Joe Biden and Donald Trump have given drastically contrasting reactions to the deadly New Year’s Day explosions in New Orleans and Las Vegas that killed at least 16 people.
The US president cautioned against “jumping to conclusions” and expressed empathy for victims and the city of New Orleans, while his incoming successor sought to blame Democrats, “open borders” and institutions that he has vowed to purge, including the FBI, once he returns to office.
Speaking from the White House on Wednesday evening, Biden cited FBI reports that identified the suspected perpetrator of the attack in New Orleans’s busy Bourbon Street, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, as “an American citizen, born in Texas” who appeared to have been inspired by the Islamic State.
“He served in the United States army on active duty for many years,” Biden said in a four-minute address.
The president also said he had been told by the FBI that Jabbar had posted videos on social media hours before the attack, which killed 15 people. The videos “indicat[ed] that he’s inspired by Isis, expressing a desire to kill”.
“The Isis flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack,” he said. “Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were found nearby.”
Biden said intelligence and law enforcement agents were working to establish if the suspect acted alone or had co-conspirators, adding that the investigation was “fluid”.
The president said investigators were exploring possible links between the New Orleans attack and a later episode outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas – owned by the president-elect – in which one person was killed after a Tesla cyber vehicle, built by the company owned by Elon Musk, Trump’s richest supporter, exploded.
“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said, adding that “no one should jump to conclusions.”
His measured tone differed markedly from that of the president-elect, who in an early morning social media post, labelled the country over which he is about to preside after his inauguration in 18 days’ time a “disaster” and a “laughing stock”.
He appeared to blame the New Orleans attack on the negligence of law enforcement agencies that he said had been too busy conducting criminal investigations into him that he has long derided as political witch-hunt.
He also repeated an assertion – first made on Wednesday in its immediate aftermath – that the attack proved the need for an immigration crackdown, despite the fact that the suspect was born and bred in the US.
“Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership.”
He used the events to renew his rhetorical assaults on the FBI, the Department of Justice (DoJ) and other agencies, calling on the CIA to get involved even though its mission is to deal with foreign rather than domestic intelligence.
“The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job,” Trump wrote. “They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself.
“The USA is breaking down – A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it.”