Biden postpones trip to Germany and Angola to monitor Hurricane Milton

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to stay at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, as it spins closer to Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” he said at the White House after senior members of the administration updated him on the storm and the government's preparations. Biden warned that Milton “could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida,” and said he's working “to increase the size and presence” of the federal government's response.

He said people in the storm's path should heed local orders to evacuate and leave “now.”

“You should have already evacuated,” Biden said, seated with some of the officials who briefed him. “It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death."

Biden said Milton's strength was such that it has the potential “to both enter Florida as a hurricane and leave Florida as a hurricane on the Atlantic Coast. This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century. God willing it won’t be, but that’s what it’s looking like right now.”

He asked commercial airlines and other companies for help with evacuations.

“I’m calling on the airlines and other companies to provide as much service as possible to accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging, to just do it on the level," Biden said.

It was unclear when Biden's overseas trip might be rescheduled and the White House did not announce new travel dates. The president had been scheduled to depart on Thursday for Germany, where he had planned to host a summit on the war in Ukraine with allied nations at a U.S. military base before continuing on to Angola.

The German government issued a statement saying “we very much regret the cancellation, but of course we understand due to the situation in Florida.”

Biden had promised to visit Africa during his term in office, which ends in January. He said Tuesday that he still intends to make the journey.

“I’m still planning on visiting all the places I said I’d be and all the conferences I said I'd participate in," he said.

Hurricane Milton weakened slightly Tuesday but remained a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on the populous Tampa Bay region with towering storm surges and turn debris from Helene’s recent devastation into projectiles.

Most of Florida’s west coast was under a hurricane or tropical storm warning as Milton and its 145 mph (230 kph) winds spun just off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, creeping toward the state. With the storm expected to remain fairly strong as it crosses Florida, parts of the state's eastern coast were put under hurricane warnings early Tuesday. Milton’s center could come ashore Wednesday night in the Tampa Bay area, which has a population of more than 3.3 million people.

This year's hurricane season has caused havoc for political calendars in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign. Less than two weeks ago, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, cut short a West Coast trip to return to Washington after Helene made landfall. She later visited Georgia and North Carolina, where some of the worst damage took place.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has also traveled through the Southeast, including two trips to Georgia.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as from seated left, Acting Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Biden, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, left, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, left, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden speaks during a surprise appearance to take questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who was promoted to senior adviser to the President, speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to uphold a Biden administration regulation on ghost guns, the difficult-to-trace weapons with a rising link to crime.

In arguments that ranged to classic cars and Western omelets, key conservative justices seemed open to the government's argument that kits for quickly making nearly untraceable guns at home can be regulated like other firearms.

The manufacturers and gun rights groups challenging the rule argued the Biden administration overstepped by trying to regulate kits.

Justice Samuel Alito compared gun parts to meal ingredients, saying a lineup including eggs and peppers isn't necessarily a Western omelet. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, though, questioned whether gun kits are more like ready-to-eat meal kits that contain everything needed to make a dinner like turkey chili.

Chief Justice John Roberts seemed skeptical of the challengers' position that the kits are mostly popular with hobbyists who enjoy making their own weapons, like auto enthusiasts might rebuild a car on the weekend.

Many ghost gun kits require only the drilling of a few holes and removal of plastic tabs.

“My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult to do this," Roberts said. “He really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”

A ruling is expected in the coming months.

The regulation came after the number of ghost guns seized by police around the country soared, going from fewer than 4,000 recovered by law enforcement in 2018 to nearly 20,000 in 2021, according to Justice Department data.

Finalized at the direction of President Joe Biden, the rule requires companies to treat the kits like other firearms by adding serial numbers, running background checks and verifying that buyers are 21 or older.

The number of ghost guns has since flattened out or declined in several major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore, according to court documents.

Challengers to the rule argue that most people who commit crimes use traditional guns and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority. "Congress is the body that gets to decide how to address any risks that might arise from a particular product,” a group of more than two dozen GOP-leaning states supporting the challengers wrote in court documents.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas agreed, striking down the rule in 2023. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld his decision.

The administration, on the other hand, argues the law allows the government to regulate weapons that “may readily be converted” to shoot. The 5th Circuit's decision would allow anyone to “buy a kit online and assemble a fully functional gun in minutes — no background check, records, or serial number required. The result would be a flood of untraceable ghost guns into our nation’s communities,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote.

The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration last year, allowing the regulation to go into effect by a 5-4 vote. Roberts and Barrett joined with the court’s three liberal members to form the majority.

Denise Wieck and her son Guy Boyd, who was shot in the eye with a ghost gun, pose in Ypsilanti, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Supreme Court to hear challenge to ghost-gun regulation

Supreme Court to hear challenge to ghost-gun regulation

FILE — Ghost guns are displayed at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department, in San Francisco, Nov. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)