Lawmakers and politicians in Washington have blamed a porous “open” border, poor withdrawal from Afghanistan, and other “mistakes” made by the Biden administration for the New Year’s Day terrorism attack in New Orleans French Quarter.
Fifteen people were killed when a driver, identified by the FBI as U.S. citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar, intentionally drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the early hours of Wednesday.
The timing of the attack has triggered blowback from Republicans, who are divided on who to blame for potentially dropping the ball in the lead-up to the horrific attack.
The incident occurred in the final three weeks of President Joe Biden’s term in office. Biden on Wednesday evening expressed condolences over the attack and promised to provide “every resource necessary to support the ongoing investigation and ensure there is no remaining threat to the American people.”
To all the people of New Orleans grieving today, our nation grieves with you.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 2, 2025
I've directed my team to provide every resource necessary to support the ongoing investigation and ensure there is no remaining threat to the American people. pic.twitter.com/4TlJnJHZte
Trump blames illegal immigration
On Monday morning, President-elect Donald Trump blamed illegal immigration for the New Orleans massacre.
“With the Biden ‘Open Border’s 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. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined,” Trump wrote in a post to Medium Truth Social Monday morning.
“Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER,” Trump continued. “What he and his group of Election Interfering ‘thugs’ have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA.”
Trump’s claim came a day after the FBI named Jabbar, a Texas resident born in the United States, as the suspect who police killed on the scene after the attack.
The FBI said Jabbar likely did not act alone and is investigating any possible connection to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump property in Las Vegas around the same time Wednesday. Both vehicles were rented from the Turo company.
On Thursday, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia clarified that Jabbar was, in fact, the only assailant in the attack and acted alone, walking back comments from FBI Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan.
“At this point currently … we do not assess at this point that anyone else involved in this attack is involved in this attack, except for Shamsud Din Jabbar, the subject you’ve already been briefed on,” said Raia.
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) also blamed Biden for the attack.
“The ISIS-inspired terror attack in New Orleans is another disastrous consequence of Joe Biden’s weak, feckless, failed leadership,” he wrote.
A senior Biden administration official pushed back on the criticism against the Biden administration.
“Law enforcement has been clear that the investigation has turned up no connection to what’s being claimed,” said the senior administration official in a statement Thursday afternoon. “It’s unfortunate that some Republicans are ignoring the facts to try to exploit a tragedy for political purposes.”
Role of botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal
Foreign policy hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pointed to the deadly withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan during the summer of 2021 as leaving the region vulnerable once again to the Islamic State following the Trump administration’s termination of the terrorist group in 2020.
Thirteen American service members were killed in a terrorist attack in August 2021 outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan during the exit.
“Over the last several years, we have allowed radical Islam to regain its footing in places like Afghanistan,” Graham said in a statement. “That inevitably leads to inspired attacks against our homeland and that of our allies. To protect America, we have to keep radical Islam beaten down throughout the world. If not, we will pay a heavy price at home.”
The senior Biden administration official said it had “significantly degraded ISIS’ capabilities” since 2021.
“We have successfully eliminated much of ISIS’ remaining leadership and wiped many ISIS terrorists off the face of the earth,” the official said. “In fact, President Biden has been outspoken about the need to continue the counter-ISIS mission in Syria over the past few weeks after the fall of when the Assad regime fell.”
Last fall, lawmakers pressed Biden administration officials for answers about any threats from the Islamic State ahead of the 2024 election, particularly in relation to the refugees who entered the United States from Afghanistan.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray in October in which he demanded answers about Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, who was arrested in Oklahoma City days earlier after the agency uncovered his alleged plot to carry out a large-scale attack on public crowds on Election Day.
Almost none of the 82,000 people airlifted from Kabul in August 2021 were vetted before being admitted to the U.S., despite claims to the contrary from the Biden administration, according to a Washington Examiner investigation in late 2021.
Drawing more questions is Jabbar’s background as an Army vet who served in Afghanistan but was at some point recruited by the Islamic State.
Other ‘mistakes’ made preventing attack
A senior House Republican said other “mistakes” were likely to have been made by authorities in preventing this attack from occurring in the first place.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) said the federal investigation by the FBI will reveal “what mistakes were made that in the future can help us prevent terrorists from harming our loved ones.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for Mayorkas and Wray to testify immediately before the Senate to provide answers on the terrorist attack.
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“Until January 20, the American people remain at risk unless the outgoing administration is held to account for policy changes that have made this country less safe,” Hawley said.
The Washington Examiner did not immediately receive responses from the DHS.
