Trump’s National Security Pick Blames Open Border For NYE Attack Committed by American
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL), who President-elect Donald Trump has tapped as his national security adviser, said Thursday that the incoming administration should respond to the attack in New Orleans—which was carried out by a U.S. citizen from Texas—by closing the border.
“First and foremost, close our border,” Waltz, a former Green Beret, said on Fox & Friends when asked what should be done to protect the nation from further attacks.
Trump has made multiple attempts in posts on his Truth Social platform to tie the New Orleans attack to migrants, despite lacking evidence.
In the early hours of Thursday, Trump insisted he was “RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING” after his initial, incorrect posts trying to make the attack about one of his political pet issues.
Suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas, is alleged to have deliberately driven a rented truck into pedestrians gathered on Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter, killing 15 and injuring dozens more in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Authorities said he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with police and that the flag of the jihadist group ISIS was on his rented vehicle. The FBI said it is investigating the attack as an “act of terrorism.”
Despite the attacker’s American background, Waltz continued to suggest the incoming Trump administration will respond by restricting border entries. And he suggested hostile groups are sending people to the U.S. to carry out attacks.
“I can’t emphasize enough, close the border, secure our sovereignty, you know, and that is completely unacceptable,” Waltz told Fox & Friends. “The entire world knows that we have an open border. They intend to hit us, and they are pushing people into our interior to do just that.”
Waltz also falsely claimed the U.S. has “had over 300 people on the [federal] terrorist watch list traverse our border in” recent years. In fact, federal data shows hundreds of people on the list were stopped at the border, not that they crossed it.
