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FBI Believes Attacker Who Killed 14 in French Quarter Acted Alone; Trump-Backed Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) Faces Critical Vote to Remain Speaker; Officials Still Searching for a Motive After Cybertruck Explosion. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 03, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight the FBI revealing chilling new details and new images showing the attacker placing explosive devices in the French Quarter. This morning, authorities are asking for the public's help in their investigation as grieving loved ones remember the last moments they shared with the 14 victims killed on Bourbon Street.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You can cut my fingers off. I am not voting for Mike Johnson. That is a direct quote from one Republican lawmaker ahead of today's House speaker vote. We've got the latest whip count on Johnson's shaky position.

And a dramatic standoff as police try to arrest a president. Thousands take to the streets.

Kate is out. I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and this is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: He acted alone, the FBI changing its initial assessment of who was involved and what they have officially now deemed an act of terrorism in New Orleans. They also revised the number of people killed to 14. The 15th person who died was the terrorist who plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in a rented pickup truck.

This morning, authorities trying to answer questions as to how several warning signs were missed before 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar's deadly attack. Sources say, a search of a Houston home related to Jabbar found chemicals typically used to build explosives.

Now, we want to show you some footage obtained by CNN, a Ring camera capturing him just hours before the attack, loading several items into his truck, and authorities say surveillance camera images show the suspect planting coolers loaded with explosives in two other locations in the French Quarter. A remote detonator was found in his vehicle.

Questions are also being raised about security efforts to protect Bourbon Street from an attack of this magnitude. A 2019 report by a private security firm warned. There was a need for an immediate improvement on security barriers in the French Quarter, and it said the likelihood of terrorism involving mass shootings or car attacks was, quote, highly possible while moderately probable.

CNN's Ryan Young is live on the scene. He's been covering the story from the start. You have the very latest on the investigation. What are you learning this morning, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Sara. Now that we know and we've seen parts of that report, you understand why there are people here who are asking questions about what the next steps are, especially when it comes to improving security in this area before the Super Bowl.

But if you look behind me, that's where the accident pretty much came to an end down this part of Bourbon Street. We're a little bit above at this point. This street has been hardened over the last 24 hours. They have large trucks on either end. They put barriers up towards sidewalks to make sure folks can't just come through anymore.

This street was opened yesterday and in fact they did a second line. Now, that's part of almost a celebration here in New Orleans as they try to memorialize the people who lost their lives here. So, we watched the mayor and the police chief and clergy members all moving together to symbolize the reopening of this famous street here, placed 14 roses down.

But you can still understand the pain that is connected with what surrounded this area, the bodies that were just strewn up and down the street. We actually talked to Matthew Tenedorio's family about the sudden loss and the tragic ending of his life. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHY TENEDORIO, MOTHER OF NEW ORLEANS VICTIM MATTHEW TENEDORIO: If he could help, if he could, you know, that's what -- that was him. He would help.

LOU TENEDORIO, FATHER OF NEW ORLEANS VICTIM MATTHEW TENEDORIO: I mean, I wasn't there, so I can't really tell you exactly what happened, but that's just a bit from what we're hearing from his friends.

C. TENEDORIO: Yes, they ran towards to see if they could help.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And do you know --

C. TENEDORIO: And utter chaos when the gunshots started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:00]

YOUNG: Sara, reading the names here of the people that we know so far, who've been lost, Matthew Tenedorio, Reggie Hunter, Hubert Gautreaux, Drew Dauphin, Billy DiMaio, Nicole Perez, Tiger Bech, and Kareem Badawi. Those are the people that we know so far that have lost their lives. Of course, we're still trying to learn more about those victims. Coming back here live, we know they're going to be putting more security protocols in place, especially before the Super Bowl. When I was talking to the superintendent, which is basically the chief of police here, they were telling me that the NFL was here as well, and they were looking at all the security plans moving forward.

And we know federal resources have been surging this area with over a thousand officers that were in place for the Sugar Bowl yesterday. So, we know more improvements will happen. Sara?

SIDNER: There is a lot of security that needs to be put in place, a lot of people concerned about the Sugar Bowl and, of course, the Super Bowl that is coming up there.

Ryan Young, thank you so much for your reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, the beginning of a day that could see House Speaker Mike Johnson lose his job and President-elect Trump lose some juice, or not. We just don't know. Very shortly, the House will vote on its next speaker.

Republicans hold one of the slimmest majorities ever. Two no votes could sink Johnson. A handful of Republicans are shaky, and one is a hell no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I am the one hell no. You know, they say there's up to five or six who may be voting no. You can count on me to be a no.

You can pull all my fingernails out. You can shove bamboo up in them. You can start cutting off my fingers. I am not voting for Mike Johnson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He brought out the bamboo there.

Lauren Fox is in Washington for us this morning, just a few hours before this vote. Where do things stand, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, if you're Speaker Mike Johnson this morning, you are staring down these votes, and it's not clear right now if this race is locked up for him.

We do know, as you just heard from Thomas Massie, that he'll be voting against Speaker Johnson and he's going to be voting for another candidate. That means Johnson cannot lose a single other Republican who would vote for another candidate. That's assuming everyone's in full attendance and Democrats are all voting for Hakeem Jeffries.

But I'll just walk you through the last 24 hours. Speaker Mike Johnson has been having phone calls. He has been having meetings with some of these holdouts, and some of them are insisting on some changes structurally. They want promises about how Johnson's going to handle future spending bills. They want promises that he'll include spending cuts in some of those negotiations. And they also just want some other promises that Johnson is going to bring members into the fold sooner when he's negotiating big pieces of legislation. Think that tax bill that has to pass in the next 12 months. Those are the kinds of things that some of these Republican holdouts are asking for.

But right now, we're looking at about ten Republicans who have either not committed to Johnson or say that they want other commitments from Mike Johnson. That is a difficult way to head into a day that you're hoping to clinch the speaker's gavel.

Again, here are some of the comments we're hearing from holdouts and Johnson allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I do believe that Mike Johnson coming out and committing to Chip Roy being the chairman of the Rules Committee would secure the vote on the first round.

REP. VICTORIA SPARTZ (R-IN): As of right now, if we don't have concrete commitment from Speaker Johnson, I am not going to be supporting him tomorrow, but I'm open minded. I'm going to talk to some other members and hopefully we can act with him later tonight or tomorrow morning and figure out if we can actually make real changes in this institution.

REP. NICK LALOTA (R-NY): Two years ago, there was a 15 round knockout drag out fight. This may be more like a pillow fight.

Despite a couple of my colleagues dissenting a little bit over the last couple of weeks, I think we'll come together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And you can expect that Speaker Mike Johnson is going to continue having conversations with some of these holdout members going into this vote we expect to begin sometime after noon today. But I will tell you that sources we are talking to on our Hill team, they are making clear that Johnson is not interested in negotiating a series of side deals like we saw when Kevin McCarthy was trying speakership after that 15 round speaker vote that we saw back in 2023.

Does that change? Does he start to soften on that position once we go round after round and he still doesn't have the speakership? I think that remains to be seen, John.

BERMAN: Look, I like Nick LaLota's idea, a pillow fight, a House pillow fight to determine the speaker. I would tune in for that.

Look, the good news for Mike Johnson is that, right now, there is only one who is a hell no against him, Thomas Massie, but as you said, the bad news is there's this handful of others who aren't definite yeses yet. This will be interesting, pillow fight or not.

Lauren Fox, thank you very much. And, of course, you can watch all of this unfold.

[07:10:00]

We're tracking down each and every vote over the course of the morning. The vote takes place shortly after noon Eastern.

This morning, we have brand new information on the identity of the man who set off an explosion outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. What investigators are now revealing about his possible motive.

Snow, ice, freezing temperatures and dangerous thunderstorms, a major winter storm slamming parts of the United States.

And Simone Biles says she has accomplished a lot but does not want to be greedy. Does that mean the most decorated gymnast of all time is getting ready to retire?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: New this morning, Las Vegas investigators are still trying to figure out why a Cybertruck driver chose to blow his vehicle up outside the Trump International Hotel. Investigators say Matthew Livelsberger was a decorated combat veteran and a new father. He was an active duty Army Green Beret on leave from his base in Germany at the time of the New Year's Day blast.

Here's CNN's Natasha Chen with more on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Authorities say they believe the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded just outside the entrance doors of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas was 37- year-old Matthew Livelsberger.

[07:15:09]

His body was burned beyond recognition, and police are waiting for additional forensic analysis for final confirmation.

SHERIFF KEVIN MCMAHILL, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: In how we're trying to identify him, and I'm feeling comfortable to give you this information is a tremendous amount of substantial evidence.

CHEN: The motive for the bombing remains unknown, but police say Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head just before the explosion. They found two guns, a military I.D., a smartphone and a smartwatch inside the Cybertruck. They've also identified two tattoos they say Livelsberger had.

MCMANILL: One of which was on the stomach, one of which is on the arm that we can see bits and pieces of it as in comparison to what it is that we now know he had on his body.

CHEN: Livelsberger was an active duty member in the Army Special Forces operation serving in Germany with previous tours in Afghanistan. He was awarded five bronze stars and held the rank of master sergeant, a senior enlistment, according to four U.S. officials.

He was on approved leave when police say he rented the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado, arriving in Las Vegas New Year's Day. He drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before passing the Trump Hotel. Livelsberger then circled back and parked the Cybertruck in the entrance driveway just moments before the fiery blast, according to law enforcement officials.

Video of the aftermath shows the bed of the Cybertruck loaded with fireworks, gas tanks, and camping fuel.

KENNY COOPER, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF ATF, SAN FRANCISCO FIELD OFFICE: The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience.

CHEN: Police credit the Tesla vehicle's body construction, forcing the blast upward and limiting the damage to the hotel driveway, even leaving the glass doors intact.

Law enforcement officials say they have not connected the explosion at the Trump Hotel to the deadly terror attack in New Orleans in the early morning hours on New Year's Day, but acknowledge the similarities.

Like Livelsberger, the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, used a vehicle to carry out the attack, killing 14 people. Both have a military background. Jabbar was an Army veteran and served in Afghanistan. They even rented their trucks through the same company, Turo.

MCMAHILL: If these turned out to be simply similarities, very strange similarities to have. And so we're not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Next thousands show up to try to stop the arrest of a president. South Korean investigators are standing down efforts to detain the president after a dramatic standoff. We will give you more details on that.

And the countdown to a vote for the speaker of the House, he can only lose one Republican. Can Mike Johnson unite his party?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, investigators in South Korea are suspending efforts to detain the president there after a dramatic standoff with his security team. President Yoon Suk Yeol has already been impeached and suspended from office over accusations of abuse of power and orchestrating a rebellion. So, again, there was this standoff when police tried to arrest him overnight. It was all set off this entire process when Yoon tried to declare martial law briefly last month.

CNN's Mike Valerio reports from the ground in South Korea,

MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, the question now is this, what do prosecutors and investigators do to make sure that there is not a repeat of this again? Or will they even try again to arrest South Korea's suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol? But to give you an idea of the backdrop that we have right now, all the people, the hundreds of people who you see standing a few blocks with all of their South Korean flags, those are supporters of South Korea's suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol.

And for his part, Yoon issued a clarion call as soon as this warrant for his arrest was issued on Tuesday, and he sent a letter to supporters paraphrasing here. Saying, hey, I need you all to come out and make it much harder for law enforcement to detain, make it much harder for law enforcement to arrest me. And they answered that clarion call.

So, fast forward to earlier this morning, we have not only his supporters, but the equivalent of South Korea's Secret Service protecting the president and refusing to turn over suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol to investigators, investigators who want to hold him accountable for putting this country down the road of martial law, declaring martial law one month ago on December 3rd into the early morning hours of December 4th.

So, this is dealing with criminal charges. Meantime, we have new reporting that the suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol has his first date of his impeachment trial, the first trial session of the impeachment saga, which is set for January 14th.

So, in some, we're waiting to see the next move. What will prosecutors and investigators do? Will they try again to bring South Korea's suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol into custody?

BERMAN: Quite a situation there. Mike Valerio in Seoul.

Millions of Americans under alert as a major weather event is set to unleash thunderstorms, tornadoes, and crippling ice storms across the country.

And this morning, we have new firsthand accounts from survivors of the terror attack in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZION PARSONS, FRIEND KILLED IN BOURBON STREET ATTACK: The attack in itself was just horrific, man, like truly, straight out of a movie, unlike anything I've seen.

I barely slept. It's hard to eat. I can't eat. I just ate my first little piece of sandwich the other day and it just makes my stomach so upset. You know, being here is actually quite unsettling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:25:00]

BERMAN: A moment of silence at the Sugar Bowl to honor the victims of the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans. As the investigation there continues, the family of the attacker is speaking out, saying the man that they knew was kind and soft spoken and that, quote, something screwed him up.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Houston where the attacker lived with the latest this morning. Ed, what are you learning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, as FBI investigators have said that this suspect was an ISIS sympathizer and at some point had become radicalized, his own family is still struggling to figure out exactly when that happened. They insist they saw no indications that this radicalization and sympathy for ISIS had been brewing within their family member.

CNN spoke with a brother and the father of the suspect, and they told CNN that something fogged his mind that he's not this type of person, someone or something fogged his mind. They also went on to talk about his Islamic faith. They said that the suspect understood what it meant to be a Muslim and that's what I've seen from him in the time that we got closer, how he carried himself and how he treated other people. It wasn't anything of his nature. It wasn't this tragedy, it was the complete opposite. So, both those family members kind of struggling to understand what exactly happened to this New Orleans terror suspect.

We also know that inside the home where he was last living here in the Houston area, investigators spent hours combing through that home in North Houston yesterday.

[07:30:00]

We were able to speak with a neighbor of the suspect who talked about having seen the white pickup truck in front of their home just before he.