Remarks by President Biden in Briefing on Severe Winter Weather -

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The U.S. Intelligence Community

Oval Office

10:31 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, this is going to be brief, folks.

The storm — extreme cold weather — you can see it on the map the estimated areas where they’re at the — you know, as low as 50 degrees; where it’s that dark red, it’s below zero. You know, it’s dangerous and threatening. This is really a very serious weather alert here. And it goes from Oklahoma all the way to Wyoming, and Wyoming to Maine. And it’s of real consequence.

So I encourage everyone — everyone, please heed the local warnings. We’ve contacted — we’ve tried to contact 26 governors so far in affected regions.

And — and go to Weather.gov — Weather.gov for more information.

And I know this is — you know, it’s like — this is not like a snow day, you know, when you were a kid; this is serious stuff.

And my team is prepared to help communities weather this — no pun intended — this storm, this — this freeze, and — because we need to cope. They need to be able to cope if it’s necessary.

I’m going to, shortly, be briefed by — by both FEMA and the National Weather Service, and we’re going to start that briefing.

And — but in the meantime, please take this storm extremely seriously. And I don’t know whether your bosses will let you, but if you all have travel plans, leave now. Not — not a joke. I’m tell- — sending my staff — my staff, if they have plans to leave on — tomorrow — late tonight or tomorrow, I’m telling them to leave now. They can talk to me on the phone. It’s not life and death. But it will be if they don’t — if they don’t get out, they may not get out.

So, any rate, thank you all for coming in, and I’m going to do the briefing now. Thank you.

(Cross-talk.)

Thank you. If I don’t see you, Merry Christmas.

10:34 A.M. EST