Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” of a “very troublesome menace panorama” within the wake of the New Orleans truck assault.
And Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman emeritus of the Home Homeland Safety Committee, famous the resurgence within the Center East of ISIS, the extremist group which the New Orleans suspect stated he was impressed by.
Early New Yr’s Day, 14 individuals had been killed and dozens extra had been injured after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Military veteran drove a pickup truck by means of a crowd on New Orleans’ Bourbon Road, authorities stated. The suspect, a U.S.-born Military veteran from Texas, posted movies on-line earlier than the lethal rampage “proclaiming his help for ISIS” and mentioning he joined ISIS earlier than this summer time, in keeping with the FBI.
“We’ve got not solely the persistent menace of international terrorism — that, after all, created the Division of Homeland Safety — however we’ve adversarial nation-states, and for the previous 10 years, we have seen a major enhance in what we time period ‘homegrown violent extremism,'” Mayorkas advised anchor George Stephanopoulos. “It’s a very troublesome menace panorama, and it’s why that we as a neighborhood — not simply the federal authorities, however state and native officers and residents — should be alert to it and take the precautions essential to keep away from violence from occurring.”
Mayorkas stated his workplace labored with native regulation enforcement and “took extra sweeping measures” to make sure New Orleans’ annual Sugar Bowl faculty soccer sport might safely go on after the assault.
Regardless of immigration being the division’s “highest accountability,” Mayorkas emphasised that the New Orleans assault was unrelated to points on the southern border.
“The assailant who perpetrated the terrorist assault in New Orleans was born in the US, raised in the US, and served in our armed forces,” he stated. “It’s not a difficulty of the border.”
Secretary of Homeland Safety, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas and Rep. Michael McCaul seem on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on ABC Information, Jan. 5, 2025.
ABC Information
Mayorkas stated he has been in contact with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s choose for DHS secretary.
“I’ve spoken with Governor Noem a lot of occasions, together with on New Yr’s Day and instantly thereafter, with respect to the horrific terrorist assault, and we’ve spoken substantively in regards to the measures that we take, and I’m extremely dedicated to a easy and profitable transition to the success of Governor Noem, ought to she be confirmed because the Secretary of Homeland Safety,” he stated.
McCaul, who additionally served as chairman of the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, stated the resurgence of ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan “considerations me drastically.”
McCaul suggested the Trump administration to be cautious of assaults by those that grow to be radicalized on-line, urging officers to “take note of the social media and join the dots earlier than these occasions occur.”
“You actually have two kinds of threats. One is operational, the opposite one is impressed assaults radicalized over the web,” McCaul stated. “They’re each equally deadly, they usually should be targeted on to cease it.”
McCaul was additionally requested in regards to the battle in Ukraine and the way he expects Trump to deal with it. A few of McCaul’s Republican colleagues have questioned the U.S.’s continued help to the nation because it fights in opposition to Russia and Trump has promised to finish the battle rapidly.
The congressman stated retired Military Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s choose for the newly created place as envoy to Ukraine and Russia, “believes that we can’t afford to lose Ukraine to Russia.”
“That will be a horrible international coverage resolution that may put us within the place of dropping to Russia, and Ukraine, and threatening Jap Europe,” McCaul stated.
McCaul stated Russia’s menace extends past the area.
“And the actual fact is, George, I am unable to overemphasize, as I’ve to my colleagues, it is not simply Putin. Putin is aligned with Chairman Xi in China, who threatens the Indo-Pacific. He is additionally aligned with the ayatollah within the Center East who we’ve seen threatened Israel. And so they’re all on this collectively. And [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un despatched 10,000 troops of his personal to combat Ukraine’s,” he stated.
McCaul stated he believes Ukraine wants extra “leverage” in negotiating a deal than the Biden administration has supplied.
“I feel President Trump does need to finish the battle, have a peaceable negotiation. We’re all for that, but it surely’s bought to be on phrases that don’t throw Ukraine below the bus,” he stated. “They had been thrown below the bus within the Budapest agreements the place they gave up all their nuclear weapons in assurance for safety. And guess what occurred? There was none. And if there’s a deal minimize, we’ve to have enamel in that enforcement settlement, such that if Russia ever invades once more, there will probably be penalties as a result of they gave up all their nuclear weapons.”
