Lawrence Jones Grills Louisiana Governor Over Response to New Orleans Terrorist Attack: ‘How Can the People Have Confidence?!’

 

Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones grilled Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry Thursday morning over conflicting reports on the current state of security in New Orleans.

The city of New Orleans is reeling after a US citizen, military veteran, and alleged ISIS sympathizer killed over a dozen pedestrians on Bourbon Street early New Year’s Day by mowing them over with a rented pickup truck. The college football playoff game scheduled to take place at the Superdome was postponed to Thursday afternoon, but during an earlier appearance on the same show, Louisiana State Attorney General Liz Murrill called for the game to be delayed further and complained about not getting reports from the FBI.

Landry posted a photo on social media on Wednesday evening of his dining out with staff at a New Orleans steak house that drew bipartisan criticism for being tone-deaf given the state of security in the city while reports of co-conspirators still being at large emerged.

“Governor, I hate to jump on you, but there’s conflicting information,” Jones said. “On one hand, you’re telling the people that it is safe. But then you have coconspirators that are out there. And then to layer on that of getting all the information we just had, your attorney general, your chief law enforcement officer, says she hasn’t even been briefed about those people that they brought into custody.”

“So if your chief law enforcement officer is not being briefed about the people that are out there, how can the people have confidence?” Jones pressed Gov. Landry.

Landry focused more on a PR-friendly approach in his reply:

Well, look, I can tell you this. I am in this city right now. I am going to attend the Sugar Bowl this afternoon. I will be around. We are going to be briefing the media, hopefully about mid-morning. I don’t know about the comments that the attorney general made. Again, that’s part of why we try not to engage in speculation.

I think that every one of the elected officials should use the information that they’re getting directly from law enforcement, directly from the Louisiana State Police and the FBI, and not continue to feed on innuendoes. I’ve been trying to be couched in information that I report back to the media specifically because of that. What I can tell you is that we believe that based upon the information that we’re getting from the federal government and my Louisiana State police, that this city is as safe as it’s been. Look, this can happen in any city ever. Look, we had an incident in Las Vegas on on yesterday.

But I can tell you this, there are a lot more resources and law enforcement officers in the city of New Orleans right now than they were 24 hours ago. Again, you’re at the end of the day, we need we need not let fear paralyze us. That’s the problem in this country. Right. When we do that, the terrorists win.

After Griff Jenkins pressed the governor over allegations that the FBI was not updating Louisiana state officials with timely reports, Landry revealed that he was getting hourly reports suggesting he was satisfied with the efforts of the FBI, countering the criticisms levied by AG Murrill.

Watch above via Fox News.

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Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.