supporting these efforts. National Guardsmen and women from eight additional states are supporting North Carolina under existing Emergency Mutual Assistance Compacts, known as EMACs, with more than 700 personnel, helicopters, a cargo plane and rescue vehicles to help with road clearance, provision of commodities, transportation, and search and rescue. This is the best of America. We have National Guard coming in as far as from Connecticut, Ohio and New York, who are deploying to North Carolina to support their fellow citizens in need.

(08:05)
In addition, about 200 medical responders are also stationed in Florida, Alabama and North Carolina, along with medical equipment and supplies to ensure the continued healthcare delivery that is required following the landfall of Hurricane Helene. And the US Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency for Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, which gives health providers and suppliers greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

(08:37)
In order for communities to begin functioning again, we all know it’s critical to have power restored. And I want to tell you about what we’re doing on this front because that is truly the fundamental lifeline sector. As of this morning, about 2 million people are still without power across the impacted. At least 50,000 personnel from 31 states and DC and Canada are responding to power outages throughout the region via established mutual assistance agreements between utilities. And working around the clock throughout parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to restore power to those communities that can receive it, where the infrastructure can take power on the lines. FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are also making available generators of many different sizes that are ready to be deployed upon the request of any state. And as power is being restored throughout parts of Florida and Georgia, power crews are being moved into other states to assist with additional restoration efforts.

(09:44)
We see power outage numbers improving, where restoration teams are able to gain access to communities and the debris is cleared. Once we get power restored, we can then get a lot of other things working again. Utilities, water utilities in particular, communication systems, medical and healthcare facilities are those capabilities that depend of course on a source of power supply to function. We’re also very focused on restoring communications capabilities. FEMA, the FCC and private telecommunications providers are working together to help restore temporary communications as quickly as possible by establishing temporary cell sites and allowing for roaming where possible, where a resident can connect to any network available even if they aren’t subscribed to that network. Today, FEMA will install 30 Starlink receivers in Western North Carolina to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need.

(10:47)
We’re also very focused on how we reach survivors at their point of need. This has been a lesson we have learned from the beginning of President Biden’s presidency, that those who most need the help have the hardest time accessing that help. And he has directed us to work to evolve FEMA practices so we can really get to those who need us the most. In states that have requested and have received major disaster declarations, FEMA is expediting the delivery of its Serious Needs Assistance, which is an immediate $750 direct payment to eligible households to allow them to pay for essential items like food, baby formula, water, medications, and other emergency supplies. This is not the full extent of FEMA assistance to individuals, but it’s the first element of it that becomes immediately available with a major disaster declaration. And it gets people cash when they’re absolutely desperate for it.

(11:42)
In addition, survivors who register for the FEMA Individual Assistance Program will be eligible to receive assistance to help repair their homes, cars, and other personal property in conjunction with their own insurance policies. FEMA is working, as it always does, to open disaster recovery centers in impacted communities. What’s important about these centers is they aggregate federal support in one place. It used to be the case that survivors had to go to multiple different departments and agencies to find out what kind of help they could get access to. What we do is we put everyone together either in a standing building that survived the natural disaster or in a trailer if that’s necessary. For example, we’ve opened three disaster recovery centers today in Manatee County, Sarasota County, and Hillsborough County, Florida. If survivors cannot get to such a facility, and we think that will likely be the place in a place like Asheville and its surrounding areas, we send people door to door.

(12:43)
FEMA literally goes knocking with an iPad in hand so they can help people register for the assistance they need because they may not have power, their cell phone may have run out, and they need someone to help them get registered quickly. In North Carolina, we’re focused right now on clearing roads and removing debris, restoring communications and power, and ensuring access to healthcare and the continued flow of commodities like food and water to where they’re most needed. Today, we’ve heard they’ve reopened 220 roads, which will help enable responders and critical commodities to begin moving via ground transportation. While FEMA has been at the forefront of the response and it’s very meaningful to have them on the ground, they serve as the coordinator of the orchestra of a wide-ranging federal response. And that’s something a lot of people don’t understand.

(13:37)
What FEMA does is it mission assigns, that’s the term of art, “Mission assigns,” roles and responsibilities across our government in the wake of a disaster. And so what they do is coordinate the identification of and delivery of those resources when they’re needed and where they’re needed. I want to go through some of what other departments and agencies are doing so you can hear the full scope of the federal response, which gives more clarity than just saying FEMA is doing this. The US Army Corps of Engineers deployed power restoration teams, including in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where Asheville is located, for temporary emergency power, debris removal and infrastructure assessment, including for dams throughout the region. The Department of Defense has mobilized 22 helicopters in support to response in Western North Carolina, staged at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. There are multiple helicopters available to support air bridge operations to move personnel and necessary supplies and equipment into the disaster area. Four helicopters from DOD are actively supporting the urgent search and rescue operations that are ongoing in Western North Carolina.

(14:48)
The other 18 are helping to move response personnel and deliver critical commodities and support into remote and isolated communities that are not accessible by road right now. DOD has also made available, as I mentioned, 30 high water vehicles available for search and rescue, and has set up five incident support bases across the region to continue providing support to those who need it in the surrounding areas. The US Coast Guard has thousands of personnel working on response efforts and is conducting post-storm assessments to support the rapid reopening of impacted ports in Florida. The US Department of Energy has responders deployed across the region, primarily in the state emergency operations centers. While I noted that power restoration numbers are trending in the right direction, it’s important to remember that these will be complex multi-day efforts in many locations due to the extent of damage and the ongoing access issues.

(15:45)
Utilities are facing widespread flooding and debris that is impeding access to damaged infrastructure. And one of the things we’ve learned in prior incidents like this is it’s really important to set public expectations about when they can anticipate that power will return, so that they take the necessary steps to be safe and to secure additional support, for example, moving into a shelter if power isn’t going to come on for some time where they live. The US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, a very important player in this space in rural areas, has deployed personnel to the impacted region to extend much needed emergency credit to farmers and agriculture producers who lost crops and livestock across all the impacted states, but in particular in the Big Bend region of Florida and in Southern Georgia.

(16:34)
The Environmental Protection Agency has personnel on the ground who are offering technical assistance and guidance on water systems, which have been significantly damaged in a number of locations on debris management and on maintaining critical public health and environmental protections as storm impacts are assessed. The US Small Business Administration has also deployed more than 50 personnel to support survivors and small businesses

… as they recover from the hurricane. That’s a sense for you of the range of capabilities that surge when we say we’re doing everything we can to help impacted communities. And more will follow as we know more about the impacts. We honestly don’t know the full extent of the damage. It probably will take several more days as communities begin to be opened up by the debris clearance on the roads, and we can get in and really understand what’s happened to them. Unfortunately, we know that the first information we receive is often wrong in the wake of a disaster and that the early days are brutally hard for the people who are in the most heavily impacted communities.

(17:41)
Since 2021, we have seen this play out across the nation from Florida to California to Maui, from Kentucky to New York. As the President has directed, we will do everything we can first to save lives, alleviate suffering, and help communities to recover and eventually rebuild. And we will focus especially on survivors who have the hardest time accessing the help we can provide, as I noted, because as Americans, we are all in this together. Thank you for giving me a chance to lay that down for you and I’m glad to take a few questions that.

All right and Alizar has to go see POTUS pretty soon. Got you.

Thanks very much. Liz, a couple different topics. One, you talked about the people’s inability to communicate because of lack of power, et cetera. Can you give us any sense of how, whether you’re working with mobile phone companies or the private sector at all to help boost the ability to communicate? And secondly, do you have any sense now of where the death toll is going and what the cost of rebuilding will be?

On the effort to get communications restored, we work with, I, not personally, but FEMA works with the FCC and with private sector companies. All of the major providers participate in this. And as you heard me say, if you’re not… Let’s imagine a customer of AT&T, but Verizon is able to get some coverage in your region, you’ll get free roaming in order to get access. We’re also moving in Starlink receivers, as I said, because we need more capability where we think it will be a while before any of those cell towers that we would normally be dependent upon will be working again. We have a multipronged effort when we need to get communications capabilities and involving a variety of technologies. Some of them are more novel solutions, some of them are more traditional.

(19:35)
I’ll just say on the death count you asked about, the current data we have is that it looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives, but we don’t have any confirmation of that. We know there are 600 who are either lost or unaccounted for, and so that work is ongoing. I’ll caution you because we’ve seen this before, those numbers vary widely. There’s a lot of reporting that doesn’t add up about the numbers. And so while we may see the numbers go up as we get to more locations that have not yet been fully developed in terms of disaster, immediate emergency response operations, we may see more people who unfortunately perished. But we may also not see the numbers skyrocket as people have predicted they might, so I would just urge you to wait until we have the facts and we’ll report them to you as we have them.

Good ahead, Zeke.

Thanks Liz. You mentioned the run-up to the storm, the focus of the preparations on the Big Bend area of Florida and then it moved as the storm moved inland. Were you surprised by the impact on the flooding side? Was there something wrong in the forecast that you should have pre-positioned assets differently to prepare for this sort of situation? I know that there’ll be time for after-action report later, but are you now at the point of where now you’re kicking yourself that you didn’t do something Thursday or Friday?

We can never know exactly where a storm will go. Of course we will do with our colleagues who do the weather predictions and analysis of what we knew and what we didn’t know and how that evolved. We were very concerned about a major hit on a city like Tallahassee, which could have catastrophic impacts. When the storms make landfall, as you know, they’re at their highest velocity. The force of a hurricane when it makes land is very powerful. It usually reduces in strength as it moves over land, so that initial landfall place in the Big Bend was a major concern for us, but we were also worried about the storm moving into other areas and having significant wind effects and flooding effects.

(21:45)
And that’s what we briefed to the President as we saw the storm moving in our direction, in the direction of the southeastern United States. And we kept him apprised as we saw the evolution moving north through a variety of states. We can’t know everything in advance, and one of the reasons we surge capabilities into the region is then to be able to get them closer. They can’t be in the spot the hurricane is going to hit in advance. They have to be in a location in which they wouldn’t be affected and then move in, so having the resources in the southeast already was very beneficial for all the states in the region.

And you mentioned the importance of setting expectations, so for the folks who are in the effected areas who are able to consume this now, hopefully to the extent that they can, how long should they be expecting to wait now to access their basic needs, power, water, food, shelter until the federal government can provide that for them?

Well, we are moving now to get food and water, medical supplies and other essential survival needs into the most devastated areas in North Carolina. That’s what I described about using DOD helicopters, for example, to move into areas which are not accessible by ground. I was referencing the point that I think we all experience this when the power goes out, you want to know how fast it’s going to come back on. In a situation like this with this much devastation, it could be a long time, so you can’t just wait it out. You may need, and this is really for people listening, you may need to make alternative arrangements to get to a shelter where you can be safe and get access to electricity, to power your phone, where you could get pharmaceuticals if you need them, if you lost everything, where you can begin to work toward the rebuilding of the basics of your life while your community is addressing the consequences of these devastating storms.

We’ll have to wrap it up. Go ahead.

Thank you Liz for providing all this information and reminding us that the numbers could change. I just want to fact check two things with you if I could, given that you oversee Homeland Security broadly. First of all, did the President speak with Georgia Governor Kemp yesterday?

Yes. Yes.

Have they spoken again?

President Kemp has said so in public.

Governor Kemp.

I’m sorry. Governor Kemp has said so yesterday. Thank you for correcting me. The President spoke to Governor Kemp yesterday. Governor Kemp has stated today that he spoke to the President and appreciated the offer of all the help the President has offered, anything you need. If the governor would like to speak to the President again, of course the President will take his call. If the governor wants to submit a major disaster declaration, we’ll move that very quickly through our system. And we’re working very closely with every state in the impacted region and we extend a hand, we work with the state emergency operations managers, the whole team in place and every location. And that’s work that we’ve been doing, not just in the wake of a hurricane, but we do it all the time to build those relationships, strengthen our capabilities, plan for and prepare for disasters.

And given that Homeland Security is your portfolio and the Secret Service falls under Homeland Security, let me ask you one other fact check here. Donald Trump alleges on social media quote, “The Democrats are interfering with my campaign by not giving us the proper number of people within Secret Service that are necessary for security. They’re using them for themselves even though they don’t need them.” Is that true?

The President has directed the Secret Service to provide every necessary resource and capability that is required to ensure the safety of the former President of the United States.

April, you have the last one. Oh.

One more, April.

One more, go ahead April.

Quickly two questions.

I’ve got one minute because I’ve got to go.

Two questions that you can answer fast if you can. In the short term, you talked about the immediate short term, but what about the long term with this devastation? Number one, housing for those who do not have shelter, what are you thinking? There have been lessons learned since Katrina as to how to house people.

We work on immediate sheltering capabilities with the Red Cross and others. We provide funding for people to get access to hotels and potentially to move into longer-term accommodations if they need them. That’s part of the FEMA process.

And what about insurance because that has been a big thing when these kind of situations happen?

If people have insurance, that’s of course very important for rebuilding. If they do not have insurance, they have access to federal assistance. But it’s a long road to recovery for people because there’s so much work to be done. We have to acknowledge that. I just want to clarify one thing. When I said there could be up to 600 people lost, my point was there are 600 people unaccounted for. That’s the number we’re tracking right now. And that we can essentially validate from multiple sources. But we don’t know. And as the President said this morning, we’re very hopeful that some of those people just don’t have cell phones working in actually are alive. We experienced that in Maui when the numbers were extremely high in the beginning and they came way down ultimately tragically 101 people lost their lives, but it was not in the thousands as we were initially concerned it might be. Thank you all.

Thank you so much, Liz. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Sorry she didn’t have a lot of time.

She spent 14 minutes with the opposing states.

Well, it was 14 minutes of laying down for the American people, not just for all of you of how this works. We have people who are indeed suffering and waiting and wanting to hear not just from the local government and the state government, but also from the federal government. What are we doing? What are we doing to help them and how we’re working together? And I think what you just heard from Liz is how we’re working in tandem together with local, state, and federal government to help the people in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. And I think that matters. I think that matters. And I think it’s important for them to hear from the people who are actually doing the work. And she gave a lay down, and I’m sure, I know I did, I learned how this all works and how the communication works amongst all of us and what is available also is incredibly important.

(27:49)
I do want to read a quote because this is really important to Ed’s question, governor Kemp, but this is what Liz was saying said in his press conference earlier today. I just spoke to… Yesterday I just spoke to the President. He just called me. He just called me yesterday afternoon, so he said this morning. I missed him and called him right back and he just said, “Hey, what do you need?” And I told him, “We got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process.” He offered and if there’s other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that. That was a quote directly from Governor Kemp, so this is to continue the fact checking that Ed asked us to do. All right, go ahead.

Karine, oversees what is the level of knowledge that the US has about Israel’s intentions on its northern border? Has the US been briefed on specific operational plans to launch some sort of ground incursion into Lebanon?

Look, I’m not going to get into private diplomatic conversations from here. Certainly would refer to the IDF to speak to their own military operations and their plans as we normally do. But we do understand that the strategic purpose of this is to make sure that Hezbollah cannot maintain the capacity to attack Israeli communities from the immediate opposite side of the border. And so that is our understanding. But I’m not going to go into specifics of our diplomatic conversations.

Is that a goal that the President and this administration is supportive of?

Look, what we will say and what I will say to you, and we say this all the time, this is nothing new that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hezbollah, against Iran-backed groups. We’re talking about Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. And so we are in constant discussion with the Israelis on the best way to move forward. And we would certainly refer you to any, as I said moments ago, seconds ago, to the Israelis on their own ground operation. Of course, of course, we want to see a ceasefire. That would give us the space as we have been saying of diplomacy and enable citizens to go back to their homes on both sides. And ultimately a diplomatic resolution is what we want to see and what we want to make sure that that is in place. And we’re going to certainly continue to have those conversations with the Israelis and others on how to make that happen.

And then just briefly, the President this morning said he was anticipating he needed a supplemental for disaster relief. And he had said that. When will he send that to the hill and does he have a dollar figure in mind?

And so look, you know that we provided a robust emergency supplemental for the CR that didn’t go through, that didn’t make it. And so we’re going to continue to have those conversation. We are disappointed that that didn’t go through. We’re going to continue to have this conversation as the President said, we’re in constant communications with members in Congress and we want to make sure that they move quickly on this, they move quickly on this. I don’t have details or specifics, but we did. We did provide a robust, a robust request on more additional funding for these types of emergencies to continue that. And it didn’t go through and we were certainly disappointed to see that. Right behind.

If he does decide to ask for a supplemental, will he have to call Congress back or is there another way to do it?

The President was asked about that and he just said it’s something that certainly he is considering. I just don’t have anything. I’m not going to get too much into hypotheticals.

And with the urgency of this, when would we expect to know if he was going to ask one, how much it is and if he’s calling them back?

Look, I don’t have anything to add on if he’s going to call them back, how much it is, which is very similar to the question that I got from Zeke. We did provide a robust supplemental component to get more funding in the CR. It didn’t make it through, it was not included. But what we’re doing right now, and I think it’s important, and you heard that from Liz, you’ve heard that from the administrator. Let’s not forget the FEMA administrator was here in this room on Thursday because we wanted to make sure that people understood what was happening and what was coming. But we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, the impacted areas have the resources that they need to deal with the devastation and the aftermath of this.

Karine, the President said this morning that quote, “I’m uncomfortable with them stopping,” with regards to the Israeli potential incursion into Lebanon. What did he mean by that and does that mean he’s uncomfortable with them continuing?

No. To answer that question, which is we believe that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah and Iran-backed groups. We have said that. We’ve also have said that Israel is in a tough neighborhood. You’ve heard us say that. They really are. And so we believe they have the right to defend itself. What we also want to see is a diplomatic resolution here. We do want to see a ceasefire. Ultimately that’s what we need to see in order to get to a place where we can get to a ceasefire, where we can see citizens going back to their homes on both sides. That still remains to be true, but do we want to ultimately want to get to a place where we get to a diplomatic resolution? Yes. That’s what we want to see. For sure.

He’s uncomfortable with them continuing?

No. We have said is consistently Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah. We are not shedding tears over a terrorist that was killed, that terrorist has American blood on their hands. And so we’re certainly not going to shed a tear over that. We have been very clear, Israel has a right to defend itself. We’ve been very clear that the security of Israel when it comes to its security, our support is ironclad. That has not changed. That has not changed.

Karine, switching to the hurricane, our reporting teams on the ground say that there are many residents there who are frustrated that more aid has not been distributed and some of them haven’t seen the federal government there for days. What would you say to those folks?

Well, I will say is certainly our hearts go out to them.

Obviously this is a tough, difficult time, and what I will also say is we have their back and we can understand that. We can understand how things are incredibly confusing right now. Incredibly difficult right now. Some people don’t even know if their loved ones are alive or not. And so what I can say and what the president has said, and I think what Liz has iterated as well, is that we want to make sure that the folks who are in the impacted areas have everything that they need, the resources. We have the FEMA Administrator who’s on the ground today. She’s going to be holding a press conference with the North Carolina governor in about 30 minutes or so and going to talk about what they see and what the federal government with FEMA is going to continue to do, working with the state and local governments as well.

(34:52)
We are on the ground. We are on the ground. And, as you know, there was a reason why the FEMA Administrator was here on Thursday, to lay out what we were doing ahead of time, how we were pre-positioned on the ground, and warning people, because we understood that that is also part of our job. But we’re going to do everything that we can. We’re going to do everything that we can.

Following up on a previous question quickly, you mentioned pre-positioning and she did mention that assets and resources were pre-positioned. Another question that was asked before. But bluntly, should more resources have been pre-positioned in and around North Carolina?

So look, I think Liz talked about that when she was asked the question on our prediction of the storm and how bad it was, and so certainly I’ll let the experts speak to this. But again, pre-positioned. We had generators, food, water, along with search and rescue and power restoration. And right now we have US Army Corps of Engineers. They’re moving generators into impacted areas. We have 3, 600 personnel from across the federal workforce are deployed in supporting Hurricane Helene. This includes 24 federal urban research and rescue task force, over 1,300 personnel working to rescue people who may be stranded to date. They have rescued and supported over 1,400 people across the impacted areas.

(36:23)
If you think about the federal employees who are part of these agencies, FEMA and others, this is what they do. This is what they do. This is what they’re trained to do. This is what they’re ready to do. And it doesn’t matter which state it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state. This is their job: to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people. And so we are very proud of the work that they’ve done and we understand that people are very much suffering on the ground and trying to figure out what is going on. And we have our folks there, and we’re going to do the best that we can. Peter.

Thank you. Karine. 13,000 people who have been convicted of murder crossed the border illegally and are living among us, so how much danger are US communities in right now because of this?

I’m assuming you’re talking about the ICE data?

Yes.

So just a couple of things, and I think it’s important to correct the record here. First of all, the false representation of the data ICE shared, so that was what we are seeing. False representation. I got to call that out. We got to call that out. And it’s been fact-checked by some of your colleagues here, by multiple, multiple outlets. That has been debunked on what has been falsely misrepresented here, so we have to call that out. And so, look-

Can you clarify what the misrepresentation is?

The numbers that is being put out about how many people are out has been falsely represented here. If you look at the total returns and removal of the past year, that has been higher than every year under the previous administration since 2010, if you look at it. And if we’re going to report something, data that’s out there, we got to do it in a way that is not confusing the American people and certainly not lying. And so this has been fact-checked. It’s been fact-checked. And so the way that is being falsely represented here is just not okay. Got to be really clear about that.

On Helene, people in Western North Carolina were drowning in their houses this weekend. Others were losing everything. President Biden was at his beach house and Vice President Harris was hosting political fundraisers on the West Coast. Is there a reason that they could not be here?

The president did exactly what a president in this moment needs to do, which is directing his team to take action. One of the reasons that the FEMA Administrator was here in this room on Thursday is the president wanted to make sure that we were sending a message out to folks who were going to be impacted by the hurricane, and also wanted her to share how we were pre-positioning on the ground. Remember, these are folks who do this type of stuff. When you think about FEMA, think about the Red Cross. You think about the US Army Corps of Engineers. This is what they do. This is what they do. And so the president was on the phone – he said this when he was asked a question by one of your colleagues – for more than two hours yesterday with governors and local elected officials, making sure that they had what they needed.

(39:44)
You heard me talk about Governor Kemp and what he said to the president himself. He said this and shared this in a press conference that the president has provided and said, “What else do you need?” And he actually said to the president, “We have what we need.” And that’s, as you know, a Republican governor. And I talked about how the vice president also did her calls. She’s going to be going to the FEMA agency, the center, to get her briefing later this afternoon. The president is continuing to have these conversations with folks on the ground, elected officials on the ground, to make sure that they have what they need and directing his team to keep pushing.

One more. How worried are folks at the White House that a port strike that could make things like fruits and vegetables more expensive could make it a lot harder for Vice President Harris to win the election?

I’m not going to talk about an election from here. That’s not what we’re going to do. When it comes to making sure that workers are paid and wages and the economy is working and that we’re lowering costs for the American people, that is just the right thing to do and that’s what this president focuses on every day, day in and day out. How do we have an economy that works for all? When it comes to this particular question that you’re asking me, we’ve said this many times and nothing has changed. We support collective bartering. It is the best way for American workers and employers to come to a fair agreement. We encourage all parties to come to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith. Senior officials from the White House Labor Department and Transportation Department are in touch with the parties to urge them to return to the table and negotiate in good faith towards an agreement that benefits all sides, and do it fairly and quickly. And this is something that we have said and we’re going to continue to push forward on.

Is the vice president involved in these negotiations?

What I can say, I just named the secretaries that are involved. Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Secretary Julie Hsu, and the Director of National Economic Council, Lael Brainard. What I can say is the president and the vice president are being regularly updated about the situation and I know there’s a question about the Taft-Hartley. We have never invoked the Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering to doing so now. But this is a president that has been called a pro-union president by labor, by the labor unions, because of how much he believes that the union built them middle class. And so that’s what you’re going to continue to see from this president. He’ll stay regularly updated. [inaudible 00:42:20].

Thanks, Karine. Former president Donald Trump is in Georgia in a region that’s been hard hit. Now, given all the security that’s needed to accommodate him, is his visit putting a strain on resources there or impacting relief efforts?

Here’s what I can say, and you’ve heard this from this president earlier today in his remarks where he said he will visit the impacted communities this week and is taking caution. He’s taking caution to avoid using critical resources that is needed right now on the road, on the ground, that people need. And so that should be everyone’s top consideration right now. That’s what we should be doing. That’s what we should be focusing, and I’ll leave it there.

So were there any requests for Trump to delay his visit?

I am not getting into it more than what I just stated. The president has been really clear about how he sees his presence on the ground. As you know, when the president travel, it’s a big footprint. In this particular moment, he wants to make sure that he’s not taking away resources. He wants to make sure that it is not taking away from the emergency resources that are on the ground. And as I just stated, he believes everybody should adhere to that.

And in terms of the dock workers that are set to go on strike, at what point would the president be willing to intervene? How long would he allow that to go on and at what cost to-

I’m not going to get into hypotheticals from here.

Would the president consider walking the picket line?

I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. We believe that collective bargaining is important here. We’ve always said that. We believe that both sides should come to the table in good faith and get to a fair agreement.

Has there been any progress in those conversations?

I just don’t have anything else to share here. Gotcha.

On a separate different topic, the incoming Prime Minister of Japan has called out or proposed the idea of a Asia NATO. I’m wondering if that’s something that the president would consider.

I haven’t spoken to the president about that. As you know, there’s one NATO. The NATO has grown by two countries, which is because of the president’s leadership. Let’s not forget, when Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought that NATO was going to be weaker and that did not happen. The president certainly was able to make NATO stronger because of his leadership, and that’s going to be what we’re going to focus on.

[inaudible 00:44:36] he’s suggesting a separate alliance that would involve Asian countries. He also said the idea of putting Japanese troops on Guam. I don’t know if that’s something that the president would-

That’s just not something that I’ve spoken directly to the president about. What I can say is what the president has done with the current NATO and making it stronger, and it has been important. If you think about Ukraine, if you think about what Ukraine has been trying to do over the almost three years, which is certainly fight for their sovereignty and fight for their democracy, which is something that we’re going to continue to support. Ukraine and those NATO countries as well, which is much stronger, stronger than Putin ever thought they would be in this time.

Thank you, Karine. First on the Middle East, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to convene his war cabinet this evening to chart next steps. What has President Biden communicated that the US would hope they decide to do?

Look, I’m not going to comment or get into hypotheticals about decisions that Israeli government are making or IDF is making. Certainly would let them speak for themselves. We have been very clear Israel has the right to defend itself, especially against these Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. We will continue to have those direct conversations with them, but IDF, Israel government can certainly speak to that, and also continue our diplomatic conversations on the right way forward or the path forward. I just don’t have anything else to share.

A lot of those diplomatic conversations happened over the weekend as Israel was conducting these raids in Lebanon. Is the outcome one that those diplomatic conversations were discussing? Were US officials offering their support for the way that Israel proceeded?

What I can say is that, again, I’m not going to speak to a private diplomatic conversation. What I said moments ago, which is we understand the strategic purpose of this is to make sure that Hezbollah cannot maintain the capacity to attack Israeli communities from the immediate opposite side of the border. That’s what we understand. I’m just not going to get into specifics or into diplomatic conversations from here.

It’s happened five days though since the US and Western allies publicized the discussions over this 21-day ceasefire proposal. Is there still any hope that that gets put together?

As you know, this is a president that’s hopeful and optimistic, and you hear him say that-

Given the conversation-

[inaudible 00:47:06] you asked me if that is hopeful. So look, we believe the way to get to a ceasefire is to have this diplomatic resolution, to get some space to have a diplomatic solution. That’s ultimately the way to get there. We understand that. We need a ceasefire in Lebanon to provide that space for diplomacy. That’s what we’re going to continue to have discussions. Those discussions to continue with Israel, so that is what we’re going to focus on and what we want to see as a de-escalation. That’s what we’ve been saying. We want to see a de-escalation.

Thank you, Karine. You mentioned that the vice president is going to be coming back and having a briefing at FEMA later today-

Yeah. About four o’clock, I think.

Could you give us a sense for what she has been doing so far in response to this hurricane? Is she in briefings with the president? Is she getting briefed separately? And what is her role going to be going forward?

What I can say is that she certainly has been kept briefed on the situation in certainly the affected areas, the aftermath. She’s going to get a briefing directly at the FEMA, at the FEMA Center, when she gets back. She didn’t continue with some of her campaign activities today because she wanted to make sure to get back and go to the FEMA Center. Anything else, and I know she’s had conversations with elected officials on the ground in those impacted areas, I would have to refer you to her team to get more specifics on what else.

The question about one of the policies that the vice president rolled out on Friday about immigration. She said she would go further than what the president has done with the executive action to limit asylum access at the border. Do you have any response to that? Is that the position of the White House that the administration should be going further than what you’ve done so far?

So I think, look, I got to be careful with campaign policy announce, so going to certainly let the campaign speak specifically about what they’re announcing and what they’re looking to do on their side of things. But we’ve always said, and whether it’s the economy, whether it’s the border, that the vice president was going to build upon what we’ve been able to do. That is the good work that we’ve been able to do together, whether it’s the economy, healthcare, getting some of these historic pieces of legislation passed that’s going to help Americans for generations to come. We also understand and see and what she’s been able to do is build on the success. And so I think that’s what you’re seeing from the vice president. And this is a vice president that has been a critical partner to this president over the last three and a half years, and so we look forward to see what she’s going to be doing down the road. [inaudible 00:49:59].

Karine-

[inaudible 00:50:02]. Go ahead.

The issue of Angola. Why Angola for President Biden now, specifically as other presidents have gone to other countries and Angola is something totally new since the current administration for a US president?

A couple of things. He’s going to be holding a bilateral and multilateral meetings to discuss increased collaboration of shared priorities, including a signature project of G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, PGI, Africa’s first transcontinental open access rail network that starts in Lobito and ultimately will connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. I think that’s a pretty important reason why to go to Angola. This will be the first visit of a president to Angola. That’s also, I think, important to note as well. And so we’re going to celebrate the evolution of the US-Angola

… relationship underscored the United States continued commitment to African partners and demonstrate how those type of collaborative partnerships can solve shared challenges that both countries have.

So anything on oil by any chance since it’s in Angola’s oil region? And also, what about the considerations about some of the other countries like Nigeria or South Africa, Ghana, Uganda? Those have been some places the President’s… Rwanda. So the President-

I hear you. So look, he’s going to be abroad from the 10th to the 15th of October. We’re going to go to Berlin, Germany and then we’re going to stop over at Angola. I just laid out the PGI, the important connection there that Angola has to an initiative that the President created. And I think that is right there. That connection with the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, that Angola is going to play a big role is important. It’s going to make a difference in that region. And this is also, again, part of the President’s initiative that he created. And no other president has been there. No other president has been to Angola. So I think that’s important to note as well.

Does this has something to do with the grain situation that was held up because of the Russian-Ukraine War? Trying to help get grains to African nations because President Zelensky did express that to, I understand the President of the United States, Joe Biden as well as Greg Meeks who sits on foreign affairs committee in the House? Is this some of that too?

What I will say is the President has said that he was going to go to the continent. He has said that he was going to do that. He wanted to keep his promise. Angola makes a lot of sense, especially for an initiative like PGI, an initiative that the President started. There’s a connection there. There’s a throughway that makes a lot of sense. No other president has visited the country. And so it made sense for the President to go there because there are important initiatives not just to the African continent, but also for us here and other of our partners and allies. And so it made the most sense to make that trip. And you’ll see us next month doing that. Go ahead.

Thank you. So the President didn’t seem comfortable this morning with the ground operation in Lebanon. He said he was comfortable with them stopping. Now it seems imminent. Did the president take any action to try to prevent a grand operation in Lebanon?

So say that one more time.

So this morning, President Biden said that he was comfortable with them stopping about Israel. And so did he take any action to try to prevent such an operation in Lebanon?

So I’m not going to get into diplomatic conversations from here. What I’ve been saying multiple times is Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah, against Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah, like Hamas and also the Houthis. They are in a difficult neighborhood to say the least. And they have to have the ability to defend themselves. And so that’s what we support, that’s what we believe. That’s what we have said. We’re going to have conversations with the Israeli government about the best way forward, the best way to move forward. But I’m not going to get into diplomatic conversation, but I have been very clear. We believe that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah.

Lebanon is very small. So when Israel, for instance, attack Beirut, South Beirut, many people who have no link with Hezbollah are being hit. It would be the same if they do a ground operation in Lebanon. It won’t be only the Hezbollah who’s going to be targeted. So does the White House still support this ground operation in Lebanon?

So are you talking… So say that one more time.

You say that basically the goal is to target Hezbollah, but if there is a ground operation-

I’m not speaking for the goals of the IDF or the Israeli government. What we have said is Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah, against Iran-backed group. We’ve been very clear about that. I’m not going to stand here and speak to Israel’s operations. That is not something that I can do. It’s something that I would have to refer you to IDF. And that’s what we’ve been very clear about.

Thank you so much, Karine. During these frantic diplomatic discussions over the situation in the Middle East, did the President communicate any sort of consequences for this continued behavior in addition to his wish for a ceasefire? Did he for example, say that maybe certain weapons would no longer be provided to Israel or teased to that?

Our policy has not changed. It just hasn’t. It has not changed. And again, Israel has the right to defend itself. We’ve been very clear against Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah, like Hamas, the Houthis. I’m not going to get into diplomatic conversation, but our policy has not changed.

On Taiwan, yesterday the President announced the largest ever military drop-down for Taiwan. What was the purpose of this? What was his thinking and is this intended to… I mean, what was the message he was sending with that decision? And is it meant to kind of hold Taiwan over in case there is for example, a change of leadership in the United States or what’s the point of this?

So our overreaching goal remains the same, and we have said that. Maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, that is our goal. And we’ve always been very clear about that and that’s what we want to see.

I’m asking specifically about the timing of this. This comes at the end of his presidency and is the largest ever military drawdown. What does that communicate?

So look, I think if you think about the drawdown, it is pretty much consistent with our long-standing one China policy. So I want to make that clear. It has not changed and it remains the guide by the Taiwan Relations Act Three Joint Communiques and Six Assurances. Again, our overreaching goal is to continue to maintain the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. And that is something that we have been focused on over the last three and a half years and we’re continuing to do this. But the administration use of the PDA for Taiwan is one example of our continued commitment to help Taiwan maintain a sufficient self-defense capability. And so that’s what we’ve been continuing and trying to do. And so that’s how I would look at the Taiwan PDA.

Has Beijing reacted? Have they communicated how they feel about this?

I would refer you to them.

I know that the President said that he would not intervene in the doctrine of first strike. And he cited his concern that he doesn’t believe in Taft-Hartley. But we have seen him intervene in other ways in previous situations like this. With the rail situation, he asked Congress to intervene and stop that potential strike. When he said no yesterday, was he also saying that asking Congress to intervene and stop a potential strike was off the table?

I mean, look, Congress does what Congress is going to do regardless of what the President says. What I will say is the message of the President has been very clear. Our message has been very clear. We support collective bargaining. That’s what we’ve been clear about. I’ve mentioned Secretary Buttigieg. Secretary Lew. We have our NEC director who has been in touch with both parties. And what we have been encouraging to do, and this is something that we’ve been pretty consistent. What I’m saying here, we’ve said before, which is we believe both parties should come to the table in good faith. And so to come to a fair agreement. This is something that we’ve also been consistent about. Look, we’re going to continue to send that message and urge them to come to a fair agreement.

But is he prepared to ask Congress to intervene or is that off the table?

I’m not going to get into hypotheticals from here. We have made our message very clear. Very clear. We support collective bargaining. We believe both sides should come together to get to a fair agreement in good faith. In good faith. And we have been consistent throughout this administration about that.

I want to ask you about the immigration or the border restrictions that this administration extended today as well. The immigration advocacy organizations have come out. Tahirih Justice said this was death by a thousand cuts for migrants. I’ve heard criticism as well from immigration advocates saying that this is ignoring the asylum statute. So I guess just a response to those comments. But then secondly, just the timing for this. I mean, the administration clearly is benefiting from this executive action and obviously likes it if it’s extending it. So why not do it sooner?

I know you follow this very closely. You know that we’ve taken multiple executive actions throughout the last three and a half years. You know that we’ve tried to do this in a legislative fashion to get to a policy, a legislation that actually we do it in a bipartisan way that actually deals with a broken immigration system. And we have been stopped over and over again by Republicans.

It was clear that that Senate bill was going to get stopped earlier this year, January, March. This extension we have not seen until now. And then we didn’t see the executive action until just a couple of months ago, right?

June. No, you’re right.

In the summer. In the summer. So with this extension, this is going to carry this out beyond the election. So if the administration’s stance is that this should continue for the months ahead, basically effectively curtailing asylum in ways we have not seen, why not take this action sooner? And then just also a response to the criticism too.

So a couple of things. We have tried to do this in a way where there was legislative action. And to do this in a way by having bipartisan conversation, working with Senators and doing this in a way that will benefit Americans and do it in a way obviously that we put it into law and we’re trying to begin the process of fixing a broken immigrant… That’s the way the President actually wants to do it. He did. That’s the way he wants to do it. And we took time to do that and we believe it was going to move forward. We’re working with Republican Senators here to get that done. And they voted against, to your point, against their own bill twice, twice because of the former president saying this was going to… Part of your question to me, it was going to help Joe Biden. It’s going to help Democrats. That’s what the former president said.

(01:01:48)
When it comes to this announcement that we just had about the final rule. It was a two-month process. Let’s not forget when the President made the announcement in June, DHS and DOJ had a two-month process to get feedback, to get responses on the rule. And now we secured that final rule. And so that’s the action that you saw from DOJ and DHS. But we actually want to do this a different way. We do. We want to do it in a bipartisan legislative way. You know this president. He believes reaching across the aisle is an important thing to do. We’ve been able to get bipartisan legislation done.

(01:02:33)
They got in the way. They negotiated with us, meaning they, the Senators and Republican senators negotiated with us. We came up with a bipartisan solution. If the President had signed, was able to sign that legislation, it would’ve been the toughest and fairest immigration law that we seen in some time. And it would’ve started the process of fixing a broken immigration system that has been broken for decades. For decades. That is the way the President actually wants to do this. And as you know, the majority of Americans want us to fix the border. They do. And we tried, and this is the path that we went down because Republicans in Congress didn’t want to work with us. Go ahead, Karen.

Student loan borrowers have had a grace period over the past year where they weren’t going to face delinquency if they didn’t pay their loans. But tomorrow’s October 1st. So that ends tomorrow. Is the administration expecting or concerned about a potential wave of delinquencies for borrowers who haven’t been paying their loans over the last year?

So as you know, when it comes to student loan and giving borrowers a little bit of breathing room, this is something that the President had been wanting to do for some time. We were blocked. The President took additional actions, took historic action to provide that student loan relief and to support borrowers facing financial hardship in the wake of a one-in-a-century pandemic. The Department of Education paused loan payments as the economy recovered. And so as you just stated, it hasn’t expired. It’s been 12 months.

(01:04:12)
And so to your question, for those who are still facing challenges returning to repayment, the Department has implemented an aggressive strategy to support borrowers, including creating the Fresh Start program that allowed borrowers in default to become current on their payments, launching an information campaign to engage borrowers at a high risk of delinquency in helping borrowers enroll in IDR plans and the lowest monthly payments as well. So there’s plans out there. There’s ways to support some of these borrowers who feel like they could be delinquent here. And so we certainly want to help them get to a point where they can start repaying their loans. And so the Department of Education has certainly made that a priority as well. All right, I know we have to wrap it up. Go ahead.

One last time on Lebanon, just to be clear. On the one hand, the President is calling for a ceasefire. On the other hand, you’re saying that Israel has a right to defend itself by targeting Hezbollah. So how does it work? Say who do you negotiate the ceasefire with when at the same time the Israelis have just informed the United States that there are indeed launching limited ground operations?

So a couple of things and both things can be true. And this is what’s happening right now in the region. And I’ve said this multiple times, Israel is in a really tough neighborhood and they have to be able to defend themselves against Hezbollah, against the Houthis, against Hamas. And that is the reality that is that they are living in. And that’s what we have been very clear about, making sure that we support for Israel’s security is ironclad. And that’s what you’ll continue to see from this administration. At the same time, we do want to de-escalate. At the same time, we want to see that. And ultimately we believe a way to get to a ceasefire to de-escalate is to get to a ceasefire so we can create a space for diplomatic conversations. And in this case, that’s what you’re seeing and we’re still talking to Israel, we’re still having those conversations. That has not stopped. And so that’s what you’re going to continue to hear from us. All right, I think I have to wrap it up. Go ahead.

[inaudible 01:06:37] question. But tomorrow is Jimmy Carter’s hundredth birthday. I think the President sent out a note on the weekend. But should we expect anything in terms of a phone call or I think?

Stay tuned. Stay tuned. I’m not going to get ahead of the President. All right, everybody, I’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you.