Terrorist Attack in America Again

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome. It is the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and we've got
a lot of breaking news, a lot of information that
I want to get to you. Center Cruz and I
did a podcast together, a joint podcast with the latest
news we have, and I want to bring that to
you now. Things may change, and I want you to know,
as I'm saying this to you right now, it's ten

(00:21):
oh six Eastern time on New Year's Day, so some
of you may be listening to different points and looks.
Some of this info may change. Just want you to
understand that. But this is the latest that we know
from the federal response, local information from New Orleans, from
Vegas with a Tesla that blew up rented on turow.
The app there the same as the truck that was

(00:43):
runned by turo in New Orleans. Is there connection there?
Officials are eyeing a link in the Trump hotel blast
and the truck attack. Is what Biden has said at
his press conference. We're also going to play for you
Joe Biden's words and what he said to the nation
from Camp David as we are starting to piece more
of this together. The latest death count, though in New

(01:03):
Orleans is fifteen, with dozens more injured, and we will
break down that attack, who this individual is, all of
that for you right now, Senator, this has a connection
obviously to Texas. Many of us were celebrating New Year's Eve.
You were down at mar A Lago. I was with
my family at the beach, and then we see and

(01:25):
wake up to this news breaking. And I want to
timestamp this for people to understand when we're recording this.
We're recording this at nine thirty Eastern time on Wednesday,
so much of this may change. So I just want
you to know when we started this, but I want
to get your initial reaction to what we've witnessed.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, we're less than twenty four hours out from the
United States once again saying a significant terrorist attack on
US soil. At three point fifteen in the morning New
Year's Day, forty two year old Shamsad Din baharjab who
is a US citizen a Texas resident, he drove a

(02:05):
white pickup truck into people celebrating on Bourbon Street. Jabbar
was born in Beaumont, Texas. He resides in Houston, your
hometown and my hometown, and he was an Army veteran.
As we talked today, Fifteen people have been killed and

(02:26):
several dozen more have been injured. And I will say,
as is the nature of any fast breaking crisis and
fast breaking news story, the news that is available is
rapidly moving. It is changing. So we're going to talk
about what's happening, what we know now, but with the
caveat that, we can fully expect the information we know

(02:48):
on this to change and very possibly changed significantly in
the days and weeks to come. We're less than twenty
four hours out from this attack, but what we know
now is deeply, deeply disturbing. It has been reported that
this army veteran drove the pickup truck deliberately into a
crowd of revelers with the intent of killing and harming

(03:13):
as many people as possible. It's also been reported that
the pickup truck was flying an ISIS flag and that
Jabbar was inspired by ISIS. Simultaneously, we have a Tesla
cyber truck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel

(03:34):
in Las Vegas, killing one injuring several The one who
was killed was the driver. It is not confirmed that
those two are linked, but both occurred early in the
morning on New Year's Day, and America is now dealing
with the aftermath of one or potentially two terrorist attacks,

(03:57):
finding out who's responsible, finding out if additional actors were responsible.
There have been multiple reports of additional individuals potentially placing IEDs,
and at this point, the entire country is reeling from
this attack.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
It is really sad. And this goes back to the
bigger concern that we've worried about on the show and
talked about, and it's something that I think so many
Americans felt. You had a wide open southern border, You
had a lot of people that have been able to
come across the Southern border that were caught, that were
on the terrorists watch lists. You have law enforcement that

(04:38):
I think it's pretty fair to say, is stretched extremely
thin when you're having to deal with a wide open
southern border and what is coming across that southern border
and this individual being an American citizen and being a
Texan as you described it, The real problem can be
that we are stretched so thin with so many possibilities

(04:58):
out there that this this is one of those examples
of when we've had this open door policy. Law enforcement
is doing the maybe in many cases, the best they can,
and they just don't have the time or the resources
they need to focus in on these types of threats.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, that is tragically correct, and on this podcast we
have been predicting for months now that the odds of
a major terrorist attack in the United States were higher
than they have been at any time since September eleventh,
and unfortunately, this morning's tragic events confirms that now in

(05:35):
this instance, the facts are still coming out. What we
know about Jabbar according to the Army Liaison's Office and
what he has told what they have released. He served
in the Army from two thousand and six to twenty twenty,
including approximately nine years of active duty service. He held
specialties in HR and IT. He was born in Beaumont, Texas.

(06:03):
He deployed in Afghanistan from two thousand and nine to
twenty ten. He was in the Army Reserve from twenty
fifteen to twenty twenty, and he was discharged in twenty
twenty with an honorable discharge for unsatisfactory participation. That much
we know. We also know that in his truck were

(06:27):
found explosive devices. Explosive devices including two pipe bombs that
were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation. That's
according to the Louisiana State Police and the pickup truck.

(06:48):
The pickup truck its origin, there has been conflicting reporting
on it, so earlier today it was reported that the
truck used in the New Orleans attack came through the
southern border. The Daily Wire reported that early today. Fox
News reported that the truck entered the US two days ago,

(07:11):
but they then updated their story to report that the
truck crossed the southern border on November sixteenth. So November sixteenth,
a month and a half ago, apparently the truck crossed
the southern border. It has also now been reported that
the truck in New Orleans was rented using the Touro app.

(07:32):
The turou app is a peer to peer app, and
one of the strange details that has been reported is
that both the truck in New Orleans and the cyber
truck in Los Angeles, in Las Vegas, rather we're both
rented using the tourou app. That may simply be a coincidence,
it may be something more, but what has been reported.

(07:56):
The New York Times is reporting that both were were
using Toro. Toro itself put out a statement that said
that it was quote actively partnering with law enforcement authorities
as they investigate both incidents. They also said, quote, we
do not believe that either rent or involved in the
Las Vegas or New Orleans attacks had a criminal background

(08:18):
that would have identified them as a security threat threat.
It's not clear as we sit here today the full
details of that, but those are the breaking details as
of nine forty one PM.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
I want to go back to a headline real quick,
and then I also want to play for everybody what
Joe Biden said. But this was a headline that you
and I talked about and warned about, and it was
from the New York Posts October the twenty third of
twenty twenty four, and it said border agents caught three
hundred migrants with terrorist ties, including ISIS, and it's still

(08:56):
incredibly easy for them to enter the US. This report
came out October the twenty third, So we're talking a
couple of months ago, and you and I, and that's
when you really talked about you felt like there was
a real chance that something like this could happen because

(09:17):
of the of the idea that we have so many
resources spread all over the place. When you look ahead
to January twentieth, and Donald Trump coming in, does this
now clearly become a top priority on the issue of
border security because it's a national security issue very much,
and getting back to doing the way that we used
to deal with whether it was domestic or homegrown or

(09:39):
foreign terrorism.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
One of the things that is maddening is even to
this day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Democrats
refused to secure the border. Just a few weeks ago,
the Democrats held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee
on the horrors of mass deportations, not on the need
to secure the border, but on how terrible it was,
was that Trump is going to enforce the law. The

(10:04):
border will be secured. We are three weeks away from
an administration coming in that is going to be I believe,
absolutely serious and incredibly effective securing the border. But every
day that border is open, Americans are at greater risk.
And we're at risk number one, from terrorists crossing the
southern border, but number two, we're at risk from law enforcement,

(10:29):
the FBI, the federal government focusing on every other policy
and agenda item other than keeping the American people safe.
You know, I have to say one of the things
that was dismaying. Is the FBI. Right after this happened
in New Orleans, they went out and publicly said this
was not a terrorist attack. The New Orleans police disagreed

(10:50):
with that statement. The FBI has since gone on to
say they are investigating it as terrorism. But I got
to say, when a truck drives into a crowd waving
an I's flag, I don't know what the hell you
call it other than terrorism.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, And that I think is one of the things
that's so frustrating, and that moves us also to what
we witnessed today with the closed circuit TV footage of
this cyber truck that exploded in front of Trump Tower,
killing that driver. We're now being told by authorities there
that they said the driver the electric vehicle parked in
the valley area outside the hotel's lobby before it exploded

(11:26):
into flames. We've gotten a tweet from Elon Musk saying
that this was not in fact the batteries or a
malfunction of the car that so many immediately wanted to blame.
This was a Tesla accident that just happened to half
on the same day as this other attack at the
Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. They've now said definitively in

(11:46):
law enforcement, this was not any type of battery issue
or a malfunction. This was clearly done deliberately, and thank goodness,
no one besides that driver, from what we understand, died.
There were seven that were injured there, and this is
now being treated apparently as a other terrorist activity attack
in Las Vegas as well.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, that's right, and the details there that there's one
fatality from the Las Vegas explosion, and that was the
driver himself. The driver in New Orleans is also dead
from a shootout with the police. As soon as it happened,
the mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, publicly described as
a terrorist attack. The police chief stated the driver's actions

(12:31):
were intentional. This was not a dui situation. According to
the chief, the driver was quote hell bent on creating carnage.
And yet, as I mentioned, the FBI spokesperson countered the
merit mayors claim moments later, stating it was quote not
a terrorist event. Here, give a listen, this is.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Not a terrorist event. What it is right now is
there improvised explosive devices that was found and we are
working on confirming if this is a viable device or not.
As Chief Kirkpatrick said, we're asking everyone to stay away
from Bourbon Street, specifically from Canal Street to Saint Anne.
That is my ask once again, stay away from Bourbon Street,

(13:12):
Canal Street all the way to Saint Anne until we
can figure out what is going on. Our goal is
provide you additional information at the eleven am press conference.
Thank you so much, and we will be in touch.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yes, I will say that we want our community and
our visitors to continue and join. There's so much to
enjoy about New Orleans and we are going to make
sure that our routes and the super Dome are safe
today for the game. And yet we had this tragic
event and we're sorry again to everyone in our community.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
But we do want you to.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Go about the day as we say, just stay away from.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Bourbon There's two parts of that center that I think
think are the most frustrating for many people that are listening.
One the out of touch with reality and you want
to have faith in law enforcement, but to come out
and in such a hardcore way, so this is not
a terrorist attack, not being treated like a terisa and
people are like, what's wrong with you? And The part

(14:18):
that also went viral after that was a tweet that
came out from the FBI New Orleans and it was
them having holding this summer a diversity agent recruitment event
and we want to meet you. This was DEI on
full display. We went diversity, inequity inclusion. And people say
this statement and then that tweet, and they say, what

(14:42):
is happening at the FBI.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, the FBI has in far too many instances not
kept their eye on the ball. And that is one
of the reasons that Donald Trump is coming into office
with an agenda of fundamentally reforming the Department of Justice
and the FBI getting it back focused on its core mission,
ending the weaponization, ending the politicization, and its core mission

(15:07):
includes preventing acts of terrorism. Now, in this instance, the
terrorist in New Orleans was an American citizen, so he
did not cross the border illegally, although apparently has truck did.
The truck he used across the border six six weeks ago. However,
we don't know the story of how he was radicalized.

(15:29):
Someone who was an Army veteran who served for many years,
who became a self described proponent of isis that is
something gone profoundly wrong, and it reminds me of Nadal Hassan.
Nadal Hassan, you'll recall, who murdered fourteen innocent souls at
Fort Hood. He was active duty military and he became radicalized,

(15:51):
and during the Obama administration that they knew that he
was communicating with the radical Islamic cleric and War Alilaki
and asking about the permissibility of waging jahad on his
fellow soldiers. And infuriatingly enough, the Obama Pentagon they had
those communications with Anwar Alilaki, and they did nothing to

(16:17):
stop Nadal Hassan from from committing that mass murder. That
they sat on that information, and we don't know if
there's any of that. We have no indication that there's
any of that information now. But I will say we're
dealing with another individual who is a soldier who apparently
became radicalized, and I think there's a real need for

(16:40):
transparency to figure out what happened. And I want to
play my colleague John Kennedy, Senator John Kennedy, a good
friend of mine. He's down in New Orleans now. I
want to play what he had to say because I
very much agree with with what he expressed on the
ground today.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
I don't want to hear from anybody in the federal
government that they don't have the resources. Now Whitehouse, the FBI, Justice,
Homeland Security are in charge. Now we're cooperating with them.
I want to give them a reasonable period of time.
There's a lot of information out there, some of it
is actually true. I want to give them a reasonable
period of time, but they need to saddle.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
Up and ride.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
We need to find out what happened here, and it's
not going to be covered up. We're going to tell
the American people exactly what happened. I'm not interested in
placing blame or saying who is right or wrong. I
just want to catch the sons of bitches who did this.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Centator. I think that the sentiment that many are feeling
is exactly the way it was described by your colleague there,
the centator from Louisiana.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, Kennedy's absolutely right, and look, the priority number one
needs to be keeping people safe. Number two needs to
be catching anyone else involved in this where there are
other conspirators, Was this a broader plot? Number three needs
to be transparency, figuring out how did this come to pass?
Why was this not prevented. Why did nobody sound the

(18:07):
alarm that this guy was dangerous? That with this guy
was affiliating with? Isis that this guy was looking to
commit murder? All of those are questions that come out,
and I said, number one, though, is keeping people safe.
You know, one of the frustrating things about this attack
in New Orleans is that there were steel barricades on
Bourbon Street that were installed in twenty seventeen, and they

(18:29):
were installed to prevent terrorist attacks in the area. And
had the barricades been up, they clearly would have minimized
the carnage this morning. Unfortunately, the barricades were down. The
police chief said the barricades were in the process of
being replaced, and I will say that is tragic. And look,

(18:50):
we've got we've got Bowl games. They delayed the Sugar
Bowl for a day, but we've got football games across
the country. We've got all sorts of events across the country.
We've got the inauguration on January twentieth, and one of
the very important front and center needs to be keeping
people safe and preventing another terrorist attack. Just because one
happened doesn't mean we're not at risk. Of another one happening,

(19:14):
and that's why we need to be vigilant. Number one
keeping people safe, but number two tracking down everyone involved
in these horrible atrocities and then having full, full transparency
and doing everything we can to remove and to apprehend
potential ISIS terrorists before they take more lives.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Can we just talk for a moment about incompetency here,
because that's what everybody is thinking that I think is
listening right now, the majority are. I certainly am. And
when I talk about in commency, you just mentioned it.
It is New Year's Eve, Center, and this is when
I get angry. It's New Year's Eve. You have a
Sugar Bowl game that you've known about for a long
time and New Year's Eve, and you don't have the

(20:00):
barriers up that you know you need to keep people safe.
Because you say that you're getting them ready for the
super Bowl. Why wouldn't you have them ready for New
Year's Eve until the Super Bowl? Why is it that
it seems like every time we give government the funding
to do things like this and to protect people, there's
some excuse. And I go back to incompetancy. On what

(20:23):
we talked about just a few days ago, you look
at the Biden administration and the plea deal they gave
the mastermind of nine to eleven, Khalid Chaik Muhammad. What
message does that sin to terrorists around the world that
we will spare your life, we will not take your
life even if you're the master a mind nine eleven.
You combine these types of things, and I think there's

(20:45):
many Americans right now, and I say this with frustration
on behalf of many Americans that feel like they are
not being protected by this administration the way they should be,
and we're sending the wrong signals to the terrorists.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
At the same time, well, we've had four years of
an open door, red carpet invitation for terrorists to come
across our southern border that has made us much much
less safe. We have also had law enforcement, including the FBI,
focused on political and partisan agendas instead of focusing on
the bad guys, stopping the bad guys before they commit

(21:20):
crimes like this. We will find out what information there
was that could have been used to prevent this attack.
We need to find that out, and even if the
Biden administration refuses to make it public and to be transparent,
I have significant confidence that the incoming Trump administration will
make that information public. And I got to say, look

(21:42):
for everyone who lost, for the fifteen people murdered this morning,
for the families of them, for the three dozen people
who were wounded, some very grievously wounded. I am sure
they are feeling a level of frustration and anger. They're
filling frustration with the city. Why weren't those barricks up.
The barricades should have been up. They were put in

(22:03):
in twenty seventeen. This risk was known New Year's Eve.
It's not like that's a surprising time for someone seeking
to do something horrible to target people. The eve of
the Sugar Bowl. That was another man.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
There's a great example of that.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, and listen. One of the real dangers of terrorism.
You can have a big, elaborate plot of a dirty
bomb or attacking a nuclear reactor or something, but some
of the most frightening terrorism, and sadly, some of the
most effective terrorism, is very low tech. It is driving

(22:39):
a truck into a crowd. It is walking into a
shopping mall wearing a suicide vest. It is you know,
I was living in DC twenty some odd years ago
when the DC sniper was there and that was two
guys who drilled a hole in the trunk of their car,
drove around DC, parked and sat there with a rifle
and just shot people. And I'll tell you the the

(23:00):
entire city was terrified, was on edge, and there was
no no high tech involved in it. And and and
that vulnerability is very real, which is why we need
a proactive FBI. We need law enforcement that that that
is focusing on the bad guys and and and not

(23:20):
on every political agenda that that that that might be
the latest fashionable priority.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
I want to wrap up with letting the country hear
Joe Biden. He did address the nation from Camp David
UH at seven o'clock on New Year's Day. As we
were recording this about two hours after that. And this
is what Joe Biden had to say, part of it,
at least about this attack. Take a list, and I
want to get your reaction.

Speaker 7 (23:48):
Texas. He served in the United States Army on active
duty for many years. He also served in the Army
Reserve until a few years ago. If I also reported
to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted
videos on social media indicating that is inspired by ISIS,
especially the desire to kill the desire to kill the

(24:12):
ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented
to conduct this attack. Possible explosives are found in the
vehicle as well, and more explosive were found nearby. The
situation is very fluid, and the investigation has a preliminary stage.
And the fact is that right right now, excuse me,

(24:36):
there you go, the law enforcement and tells the community
are continuing to look for any connections, associations, are co conspirators.
We have nothing additionally report at this time. The investigation
is continuing to be active and no one should jump
to conclusions. I've directed my Attorney General, the FBI director,

(25:00):
the Secretary of Homeland Security, head a National counter intelligence
Terrorism Center, and the intelligence community to work on this
intensively until we have a full and complete information, and
once we have that information, I will share that information
as soon as we can confirm it. Additionally, we're tracking

(25:21):
the explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump Hotel
in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are
investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection
with the attacking New Orleans. Thus far, there's nothing to
report on that score at this time. I directed my

(25:41):
team to make sure every resource, every resource is made
available to federal, state, and local law enforcement to complete
the investigation in New Orleans quickly, and to make sure
there's no remaining threat.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
You know, there's part of me that's like, Okay, I'm
glad that the president's out there saying this. There's another
part of me when he got lost and said excuse
me while reading that teleprompter. That was just a three
sixty moment of his entire time in the presidency. The
reporting that we talked about about his cognitive decline just

(26:15):
I think it was on the last pod. And yet
this is the guy who is in charge, and you
wonder why some of these things are happening. Well, he
gets lost in the teleprompter and has to apologize while
reading a prepared statement. And that's the type of leadership
we've had.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Well listen, I am glad the President gave that press
conference tonight. I'm glad he's speaking out. I think the
substance of what he said is right. I wish him,
I wish the Department of Justice and the FBI every
success and very quickly finding anyone involved in this, apprehending them,
focusing on it. There will be times. There is no

(26:54):
doubt that the horrible policies of this administration, the open
borders for four years, have contributed to making us less safe,
have contributed to increasing the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
But at this point, look, whether whether Joe Biden the
Democrats intend to be transparent or not, I am confident
the incoming administration will make this information public. It needs

(27:16):
to be public so there can be accountability for where
where the ball was dropped. Because at the end of
the day, this attack was not prevented tragically, and we
need to learn from that and and make sure we
we stop the next attack. But what I will say
tonight is that our prayers are with the families and

(27:38):
loved ones of those who were murdered earlier. Today, our
prayers are with all of the victims who were injured.
We are praying for their recovery, We're praying for their safety.
And I'll say to all of you, look, look, stay vigilance,
stay safe, and and and tonight, you know, give your
kids an extra hug and and and and remember you're

(28:00):
your family and those you love. Because it's a dangerous
world we live in right now.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Make sure you share a podcast wherever you can on
social media. We do this show every day on social media, so.

Speaker 6 (28:12):
Make sure again grab it, download it, and if you
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them because, as you know, the big tech suppresses everything
we do here. And I'll see you back here tomorrow