U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit New Orleans on Monday to grieve with relatives of the 14 people who were killed and 35 injured there when a man drove a rented pickup truck at high speed through a group of pedestrians in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The Bidens plan to meet with family members of the victims who were run over when the suspect, identified by authorities as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old military veteran from Houston, sped down bustling Bourbon Street, a prime tourist restaurant and bar locale. Police fatally shot Jabbar after he opened fire on officers.
Biden, with two weeks remaining in office before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, is also meeting with investigators who say that Jabbar acted alone in the attack but was inspired by the Islamic State to carry out the terror attack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that Jabbar posted five videos on social media expressing support for the Islamic State terrorist group, IS, over the roughly hour and a half before the attack as New Orleans revelers celebrated the first hours of 2025. An IS flag was found in the back of the truck.
On the day of the attack, Biden, speaking from the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, offered condolences to the victims’ families in a national address. “I want you to know I grieve with you,” he said.
Biden said investigators told him the suspect had a remote detonator in his truck that was meant to set off two explosive devices placed inside ice coolers along Bourbon Street.
Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, on Sunday reiterated to CBS’s “Face the Nation” show a previously disclosed U.S. claim, that there are Islamic State members and other terrorist organizations that are inside the United States “working in conjunction with ISIS with the intention of harming Americans.”
“We don’t know where they are,” Turner said.
Outgoing Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” show that there has been a “significant increase” over the last 10 years in “homegrown violent extremism.”
“It is a very difficult threat landscape,” Mayorkas said. He pledged a smooth transition to Trump’s appointment as the incoming Homeland Security secretary, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
“I have spoken with Governor Noem a number of times, including on New Year’s Day and immediately thereafter, with respect to the horrific terrorist attack,” Mayorkas said.
“We have spoken substantively about the measures that we take, and I am incredibly devoted to a smooth and successful transition to the success of Governor Noem, should she be confirmed as the secretary of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas said.
Biden’s Monday visit to New Orleans is occurring with heightened security concerns in Washington as Congress meets to certify that Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election.
It is four years to the day after Trump supporters rampaged through the U.S. Capitol, ransacking congressional officers and attacking law enforcement officers to block certification of Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election. Trump has vowed, within hours of taking office on January 20, to pardon many of those arrested and imprisoned in the January 6, 2021, attack.
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