Aboard Air Force One
En Route Boston, Massachusetts
9:35 A.M. EDT
MR. EARNEST: Good morning, everybody. Welcome aboard Air Force One as we make our way to Boston. I have a couple of updates that I'll walk through before we open it up to questions.
The first is you all have received an email overnight that the President signed a disaster declaration for the state of Massachusetts. This will make additional federal resources available to state and local officials who are responsible for responding to the bombings in Boston. So I wanted to flag that for you.
Second is prior to departure from the White House today, the President received a briefing on the latest — on the investigation into the bombings in Boston from his Homeland Security Advisor, Lisa Monaco. As you know, over the course of the last couple of days, the President has been routinely briefed on these latest details, and so he got his latest briefing this morning in person prior to leaving the White House.
The third thing is many of you have asked whether or not the President will have the opportunity while he’s in Boston to meet with the families of those who were injured or killed in the bombings. He will have that opportunity while he’s in Boston. He'll also have the opportunity to talk to some of the first responders, both professionals as well as the volunteers who were the first on the scene and were there to tend to those who were injured in the blasts.
I don't have any details for you at this point about where and when those meetings and those visits will occur, but over the course of the day we'll keep you updated on the President’s activities.
The last thing is I wanted to just give you a sense of who’s aboard Air Force one with us today. Several members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are onboard. So both Massachusetts senators — Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Mo Cowan are aboard Air Force One this morning. Also aboard are Congressman Michael Capuano, Congressman Steven Lynch, Congressman Richard Neal, Congressman Bill Keating, and Congressman John Tierney. And then also aboard the plane is Vickie Kennedy, the wife of the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
Those are all the updates I have at this point. So we'll open it up for questions.
Q Josh, do you guys have any update on the West, Texas situation? Was the President briefed on it? And at this point, are you guys looking at this as an accident, or any kind of possible suspicious activity there?
MR. EARNEST: Well, let me start by saying that the thoughts and prayers of the President and First Lady go out to those who were affected by the blast that we saw in West, Texas last evening. It is clear just from the reports that the devastation there is quite significant and the Federal