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Death Toll Rises to 15 in New Year's Eve Truck Attack; Sugar Bowl Postponed Until Tomorrow in Wake of New Orleans Attack; Soon, Biden Remarks on New Orleans Attack; Justin Baldoni Sues NYT For $250M Over Blake Lively Story; Source: Cybertruck That Exploded In Front Of Trump Hotel In Las Vegas Also Rented On Turo; Biden Makes Remarks On New Orleans Attack. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, the death toll rises to 15 in the New Year's Eve attack in New Orleans.

[18:00:01]

A Louisiana senator joins us this hour to tell us what he's learning about the investigation and the FBI's belief that the truck driver did not, I repeat, not act alone.

Also this hour, urgent questions about security in New Orleans and other cities in the aftermath of this attack. The Sugar Bowl delayed now by a day as another major college football game is happening tonight.

And another potential act of terror is under investigation right now. We're going to tell you what we're now learning about a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

This hour, the FBI investigation of the New Orleans attack is intensifying as the official death toll just increased. Our CNN team is here with our new reporting as we come on the air. First, let's go to CNN's Omar Jimenez, who's in New Orleans. He's got the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sudden terror on Bourbon Street.

KIMBERLY STRICKLIN, EYEWITNESS: There were just bodies and the screams. You cannot think about, you know, unhear that. It was chaos and very, very scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything in the car is hitting, it's getting thrown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A vehicle ran through a crowd of people. There's multiple injuries, multiple casualties. They need you at Canal and Bourbon. JIMENEZ: Just hours after the clock struck midnight, the driver in a pickup truck went around barricades, according to police, killing those celebrating New Year's Eve along the iconic street. At least 15 people were killed, dozens others injured.

ANNE E. KIRKPATRICK, NOPD SUPERINTENDENT: This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil.

JIMENEZ: The suspect identified as Shamsuddin Jabbar, a 42-year-old man from Texas, who previously served in the U.S. military. He was driving a privately rented pickup truck from Turo, an Airbnb-type rental site for cars.

ALETHEA DUNCAN, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: An ISIS flag was located on the trailer hitch of the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.

JIMENEZ: Once the vehicle stopped, the driver reportedly opened fire on responding police officers.

DUNCAN: Law enforcement returned fire and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two law enforcement officers were injured and transported to local hospitals.

JIMENEZ: Witnesses are asking questions about why the city's steel mechanical barricades weren't up prior to the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was police there at the entrance, a lot of police there, but the metal barricades were not up.

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL (D-NEW ORLEANS, LA): Bollards were not up because they are near completion.

JIMENEZ: The FBI, which has taken over the investigation, does not believe the suspect acted alone.

DUNCAN: We're aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.

JIMENEZ: And the Sugar Bowl for college football scheduled to be held in New Orleans this evening has been postponed.

JEFF HUNDLEY, CEO, SUGAR BOWL: All agree that it's in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game for 24 hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): And we are starting to learn more about the now 15 who were killed as a result of this attack, including 37-year-old Reggie Hunter from Baton Rouge. He had just texted his family Happy New Year a little earlier in the evening, according to his cousin, who tells us that he was someone who liked to laugh and tell jokes. He loved his family, loved his kids, leaves behind an 11-year-old and a 1-year-old just hours into 2025, Wolf. BLITZER: Our deepest condolences to his family. All right, Omar, thank you very much.

I want to get right to our Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. He's getting some new reporting for us. John, what are you learning?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Wolf, what we've been trying to do is develop a richer picture of who is the man behind this carnage in New Orleans, what do we know about him, and what can that tell us about motive.

And what we've learned from multiple sources is that Mr. Jabbar apparently made, according to authorities, a series of voice recordings on video as he drove, they believe, from Texas to Louisiana to partake in these attacks, allegedly.

The recordings talk about the turmoil in his family, the long fought, bitter divorce he was going through. He discusses, according to officials briefed on the videos, where it appears they're made while he's driving, but it's in the dark, so you can't really see him on these videos recorded apparently on his phone, but he talks about the idea of getting his family together for a celebration, which would have been a ruse so that he could kill all of them, but that over time, after having a series of dreams about joining ISIS, that he changed his plan to carry out this attack in New Orleans to create mass casualties in the name of ISIS.

[18:05:17]

So, what we're starting to see is an individual who was experiencing turmoil and stressors in life, who was going to act out in some kind of violent way. And at least, according to what they believe are his own words, decided to do this as an alternative to killing his family. In the recordings he also has a last will and testament where he divides up what little money he has left after all the financial losses and setbacks he had suffered to family members.

So, they're beginning to get a picture of what was going on. And it seems to be what was going on in the background of this individual's life that was as much of a driver as any commitment to terrorism.

BLITZER: Yes, John Miller, great reporting as usual. Standby. We may get back to you in a moment or so.

I want to get some more now on the federal investigation from CNN's Evan Perez. Evan, authorities have released a photo of the man identified as the driver of the truck that plowed into that crowd in New Orleans, killed 15 people and injured dozens of others.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And that photograph is being put out there by the FBI in part to try to drive tips from the public. They have asked -- they've set up a website, fbi.gov/bourbonstreetattack. They are asking the public to send in any information, any videos, anything about where this suspect may have been over the last several days, over the last several weeks, as they were developing this plot.

And we also know, obviously, as we've reported previously, that he was an Army veteran. He served in the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2020, both in active duty and in reserve status. He actually deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 for about a year into early 2010. And, you know, again, part of the picture, as John was just describing, you know, is coming into focus now for the investigators.

A lot of his problems and whatever might have been his motivation to then associate with ISIS, which is clear, according to the investigators, that that is exactly what his intent was, again, is what's driving all of this. Wolf?

BLITZER: And I know, Evan, you're also getting clarification from law enforcement officials on possible accomplices.

PEREZ: Right. The FBI is still trying to determine whether there's anybody else who might have been involved. Obviously, they know that he was trying to associate with ISIS. It's not clear whether he was talking to anybody in particular to try to plot this attack, or whether, again, this was more of a self-directed of the type that we've seen before.

We also know, Wolf, that they were looking at a video, surveillance video, that showed four people who they at least thought initially could have been involved with maybe some of the IEDs that were found elsewhere in the French Quarter.

The FBI later determined that those people had nothing to do with carrying out this attack. So, at least for that part of the investigation, that part is closed off. They are still, however, looking into the possibility that there are other people who could have been involved, again, in either helping to construct the IEDs or who may have known about his plans before he carried it out. All of that is still on the table, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, still investigating all of that. Evan Perez, thank you very much.

I want to break all of this down with our law enforcement and security experts right now. Juliette Kayyem, I'll start with you. These are very disturbing recordings that John Miller just reported on. How critical could they be to this overall investigation?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They're going to be very critical. And I was hearing John Miller's reporting seemed to now sort of close a gap that came out of that press conference, which was this idea that, you know, they didn't feel like there was any ongoing threat and yet a concern that he had accomplices. You would never go out and tell the public there's no threat if there were a bunch of accomplices.

It seems now that some of this has to do with, they're just investigating people that may have known him, or whether he was pushed from, you know, being online or travel abroad, but that there's a lot of personal aspects to his motivation as well, a divorce, financial troubles, anger, violence, and terrorism and embracing ISIS that combined into a narrative that we saw unfold, a horror that we saw unfold.

And so, in terms of motive, that now is starting to suggest why they only delayed the Sugar Bowl by 24 hours, why they're making a lot of announcements about people getting out, just not going near Bourbon Street, and you're seeing a little bit more confidence in terms of the safety and security for people in the city.

[18:10:10]

Donell Harvin is with us once again right now. Donell, what do these recordings tell you about the attacker expressing a desire to join ISIS and kill his family at one point?

DONELL HARVIN, FORMER D.C. CHIEF OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE: We've seen over the last eight to ten years, Wolf, that it doesn't take much to push people over the edge. Generally, when you're looking at the type of backgrounds of individuals that commit violence, or they're immobilized to violence that are radicalized, they often had some type of grievance. Grievance can come from financial or personal issues, family issues. And ISIS has done very well over the last decade, appealing to many of these people online.

And so, you know, another thing we've seen over the last decade is ISIS reaching out to people who would be terrorists and telling them to do very low tech attacks, just like we saw last night. We've seen that two weeks ago, we've seen that for many, many different instances where individuals who would be radicalized, they get into a car, which is easily accessible and turn that car or vehicle or van into a weapon.

BLITZER: Michael Harrison is with us as well. Michael, you're the former head of the New Orleans Police Department. The death toll, as you know, has now risen to at least 15 dead. What does that say to you about the scale of the attack?

MICHAEL HARRISON, FORMER SUPERINTENDENT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: First of all, let me offer my condolences, sympathies, and thoughts to the victims. And then my praise to the police officers who confronted this threat and neutralized this threat before further carnage could have happened. But it speaks to the intensity of which he was hell bent on committing harm. We saw the video, we saw him turn around and go around the police car that was blocking the street. Yes, the violence were not there, but the plan B was in place for them to block the street using the police vehicle, but he drove around onto a sidewalk where pedestrians are walking and then hit the gas and began to hit as many people as he could until he came to a crash and confronted police.

And it shows how intensely he wanted to commit harm, how intensely he wanted to kill people, which I agree with Superintendent Kirkpatrick. This is sheer evil.

BLITZER: I want to go back to John Miller. John, we're just getting in some very disturbing new video, new video of someone walking out of a bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans shortly after the attack. I want to play that for you and for our audience. Watch this.

What's your reaction to that, John?

MILLER: Well, that appears to be where police confront him and the stop because you hear all of those shots being fired. This is actually standard practice for ISIS. I know it sounds odd to say that, but ISIS has been very organized about telling attackers how to do what they need to do. Their manual of how to do a ramming attack, which appeared in their magazine Rumiyah Magazine, I think it was Issue 13, where they talk about get the largest vehicle you can. The larger the vehicle, the more people you'll be able to hit, the fewer places they'll have to run to get out of the way. Try to find a place where you can achieve a long enough run to get maximum speed.

But among the other things they say, Wolf, is have a secondary weapon so that when you finally are stopped, whether you come to a stop or you crash, or police stop you, you are able to exit the video and continue your attack with knives or guns or IEDs, in this case, it seems like there might have been a combination of at least two of those, and achieve martyrdom for the cause. This is literally all built into the plan.

So, what we're seeing yesterday, what we're hearing in that dramatic video, the number of shots being fired, what we saw in those terrible videos of the truck going down the street is really kind of literally out of the ISIS playbook. And who do they seek? They seek people who are in that hero to zero mode, where their life is failing and they kind of try to convert that with propaganda where they say, you'll go from loser to lion if you do it in our name.

BLITZER: Juliette, what do you make of the truly harrowing situation seen in that bystander?

KAYYEM: I mean, I think what you're seeing is people who are trying to get out of a car going, I think, at this stage, we're measuring over 40 miles per hour and getting them just simply out of the way of the vehicle. And this is why the question of the permanent barriers is going to come up because, look, these security measures always have to be upgraded.

[18:15:08]

And we're hearing that this was a security upgrade, possibly in anticipation of the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks, but New Year's Eve came before that. And so, if you have barricades, temporary barricades, permanent barricades, and then the third level tends to be sanitation trucks or whatever, you some of that layer defense, all of them are intended to essentially try to slow down a car. What we're seeing in those videos is that none of them worked. He was, to quote the public officials, hellbent on killing and got on the sidewalk.

And there will be questions about whether that couldn't have been impeded in some way. But these are normal questions to ask. And I think these are questions that New Orleans will want to ask as it moves forward in its preparation, for example, for Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. Look, this effort came out of 2016. Almost every city had did not have this until the major attacks in Paris -- I'm sorry, in Nice and Berlin using vehicles. And lots of cities then got very creative and protecting open areas like this. They may have to be reassessed or fortified again, given the vehicular attacks that we're seeing these days.

BLITZER: Yes, that's so important. Michael, the Louisiana governor says the Superdome and the surrounding area in New Orleans is safe. How can they be so sure about that if they don't think the attacker was necessarily solely responsible?

HARRISON: Well, we know we're looking for potential other offenders who could have helped him, but they're sweeping the Superdome multiple times to make sure there are no explosive devices. Just like when Super Bowl and Sugar Bowl are there as many times as they've been there, we create ingresses and egresses that are secure and people get searched and checked on the way in. And I am sure now that they are going to create an ingress plan that does not allow any vehicles other than people who are authorized to come in. And those are going to be checked to come into that area.

Everybody's right. In 2016, when this happened in Nice, the mayor of New Orleans said, I want to fortify this area and we then invested in those bollards to be put up there. But we also use big trucks and other city vehicles to really fortify the area. They're going to be doing that again for Sugar Bowl and again for Super Bowl to make sure only people who have to come and can come and are authorized, the intranary can be there with vehicle.

BLITZER: Yes, that's right. Good point. Thanks to all of you. We're going to stay on top of this, to be sure.

Just ahead, I'll ask the Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy what he's hearing from law enforcement.

Plus, today's deadly attack is not the first time a vehicle was used as a weapon. We're looking at similarities from other recent car ramming attacks used to incite terror.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

BLITZER: Federal and local officials are on very high alert in New Orleans after this morning's deadly terrorist attack on Bourbon Street. Tonight's big football match up there, the Sugar Bowl, has been postponed 24 hours.

Joining us now, Republican Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy. Senator, so much for joining us. What can you share with us from all the briefings, and I know you're well-briefed, about what -- what can you share with us about your briefings and any specific information about whether the suspect acted alone? SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): You've done some excellent reporting, and so I think it's widely known that initially they thought he may have been -- may have had people working with him and now they're not quite so sure. I see that the FBI has put out something on X that they're investigating a place in Houston related to the crime that just occurred in New Orleans. And so I think we'll learn more about this.

Right now, we're hearing things, whatever I tell you, I'm not sure that'll hold up until tomorrow.

BLITZER: Senator, what's your message to folks in New Orleans tonight who are obviously and understandably concerned about their safety?

CASSIDY: So, terror wins when it makes us fear and makes us not do what our life normally is. That's when the terrorists win. That's the whole point of terror. They don't go out and shoot somebody in a small little town. No, they go to where they know there'll be a lot of attention, and that's where they do their terrible deeds

For us to win, we have to continue to live in liberty. Yes, there's going to be more security than there already was, and there's, I think I was told, 300 police officers in the French Quarter last night. But still we have to live with freedom. I decided to go to the football game. I wasn't going to go. Because of this, I'm going, called a friend. We're going together. We need to live in freedom.

BLITZER: We certainly do. The FBI says the suspect was a U.S. citizen, an Army veteran, but before that information was actually made public, Senator, President-elect Trump posted about the attack and suggested an illegal immigrant was to blame for the massacre. Are you worried that might fuel misinformation?

CASSIDY: You know, there's so much floating out there right now, and the way to deal with misinformation is to put out correct information. I think that all the media outlets, Fox has broken some stuff, CNN has broken some stuff. You've all been pushing stuff out there. The way to fight misinformation, put out the correct information. There were initial reports that there had been a crossing at Eagles Pass, maybe not so much now.

So, let's just keep on getting to the truth. I think people will be served. And, by the way, as we get to the truth, we're less likely to fear. We're more likely to, again, live our lives like we should. We don't want the terrorists to win.

BLITZER: Senator, are you confident in the ability of the FBI and the director of the FBI, Chris Wray, to handle this investigation?

CASSIDY: I think the entirety of the resources of the federal government are going to be dedicated here, and the federal government's got lots of resources.

[18:25:02]

Now, you can't say you're totally confident until the case is completely solved. On the other hand, the federal government has lots of resources and they are combining that with state and local. There's, for example, on the I-10, there are license plate readers the whole way between Houston and New Orleans. I am sure that they have been able to track that vehicle from the point it got on the I-10 in Houston to the point it got off in New Orleans. I could go on, but they are tracking this and I suspect it will develop pretty quickly.

BLITZER: Senator, I'm anxious to get your reaction to what our John Miller just reported right here in The Situation Room about recordings the attacker made in which he expressed a desire to join ISIS and kill his family at one point. What's your reaction to that?

CASSIDY: So, you know, if this is -- you know, I've not seen it myself, but taking John at his word, it appears that he is a convert to ISIS. As your reporting has suggested, ISIS has encouraged people to use vehicles as weapons. You could imagine that he's mentally unbalanced. That's not an excuse. It's just trying to understand the situation. And he's under, you know, that kind of sway of an evil, evil doctrine and acted upon it. Just like we try to fight misinformation with good information, we should fight bad doctrine with good doctrine. And good doctrine is that the United States is an incredible country that's an opportunity -- a place of opportunity for many around the world and we should live in freedom and not live in fear.

BLITZER: Senator, do you think mistakes were made by law enforcement in New Orleans ahead of this attack?

CASSIDY: Well, we don't know that this happens. Of course, you think that there's mistakes made. They did have a police car blocking the entrance and the guy went around on the sidewalk. Well, should there have been bollards on the sidewalks? From now on, there's going to be.

I see those in D.C. I'm not sure I see them in other cities, where they have this kind of obstruction so someone can't drive on a sidewalk that's about to become standard not just in New Orleans but across the country. Unfortunately, sometimes you learn by bad things.

BLITZER: You got to learn from what's going on. Senator Cassidy, thank you very much for joining us.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: More breaking news we're following. We're standing by right now for President Biden to give remarks on this morning's deadly vehicle attack in New Orleans. We expect him to start speaking momentarily.

I want to go to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She's joining us right now. What are we bracing for, Priscilla? PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, if the White House putting out an email shortly ago saying that President Biden is expected to speak soon, the latest guidance says 6:30. Of course, we are just past 6:30 now. But we are expecting to hear from the president soon.

Of course, earlier in the day, he told reporters that he was going to deliver remarks on the incident in New Orleans. Later in the day, we have been waiting over the course of the day for him to do so. And we're now getting the advisory that he indeed will be speaking.

Now, of course, Wolf, the president is at Camp David earlier today, he had traveled from Wilmington, Delaware, where he had spent New Year's Eve to now Camp David, where he will be delivering this address.

Now, over the course of the day, the White House has said that the president has had multiple calls with senior officials across the government getting briefed and also speaking with state and local officials on this attack in New Orleans. So, now we are waiting to hear from the president with the latest developments, both from what he has heard from his senior officials and moving forward,

BLITZER: All right. We'll have live coverage once he starts speaking. Priscilla, thank you very, very much.

Also, this hour, the truck attack in New Orleans has become even deadlier with the number of people killed, rising to 15 just a short while ago.

CNN's Brian Todd is taking a closer look at the attacks at various attacks like this one. Brian, we've seen multiple acts of violence in the past where vehicles were used as weapons.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it's become really a horrible pattern that's developed mostly over the last decade. Tonight, we have new information on those vehicle attacks and why suspected terrorists have kept coming back to that tactic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice over): One witness to the New Orleans attack says she can't unhear the screams of the victims.

STRICKLIN: I remember the screeching and him gunning the car and the impact and the screams, like I said, the screams of those girls. I mean, I don't know that I'll be able to forget that.

TODD: The kind of horror that many cities have experienced in recent years when attackers turned vehicles into weapons.

Just a few days before this Christmas, a car slams into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least five people, injuring more than 200. The suspect, a doctor originally from Saudi Arabia, who had expressed anti-Muslim far right views. Like Magdeburg and New Orleans, other cities have experienced horrific vehicle attacks during holidays. November 2021, a suspect with a long criminal history drives an SUV through the annual Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six, injuring more than 60. Berlin, December 2016, a tractor trailer rams into a crowd at a bustling Christmas market, killing at least 12 people, injuring dozens of others. The suspect, a rejected asylum seeker, was later killed in a shootout with police in Italy. And the deadliest vehicle attack ever, July 14th, 2016, Bastille Day in Nice, France. A Tunisian-born French resident drives a 20-ton truck nearly a mile through a crowded seaside promenade. 86 people killed, more than 200 others wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility.

Why do these vehicle attacks often seem more deadly than other tactics?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: A vehicle attack doesn't require any special training. You just rent a vehicle, buy a vehicle, and use it as a weapon.

[18:35:00]

Secondly, just like school shooters look at Columbine or other famous school shootings and kind of obsess about them, terrorists examine other terrorists, and they say, well, what worked? Fairly, vehicle rammings work.

TODD: October 2017, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan jumps a curb in a rental truck in Manhattan, drives down a bicycle path along the west side highway and kills eight people. Authorities found a note near the truck claiming the attack was in the name of ISIS.

A couple of months earlier, a domestic extremist, a white nationalist, slammed his vehicle into a crowd of counter protesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one woman and injuring almost 20 others.

Analyst Peter Bergen says vehicle attacks, with their blood curdling optics, have a distinct psychological impact.

BERGEN: Certainly, there is a short-term effect where it terrorizes people, people are worried about going out in places where there are a lot of people gathered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Security analysts say one somewhat common characteristic with vehicle attacks is that many of them have taken place in cities where tourism is a critical part of the local economy. One official with the New Orleans Tourism Association says it's too early to tell what effect this attack will have on tourism in that city, which was still trying to recover from tourism declines stemming from the COVID pandemic and even from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Wolf?

BLITZER: I'm Brian Todd reporting for us, Brian, thank you very much. It brings back a lot of memories to me.

I want to bring in right now CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner. She's a former deputy director of U.S. National Intelligence. Beth, thanks so much for joining us. If I interrupt, if the president, President Biden, starts speaking about what happened in New Orleans, you will totally understand, of course.

How many parallels do you see between this attack in New Orleans and the Christmas market attack that we saw in Germany just a few weeks ago?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: : Well, we certainly are seeing the same tactic, as Brian just pointed out, but the motivation is not the same as it appears right now, the German police still don't really understand the motivation for that attack in Germany. And as Brian pointed out, the person expressed anti-Muslim views, even though he came from Saudi Arabia. So, you know, they're saying mental illness is probably, you know, one of the main motivators here.

But here in New Orleans, we're seeing Islamic State, and, you know, we've seen just an incredible rise this year in the threat posed by Islamic extremists and Islamic state as an organization. And in this case, it looks like homegrown violent extremists rather than foreigners coming in.

BLITZER: Are these types, Beth, of vehicle ramming attacks becoming more common?

SANNER: Absolutely. And, you know, it is just really easy for someone to do. And what I worry about now, I mean, this particular attack could have been a copycat on that, or it could have been planned for much longer.

You know, in 2010, ISIS at the time, or actually Al Qaeda at the time, put out a manual, basically an article to, to inspire these kinds of attacks, giving some tips to would-be terrorists about how to do this on their own. And now we're seeing it picked up. And so I do worry. And, you know, I hope that viewers are learning something from this and that extremists aren't, but that, you know, we all have to be careful when we're in these public places that are exposed to vehicle traffic, that have narrow kind of entry ways and are confined. So, you know, we do have to worry about those things.

BLITZER: We certainly do. Given what we know, Beth, about this suspect and the ISIS flag supposedly found in his truck, do you think the U.S. is doing enough right now to focus on domestic terrorism, finding and stopping Americans who could be radicalized online?

SANNER: Yes. So we've had in 2024 -- we had 14 arrests related to ISIS, and 5 of them were active plots and, you know, a lot of those were domestic extremists. In fact, FBI Director Wray has been warning and the intelligence community has been warning actually for years that the greatest threat of terrorism in the United States comes from these homegrown violent extremists.

So, I think people know that. The problem is that the threat is so diffused and these are generally individuals, in this case, maybe a small group, and it's just very hard to track. And I think for that reason, you know, law enforcement is doing an admiral job, but, you know we didn't have any actual attacks last year, but we had a number of attempts. So, it does show that some of our law enforcement is, in fact, being extremely effective.

[18:40:04]

BLITZER: Yes. All right, Beth Sanner, the former deputy director of National Intelligence, thanks as usual for joining us.

And once again, to our viewers, we're awaiting remarks by President Biden on this attack in New Orleans. He is expected to speak any moment now. You'll see it live right here in the situation. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're awaiting remarks by President Biden on the attack in New Orleans. He's expected to speak any moment now. We're monitoring all of this and we'll bring you his comments live once they begin.

But there's other important news we're following tonight as well. The person accused of orchestrating a smear campaign against the actress, Blake Lively, is now suing The New York Times for $250 million dollars. Lively's co-star in the film, It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni, says Lively fabricated sexual harassment claims and says The New York Times intentionally left information out of their story that conflicted with Lively's narrative.

[18:45:09]

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Actor Justin Baldoni, who also directed the hit movie "It Ends With Us", is now suing "The New York Times" for $250 million, launching a counterattack in an escalating controversy with his co-star Blake Lively.

JUSTIN BALDONI, ACTOR: What's your name?

WAGMEISTER: Baldoni and his team saying the newspaper was party to a, quote, vicious smear campaign by lively, who filed an earlier complaint accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and retaliation during the promotion of the film. It's just the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute between the two actors that erupted during production of the movie, in which Baldoni plays Lively's on-screen abusive husband.

The complaint filed by Baldoni in a total of ten plaintiffs, including his producing partners and publicist, states "The Times" relied almost entirely on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence. Lively's original complaint was filed with the California Civil Rights Department almost two weeks ago, and was first obtained by "The New York Times". It alleges Baldoni and his team tried to destroy Lively's reputation after she raised concerns about repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Mr. Baldoni.

"The Times" published their article December 21st, highlighting excerpts from the civil rights complaint, including text messages from a crisis PR manager for Baldoni that say, quote, we can bury anyone.

"The New York Times" telling CNN they will, quote, vigorously defend against the lawsuit, saying our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: In vetting the allegations and reviewing the material, that's where they ended up. But I think its going to take a little while to determine and see exactly where all this falls, because there's a lot of conflicting claims, but that's what litigation is for.

WAGMEISTER: Baldoni's complaint alleges the paper omitted text messages to serve Lively's narrative, saying the articles central thesis encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader. The complaint says it was Lively, not plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign, further saying Lively used sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production, and that Lively's public image suffered as a result of a series of high profile blunders.

BLAKE LIVELY, ACTRESS: Grab your friends, wear your florals.

WAGMEISTER: What she tried to deflect with her complaint.

Attorneys for Lively sent CNN a statement on Tuesday saying nothing in this lawsuit changes anything regarding her claims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Elizabeth Wagmeister is joining us live from Los Angeles right now.

Elizabeth, so what comes next in this legal battle?

WAGMEISTER: You know, Wolf, this is the messiest dispute that I have ever seen between two celebrities in my career. This is such a mess and it is going to continue to escalate. In fact, as you heard in that piece, Wolf, Blake -- she initially filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights Department. But yesterday, the same day that Baldoni filed his lawsuit, she escalated that and filed a federal complaint.

Now, I want to read you part of Baldoni's complaint yesterday because it indicates what comes next, Wolf. It says, quote, this lawsuit seeks to hold "The Times" accountable for its role in this defamation campaign. But plaintiffs are not done. There are other bad actors involved. And make no mistake, this will not be the last lawsuit.

So there you hear it straight from Baldoni's attorneys. They plan on filing even more lawsuits -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Elizabeth Wagmeister reporting for us, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, another shocking event today investigated as a possible act of terrorism, a Tesla Cybertruck blew up right outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

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[18:53:41]

BLITZER: President Biden is expected to speak from Camp David any minute and address the deadly attack in New Orleans. We're going to bring you his comments live once that happens.

But there's other breaking news we're following right now, including this: authorities in Las Vegas are investigating another potential terrorist act. This one involved a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is working the story for us.

Veronica, what are you learning?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, police are investigating to see if this explosion is connected to the New Orleans attack. Now, at this hour, they have not yet been able to find a connection. However, there are some concerning details. We're hearing from a source who spoke to our John Miller that the Cybertruck was also rented on Turo. That is the same car rental company used by the suspect in New Orleans.

That source also telling CNN that there were explosives found inside the Cybertruck, including fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel that were all connected to a detonation device connected to the driver.

Elon Musk has tweeted this out himself. He said that we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck, and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.

So he wanted to come out and say that this was not related to any issues with the truck.

[18:55:05]

We're also hearing from the source that the driver may have cased the area. Surveillance video shows that driver passing by Trump Tower about an hour before the explosion -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Veronica Miracle reporting for us. Veronica, thank you very much.

And we'll take another quick break. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: President Biden, as you see him, is getting ready to speak about the terror attack in New Orleans. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our hearts are with the people of New Orleans after the despicable attack that occurred in the early morning hours. To all the families of those who were killed, to all those who were injured, to all the people of New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know, I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you.

We're going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come.

I want to thank our brave first responders and law enforcement personnel who stopped the attacker in his tracks before he could kill or injured even more people. I want to thank you to everyone at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, for working nonstop to investigate this heinous act.

The FBI is leading the investigation to determine what happened, why it happened, and whether there was any continuing threat to public safety.