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Bourbon Street Reopens a Day After New Orleans Attack; Interview with Rep. Troy Carter; Trump Links New Orleans Attack to Migrants After False Fox Report; Biden Speaks on Deadly New Orleans Terror Attack. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 02, 2025 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: These are live pictures of Bourbon Street, which has now reopened in New Orleans. Some foot traffic, maybe not as much as normal, but a lot of people flocking back to the area about 36 hours after the New Year's Day attack there, after 14 innocent pedestrians lost their lives. Before the reopening, city and community leaders performed a second line, and they placed 14 yellow roses at different spots along Bourbon Street to remember the victims.

With us now is Democratic Congressman Troy Carter of Louisiana. I will tell you, that is something, Congressman, that you will only see in New Orleans, a scene like that. But I also want to ask you, you received a briefing from the FBI this morning.

We did see this press conference, but as a member of Congress, you received an FBI briefing as a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. Can you share anything with us?

REP. TROY CARTER (D-LA): Yes, thank you, Brianna, and thank you for giving the level of attention to this horrific act. We had a briefing this morning for the entire congressional membership. We were delighted to find out that this individual apparently did, in fact, act alone, that it appears from all evidence that's been collected that there were no co-conspirators, which gives us a great sense of relief that there's not some other actors that are out there that may still be up to nefarious acts.

This gives us an opportunity to at least close this chapter of this particular villain, coward, and move forward into providing the kind of sense of security for our citizens and residents as we prepare and build on what we've learned from this breach.

KEILAR: I also want to ask you, because CNN has obtained a December 6th joint bulletin from DHS, the FBI, and the National Counterterrorism Center warning, lone offenders pose most likely threat of violence to soft targets in the homeland during winter holidays.

Looking back on that, I know it feels a little clearer, perhaps, but given that very recent warning, should local officials in New Orleans, as well as other places, have given more urgency to repairing any security issues or reinforcing them so that a truck couldn't get onto Bourbon Street?

CARTER: Well, there's no question about that. Whenever these kind of situations happen, it gives us an opportunity to pause, to look back, and to think, what could we have done better?

[15:35:02]

And unfortunately, these kinds of situations don't lend themselves for a do-over.

So all we can hope to do now is to pay attention, learn from this situation, and hopefully other jurisdictions, other large cities across the country, other cities that are going to be hosting big events will learn from it as well to make sure that we leave no stone unturned as it relates to protecting our communities from the horrific acts of cowards like this.

KEILAR: President-elect Trump posted on social media this morning this: With the Biden "Open Borders Policy" I said, many times during rallies, and elsewhere, that radical Islamic terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe.

And then Speaker Mike Johnson was on Fox News this morning. He was asked just simply if this suspect was on the radar of the FBI. This is how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: As the congressional Republicans, we here in the House and the Senate, have repeatedly asked the DHS under the Biden administration about the correlation, the obvious concern about terrorism and the wide open border.

The idea that dangerous people were coming here and in groves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country, we have been ringing the alarms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, and, Congressman, I just want to pivot really quickly. Let's go to the White House and listen to President Biden speaking about this attack.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They assess he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests. So there's no question -- I've just come from a meeting that just has been preparing these remarks a better part of an hour from my homeland security team.

The number of people killed in New Orleans has risen to 15, including the attacker. Thirty five people were injured. Today, the FBI briefed me that as of now, no information -- we have no information that anyone else is involved in the attack. They've established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assess he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests.

So there's no question that remember all the talk about other people were involved, placed him. They have him. They have established he's there and even established that he had a detonator to explode those ice chests.

As I said yesterday, the attacker posted several videos just several hours before the attack, indicating his strong support for ISIS. Federal law enforcement and the intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts and connection that could possibly be relevant to the attack. And so we're also continuing to investigate whether or not there's any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas.

As of now, as of now, they've just been briefed, they have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far. I directed them to keep looking.

The individual who ran at the truck to explode that exploded in Las Vegas also served as active duty U.S. Army. And the FBI is working with the Department of Defense on investigating, including the service members, possible motives and all those he worked with in -- who served with him with things he'd say and do.

I directed my team to accelerate these investigations so we have answers to our unanswered questions. They're making every single resource available to get the job done. And we're going to share the facts as soon as I learn them. So American public doesn't have to wonder.

In the meantime, like I said last night, New Orleans is a city of tremendous spirit. You can't keep it down. You really can't. And we're seeing that today. The Sugar Bowl is back on. Kickoff is going to take off very shortly. If I don't get this damn thing done, we're going to be in real trouble.

And the FBI is handing control of Bourbon Street back to local officials. Security of the area has been reinforced. And it should be over for business later today in Bourbon Street.

People in New Orleans are sending an unmistakable message. They will not let this attack or the attacks -- attackers, diluted ideology overcome us. None of us should fear that it will overcome us.

We're going to continue to relentlessly pursue ISIS and other terrorist organizations where they are. And they'll find no safe harbor here. I'll continue to provide updates in New Orleans and Las Vegas as the facts develop.

Now, to the business at hand, I can't tell you how much I appreciate these two men. Not a joke. You know, I want to, the fact of the matter is ...

[15:40:00]

KEILAR: I want to go back to Congressman Troy Carter. We were just listening to President Biden there talking about -- and I should mention Bourbon Street has actually reopened. As you are well aware, Congressman, it reopened here about an hour or so ago.

I do want to ask you, though, just back to what we were talking about, which is that you have President-elect Trump and Speaker Johnson talking about open borders in some sort of proximity to what happened in New Orleans when we need to be very clear that this suspect was an American citizen born in the U.S., an Army veteran from Texas. What's your reaction to this?

CARTER: Brianna, it's unfortunate that both the President-elect and Speaker Johnson has chosen to make this a partisan issue. This is an American attack. This is an attack on our democracy. This is an attack on our freedoms. This person was radicalized, but it was an American citizen, a citizen of Texas and someone who was honorably discharged from the United States Army.

Now we should not play games with the American people to try and imply that it was something that it wasn't or to somehow suggest that this was a Democrat or Republican issue.

We have to be more mature and more direct and fair and honest with the American people. This is not the time to play political brinksmanship or gamesmanship. This is a time that we should be united as Americans to push back against terrorism, push back against terrorist threats, and to demonstrate to the American people that we will use every resource that we have to combat these kind of hateful and heinous acts.

No time for political games or trickery to suggest somehow that one party or the other may be responsible. The families of the loved ones who have died and those who are in the hospital fighting for their lives and our law enforcement agents from the federal, local, and state deserve better. And I would call on all of our leadership to stand firm and recognizing that we are Americans and we are better than this.

KEILAR: Congressman Troy Carter, thank you so much. We are again with New Orleans today, and we're awaiting the beginning here of the Sugar Bowl. It is a big day in New Orleans, and we hope that everyone stays safe there. Thanks for being with us.

CARTER: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, CNN's Ryan Young has a live report from Bourbon Street, which, as you can see, has reopened with a significant law enforcement presence.

We'll have that next.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Bourbon Street is back open for business in New Orleans. CNN national correspondent Ryan Young is live in the French Quarter. Ryan, tell us what you see.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of changes here so far. The street's back open, but you see the heavy police presence here. You can look at the heavy armored vehicle that they have. They've also placed heavy trucks in the way of that opening on the street. It's going to get a little messy right here, Brianna, but we wanted to show you this. As our photographer Manny and I walk this direction, this barricade was not up during the attack, and you can see that has now been put in place. They wanted to make sure this was here as well.

And then there's 14 flowers that were placed right here to remember the victims of this attack. But take a listen to the police chief who I had a chance to walk with and talk about some of these new security measures that they put in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPERINTENDENT ANNE KIRKPATRICK, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Do you notice we have the wedge up?

YOUNG: Yep.

KIRKPATRICK: Now, the wedge was not up on New Year's Eve because the equipment has not always been functioning.

And so -- but we're going to go ahead and do it today. Even if it did malfunction, we have all of this extra protection. But we have raised it, and so that has been here.

But you can see now we have what we call the archers for the sidewalk protection. And those are the changes you'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG (on camera): And something else they've already done is they've added these metal barriers right here because they wanted to make sure that if a car tried to get up on the sidewalk, it would not make it. But, of course, there's going to be a lot of concern about these barriers. There are supposed to be repairs put in place for that as well because they want to make sure those are upgraded before the Super Bowl.

We know the Super Bowl's head of security was here as well today. They talked about the plan moving forward. But they want to make sure all these steps are put in place for a long-term security plan so something like this can never happen again.

But, once again, you've got to think about that second line and these roses that are now left behind to remember all those who have fallen -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. Ryan, thank you for that report.

The suspect in the Bourbon Street attack and the driver in the Las Vegas explosion appear to have one critical thing in common, and that is a background in the military. We'll talk about that ahead.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The FBI says that this time there is no definitive link between the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion and the deadly New Orleans terror attack. But notably, both men at the center of these incidents have served in the military. The man connected to the rental of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in Vegas was actually an active-duty elite special forces soldier, a Green Beret, with the Army's 10th Special Forces Group.

The 42-year-old Texas man identified as the suspect in the Bourbon Street attack was an Army veteran.

With us now is Casey Jordan, who is a criminologist and behavioral analyst. We notice this. I think a lot of people have. They both have military backgrounds. There are also significant differences in their military service.

There are also so many people with military service who would never think about doing something like this, who would never become radicalized. What do you read into this?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYST: Well, I do think that the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas bombing are completely unrelated. There's been no link between them. Right now we're focusing on the military service, but it really doesn't have anything to do with the attacks.

The one thing that the men really have in common is clearly their lives were decompensating. Our New Orleans attacker had a lot of financial woes, a lot of family problems, had posted in just the hours before he went with his truck into Bourbon Street the idea that he had wanted to gather his family together and kill all of them, but then changed his mind at the last minute.

We know less about our Las Vegas bomber, but we did just find out in recent hours that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The one thing they have in common, Brianna, is they were decompensating, and both decided to take their lives. But interestingly enough, and in entirely different ways, send a message while they were doing it. The messages have nothing to do with one another, though.

KEILAR: So when you're saying -- the decompensating, you're talking about looking at life kind of falling apart and turning a corner or turning downward.

[15:55:03]

And if we can just zero in on the New Orleans attacker, because I spoke with a former classmate of his who was stunned that this was him, but it's very clear that something had changed. And that as he had financial problems, marital problems, family problems, that coincided with the radicalization. How does that happen -- Casey?

JORDAN: Sure, and keep in mind that his Army service was probably the happiest time of his life. He worked in IT, he worked in HR, he was excellent at what he did. But in the years following that, the two divorces, three children, custody issues, you know, lots of payments due, failed businesses.

His military identity was in the past, and he had no new identity to really absorb and validate his worth in this world. And that leaves people open to seeking solutions and comfort, if you will, validation, and if you will, rabbit-holing sometimes, into something that makes them feel like they belong and can be successful.

By his own admission, he only really changed his name and, you know, kind of got radicalized. He said before summer is when he really joined the ISIS mentality. Other than that flag on his hitch, there really is nothing to suggest that this was a terrorist attack. It was more of a man suffering from severe mental health problems, we would guess, who decided to take his own life and take out as many people as he could along the way.

I really think that the ISIS flag was an afterthought. It's kind of amazing that it wasn't a family annihilation because that was his original intent.

KEILAR: Yes, no, I mean, to learn that was stunning and horrific as well, as well as what he ultimately did carry out. Casey, it's always great to talk to you and get your perspective. Casey Jordan, thank you so much, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Bourbon Street may have reopened, but the recovery from this tragedy will take a long time for New Orleans. 14 yellow roses placed today on that street in the memory of the victims. And a fund has been established by the city to help the families of those killed in that attack.

If you do want to donate, you can go to the website for the Greater New Orleans Foundation. That is at gnof.org. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END