Sen. John Kennedy nonchalantly moved an FBI special agent from in front of a microphone during a press conference on the suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday that killed 15 and left double as many injured. The Louisiana Republican could be seen moving into position to essentially take over the podium as he was about to address a question. The agent, identified as Alethea Duncan, was also criticized for wearing a nose ring and for allegedly being a “DEI hire” who had difficulty providing details about the attack, even saying at one point that the bureau did not believe the deadly incident was terrorism.
Watch John Kennedy shove the FBI lady out of the way without batting an eye. pic.twitter.com/Fh558RjsPP
— ??Lionel?? (@LionelMedia) January 1, 2025
Later, after the press conference, Kennedy stated he would continue to demand answers from the FBI regarding the suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans, citing past government security failures as a concern. Authorities reported that 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a Ford pickup truck into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans early Wednesday morning before being fatally shot by police. The attack resulted in at least ten deaths and dozens of injuries. Speaking with Special Report guest host Aishah Hasnie, Kennedy expressed his emotional struggle, saying he was “straddling” the line “between anger and grief.”
“There’s a fine line between anger and grief and I’m pretty much straddling that line right now. If you don’t believe in objective evil, all you need to do is go walk about 30 or 40 yards that way, we’ve still got bodies on the ground. That’s one of the reasons we postponed the [Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff] game,” Kennedy said. “I’m here for two reasons: One, these are my people, these are my people’s guests. Number two, I don’t want to hear from anybody in the federal government that they don’t have the resources.”
“Now, the White House, the FBI, Justice, Homeland Security are in charge now. We’re cooperating with them. I want to give them a reasonable period of time,” Kennedy continued. “There is 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 up and ride. We need to find out what happened here.”
Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, later voiced concerns that the FBI might not be fully transparent with him, as the agency has withheld information from Congress in the past. “You just never know what they’re not telling us,” Kennedy said. “But I know how to probe very hard to get the information. I’m not interested in placing blame or saying who was right or wrong. I just want to catch these sons of bitches who did this.”
WATCH:
Later, Hasnie asked if other cities could be at risk for attacks. “I can’t answer that,” Kennedy told her. “I can, but I won’t.” During the interview, Kennedy also highlighted the Secret Service’s failure to prevent an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. “I sat there and watched a 21-year-old kid outsmart the entire Secret Service of the United States and almost kill a former president, who is soon-to-be current president, and we still don’t have information, and that’s not going to happen this time,” Kennedy told Hasnie.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.