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NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre expressed confusion and skepticism about the details related to the deadly New Year's Day incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
In an X post Friday, Favre asked followers "what's going on" with the terror attack in New Orleans that killed 14 and the Cybertruck bombing outside Trump Tower in Las Vegas that killed one.
"What’s going on with the New Orleans and Trump Hotel story? A lot of information and hard to sift through to see what’s real!" Favre wrote.
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Many of Favre's followers responded, sharing similar skepticism.
"Whatever the FBI says, believe the opposite!" one user wrote.
Another user responded, advising Favre and others to "ignore the media."
"None of it. Take in the event. Ignore the media," the user wrote.
More details about the two attacks have emerged in recent days.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who plowed a rented pickup truck into New Year's revelers on New Orleans' Bourbon Street Wednesday, and Matthew Livelsberger, the man eyed in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas hours later, were both Army soldiers who served at Fort Liberty and deployed to Aghanistan in 2009, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Las Vegas, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said that while both men served in Afghanistan in 2009, any potential ties there were still under investigation
"We don't have any evidence that they were in the same province in Afghanistan, the same location or the same unit," McMahill said. "Again, something else that remains under investigation."
A defense official told Fox News there was no evidence based on their military service that the attacks were related. While both men served at Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, they were there at different times. The North Carolina base is home to more than 50,000 service members.
The FBI released surveillance images of the New Orleans attack that show Jabbar just about an hour before he allegedly sped a rented Ford pickup through a crowd of Bourbon Street revelers in an attack officials say was inspired by the Islamic State.
More than 30 others were injured. Despite previously investigating the possibility of accomplices in the attack, the FBI said Thursday the bureau is confident Jabbar acted alone.
The FBI recovered a black ISIS flag from Jabbar's rented pickup truck that was used for the attack.
"This investigation is only a little more than 24 hours old, and we have no indication at this point that anyone else was involved in this attack other than Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar," FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia of the counterterrorism division at FBI headquarters said Thursday.
"The FBI is surging people and assets to this area from across the region and across the nation. Special agents in field offices across the country are assisting with potential aspects of this investigation and following up on leads. Additional teams of special agents, professional staff and victim specialists continue to arrive to provide more investigative power and assistance to the victims and their families."
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Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., initially voted for Jim Jordan for speaker of the House Friday, but President-elect Trump was able to convince him to change his vote — while working on his golf game.
Norman was one of three Republicans who initially refused to vote for Mike Johnson to retain his role.
While speaking to reporters Friday, Norman said Trump had called him more than once to try to influence his vote on the speaker.
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In Trump's first phone call to Norman, Trump was hitting the links.
"He said, ‘Look, I’m in the middle of a golf game.' That was the first time I talked to him," Norman said, via MediaIte.
"He said, ‘Well, you did vote for Nikki Haley.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir, I did. We’re with you now.' And I said, 'We will be with Mike Johnson.'"
Trump owns numerous golf courses, one of which was the site of a second assassination attempt on his life in the summer. Trump's USGA handicap was once as low as a 2.5, and he claims to have recorded eight holes-in-one.
Trump also spoke with Keith Self, R-Texas, on the phone in an effort to sway Self's vote, sources told Fox News Digital.
Self confirmed to reporters he had spoken with Trump by phone multiple times Friday.
"I talked to him a couple of times today," Self said. "We had a lively discussion."
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., connected Trump with Self and Norman by phone after they voted against Johnson, the sources said.
Johnson won the House speakership in the first round of voting, after it initially appeared he might lose.
Self, Norman and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., each voted for lawmakers other than Johnson, appearing to put the speaker's gavel out of reach.
But House leaders did not formally close the vote while figuring out a path forward. GOP lawmakers were told to be on the House floor immediately in preparation for a second vote.
That second vote did not occur, however, and Johnson was sworn in as speaker Friday afternoon.
Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
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The new Republican-controlled Congress will hear arguments on a bill that would seek to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in women's sports in its first 100 days after voting yes on a new rules package Friday.
The 119th Congress approved the new rules package after re-electing Mike Johnson as House speaker. A bill to address the issue of gender identity in sports was listed as the top priority.
"A bill to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth," the first point in the final section of the package states.
Democrats have previously introduced multiple bills to protect transgender inclusion in women's and girls sports on a national level, including the Equality Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights. The Biden administration took multiple steps to enable transgender inclusion via executive orders, including an order on his first day in office in 2021.
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However, those efforts have stalled over the last year, as Democrats have pulled back on their support for transgender inclusion amid immense backlash in a heated election year. Biden's Department of Education even withdrew its proposed rule that would have outlawed states from banning transgender athletes from women's and girls sports in late December after it was initially proposed in April 2023.
Now, after President-elect Trump and other prominent Republicans vowed to take action to ban transgender athletes from women's sports prior to the election, there is a timeline for when that action may begin.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., celebrated Friday's vote and will be reintroducing the bill included in the rules package, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
"The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports," Steube said in a statement released Friday.
HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORTS SHIFTED THE 2024 ELECTION AND IGNITED A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE
"Americans have loudly spoken that they do not want men stealing sports records from women, entering their daughters’ locker rooms, replacing female athletes on teams, and taking their daughters’ scholarship opportunities.
"My legislation stands for truth, safety, and reality: men have no place in women’s sports. Republicans have promised to protect women’s sports, and under President Trump’s leadership, we will fulfill this promise."
This bill ensures that biological females compete against other biological females in women’s sports that are operated or sponsored by a recipient of federal funding.
Other women's activist groups have also celebrated the impending legislative action on the issue after a year of multiple controversies involving transgender athletes competing against and sharing locker rooms with biological women and girls across the nation.
The Concerned Women for America (CWA) provided a statement to Fox News Digital, praising the prioritization of the bill.
"There’s no question this ought to be a legislative priority in the 119th Congress. The Biden administration and company have launched a full-scale attack on women’s dignity. Leadership must act promptly to restore sensibility to public policy and immediately take young girls out of the disastrous fires of woke ideology," CWA Legislative Strategist Macy Petty told Fox News Digital.
"No little girl should see the most powerful politicians in the world vote to put men in her locker room. Not in the Land of the Free. It’s cowardice and disgusting. But it’s the reality of our political landscape. Last Congress, the House passed similar legislation on strict party lines. One party voted that women deserve private spaces, one didn’t."
Conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America released a statement Friday celebrating the vote.
"Today, the House also considered the rules package for the 119th Congress that includes significant legislative priorities for Heritage Action, including the SAVE Act and the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act. Congress must now begin the work to enact a bold conservative agenda. We congratulate Speaker Johnson on his re-election to speaker of the House and look forward to working with all members of the 119th Congress to enact conservative policy wins," the statement said.
A national exit poll conducted by the CWA legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls' and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls' and women’s bathrooms" as important to them.
And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."
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