New Year's attacks stoke fears of political violence

A pair of fatal attacks on New Year's Day have reignited concerns over political violence in the U.S. after an election already marked by multiple assassination attempts.

The same day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, injuring several and killing one, an ISIS-linked domestic terror attack in New Orleans killed at least 15 people. While it’s unclear whether the two incidents are linked, they have given fodder to President-elect Trump’s allies, who argue authorities have neglected domestic threats as agencies targeted the president-elect.

Observers warn that both the New Year’s Day violence and the ensuing rhetoric could further inflame tensions amid a divisive political atmosphere. 

“No matter where you sit politically, this is a pretty terrifying start to the new year and I think it raises a challenge to both political parties to work together to make us safer,” said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist. 

The attacks come as the country has been rattled by numerous acts of political violence over the last several years, including the two attempts on Trump’s life, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and physical attacks directed at a number of lawmakers. 

“There are so many unknowns around what the Trump administration will bring us this four-year cycle,” said Aimy Steele, a Democratic organizer and former North Carolina state House candidate. “People are apprehensive, they’re anxious.” 

Trump and President Biden have offered starkly different responses to the two events, with Biden warning others not to jump to conclusions in the New Orleans attack. Biden has also confirmed that law enforcement is investigating whether there were any links between the two attacks. 

Trump, on the other hand, was quick to link the attacks to what he said were Biden’s failed immigration policies, despite both suspects being U.S. citizens. 

“With the Biden ‘Open Border’s Policy’ I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. 

“That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER,” he continued. “What he and his group of Election Interfering ‘thugs’ have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA.”

Some Democrats have accused Trump of politicizing the attacks. 

“It’s alarming,” Steele said. “It’s so crazy that Trump would use this moment to highlight immigration, but that’s what he does. He has the same playbook.”

“This is homegrown terrorism and we need to call it that and get away from the immigrant topic,” she added. 

Reinish, on the other hand, called Trump’s remarks on the matter politically “deft.” 

“I saw his remarks as ‘I’m going to take every opportunity possible to focus on my top policy priority,’” Reinish said. 

“He took the opportunity to focus back and discuss his messaging. He also forced commentators, the establishment, even some Democrats to get into the business of correcting him and getting pulled into the wrong side of the border argument,” he added.

Some of Trump’s allies were quick to criticize the news media’s coverage of the attack in New Orleans. 

“It is disturbing how far America has drifted from the fact that we are in a state of war with radical Islamic forces,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a post on the social platform X. “The coverage suggests we’re fighting a crime and that ISIS-inspired attacks are mere criminal events, not part of the larger war on terrorism. The difference between fighting a war and a crime is substantial.”

Other Republicans argued that the attack in New Orleans underscores the importance of confirming the president-elect’s Cabinet nominees. 

“This is a moment in transition, of vulnerability, and President Trump is going to project because he is a leader of strength, the narrative that we project on day one will be … important, and that’s having our people in place,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s incoming national security adviser, told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday. 

Reinish noted that the attacks underscore the importance of lawmakers working together going into the new administration and Congress. 

“I think this raises the stakes and hopefully raises the pressure on legislators of both parties at the local, federal, state level, to put politics aside and work together to make us safer,” he said. 

This week’s events come after a presidential election overshadowed by the specter of political violence. In July, Trump was nearly killed when a gunman targeted him during a rally in Butler, Pa., killing one rallygoer. Then, in September, a man was spotted aiming a rifle at Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. The man, Ryan Wesley Routh, is facing federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate. 

The incidents also come as Washington prepares for the certification of November’s presidential results on Jan. 6, four years after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of Biden’s victory. Law enforcement officials have signaled they are prepared for this year's certification, as well as for Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Other lawmakers have also been targeted in recent years, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose husband Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked in 2022 when a man broke into their California home wielding a hammer. The attacker, David DePape, was sentenced to life in prison in October.