President Joe Biden’s trip to Southern California wound up nothing at all like his planned itinerary.
After history-making weather forced the cancellation of a trip to the Riverside County desert to mark the creation of a new national monument, the president and first lady Jill Biden hunkered at his hotel in the Santa Monica/West Los Angeles area, where he received briefings on the Palisades Fire and other wildfires burning in the region.
On the heels of the mammoth fires, Biden announced approval of funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help bankroll the firefighting effort.
Biden made a major disaster declaration in response to the wildfires, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. On X, Biden said, “Over 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate communities impacted by the Southern California wildfires. At least two people have been killed. And many more are injured — including firefighters. It’s devastating. To the residents of Southern California: We are with you.”
Biden and the first lady left their hotel Wednesday morning and made a stop at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where his 31-year-old granddaughter Naomi gave birth to a daughter via Cesarean section. Biden told USA Today earlier this week that he was about to become a great-grandfather. He has seven grandchildren.
The Bidens arrived at Cedars-Sinai at about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday and spent roughly 40 minutes at the hospital. Biden’s son Hunter — Naomi’s father — arrived at the hospital with his wife Melissa and son Beau.
Biden said later Naomi had given birth to a 10-pound baby girl.
The Bidens left the hospital shortly before 11 a.m. bound for Santa Monica Fire Station 5 adjacent to Santa Monica Airport to receive the briefing from local officials on the fires.
“We’re doing anything and everything and as long as it takes to contain these fires … to make sure you get back to normal,” Biden said after hearing from local officials. “It’s going to be a hell of a long way. It’s going to take time.”
He called the firestorm “astounding.”
After the briefing, the Bidens were flown via helicopter from Santa Monica Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, where they boarded Air Force One for a flight back to Washington, D.C.
This was not the way this trip was mapped out.
The Bidens arrived at Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One at 9:32 p.m. Monday from New Orleans, where they met with “families and community members impacted” by the New Year’s terror attack on Bourbon Street that left 15 people dead and dozens more injured, according to the White House.
The president had been scheduled to travel to Thermal in Riverside County early Tuesday afternoon to officially announce his action establishing the Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree, as well as the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California. White House officials said the two monuments will protect 848,000 acres of land that are of “scientific, cultural, ecological and historical importance.”
With Santa Ana winds whipping across the region, however, the White House initially decided to cancel Biden’s trip to Thermal and have him instead make the monument announcement from the Los Angeles area. But the White House later announced that the event was being rescheduled for next week “so that key stakeholders can attend.”
It was unclear if Biden would return to the area next week for the national monument announcement.
According to the White House, establishment of the Chuckwalla monument is Biden’s “capstone action to create the largest corridor of protected lands in the continental United States, covering nearly 18 million acres stretching approximately 600 miles. This new Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor protects wildlife habitat and a wide range of natural and cultural resources along the Colorado River, across the Colorado Plateau, and into the deserts of California. It is a vitally important cultural and spiritual landscape that has been inhabited and traveled by Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.”
City News Service contributed to this report