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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has suggested a baseless theory regarding the deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, in which a man rammed a pickup truck through a crowd, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more.
During a Thursday interview on Fox Business, Johnson, who had received a classified briefing from intelligence agencies and the FBI, speculated about the possible connections between the attack and border security.
When asked about the attack, which authorities confirmed was carried out by 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, Johnson shifted the conversation toward criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of border security. He argued that the Biden administration had failed to prioritize border control.
“For four years now, the Biden administration has taken its eye off the ball,” Johnson told Fox News host Larry Kudlow. “They did not prioritize, in our view, the right things.” It was then that Johnson made an unfounded claim about the attack’s possible link to border issues.
“They tried to convince us that the greatest threat to the homeland was racially motivated extremism when we all looked at the wide-open border and thought logically that that might lead to terrorist attacks in the future,” Johnson said.
Despite authorities attributing the tragedy to Jabbar, Johnson’s comments suggested a broader national security concern tied to the border, though there is no evidence connecting the two. Johnson’s remarks took a political turn as he criticized the Biden administration’s approach to national security, asserting that the attack emphasized the need for change in leadership.
“We need a dramatic change, and this emphasizes once again why this election was so important to the country,” he added. As the vote for his continued speakership approaches, Johnson also turned his attention to President-elect Donald Trump.
“We cannot get President Trump in here soon enough,” Johnson said, praising Trump’s law-and-order stance. “Eighteen days away from his inauguration and his cabinet coming in, we need all of these people that he’s chosen – who are law and order types – to get in immediately.”
Johnson concluded by emphasizing the need for Republican unity. “It can’t happen soon enough,” he said, reiterating the importance of staying unified to fulfill Trump’s campaign promises. “And I think it all begins tomorrow.”
