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Trump Believes the Protocols Worked for Security; White House Blames Dems, Media for Correspondents' Dinner Shooting; Trump Calls on ABC to Fire Kimmel for Comment About First Lady; Trump Meets With National Security Officials on Iran; Press Dinner Shooting Suspect Arraigned in Court. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 27, 2026 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- inside. Ultimately, that is not what happened. But she said we can and should have fierce disagreements, but those should be resolved through protests and voting, not through violence.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": She also said that the president expressed appreciation for Secret Service, including Saturday night, before taking the podium in the Press Briefing Room, personally thanking the agent who was shot in the chest. Unknown at this point if he was shot by the assailant or perhaps in crossfire, nevertheless, a scary moment for that agent.

The president speaking to them, making sure that they were OK. The agent apparently telling the president that they were fine. Notably here, Leavitt blamed what she described as a left-wing cult of hatred for this assault.

She talked about Democrats and those who refer to the president as a fascist and compare him to Hitler, saying that people listen and when you have mentally disturbed people listening to crazed rhetoric about this president, it inspires them to do crazy things.

It's notable that the White House is talking about taking the temperature down when you have critics of this White House pointing to the fact that President Trump in the past has said that Democrats on Capitol Hill, for example, are seditious and deserve the death penalty. Even one of his former generals saying that Mark Milley is seditious and also deserves the death penalty.

So the White House here pointing fingers at critics. We have much more to discuss, not just on that, but also on some of the other news that she made. We have CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, Andrew McCabe with us, as well as Brian Stelter and Chuck Todd.

First, let's start with you, Andy. I just wonder what your reaction is to everything that we saw unfold as we're anticipating the suspect is now in federal court being arraigned. What did you see what stood out to you about the response?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: About the response on Saturday night?

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

MCCABE: Yeah, so I think the response of those law enforcement officers at the event was exactly what we hoped for. That's consistent with their training, with their honor, and with their bravery. You see in those surveillance videos how quickly they react as the assailant is essentially running past the magnetometers in that space designed to slow people down.

The questions that I would have today, if I were a Secret Service leader, is not about how those people responded, but maybe about how the plan may have had some embedded vulnerabilities that should be readdressed. You know, law enforcement is not a business of profit and loss to tell you when you've performed well or poorly. You've got to go back after every major scenario, every major operation, and try to sus out what worked well and what didn't.

For example, that area where the assailant was able to penetrate the perimeter was a very wide space, a hallway that we just saw on the screen there, and those magnetometers don't provide any sort of a barricade whatsoever. So consequently, it was easy for that person, a dedicated, focused attacker, to basically make his way through a space and get pretty close to the stairway leading right to the ballroom.

So, things like that I would hope that their leadership are re- evaluating today.

KEILAR: Yeah, and Chuck, let's talk a little bit about some of the messaging here. At a time where the normal prescription is to really tone down the rhetoric, because there's always concern about what political rhetoric has created in terms of the environment of something like what we saw on Saturday night.

But what we are aware of is this isn't happening in a vacuum. Yes, the president has been targeted now three times in major events here. Huge, significant, yes, these are huge, significant attempts.

But at the same time, when you look at all of the different attempts, some of them successful when it comes to members of the Democratic Party. We were sitting at our table, two tables over from Erika Kirk. And you crawl out from under the table and you think, how is Erika Kirk handling this moment?

Steve Scalise is sitting two tables this direction. He was injured so gravely in 2017. And then you think of all the members of Congress who went through, Democrats and Republicans there on Saturday, who went through January 6th and report really the trauma of that event and feeling incredibly threatened there in this environment.

I just wonder sort of what you were thinking as you're hearing her talk about the rhetoric.

CHUCK TODD, HOST, "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": Well, it was pretty disappointing because this is a moment where there can't be cognitive dissonance here, right? This is a national problem. Let's not forget the Minnesota politicians that were assassinated --

KEILAR: That's right.

TODD: -- not that long ago, literally door-to-door on that one as well. This is not a one-sided issue at this point. We can -- presidents set the thermostat for the country, for better or for worse. And only a president can dial down on the rhetoric, only a president can set the tone. It is on the president.

[13:35:00]

This is why you can't expect a Speaker of the House to do this, a chairman of a political party. Certainly everybody should watch their words and be careful in incendiary rhetoric, but ultimately, the political community and the community at large takes its cues from this president. And this is a president who, from the very beginning, has been very pugilistic.

And he talks in very harsh terms about anybody who's a political opponent of his, regardless sometimes whether they're a Democrat, a Republican, a member of the press. And so we shouldn't be sitting here and shocked as if, you know, it's Casablanca that, there's gambling going on here when one size escalates rhetoric and then you sit there and there's like no -- and you're shocked that, you know, you have reactionary politics.

This is what happens. This is why you cannot -- I was very disappointed in the round -- in the questions. There was too much to me about security, which worked. All right. I've been going to this dinner going back to the early '90s. That perimeter has been the same. It worked. The first perimeter worked.

We can discuss a couple of loopholes. Loophole one, by the way, traveling on Amtrak. Nobody inspects any baggage on trains. He took trains. To me, that's a conversation we need to be having, number one. And number two, obviously, checking into the motel -- to the hotel itself is a security loophole.

But this is not about a security issue here. This is a political climate that we've been living with in the past 10 years. Look, I've been targeted. I've had the FBI at my house letting me know about being targeted. I've had my face plastered on this. This is -- and I didn't have any of that before June of 2015.

We live in a different era. And if they're serious about this, the president has to change his tone and be reflective. He has talked about eliminating a civilization in the last few weeks. He celebrated the death of Robert Mueller. He weirdly rationalized the death through political terms of Rob Reiner. I mean, the point is, is that this is -- I'm not going to sit here and defend the comments that she read, although some of them are sort of normal political comments like, see you in the streets. That's about protesting.

But you cannot have any credibility criticizing the opposite party if you're not looking in the mirror. And I did not see any self- reflection in those comments. And you're not going to see it. President Trump never likes to show weakness. And having to be self- reflective would show weakness.

SANCHEZ: Let's go to Kristen Holmes, who is at the White House now. And Kristen, you and the team were reporting about this briefing that internally was going to be held within the administration, led by the Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, to review all security protocols. What are you hearing regarding that?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this is all to discuss what's going to happen next. And you heard her being intentionally vague. She said at one point that they did discuss continuity of government going into this because there were so many officials, including the president and the vice president. They have been at events off-campus before.

But there were questions about whether or not they discussed ever having them maybe not attend this event. And she said, yes, that there was continuity of government conversation going into this. We know that they talked about this afterwards when they were in that back holding room.

Marco Rubio confirmed that. But there are going to be bigger questions moving forward. It's not just about these leaders. It's also about making sure that the people who don't have Secret Service protection who go to these events are safe. And as we saw in Butler, that was where the casualty was. The Secret Service is there to protect President Trump.

They are not there to protect everybody in the crowd. And that is something that you heard and I've heard from behind the scenes when they're talking about these big celebratory events that President Trump is supposed to attend for America 250. They want the people in the crowd to feel safe.

What are the extra protocols for them as well? And there are still questions about leading up to this event why certain protocols weren't put in place. And, yes, it is correct. He was stopped. And that is true. We have heard that from everybody across the board. He was stopped at the perimeter. That's exactly what is supposed to happen.

But there are still larger questions as to whether or not this should have been called a national special security event. They should have requested that funding from the Department of Homeland Security given that everyone was there, the way they do, for the State of the Union.

And we still don't have answers on that. But I will say this. Karoline Leavitt, she was standing by the Secret Service. She was standing by what they were doing. But she also raised the fact that they are going to likely make changes, that nothing is ruled out, that they're having these ongoing conversations. I think that is notable in itself.

President Trump will never say anything negative about Sean Curran, who he believes saved his life. He believes that he is the best detail lead he's ever had. He is now running the Secret Service. But that doesn't mean they're not going to change some of these protocols that we have a lot of questions about. KEILAR: Yeah, because it does raise a lot of questions about a different type of attack could have been successful, right? I mean, these are some of the questions.

[13:40:00]

It opens up a lot of very important mental exercises they need to do to make sure that they are keeping a situation like this safe. Kristen, thank you so much. Let's bring in Brian Stelter.

Brian, we have some limited time here, but what are your thoughts after a very important White House press briefing?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I thought that press briefing was exactly the kind of incendiary blame-the-media response that I expected we would hear from the Trump administration right after the shooting incident. Blaming the opposing party and blaming the media that was sitting in the room for the actions of a would-be assassin.

The press secretary said that criticism of the president is inspiring crazy people to "commit violence" because of those words, and it has to stop. And she has every right to make that argument. She has every right to make that argument, but it's not in the spirit of the First Amendment.

And if the Trump administration tries to use its power to silence people, to try to enforce her point and shut down criticism, that's when the First Amendment alarms would start to ring. The root problem I see is that Karoline Leavitt rightly says we must resolve our differences peacefully, but the way to do that is through speech. It is through criticism, including the speech that she wants to silence.

A very clear line must always be drawn that violence is not free speech and speech is not violence. Leavitt also repeated the First Lady's condemnation of Jimmy Kimmel. The administration is calling out Kimmel, trying to pressure ABC, but they're being careful, I think, not to explicitly demand that ABC punish him. So they're trying to be careful. We will see if ABC responds or not, but we've been through many of these First Amendment stress tests since Trump returned to power.

And the good news, as I see it, is that America has been passing the tests. It has not been an A-plus grade, but for the most part, despite their rhetoric that sometimes becomes very incendiary from the White House and, yes, is also incendiary from the left, these stress tests have been passed and we've not seen demands for silencing be followed through by government censorship.

SANCHEZ: Well, Brian, just as we were speaking, the president actually put out a note demanding that Jimmy Kimmel be fired by ABC. He says that Kimmel's joke about --

STELTER: OK.

SANCHEZ: -- the First Lady, yeah, about the First Lady saying that she has a glow like an expectant widow is a despicable call to violence, saying that normally he would not be responsive to anything that Kimmel said, but this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.

That, the post from President Trump just moments ago.

STELTER: This is exactly what I mean, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

STELTER: So you have the first lady and the press secretary being a little more nuanced, trying to walk a fine line, but we've seen this many times in the president. He'll blow right past his aides, allies, even his family members, and he'll just say the quiet part out loud. So we have the president of the United States demanding a comic be fired, and this is going to be a big challenge for ABC and its parent company, Disney.

New CEO, Josh D'Amaro probably in meetings right now trying to figure out what to do because this, this right here, it's a big First Amendment stress test.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to everyone on the panel. There's still much more on "CNN News Central" as we await the arraignment of the suspect in the shooting. We also have new developments today in the war with Iran. A new proposal from Tehran at a meeting between President Trump and his top advisers, we'll discuss next.

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[13:47:20]

SANCHEZ: President Trump is meeting with his national security team today to discuss the stalemate with Iran. This weekend, the president abruptly canceled plans for his top envoys to travel to Pakistan for another round of negotiations.

A source says that Iran has since submitted a new proposal to the White House that focuses on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but it leaves the state of talks on key U.S. demands unclear. CNN's Zach Cohen joins us now.

So, Zach, talk to us about this meeting with Trump's national security team on the proposal that was laid out by Iran.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, at the moment, talks between the U.S. and Iran do seem to be at a sort of impasse. We heard White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, just a few minutes ago though confirming what we and others have reported, that Donald Trump and his top national security officials were meeting today after the U.S. received this latest proposal from Iran that, as you mentioned, did focus on potentially reopening the Strait of Hormuz, that key waterway through which much of the world's oil and energy products flow through, but would leave -- this proposal would leave the state of talks about Iran's nuclear program really unclear. And Leavitt saying that the president has made his red lines very clear publicly. And one of the main ones that we've heard the president reiterate over and over again, especially in the last few weeks, has been that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. So how the U.S. will proceed after receiving this latest proposal, really unclear.

But Secretary of State, Marco Rubio also suggesting that Iran's current control, the status quo of the Strait of Hormuz also a red line for the U.S. Take a listen to what Rubio told Fox News about that sticking point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: If what they mean by opening the Straits is, yes, the Straits are open as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission or we'll blow you up and you pay us. That's not opening the Straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So the Strait of Hormuz, obviously, along with the nuclear file, still two critical issues that remain unresolved here. And Boris, it's worth noting that oil remains at a three-week high today as those prices continue to show no signs of subsiding in the near term.

SANCHEZ: And we'll see how the administration responds to this proposal, at least publicly. Zach Cohen, thank you so much for the reporting.

Up next, how did he go from teacher of the month to now an accused gunman? We're learning new details about the suspect behind Saturday night's attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Stay with us.

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[13:53:53]

KEILAR: We just got word moments ago that the first federal court appearance of Cole Allen is underway. He, of course, is the suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting. The Southern California teacher and CalTech graduate is expected to face multiple charges today.

CNN Senior Investigative Correspondent, Kyung Lah is outside his house in Torrance, California. Kyung, what more can you tell us?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a community that certainly wants to know what is going to happen. What kind of details are we going to learn? Is there going to be more information coming out of that hearing that has now just started? This was anticipated and expected throughout the day. It is just starting right now.

The two charges that we do know that he is currently facing is using a firearm during the commission of a crime, as well as assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Could those charges shift? Could there be more? That is something that we are going to pay attention to.

There are no cameras, though, in the courthouse. It is a federal hearing. And this community certainly wants to know how in this beach community, a suburb of Los Angeles, where he comes from, you know, two service-oriented parents.

[13:55:00]

The father is a high school teacher. This is a young man who went to CalTech. He got a mechanical engineering degree. He seemed community- oriented even when he was in college. He joined a Christian fellowship group.

He was featured in a 2017 local news story where he talked about helping to develop a type of wheelchair brake. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLE ALLEN, SHOOTING SUSPECT: The wheelchair brakes tend to lock the wheels, but don't actually lock the chair to the ground. The idea with this is to prevent it from moving at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: So he just seems like a normal kid who would go on to get his master's at another university and would then be featured as 'Teacher of the Month' in 2024 at a local test preparatory academy. So what a lot of people here are wondering is what happened? How did this young man go to taking two weapons purchased legally here in California, one of them being this long rifle in a photo that was obtained by our Josh Campbell, and bring them to the Hilton?

Authorities say that he was found with those two weapons as well as multiple hunting knives on him. The White House says, the sister has told authorities that he was becoming more politically active, especially with a leftist group here in the Los Angeles area, but that was a group that was specifically not violent, Brianna. So a lot of questions, and we are hoping to learn much more coming out of this hearing.

KEILAR: All right. Kyung Lah, thank you for that, the latest for us from Torrance. Ahead on "CNN News Central," a royal arrival is just minutes away, but it's coming at a tense time. We'll talk a little more about it after a break.

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