James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:34 P.M. EDT
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Really sorry for the delay. I just got out of the Oval Office with the president, who wanted me to relay a few me- — a few new messages to you all on Hurricane Beryl. This is important to him, and he knows it's important to the people of Texas, so he wanted to make sure that, be- — before I came out here, I had all of this information.
So, the president spoke with Houston Mayor Whitmire and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo about the impacts of Hurricane Beryl, and they both asked for help from the federal government.
Because of — the governor of Texas is currently out of the country, the president then called the lieutenant governor of Texas to ensure that Texans are getting the resources they need and deserve following this devastating storm.
On the call, the president raised the need for a Major Disaster Declaration and immediately approved it while on the call when the lieutenant governor requested it.
With this Major Disaster Declaration in place, we will be able to provide lifesaving and life-sustaining activities.
The president and his team have been working around the clock for the past two days to ensure Texas has the resources and tools needed to respond to Beryl and keep Americans safe.
Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA have been on the ground, and senior White House officials have been in constant contact with their counterparts.
While the storm has passed, our greatest concern right now is power outages and extreme heat. So, we want to encourage residents to remain vigilant as temperatures rise, especially older adults and those with underlying health conditions.
Fortunately, 800,000 have had power restored overnight, and we expect another 1 million to have their power restored today.
The federal government has also offered generators to help reduce the impact of the power outages.
The president continues to take decisive action to help the people of Texas recover, and he looks forward to working with the state to get more critical resources to the people that need them.
I also want to share one additional scheduling item with all of you, as well, at the top. In addition to many NATO meetings we announced yesterday, on Thursday afternoon, President Biden will meet with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to discuss our unwavering support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself from Russian aggression.
That meeting will be at 1:30 p.m. at the Convention Center, which, as you all know, is where the NATO sessions are being held, and it will take place just before the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting.
This will be the third meeting between both presidents in recent weeks, following their sit-down in France and also a sit-down at the G7 in Italy, and it will further demonstrate the strength of the partnership between our counties.
And, finally, just a personal note here, I want to say a few words about Sam Michel here, who served as acting deputy press secretary for the part of — a good part of this year.
We are sad that today is indeed his last day, but we are so grateful for his service. And he has been incr- — an incredible colleague. He is — we were lucky to have him on our team — on our press team. His sharpness, his ability to stay calm under pressure, and his strategic thinking has been a real asset to us all.
Sam, you will be greatly missed. Thank you so much for being on the team and stepinning — stepping in when we really needed you.
Okay. All right. Seung Min.
Q Thank you. I just want to get a clarification on the letter that was sent last night on —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Sure, absolutely.
Q — from Dr. O'Connor. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it didn't seem to explicitly describe the nature of Dr. Cannard's meeting with Dr. O'Connor. So, can you say whether that one meeting was related to care for the president himself?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I can say that it was not.
Q It was not. Okay, great.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
And can I just ask why that information that was released last night —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah.
Q — just wasn't said at the briefing yesterday?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: What — no, actually, a lot of what is in the letter was said at the briefing, to be very, very clear. I said — many of the things that were laid out in the letter was actually repeated right here behind this lectern, at this podium yesterday.
It was —
Q But the letter said that —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, hold on.
Q Okay.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I said "many of the things."
Q Okay.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: "Many of things." And we got claricafi- — claricafi- — clarification, obviously, from Dr. O'Connor, but it was in line with what I said.
When I said "only three" — right? — I said "only three" visits that this particular doctor had. I said "a neurologist."
What I was not able to confirm is the name and the reason why — is because we do not share private information. That is something that we respect. And we wanted to make sure that we protect the — our consultants here that work with the White House Medical Unit — their security as well.
And so, that is the one thing that I was not able to confirm. Obviously, Dr. O'Connor's letter confirms that. But we had to get permission from Dr. Cannard and also the president in order to put that information —
And it is not normal. And that also states that in Dr. O'Connor.
But many of the things that I said right here at this podium is in the letter.
Q And could I just also ask a little — this is the second time in less than a week where the briefing had prompted a need for later clarification on questions about the president's health. And I'm just wondering if you could speak to wh- —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I disagree. I disagree, Seung Min. It's not.
Yesterday, a lot of the things that I said right here in this briefing room — I know you were not in the briefing room — I actu- — it's in the letter. It was in the letter.
It was being incor- — incorrectly assumed and insinuated that the president had seen Dr. Cannard more than three times. I said that it was only three times that the president had seen a neurologist. I didn't confirm the name, but I did say it was only three times.
It was being incorrectly assumed and insinuated that the president was being treated for Parkinson's. I said right here that the president was not being treated for Parkinson's. I actually went a step further and said he wasn't taking medication for Parkinson's. I said that right here.
It was also being assumed and insinuated that Dr. Cannard was someone who only worked on Parkinson's, when, in fact, he is a general neurologist. That was something that Dr. O'Connor was actually able to confirm, that he was a general neuro- — neurologist — not — in fact, a general neurologist.
And we also wanted to set the — we just wanted to set the record straight. And so, you know, it is important — we believe it was important to all of you — I actually even said here at the podium: If there was more information that we could provide, we would do that. We would do that. And we did.
But many of the things that I said right here is in the letter — is in the letter.
Go ahead.
Q Does the president feel like he's beat back this effort to force him to step aside?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, you know, you heard the president yesterday when he called in to "Morning Joe," did about 18 minutes of Q&A yesterday morning. He sport ver- — he spoke very — very, I think, forcefully, passionately about where he stands, about how he sees things moving forward.
And we also have said many times, we respect — we respect members of Congress, we respect their view. But I also want to say there's a long — also a long list of — of congressional members who have been very clear and — in support of this president, whether it's the CBC, who gave a full — full support — the Congressional Black Caucus, for folks who are watching and are not sure what CBC is. They were very much supportive.
They said, "We think that" — this is Representative Joyce Beatty, to — to be clear — "We think that the call went extremely well. The president was very responsive."
Representative Troy Carter, who's also a member of the CBC, he was "elated to hear directly from — from the president" and "that he is all in, and we are all in with him."
You hear from — you got a Congressional Hispanic Caucus — they put a statement in full support of this president. And there — there are others.
And so, look, he is going to focus on continuing to work on behalf of the American people, continuing to build on an unprecedented record that he's been able to get done with many of these congressional members that he's proud to be — to have worked with. But that's his focus right now. That's his focus.
Q Is he still talking to more people, more lea- — more —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: He's going to —
Q — members of Congress?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — continue to engage. As you saw him in Pennsylvania when he was on — you know, when he was in the Commonwealth, h- — on the road, he — he had two of th- — two of the senators, two of the congressional members with him — the House members with him.
He's going to be traveling later in the week. He's going to be engaging.
I have mentioned a l- — I mentioned yesterday his robust schedule for the next two weeks. When he's in state, he certainly will continue to engage. I don't have a list of additional — additional calls to — to read out. But he did CBC last night — Congressional Black Caucus — and he's going to continue and engage as he has been.
Go ahead, Mary.
