A Situation Room scramble, daily calls and political intrigue: Inside the White House response to the Key Bridge collapse
CNN
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had been preparing to rise early for a flight to out west, where he would conduct a weeklong swing with local officials and the highway administrator in Wyoming and Montana.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had been preparing to rise early for a flight to out west, where he would conduct a weeklong swing with local officials and the highway administrator in Wyoming and Montana. But when the Dali container ship sailing through the Patapsco River made a “mayday” call just before 1:30 a.m. ET, overnight staffers in the White House Situation Room began frantically reaching out to senior officials to notify them of the collision – and collapse – of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. The US Coast Guard, which has a robust presence along the eastern seaboard, was onsite within minutes. And then Buttigieg started working the phones himself. “By the time I got a hold of the (Maryland) governor, he was wide awake and hard to work and clearly had been for some time,” Buttigieg told CNN. A DOT call log shows the two spoke at 4:34 a.m ET. By 5 a.m. ET, Buttigieg had already spoken with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients – all trying to figure out how to marshal federal resources to begin, first, a search and rescue operation and, eventually, a massive economic rebuild. Jen Daksal, the deputy homeland security adviser, began preparing a briefing for President Joe Biden. Two Oval Office meetings were convened as staff at various levels began trickling into the White House.
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Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
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President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.