President Obama to Speak at Interfaith Service in Boston on Thursday
The White House announced Tuesday afternoon that President Barack Obama will be attending an interfaith vigil to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings on Thursday in Boston, Mass.
The president will reportedly cancel his scheduled Thursday meetings in Washington, D.C., as well as his scheduled talk at the University of Kansas on Friday morning, in order to speak to the family members of those killed in Monday's bombings, as well as the survivors at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
Obama's plans to speak at the interfaith service were confirmed Tuesday by the White House and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick during a press conference in Boston.
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Although it is unclear what direction the president will take during his talk at the interfaith service, the commander-in-chief focused his Tuesday press conference on the topic of anti-terrorism, saying "the American people refuse to be terrorized."
"This was a heinous and cowardly act, and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism," Obama said at the Tuesday press conference, held in Washington D.C.
"Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror. What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual. That's what we don't yet know. And clearly, we're at the beginning of our investigation," the president added.
On Monday at roughly 2:50 p.m. EST, two bombs exploded near the finish line at the 117th annual Boston Marathon in Massachusetts, injuring over 100 people and killing three, although the reports of the injuries remain fluid.
Reports indicate that those who were killed as a result of Monday's "act of terror" include eight-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, and an anonymous graduate student from Boston University.
Obama has previously delivered four talks at interfaith vigils for victims of mass shootings, the most recent one being when he traveled to Newtown, Conn., to mourn the loss of 20 children and six adults shot at Newtown Elementary School in December 2012.
