A Situation Room scramble, daily calls and political intrigue: Inside the White House response to the Key Bridge collapse

By Kayla Tausche, CNN

Baltimore (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.

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.

“He wanted to know basic facts about what happened,” said a senior administration official familiar with the discussions. “What we knew about the cause, how many people were unaccounted for, and to ensure that all the federal resources were being brought to bear.”

Once the President had a firm grasp on the situation, he began reaching out to state and local leaders directly. During one – a 10-minute call with Baltimore County executive Johnny Olszewski – Biden discussed the port’s meaning him from his days commuting from Washington to Delaware.

“He demonstrated a clear understanding of the importance of the port, had a real empathy for myself and all the individuals impacted,” Olszewski told CNN. “And he was unequivocal that he was going to do whatever he can, legally and within his power to expedite a response.”

The president spent much of Friday afternoon in Baltimore, doing an aerial tour of the collapse and being briefed on response efforts from the unified command in charge of the work. He will also meet with loved ones of the six people killed during the collapse.

During a speech overlooking the river, Biden mourned the dead.

“I’ve come here to grieve with you – we all are,” he said.

“We’re gonna move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible, and we’re going to do so with union labor and American steel,” Biden added. “My administration is committed – absolutely committed – to ensuring that the parties responsible for this tragedy pay to repair the damage and be held accountable to the fullest extent the law will allow. But we also want to be clear, we will support Maryland and Baltimore every step of the way, to help you rebuild and maintain all the business and commerce.”

Biden promises federal support ahead of a long recovery

Hours after the collapse, Biden spoke about the collapse publicly, pledging the federal government would cover the entire cost of the rebuild as he detailed what was known at that point about the incident. The pledge to cover the rebuild was personal, Buttigieg said.

“That came directly from him,” said Buttigieg, who had arrived in Baltimore by the time Biden delivered those remarks.

The Coast Guard by midday had stood up a unified command that in the days that followed would procure the largest crane barge in the eastern seaboard to the Patapsco River to begin salvage operations. Seven barges and nine tugboats have deployed to the area, according to Tom Perez, the White House director of intergovernmental affairs.

“We’re all rowing in synchrony,” Perez tells CNN.

By March 28, the state of Maryland notified the government that it intended to request $60 million in funding for the first phase of recovery.

After receiving the official funding request on March 29, the Department of Transportation authorized the money in less than four hours – which officials there say is a record.

Perez said $60 million is “an ample amount to address the immediate needs,” but the government will provide more as needed – a relief to local officials as they begin to estimate a project that is expected to require billions of dollars over multiple years.

“It’s just been very reassuring to hear both President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg early consistently reinforce the point that the federal government will be there to be covering costs,” said Olszewski. “Not having to worry about the funding is really important.”

Nearly two weeks after the tragedy, the government’s response has evolved from triage to periodic check-ins. Federal and local officials now speak closer to every day instead of every hour. Processes to help the families of the victims seek closure through immigration services are underway, and they will still take weeks to put into effect.

“Now, we’ve got to set up a pattern that works for the long run, you know, long past the salvage and emergency response phase,” Buttigieg said.

Some patterns are already taking shape. Natalie Quillian, White House deputy chief of staff, currently leads a call each afternoon among the agencies and officials involved, where they discuss the progress made that day and the marching orders for the next.

“To have that direct line to folks who are at the highest levels responsible for coordinating the response at the federal level?” Olszewski said. “I think that that can’t be understated.”

Checking their egos at the door

Of course, the officials involved are all political personalities in their own right: Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate; Moore, an oft-rumored future presidential candidate; Perez, the former party chief and onetime candidate for Maryland governor; and then, the sitting president of the United States himself.

Perez says what they all share the “North Star” of wanting to help people, and they’ve all “checked their egos at the door.”

But they also all conveniently share a party affiliation – and overlapping policy agendas as a result – and acknowledge that that detail helps foam the runway.

“When you have those built-in relationships, people know that you’re operating in good faith,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who visits the White House regularly for work on public safety and gun control. “It makes working together in a tragedy easier.

Administration officials have taken note during appearances by Buttigieg and Moore of potential foreshadowing to 2028, when one or both could run for president. In another case – that of Moore and Perez – the two have already opposed each other on the ballot.

Perez ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022 and was defeated by Moore. But he says that’s water under the bridge.

“Yes, we ran against each other, but that’s yesterday’s news,” Perez says. “We’re all about governing.”

CNN’s Donald Judd contributed to this report.

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