Biden: ‘As of now’ no connection between New Orleans and Trump hotel attacks

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President Joe Biden said there is no evidence “as of now” of any connection between the terrorist attack on New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans and the truck explosion outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

Biden delivered the brief update Thursday on the investigations into Wednesday’s terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in Louisiana and the Tesla Cybertruck blast in Nevada after convening a meeting of his national security team at the White House.

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“We’re also continuing to investigate whether or not there’s any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas,” Biden said before an event to celebrate his judicial legacy. “As of now, as of now — I have just been briefed — they have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far.”

Biden said the death count in New Orleans had risen to 15, with 35 injured, but that the federal investigation determined that the attacker, a U.S. Army veteran, was working alone. The FBI indicated Wednesday that authorities were searching for additional suspects connected to the attack.

“They’ve established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations,” he stated. “They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests.”

Biden reiterated comments made the day prior, pointing out that the New Orleans attacker pledged support for the Islamic State group in videos posted to social media prior to the attack.

While federal investigators have not found evidence that the New Orleans attack is linked to the Wednesday truck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Biden said he directed his team to accelerate those investigations, including tracing both domestic and foreign contacts of the two suspects.

The person who rented that car has also been identified as an active duty service member. Both that truck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented through the sharing service Turo.

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“The people of New Orleans are sending an unmistakable message: They will not let this attack or the attacker’s deluded ideology overcome us,” the president said. “We’re going to relentlessly pursue ISIS and other terrorist organizations where they are, and they’ll find no safe harbor here.”

Biden’s remarks can be seen in full below as he celebrated the confirmation of his 235th federal judge.

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