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Bourbon St. Reopens; Sugar Bowl to Kick Off After Terror Attack; FBI: We Do Not Believe Anyone Else Involved in New Orleans Attack; Officials: New Orleans Attacker Discussed Wanting to Kill His Family and Joining ISIS in Chilling Recording; Trump Links New Orleans Attack to Migrants After False Fox Report; FBI: Believe Cybertruck Driver Identified, Waiting for DNA Results; Driver of Cybertruck that Exploded Positively Identified; ATF: 2 Semi-Automatic Handguns Found in Cybertruck; Both were Legally Purchased by Matthew Livelsberger Last Monday; In Moments: Biden Speaks on Deadly New Orleans Terror Attack. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 02, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:51]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are following breaking news out of New Orleans, where Bourbon Street has now reopened about 36 hours after the deadly New Year's Day terror attack. And in the next 60 minutes here, the Sugar Bowl college football game is going to kick off. You can see people streaming in to the Superdome just blocks away from the French Quarter after this game was postponed by a day in the wake of the tragedy.

This is happening as federal investigators say they now believe the driver who deliberately rammed a truck through a crowd in the busy French Quarter actually acted alone and did not have co-perpetrators. We have exclusive new doorbell video. You can see there on the right side of your screen. It appears to show the moment that the suspect unloaded his rented truck outside the Airbnb that he was using just hours before the attack.

CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper is live in New Orleans.

And Anderson, right now investigators are combing through evidence still as the timeline of how this all happened comes into focus. Where does the investigation stand?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Yes, that Airbnb you talked about, they found five cell phones, two laptops, as well as a number of items obviously in the vehicle, a change of clothing, the ISIS flag that was earlier reported. And that is what leads them to say that he was acting alone in this.

And certainly, in terms of here in New Orleans, there had been a belief that perhaps and earlier on in the investigation, they thought maybe there were other people involved because of the placement of explosive devices in other locations. The attack itself ended just a couple blocks down in that direction. And an explosive device was found several blocks further up.

So, he placed, according to law enforcement, two explosive devices elsewhere in the French Quarter before conducting this terror attack. I just want to play something that we heard from the FBI earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER RAIA, FBI COUNTERTERRORISM DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Now, they've also traced the trail of this - of Jabbar from Houston, where he rented this vehicle on December 30th, drove up to New Orleans on New Year's Eve and made a number of videos posted to his Facebook talking about ISIS, talking about why he was doing this.

He said that he'd initially thought about killing members of his family, and relatives and friends, and then thought, according to the FBI, that it would be portrayed in the media differently, that it wouldn't be portrayed as part of a - what the FBI said he, Jabbar, referred to it as a war between believers and non-believers.

[15:05:03]

Here's more of what the FBI said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAIA: There were five videos posted on Jabbar's Facebook account, which are time stamped beginning at 1:29 AM and the last at 3:02 AM. In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the, quote, "war between the believers and the disbelievers," end quote.

Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So, as you said, Brianna, Bourbon Street is back open. It reopened about 40 minutes ago or so. About an hour ago, there was a band that came here. There were a number of religious - there were preachers and religious leaders who came here, held prayers. City officials were here as well. And then now the public is coming back. Some bars are open. There's music playing. And this football game is going to be starting soon. KEILAR: I see a gentleman cleaning the balcony behind you. They're really trying to get back to normal there as they welcome traffic back into the French Quarter. Anderson, what are officials saying about the connection to ISIS of Jabbar? What are they saying about that?

COOPER: They haven't really gone into a lot of detail. And I think it's it seems that that's clearly one of the things that they are trying to understand more about. They said at their press conference that they want to hear from anybody who knew this person, not just anybody who may have seen this person in New Orleans, but going back months, any conversations this person may have had with somebody that would give a sense of kind of a timeline of his radicalization or his mental disintegration or perhaps both.

You know, we're - we know he was a veteran. We know he pleaded guilty to DUI charges in 2015. He had that ISIS flag. And according to the FBI, in the - in one of the postings he made, he talked about - pledging joining ISIS before the summer. But there's not a lot of details yet on exactly what he did to take that step.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be looking for that. Anderson, thank you so much. Anderson Cooper live in New Orleans.

President-elect Trump is falsely linking the New Orleans terror attack to migrants after an erroneous report from Fox News. CNN's Kristen Holmes is here with us now on this.

All right. Kristen, what is Trump saying and just take us through the basis for his initial comments and how he's sort of moving with them.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I would say he's making micro steps backwards away from his initial comments, but he's still kind of doubling down on the rhetoric that this was somehow related to an open border policy. Now, we were told yesterday that Donald Trump was being briefed on what had happened in New Orleans, but we weren't told by whom? And we know one thing, Donald Trump, when anything is unfolding, turns to the news media. He turns the TV on and watches the coverage to see what's happening.

Now, one of the things that was happening at this time was this report on Fox News that essentially alleged that the truck that had been rented, which we didn't know at the time it had been rented, had crossed in Eagle Pass on the border two days prior.

Now, it turns out that was not right, that it had been rented and crossed the border two weeks, I believe, prior. However, that was the reporting at the time. That was then conflated into an idea that we saw run rampant on conservative social media, that it wasn't just the car, that it was also the perpetrator of the crime in New Orleans, of this terror attack, had come in across the border. And that appeared to be what Donald Trump was being briefed on coming from this news report or some of these conservative social media personalities, because what he tweeted at that time was people coming across the border, as I've said, they're bringing worse crime into the country. And then he issued his condolences to the families of the victims in New Orleans. Since then, since even though the report has been corrected, even though we have learned that the perpetrator here was American, and if anything, he was radicalized here in America, he has continued with this idea that somehow this terror attack is linked to open border policy under Biden, to immigration, to a migrant, even though, again, we have reported, as have others, that this is an American citizen.

So, for example, five hours ago on Truth Social, he said, "With the 'Biden Open Borders 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," and that time has come.

Again, this is not related to any crimes that are happening from people crossing the border, whether it'd be radical Islamic terrorism or not, related to what happened in New Orleans, as far as we can tell.

[15:10:06]

We, again, have the facts that he is an American citizen, but was not - you know, this wasn't an instance of someone coming over as a radical Islamic terrorist.

KEILAR: There is - it's very popular on conservative media, though, to focus on the threat of terrorism potentially crossing the border, and there have been people with suspected ties to ISIS who have been expelled, they have been caught, and then it will often be represented as ISIS terrorists cross the border. It's bad enough, honestly, the truth, right? But it then tends to be a little Trumped up.

You talk to supporters of Trump's and they will highlight the border that they are very concerned about not just criminals crossing, but terrorists crossing. Is this sort of a hat tip to some of the conversations that go on with his supporters? Because he certainly has an audience for this narrative.

HOLMES: Yes. He does have an audience, but I will say - I mean, it - this didn't appear, in this case at least, to be pulled out of thin air. We saw that this was being reported, it wasn't just on Fox News. By that point, it had started getting this pickup from a large scale of conservative social media personalities, so it's not as though Donald Trump was existed - this existed in a vacuum of Donald Trump, which obviously we have seen in the past.

This tended to have taken fire. I think really what the interesting part of this and what we're seeing now is Donald Trump continuing to double down on this rhetoric, and that's where you get into this idea of the hat tip, but also the idea of immigration as a whole still being one of the core issues that Donald Trump uses to stoke his base and to stoke fear as he heads into office, January 20th, and becomes the president.

KEILAR: They're very receptive to it, certainly a lot of Americans. Kristen Holmes thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it.

I want to talk more now with CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Chief Charles Ramsey.

First off, Chief, I just want to know what you think about, we see Bourbon Street back open, we see people filing into the Superdome, they are weathering much more security, and there's this kind of sense of, as we're hearing from officials in New Orleans, the need to mourn, but also the need to live and not let the terrorists win. What do you see? What are your concerns?

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, I agree with that. I think that now that they've taken additional security steps, it's right to reopen Bourbon Street, to go ahead with the game that was scheduled. I think that's fine, and I'm glad to see that they've taken some additional security steps. Many of those steps should have been taken on New Year's, but at least they're being taken now.

So, I think people can feel more comfortable going down there, and that's a good thing for the city of New Orleans.

KEILAR: So, what are the security steps that you see them taking that give you some confidence?

RAMSEY: Well, the bollard in the middle of the street on Bourbon Street that'll prevent a car from actually going through and having devices on the sidewalk that would prevent someone from circumventing that particular bollard and enter the street.

So, it's things like that, making sure that they've got it blocked off. It'll be a pedestrian only type of situation on Bourbon Street, I'm sure, for the length of Bourbon Street, so that people can feel comfortable being in that particular environment. But you have to block off the streets, and you have to do so in a way in which it can't be defeated by a vehicle.

KEILAR: Yes. And then I do want to mention, according to two internal memos obtained by CNN, you had DHS and the FBI warning law enforcement, just broadly last month, of the threat of violence from lone offenders around the holidays and the potential use of vehicle ramming. We saw just a few - you know, gosh, it feels like a few days ago, but it was a couple of weeks ago in Magdeburg, Germany, where we saw a vehicle used as a weapon to kill many people. And so often when that happens, you'll have officials in cities in the U.S. take that as a warning, oh, that could happen here. Was that missed in New Orleans?

RAMSEY: Well, it was missed to an extent. Obviously, they had some security, but they had insufficient security. And whether or not they were reacting to that particular memo or not, in today's world and the environment we're in now, and we've been in this situation for a while now, it's not like this is something that just happened. You really have to tighten security to an extreme level, where you'll get people to say, well, there's too many cops around, there's too much security.

I'd rather have them say that than have an inadequate number of personnel or devices and other ways in which we can keep the people safe and secure than to not have enough resources on the scene. And that's just not personnel, that's also equipment and things that you need to be able to take all the steps you can to keep people safe.

[15:14:59]

Now, having said that, you can stop a car from going down the street, but what if a person walks down there with an AK-47 or an M16, I mean, if someone who's bent on that kind of destruction really wants to perform it, it's very difficult to stop it. But there are things you can do to minimize the opportunity.

KEILAR: Yes. It seems like with the police presence, they were more prepared for a scenario like that, like a weapon. So many police were there. I also want to ask you about something else. I was just speaking with a council member who was raising questions about these IEDs that you now see - they're now seeing Jabbar on camera placing in the couple hours before the vehicle attack, and questions about how were those missed? What questions do you have about how law enforcement didn't see these?

RAMSEY: Well, one of the first things I noticed when there was a video clip that was shown after the incident occurred yesterday during the newscast that showed police officers running toward the scene where the truck had crashed or at least where it had breached the initial barrier that had been set up and was being run people over. There had to be about 12 cops that took off running. And the first thing that crossed my mind is, why are you all bunched up on the same corner.

I mean, you have people deployed, so you have a couple on each corner, but then you have teams that are actually walking up and down the street together as teams, being mobile. If you're mobile and if you're walking, you start to see things that don't look right, you can take action. Plus, it gives people that are there a better sense of safety and security.

And so that was a concern. And those are the kinds of things they got to - they have to look at and see whether or not - it's not just about how many people you have, it's what the hell they're doing. What do you have them doing? Where are they deployed? How are they deployed? What's their assignment?

Cities across America can learn from this. It's not just about New Orleans. I mean, it happened in New Orleans, but every major city ought to be looking at this and doing a debrief and saying, okay, if that happened here, how would we handle it? What are the steps we would have taken to prevent something like that from happening here at a major event? How do we have our personnel deployed? What are they doing? Do they have clear direction?

I mean, those are the kinds of things you just have to do.

KEILAR: Yes. These are the things you see that the untrained eye does not, raising questions about the use of personnel in the French Quarter or any city, really.

RAMSEY: Right.

KEILAR: Chief, great to have you. Thank you so much. RAMSEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, the Sugar Bowl kicking off in New Orleans next hour. The latest on the game and the preparations for it. Plus, we'll be joined by a Louisiana congressman who represents the city.

And federal authorities are also investigating that Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas. New details and photos that law enforcement just revealed.

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KEILAR: Today, the FBI announcing they believe they have identified the driver of the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion and are waiting on DNA results to confirm it. Officials did identify the man who rented the vehicle as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty U.S. Army Green Beret. His military record shows that he received five Bronze Star Medals during his service including one with decoration for valor. The FBI still investigating the motive of the explosion and trying to see whether this is tied to terrorism. CNN National Correspondent Natasha Chen is with us now.

Natasha, what more are you learning about the suspect and the investigation?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this is an investigation that is now global. Not only are there investigators looking at what's happened here in Las Vegas, but there is an FBI team that's been spending hours at a residence in Colorado Springs today, as well as a notion from the press conference that because he was on active duty serving in Germany at the time that he was approved to take leave when this happened, there are international searches as well going on.

So, this is going to take some time to figure out motive. We did hear from one of the officials at a press conference in the last hour or so talking about the fact that, yes, this is a Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER EVANS, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI: ... bombing, absolutely. And it's a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concern. It's not lost on us that it's in front of, you know, of the Trump building, that it's a Tesla vehicle. But we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or that, you know, any of the reasoning behind it. That's the purpose of the investigation that we're conducting is to get to the bottom of exactly what happened, why and how.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: At this point, they described this incident, they characterized it as a suicide with bombing that occurred immediately after. And that's because in the charred remains and the materials found inside, they figured out that the subject inside the car had died of a self- inflicted gunshot wound right before the explosion.

Now, I did speak to a couple of guests who did not want to be identified. They were staying here when this explosion happened. They were on one of the high floors above the 40th floor and heard that bomb sound. They said that their windows shook even that high up. And shortly after, even saw smoke billowing from the stairwell, billowing out of the elevator doors. And the elevator service had to be shut down for some time. And they were basically caught - stuck up there for a while, which was a very troubling experience, as you can imagine.

So definitely thankful that no one else was hurt even further, but there were seven people in the immediate vicinity injured beyond the person inside the truck who died, Brianna.

KEILAR: And tell us a little bit about the scene behind you. We can see that there are police vehicles. Is it sort of business as usual going into the hotel? It seems like they're making some repairs and things.

CHEN: There has been some police activity here, just some presence throughout the morning, throughout the day. But it is a fully operational hotel at this point, this - since this morning.

[15:25:03]

We've seen guests checking out, guests checking in. The valet service is working there. We did notice that there is some smoke damage along the ceiling of that valet drive-through. And there's a hole in the ceiling, actually. So, some of the cleanup and repairs are going on sort of as the guests are trying to come in and out.

It is very busy there. It is the day after New Year's when a lot of people are trying to get home from their vacations. And so, we do expect that, you know, everything will continue as usual there at the Trump hotel. They did say that there just would be police presence given that the - such an incident happened not more than about 24 hours ago.

KEILAR: Yes, it is really remarkable, though. It looks like things are going very well there as they're just continuing about their daily business.

Natasha Chen live for us in Las Vegas, thank you so much for the very latest on that Cybertruck explosion.

And we are now watching at the White House where President Biden is about to deliver remarks. He is actually going to be talking about - it's a bit of a legacy walk, his contribution to judicial confirmations. Let's listen in now to Sen. Dick Durbin.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): -- not just in a record-breaking number, but in the quality of the individuals who've been nominated and confirmed. I've served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for some time. As a matter of fact, all three of us have served on that committee for some time. And I think personally, I probably reviewed over a thousand judicial nominees in the committee and on the floor.

The record is clear. The nominees of President Joseph Biden to the federal bench represent the best of the judiciary, the best of America. When I became chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, filling these vacancies and bringing balance to the court was the highest priority. We faced some extraordinary challenges.

The first two years of the administration coincided with the longest evenly divided Senate in history. And for the past two years, Democrats have held only a narrow majority. On top of that, the Biden administration had fewer vacancies to fill on day one than the Trump administration did, in fact, fewer than half. Still, we succeeded beyond what any of us hoped for, 235 judges confirmed.

More than one out of every four judges now serving on the judicial bench were nominated by this president, Joseph Biden.

KEILAR: You are listening to an event there at the White House as here in the final days of the Biden administration, Joe Biden and those in his party are celebrating his legacy as he exits the White House. Certainly not as he wanted to, but today they are focusing on judicial confirmations that were made during his tenure.

We're going to keep an eye on this event that is happening in the White House State Dining Room and we'll bring you comments as we monitor them. We'll be right back after a quick break.

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