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Source: Suspect's Writings Indicate Anti-Trump Administration Ideology; Investigation Underway After Shots Fired At White House Correspondents' Dinner; Buckingham Palace: King Charles' U.S. State Visit Will Go Ahead. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired April 26, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:47]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news.

Inside the suspected gunman's beliefs.

A source telling CNN that investigators now have writings from the suspect. What we are learning right now about his political beliefs and who he may have been targeting when he allegedly opened fire at the White House correspondents dinner.

Searching for evidence.

Right now, the FBI is in a neighborhood tied to the suspect out in California. We'll take you there live.

And was there enough security here in Washington?

There are now serious questions about the protocols to screen attendees and guests. One lawmaker says the security was, and I'm quoting that lawmaker now, "woefully insufficient".

Good afternoon. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington with my colleague and friend, Fredricka Whitfield, in Atlanta.

And let's start with the breaking news.

We're learning right now troubling new details of the man accused of firing shots outside the White House Correspondents Association dinner last night. The president and members of his cabinet were inside but unharmed.

Sources say the suspect is 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance. He was tackled and arrested without injury.

And on a very personal note, I was just a few feet away from the alleged gunman when those shots were fired. It was very scary, but I'm ok.

This is new video of the FBI agents going door-to-door in Allen's neighborhood out in California, speaking to his neighbors. A source telling CNN that investigators have recovered writings from the accused gunman. And they indicate very strong feelings against the Trump administration and its officials.

And at the White House, sources telling CNN that the that Allen's family contacted police about the writings just minutes before the attack.

President Trump's acting attorney general tells CNN the alleged gunman was likely targeting White House officials.

CNN's senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes is joining us right now.

Kristen, you have some new reporting about the suspect's actual writings. What can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, I spoke to someone who's been briefed on the so-called manifesto who said essentially a couple of things that are of note.

One, that the would-be assassin referred to himself as the "Friendly Federal Assassin" in this manifesto. And part of what he allegedly meant by that was that while he was targeting, and this is in the manifesto, the source said, Trump administration officials there were several notes in there that he did not want to target specific law enforcement.

That, of course, is, you know, we look in retrospect, we know that he did exchange gunfire with federal agents. So obviously, that did not end up happening.

But it is interesting to hear that one of the specifics of this manifesto was not to target specific law enforcement groups.

Now, President Trump did an interview this morning in which he talked a little bit about this manifesto, about these writings. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You got some big problems with the rest of his life, but it's very, very bad -- very bad situation.

(CROSSTALKING)

TRUMP: But his family knew that he had difficulty. His family seemed to be, I think they spent a lot of time with his family, his family said he had big difficulty.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now, one of the things that we noticed last night when we were in that room was shortly after, almost minutes after President Trump had been cleared, the vice president had been cleared, we started to see the systematic removal of cabinet members of administration officials from that room.

Now it is unclear. I was told at that time that that was just protocol getting everybody out of there. They were put into different rooms, holding rooms to see what was going to happen next, to make sure that everything was safe.

But it is interesting now, in retrospect, knowing that moments before this shooting, this information had made its way into the hands of some law enforcement that this person, this man, was targeting Trump administration officials.

[14:04:52]

HOLMES: And even after President Trump decided and not him directly, but the Secret Service, that it was not safe to come back some of those cabinet members still held in their holding rooms until the entire site had been cleared after President Trump had gotten out of there.

Then, of course, we saw them later flanking President Trump during that press briefing.

We are talking to the White House, who is being briefed constantly on any information that they are getting about this. And it has been a very real moment for this White House to once again be in this experience of having a potential assassination attempt.

Many of the people who were with him last night are people who were with him in Butler, Pennsylvania and there's going to likely be a whole evaluation, not just of what happened last night, but over these kind of events. Who attends in terms of how many cabinet officials and what they look like from a security standpoint?

BLITZER: Kristen Holmes at the White House for us. Good reporting. Thank you very, very much.

CNN's Kyung Lah joining us now from Torrance, California. She's just outside the family home of the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen.

Kyung, what can you tell us about Allen's life before last night's shooting?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you first a little bit about this community, because this is a community, a beach community that is sleepy and quiet and middle class, that is really struggling to understand how this happened.

As I'm just looking over here, it is a Sunday morning. I saw a couple pushing their twin kids in a stroller. I see a mom playing with her kids in the hammock. This is the place that Cole Allen called home, a 31-year-old high

achiever. Went to Caltech, a university of high achievers; got his masters in engineering there.

He was teaching at a (INAUDIBLE) preparatory institution where you are surrounded by high achievers.

So the father was a public-school teacher as far as neighbors knew, friendly. This is sort of the picture of Americana.

While this is happening, we are hearing that law enforcement says that he had purchased in 2023m, in October 2023, a handgun. And then two years later, in August of 2025, a 12-gauge shotgun. His family did not know that he was storing those weapons here at his home.

Somehow, he purchased what law enforcement believes is some sort of train ticket and made it over to Washington, D.C. And then all of the events that Kristen is talking about ensued.

So what FBI is doing here, and we saw that, you mentioned it, Wolf, that the FBI is going around this neighborhood trying to piece together this puzzle to understand how all of this happened.

That this man from a seemingly good family who had high expectations of their kids, suddenly ended up in that sort of situation in such a spectacular way, targeting members of the Trump administration, Wolf.

BLITZER: As you know, Kyung, Cole Tomas Allen is expected to be arraigned tomorrow. What charges does he face?

LAH: These are very serious charges. We're hearing this from the U.S. attorney's office.

He's facing two charges. The first being using a firearm during the commission of a crime, during a crime of violence. And then assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. He was found with that handgun, shotgun and multiple knives on him at the hotel.

And you saw for yourself, Wolf, a very frightening situation for the people who were inside that hotel, down to the very hallway where you were standing, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. I was just standing a few feet away from him when he was firing those shots. It was a really scary moment indeed.

Kyung Lah, thank you very, very much.

Last night's shooting was a display of targeted gun violence that, sadly, has become way too painful -- a painful reality for so many millions of Americans.

My colleague and CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, wrote an analysis of the attack, saying, among other things, and I'm quoting Brian now, "Thousands of media and political elites have now gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls and churches. And on most of those occasions, there were no Secret Service agents."

Brian is with us here right now. What stood out to you last night about as all of this unfolded.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, Wolf, that we're not special. And if we are special, it's only because we have those Secret Service agents and those bodyguards and those D.C. police officers who were able to swarm the ballroom and help you in the hallway and to help all of us in the Hilton.

We are not special. Thousands of journalists and politicians have now experienced what so many children have gone through in their schools, what so many parents have gone through in their workplaces, what so many shoppers have experienced in their malls and movie theaters.

And if there's any silver lining to this horrible weekend, it is that maybe those journalist bosses, those newsroom executives, those politicians, those corporate leaders, those CEOs will have a slightly better sense of what it has been like in this country as this ongoing epidemic of gun violence has continued.

[14:09:54]

STELTER: And by the way, not just guns. The suspect may have also had knives, according to police as well. He's clearly someone who wanted to commit a mass murder inside that ballroom. And as bad as this was, it could have been much worse.

I saw people coming out limping last night, you know, trying to get help. And local officers were helping them right away.

In a lot of these cases, people are even more vulnerable. There's not help as quickly. So I just think it's important to note, you know, we're not special. We're just joining a long list now of people who've been through this.

BLITZER: Yes. I was standing very close to that gunman when all this was unfolding just a few feet away. And all of a sudden, one law enforcement officer saw me there and said, get down, get down.

And I didn't move to get down too quickly because as a journalist, I wanted to see what was going on.

STELTER: Yes.

BLITZER: But he then tackled me, threw me to the ground, lied on top of me to protect me. And I'm grateful to him for what he was doing because this guy was shooting. Who the hell knows where those bullets would wind up?

STELTER: And then listen, Wolf, you were the first to tell the world what actually happened. There was so much uncertainty inside the ballroom until you on the outside helped us all to understand.

And I think I was relieved last night and again today to see President Trump lowering the temperature, to see cooler heads prevailing at least among our political leaders.

You know, if you look online right now, there's some nastiness out there, and this may end up becoming another free speech stress test in the United States.

There are far-right commentators blaming the press, saying the media is inciting violence against Trump.

There are far-left talking heads online who are claiming this is a conspiracy. They're claiming it was all staged to help Trump. They're going down this crazy rabbit holes.

And to that I say, look, can we just stop it? You know, because political leaders of all affiliations are being really responsible right now. And hopefully that can influence some of the rhetoric that's happening online as a result.

BLITZER: We're just learning now, and you've been learning this as well, that President Trump actually sat down today with "60 Minutes" for an interview that will air later tonight.

STELTER: Yes, that's quite notable. Here's a photo from the taping a few minutes ago. Norah O'Donnell sitting down with the president.

"60 Minutes", of course, highly-rated every weekend. So the president choosing a platform to follow up on last night's events.

And, you know, I mentioned a stress test for free speech. That's going to be a test of the president. What tone does he strike about this? How does he talk about this going forward? And how personally -- how is he assessing this as someone who is now been threatened repeatedly in a way that, listen, Wolf, you know, you've been covering political violence in this country for decades, but it feels like it's a different level right now, doesn't it?

BLITZER: It's scary.

STELTER: We're in a different place right now.

BLITZER: It's very, very scary.

He was supposed to give a one-hour speech at the dinner last night. That obviously was canceled, didn't happen.

But they're now talking, the president's talking about within the next 30 days rescheduling it. Do you think that's reasonable?

STELTER: I hope it is. I don't know if there's a venue that can successfully pull it off right now, do you?

BLITZER: Security wise?

STELTER: Yes. I'm skeptical. I hope it can happen, but I'm skeptical.

BLITZER: Yes. Well, let's see what happens.

Brian Stelter, as usual.

STELTER: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you very, very much.

After last night's shooting incident just outside the ballroom where the president and so many members of his cabinet were dining, many questions still remain now.

None as pressing as how he was able to get as close as he did, and why he was motivated to carry out this attack in the first place.

Coming up right after the break, we'll take a closer look at the investigation, trying to answer those and many other questions.

[14:13:09]

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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We continue our breaking news coverage of the shooting outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton.

Overnight, authorities descended on a home linked to the alleged gunman in Torrance, California, outside of Los Angeles. Sources say the suspect is identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen.

Just outside the D.C. hotel ballroom last night, authorities tackled the suspect and arrested him without injury. The White House says Allen's social media accounts strongly reflected anti-Trump feelings.

Acting U.S. attorney general, Todd Blanche, says the attack was targeting administration officials at the dinner.

Listen carefully.

So you're about to hear gunshots there in the hotel lobby. There you go. The response right there, close enough to be heard in the ballroom where the dinner was being held.

And you can see Secret Service agents then surrounding the president and safely rushing him off stage. Top administration officials were also there, and also unharmed.

Surveillance camera video captures the suspect right there charging a security checkpoint. Police say he exchanged gunfire with police and struck one Secret Service agent, but his protective gear helped save him. That agent has been released from the hospital.

CNN senior correspondent Josh Campbell joins us right now. Josh, you worked as a supervisory special agent with the FBI. Tell us about the investigation, the kinds of steps that are being taken right now.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes. As you and I are speaking, there are FBI agents in the L.A. suburb of Torrance that are going door-to-door near a residence belonging to the suspect. That's normal in these investigations. Authorities wanting to try to

identify anyone who might have known this individual. Again, all trying to get to that motive.

I've been talking to sources and getting a sense of somewhat of the timeline here.

[14:19:47]

CAMPBELL: Now, once those shots actually rang out, they're just outside the event, the White House Correspondents Dinner, authorities I'm told were able to identify who the suspect was relatively quickly after he was taken down by officers.

Once they determined that there was a California connection, they started calling back here to L.A., getting agents here on board. The Los Angeles FBI swat team was called in. They all descended on that neighborhood last night.

Now, as far as what we're learning about this investigation, I don't yet know if we can call this well-planned, but there was certainly planning that went into it.

We're learning from the acting attorney general that this suspect had traveled to Washington, D.C. via train, that he was armed with firearms as well as knives. The train part obviously interesting because there is little to no security screening on the U.S. rail system. And so that may have been the reason for that mode of transportation.

But went there to the ballroom was ultimately apprehended as he rushed that security checkpoint.

We also are learning that there was an alleged manifesto type message that was sent to his family members, indicating his apparent animus for the Trump administration.

Bottom line here, Fred, you know, we've -- you and I have covered a lot of cases where the motive seems very mysterious. You look at the attempted assassination on the president last year in Pennsylvania, still major questions to this day.

This doesn't appear to be one of those mysterious cases, because everything were learning about the suspect, it appears that he had this animus to -- for the Trump administration, for the president himself. Decided to act on that allegedly here with violence.

He is now in custody. He is not cooperating, according to officials, but he's expected to be charged in federal court tomorrow, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Josh Campbell, thank you so much.

I want to now bring in former LAPD police chief, Bernard Parks. Chief Parks, great to see you.

FBI agents have been, you know, seen outside the home in that L.A. suburb of Torrance as you just heard from josh there, which is now linked to that alleged shooter.

What role is California state or even local law enforcement playing as this investigation continues?

BERNARD PARKS, FORMER LAPD POLICE CHIEF: I think you're in high alert to see if there's a carryover of someone else doing a copycat. I don't think there's any direct interest or line that shows that its pre- planned.

In fact, I think if you analyze what the suspect has done, it was fairly amateurish as you think about him trying to breach a security point where FBI and law enforcement are in full force.

And so I think it appears that he did not quite understand what he was basically going to be confronted with, but this whole thing of looking at this violence that's going on throughout the United States, we just had a mass shooting in Baton Rouge at a shopping center. We just had a person that killed his entire family.

So I think we have to look at this stuff, not individually as incident by incident, but collectively. We also have to remember that hotel is the place that Hinckley tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

And so these are the kinds of things that if you look at them collectively, you get a sense that these are not things you ignore. And there are a lot of telltale signs to prepare for.

And now that we have hundreds of thousands of podcasts, everybody is a newsmaker -- no one is a filter. And so they're putting a lot of material out that people can't evaluate, but yet they may believe and they act on it.

And so these are the kinds of things that are going on that in society that we should expect more and more kinds of people acting out on their individual issues.

And we shouldn't look at them as isolated and we shouldn't look at them as only foreign issues. We have a lot of domestic people that have issues and will act out in violence.

And so it's one of those things in our society today, violence is the foremost and should be foremost in everyone's mind.

No one is safe. Whether you're at a shopping center or you're at home or your neighbor. You have to be very alert to what's going on.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's so true. Everyone has to be on high alert no matter where you are. You can't necessarily feel that any place is a comfort zone.

But you make exceptional points, especially great reminder there that that is the Washington Hilton where that attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

So I'm also wondering too, you mentioned that this act looks and speaks of being very amateurish. Does that mean that its more likely kind of because of that kind of hallmark that this person indeed acted alone?

[14:24:54]

PARKS: I would think so. I don't, you know, I don't think if you go back and look at any evaluation of where that number of potential high-end targets are going to be located, that a single person would believe I can just walk into the hotel and breach the security and be able to attack people that are inside.

And I think it also gives an indication it was an individual act as opposed to some collective act.

But on the other hand, you could end up with folks seeing this and saying, I want to be a copycat. The key -- the key factor is the act, the number of security people there.

And we hope that we don't get people beginning to analyze whether security was good or bad. We should ensure that as they work through the investigation, they are giving us information or finding out just where the weak points were if there were any.

But we don't need a lot of speculation at this point to be -- for people analyzing security, but particularly when you don't know what the level was.

WHITFIELD: Right.

All right. Chief Bernard Parks, formerly police chief of LAPD. Thank you so much for your time and expertise. Appreciate it.

PARKS: Great talking to you again.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

Straight ahead, we'll ask a former national security agent under President George W. Bush about the difficult tasks of keeping U.S. leaders safe. All this in a threat environment that is getting seemingly more complicated every year.

[14:26:35]

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[14:30:53]

BLITZER: Right now, growing outrage and shock over how the alleged attacker at last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner was able to get so dangerously close to the president and members of the administration.

Earlier today, Republican Congressman Mike Lawler told CNN that security was, quote, "woefully insufficient". His words. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Having attended a lot of events and certainly having attended events with the president and cabinet, woefully insufficient when you're talking about that many people getting into a room of that size, and, you know, obviously, given the fact that the shooter was able to get to that lower level even -- and the Secret Service did their job when they encountered him and they were able to, to stop him and detain him.

But it shouldn't even have come to that. He shouldn't have been anywhere in, in that vicinity to begin with. And so from my vantage point, you know, that's something that needs to be addressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I want to bring in former President George W. Bush's special assistant for national security, Michael Allen.

Michael, thanks very much for joining us.

This is now, what, the third time that President Trump has been so dangerously close to a gunman. Was there a sufficient security at the Washington Hilton Hotel last night?

MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: I think there was as much as they intended it to be, but I they may need to update protocols in this day and age, given how many violent episodes that we've had in the last few years. I think it could be -- it could stand to be extended. There's no reason why an attacker ought to get that close, even if he was never truly threatening the president. I don't like the idea that that individual almost made it to the room.

So it feels like we could push a lot of this out, especially when we look at the guy, run past some of these officers, and that looks like a difficult thing for them to have dealt with. But I think they would have preferred more defense and depth and stopped it much earlier.

BLITZER: He was a registered guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He had checked in earlier, presumably when he was checking in to the Washington Hilton. He had a suitcase or maybe two that had the rifle, had the guns, the ammunition, the knives and everything. When you're checking into the Washington Hilton hotel or any other hotel for that matter, normally you don't have to go through metal detectors, right?

ALLEN: That's true.

BLITZER: Should that change if there's a White House correspondents dinner that's about to take place.

ALLEN: You'd think if the president of the United States is on campus, you might have a little bit of a heightened security around them. And I don't think it's totally unreasonable for guests that happen to be staying there to consent to additional security measures, when the leader of the free world is just downstairs.

BLITZER: The president, the vice president, several cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials, and many members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, including the speaker of the House, they were all present at the dinner as well. From a national security perspective, is it dangerous to have so many senior officials in one room like that big ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel?

ALLEN: It definitely is a big, major responsibility of the federal government is continuity, continuity of government. No matter what might happen. It was a big focus in the cold war.

It came up again on 9/11, because we needed to be able to figure out where everybody in the presidential line of succession was. And it also occurred that we couldn't get in touch with many of these people immediately.

So we got to know where they are. We got to be able to establish communications with them instantly. Now, you were in the ballroom, but as far as I saw last night, it seemed like communications were tough to get into that room. It varied how many of the security details were able to get to which cabinet officer, and how quickly were they taken out of the room.

I think there will be a big lessons learned occurred, and that's good. There always is, after military and Secret Service operations such as this, and we ought to have an open stance towards more of the recommendations that they may have.

BLITZER: I did walk into the Washington Hilton Hotel to get into the hotel, to go through the red carpet, wherever. You didn't have to go through metal detectors, but you had to show your ticket to the actual dinner that had the number of the table where you were scheduled to sleep.

[14:35:07]

Was that enough?

ALLEN: I don't think so. That seemed like it could have been faked. It doesn't seem very foolproof. It seems like they want to have some sort of check. I don't know if it's the full medical metal detectors outside, but it seems reasonable that once you're coming into the hotel, that that's a good place to have it.

It's a deterrent. People don't want to go in farther than that. If they know theyre going to be caught, or if they know that theyre going to be deterred. So I think what they would rather do is just set that up clearly around the hotel venue such as this, to ensure that these people think twice before they even try anything.

BLITZER: Yeah. Because the only thing you needed to do to get into the hotel was show the ticket that had your table number on it, where you were going to be sitting for the course of the actual dinner.

Before I let you go, a quick question on Iran, there's a new diplomatic push right now by Iran after the president called off sending his advisors, Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Pakistan for more talks. Iran's foreign minister has phoned counterparts in Egypt, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this weekend. What does that indicate to you?

ALLEN: Well, it says to me theyre looking for diplomatic allies. They want to make sure that these states have as much knowledge as they can about what Iran's positions are going forward. Theyre trying to normalize and make it seem acceptable. Some of the fallback positions that Iran appears open to negotiating with the United States.

But I think we have to get back over there and talk to the same individuals, make sure they don\t release any funds, make sure these individuals -- Iran has continued to be sanctioned because the whole idea now, of course, is the blockade of Iranian ports. We need them to feel an economic stranglehold to condition them, to be able to come to the negotiating table and really give up something that we really, really need. And so we got to double down on all these economic measures for now.

BLITZER: Michael Allen, good to have you here. Thanks very much for joining us.

ALLEN: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: And this shooting will not necessarily deter us. Those are the words coming from the acting attorney general of the United States after last nights shooting incident here in Washington. Coming up, Todd Blanche talks to CNN about what comes next after this incident that rattled the nation's capital.

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[14:41:56]

WHITFIELD: All right. We continue our breaking news coverage of the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Officials believe that Cole Thomas Allen, the alleged gunman, acted alone. The White House tells CNN that Allen wrote a manifesto that outlined his plan to target Trump administration officials. The suspect sent that to his family just minutes before opening fire. His family then notified police.

And as the investigation ramps up, acting U.S. attorney general spoke to my colleague Dana Bash about the response from U.S. Secret Service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is there any indication that the alleged gunman was on law enforcements radar at all before this?

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Not any indication yet. We're still -- we're still investigating what we knew, if anything, about this individual. We -- it appears that he purchased the two firearms that he had on him within the past couple of years. He had knives on him as well.

But this is very preliminary. I am confident that in the coming days, we'll know a lot more information.

BASH: The police said that they believe he was staying at the hotel, which is the Hilton here in Washington. The Secret Service typically runs through guest names and they run them through databases of known threats prior to a dinner like that. Like this. Do you know that that happened, or do you know if that happened, I should ask?

BLANCHE: I am -- I am overly confident that the Secret Service did their job here, and not only in the work last night, but in the -- in the days coming up to the event last night. And as President Trump said last night, and he said it many times because it's true, if -- if there's somebody who wants to do what happened last night and you want it -- and you try hard enough, there's not -- the goal is not expected to stop every single thing. It's to create a very safe and very secure environment, which is what -- which is what happened last night.

And I think that it's tragic and it's sad. And we're going to learn from it. But make no mistake about it, the Secret Service did their jobs last night.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, we definitely can all thank and applaud law enforcement. There's no question about it. Are you comfortable with the fact that much of the line of succession was in the ballroom at the Hilton last night?

BLANCHE: Very comfortable. President Trump said this last night, but it's worth repeating. We are not. This is not the kind of thing that will deter us. This is not the kind of thing that will cause us to go, you know, down in a bunker and not come out.

President Trump will continue to communicate with the American people. We are going to continue to do our jobs and our jobs include interacting with the press, which we do, which I'm doing now and which we did last night.

And so, very comfortable because what you do when you have an environment like that, when you have the leaders of the free world in one room, as you make sure that you have security, that will stop anybody from getting anywhere near any of those individuals. And that's exactly what happened last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. The suspect is facing two counts, one involving a firearm, the other related to assault on a federal officer.

[14:45:07]

He is set to be arraigned in court tomorrow.

All right. Coming up, President Trump says tomorrow's visit from Britain's King Charles is still happening, despite last night's attack. How the incident could possibly shift Buckingham Palace's approach to the long planned trip.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:50:03]

BLITZER: Tomorrow, President Trump will welcome King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the White House as part of their state visit to the United States. The palace just released a statement confirming that the royals' trip will proceed as planned.

Right now, security talks are underway between both countries to determine if operational changes are needed. Given what happened last night. The king is expected to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress and will meet behind closed doors with the president.

This morning, the president addressed tomorrow's state visit when he was on Fox. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: King Charles is coming, and he's a great guy. And we look forward to it. He's really a fantastic person and a tremendous representative. He's a friend of mine for a long time.

So he's coming and were going to have a great time. And he represents his nation like nobody else can do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN royal historian Kate Williams is joining us now live from London. She's got some more insight.

Kate, how does this -- how does last nights shooting change security preparations around the royal couples visit?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes, Wolf. We understand there have been discussions all day long between the White House, between the security services and the palace and the U.K. government about what was going to happen next, and certainly what they've said is that the plan is going to proceed with just a few minor modifications.

So I think we can expect to see the same schedule. It's a schedule, the same schedule in Washington, New York and Virginia, but I think we will see fewer public meet and greets. There's going to be a lot more security than we would normally expect. And I think Charles is going to be out and about shaking fewer hands.

But the king and queen, I understand, were determined to go ahead. As you said, president Trump was keen for it to go ahead as well. So the effort has been made that the state visit would go ahead as planned. And really that last nights terrible events that the absolute consequence would not stop the state visit that has been planned for so long, celebrating 250 years of independence of America from the United Kingdom.

BLITZER: Are you surprised that Charles and Camilla are still planning to have the state visit, given what happened last night? Because the timing, because of what happened last night, could be a bit awkward, right?

WILLIAMS: I think that I -- initially this morning, there was some discussion about it. I understand, but I understand that both the king and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, felt very strongly that the security would be good. The security services would be very strong. They obviously acted incredibly efficiently last night, that with the king, with the queen, they would be really in the safest of hands in this U.S. visit.

And we have to remember, there hasn't been a visit of a reigning monarch to the United States for nearly 20 years. And this is such a big year, 250 years. It's going to great moment of American independence. The king really wants to celebrate this. And its very important to him, and certainly, although there have been tensions between President Trump and our prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, certainly Trump is a great fan, as he said of the king. And I think the king really did feel it was his duty to come. It was important to come and it could do a lot for U.S.-U.K. relations.

BLITZER: As you know, the ties between the U.S. and the U.K. have been strained in recent weeks over this war in Iran. The two countries disagree on some aspects of it. How might the royal visit actually help ease some of those U.S.-British tensions?

WILLIAMS: Yes, Wolf. For that's the principle of all royal visits. That's why Elizabeth II went 42 times around the world in terms of state visits. The idea is that the royals are these soft power who go and create good relations, which then can be built on because, yes, as you say, the U.S. and U.K., it's pretty disastrous. There's a lot of anger in the U.K. about the Iraq war. There's added on top of that, there's the sacking of Peter Mandelson, the U.S. ambassador, over the Epstein links. So everything is really in flux in a political sense between the U.S. and the U.K.

But the king is going to go out and about shaking hands, meeting everyone from first responders to 9/11 to the queen is going to Winnie the Pooh celebration. So we've got serious events, we've got happy events, and the whole vision is that at the end of it, there will be greater understanding between the U.S. and the U.K. And because the U.S. relations are so important to everyone in the U.K. and the king sees it as incredibly important.

So for Sir Keir Starmer, it may be that the two governments don't get on, but wider relationship between the two countries a happy one is particularly important and we are gearing up to the July celebrations of 250 years, which is a great moment in history which were keen to celebrate here in the U.K. And the king, I think, wants to be leading those celebrations.

BLITZER: A good point. Kate Williams, thanks so much for joining us.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

BLITZER: And stay with CNN. Next hour well take you back to California, where investigators right now are working around the clock to learn more about the man they say tried to storm last night's White House Correspondents Association dinner.

[14:55:10]

What we've learned so far, we have new details. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now, breaking news, urgent investigation. An attack at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. A gunman opens fire. President Trump and his cabinet are rushed to safety, and a U.S. Secret Service officer is hit in his bulletproof vest.