President Joe Biden returned to the White House on Wednesday evening from a campaign event at the nearby Mayflower Hotel. Upon his return, he requested his advisers to assemble a basic outline of remarks on the protests in case he needed to address the situation.
According to three White House officials, Biden and his closest aides engaged in a collaborative process to incorporate Biden's edits into the remarks. This process resulted in a final decision and draft being produced in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Senior advisers at the White House have been closely monitoring the developments in the protests through official channels involving local governments and law enforcement. Additionally, younger West Wing staffers, many of whom are recent graduates or pursuing post-graduate degrees, have been actively raising awareness based on firsthand accounts they received from friends on various campuses. The alerts they provided grew in intensity in recent days.
The escalation of events at Columbia and UCLA, along with the increasing involvement of law enforcement on campuses across the nation, prompted President Biden's desire to address the public directly. This desire extended beyond written statements and commentary offered by spokespeople on his behalf.
