New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone and planted “remote detonator” explosives inside coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he drove a pickup truck at a high rate of speed into a crowd of people celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street, President Biden said at a news conference Thursday.

“We have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack,” Biden said during a news conference about his administration’s 235 judicial confirmations. “They’ve established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests.”

NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: INSIDE BOURBON STREET TERRORIST’S HOUSTON HOME

Biden stated that federal agents are investigating potential links to the Las Vegas explosion, also probed as a terror attack, and urged them to “accelerate” their efforts. Fourteen people were killed, and Jabbar died in a shootout with police. 

“As of now, they’ve just been briefed,” Biden said. “They have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far. I’ve directed them to keep looking.” 

The FBI identified Jabbar as the driver who crashed a rented truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The bureau told congressional lawmakers on Thursday that it had zero information about Jabbar prior to his attack. They also said that while Jabbar has said he was “inspired” by ISIS, investigators have not found any evidence that he was directed by ISIS.

INVESTIGATORS USE TATTOO, PHOTOS TO IDENTIFY SUSPECT BEHIND CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION AT TRUMP HOTEL

Authorities patrol Bourbon Street as it is reopened in New Orleans on Thursday after a man drove a truck into crowds of New Year’s revelers on Wednesday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

New Orleans hospitals treated a total of 37 victims who were injured in Wednesday’s attack. LCMC Health has not stated how many of those injured have since been discharged, nor has it clarified the condition of those still hospitalized.

Authorities had been investigating a potential military connection between Jabbar and the Las Vegas suspect, who law enforcement identified to The Associated Press as Matthew Livelsberger.

“As you know, there’s also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling anything out,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division Christopher Raia told reporters Thursday. “However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.”

Jabbar, a U.S. native born in Texas, had previously served in the U.S. military. Authorities are still investigating how and when he became radicalized.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to President Biden’s Federal Communications Commission, striking down the agency’s hard-fought and long-debated open internet rules.

The FCC had sought to reinstate a sweeping policy established under President Obama that was designed to treat internet service as an essential public service, similar to a water or power utility.

Under the so-called net neutrality rules, internet service providers would have been subjected to greater regulation. A Republican-led commission repealed the rules in 2017 during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.

Early last year, the FCC — then back under Democrat control — voted to formalize a national standard for internet service to prevent the blocking or slowing of information delivered over broadband internet lines. The core principle of open internet meant that internet service providers couldn’t discriminate among content suppliers.

The order also would have given the FCC increased oversight to demand that internet providers respond to service outages or security breaches involving consumers’ data. The FCC cited national security, saying increased oversight was necessary for the commission to effectively crack down on foreign-owned companies that were deemed to be security threats.

But on Thursday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, ruled that the five-member commission lacked the authority to reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service. The decision dismantles one of Biden’s major technology initiatives.

In its ruling, the 6th Circuit referred to the FCC’s net neutrality order as a “heavy-handed regulatory regime.”

The court said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling had removed a judicial framework that allowed courts to interpret rules with deference to the federal agency that created them. The 6th Circuit said the FCC did not have the statutory authority to change the classification of broadband internet to a telecommunications service. That role rests with Congress.

The case was brought by the Ohio Telecom Assn., a trade organization representing internet service providers.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who has long championed the net neutrality rules, called on lawmakers to take up the mantle in the wake of the court decision. She had shepherded the move to reinstate them during her tenure leading the agency and led the 3-2 party-line vote last year to restore the net neutrality rules.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

The regulatory climate has changed dramatically in recent years and is expected to shift again after Trump moves back into the White House. Trump’s pick for FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, wrote a chapter on the FCC in the conservative policy blueprint Project 2025. Companies expect the commission under Carr to be more business-friendly.

“President Biden’s entire plan rested on the Chicken Little tactic of persuading Americans that the Internet would break in the absence of these so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations,” Carr said in a statement. “The American people have now seen through that ruse.”

The net neutrality dispute hinged on the degree to which the FCC could regulate broadband internet service providers under the authority the commission received from Congress in the landmark Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

“We hold that Broadband Internet Service Providers offer only an ‘information service’ … and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the ‘telecommunications service’ provision of the Communications Act,” 6th Circuit Judge Richard Allan Griffin wrote in the26-page ruling.

Consumer groups, which lobbied for more than a decade for net neutrality regulations, lamented the decision.

“Today’s decision represents a major setback for consumers, competition, and the Open Internet,” John Bergmayer, legal director at Public Knowledge, said in a statement.

“In rejecting the FCC’s authority to classify broadband as a telecommunications service, the court has ignored decades of precedent and fundamentally misunderstood both the technical realities of how broadband works and Congress’ clear intent in the Communications Act.”

Net neutrality has been a seesaw battle for more than 15 years.

In the early days of broadband penetration, major companies lined up on opposing sides. Google, Netflix and other tech companies joined with consumer groups calling for net neutrality rules to level the playing field with internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast Corp. or Charter Communications.

Supporters of net neutrality wanted those providers to be regulated under Title II of the landmark communications act, which would have given the FCC a greater enforcement role.

“Recall that the market’s initial concern over Title II reclassification never had anything at all to do with net neutrality,” cable analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a note to investors. Instead, investors in telecommunications stocks were worried that such reclassification would open a door “to broadband price regulation,” Moffett wrote.

But that didn’t happen.

“That risk is now put to bed,” Moffett wrote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., received public support from Republicans in the Senate as he faces an uncertain vote Friday to determine whether he will maintain the role in the new Congress. 

“My friend [Johnson] has done an incredible job in the House, and I’m glad he’s at the helm there as Congress looks forward to growing our economy and safeguarding our communities in the new year,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on X. 

HEALTHY LIVING, PARTY UNITY, AND ‘TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES’: CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS’ NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Johnson also got the backing of the other member of Lousiana’s Senate delegation, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. “I agree with President Trump that [Johnson] is the right man to lead. He’s a committed conservative and a man of integrity,” he wrote on X, referencing President-elect Donald Trump’s recent endorsement. 

During the last-minute government-spending fight last month, most Republican senators were careful not to call for Johnson’s replacement. However, that didn’t stop others, such as Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, from suggesting that someone else would do a better job. 

BERNIE SANDERS PLANS TO SPEARHEAD LEGISLATION ON KEY TRUMP PROPOSAL

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“Technically, the rules of the House—I don’t think you have to be a member of the House to be speaker. And other people talked about it,” Paul told reporters in December. He noted that he has previously gotten stray votes to be speaker, as has Trump.

“And so, we’ll leave it open to interpretation. I think that, hey, seriously, Elon Musk is having an impact.”

When asked about his confidence in Johnson, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sidestepped, saying, “I can’t make a decision. I don’t know him that well. He’s got to work with everybody else. He doesn’t have to work with us.”

DEM SENATOR REVEALS HOW SHE NARROWLY WON KEY STATE THAT TRUMP FLIPPED: ‘BE PRACTICAL TO FIND RESULTS’

Since the House speaker will be selected solely by the lower chamber, few Republican senators are expected to weigh in publicly. But the fact that some have is notable in and of itself. 

In order to be elected as the speaker of the House, a member must get a majority of the votes cast. Depending on whether all House members are there, how many vacancies there are, and whether anyone chooses to vote “present,” thereby lowering the majority threshold, Johnson could be in a situation where he can only afford to lose one GOP vote.

There are still several House members that have said they are unsure whether they will back Johnson. 

REPUBLICANS HAMMER BIDEN FOR FEDERAL DEATH ROW REPRIEVES AHEAD OF LEAVING OFFICE

Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and Rep. Thomas Massie (Getty)

Additionally, at least one Republican lawmaker is a “no,” even after Trump’s endorsement. 

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.” 

The speaker vote is set to take place on Friday to set the new Congress in motion.