CNN's Jim Acosta calls out Republican strategist for defending Trump falsely blaming immigration for New Orleans terror attack

Former Trump official Neil Chatterjee: “The president's objective is to bring attention to what he identifies as the problem. ... You don't necessarily take all his tweets literally.”

Written by Chloe Simon

Published

During a January 2 segment on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee tried to justify President-elect Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that immigration is to blame for a recent terrorist attack in New Orleans. 

Responding to the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed at least 15 people, Trump posted on Truth Social that it's “true” that “the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country,” seemingly in response to Fox News’ erroneous reporting that the suspected attacker had “crossed the border” two days prior. 

Although the suspect is not an immigrant, Chatterjee claimed that Trump was simply bringing “attention to what he identifies as the problem” and wanted to “highlight” the “concerns about border and border security [that] were vital to his winning election.” Chatterjee added, “You don't necessarily take all his tweets literally.” 

Both CNN anchor Jim Acosta and his other guest, Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, pushed back on Chatterjee’s justification for Trump’s attempt to tie the New Year’s Day attack to immigration. Acosta countered that “if it’s not the case in New Orleans, you can’t bring it up. It’s not connected.” Rocha called out Trump for spreading “misinformation” and warned that his rhetoric could lead to “more attacks like this. Like somebody from Dallas, Texas, driving to a Walmart in El Paso and start shooting Mexicans because they think that Mexicans are invading the country.” 

From the January 2, 2025, edition of CNN's CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta 

JIM ACOSTA (ANCHOR): Donald Trump is posting misinformation about the deadly attack in New Orleans. We can show some of this on screen. He posted on Truth Social earlier this morning that it was somehow related to immigration, blaming open borders. But CNN's reporting the suspect in New Orleans is a Texas-born U.S. citizen. We were just mentioning earlier in this program that the person who rented the Cybertruck in Las Vegas was a member of the U.S. Special Forces. Neil, I mean, we're right back where we were in 2017, where Donald Trump, he takes misinformation. He takes false news from wherever, and he puts it out there, and it just confuses the hell out of everybody. What's the solution here? I mean, why can't he just stick to the facts?

NEIL CHATTERJEE (FORMER TRUMP OFFICIAL): Look, in this particular instance —

ACOSTA: Or wait for the facts to come in?

CHATTERJEE: In this instance, if the reporting is correct and what we're hearing from law enforcement, the suspect in New Orleans was, in fact, an American citizen who served in the Army and was radicalized by ISIS. That said, we can't ignore the fact that from 2021 to 2024, there were 400 people on the terrorist watch list that were stopped at the border. And those are just the people that we stopped. So it is a real issue. And I think that's what President Trump does.

ACOSTA: Yeah. But, Neil, I mean, you might have people coming across the border.

CHATTERJEE: On the terrorist watch-list.

ACOSTA: OK, that's obviously a problem. But if that is not the case in New Orleans and that is not the case in Las Vegas, you can't bring it up. You can't bring it up. It's not connected.

CHATTERJEE: The president's objective is is to bring attention to what he identifies as the problem. He believes that concerns about border and border security were vital to his winning election and wants to highlight those issues, and I think that is what he has chosen to do in this particular instance. I think, as we have seen for really the past decade, you don't necessarily take all his tweets literally. It's about the issue that he is trying to say

CHUCK ROCHA (DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST): This is the most scapegoating that we've seen, like this is nothing new and this is disgusting of what we're seeing. What happened in New Orleans is disgusting. We should talk about all the facts to make sure this could never happen again, but not put it on the backs of my grandparents or my parents who were immigrants, all immigrants being something that's bad. Immigrants are good. Immigrants are good for our economy. Having bad people stopped, I agree, is good as well. But we can't let misinformation. This is how you get more attacks like this. Like somebody from Dallas, Texas, driving to a Walmart in El Paso and start shooting Mexicans because they think that Mexicans are invading the country. This is where something like this starts.