Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy does not trust what the FBI is saying about the terrorist attack in New Orleans that took the lives of 15 innocent people.
The senator said on Wednesday that he will continue to press for more information about the attack and the suspect.
Police said that 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar rammed a Ford pickup truck into people celebrating New Year’s Eve on Wednesday morning before getting out of his car and shooting at the crowd and subsequently being killed in a shootout with police.
“There’s a fine line between anger and grief and I’m pretty much straddling that line right now. If you don’t believe in objective evil, all you need to do is go walk about 30 or 40 yards that way, we’ve still got bodies on the ground. That’s one of the reasons we postponed the game,” the senator said on the Fox News show “Special Report.”
“I’m here for two reasons: One, these are my people, these are my people’s guests. Number two, I don’t want to hear from anybody in the federal government that they don’t have the resources,” he said.
“Now, the White House, the FBI, Justice, Homeland Security are in charge now. We’re cooperating with them. I want to give them a reasonable period of time,” the senator said. “There is a lot of information out there, some of it is actually true. I want to give them a reasonable period of time. But they need to saddle up and ride. We need to find out what happened here.”
He indicated that he was concerned with what the FBI was not telling them about the attack.
“You just never know what they’re not telling us,” he said. “But I know how to probe very hard to get the information. I’m not interested in placing blame or saying who was right or wrong. I just want to catch these sons of bitches who did this.”
“I sat there and watched a 21-year-old kid outsmart the entire Secret Service of the United States and almost kill a former president, who is soon-to-be current president, and we still don’t have information, and that’s not going to happen this time,” he said.
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Wednesday evening following what appears to be an act of terrorism in New Orleans.
According to reports, the FBI identified the attacker, Din Jabbar, as an American citizen from Texas and a U.S. Army veteran who appears to have been radicalized by Muslim extremism.
“For all Americans, when I say our hearts are with the people of New Orleans after the despicable attack that occurred in the early morning hours. To all the families of those who were killed, to all those who were injured, to all the people of New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you,” Biden said to begin his address.
“We’re going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come. I want to thank our brave first responders and law enforcement personnel who stopped the attacker in his tracks before he could kill or injure even more people. I want to thank you to everyone at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, for working nonstop to investigate this heinous act,” he added.
Louisiana authorities, including Gov. Jeff Landry, initially labeled the attack as terrorism, but FBI Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Alethea Duncan countered that early on, saying the agency could not confirm that. Since then, however, the FBI has said it was investigating the incident as an act of terrorism.
“The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill, a desire to kill,” Biden said.
“The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack. Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were found nearby. The situation is very fluid, and the investigation has a preliminary stage,” Biden continued.
He added that no one should make any assumptions about the attack.
“And the fact is that right now — excuse me, there you go — the law enforcement and intelligence community are continuing to look for any connections, associations, or co-conspirators. We have nothing additional to report at this time. The investigation is continuing to be active, and no one should jump to conclusions,” said the outgoing president.
