President Biden Visits Surfside After Building Collapse, Meets with Gov. Ron DeSantis

By  //  July 1, 2021

ABOVE VIDEO: President Joe Biden receives a briefing from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other local officials on the Surfside condo collapse.

(FOX NEWS) – President Biden is meeting with officials in Florida Thursday as search and rescue efforts at the Champlain Towers South condo building collapse site have been temporarily halted over structural concerns, with 18 confirmed dead and 145 still unaccounted for.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden are first meeting with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other local officials in Surfside.

They then will visit first responders and search and rescue teams before meeting with the families of those still awaiting word on the status of their loved ones.

Mayor Levine Cava told reporters ahead of her meeting with Biden Thursday that search and rescue efforts at the condo collapse site are on pause over “concerns about the standing structure.”

“As many of you have already seen we were forced to halt operations on the collapse in the early hours of the morning due to structural concerns about the standing structure,” she said. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the safety of the first responders is paramount and to continue our search and rescue operation as soon as it is safe to do so.”

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ABOVE VIDEO: President Biden and first lady Jill Biden receive a command briefing from Incident Commander Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Gov. Ron DeSantis, local leaders and first responders. Following the briefing, the president and first lady meet with and thank local first responders. (Fox News Video)