2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Johnson is fighting for his political life, again.

The Louisiana Republican’s hold on the House speaker’s gavel and his position as second in line to the presidency will be tested Friday when a new Congress convenes and House Republicans weigh whether to reelect him to the post.

The challenge, as always, is that Johnson will need almost every Republican vote to win.

Johnson has a singular asset in his favor: President-elect Donald Trump endorsed him for speaker in a social media post at the start of the week. But it’s uncertain whether Trump’s blessing will be enough to persuade conservative Republicans who have at times grown frustrated with Johnson’s leadership and who are prone to demand concessions when their votes become essential.

Johnson, 52, ascended to the speakership in October 2023 almost by accident after Republicans struggled to replace Kevin McCarthy following the unprecedented removal of the California Republican from the job. Several contenders tried and failed before Republicans settled on Johnson, who is well liked across the conference.

But Johnson’s handling of major funding fights, including passage of aid to Ukraine last spring and, most recently, a short-term spending bill, has turned at least a few allies into detractors.

With Republicans holding a narrow 220-215 majority in the House, it would take only two GOP lawmakers voting for other candidates to deny Johnson a majority for the speakership, forcing more rounds of voting.

Here’s what to know about how the House elects a speaker:

Electing a speaker is the first order of business for the House after a new session of Congress begins at noon. It’s a vote that members take even before being sworn into office.

The House cannot organize until it has a speaker because that person effectively serves as the House’s presiding officer and the institution’s administrative head. The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. The speakership has been vacant only 13 times in U.S. history, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. No speaker had ever been removed until eight Republicans joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy.

Barring those instances, a speaker is normally elected at the start of a new Congress and serves in the job for the full two-year session.

The House clerk presides over the speaker’s election. Lawmakers call out the name of their choice for speaker from the floor, a rare and time-consuming roll call that heightens the drama on the floor. Members often liven up the proceedings by shouting or standing when casting their vote.

Any name can be called out from the House floor. While it has been the tradition for the speaker to be a member of the House, it is not required.

In past years, Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump and even a senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have received votes for House speaker. None received the majority of the vote. And generally, a party’s official nominee for speaker is who ends up with the gavel.

Republicans chose Johnson as their nominee for speaker in a closed-door vote in November. A week later, Democrats unanimously chose Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to remain their leader despite the party’s electoral losses.

Lawmakers are not obligated to vote for their party’s nominated candidate. And that is why the process can quickly get messy.

Once the House is in a quorum — meaning the minimum number of members are present to proceed — nominating speeches will be made on behalf of the nominees for speaker. The clerk appoints lawmakers from each party as tellers to tally the votes before the roll call begins.

To become speaker, a candidate needs a majority of the votes from House members who are present and voting.

Historically, the magical number has been 218 out of the 435 members of the House. But many previous speakers, including McCarthy, have won with fewer votes because members sometimes vote “present” instead of calling out a name. Every lawmaker voting “present” lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority.

It remains to be seen whether Johnson will reach a majority to become speaker on the first ballot. Should he come up short, it is likely the clerk will move to start another roll call vote.

McCarthy went through a grueling 15 ballots over four days before he gained enough support to become the 55th speaker in January 2023.

Once a speaker candidate wins a majority of those present and voting, the clerk will announce the results of the election.

A bipartisan committee, usually consisting of members from the home state of the chosen candidate, will escort the speaker-elect to the chair on the dais where the oath of office is administered. The oath is identical to the one new members will take once a speaker is chosen.

The outgoing speaker usually joins the successor at the speaker’s chair, where the gavel is passed as a nod to the peaceful transition of power from one party leader to another. But this time around, given that Johnson is already the speaker, it will likely be Jeffries who would once again hand Johnson the gavel.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI now says the New Orleans truck attacker acted alone in an “act of terrorism” when he drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers early Wednesday, killing 14 people. The driver had posted videos on social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, President Joe Biden said.

The FBI identified the driver as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar.

Officials have not yet released the names of the people killed in the attack, but their families and friends have started sharing their stories. About 30 people were injured.

Here is the latest:

Mark Tabor, 61, the manager of a Willie’s Chicken Shack on Bourbon, said it was strange to feel the disconnect between the normal hustle of the French Quarter outside and the violence he had witnessed less than 48 hours earlier.

“I’m glad they cleaned up the streets, but it’s like everything’s forgotten. It’s sad,” he said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

He had been getting ready to close up when the violence started early on New Year’s Day, but there were still diners at every table, he said. Gun shots rang out, everybody started running inside, and he locked the doors and hid in the back of the restaurant with his employees and customers until police said it was safe to come out.

He said officers tried to lead people so they could avoid seeing the bodies in the street.

“It looked like a nightmare,” he said.

Tabor sounded calm as he talked about the events, but he said he was still feeling jumpy. While he said he is used to dealing with the reality of violence in the city, there were some images he just couldn’t get out of his head.

He said one of the victims was a girl his daughter had gone to school with.

“She lost her life right in front,” he said.

Outside, tourists strolled down the street past groups of armed police officers. The bars were filling up just as the sun began to set. A woman danced in the street in front of a daiquiri shop, closing her eyes as she swallowed a sugary beignet.

“They always come back,” said Tabor. “Unfortunately, it’s business as usual.”

The FBI has released photos of surveillance footage that the agency says shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring dozens of others.

In the surveillance footage, Jabbar is dressed in a long light brown coat, a button-down shirt, blue jeans, and what appears to be brown dress shoes. He is wearing glasses.

The footage captures Jabbar walking down Dauphine Street, a block away from Bourbon Street, shortly after 2 a.m.

Biden’s days in office are numbered, with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20 approaching fast.

Biden is expected to eulogize former President Jimmy Carter next week before he travels to Rome for several days to meet with Pope Francis and Italian government officials.

Asked at the White House on Thursday if he planned on visiting New Orleans, Biden said: “I’m going to try.”

Along the same block of Bourbon Street where the truck rampaged, a brass band plays to a large crowd. Across the street, a bouquet of white flowers rests on the brick sidewalk.

“Rest in peace, y’all,” one of the drummers shouts after the band finishes a song.

Trombone player and lifelong New Orleans resident Jonas Green, 22, said it was important for his band to be out on Bourbon Street the day after the attack.

“I know with this music, it heals, it transforms the feelings that we’re going through into something better,” Green said. “Gotta keep on going.”

While the historic street has reopened to the public, a group of heavily armed Homeland Security troops still walked in the area alongside tourists.

As Bourbon Street reopened to the public Thursday afternoon, people strolled past temporary yellow bollards placed in the street.

In addition to tourists, locals, reporters, local law enforcement and heavily armed Homeland Security officers walked along the typically raucous stretch of street.

At a morning news conference, officials had promised additional resources and safety details as thousands of people attended the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away from where Wednesday morning’s attack occurred.

Chris Pousson, of Beaumont, Texas, said he became friends with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in middle school and recalled him as quiet and reserved.

“This is a complete shock,” Pousson said. “Everyone I spoke with, all of our classmates, we’re all just in disbelief really.”

He said that after high school, they reconnected on Facebook around 2008 or 2009 and would message back and forth until around 2018 or 2019.

“He was always like glory to God and all that stuff, praise to the highest,” Pousson, 42, said. “He was always promoting his faith in a positive manner. It was never anything negative.”

Pousson, who is retired after serving 16 years in the Air Force, where he worked in anti-terrorism, said,

“I never saw this coming.”

“If any red flags would have popped off, I would have caught them and I would have contacted the proper authorities,” he said. “But he didn’t give anything to me that would have suggested that he is capable of doing what happened.”

“It can’t keep it down. It really can’t, and we’re seeing that today. The Sugar Bowl is back on,” President Joe Biden said at an unrelated White House event. He noted that Bourbon Street had reopened with reinforced security the day after the attack.

“The people of New Orleans are sending an unmistakable message. They will not let this attack or the attacker’s deluded ideology overcome us,” Biden said.

The president spoke about the two incidents at an unrelated White House event on Thursday.

He says he ordered accelerated investigations “so we have answers to our unanswered questions.” He said he also has ordered that every single federal resource be provided “to get the job done.”

The FBI earlier Thursday said there is no “definitive link,” as of now, between the events in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

Ohio residents Jeffrey and Briana Tolle, both in their fifties, strolled down Bourbon Street for their very first time shortly after it reopened, with Mardi Gras beads around their necks and beverages in hand.

They had spent the morning enjoying beignets and remained determined to enjoy their trip.

“We’re like, well we’re going, we’re not stopping,” Jeffrey Tolle said. “They ain’t gonna kill our good time.”

Ticketed fans in Georgia and Notre Dame gear packed a plaza adjacent to the Superdome and enjoyed music under clear skies — and the watch of snipers on rooftops — before filtering into the stadium for Thursday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl.

“It was a lot of fun. It felt safe,“ said Shannon Horsey, a Georgia fan in her 40s who lives Austin, Texas.

”Coming in they searched by bag thoroughly. So I felt like, ‘OK, they’re really paying attention.’”

Joe Horsey, a Georgia graduate, found the pre-game crowd larger than he expected, but the “energy lower than a normal football game.”

Meanwhile, Horsey found opposing fans were being somewhat more polite to one another than usual.

“SEC football can get nasty on game day and can get a little raucous,” he said. “But there’s a little different sense of civility and that there’s bigger things than football.”

The mood was patient and upbeat at 2609 Canal Street. Donors stood in line or sat on fold-out chairs, chatting cheerfully and snacking on potato chips as they waited.

Billy Weales, CEO of The Blood Center, said the last time he had seen similar turnout was for 9/11.

“I think we need a bigger parking lot,” he said, looking out at about 60 people who were waiting to give blood at one of the donation trucks parked outside.

Mandy Garrett, a 34-year-old engineer, said she heard about the blood drive on Instagram.

“It’s what I can do. There’s really not much else we can do … where you feel like you have a little bit of control of the outcome,” she said.

The New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street injured dozens and killed 14 people. The attacker also died.

Officials have reviewed surveillance video showing people standing near an improvised explosive device that Jabbar placed in a cooler along the city’s Bourbon Street, where the attack occurred.

Following the review, authorities “do not believe at this point these people are involved … in any way,” said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division.

“I believe New Orleans is very secure,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday in a post on the social platform X. “We can honor the lives that were lost by not bowing down to fear brought on by a cowardly terrorist attack.”

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. CST on Thursday, 36 hours after the deadly attack on Bourbon Street.

Crowds are already flocking to the Caesars Superdome ahead of the Sugar Bowl. Alongside food trucks and foot traffic, a fleet of armored vehicles maintains a watchful presence.

Heaven Sensky-Kirsch says her father, Jeremi Sensky, endured 10 hours of surgery for injuries from the truck attack that included two broken legs. He was taken off a ventilator Thursday.

Jeremi Sensky was ejected from the wheelchair he has used since a 1999 car accident and had bruises to his face and head, Sensky-Kirsch said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Sensky, 51, had driven from his home in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans to celebrate the holiday.

He and his wife, his daughter, his son-in-law and two friends stopped for a few days in Nashville before arriving in New Orleans.

Before the attack, Sensky and the two friends had been having pizza, his daughter said. Sensky left them to return to his hotel on Canal Street because he felt cold, she said.

Sensky-Kirsch said others could see the attacker coming and were able to run out of the way, but her father “was stuck on the road.”

When he didn’t return to the hotel, they went to look for him, ending up in an emergency room, she said.

“We thought he was dead,” Sensky-Kirsch said. “We can’t believe he’s alive.”

As New Orleans approaches the start of its carnival season on Monday, a monthslong period leading up to Mardi Gras, the city normally celebrates with parades and king cake.

But Kim Do, 47, whose Hi-Do bakery is a beloved supplier of the carnival treat, says she worries that orders for the biggest moneymaker of her family-run business will be significantly down.

“The mood in the city, we feel it today, I don’t know how we’re going to move forward after this tragedy,” Do said.

“I personally would be scared to even go out there, to be in the parades — I think there’s going to be a lot less people, a lot less activities,” she said. “I think the city will try to go back to the normal stuff as much as possible but I think we’re all going to be a little more cautious.”

Fifteen people were killed in the attack, said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division. That number includes the 14 victims killed plus the assailant, Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

“We know that he specifically picked out Bourbon Street, not sure why,” said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

“He was 100 percent inspired by ISIS,” he added.

“The city of New Orleans, we’re resilient,” New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said.

“The confidence is there to reopen Bourbon Street to the public before game time today,” Cantrell added.

The FBI obtained surveillance video of Shamsud Din Jabbar placing the explosive devices where they were found, said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division.

The FBI also found “no definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

The FBI has received more than 400 tips from the public, some from New Orleans and others from other states, Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division, said at a news conference on Thursday.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening the FBI was looking into whether an explosion outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump was connected to the New Orleans attack.

Fireworks and camp fuel canisters were found in a Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside the Trump International Hotel early Wednesday, killing a suspect inside the vehicle.

The person who died in the explosion was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier who spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. The officials also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of his service.

The truck explosion came hours after a driver, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans. Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, also spent time at Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to Army special forces command. An official told the AP that there is no apparent overlap in their assignments there.

The investigation so far has not shown the incidents are related, and authorities don’t think the men knew each other, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

▶ Read more about the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion

The FBI says it recovered the black banner of the Islamic State group from the truck that smashed into New Year’s partygoers. The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world.

Routed from its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a U.S. military-led coalition more than five years ago, IS has focused on seizing territory in the Middle East more than on staging massive al-Qaida-style attacks on the West.

But in its home territory, IS has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. The main group at peak strength claimed a handful of coordinated operations targeting the West, including a 2015 Paris plot that killed 130 people. It has had success, although abated in recent years, in inspiring people around the world who are drawn to its ideology to carry out ghastly attacks on innocent civilians.

▶ Read more about IS and what attacks it has inspired

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry will be joined at the news conference by officials from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans Police Department.

The conference is scheduled to begin around 10:15 a.m. CST.

“The Superdome is completely secure,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said on Fox News. “Again, the FBI continues to pour resources into the state.”

Landry said he plans to attend Thursday afternoon’s college football playoff game between the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame.

“We need not let fear paralyze us,” Landry added. “That’s the problem in this country. When we do that, the terrorists win.”

ROME — A telegram of condolences, addressed to Archbishop Gregory Aymond, said Francis was saddened to learn of the attack in New Orleans and was spiritually close to the city.

Francis “prays for healing and consolation of the injured and bereaved,” said the telegram, which was signed by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Separately, Italian President Sergio Mattarella also sent condolences to President Joe Biden, whom he will see during Biden’s visit to Rome next week, saying all of Italy was mourning the loss of life.

“At this time of sorrow for the American people, I would like to reaffirm the firm resolve of the Italian Republic to oppose in the strongest terms all forms of terrorism, on the basis of those values of civilization, democracy and respect for human life that have always been shared with the United States,” he said in a statement.

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed by a day because of the truck attack, which unfolded about a mile away.

The game, originally scheduled for 7:45 p.m. CST at the 70,000-seat Superdome on Wednesday, was pushed back to 3 p.m. Thursday. The winner advances to the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl against Penn State.

“Public safety is paramount,” Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said at a media briefing alongside federal, state and local officials, including Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “All parties all agree that it’s in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game.”

The decision to postpone the game meant numerous traveling fans with tickets would not be able to attend. Ticket prices online plummeted in some cases to less than $25 as fans with plans to depart on Thursday tried to unload them.

The Superdome was on lockdown for security sweeps on Wednesday morning. Both teams spent most of the day in their hotels, holding meetings in ballrooms.

▶ Read more about the decision to postpone the Sugar Bowl

Officials have not yet released the names of the 15 people killed in the New Orleans New Year’s Day truck attack, but their families and friends have started sharing their stories.

Here’s a look at some of what we know:

1. Nikyra Dedeaux: Zion Parsons of Gulfport, Mississippi, had been celebrating New Year’s Eve on his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, who he said had dreamed of becoming a nurse. Dedeaux was a responsible daughter — shorter than all her siblings but the one who helped take care of everyone, Parsons said.

2. Reggie Hunter: A 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, Hunter had just left work and headed to celebrate New Year’s with a cousin when the attack happened, his first cousin Shirell Jackson told Nola.com.

3. Nicole Perez: A single mother to a 4-year-old son, Perez was working hard to make life better for her family, according to her employer. Perez, who was in her late 20s, was recently promoted to manager at Kimmy’s Deli in Metairie, Louisiana, and “was really excited about it,” deli owner Kimberly Usher said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

▶ Read more about the victims of the New Orleans truck attack

Authorities say the driver of a pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians gathered in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 30 others. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police.

The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism and said it does not believe the driver acted alone.

Wednesday’s attack unfolded on Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties. Large crowds had also gathered in the city ahead of the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl, which had been scheduled for later Wednesday at the nearby Superdome. The game was postponed until Thursday afternoon following the attack.

▶ Catch up on what we know about the New Orleans truck attack

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