President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar was insistent that investigators would find a connection between a pair of apparent New Year’s Day terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas—but also admitted he was basing it all on a “gut feeling.”
Speaking with America Reports host Sandra Smith on Fox News Thursday, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan speculated that the explosion that injured seven in Nevada and the truck attack that killed 14 on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street had “too many similarities”—but admitted that the assessment wasn’t based on any evidence.
“I just feel that there’s going to be something down the road. And I could be wrong—it’s just a gut feeling I have,” Homan said.
However, law enforcement in both Las Vegas and New Orleans have yet to find any connection between the two suspects. Both of them died during the respective incidents.
In a news conference on Thursday, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said they tracked the Las Vegas suspect, Matthew Livelsberger, on his journey from Colorado to Nevada by Tesla charging stations.
“We’ve only ever seen him in this vehicle. We are not aware of any other subjects in the particular case,” McMahill said. The sheriff did acknowledge that there were a number of similarities between the suspects in both cases, but said these connections were still under investigation.
A top FBI official also said echoed the sentiment about the suspect in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who they believe acted alone.
“We do not assess, at this point, that anyone else… is involved in this attack except Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject you’ve already been briefed on,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at a press conference in Louisiana.
“We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, At this point there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.”
During the press conference, Raia also stressed that the investigation was still in its early stages.
During the interview, Smith pressed Homan on whether or not he had any evidence that would override law enforcement’s assessment of both incidents.
“Do you have any other information, have you been privy to any other information, other than what we just directly heard from the police there in Las Vegas?”
“No I don’t, this is a gut feeling,” Homan admitted. “I’ve done this for three and a half decades. I think there’s too many similarities, too much coincidence. I think something down the road, they’re going to show there’s some sort of connection. Whether some same network or where they got the tools to pull these terror attacks off. I just feel that there’s going to be something down the road. And I could be wrong—it’s just a gut feeling I have.”
