Biden says 'don't panic' as pipeline reopens

BIDEN: "Don't panic, number one."

President Joe Biden sought to dissuade Americans from panic buying on Thursday and warned gas stations not to price gouge...

BIDEN: "Do not try to take advantage of consumers during this time."

...saying Colonial Pipeline should be reaching full operational capacity after a ransomware attack shut down its network and that he expected the situation to improve by the weekend.

BIDEN: "This morning Colonial reported that fuel is beginning to flow to (a) majority of the markets that they service and they should be reaching full operational capacity as we speak... But I want to be clear. We will not feel the effects at the pump immediately... It had never been fully shut down in its entire history... and it's going to take some time, and there may be some hip, hic, hiccups - like I just had - along the way here."

Colonial Pipeline began to slowly restart the nation's largest fuel pipeline network on Wednesday, after a crippling cyberattack - believed to be carried out by a shadowy criminal gang known as DarkSide - triggered fuel shortages and panic buying in the southeastern United States.

Biden said he did not believe the Russia government or President Vladimir Putin was behind the attack but that those who were involved in the attack were based in Russia.

BIDEN: "I am confident that I've read the report of the FBI accurately, and they say they were not, he was not, the government was not."

Earlier on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported that Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to the Eastern European hackers on Friday, citing two people familiar with the transaction.

REPORTER: "Were you briefed on the fact that the company did pay the ransom?"

BIDEN: "I have no comment on that."

At her weekly press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had more to say than Biden on the issue, saying ransom should not be paid by companies that are the victims of cyberattacks.