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The FBI said that the New Orleans attacker acted alone, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson looks to retain post as next session of Congress begins.
A U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans had posted videos to social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, the FBI said Thursday.
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, said during a news conference that Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone. Based on reviews of his social media, cellphone records and hundreds of interviews, the agency said there was no indication that he was aided by anyone else in the attack, a reversal from what a different FBI official said Wednesday.
In the early Wednesday attack, a driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers, kililng 14 and injuring at least 35 others before being shot to death by police.
Calling it "premeditated" and "evil," Raia said the attack was "an act of terrorism."
Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle — which bore the flag of the Islamic State, Raia said. The FBI said it found two IEDs in coolers in the French Quarter on Bourbon Street but said reports of other potential explosives were not correct. The agency believes the devices were planted in the early hours of New Year’s morning, most likely a couple hours before the ramming attack.
The FBI said that Jabbar was born in the United States and was a U.S. military veteran. He picked up the Ford F-150 truck he used in Houston on Monday. He then drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday evening, Raia said.
Earlier in the day, Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook page starting at 1:29 p.m., authorities said. The first of the videos said he wanted to harm his family and friends, according to the FBI. He also said he was concerned news headlines would not focus on believers and disbelivers in the Islamic State, according to Raia. Jabbar stated he had joined the Islamic State group before the summer and also provided a will and testament, authorities said.
The FBI has recovered three of Jabbar’s phones and two laptops and is currently engaged in "digital media exploitation" to see what is on the devices, Raia said.
When the 119th Congress convenes Friday to kick off a new session, the first order of business will be picking a speaker to lead the lower chamber — a task that in recent days is looking increasingly precarious.
Current House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has held the role since October 2023 when he took over for Kevin McCarthy after the former speaker’s historic ousting, is hoping to keep the lower chamber’s top job.
But it is not certain that his path to doing so will be smooth sailing, as some Republican House members are expressing resistance to another two years of Johnson’s leadership, particularly after his handling of a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown before the holidays last month.
For his part, Johnson on Thursday was optimistic, telling Fox News that he was “going to get this done” despite conceding that the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the chamber makes it “a numbers game.”
“I think we’ll get it done, I really do,” Johnson said, adding he spoke to members over the holidays.
Former Florida Gov. Buddy MacKay passed away at the age of 91.
MacKay served in the military, the Florida House and the Florida Senate before he served as lieutenant governor under then-governor and Democrat Lawton Chiles.
Chiles then had a heart attack and died in December of that year.
MacKay ran for governor himself in November 1998, but lost to Republican Jeb Bush.
MacKay took over as governor for a couple of weeks until Bush was inaugurated in January.
