Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

10 Killed, 35 Injured As Truck Slams Into Crowd In New Orleans; Biden, AG Garland Briefed On New Orleans Attack; Trump Reacts To New Year's Attack In New Orleans. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "Inside Politics." I'm Phil Mattingly. A deadly New Year's attack in New Orleans. Police say at least 10 people are dead and at least 35 injured after a man drove a truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street. Investigators say the suspect also shot 2 officers and is now dead.

We're expecting an update from local officials at any moment. We will bring that to you live. But for now, the FBI says it is investigating the deadly incident in New Orleans as a, quote, "Act of terrorism."

I want to begin with CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez who is here with me. Evan, you've been reporting this out throughout the course of the last several hours. It has been several hours since we've gotten an official update from local officials. What more do we know about the suspect in the investigation right now?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, Phil, there's still a lot more work for the FBI, investigators to do, but they already know a couple of things. Obviously, they know the suspect is dead. They've been able to get a little bit of his background.

And, we know that he is a U.S. citizen. That the vehicle that was involved there, you see, in some of the pictures a, a Ford pickup truck that the investigators believe was rented from an app that allows private citizens to rent out their vehicles.

I mean, one of the things we did today was, obviously, trace -- try to find the, the owner of that vehicle and that person, you know, seems to be alive. So clearly, not the person who was behind the wheel of this truck that struck all of these people in the early morning hours there in New Orleans.

Now one of the things that the FBI quickly seemed to arrive at was that there is some possible connection to terrorism, and that's where you see this language come into play here. And so we don't know exactly the specifics of that. It could be something that's inside the truck that they saw, something that they've now picked up on the suspect that leads them to go in this direction.

Couple of things they're still doing is to try to find any possible associates, anybody who was associated with this person. Some of those people seem to be in Texas, which, again, is where this, vehicle was registered. So all of those things is being done at this point.

The FBI is sending in resources. Some of these resources come from Quantico. They're the evidence response teams that come down on incidents -- major incidents like this. Obviously, this is a mass casualty event. It's going to be a lot of people are going to be working on this for probably weeks to try to get to the bottom of the motivation. And that is key to try to make a determination of an act of terrorism.

I think we -- you know, to read part of that statement, they say, "The subject was engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to invest investigate this as an act of terrorism."

And so, again, a few of the facts are still being worked out, including, did he fire from the truck? We know he was armed. He had a some kind of a rifle, and there was an immediate gunfight with local police. So they're trying to determine did he just kill people with the truck or was there some gunfire also that struck some of these people? All of that work is being done at this point.

MATTINGLY: 2 follow ups to that. One, is there a belief that any of the associates may have been involved, or are they just trying to kind of go through the basic investigative process in the wake of a tragedy like this? And then also there had been reports of potential IEDs or concerns. They were searching around the area as well. Any updates on that?

PEREZ: Right. OK. So, they did view -- they did see some items that looked like IEDs. And so out of abundance of caution you've heard -- I think, some of, the video we've seen there today, you've heard some booms, which is a standard process. Right? You have the bomb squad comes in and to try to render these devices safe.

They don't even know whether they were viable or not. But one of the things you do is you detonate those to make sure that they're not. That allows the investigators to be able to go into the truck and examine and get the person out and all of that stuff.

The other -- the other question you have which is the -- it is standard for them to try to figure out who you knew, who are you associated with. And again, some of this has to do with things that they've seen already that gives them the feeling that this is terrorism.

Again, remember, under the federal law, right, you know, the motivation is key to determining terrorism, including political, religious views. Also, if you're associated with a known or a designated terrorist organization, all of those things are on the table at this point.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. The word choice matters here --

PEREZ: Correct.

MATTINGLY: -- and intentional -- intentionality behind it. All right. Evan Perez, we got a lot more to get to. Stay with us through the course of the hour. Raise your hand if you have any new reporting as we await.

Again, updates from local officials. I want to go now to Wilmington, Delaware where President Biden just spoke about this deadly attack. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche is in Delaware. Kayla, what did the president say here?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Phil, the President said that his reaction to this attack was one of anger and frustration. He spent the morning being briefed by his senior most officials across government agencies. He said that he had spoken to officials from the CIA, the FBI, his National Security Council.

[12:05:00]

And in a written statement, earlier today, he said that he would potentially have more to say on this matter later in the day when more facts are available. When he was pressed repeatedly by reporters on the tarmac before leaving Delaware just a few moments ago about what he knew about the suspect, he refused to engage in any of those questions, saying that instead he was going to reserve any of his comments until he had full command of the facts.

He suggested that perhaps he would have more to say in about an hour's time. He is currently on his way to Camp David. That has been a planned stop for him, but it remains to be seen whether anything else in his schedule will change.

Now he did put out a statement earlier today, in response to the attack initially before he spoke to reporters. And in that statement, he said he was grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury. He said, there is no justification for violence of any kind, and he said we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation's communities.

Certainly, he will continue to work the phones, continue to be in touch with both national and local officials to get those facts, and we do expect to hear more from him when he does. Phil.

MATTINGLY: Kayla, you mentioned local officials. We understand the President spoke with the mayor of New Orleans. You made this very good point, internally earlier that the President has a lot of close relationships with former local officials, Cedric Richmond, the former Congressman, Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor. What do we know about his conversation with the current mayor earlier today?

TAUSCHE: Well, we know that the president called her directly to express not only his sorrow, but also his support. He said that he offered Mayor Cantrell the full support of the federal government and all of its resources as it pursues this investigation and pursues justice in this case.

Certainly, we expect the mayor herself to relay some more details of that conversation, but we know that these two individuals have a very close relationship. The city of New Orleans, has worked hand in glove with the Biden administration on various initiatives from climate to the pandemic to infrastructure with, of course, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu having served as Biden's infrastructure coordinator for several years.

Biden last made a trip to New Orleans in August to highlight some $22 million in funding for Tulane University where his daughter Ashley, graduated from. So, certainly, this is a city that is very near and dear to the President and we expect it will continue to be. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Kayla Tausche for us in Wilmington. Thanks so much. Here with me now to share her expertise, CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, I want to start with where Evan -- the latest updates we got from Evan, which were that the suspect, who we have reported is deceased was a U.S. citizen, was using a truck, an F-150, was used in the attack that had Texas plates registered in Texas.

And we don't -- believe he did not own the vehicle. He had rented the vehicle through some form or fashion, and FBI officials, investigators are now looking at potential associates. What's your takeaway from kind of those updates where things stand right now?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So the focus, if the reporting is accurate in terms of a U.S. citizen is going to close off issues regarding border or anyone coming in to plan this event. That doesn't get to the ideology U.S. citizens can be attracted to foreign ideologies, foreign radicalization, as well as domestic.

But what that does tell us is that there's a footprint here that is going to disclose any potential ties, what were motivating factors, why is the FBI, you know, sort of making a judgment call that this will start off as a terrorism investigation, and what kind of planning occurred.

So that footprint really, in the U.S., is going to just help the investigation because already the, based on reporting, they're in Texas looking at his people there. What did he have? Where was he? And also the transport or the or the movement from Texas to New Orleans. So that that is just basically all it's telling us in terms of motivation.

You know, everyone wants people to jump the gun. We're not going to jump the gun. This is we don't know yet. There are aspects to this that are tactics of foreign terrorism, but there are aspects to this that look like copycat, the use of a gun, other things that might be domestic terrorism, and we'll wait for the press conference at 2:00 o'clock before getting to the motivation issue.

MATTINGLY: I want to expand on something Evan was referring to, which is it's now being referred to as -- it's being investigated as an act of terrorism that was what was stated in the FBI statement, the DHS statement, and President Biden's statement.

Initially, this morning, there had been some question during the first update we got from local and federal officials about whether or not it would be termed as that. There's been a lot of political warfare over the course of the last 2 decades about what to call terrorism and whatnot. The decision to label this or investigate this as an act of terrorism, what does that mean?

[12:10:00]

KAYYEM: Right. So it's going to mean, basically, the two elements exist in terms of federal law and the FBI investigation. The first is the means. So an IED was used, a weapon of mass destruction. This -- there's going to be a focus on that. So the fact that there were -- as we understand it now, because, you know, we've already had to, you know, reassess based on the earlier press conference what that weapon is and in terms of an IED.

The second and more importantly is motivation. Generally, the way lay people would describe it is an act of terrorism is the use or threat of violence against the civilian population for political means. Now once again, I'm not going to fill in what those political means are. There are aspects to this that look like aspects that we've seen abroad in terms of -- and here in terms of foreign terrorism, there are aspects to this that we see as domestic terrorism.

The one variable that's very interesting from an analyst perspective is how quickly, almost everyone is saying there's no ongoing threat. So they're not -- whoever this person is, they're not seeing them as someone who's been pushed by some outside, or domestic, terrorist organization to do what they did.

So my reflections on this are, they know who he is. They -- maybe he's already been in the system or investigate -- investigated, and they will have a clear sense of a narrative relatively soon.

MATTINGLY: In terms of the security of this area, it's been -- and I've been watching and listening to witnesses who've been talking about this throughout the course of the morning. And several have mentioned the fact that there are technically blockades on Bourbon Street, the type that kind of raise out of the ground.

We see them here, in Washington quite often that we're not active in this moment. I guess the biggest question, how is something like that possible on a night like New Year's Eve on Bourbon Street?

KAYYEM: Yes. OK. So there's going to be 2 aspects to this. That the New Orleans is going to have to address not simply to blame, but just to for an after action how they can learn, how other can cities can learn.

The first is, were they ever deployed, tonight? We just want to get clarification for, excuse me, last night. And if they weren't deployed because of upgrades or critical infrastructure investments, did they have alternatives? And this -- and we normally would think of a sanitation truck as being alternative, or a supplement or a system that could that could, stop close the street to vehicle traffic.

The second, and this is the one also I've been discussing all morning, is any major mega event, all of us who are involved with that kind of planning is going to have a deployment time frame, what we would call a tick tock.

It would be we you know -- the doors close, the streets close at 5:00 PM. This closes at 8:00 PM. Deployment by 9:00 PM. I mean, it's like down to the minute. There is also a drawdown from that. You simply wouldn't want to keep that kind of security apparatus at all because the risk would have been lower.

So the question is,. is did that start to get dragged down at around 2 AM, 3 AM, and this individual saw a vulnerability? We don't know the answers to these questions. As someone who's been in this field a long time, this is the thing I'm thinking about this morning is. If it was a deployment and then and then, you know, 2:00 A.M. hits and they begin to prepare for the next event tonight, the Sugar Bowl, cities ought to potentially reassess their time frame for how long they deploy resources.

Paris, for example, I know is essentially closed down to vehicle traffic until 7:00 or 8:00 AM local time after New Year's Eve. And that's given their history, as we know in terms of terror incidents.

MATTINGLY: That was actually what I want to ask you about. Obviously, the Sugar Bowl tonight, one of the college football playoff games, the other one happening in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl. A number of events on New Year's Day as always, are the case. Does the posture change not just down in New Orleans, but kind of across the country for events like that in the wake of something like this?

KAYYEM: It will, across the board given the number of events that are also happening today. For the 2 bowls, I just think they're different. I think what you're going to see at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is, of course, an increase in resources to protect the public. But without a specific risk or dealing with what New Orleans is dealing with, chances are that their deployment and security will increase, but won't change significantly. They'll just have a greater presence.

Here in -- there in New Orleans, so far, the Sugar Bowl organizers are saying that it's going to go forward. I believe that's the right approach. What they can do and still have time to do, is increase resources and possibly change the security footprint, including whether you wouldn't -- you know, I mean, it seems obvious, but you would you want to stop vehicle traffic much further from the Bowl, and have resources available to get people with disabilities, for example, closer to the Bowl if you do that? That's what you're going to -- want to do at this stage is, is basically assess and change.

[12:15:00]

I base my opinion about, of course, going forward with the Sugar Bowl because of what has been stated so far that they don't view this as a normal threat. And, also, because there is a statement about moving forward too, that if cities close down, if events close down, in some ways, it allows -- this is a terrorism, isn't it? These terrorists to control a city in a way that that we actually don't want if people can be kept safe. And I'm basing that on assurances by New Orleans at this stage.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It's always a careful balance for officials in the wake of something like this.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: As you know, we have seen -- there aren't going to be any dramatic changes. I should say there were 3 actual playoff games -- Bowl games today, not 2. A little focused on the one in pass Pasadena due to my alma mater.

Juliette Kayyem, always appreciate your time and expertise. Thanks so much.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: We will be right back with more of the breaking news out of New Orleans where 10 people are dead, dozens more injured after a truck plowed through a New Year's Eve crowd on Burbank Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

MATTINGLY: President-elect Donald Trump delivered his first response to the tragic attack on Bourbon Street in a Truth Social post this morning. He's also using the post to make claims about the attacker that we have not heard backed up yet by law enforcement sources. So I'm diverging from what we've heard from law enforcement sources.

Alayna Treene is live in West Palm Beach with the latest from the President-elect and his team. Alayna, what more are you hearing right now about what's happening inside the President's team?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Phil, I was told that Donald Trump has been receiving regular updates on the situation on the ground in New Orleans. He is being briefed on this by a source familiar with the matter. But I want to read for you what Donald Trump posted it this morning in reaction to everything that's unfolding down there in New Orleans.

He wrote quote, "Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil."

Now as you mentioned, Phil, Donald Trump also kind of commented on the crime rate in the United States. I'm going to read this for you too as well and then explain a bit. So he said, quote, "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has seen before."

Now to be clear, we actually have some new reporting from our colleagues, Evan Perez and Priscilla Alvarez, and they are reporting that the suspect in Wednesday's deadly New Orleans crowd attack was a U.S. citizen according to a source familiar with the matter as well telling that to our colleagues.

So, look, I think, you know, there's still a lot of questions that need to be answered here. Officials have not really released additional information on the suspect, but he is a U.S. citizen. So that part of Donald Trump's statement kind of speculating about the suspect's identity, we're told is not true. He is a US citizen, but Donald Trump, of course, weighing in and saying that his incoming administration will do what they can to help with this investigation, Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. Alayna Treene for us live in West Palm Beach. Joining me now is CNN's Chief Law Enforcement Analyst and former Police Chief of Washington, D.C. and former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Charles, I don't -- I'd like to avoid going down the rabbit hole of picking sentences that aren't necessarily accurate or trying to ascribe political motivations when we don't know them. And focus instead on this is kind of an unsettling time where an administration is about to leave, a new administration is coming in, both administrations pledging their full support to New Orleans, to law enforcement.

Does that create any difficulty on the ground, kind of, being in this transition phase for federal resources for what local officials are able to do from an investigative perspective?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Not really. I mean, when you set aside the people using an event like this for political purposes, as far as law enforcement is concerned, the FBI is always there for us. ATF is always there. The state police are always there.

You know, our focus is on solving crime. Focus is getting to the bottom of what took place. That has nothing to do with politics. That's just policing. And so this will have absolutely no, bearing at all on this investigation.

MATTINGLY: When you look at what we know about the investigation up to this point, both what we've seen in terms of the video, what we've gotten from updates, we've gotten from reporting from our colleagues, Evan Perez, Priscilla Alvarez, and others, what's your sense of where things stand right now in terms of what law enforcement officials actually know and what they need to learn in the hours ahead?

RAMSEY: Well, I think they know a lot more than we know right now because the feds do not use the term terrorism lightly. So they've got some information that really causes them to now feel comfortable saying that this was an act of terrorism because they would be going by the guidelines and the law, the federal law that really covers that sort of thing.

So having said that, there are a lot of things going on right now. First of all, we don't know the name of the suspect, but I'm sure they do. And so there are search warrants being executed, maybe in New Orleans, maybe places in Texas. Certainly that vehicle that was used. They're going through a lot of video to find out more about the suspect's movement. In other words, working backwards to find out where that person's coming from.

Was he in the crowd earlier? Because depending on where they found those IEDs, if they weren't in the car, if they were placed elsewhere that means he had to actually walk through there and place them prior to the actual attack. I don't know the answers to any of this, but that's the kind of stuff that you see going on right now in law enforcement.

[12:25:00]

But there's something going on in terms of the information that caused the FBI to now label this as a terrorist act.

MATTINGLY: With the understanding that we don't know what that information may be, can you give people an idea of what could constitute that kind of information? And I ask because, the initial press conference this morning, the FBI official did not label it as, being investigated as an act of terrorism. That obviously has shifted. What is it that could drive a change when you talk about labeling it something like this?

RAMSEY: Well, first of all, earlier when the ASAC or the assistant special agent in charge said this is not an act of terrorism, this is early in the investigation at that point in time. Didn't have enough information to actually label it and would rather just not call it that even though the mayor may have.

But, again, you know, her definition of what a terrorist act is versus what the federal definition is, it'd be quite different. And certainly now they've gotten to a motive. Was it politically motivated? Was it based on religion? Unlikely since he's plowing into a major -- into just a crowd of people. But there's something in the motive that made them designate this as a terrorist event.

Did he have connections elsewhere, either inside or outside of the United States with a known terrorist organization? These are unanswered questions, but there's something there that we may find out about at the next press conference. Then again, we may not, because if they're looking for other people that may have had some, you know, some role, maybe not a direct role, but some other kind of role in this thing. They want to get their hands on as quickly as possible before they divulge too much information so they can debrief them and really get to the bottom of this.

MATTINGLY: The use of a vehicle as a weapon, and a weapon that creates, obviously, both tragedy and horror as we saw overnight. We see it more in in places like Europe and foreign countries than we've seen it as much here at home. How does law enforcement prepare for something like this?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, it's difficult, but you do the best that you can. And that's why -- and again, this isn't being critical of the New Orleans Police Department at all. Everyone does the best they can. There are a lot of events taking place around the country because of New Year's yesterday, and some perhaps use techniques that others don't use. We learn from one another.

But one of the things you do to at least prevent a vehicle from being used is barriers that can withstand an impact of a vehicle. Now it's my understanding they have bollards there, but those bollards were being replaced. They were actually upgrading the infrastructure, scheduled to be ready in February, probably in time for Mardi Gras. But that leaves a vulnerability for New Year's Eve. It leaves a vulnerability for other types of things that might happen on Bourbon Street or elsewhere once that is no longer there.

So what do you do? In addition to the kind of barricades you saw, you know, trash trucks, police cars, whatever you can to block streets so that a vehicle cannot go down there as long as you have crowds of people.

And we've all been to Bourbon Street. I mean, it's not that wide a street when you're -- you know, you get these huge concentration of people. If a vehicle gets in there, you've got a serious problem. And so they would do what they can to try to block it off to prevent a vehicle of any type being able to get in.

So what we need to know is, was that in place earlier? Which is why now it's 3:00 o'clock or 3:15 in the morning, and some of that was removed, which made it more vulnerable, and this person knew that. Or was it ever there? We just don't know the answers to that, but that vehicle got in there. And that's something that really departments across the country are going to be reevaluating their security to make sure that they take this into account. If nothing else, copycats.

MATTINGLY: Have you seen you know, to that point and with an acknowledgment of the information that we don't have right now, have you seen anything that leads you to believe that there was more advanced planning, that there was a more expansive effort underway before the attack actually happened to prepare this attack?

RAMSEY: Haven't seen it on video, but video would really reveal because they got video cameras everywhere down in that part of the city. So you would be able to clearly see whether or not more than likely it would have been a vehicles blocking, the street. It could have been concrete barriers, but concrete barriers are difficult -- they're difficult to move.

And there are legitimate reasons why a vehicle would go down the street.

[12:30:00]