FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Friday demanding answers regarding the top federal law enforcement agency’s “radical” DEI practices following the shocking New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans.
“While the facts surrounding this unconscionable attack continue to emerge, what we know is deeply troubling: the suspect was in possession of weapons, improvised explosive devices, and an ISIS flag. This horrific incident constitutes a blatant act of terror on the American homeland, and the people of our country deserve to know whether federal law enforcement agencies can sufficiently prevent and respond to such incidents,” Blackburn wrote in her letter to Wray on Friday, which was exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
“To that end, I am deeply concerned that—under your leadership—the Bureau has prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives over its core mission of protecting the American people,” the Tennessee senator continued.
Chaos broke out on New Orleans’s famed Bourbon Street just after 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day, when a truck plowed through crowds of revelers celebrating the holiday. At least 14 people were killed and 30 others injured.
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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.”
New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a suspected terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (Chris Granger/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
In her letter to Wray on Friday, Blackburn cited a recent report from a group of retired FBI agents who found “law enforcement and intelligence capabilities of the FBI are degrading because the FBI is no longer hiring ‘the best and the brightest’ candidates,” as well as the hiring of a Chief Diversity Officer at the FBI in 2021, as well as the New Orleans field office hosting a “Diversity Agent Recruiting Event” in July as evidence of the agency’s heightened focus on DEI.
“Most recently, in a striking example of tone deafness, the New Orleans FBI Field office thought it important to brag on X about how many bracelets its agents had collected. Your decision to prioritize politics, pop culture, or almost anything else over your mission to protect the public has put Americans in harm’s way, and the January 1 terror attack was the inevitable consequence,” Blackburn wrote in her letter.
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