Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a twice-divorced Army veteran from Texas, was armed with a Glock and a .308 rifle during the attack. He was killed after opening fire on police.
After the attack unfolded on Wednesday morning, Blackburn took to social media to call for the confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, and to admonish current leadership at the agency for allegedly putting a greater focus on DEI practices than "fighting criminals and terrorists."
Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"We'll be taking over the investigative lead for this event. This is not a terrorist event," said New Orleans field office FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan during a Wednesday morning press conference.
During that same press conference, however, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans contradicted Duncan’s comment and minced no words in detailing that the city faced an act of terror.
When asked about Duncan's comment, the FBI directed Fox News Digital on Thursday to three press releases published the day before, detailing that the attack was being investigated as a terror incident. The press releases also detailed that an ISIS flag was found in the suspect’s truck.
"This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism," the FBI said in one of its three statements provided to Fox Digital.
Blackburn continued in her letter to Wray with five questions surrounding the FBI’s DEI hiring practices, including: How many FBI employees have been hired based on the Bureau’s DEI initiatives; how the DEI initiatives are funded and if any of the FBI’s funds were reallocated to such initiatives; as well as how many individuals were hired during the New Orleans field office’s Diversity Agent Recruiting Event in July.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least ten people were killed when a person allegedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Year's Day on January 1, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dozens more were injured after a suspect in a rented pickup truck allegedly drove around barricades and through a crowd of New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street. The suspect then got out of the car, opened fire on police officers, and was subsequently killed by law enforcement. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images)
Wray announced that he would step down from the FBI at the end of President Biden’s term this month, after Trump nominated Kash Patel to the role. Wray was first nominated under the first Trump administration and was in the midst of a 10-year term that would not have ended until 2027.
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"Until the President-Elect’s nominee to lead the FBI is confirmed, the American people deserve to know the full extent to which your radical DEI agenda has compromised our national security," Blackburn wrote to Wray, calling on him to answer her questions by Jan. 10.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/radical-fbi-practices-dei-endangered-americans-blackburn-says-letter-demanding-answers-from-wray