Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Investigation Underway After Shots Fired At White House Correspondents' Dinner; White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting, Senator John Fetterman (D) Interview. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 26, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:37]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us. I am Kasie Hunt.

We begin this hour with breaking news. We're learning new details about the alleged gunman who charged through a security checkpoint at the annual dinner honoring journalists here in Washington last night.

Our sources here at CNN tell us that authorities have identified the suspect as Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old from California. Here you can see stunning security footage. It shows the moment that chaos erupted when this person rushed through security.

The president, Donald Trump, along with numerous senior administration officials at the gala, in addition to members of the media like myself, the president evacuated very quickly. The rest of us, of course, sheltering under tables trying to figure out what was going on and reporting the aftermath.

Here's some of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The horror of course unfolding as we were all gathered to celebrate the First Amendment. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told CNN the suspected gunman appeared to be targeting Trump administration officials.

Here is what Blanche had to say about the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It was a massive security success story. I mean, if you think about what happened as far as what we know right now, this suspect barely breached the perimeter. And so when you have a perimeter in a situation like we had last night, where you had over 2,000 people in a room, including the leaders of this country and many other dignitaries, you have a perimeter where you have law enforcement willing to risk their lives to keep people who don't belong from getting in.

This man, from what we know from video surveillance and from witnesses who were there, barely got past the perimeter. He was immediately subdued. And yes, he got off a couple shots. But no, I do not think to the contrary this was a security failure. This is law enforcement doing exactly what they trained their whole lives to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And of course this was a moment where the journalists in that room experienced things that too many people in our country have experienced, in schools, in churches, in their normal day-to-day lives. And they have not, of course, had the benefit of having the law enforcement presence that was there in that room ready to stand up and put their lives on the line for everyone in that room, from the president on down.

So with that, we are covering this story, continuing to cover the story from all angles. Joining me now, CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, she is reporting live from the White House, and CNN senior correspondent Josh Campbell. He has been digging into the latest reporting on this investigation. And let's go ahead and get that update from Josh first here.

Josh, you just heard the acting attorney general there. What else do we know from law enforcement about what happened last night?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning quite a bit about this investigation that's, you know, less than 24 hours old right now, including what appears to be a significant insight into a potential motive here, which I'll get to in just a moment.

This investigation obviously kicked off the moment those shots were fired in the audience there where you all were, where the heads of U.S. law enforcement, the acting attorney general, the FBI director was there. I'm told that once authorities were able to relatively quickly identify the suspect after he was taken into custody, they determined this California connection.

The FBI's field office here, where I am in Los Angeles, they spun up sending their SWAT team and other agents to the nearby suburb of Torrance, where the suspect is believed to have lived, going and processing that scene, all in an attempt to try to gather as much information that they could about this individual.

Now, we're also told that just in the moments before this incident happened, the suspect purportedly sent a so-called manifesto type message to members of his family.

[16:05:03]

That was actually obtained by our colleague, Kristen Holmes. I was just reading through that. And, you know, we've seen this type of thing in a lot of different situations tragic events where the person tries to justify what they're about to do.

Kasie. I mean, this is pretty delusional writing. This is over 1,000 words where the person is laying out various types of grievances. It's clear that his target was the president and senior administration officials. It's full of invective and animus towards President Donald Trump. He gets into try to trying to rationalize why he's about to do what he's about to do. I'm not going to get into the details and amplify, you know, this grievance.

But the point being, this is textbook what FBI profilers call grievance collector, someone who, you know, gets so upset with things that are happening and then decides to act on that with violence. This appears to be textbook political violence if indeed this manifesto is associated with this suspect.

Finally, as far as what happens next, he is obviously now in custody. The acting attorney general told our colleague Dana Bash that the suspect is not being cooperative with authorities. He's scheduled to be in court tomorrow, federal court, where he will face at least right now two federal charges, one involving the firearms that he had on him, the second, an assault on a federal officer.

We know that one Secret Service uniformed employee was shot. Thankfully, their ballistic vests stopped that from being fatal. But we do expect more charges to come down the road as well -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. And Kristen -- thank you for that, Josh.

Kristen Holmes, as Josh noted, this is something that you obtained. Can you elaborate on, I mean, he gave us a nice rundown, but how you understand what this could mean in the context of the administration and how it's affecting what they're saying?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly affecting how they might do events in the future, given that there were so many Cabinet officials and administration officials in one place. And we know now, at least from these writings, that he was targeting President Trump and senior level Cabinet officials. He makes clear in these writings that I have obtained that he wants to take out Cabinet officials, top ranking administration officials, essentially in the order of the power that they hold within this administration.

And we saw last night and I know, Kasie, you were there, as these Cabinet members were being escorted out by security, I was told at the time that they were being held in different rooms in a holding pattern, waiting to make sure that the area was secure. I will say President Trump has been both privately and publicly praising the Secret Service for their response.

I do want to play for you some of what he said in an interview this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Secret Service and all law enforcement was I thought they were outstanding. You know, you can always they can nitpick and everything else, but they were outstanding. They stopped them cold and there was no games being played, that I can tell you. And you just look at them. It was -- these were strong, solid people who have got to get paid.

You know, this is a group that is not being paid. If you think about it, you know, the Democrats are holding up their pay. And I think maybe they'll loosen up a little bit now because -- I thought great, great talent was displayed last night. Bravery but talent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And one of the things President Trump has said repeatedly, again, privately and publicly, is that if he wasn't happy, he would have made it clear. So you can hear the praise there. Of course he is now again bringing in the Department of Homeland Security, talking about that shutdown, the fact that there are so many Department of Homeland Security and employees who are not being paid.

But what we saw last night, I mean, it was a fascinating look into the kind of training that these officials have, the way they surrounded the president, the way they blocked him from various angles, the way that they were grabbing Cabinet officials and dragging them off stage. J.D. Vance, we saw him seemingly being grabbed by the lapel. But there are these internal conversations that I'm told, at least even just among the administration officials themselves, as to whether or not it was a good idea or in the future to have this many high ranking officials in one place.

HUNT: Yes, for sure. I think a lot of questions are going to continue to be asked about this. And of course, worth noting, the president wants to hold this event again within 30 days. We'll see if that happens. But lots of questions to be asked there.

Josh Campbell, Kristen Holmes, thank you very much. I think you're going to be with us throughout the next few hours.

Joining us now, CNN senior law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. My panel is also here. Democratic strategist Meghan Hays, CNN senior political commentator David Urban and Bloomberg White House correspondent, former president of the White House Association, Jeff Mason.

Jeff, wait. I'm sorry, did you leave Bloomberg for or did you leave Reuters for Bloomberg?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: Other way around. Left Reuters for Bloomberg. Yes.

HUNT: Yes. Aha. Well, I am sorry. I'm thinking to myself, oh, my gosh, this is wrong.

MASON: This is wrong. Yes. Yes.

HUNT: Chief Ramsey, I'm going to --

MASON: It's still fresh. HUNT: I'm going to come to you in one second. I actually do want to

start with Jeff because, Jeff, you taught me how to make a wire call on Air Force One back in the day.

[16:10:01]

And you have seen so many iterations of this dinner unfold. And we, of course, are learning the details of this. But, you know, and I know you've been on TV, too, since this happened, but can you reflect a little bit on kind of what it was like to be there that night? I mean, I was there, David was there. Megan's party is out of power, so I think you --

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Left 10 minutes before.

HUNT: We're doing, which is the tradition. But this is something I know when I was walking into the dinner last night, when you walk into that ballroom, I think a number of people, and especially in the times that we live in now, you look around and you think this is something that is potentially a very dangerous place to be.

It is a place where it's very difficult to get out of the room. There are a lot of people in an enclosed space, and the fact that you would walk in there now and think about that says a lot about where we are as a country. But also this president has seen incidents of violence aimed at him in a way that, I mean, certainly we've seen waves of political violence in our past, particularly with, you know, John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy, who was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr.. But it's an era that for many of us now is pretty far gone.

What went through your head as all of this was happening, considering how many times you've seen this before?

MASON: Yes, I appreciate the question. Number one, I would say last night's dinner was already unique and special before all of -- and special is not the word I would use to describe what later happened, but the dinner itself was, there was a lot of energy around it because President Trump was coming for the first time. He didn't come any of the times --

HUNT: As president. Right. He had attended before. Yes.

MASON: As president. Thank you for clarifying that. That's right. But he didn't come as president during his first term. He didn't come the year that I was president of the association, and it was a big deal that he was coming last night. The whole -- nearly the whole administration or a lot of people from the administration were there, which in addition to the political and interesting sort of context of that, and the journalists coming together with the administration, made it a big target. And that is how it played out.

Being in the room, I just -- I walked away very sad in addition to being I think as many of us were very frightened as it was going on. It raises questions about the future of that dinner. It raises questions certainly about the security situation at that hotel. But it also -- it took away what could have been a night of showing the American people what the point of the dinner is, which is people from the world of journalism and the world of politics coming together and breaking bread and celebrating the First Amendment.

HUNT: Yes. For sure. So, Chief Charles Ramsey, I want to set the stage from what we're learning about the investigation before I continue talking here with our political analysts because I think as we learn more here, we're realizing that there was something political to it. The alleged shooter, Cole Thomas Allen, seemed to make it clear in these writings that we've obtained that he intended to target administration officials.

And, you know, there were a lot of them in that room. And, you know, unlike at the State of the Union, where, you know, many of the administration comes, Supreme Court justices come, Congress, the whole of government gathers, there is often a to do made about the person who is the, quote-unquote, "designated survivor," the person in the line of succession to power in the presidency who is not in attendance at the event.

And at this event, I mean, because the president was coming for the first time, you saw an enormous showing from the administration, as well as from Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, was there. And there are now pictures, you know, of him being rushed away, as he is directly after the president and vice president in the line of succession.

What does it tell you that this person was aiming to target administration officials and that he got as far as he did?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I mean, they're able to now after they found a lot of information more clearly understand the motive. I don't think it's final yet, but it's coming pretty close to that.

As far as the security goes, you know, I've heard this described both ways in extremes, either woefully inadequate or a massive success. And in my opinion, it was really neither. Now the Secret Service and law enforcement did a good job in terms of what they were supposed to do. They got the key figures out of there, out of harm's way. No one was seriously injured. One police officer took a round to the chest. But he's fine. He's getting out.

As far as the security goes, you still had a person able to penetrate and get that close with a firearm. And when you look at the video footage, this person had a chance to get full steam ahead.

[16:15:02]

I mean, run at full steam to blow past the security rather than having a setup where they had like a serpentine type of setup with bike rack, kind of like when you go to the airport where, you know, people have these turns and you can't, you just can't just run, you know, full board and get into a location. So they're going to do an after action. And I wouldn't call it a failure, but certainly you got to look at it and one last thing. When you have an event like this in a hotel, and I heard you mentioned State of the Union, State of the Union is at the Capitol.

You can secure the Capitol a heck of a lot better than you can do a hotel because you don't have people staying there. You know, this has got about 1100 rooms. You've got over a thousand people there. You've got to be able to control the people that are legitimately there, as well as the guests coming in to keep a bad actor from penetrating.

HUNT: Yes. David Urban, I don't -- I've attended this dinner for going on 20 years, which I feel like I'm dating myself saying that.

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Started when you're 12.

HUNT: It's been the same for 20 years.

URBAN: Yes. Yes.

HUNT: OK. Like literally the same. The magnetometers are in the same place. The hotel room situation is the same. I have -- I'm hesitant to even say that sort of trick I learned to get into the dinner bypassing the lines because I mean, I don't think it's ever going to be held at that hotel again. But the reality was the perimeter was not terribly secure. And we live in a different era.

URBAN: Yes. So I hear what Chief Ramsey is saying about, you know, the bike rack, et cetera. You know, I got in there in the room, you know, you pack into that ballroom right there, 3,000 people. It's the only facility, the only hotel that could hold that.

HUNT: If it's in Washington.

URBAN: That kind of space.

HUNT: Which is why the president was talking about the ballroom right away after.

URBAN: And so when you get in there, you know, I was with a guest and we looked and said, this is going to be my egress. If something happens, the door, I was right at the very front table at Bloomberg tables. So literally the front row.

HUNT: Yes.

URBAN: Seated with the Cabinet -- DHS secretary is behind me. The secretary of defense was on the other side. Senior staff all around. And that was bike rack. That exit had double bike rack because the president was on the dais, there was numerous security guards there. And when they were evacuating people, they were trying to pull that bike rack apart to get out that door. People were climbing over people. It was really intense.

To Chief Ramsey's point about having the serpentine to get in there, well, you can do that, but you're going to have to have the event start three hours earlier to get 3,000 people into that room, through mags, through the serpentine. I mean, you see how hard it is to get in and out of that room on a normal basis. Wolf was going to the restroom, I joked, I was at the front, it would have taken me a half hour to get out because the people were packed, you know, shoulder to shoulder in that room.

It's not possible to do so perhaps, you know, security needs to be done moving forward. But I will say in that room that night, you know, I -- you know, I'd served in the military, I've done a little bit of this kind of thing before. The service I've traveled with the president before, and the CAT team and the service were exemplary. I was, you know, everyone was down. People were under the table.

CAT team was up on the dais. They had their long guns out. I felt perfectly safe at that time. No one was getting in that room after that happened. I think they did an exemplary job of securing that group of people. I think the people in the room did a good job of not panicking. There's a big point in time when no one knew what was going on. There's a little nervousness. I think everyone exhaled and kind of went into journalistic mode.

But, you know, it was about as flawless as it could have been executed from that point when the bad -- when the gunshots happened to the end of the event, you know, the president didn't want to leave the facility. He wanted to go back on stage. The service. There was a back and forth. I understand from talking to some people who were backstage, the vice president, nobody wanted to leave.

I saw the service, you know, Cabinet secretaries, wives are left behind because they're not protectees, right? So Secretary Duffy scooped up and swapped out his wife, Rachel Campos Duffy not taken. He came back, you know, the secretary came back to be with her. I saw secretary of HHS, you know, try to drag his wife with him as he was leaving. So a lot of these things -- senior staff folks, Dan Scavino and others were trying to get out. You know, Stephen Miller's wife is, you know, eight months pregnant.

HUNT: Very pregnant.

URBAN: He was covering her, you know, sheltering his wife until an agent came and they escorted her out. So the law enforcement officials who were there put themselves in front of their protectees in the harm's way, direct harm's way, protected all of us in the room. So I think it was, you know, a glowing success that no one else was injured. And that could have been a very bad event. If that had occurred 20 minutes later when we were all out in the hallways.

HUNT: Yes. That was the thought I had.

URBAN: In these parties, it would have been --

HUNT: This person had actually known how this event unfolds.

URBAN: It would have been, it would have been, it would have been chaos.

[16:20:01] It would have been -- there would have been much more casualties because out in that anteroom, before the secure part, right, there's no security in those out rooms in the ballroom. So maybe they do it, the convention center, maybe they do it at a place where it's more secure that they can control that.

HUNT: Yes, they better next time.

URBAN: But, yes, it's going to be tough.

HUNT: Megan, we have to take a break so briefly. But you also have spent a lot of your career working in and around the Secret Service and how they do things. And you've been at these events and David is right. I mean, the setup of this event, it has been the way it has been for a long time. And the service that were there protecting us last night, I mean, most Americans who find themselves in a situation like this, and unfortunately, it is far too many, they do not benefit from the absolute best of the best being there to take this on.

HAYS: Yes. I'd also say here the Secret Service's responsibility is to protect the president. They're not there to protect all of us attending these events and attending these different types of things. Even when you're traveling with the president and your staff in the motorcade, you are not going --

HUNT: You're very well aware. Yes.

HAYS: Like you are not part of the secure package. Like you're not an important person that the president is. And so they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They protected the president and their protectees, and they protected that ballroom. And that was their main goal. What goes on outside, in the lobbies and in these other parties? Thats not Secret Service's deal to protect because the president or the vice president or their protectees weren't going to be there.

And I don't want that to get lost in the security conversation because Secret Service did do their job here. And there might have been some things like, that you guys were talking about with the lines that they can do an after action, but they did their job.

URBAN: No, no, I'm saying, I'm applauding DHS on down.

HAYS: Yes, absolutely. Like I don't want that to be lost.

URBAN: I think it was 10 out of 10.

HAYS: I just don't want that to get lost in this conversation because Secret Service did do their jobs here.

HUNT: All right. Well, you all are going to be joining me for next --

URBAN: Radical agreement.

HUNT: We're going to be continuing to cover this for the next couple of hours with this crew. And hopefully Charles Ramsey will be continuing to join us. Chief, I really, really appreciate your perspective and expertise.

Still ahead here, President Trump wants to reschedule the correspondents' dinner for within the next month. But there are of course very serious questions about what needs to change about the event to keep guests safe. We're going to discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:35]

HUNT: All right, we're back with our breaking coverage. Of course, we've been covering this alleged gunman who launched an attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night. The White House Correspondents' Association president says the board is going to meet to assess the incident and will, quote, "determine how to proceed," end quote.

Jeff, you've been the president of the White House Correspondents' Association. I have to say, Weijia Jiang of CBS News, who was the president this year, her family in the room to celebrate, really retained her composure, having to kind of rally the room. There was some, you know, the lack of clarity about whether the event would go on.

The planning that goes into this dinner, I mean, how realistic is the president's plan to put it back on in 30 days?

MASON: I can't really imagine how that would happen. I mean, that doesn't mean it can't possibly happen, but it takes months to plan that dinner. That ballroom that we're all talking about gets booked out a year in advance. The programing, of course, is already planned, but the -- I mean, for last night, if they wanted to repeat that programing again. But the == all of the logistics and all the things that go into planning that dinner, you start in some cases on some of it almost a year in advance, as soon as you become president of the association, which is your president for a year of a three-year board term.

So, yes, I think the president, President Trump in this case, was trying to send a positive signal by sending -- by saying let's get this done again or let's do it again in the next 30 days. And he was pretty gracious about that and emphasized that instead of being critical of the media, which is usually what he does. That's not what he did last night. But I don't know if it is realistic to assume that that dinner can be put together again in the next 30 days.

HUNT: David Urban, what's your sense? Should it go on in the next 30 days?

URBAN: Yes. Listen, so, I thought, you know, Jeff's point, the president in the post event press briefing in the White House was incredibly gracious and magnanimous and said, you know, in that room there was a certain feeling and you got that feeling beforehand. As you point out, there's an excitement that the president was here, there was full participation by the administration, that everyone was hopeful that he was going to be entertaining, and he was going to be light hearted and owes the mentalist.

And, you know, a lot of these things are going to going to happen. And yes, I think we should really try to do it because that weekend, this White House Correspondents weekend is kind of harkens back to an earlier day, I think, of when people used to have meals together or coffee together, and there was less partisanship and there was more comedy. Like ITY not EDY in Washington.

HUNT: Comedy, yes. Comedy.

URBAN: People got along. And I think the more time you spend together, right, those divides get -- those bridges get -- excuse me, those divides get bridged by the camaraderie. I had once done a panel with somebody and said, you know, what's leading to this? You know, and the team in D.C. and the woman, this was -- she was one of Senator Kennedy's old, old Senator Kennedy's --

HUNT: Senator Ted Kennedy.

URBAN: No, no. Senator Bobby Kennedy.

HUNT: Oh, Bobby Kennedy. OK.

URBAN: Like she said modern jet travel because before people could get on an airplane, everyone had to stay here and go to church together, go to school together, spend time together. The more time people in Washington spend together, the better it is for the American public because they work together. They work together for the American people. That's what everyone's here for in the first place is to accomplish things for their constituents back home.

[16:30:05]

Their constituents back home don't want them to fight and have gridlock. They want things to get done. They expect things to get done. This is a first step in trying to bridge that gap.

The more we spend time together, the more we learn not to hate each other. Right? The more we learn to get along. And then, more things will get done for our constituents.

HUNT: Yes. All right. Everyone's going to stay with me. But my next guest was front and center in the room last night as, of course, a number of us at the table were at when the shots rang out upstairs. He was, in fact, a couple tables away from where I was sitting.

Why Democratic Senator John Fetterman is now calling on Democrats to back President Trumps White House ballroom. He's going to join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. We're back with our continuing breaking news coverage of the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night.

[16:35:00] HUNT: Attendees were sent scrambling for cover, including a number of people at this table, after a suspected shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, charged a security checkpoint outside the dinner venue and opened fire.

Now Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who was in attendance, is joining the growing calls from Republicans to swiftly build the White House ballroom. And Senator Fetterman joins me now.

Senator, I'm so sorry I didn't get a chance to say hello to you. You were a couple tables in front of me at the dinner last night. And we were all, you know, in the same place, in this same situation.

And I know you've said, in social media posts since, the venue wasn't built for an event like this. I -- you know, having attended it for a number of years, it really -- you know, the posture of the event has been functionally the same for decades. Even as the security situation and the tenor of our politics have changed for many years.

What was your experience last night in that room? And what do you think -- whatever version of this dinner comes next, what should it look like?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, for me, like -- first, thank God no one -- no one was hurt. But, for me, as I was, like, just processing it, you know, I was -- I was just, like, overwhelmed with this idea where, I mean, my goodness, the entire line of succession was right there. I mean, you were there with us that night. Of course, the president, the vice president, the speaker was there. Rubio was there. And half the half the cabinet was there now, too.

Now, imagine if there was a bomb and there was a lot of moving parts. I mean, you know, it could have been very easy when they're bringing carts in with food. You know, they could have had something in that.

And I -- for me, like, thank God we got -- we were very lucky that -- now, we could have lost part of the entire line of succession and parts of the cabinet, too. Rubio and Hegseth were all right there really kind of clustered closely. It wouldn't even need to be a large device.

So, now, I hope we can't ever allow that kind of a situation here, because, you know, there was thousands and thousands of people. There were way too many moving parts throughout this entire thing.

And that put us in a really incredibly vulnerable position, where, you know, the entire chain of our leadership was all right there. Effectively, in around 200 square feet there. And that could have been very, very devastating.

HUNT: One of the things that this experience, that you went through, that we collectively went through, has prompted you to say is to urge your fellow lawmakers on the Democratic side of the aisle to support building the ballroom that the president has proposed building in the former East Wing of the White House. The president mentioned it. It was one of the first things he mentioned, when he came to the podium at the White House, after he went and spoke to cameras in the wake of this event last night. Do you think there's going to be more support for that in the wake of it?

FETTERMAN: I certainly -- I certainly hope so. I never really had a strong opinion on the ballroom, to be honest. But this clearly demonstrated -- you know how difficult it is to move around there. And you know that the ballroom is, effectively, underground. And it has very limited -- very limited kinds of ingress and regress to get out -- egress.

So, I think, from an evacuation and when you have to evacuate, whether the president or other parts of the leadership, I mean, this is just not the right place for that. And I do hope -- they talked about to reschedule it. I just hope it's the kinds of security that they don't have the entire chain of succession, after all of that, given what could have happened.

And I think I think the shooter was actually bragging about how we have so lax security. We have a lot of flaws there. Can you imagine? Remind people, too, the DHS was still shut down for that. And now, we -- you know, we're actively in conflict with Iran. And if there was sleeper cells. Part of it, they would have had months to prepare for this kind of a thing.

So, for me, I just walked away from that still kind of stunned how lucky we were that no one was seriously hurt. And when we have the significant majority of our leadership right there in just a very, very small, clustered area, they could have made much more catastrophic here for our nation that day.

HUNT: Yes, lucky and privileged to be protected by so many people who are at the very top of their profession.

Senator, this -- of course, we have been in breaking news coverage of this investigation of what had happened -- has happened. One of the emerging features of our political discourse has been that it turns very quickly to who's to blame.

[16:40:02]

HUNT: Why did something like this happen? And there have certainly been, already, critics out there saying that the left is to blame for what happened. What do you say to that?

FETTERMAN: I'm not blaming anyone other than the individual that showed up, trying to kill the president and other people as well, too. They could have been -- it could have been Vance or it could have been Rubio. It could have been other people now, too. I mean, you know, he planned that. He had plenty of ammunition. And they had other weapons, too.

So, like, that's why I'm saying we were so lucky after everything happened. And this is why I'm saying, like, I mean, I don't have -- I don't have a dog in that fight about that ballroom. But they need to have the kind of facility that -- to have these kinds of events that have absolute security and they have the kinds of appropriate ability to accommodate a crowd just like that.

And that room clearly did not. To me, it felt like 50 percent of the people should be less there for the next event of that scope. You could barely move around just to get to the table.

So, I think, collectively, you know, we dodged a -- you know, that's a bad -- dodged a bullet metaphor. And no pun -- yes, no pun intended on that.

But, you know, I think we got -- we got very lucky. And that's why I think we need to learn and remind. Our DHS is still shut down. And you -- you know, we're in conflict with a nation that's already tried to kill our president. So, you know, we have a lot to learn here.

And now, Democrats, you know, we're supposed to be the party of abundance. Well, let's just build this ballroom. It may not be ideal by every single thing we can't build it. So -- and this is the kind of facility that it's probably not even going to be finished by the time the presidents done with his term.

But, you know, our nation deserves the kind of facility to do these kinds of things. And we shouldn't ever allow ourselves that the entire line of succession could be taken out with, like -- even like a small explosive kind of device.

Especially when it's very, very difficult to have the appropriate levels of security with that. To me, that was like a high risk with a low reward to have that quite so many people of our leadership right there in a very small part in that room.

HUNT: All right, Senator John Fetterman. It's always good to see you, sir. Thank you. My best to Gisele, who I know was also in the room, your wife, with you at the time.

FETTERMAN: Yes.

HUNT: I hope to see you both soon. And I hope you're doing all right with all of it. Thank you very much.

FETTERMAN: Yes.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next, the man who allegedly opened fire at last night's Correspondents' Dinner is set to be arraigned tomorrow. And we're going to look at the charges he's facing, as investigators try to pin down a possible motive.

[16:42:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: The alleged gunman accused of opening fire, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, expected to be arraigned in court tomorrow. Sources say authorities have identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen. Officials are now planning to charge him with multiple crimes.

CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams joins us, along with my panel. He's, of course, also a former federal prosecutor. Elliot, it's good to see you.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good to see you, too.

HUNT: I know you know a lot of people. You were at the event last night?

WILLIAMS: I was not at the dinner last night.

HUNT: You were not. Yes, it's -- can you help us understand, in this kind of a situation, what federal authorities are going to be looking at --

WILLIAMS: Right.

HUNT: -- in terms of charging.

WILLIAMS: Right. So, right now, if you notice the couple of crimes that you're hearing about are just use of a firearm in a crime of violence and assault of a federal officer. They're pretty straightforward because those are the things that are undeniable, based on what's on the videos and what people have seen, right. You don't know, right as of, sort of, today, did this individual intend to kill the president in a manner that prosecutors know they can charge?

Now, certainly, that evidence is likely to come out. We've heard rumblings about what's in his computer and writings he's made or the statements he's made. But you just can't charge him with a crime right now for that.

So, they're just going with the simple firearm and assault charges at the moment.

HUNT: Is there a difference in how they think about a person who is in there to try to kill the president of the United States, or the vice president, or a specific individual, versus somebody who is attempting a mass casualty event?

WILLIAMS: Yes, those are -- those are different crimes. There's a specific federal statute for attempting to kill the president of the United States or the vice president. There's a different federal crime for attempting to kill a high officer of the United States, like a member of Congress or so on.

And then, there are -- you know, if he's trying to commit a terrorist act or kill a lot of people at once, or spray bullets into a room, he could be charged for that separately.

So, really, a lot of things depend on what you can find out that -- and I'll say it again, is on his laptop or his text messages where he makes a statement indicating this is what I intended to do with this shooting. And until you know that, you're really just going to charge him with firearm possession and the shooting a gun. HUNT: So, unless they can figure out something beyond what they saw

him do on the videotape, they can't get him for anything else.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Well, no, no. I mean, I think -- I can't say you can't get him for anything else. But I think the problem is the mere fact that he opened fire at a place that the president was at does not mean that you probably have enough to charge him with intending to kill the president. You need a little bit more evidence, just in terms of him expressing some desire to do so. Statements, manifestos, emails, text messages, beyond just having to be in the room.

Now, again, as a matter of common sense, you know and I know this guy's at the room that the president's at, that the vice president's at, he probably intended to kill the president. But probably is not enough to charge someone with a crime.

[16:50:01]

WILLIAMS: And then, ultimately, convict him of a crime. Where you've got to get it beyond a reasonable doubt.

HUNT: What does it say that he is still alive?

WILLIAMS: It says it's -- you know, the -- typically, law enforcement will use the -- and David would know the term, too. The minimally invasive or violent force necessary to subdue the individual. They probably were able to subdue him without killing him as he was running or without shooting him or without shooting him lethally. And then, that's probably what happened there.

Now, again, I haven't seen the video of specifically what happens when they caught him. But I'm assuming that he could just --

HUNT: He runs out of frame, yes.

WILLIAMS: Yes, he runs out of frame. I'm assuming somebody just tackled him. Got a hold of him. And without having to shoot someone in the back which, again, would have produced a whole host of problems for law enforcement. I think they just -- they apprehended him.

HUNT: He came out in this case. But, generally speaking --

WILLIAMS: Certainly. He had to -- well, you know -- you know how it goes.

HUNT: I take your point. But, yes. No, for sure. All right, Elliot, thank you.

WILLIAMS: Of course.

HUNT: Good to see you.

All right. Thanks, everybody. Stick with us. We'll be right back.

[16:50:59]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the attack on the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Police say the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives, when he charged through the security checkpoint outside the dinner venue last night. Sources tell CNN that investigators recovered writings that indicate the gunman wanted to target White House officials.

Our own Wolf Blitzer, who I spoke to after all of this unfolded, was just outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton when he heard the suspected gunman firing shots. Here's how he described what happened to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was only a few feet away, maybe three, four or five feet away from the gunman. And I see a guy on the ground shooting. And the next thing I know, there is a police officer saying, get down, get down, get down. He's saying that to me.

And then, he jumps on top of me and to protect me. He's on top of me as if there could be an errant bullet or something flying around. And, you know, he saved me, basically. I don't know if anything would have happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP))

HUNT: Wolf, just remarkable.

We are also learning new details about the suspected gunman. So, when we come back, we're going to talk about what the acting attorney general said about who he was targeting and the warning from the suspect's family just minutes before the attack.

[16:56:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)