White House Calls Early Lid for Joe Biden Due to Winter Weather

The White House called a lid for Joe Biden on Thursday, after an inch of snow and sleet fell in Washington, DC.

Calling a “lid” informs reporters the president will not appear in public or travel anywhere for the rest of the day.

The lid was called by White House staff at 8:00 a.m. Thursday morning. A few inches of snow and sleet are forecast to fall in Washington, DC, for the rest of the day.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki held her daily 12:30 p.m. briefing over the phone.

Wednesday night, officials announced they postponed Biden’s trip to a vaccine manufacturing facility in Michigan planned for Thursday.

Biden still has yet to publicly voice his concerns for Americans suffering in Texas, even though his predecessor former President Barack Obama voiced sympathy on Twitter for those affected by the storms.

Psaki told reporters during her phone briefing with Biden’s Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall that the White House and the federal government would continue working behind the scenes to get more aid to Texans.

Behind the scenes, Biden also spoke with state governors in a conference call on Tuesday, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D), Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R), Mississippi Gov.Tate Reeves (R), and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). Biden approved a state of emergency declaration in Texas on Sunday and a state of emergency declaration in Oklahoma on Thursday.

Psaki did not preview any further actions in Texas during the briefing on Thursday.

“I will say that the president is abreast of the developments in Texas and other states,” she said.

Sherwood-Randall cited FEMA numbers reporting Thursday that they had delivered 60 generators to various locations as well as blankets, food, and water to affected areas in the state of Texas.

She warned however that Texans would still experience rolling power outages, even though the number of residents without power was shrinking.

UPDATE: At 12:38 p.m. EST, President Biden posted the following messages on Twitter.