Pool Reports by Christian Datoc, Washington Examiner
| Sent: | Reports: |
| January 16, 2022 11:15 |
Travel pool report #1 — departing Biden residence Good morning from Wilmington. Pool linked up with the motorcade near the Biden residence around 10:00am, following routine COVID testing and security sweeps. We’re rolling toward an unknown destination as of 11:11am, and for those keeping score at home, it’s currently 22 degrees with snow on the horizon. More to follow… |
| January 16, 2022 11:54 |
Travel pool report #2 — arrival, Philabundance After a roughly 45-minute drive, motorcade arrived at 11:53am, where POTUS and FLOTUS are observing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. For those familiar with Philly geography, we're around the corner from Lincoln Financial Field. A note from eagle-eyed co-pooler Erin Logan of LA Times who spotted two motorists trapped in the "Joe Jam" at separate exits flipping the motorcade the bird as we passed. And passing along background from the WH: In observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service, the President and the First Lady are volunteering at Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More to follow… |
| January 16, 2022 12:04 |
Travel pool report #3 — greeters and comments on TX hostage situation POTUS and FLOTUS entered the building at , where they were greeted by Philabundance staff. They exchanged brief pleasantries with staff "You're still doing gangbusters, huh?" Biden joked. "The child tax credit was POTUS said he spoke with AG Garland about the TX hostage situation. "This was an act of terror," he said before praising local authorities. Biden said he'd "put a call into the Rabbi" and that he is working with the attorney general to "address these types of acts" "I don't have all the facts," Biden said of how the terrorist obtained arms but said that he "allegedly purchased it on the street. I don't know" specifically what that means. "Guns are — the idea of background checks are critical but you can't stop someone from buying something on the street" "No I don't," Biden said regarding the motive but would elaborate at Wednesday's press conference. He added we still don't know why that specific synagogue was targeted. *** pool will send exact quotes when possible From the White House… Greeting the President and the First Lady upon arrival:
More to follow… |
| January 16, 2022 12:10 |
Travel pool report #4 — carrots and apples Here’s POTUS and FLOTUS working the conveyer belt: https://twitter.com/tocradio/status/1482762011620614148?s=21 Passing along from WH The President is packing carrots and the First Lady is packing apples. Boxes are being packed with the following food: Wholes Wheat Pasta |
| January 16, 2022 12:13 |
Travel pool report #5 — audio of POTUS’ remarks Passing along audio of POTUS’ exchange with greeters and answers to questions about TX: |
| January 16, 2022 12:24 |
Travel pool report #6 — more color POTUS made small talk with other volunteers working the conveyor belt. One man in particular thanked POTUS and FLOTUS for the emphasis the administration is placing on education. That man added that his daughter just graduated from West Chester University, where FLOTUS earned one of her masters degrees. Worth noting that FLOTUS, a noted Eagles fan, is wearing a team shirt ahead of today’s playoff game against Tampa at 1:00pm Press was ushered out of the room at 12:20pm. We’re preparing to load back in the bus More to follow… |
| January 16, 2022 12:54 |
Travel pool report #7 — rolling Motorcade departed Philabundance at 12:50pm. Pool believes we're heading back to the Biden residence. We did not see POTUS and FLOTUS get in the vehicles. More to follow... |
| January 16, 2022 12:58 |
Travel pool report #8 — full quotes on TX Here's the audio link again: https://otter.ai/u/QCne7DlVC8-hNU8qkmyLrTgvX4w POTUS: Regarding Texas and the synagogue, I spoke this morning with the Attorney General, and we got a rundown. He said there was overwhelming cooperation with the local authorities and FBI, and they did one hell of a job. This was an act of terror. This was an act of terror, and not only was he related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years and [inaudlble] And they did just a great job. I also told him that I wanted to make sure that we got the word out that synagogues and other places of worship that we're not going to tolerate this. We have the capacity to deal with assault on particularly [inaudible]. And so I'll be talking with — I'll put a call into the Rabbi. We missed one another on the way up here, but rest assured, we are focused. We are focused. The Attorney General is focused that we deal with these kinds of acts. And thank God we had such professional FBI as well as local cooperation. I was told it was incredible, so I just wanted to let you know that. POOL: Mr. President, how could this man have gotten weapons? There were reports that he'd only been in the country for — POTUS: Well, I don't have all the facts. The Attorney General — allegedly the assertion was that he got the weapons on the street, that he purchased them. As it turns out there were apparently no bombs, even though he said he had bombs as well. He apparently spent the first night in a homeless shelter — I don't have all the details, so I'm reluctant to go into much more detail, but allegedly he purchased it on the street. What that means, I don't know if he purchased it from an individual in the homeless shelter [inaudible] POOL: Mr. President [inaudible] for the push to make sure that guns are not available? POTUS: No, well it does, but it also doesn't. Guns are — they need to be — the idea of background checks are critical, but you can't stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from someone else on the street. There are so many guns that have been sold in this way it's ridiculous because of the failure to focus as hard as we should, consistently should on gun sales, ghost guns, a whole range of things POOL: Mr. President do you know more about the motivations of the person or — POTUS: No I don't. There's speculation but I'm not going to get into that. I'm having a press conference on Wednesday. I'll be happy to answer more then but I don't have details on that. POOL: Do you know why he targeted that specific synagogue? POTUS: No, no I don't. I don't think there is sufficient information to know why he went to that synagogue and why he insisted on the police releasing a person who had been in prison for 10 years [inaudible]. I just don't have enough facts. Thank you. |
| January 16, 2022 14:04 |
Travel pool report #8a — transcript correction Thanks to some fellow WHCA members for flagging, but pool misheard some of the lines while transcribing in the bus on the way back from Philabundance. Please refer to the corrected transcript below. ————————— POTUS: Regarding Texas and the synagogue, I spoke this morning with the Attorney General, and we got a rundown. He said there was overwhelming cooperation with the local authorities and FBI, and they did one hell of a job. This was an act of terror. This was an act of terror, and not only was related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years and [inaudlble] And they did just a great job. I also told him that I wanted to make sure that we got the word out that synagogues and other places of worship that we're not going to tolerate this. We have the capacity to deal with assault on particularly [inaudible]. And so I'll be talking with — I'll put a call into the Rabbi. We missed one another on the way up here, but rest assured, we are focused. We are focused. The Attorney General is focused that we deal with these kinds of acts. And thank God we had such professional FBI as well as local cooperation. I was told it was incredible, so I just wanted to let you know that. POOL: Mr. President, how could this man have gotten weapons? There were reports that he'd only been in the country for — POTUS: Well, I don't have all the facts and neither does the Attorney General, but allegedly the assertion was he got the weapons on the street, that he purchased them when he landed. And it turns out there were apparently no bombs that we know of, even though he said that there were bombs there as well. He apparently spent the first night in a homeless shelter — I don't have all the details, so I'm reluctant to go into much more detail, but allegedly he purchased it on the street. What that means, I don't know if he purchased it from an individual in the homeless shelter or a homeless community or whether [inaudible] POOL: Mr. President [inaudible] for the push to make sure that guns are not available? POTUS: No, well it does, but it also doesn't. Guns are — they need to be — the idea of background checks are critical, but you can't stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street. There are so many guns that have been sold in this way it's ridiculous because of the failure to focus as hard as we should, consistently as we should on gun sales, ghost guns, a whole range of things POOL: Mr. President do you know more about the motivations of the person or — POTUS: No I don't. There's speculation but I'm not going to get into that. I'm having a press conference on Wednesday. I'll be happy to answer more then but I don't have details on that. POOL: Do you know why he targeted that specific synagogue? POTUS: No, no I don't. I don't think there is sufficient information to know why he went to that synagogue and why he insisted on the release of someone who's been in prison for over 10 years, why he was using anti-Semitic and anti-[inaudible] comments. I just don't have enough facts. Thank you. |
| January 16, 2022 13:27 |
Travel pool report #9 — back at Biden home and LID Motorcade arrived back at the Biden residence at 1:24pm, and White House immediately called a lid. We’re heading back to the hotel. |
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Pool Reports of January 16, 2022 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/354133