President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday, almost one week after a terrorist allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group plowed through one of the city’s prominent nightlife precincts on New Year’s Day.
“The President and First Lady will grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack on January 1 and meet with officials on the ground,” a Friday statement from the White House reads.
The trip is scheduled to take place on the final anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated for his second term on Jan. 20.
The death toll from the New Orleans attack has risen to 15 people since suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, allegedly drove a rented pick-up truck with an Islamic State group flag around a police barricade and through Bourbon Street at about 3 a.m.
Some of the victims died from bullet wounds, allegedly from a gun that Jabbar fired. Jabbar, a U.S.-born Army veteran from Texas who converted to Islam, died in a shootout with police, which injured two officers. At least 33 other people were hurt in the incident.
Biden provided an update on the investigation into the attack before an address about his judicial appointments at the White House on Thursday.
“We have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack,” Biden said. “They’ve established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle.”
Biden delivered an address to the nation on New Year’s Day from Camp David, during which he spoke about the videos Jabbar allegedly posted online before the attack expressing his support of the Islamic State group.
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“Federal law enforcement and the intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts or connections that could possibly be relevant to the attack,” the president said. “The people of New Orleans are sending an unmistakable message: They will not let this attack or the attacker’s deluded ideology overcome us.”
He added, “We’re going to relentlessly pursue ISIS and other terrorist organizations where they are, and they’ll find no safe harbor here.”
