President Obama was briefed by members of his national security team at the White House Friday morning while the FBI, local police, and the National Guard scoured Massachusetts for the surviving Boston bombing suspect.
Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller arrived at the White House around 9:30 Friday morning to brief the president. Not long after, the president, Vice President Joe Biden, Mueller, Holder, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon convened in the Situation Room to discuss the latest in the investigation. The meeting was joined over video conference by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State John Kerry, and CIA Director John Brennan.
Homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, who also attended the meeting, had briefed the president overnight following Thursday evening’s shootout at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus.
Kerry, a former senator from Massachusetts, held a press conference with Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade at around 10:30 a.m., following bilateral talks.
“In the past few days, we have seen the best and we’ve seen the worst of human behavior, and it’s the best that all of us really want to focus on,” he said, regarding the Boston bombing. “Like everyone, we are going to keep watching, and we will await word from law enforcement officers before commenting further.”
At roughly 11:40 a.m., Kerry arrived at the White House along with Brennan and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for a previously scheduled national security meeting, which was reportedly called for reasons unrelated to ongoing events in Boston. The president was not scheduled to appear at this meeting.
Napolitano was scheduled to testify at a Friday Senate Judiciary hearing on immigration, but her appearance has been canceled. The regularly scheduled White House press briefing has also been postponed until further notice.