Louisiana Senator Defends Sugar Bowl Being Played in New Orleans One Day After Deadly Attack: ‘Terrorists Win If They Intimidate Us!’
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) defended the decision to move forward with the Sugar Bowl on Thursday during an appearance on Fox News, one day after a terror attack claimed more than a dozen lives in New Orleans.
The Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia was originally scheduled to take place on Wednesday night, but it was delayed to Thursday afternoon after the attack. Cassidy noted during a Thursday interview with Fox News’ Sandra Smith that he was headed off to the game himself soon after their chat.
Smith observed that some critics have argued it may be “too soon” after the attack, which saw a man drive a truck into a crowd of people and kill 14, to move forward with the game. Police are investigating the matter as a terrorist act because the suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, appears to have sympathized with ISIS.
“Some folks just say it’s too soon. You’re going to the game, should other people feel safe, senator?” Smith asked Cassidy on Thursday.
The senator answered:
Absolutely! By the way, terrorists win if they intimidate us! They don’t kill somebody in a small town that no one has heard of. They go to a place where there is national, international media attention, and they attempt to do something that attracts attention to strike fear in our hearts. Americans don’t live fearfully. Now there is going to be so much, so much security out there. It’s going to be incredible.
Cassidy added there are federal agents and National Guardsmen at the game so the beefed up security should make people feel “secure” too.
“On the one hand you could just say, my gosh, you’ve got so many National Guard, police officers, FBI, federal agents, that would make you secure. They locked down the superdome from right before the event happened, but more than that we cannot allow them to intimidate us, Sandra,” he said. “If we do, they win. We must win.”
Watch above via Fox News.
