At 10:08 a.m. Eastern time, nearly 12 hours after the slaying of an MIT police officer sparked a crime spree by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the first peep of news was heard from the White House.
It wasn’t any sort of official statement or updated guidance, but the first report from the White House press pool.
A White House official said shortly after 9:45 a.m. President Obama, joined by Vice President Biden, “convened a briefing in the White House Situation Room with his national security team on developments in the investigation as well as the events in Boston and Watertown, Mass.”
Participating in the briefing are Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken, Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy National Security Advisor For Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, Deputy Counsel to the President Avril Haines and National Security Advisor to the Vice President Jake Sullivan. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State John Kerry, and CIA Director John Brennan joined by video conference.
“The briefing is currently underway. This morning’s briefing is a follow-up to the regular briefings that the President received through the night as he was routinely updated on the investigation.”
Obama spoke at a memorial service in Boston yesterday. He only had closed-door meetings with advisers on his original schedule for today.
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