President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday, the site of a New Year’s Day terror attack that killed 14 people and wounded dozens more, the White House announced Friday.
The White House said in a statement that the Bidens will “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack on January 1 and meet with officials on the ground” while in Louisiana.
The announcement comes two days after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a pickup truck into crowds on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning. Jabbar was shot and killed by law enforcement shortly after the attack.
The FBI has said that he acted alone and called the attack “100 % inspired by ISIS.”
Biden spoke on Thursday from the White House about the New Orleans attack and a separate New Year’s Day incident in Las Vegas, where a vehicle exploded in front of a Trump-branded property.
“We’re also continuing to investigate whether or not there’s any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas. As of now, as of now — I’ve just been briefed — they have not found any evidence of such a connection,” Biden said at an event celebrating the number of his judicial nominations that were confirmed during his administration.
Biden added, “I directed my team to accelerate these investigations so we have answers to our unanswered questions. They’re making every single resource available to get the job done.”
