President Biden vowed federal support to help authorities quickly complete their investigation into the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans while speaking at a prayer service for the 14 people killed in the rampage.
Biden, 82, paid tribute to the victims at a Monday evening interfaith gathering at the historic St. Louis Cathedral after laying flowers with first lady Jill Biden at the site of the French Quarter carnage.
President Biden and wife Jill visited Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Monday after last week’s terrorist attack there. AFP via Getty Images
The first couple laid flowers at a makeshift shrine. AFP via Getty Images“I’ve directed my team to make every resource available to federal, state and local law enforcement to complete this investigation quickly and do whatever else we can,” Biden said in his 6-minute address to mourners.
“If there’s one thing we know, New Orleans defines strength and resilience,” Biden told the crowd after recounting personal details of some of the victims, including students and a single mother.
Biden will speak Monday night at an interfaith service at New Orleans’ St. Louis Cathedral. AFP via Getty Images“You define it, whether it’s in the form of this attack — from this attack, or hurricanes or superstorms, this city and its people get back up. That’s the spirit of America as well.”
Biden vowed support after initial outrage, particularly from Republicans, over the FBI’s management of the rampage — with the deputy chief of the bureau’s field office initially claiming it was not a terrorist attack and later that multiple suspects were involved, before both assertions were disproven.
In further missteps, authorities left significant apparent evidence behind at the Houston home of perpetrator Shamsud-Din Jabbar — only to re-seal the area after The Post toured the property and published the shocking footage.
Fourteen people were murdered in the New Year’s Day horror. AFP via Getty Images
Biden embraces Mayor LaToya Cantrell. APSen. John Kennedy (R-La.) demanded transparency last week, cryptically threatening to “chase” federal officials “like they stole Christmas” if they won’t tell the “truth” about the attack.
The presidential visit comes five days after the horrific truck rampage by Islamic State-inspired Army veteran Jabbar.
Jabbar, 42, drove around a police roadblock shortly after 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day and mowed down victims before being shot dead by police. The vehicle brandished an ISIS flag.
Biden made the stop ahead of a trip to southern California, where he will tout his Monday executive action to ban offshore drilling for oil and natural gas along most of the country’s coastline, which President-elect Donald Trump says he will un-ban “immediately” after taking office Jan. 20.
