President Biden and first lady Jill Biden said Wednesday that they plan to visit Texas following the tragic mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde that left at least 19 children dead.
“Of course we’re going to visit Texas,” the first lady told reporters at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., where she was meeting a second military plane filled with baby formula as part of the White House response to a separate crisis.
The president added later Wednesday that they planned to travel to Texas to comfort families of the victims.
“Jill and I will be traveling to Texas in the coming days to meet with the families, let them know we have a sense of their pain, and hopefully bring some, a little comfort to the community,” Biden said at the beginning of an event to mark the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. “As a nation, I think we all must be there for them.”
The president often visits sites of tragedies, but the White House is mindful of his footprint and the degree to which it will disrupt the community. It’s not clear when the trip to Texas will happen; Biden is scheduled to deliver commencement speeches at the Naval Academy and the University of Delaware on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Biden, fresh off a trip to Asia, delivered remarks on the horrific mass shooting late Tuesday at the White House. He called for action in Congress on gun control legislation, expressing outrage at the school shooting and the lack of federal action on gun restrictions in the decade since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
“As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room. “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.”
Biden reiterated that message on Wednesday, calling on Congress to pass “commonsense” gun safety measures.
Tuesday’s shooting was the second time in 10 days that the nation grappled with a mass shooting. Just a week prior, Biden was in Buffalo, N.Y., meeting with the families of victims in a mass shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
An 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde opened fire in a classroom at Robb Elementary School midday Tuesday, killing at least 19 children and two teachers. The gunman was shot dead.
Updated 4:41 p.m.