body of my son or daughter, my husband, my cousin, my mom and dad? how can i have closure without being able to bury them? if i don t get the body, what do i do? jill and i wanted them to know that we re with them and the country is with them. our message today is that we re here for you as one nation, as one nation. joining us now, kevin and josh spegle. they met with the president earlier today. kevin, what did it mean to you to hear that message from the president of the united states? wolf, thank you so much for having josh and myself on. it meant a lot. it really did, to have jill and president biden meet with us, sit down, talk to us, and he was actually really sincere.
wrong. something happened in that containment vehicle that should not have happened. and we don t know why. 17 people including 10 law enforcement officers were injured by the last. our coverage continues now with one mr. wolf blitzer live from surf side, florida. this is cnn breaking news. welcome to our viers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. we re live in florida following breaking news. we re standing by for a news conference on the collapsed condo search and rescue effort, which the surf side mayor now says has just resumed after being halted over concern of further collapse. also, president biden meeting first responders and families of the victims.
and those that have survived the collapse as well as those who are missing loved ones. for nearly three hours, the president met behind closed doors with the families of the victims and those still unaccounted for in the surf side building collapse. i thought it was important to speak to every single person who wanted to speak to me. people in the room telling cnn biden sited his own history with grief as he sought to comfort those grieving in florida. it is bad enough to lose someone, but the hard part, the really hard part, is to not know whether they re surviving or not, is to not have any idea. when the accident took my wife and my family, the hardest part was were my boys going to get out? and not knowing. biden s meeting happening hours after officials delivered grim news. search and rescue operations forced to pause over fears that the rest of the condo building could come down. they re all realists.
they know that the chances are as each day goes by diminished slightly. but at a minimum, they want to recover the bodies. the president offering a word of praise for the first responders and search and rescue teams who have been working day and night as florida officials voiced concern about their mental health. you know, we talked about our military suffering from post-traumatic stress. to see what they re seeing, doing what they re doing, understanding how much trauma is involved, i just don t want them thinking that they should walk away. biden also surprising local officials telling them the federal government could likely cover the full cost of the rescue effort. i think i have the power. we ll know shortly. to be able to pick up 100% of the cost for the county and the state over the next 30 days. republican governor and trump ally ron desantis was with biden
you have the entire israeli team were you able go ahead, kevin. okay. just the whole israeli team and their technology that they met with us, designing out the apartment and doing their forensic analysis is really important. and we conveyed both to the president about how important that effort is and for him to support that as well. kevin, were you able to tell the president and the first lady about your loving wife, judy? i know you have been married now for almost 40 years. thank you so much for having that question. absolutely. judy is an amazing person. she, as you know, philanthropic heart, a big heart and all of her efforts. the president and both jill were extremely compassionate about all of her efforts.