Welcome. It is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz. This is obviously one of those shows that neither of us wanted to do, but it's an important one to get you information about what has happened and this horrific terrorist attack in New Orleans and also what looks to be some sort of attack in Las Vegas outside of the Trump Hotel there. Senator, this has a connection obviously to Texas. Many of us were celebrating New Year's Eve. You were
down at mar A Lago. I was with my family at the beach, and then we see and wake up to this news breaking. And I want to timestamp this for people to understand when we're recording this. We're recording this at nine thirty Eastern time on Wednesday, so much of this may change, So I just want you to know when we started this, but I want to get your initial reaction to what we've witnessed.
Well, we're less than twenty four hours out from the United States once again saying a significant terrorist attack on US soil. At three point fifteen and morning New Year's Day, forty two year old sham sad Din Bahar Jabbar, who is a US citizen a Texas resident, he drove a white pickup truck into people celebrating on Bourbon Street. Jabbar was born in Beaumont, Texas. He resides in Houston, your hometown and my hometown, and he was an Army veteran.
As we talked today, fifteen people have been killed and several dozen more have been injured. And I will say, as is the nature of any fast breaking crisis and fast breaking news story, the news that is available is rapidly moving. It is changing. So we're going to talk about what's happening, what we know now, but with the caveat that, we can fully expect the information we know on this to change and very possibly changed significantly in
days and weeks to come. We're less than twenty four hours out from this attack, but what we know now is deeply, deeply disturbing. It has been reported that this Army veteran drove the pickup truck deliberately into a crowd of revelers with the intent of killing and harming as many people as possible. It's also been reported that the pickup truck was flying an ISIS flag and that Jabbar was inspired by ISIS. Simultaneously, we have a Tesla cyber truck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in
Las Vegas, killing one injuring several. The one who was killed was the driver. It is not confirmed that those two are linked, but both occurred early in the morning on New Year's Day, and America is now dealing with the aftermath of one or potentially two terrorist attacks, finding out who's responsible, finding out if additional actors were responsible.
There have been multiple reports of additional individuals potentially placing IEDs and at this point, the entire country is reeling from this attack.
It is really sad. And this goes back to the bigger concern that we've worried about on this show and talked about, and it's something that I think so many Americans felt. You had a wide open southern border. You had a lot of people that have been able to come across the southern border that were caught that were
on the terrorists watch list. You have law enforcement that, I think it's pretty fair to say, is stretched extremely thin when you're having to deal with a wide open southern border and what is coming across that southern border, and this individual being an American citizen and being a Texan, as you described, But the real problem can be that we are stretched so thin with so many possibilities out there, that this is one of those examples of when we've
had this open door policy. Law enforcement is doing the maybe in many cases, the best they can, and they just don't have the time or the resources they need to focus in on these types of threats.
Well, that is tragically correct, and on this podcast we have been predicting for months now that the odds of a major terrorist attack in the United States were higher than they have been at any time since September eleventh, and unfortunately, this morning's tragic events confirms that now in this instance, the facts are still coming out. What we know about Jabbar according to the Army Liaison's Office and
what he has told what they have released. He served in the Army from two thousand and six to twenty twenty, including approximately nine years of active duty service. He held specialties in HR and IT. He was born in Beaumont, Texas. He deployed in Afghanistan from two thousand and nine to twenty ten. He was in the Army Reserve from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty, and he was discharged in twenty twenty with an honorable discharge for unsatisfactory participation. That much
we know. We also know that in his truck were found explosive devices. Explosive devices including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation. That's according to the Louisiana State Police and the pickup truck.
The pickup truck its origin, there has been conflicting reporting it so earlier today it was reported that the truck used in the New Orleans attack came through the Southern border, and The Daily Wire reported that Early today, Fox News reported that the truck entered the US two days ago, but they then updated their story to report that the truck crossed the southern border on November sixteenth. So November sixteenth, a month and a half ago, apparently the truck crossed
the southern border. It has also now been reported that the truck in New Orleans was rented using the Touro app. The tourou app is a peer to peer app, and one of the strange details that has been reported is that both the truck in New Orleans and the cyber truck in Los Angeles, in Las Vegas rather were both rented using the tourou app. That may simply be a coincidence, it may be something more. But what has been reported. The New York Times is reporting that both were rented
using Toro. Toro itself put out a statement that said that it was quote actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. They also said, quote we do not believe that either rent or involved in the Las Vegas or New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat threat. It's not clear as we sit here today the full details of that, but those are the breaking details as of nine to forty one pm.
I want to go back to a headline real quick, and then I also want to play for everybody what Joe Biden said. But this was a headline that you and I talked about and warned about, and it was from the New York Posts October the twenty third of twenty twenty four, and it said border agents caught three hundred migrants heirist ties, including ISIS, and it's still incredibly
easy for them to enter the US. This report came out October the twenty third, so we're talking a couple of months ago, and you and I, and that's when you really talked about you felt like there was a real chance that something like this could happen because of the of the of the idea that we have so
many resources fred all over the place. When you look ahead to January twentieth and Donald Trump coming in, does this now clearly become a top priority on the issue of border security because it's a national security issue very much, and getting back to doing the way that we used to deal with whether it was domestic or homegrown or foreign terrorism.
One of the things that is maddening is even to this day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Democrats refused to secure the border. Just a few weeks ago, the Democrats held a hearing in the Senate You Shary Committee on the horrors of mass deportations, not on the need to secure the border, but on how terrible it was that Trump is going to enforce the law. The border will be secured. We are three weeks away from an administration coming in that is going to be I believe,
absolutely serious and incredibly effective securing the border. But every day that border is open, Americans are at greater risk, and we're at risk number one from terrorists crossing the southern border. But number two, we're at risk from law enforcement, the FBI, the federal government focusing on every other policy and agenda item other than keeping the American people safe. You know, I have to say one of the things
that was dismaying is the FBI. Right after this happened in New Orleans, they went out and publicly said this was not a terrorist attack. The New Orleans police disagreed with that statement. The FBI has since gone on to say they are investigating it as terrorism. But I got to say, when a truck drives into a crowd waving an ISIS flag, I don't know what the hell you call it other than terrorism.
Yeah, And that I think is one of the things that's so frustrating, and that moves us also to what we witnessed today with the closed circuit TV footage of this cyber truck that exploded in front of Trump Tower, killing that driver. We're now being told by authorities there that they said the driver the electric vehicle parked in the valley area outside the hotel's lobby before it exploded
into flames. We've gotten a tweet from Elon Musk saying that this was not in fact the batteries or a malfunction of the car that so many immediately wanted to blame. This was a Tesla accident that just happened to happen on the same day as this other attack at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. They've now said definitively in law enforcement, this was not any type of battery issue
or a malfunction. This was clearly done deliberately, and thank goodness, no one besides that driver, from what we understand, died. There were seven that were injured there, and this is now being treated apparently as a other terrorist activity attack in Las Vegas as well.
Well, that's right, and the details there that there's one fatality from the Las Vegas explosion, and that was the driver himself. The driver in New Orleans is also dead from a shootout with the police. As soon as it happened, the mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, publicly described as a terrorist attack. The police chief stated the driver's actions were intentional. This was not a dui situation. According to the chief, the driver was quote hell bent on creating carnage.
And yet, as I mentioned, the FBI spokesperson countered the Merit mayors claim moments later stating it was quote not a terrorist event. Here, give a.
Listen, this is not a terrorist event. What it is right now is there improve explosive devices that was found and we are working on confirming if this is a viable device or not. As Chief Kirkpatrick said, we're asking everyone to stay away from Bourbon Street, specifically from Canal Street to Saint Anne. That is my ask once again, stay away from Bourbon Street, Canal Street all the way to Saint Anne until we can figure out what is going on. Our goal is provide to additional information at
the eleven am press conference. Thank you so much, and we will be in touch.
Yes, I will say that we want our community and our visitors to continue and join. There's so much to enjoy about New Orleans and we are going to make sure that our routes and the Superdome are safe today for the game. And yet we had this tragic event and we're sorry again to everyone in our community, but we do want you to gout the day. As we say, just stay away from.
Bourbon There's two parts of that center that I think are the most frustrating for many people that are listening. One the out of touch with reality and you want to have faith in law enforcement, but to come out in such a hardcore way, so this is not a terrorist attack, not being treated like a terisa and people
are like, what's wrong with you? And the part that also went viral after that was a tweet that came out from the FBI New Orleans and it was them having holding this summer a diversity agent recruitment event and we want to meet you. This was DEI on full display. We went diversity, inequity inclusion. And people say this statement and then that tweet and they say, what is happening at the FBI.
Well, the FBI has in far too many instances not kept their eye on the ball. And that is one of the reasons that Donald Trump is coming into office with an agenda of fundamentally reforming the Department of Justice and the FBI getting it back focused on its core mission, ending the weaponization, ending the politicization, and its core mission
includes preventing acts of terrorism. Now, in this instance, the terrorist in New Orleans was an American citizen, so he did not cross the border illegally, although apparently has truck did the truck he used across the border six six weeks ago. However, we don't know the story of how he was radicalized. Someone who was an army veteran who served for many years, who became a self described proponent of isis. That is something gone profoundly wrong, and it
reminds me of Nadal Hassan. Nadal Hassan, you'll recall, who
murdered fourteen innocent souls at Fort Hood. He was active duty military and he became radicalized, and during the Obama iministration that they knew that he was communicating with the radical Islamic cleric and War Alilaki and asking about the permissibility of waging jahad on his fellow soldiers, and infuriatingly enough, the Obama Pentagon they had those communications with Anwar Alilaki, and they did nothing to stop Nadal Hassan from from
committing that mass murder. That they sat on that information, and we don't know if there's any of that. We have no indication that there's any of that information now. But I will say we're dealing with another individual who is a soldier who apparently became radicalized, and I think there's a real need for transparency to figure out what happened. And I want to play my colleague John Kennedy, Senator John Kennedy, a good friend of mine. He's down in
New Orleans now. I want to play what he had to say because I very much agree with with with what he brest on the ground today.
I don't want to hear from anybody in the federal government that they don't have the resources. Now the White House, the FBI, Justice, Homeland Security are in charge. Now, we're cooperating with them. I want to give them a reasonable period of time. There's a lot of information out there, some of it is actually true. I want to give them a reasonable period of time, but they need to saddle up and ride. We need to find out what happened here, and it's not going to be covered up.
We're going to tell the American people exactly what happened. I'm not interested in placing blame or saying who is right or wrong. I just want to catch these sons of bitches who did this.
Centater, I think that the sentiment that many are feeling is exactly the way it was described by your colleague there that the Center from Louisiana.
Well Kennedy's absolutely right. And look, the priority Number one needs to be keeping people safe. Number two needs to be catching anyone else involved in this. Where there other conspirators? Was this a broader plot? Number three needs to be transparency, figuring out how did this come to pass? Why was this not prevented? Why did nobody sound the alarm that this guy was dangerous, That this guy was affiliating with isis that this guy was looking to commit murder? All
of those are questions that come out. And I said, number one, though, is keeping people safe. You know, one of the frustrating things about this attack in New Orleans is that there were steel barricades on Bourbon Street that were installed in twenty seventeen, and they were installed to prevent terrorist attacks in the area. And had the barricades been up, they clearly would have minimized the carnage this morning. Unfortunately,
the barricades were down. The police chief said the barricades were in the process of being replaced, and I will say that is tragic. And look, got we've got bowl games. They delayed the Sugar Bowl for a day, but we've got football games across the country. We've got all sorts of events across the country. We've got the inauguration on January twentieth, and one of the very important front and center needs to be keeping people safe and preventing another
terrorist attack. Just because one happened doesn't mean we're not at risk of another one happening. And that's why we need to be vigilant number one keeping people safe, but number two tracking down everyone involved in these horrible atrocities and then having full, full transparency and doing everything we can to remove and to apprehend potential ISIS terrorists before they take more lives.
Can we just talk for a moment about incompetency here, because that's what everybody is thinking that I think is listening right now the majority are I certainly am. And when I talk about in commency, you just mentioned it. It is New Year's Eve, Center, and this is when I get angry. It's New Year's Eve. You have a Sugar Bowl game that you've known about for a long time and New Year's Eve, and you don't have the barriers up that you know you need to keep people safe.
Because you say that you're getting them ready for the super Bowl. Why wouldn't you have them ready for New Year's Eve until the Super Bowl. Why is it that it seems like every time we give government the funding to do things like this and to protect people, there's some excuse. And I go back to in competency on what we talked about just a few days ago. You look at the Biden administration and the plea deal they gave the mastermind of nine to eleven, Khalide Chek Muhammad.
What message does that sind to tear us around the world that we will spare your life, we will not take your life even if you're the master a mind nine to eleven. You combine these types of things, and I think there's many Americans right now, and I say this with frustration on behalf of many Americans that feel like they are not being protected by this administration the way they should be and were sending the wrong signals to the terrorists.
At the same time, Well, we've had four years of an open door, red carpet invitation for terrorists to come across our southern border that has made us much much less safe. We have also had law enforcement, including the FBI, focused on political and partisan agendas instead of focusing on the bad guys, stopping the bad guys before they commit crimes like this. We will find out what information there was that could have been used to prevent this attack.
We need to find that out. And even if the Biden administration refuses to make it public and to be transparent, I have significant confidence that the incoming Trump administration will make that information public. And I got to say, look for everyone who lost, for the fifteen people murdered this morning, for the families of them, for the three dozen people who were wounded, some very grievously wounded. I am sure they are feeling a level of frustration and anger. They're
filling frustration with the city. Why weren't those barricades up. The barricades should have been up. They were put in in twenty seventeen. This risk was known New Year's Eve. It's not like that's a surprising time for someone seeking to do something horrible to target people. The eve of the Sugar Bowl that was another name.
There's a great example of that.
Yeah, and listen, one of the real dangers of terrorism. You can have a big elaborate plot of a dirty bomb or attacking a nuclear reactor or something, but some of the most frightening terrorism and Sadly, some of the most effective terrorism is very low tech. It is driving a truck into a crowd. It is walking into a
shopping mall wearing a suicide vest. It is you know, I was living in DC twenty some odd years ago when the DC sniper was there, and that was two guys who drilled a hole in the trunk of their car and drove around DC parked and sat there with a rifle and just shot people. And I'll tell you, the entire city was terrified, was on edge, and there was no no high tech involved in it. And and and that vulnerability is very real, which is why we
need a proactive FBI. We need law enforcement that that that is focusing on the bad guys and and and not on every political agenda that that that that might be the latest fashionable priority.
I want to wrap up with letting the country hear Joe Biden. He did address the nation from Camp David uh seven o'clock on New Year's Day, as we were recording this about two hours after that, and this is what Joe Biden had to say, part of it, at least about this attack. Take a listen, and I want to get your reaction Texas.
He served in the United States Army an active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve until a few years ago. The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that is inspired by ISIS, especially the desire to kill desire to kill. The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack. Possible explosives are found in the vehicle as well,
and more explosives were found nearby. The situation is very fluid, and the investigation has a preliminary stage, and the fact is that right right now, excuse me, there you go. The law enforcement intelligien community are continuing to look for any connections, associations, are co conspirators, We have nothing, additionally, report at this time, the investigation is continuing to be
active and no one should jump to conclusions. I've directed my Attorney General, the FBI Director, the Secretary of Homeland Security, head a National counter intelligence to Terrorism Center, and the intelligence community to work on this intensively until we have a full and complete information. And once we have that information, I will share that information as soon as we can confirm it. Additionally, we're tracking the explosion of the cyber
truck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attacking New Orleans. Thus far, there's nothing to report on that score at this time. I've directed my team to make sure every resource, every resource is made available to federal, state, and local law enforcement to complete the investigation in New Orleans quickly, and to make sure there is no remains thread.
You know, there's part of me that's like, Okay, I'm glad that the president's out there saying this. There's another part of me when he got lost and said excuse me while reading that teleprompter, that was just a three sixty moment of his entire time in the presidency. The reporting that we talked about about his cognitive decline, just I think it was on the last pod. And yet this is the guy who is in charge, and you
wonder why some of these things are happening. Well, he gets lost in the teleprompter and has to apologize while reading a prepared statement, and that's the type of leadership we've had.
Well, listen, I am glad the president gave that press conference tonight. I'm glad he's speaking out. I think the substance of what he said is right. I wish him. I wish the Department of Justice of the FBI every success and very quickly finding anyone involved in this, apprehending them,
focusing on it. There will be times there is no doubt that the horrible policies of this administration, the open borders for four years, have contributed to making us less safe, have contributed to increasing the likelihood of a terrorist attack. But at this point, look whether whether Joe Biden the Democrats intend to be transparent or not, I am confident
the incoming administration will make this information public. It needs to be public so there can be accountability for where where the ball was dropped, because at the end of the day, this attack was not prevented tragically, and we need to learn from that and make sure we stop the next attack. But what I will say tonight is that our prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who were murdered earlier. Today, our prayers are
with all of the victims who were injured. We are praying for their recovery, We're praying for their safety, and I'll say to all of you, look, look, stay vigilance, stay safe, and and tonight you give your kids an extra hug, and remember your family and those you love, because it's a dangerous world we live in right now.
No doubt about it. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those in the hospital, dozens and dozens injured in New Orleans and at least seven injured in what happened in Vegas. That suspect is we now know the death toll has risen. At this moment, we're recording to fifteen people. Pray for those families the center, and I will see you back here as well. If there's any other significant breaking news, we will make sure that we get it
to you. But we wanted to make sure we had this conversation with you as soon as we could tonight, and be safe everyone, and we'll see you back here in a couple of days