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Driver Of Cybertruck In Vegas Identified As Green Beret; Officials Have Warned About ISIS Recruitment Efforts In U.S.; Johnson Fights To Retain Gavel Ahead Of Friday Vote. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 02, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: -- may have been connected to the attack in New Orleans. Law enforcement officials have now said there is no direct link that they know of, but we now have the name of the individual involved.

It was, according to our colleagues John Miller and Haley Britzky, the man believed to have rented the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded, his name was Matthew Alan Livelsberger. He was, according to the U.S. Army -- CNN reported earlier that the man who rented the Cybertruck was a Special Forces soldier assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group.

The new information there as we continue to follow this story and the new elements of that. I now want to bring in former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Beth Sanner and Retired FBI Special Agent Bobby Chacon.

Beth, I want to start with you because I want to dive in on the New Orleans suspect and the kind of ISIS elements of that in a moment. But to start here, because there's a distinct difference in the profile, at least as much as we know so far, in the Las Vegas Tesla explosion, in the sense of it doesn't fit necessarily the profile we usually see from a lone wolf operator, somebody who has been radicalized by ISIS, as we've seen in the New Orleans case. What's your kind of read on the limited information we have on this individual?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, well, it's all speculation at this point, and we don't know whether this person was, you know, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, maybe some kind of Islamic connection, although I don't think that, or maybe mental illness, maybe PTSD and suicide is involved.

You know, curious for me for someone who is so experienced picking a Cybertruck, which has bulletproof windows, you know, it's kind of odd to me and stayed in the vehicle. So I don't really know.

But I do know this that, you know, if you are classified as a mass casualty perpetrator in the United States, you're more likely to be a person with a military background than the other indicators. And that doesn't mean that military people are radicalized more, but it means when they do radicalize, they're more likely to radicalize into using mass casualty and force. MATTINGLY: It's a great point. And to the extent there's any connective tissue between what happened in Las Vegas, what happened in New Orleans, Bobby, is that the New Orleans suspect, our perpetrator, also had a military background, had been, I believe, in the National Guard, had been honorably discharged.

Two very different career kind of trajectories in terms of a Special Forces soldier and the individual down in New Orleans. When you look at the kind of profile that we've seen from the New Orleans suspect, it does track with a lot of what law enforcement has warned about related to ISIS or ISIS radicalization over the course of the last several years. What stood out to you?

BOBBY CHACON, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, you're exactly right. I mean, look, this is what ISIS does. They're pro at it. You know, we've seen them do three camera shoots and slick editing in their videos. They put this material out, they put books out and videos out, and they basically put it out for the world.

And they wait for people that are in desperate situations or looking to turn to some material like that. It's like putting out baited food that's baited with poison for an animal that's injured, that can't hunt on its own, and it will come and consume that food and that poison.

So these people -- and we are now learning the New Orleans killer, you know, had financial problems, had marital problems. You know, he was somebody that was in his life, had some issues, and he apparently turned to this.

So ISIS has put this material out there for the world to consume, and the more people that are consuming it, the people that are kind of in certain mindsets and certain psychological areas in their lives that are having difficulty may consume that and then may turn into, you know, a killer like this. And that's what ISIS knows. They're very good at it.

These videos and this material is made with that intention. And he has all the hallmarks of, you know, what they tell them to do. As McCabe said earlier, you know, they tell them to make a video and release it just before you go and do your attack.

Number one, for your family. And number two, to pledge allegiance to ISIS. And so that's -- it tracks perfectly. Now, the Vegas bombing is the exact opposite. So in New Orleans, body count was high. He wanted to kill as many people as possible.

He drove the truck until he couldn't kill anymore. He got out and then started shooting people. And so that was a high body count. That's what ISIS wants.

Now, in Vegas, this guy, if you watch the video, it's a terrible explosion, but you don't see any other humans around. If he wanted to kill people and have a high body count, he would have driven to a much -- a different area of Vegas. There's plenty of crowds in Vegas. He got to hop the sidewalk in front of the Bellagio and mow down people if he wanted to. So those attacks are so different that that's where the disconnect to me occurs. Because if he wanted a high body count with that kind of explosion, he could have easily done that in Vegas and he chose not to.

MATTINGLY: And certainly used a different vehicle to Beth's point.

[12:35:01]

Beth, what's striking to me is, you know, there's probably a lot of people who ISIS hasn't been front of mind for a bit. My colleague Katie Bo Lillis had a great story today, kind of laying out that federal officials have been warning about this still being an ongoing threat, about this still being a significant concern.

I believe there have been plots that have been broken up before they actually came to the point we saw in New Orleans. Walk people through that, the existing threat that still exists here.

SANNER: Right. So we've had, you know, IS was at its height, you know, and President Trump really was able to take credit for destroying ISIS, the caliphate in the, you know, late 2020s or 2019-2020 in Syria. But since then, the group is much more dispersed.

And you have these places around the world in Afghanistan. This is ISIS-Khorasan. Those are the people who did the attack in Russia against the Crocus Hall. And also, most likely behind the Taylor Swift attacks that were planned in Vienna, and that CIA and other intel helped shut down before there was a mass casualty event there.

And so we are seeing this spike in Islamic State. And, you know, in this past year, we've had 14 arrests in the United States related to IS, you know, Islamic State. Five of those had active plots. And the reason -- and that's up from nine last in 2023, and none of those were active plots.

And part of the reason for this is because of what's happening in the Middle East, the real feeling around Gaza and the Palestinians. And now we're seeing a big push after the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, where ISIS has been making a comeback in the last year.

And so really for the entire community, the IS threat is certainly very serious, but it's being manifested in these kind of inspirational plots involving generally single people. Maybe small groups, but generally single people.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's an important point and an important warning for something law enforcement has been paying very close attention to, as maybe other people in their daily lives have moved on somewhat. Something certainly everybody will be paying attention to going forward.

Bobby Chacon, Beth Sanner, thank you guys very much for your time and expertise.

And coming up --

CHACON: Thanks, Phil.

MATTINGLY: -- welcome to the 119th Congress, almost, like 23-ish hours. Will Republicans re-elect Mike Johnson as their speaker? And how long will it take to start moving on the Trump agenda?

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[12:42:06]

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CHERYL JOHNSON, CLERK OF THE HOUSE: No member elect haven't received a majority of the votes cast. The speaker has not been elected.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

MATTINGLY: You guys may have become pretty familiar with that back in January 2023. The last time it took several ballots for a new Congress to elect a speaker. Sources tell CNN that Speaker Mike Johnson's allies are actively preparing for the race to go multiple rounds tomorrow.

Remember, it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds to win the gavel two years ago. We all became very familiar with the clerk at the time. There's a new clerk now, Kevin McCumber. We'll see if he gets a lot of screen time as well.

At this moment, more than a dozen Republicans have still not committed to supporting Johnson on the floor, but the Speaker is projecting confidence heading into the big day.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We're going to get this done. Look, I'm humbled and honored to have President Trump's endorsement for the role again. We cannot afford any palace drama here. We have got to get the Congress started, which begins tomorrow, and we have to get immediately to work.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

MATTINGLY: My panel is back with me now. And Tia, I want to start with what you heard from Mike Johnson there about the Trump endorsement. We saw it on X, very important, I think earlier than was planned because it was a necessity on some level. We also saw it on New Year's Eve.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they'll, you know, support Speaker Johnson. I think we're going to have a great time in Washington and I think we're going to get great support. He's the one that can win right now. People like him, almost everybody likes him.

We're going to get a successful vote. He's a good man. He's a very -- he's a wonderful person and that's what you need.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

MATTINGLY: My question to you, why is that not enough?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Well, it's not enough because, quite frankly, there are some members of Congress, Republican members, who just are not happy with Mike Johnson's leadership. And they're willing, possibly, to split with Trump to stay true to their principles.

They're -- you know, they don't like the continuing resolutions. They don't like that he's added spending, mainly to try to compromise with Democrats on these spending bills to avoid government shutdown. So there are plenty of very conservative House Republicans who don't necessarily want to pick a fight with Donald Trump.

But they do believe their principles called them to kind of stick to what they feel like they came to Washington to do. And that kind of puts them at odds, sometimes, with Speaker Johnson. We see that with Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example. She's a big ally of President Trump, but she's one of Mike Johnson's biggest critics.

So usually, she falls in line, but there are others who seem less willing to do so. So that's why Friday's going to be such a toss-up.

MATTINGLY: Chief -- among them is Thomas Massie.

MITCHELL: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Who's the one member who's come out and said explicitly, I'm a no, which Mike Johnson can afford to lose one Republican and still be able to become Speaker. It's the rest that need to worry. But if people are trying to figure out who Thomas Massie is, one, this isn't rare for him.

And two, there's this great profile of him in The Wall Street Journal where it says in part, "Massie waves off the political risks. He survived attacks by Trump and his own party before. His wife of three decades died last year. Massie says, quote, 'I don't know how to say this without cussing. If they thought I had no Fs to give before, I definitely have no Fs to give now.'"

Is Massie a symptom of something broader or is he just Massie?

[12:45:20]

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, see also last month when you heard there, Mike Johnson mentioned palace drama. Well, he experienced that when they were dealing with the impending government shutdown and the spending bills. And that is what it looks like under a Trump administration, which is what he is going to experience, which is by one tweet by Elon Musk, everything sort of tanked that they had worked on.

So the next 24 hours, I think, are going to be pretty critical to see how Republicans either get behind Trump's endorsement or not. If Trump changes his mind, I mean, we're living hour by hour here. So whether they're already preparing for it to go into multiple rounds and what you said about Massie could be just Massie, but it also gives permission to others to vote no if they don't get along with them.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I'm a little skeptical of the multiple rounds. Certainly not as many as McCarthy. I mean, it's possible that there might be a few, obviously, to send a message to the speaker. But, look, without that endorsement from the president-elect, Johnson would be in a world of hurt.

With that endorsement, I think that it's hard for me to imagine that Republicans defying the president-elect at this point on the cusp. We saw it at the end of the year on spending, but that's a fiscal question that many Republicans like to vote against the spending bills anyway.

I'll be very surprised if that happens, but we shall see. If it does, if there are House Republicans who defy the president-elect now, that is a much more interesting sign of issues to come going forward. But boy, Speaker Johnson, Trump made him sweat it for a little bit, a few days, without giving that endorsement.

But he got it sort of going into the holidays. I would be surprised if there's a repeat. And Monday is a key deadline because that is when the Electoral College certification happens. So, if there's a speaker fight at the same time, that means it slows down that. Hard for me to imagine.

MATTINGLY: I mean, I think that's the two pieces of this that I think are most obvious to benefit Johnson, which is one, you have an ambitious agenda, starting with immigration, your topic, Priscilla, right off the bat, that they need to move on immediately.

There's January 6th, where the electoral votes are counted. I want to be very clear, without a speaker, the House of Representatives can do nothing at all. So they have to do this to move forward.

So are those who are holding out right now, Tia, are they doing that -- are they trying to get something out of it?

MITCHELL: I think so --

MATTINGLY: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- because we're -- you're already seeing people talk about the rules package, which is kind of wonky down in the weeds, but it determines kind of how they conduct business amongst each other. And people are saying some of the things we don't like.

So we'll see if they kind of make Johnson sweat it out today into tomorrow and maybe try to get tweaks with the rules package. That became something that Kevin McCarthy really folded on after those 15 rounds. And it ultimately led him to losing his speakership months later.

So I don't think Johnson is willing to fold as much as McCarthy, but could there be members who try to pull some tweaks out of that and again, let him sweat a little bit? I don't think he sweats for long, to Jeff's point, because Donald Trump wants those votes, electoral votes certified on Monday. But I mean, that means they have all weekend to kind of play with the speaker's race.

MATTINGLY: Every Hill reporter right now is like, stop, Tia, please stop. I mean, I think to your point, the rules package, wonky and certainly was the death knell. It turned out for Kevin McCarthy, but also it's critical in trying to shape things on some level.

Priscilla, can we pull up the House balance of power real quick, because I think this is an important point, given --

ALVAREZ: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- what they're going to be doing right off the bat, which is after the election, 220 Republicans won their races, 215 House Democrats, Matt Gaetz had resigned his seat. We don't think he's going to show up. That would make it 219, 215. That means Johnson could lose one.

Obviously, members could not vote at all. They cannot show up. They could vote present. That lowers the count a little bit. We'll get into all those dynamics, I'm sure, in the next 24 hours a lot. What does this portend for the agenda is my bigger question?

ALVAREZ: I mean, look at the math. It is so narrow. You can't really afford to lose many Republicans, if at all, even when you're trying to pass an ambitious agenda. And yes, there are issues like immigration, where Republicans may appear to all be on the same page, but I have covered immigration legislation multiple times, and there are still multiple fractures, even within the Republican conference.

So it is not as easy as, you know, we all agree that the border needs to be shut, and here is the bill, and we're all going to get behind it. It is actually incredibly complicated. So the fact that it's so, so narrow is going to make it very complicated for Mike Johnson, should he be speaker. Assuming that he is speaker, and everything that they want to get done from there.

[12:50:03]

ZELENY: Tomorrow is probably the easiest vote. Actually --

ALVAREZ: Yes.

ZELENY: -- the policy that you're talking about, Priscilla --

ALVAREZ: Yes.

ZELENY: -- that's going to be much more difficult. A few Democrats will vote with them on the policy, perhaps, but not on speaker. That is one thing that it is truly a party line vote. So everyone have to be here. We shall see. But I'd be surprised, again, I've been wrong many times, but it's hard to imagine 15 rounds.

MITCHELL (?): Yes.

MATTINGLY: Well, I mean, there's a difference between trying to imagine any multiple rounds and 15 rounds.

ZELENY: Right.

MATTINGLY: That is not -- I mean, I need more specifics out of you. You said two rounds --

ZELENY: A handful.

MATTINGLY: -- a handful of rounds.

ZELENY: It'll be done by the weekend.

MATTINGLY: In Nebraska, handful is anywhere between two and 376.

ZELENY: We have big hands.

MATTINGLY: Thank you guys very much.

We have more in Inside Politics next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:55:07]

MATTINGLY: In just a few hours, the Sugar Bowl will kick off at the New Orleans Superdome, and it will begin with a moment of silence honoring the victims of yesterday's terror attack on Bourbon Street. That includes Tiger Bech, a former Princeton football player from Lafayette, Louisiana, who was home for the holidays. He had been working as a junior trader in New York City.

Also, 21-year-old Hubert Gauthreaux, who graduated from Archbishop Shaw High School in New Orleans. And Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two, summed up this way by his cousin.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TRAVIS HUNTER, COUSIN DIED IN NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: To know Reggie was to love Reggie. He was always in a good mood. He could change the environment in the room. Always smiling, just a pure person. Good, pure-hearted person.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

MATTINGLY: There are also 35 people still recovering from injuries from the terror attack. Here at Inside Politics, we send our deepest condolences to all of the loved ones impacted by this senseless violence.

Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after the break.