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Trump Safe After Shots Fired At Correspondents' Dinner. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 26, 2026 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:41]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.
We are following breaking news this hour. U.S. President Donald Trump is unharmed after a shooting here in Washington. It happened during an annual media gala for White House reporters at a hotel in downtown Washington.
Trump posted this security footage from outside the ballroom. You see that the shooter there running through charging a security checkpoint in the lobby just outside the ballroom before a Secret Service members took him down.
Authorities have now arrested and apprehended the suspect identified. You see him there as a 31-year-old man from California, Cole Thomas Allen. Police say he was carrying a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
Trump says authorities believe that the suspect acted alone. He called him a lone wolf. The man has now been charged. Trump was rushed out of the ballroom by the Secret Service as the shooting unfolded.
Myself and many of my colleagues were in the room as this happened there, you see security surrounding the president on the stage in that ballroom before evacuating him.
Vice President J.D. Vance also rushed out, as were members of Trump's cabinet.
The Secret Service says that everyone who was under protection is safe, as were other members of the audience. Many hundreds of journalists from around the Capitol.
Trump spoke about the shooting later in the White House from the briefing room, he said the incident had unified those in the room
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties, with members of the press and in a certain way it did, because the fact that they just unified us through a room that was just totally unified, it was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Joining me now, CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who like myself, was in the room as this happened.
And, Kaitlan, this is now, if I have it correctly, the third shooting event in. And of course, we had Butler, Pennsylvania, another, another attempted shooter down in Florida. And this, um, you speak to the president frequently. How has he responded to this?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Jim, he was actually surprisingly calm when he came out here to the briefing room tonight and was giving us those updates. I mean, he was the one who confirmed the suspect had been apprehended after there had been some confusion about whether or not the suspect had been shot and killed. If he was arrested, what had happened? The president confirmed that earlier and then came out of the briefing, flanked by his top two officials, the deputy attorney general, who's the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the FBI director, Kash Patel, to provide that update.
As they say, warrants are going out. They are searching the suspect's apartment, that they are fully engaged. And obviously, all the aspects of this investigation and as the president himself was talking about it, what it was like, Jim, to be inside that room because I had eyes on the president as we were watching.
I mean, it was a remarkable moment. There was no programming going on. As you know, we were seated at our tables. And then obviously, Secret Service and law enforcement rushed into the room in a way that I have never seen in my life. Coming down the main aisle.
And in that time, though, the president was still on stage for another 20s, probably because I looked over, he and the first lady were speaking to Oz, the mentalist, who is supposed to be the entertainment during tonight's show. And then obviously they were rushed off stage. We saw the vice president rushed off.
It took a little bit, though, before other cabinet secretaries were removed from the room. I could see the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. I could see the health secretary, RFK Jr., before he was taken out by security. The education secretary was literally seated right next to me during the dinner and was crouched on the floor with us as we were essentially waiting to see. Was the threat clear?
And so, when we were here in the briefing room tonight, obviously, as you noted, Jim, the president is no stranger to this, given he himself has been the target of two assassination attempts.
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And I asked the president whether or not his team that was here tonight had heard of any potential warnings or concerns of threats before the dinner took place
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Were you aware of any threats, or does your team aware of any threats beforehand? And do you believe you were the target of this tonight?
TRUMP: I guess, I mean, these people are -- they're crazy. They're crazy. And you know, you never know. It was very far away from me. You had to go through a lot.
We had -- we had resources all over. We had resources sitting at tables, literally in disguise, sitting maybe at your table. Who knows?
But we had we had people all over the room. So he had a long way to go. That was really a first line of defense. And they got him. And they really, you know, they acted incredibly. No, we have -- we've had no there was no notification. We had no idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The president saying there, there was no notification ahead of time in terms of threats to him. Obviously, he is someone who has an intense amount of security around him wherever he goes. And so do all of the officials that I just mentioned that were seated around the room, including, as you know, Jim, top lawmakers like the House Speaker Mike Johnson.
And so obviously, the president said he would keep us updated in terms of that. He also used the moment to tout his White House ballroom that he's building. That has been the subject of lawsuits and criticism here at the White House, because there are security components to it as well. They're basically reconstructing the bunker underneath. He's talked about the security with the walls, the windows, all of that. And he was basically arguing that tonight is evidence of why something like that is needed. As we were hearing from the top officials here in terms of the job that law enforcement did.
I will say the president was asked about Secret Service and whether or not he thought that they were doing a good job tonight. Both. He said yes. So did the new DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, as well as obviously, there are still so many questions that remain about how this person who dc police confirmed was a guest at that hotel where you see Jim when you're going down to the terrace level, where you go and check in with your security with the magnetometers. There are regular guests just seated there watching everyone.
It's an event here in Washington. There's a lot of people who go and watch to see who comes in, and obviously this person was it was a hotel guest. And so a lot of questions still going forward about the motivation and the planning that went into this attempted attack as the gunman came in tonight.
SCIUTTO: And it is a good point you make, Kaitlan, about how long it took, because it was several minutes before other security agents secured other senior government officials who were in that room. And then there was time after that, as you mentioned, a congressman, Mike Lawler, standing next to me. Good hour afterwards, right?
COLLINS: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: In the midst of this. Have you heard any complaints from White House officials about security, or was it just praise of the reaction times of those officers present.
COLLINS: So far, they're praising the reaction times. I think that's why the president posted that video. You see how quickly they respond. But obviously, there's going to be a lot of questions in terms of security and, you know, checking names and tickets, getting to that lower level of it.
I mean, I've gone to the White House Correspondents' Dinner many times. The security is always enhanced when the president is there, which this is the first time for President Trump to come. I remember when President Biden was there.
But you go through Secret Service magnetometers and they check your bags, they check what's on you. They warned you. Obviously, that's what the suspect was approaching as, as they were going in. But there still will be questions raised about the protocol going into this beforehand and what happened in that room.
But I mean, Jim, you were there to describe to someone who wasn't as they just swarmed the room in that moment and everyone was crouched underneath tables looking around, not really sure, was it -- as the president himself said, maybe someone dropping a plate that sounded like a loud noise but obviously confirmed gunfire as people outside the room, like Wolf Blitzer can attest to.
SCIUTTO: No question. Well, Kaitlan, thanks so much for joining. We appreciate it. Certainly not the end of this story.
Joining me, CNN's Elex Michaelson, who was also in the room.
And listen, to this -- first of all, folks are safe. I mean, that's something we should say in the midst of this. That is a good thing. The president is safe.
And in those moments when you hear gunfire, and sadly, if you're one of those people who have been through this before, these are nervous times. And as I was on the floor there watching this unfold, you didn't know that it was over right after those initial moments, what was happening? Yeah.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST, "THE STORY IS WITH ELEX MICHAELSON": Because it was not clear in the room that it was gunfire.
SCIUTTO: Right. Well, there's always -- it's always that question, I think, and maybe you've had the same experience. Anytime there's a shooting and you talk to eyewitnesses, they will say, I thought it was firecrackers or a car backfiring.
MICHAELSON: I mean, it's such a crowded room. It is. There's plates, like literally, they just announced that dinner was about to be served. So the idea that somebody in the thousands of trays that would be out there and dinner plates, maybe drop something, it was the more logical conclusion than that.
SCIUTTO: You know, you go to what's the most likely explanation? And I think you almost try to banish the thought, right, that it was gunfire, but it turns out it was gunfire. And then you had that long period.
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As Kaitlan and I were talking about, where we didn't know, and we also didn't know if it was contained.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCIUTTO: That was the issue.
MICHAELSON: Right. And so this entire room is sort of ducked under the tables, you know, with the prospect, what if there is an active shooter? Could they be coming towards us?
So that in itself was a scary situation not knowing that. And then also some journalists because this is their nature, want to get out their phones and start recording history because it's also.
SCIUTTO: A lot of hands above the table. And I was one of them. I mean, listen, you make judgments in the moment because of course you want to be safe, but then you're also trying to record the events as they're happening before your eyes.
MICHAELSON: And then this just sort of quick turn from one of the rare nights where journalists kind of have a night off, right? Everybody's dressed up, you know, relaxing wine has been served for people, and then all of a sudden its on to work mode and everybody trying to figure out what happened.
Also in that room, not great cell service, not great internet. And then everybody was locked in. So you have all of these reporters in one place, a lot of them not knowing what's happening. And these are the people that so many people turn on to tell them what's happening now in that situation.
Getting into the place was also kind of interesting, just for some context for people. It was pouring down rain. There were loud protesters outside, and all they asked you to get in was like a ticket that, you know, they didn't ask for your ID or anything.
SCIUTTO: Just to see your invitation.
MICHAELSON: So obviously that really wouldn't have mattered if the guy was a hotel guest, as they say. But just to give some context of, of how to get in there, I was surprised. This was my first White House correspondent. That frankly, was it wasn't harder to get in that building.
SCIUTTO: I've been to a few, you know, through the years. And this has been standard because this is a public building. It's a -- it's a hotel with other guests there. So to enter the hotel itself, you don't go through a security cordon because there are other guests there. You did have to, to show that you had a ticket to get in.
But it's not until you get closer to the ballroom that they have those magnetometers and you go through that security screening. It's always been that way. And well have later conversations during this hour and the next hour with security experts as to whether in the current environment that set up is still possible.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCIUTTO: Right. Because you could get remarkably close to the point where this guy could make a mad dash, right, and get pretty close to the ballroom where the president was seated.
MICHAELSON: And by the way, like the beginning part of it walking in and the red carpet area, there were a lot of cabinet secretaries. There were a lot of high profile congress people that were walking there. That would have been an area before you went through a magnetometer or something like that in that situation as well.
So I think they really have to think about their security plan again after all of this. But it really was a remarkably sort of scary and surreal moment being in there. It felt to me sort of like living through a movie, like one of those scenarios you would see in something like that.
It reminded me almost of a "West Wing" episode when they all went into the security room, and they're all dressed in tuxedos. It felt -- it felt like that.
SCIUTTO: And there were questions because as I remember, when this wave of security officers came in following the initial event, now, as it turns out, those were security officers that were going into secure other principals in the room, cabinet secretaries, et cetera. The question in my mind was, were they in the room because the shooter was in the room? Right?
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: Why were they then swarming again? As it turned out, it wasn't thankfully. Lots of questions answered.
Alex, good to have you. Please stay with me because joining us now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former deputy FBI director, Andrew McCabe.
Andrew, it's good to have you here. I mean, to the question that Alex and I were just raising, you know, the security was quite standard for this kind of event. The question becomes, is that standard where you can get into the building and then only when you get close to the ballroom where the president is, do you go through that security screening, whether that fits the time, right, fits the time, and the current threat environment ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yeah. Jim, I think
that's a -- that's a really foundational question in the aftermath of this attempted attack. You know, there's a reality side to that equation, which is that these are where ballrooms are, they are, they are part of larger facilities that also have to, you know, their businesses, they have to rent rooms, they have restaurants, they have people coming in and out for other events all day long.
So to the extent that you, you know, you kind of can't avoid dealing with these, this particular sort of setup, but, you know, although the Secret Service members who are on site tonight performed extraordinarily and eliminated the threat and nobody got hurt, which is a remarkable result.
And, you know, obviously hats off to them. I still think there's a question of whether the way that physical perimeter was set up was adequate. I mean, I guess, was it adequate? Yeah. Well, they stopped the guy, so I guess it was.
But how close was he to getting past that part? You know, after he goes off the frame to the right, as you're looking at that video, the question is how close was he to actually making it through? And, you know, keep in mind that that was not apparently a time at which the security screening was overwhelmed. There were hardly any people coming in at that moment.
And yet one very determined guy who had a plan, obviously, you know, before he got there, was able to get pretty far beyond the perimeter. Of course, he wasn't in the room with the president, but, I still think that despite the great result, they'd probably do well to ask themselves some questions about how they should think about this in the future.
SCIUTTO: Well, for some of the geography of this hotel, maybe we can put that video up on, on the air again, where the security cordon is in the Washington Hilton is a flight of stairs above where you enter the ballroom. So the shooter would have had to get through the magnetometer and then down that flight of stairs into the room. That's a step, but you could do it in seconds, right? It's not -- it's not a -- it's not a, you know, impossible step to take.
I guess the thought that occurs to me, Andy, is that when I was going through those magnetometers a short time before, when there were dozens, hundreds of people doing the same, the fact is this shooter could have killed other people, right? You know, without getting to the president. It could have been a mass shooting event, you know, quite easily.
MCCABE: Absolutely, absolutely. Right. You know, when you start adding additional people, dozens, hundreds of people, people trying to get through those magnetometers, just guests to the event. And then you -- then you add the variable of additional attackers. Things begin to get very much more complicated and potentially lethal either at the site of the scanning or at any place, they're able to get to be on that. SCIUTTO: Yeah. You know, there was a moment what was more than a
moment when it was our understanding, based on our White House reporters, that President Trump very much wanted to return. He wanted to return. He wanted the event to continue.
And in fact, there was an announcement made by the White House correspondents association in the midst of this that actually the dinner was going to continue, which surprised me to some degree, I will say.
And again, I'm not a security expert, but it struck me that at that point, how could you make a reliable judgment that there wasn't another remaining threat? Did you know for certain that this was a lone actor? Did you know that there weren't other devices planted there? Right?
I mean, we've seen attacks like that before. I mean, it seems that ultimately the president and the organization arrived at the wise decision not to continue this dinner. But, you know, had the president return, would you have considered that the smart thing to do?
MCCABE: Jim, as a -- as a former law enforcement officer and, you know, security executive leader, there is no chance. There's no circumstances under which you could advise the host of that event or the president and his team, anything other than send everyone home. We have to freeze this place. This is a crime scene. Now we have to collect evidence.
And -- but most importantly, we need to find out if there's anyone else in here. There are opportunities to. You know, you -- it's potential. You know, any group of people could potentially plan to send one person through notoriously just running through the scanner to attract the law enforcement response, and to distract from a potential entry or vulnerability someplace else.
So yeah, as a security or law enforcement person, there was really no other recommendation you could possibly ever give. Now, of course, were talking about the president of the United States, and he can essentially decide whatever he wants to decide. But the judicious course was to do exactly what they did, get those people out of there and take this place back under control.
SCIUTTO: And, you know, Andy, I suppose you're old enough like me to remember I was thinking a bit of history in this moment too, because, of course, the Hilton, although the exterior was where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, that same hotel, a lot of sad history there.
Andy McCabe, appreciate having you.
MCCABE: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: We're going to have the latest on our breaking news when we return. We should note that a suspect is in custody. It's been identified. The president, his cabinet members, members of Congress, others in the room all safe. This after shots were fired during the White House correspondents dinner here in Washington, D.C. earlier this evening.
Please do stay with us.
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SCIUTTO: Continuing now on our top story, a 31-year-old suspected gunman is now in custody, facing two charges this after shots were fired at the White House Correspondents Dinner here in Washington earlier this evening. The U.S. president, the first lady, as you see here, rushed from the stage of the main ballroom as gunshots rang out from just outside the room. Cabinet members and journalists myself among them who were in the room safe as well.
The interim Washington, D.C., police chief says the suspect charged. And here's the video. There you see him racing through a security checkpoint, exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers before he was subdued. The suspect, armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. We are learning now the suspect and a Secret Service agent who was injured are receiving treatment in the hospital.
CNN's Brian Stelter, like myself, was there as the shooting unfolded.
Brian, listening to the president following this in that press briefing from the White House, his message was, and listen, we should note, because prior to this whole event, there was concern about the president coming to this event for the first time.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: And attacking the media, right? Now, events take a different turn, a violent turn. And the president had a different kind of message.
STELTER: A very different message, a message of unity and a message that I think brought the temperature down. It was it was a message that tried to cool things as opposed to intensify or heat things up.
And I think that's important to note, because this president, given ten years of rhetoric against the media in the past year, his administration taking many actions to investigate and sue and take action against the media, he very well could have immediately turned around and tried to blame the press.
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SCIUTTO: Yeah.
STELTER: He could have immediately tried to claim that the press was out to get him. Now, in this case, with the suspect, we don't know what he was thinking. We don't know if this event was just a crazy magnet. And that's what happened with this magnet.
We don't know if he was there trying to shoot at journalists or trying to shoot at the president but -- SCIUTTO: That's key. We do not know his target. As the police said,
that that'll be part of the investigation.
STELTER: Plural, because he brought multiple knives and multiple guns. So we don't know.
But you imagine a world where the American president could have very easily tried to make a bad situation even worse, and he did not choose to do that at all. In fact, he invited the press corps to run back to the White House for a press conference. And so I think that was a very American gesture, a very American statement.
And it reminds me, Jim, we're talking to viewers all around the world right now for all of the attacks against the press in America, for all of Trump's nastiness toward the media, the U.S. is still the envy of many other countries. The press here is still remarkably free. We are so protected by the First Amendment.
And, you know, it makes me think about American exceptionalism. But then it also makes me think about American exceptionalism in one other way. And that is the degree of gun violence in this country that is so unlike others, right?
You and I went through tonight, which was very mild compared to what so many other Americans have experienced -- hundreds of thousands, millions at this point being put under lockdowns, being told there's an active shooter, being told there's a threat in their school or in their mall or in their town.
This is unfortunately very normal in America. For us, it's unusual tonight, but what's one of the strange things about America is how normal this is now.
SCIUTTO: I was talking to some European diplomats who were in the room as well, and they were conveying that to me.
STELTER: Were they? Yeah, see?
SCIUTTO: About how -- and one of them was saying, you know, how at the RNC convention, there was a shooting outside that this diplomat had witnessed as well. So listen, as an American, you and I witnessed this, and I'm sure people watching here, sadly, have witnessed or experienced shootings like this before.
STELTER: Right, right.
SCIUTTO: Like a lot of them, you begin with a moment of disbelief, right? Because invariably, how many shootings have you and I covered where when you speak to eyewitnesses, they will say, when they heard the first shots, I thought it was firecrackers or a backfiring car, because your mind doesn't want to believe that its gunshot.
I had the same reaction. I was like, pop, pop, pop. You know. Was that wine glasses falling off a tray? Right?
STELTER: That's what I thought. SCIUTTO: What was it? You know? But of course, it was gunfire.
STELTER: When I was under the tables, I was over some NBC folks trying to talk to sources, and I was talking to people there where all of a sudden were under the table. And what was worrisome to me was there were multiple waves of security officers coming into the room.
SCIUTTO: After the initial, yes.
STELTER: After the initial moment, after the president was brought out, you had more officers coming in, climbing over chairs, climbing over tables. In some cases, they were there to help the folks that had hurt their foot, hurt their leg falling over.
But also they were there. We didn't know what they were doing. We didn't know what they were there for in those moments. So it became more stressful for people as the -- as the -- it must have been about two minutes. I'm not sure --
SCIUTTO: It was several minutes.
STELTER: But people were hiding under tables. But I'll never forget what that was like to see people, including. By the way, there were some kids, you know, some journalists, some political have brought their children. There were scholarship winners for this event. You know what we should have been talking about tonight were the award winners from CNN and "The Wall Street Journal" and other outlets for their work covering the White House, and then hopefully, a great performance by a mentalist.
And instead it to me, its a reminder that we have this incredibly valuable first amendment and its been upheld tonight. But then we have the Second Amendment that creates a space for so many threats like tonight.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, there were there were long moments. There were where there was no information. You had a several hundred journalists in the room. There were no announcements.
Folks were just trying to figure out was -- was there one shooter? Was there actually a shooter? Were there multiple shooters? Was the shooter apprehended? Was the shooter dead? We didn't know.
STELTER: It only taken for me when I tried to exit one of the side doors, trying to go in and a Secret Service agent very swiftly shut that door back in my face and said, you're not going that way. And so I realized that's where it happened.
SCIUTTO: We, like so many Americans, experienced a lockdown.
Brian Stelter, thanks so much.
For more on the law enforcement side, the continuing investigation here, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller, joins me now. John, you've covered your share of shootings and been involved with
them in your in your own time in the NYPD. Tell us what your impressions are of this and what we know about the shooter, the weapons, and how he managed to get so close.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, what we know about how he managed to get so close is as he approached the checkpoint, he just bolted into a run like he was like he was a football player going down the field.
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And the fact that the Secret Service people on both ends of that reacted so quickly is why he didn't get far. But his weapons were a shotgun, a pistol, and multiple knives. So he is a man who came with a plan. He didn't bring all of those weapons on the idea that he might just use one of them.
So the fact that he had booked himself a room in the hotel, which is one way he could have gotten access or, more access than somebody just walking in off the street. You've been to this event before? You know, they want to see an invitation coming in. They want to see a ticket going down to the lower level. That's even before you kind of get to those, those checkpoints, but one of the things they also want to see is, well, I'm a guest of the hotel. Show me a room key.
So he seems to have planned some of this in advance on the idea to establish that kind of access. See how close he could get and then make a run for it, which failed for all the right reasons. What do we know about him?
He's 31 years old. He comes out of southern California. Just outside of Los Angeles in Torrance. He went to University of California in Dominguez Hills. Then, seems to have gone to Caltech. Very interested in space, interested in rockets, interested in engineering. Um, seems to be very smart, but nothing in his background that we've been able to see tonight. And we have more work to do.
And the FBI is doing the exact same thing, really jumps out and says to us, um, this guy is on the radical fringe or he's dangerous or anything else. If anything, he looks more like a techie, more like a nerd than a potential assassin.
SCIUTTO: When you look at the circumstances, the security perimeter here, which is not unusual. It's the way it's always been in my experience, it's a public building, right? It's a hotel. The real security begins as you get close to the ballroom.
Yes. You have to show your invitation. But let's be frank. That's, you know, not the toughest security corridor, and you'll get through. Have we seen the last of this kind of event with that kind of security, where, where you're allowed to get that close before you hit, you know, the metal detectors, and the more serious security.
MILLER: Well, the secrets -- while the FBI is investigating this individual and the criminal case, the Secret Service is going to waste no time going back over everything. The obvious thing is there are people reacted quickly, deftly, and effectively.
The questions that they're going to ask is, this is not their first rodeo at this hotel. This event occurs every year. And while the president hasn't been there in recent years, you and I have both been to this event on numerous years where the president has been there.
And the plan for that hotel is that layered plan. The layers start outside with protective intelligence. People in plain clothes blending into the crowd and looking for suspicious activities, and then starts at the door with officers making observations in the lobby, and then goes down to where the checkpoints are with the Secret Service uniform division going through that screening process, and they're screening hundreds of people into that dinner.
I mean, it's a massive event, and they do that very efficiently. But I think they're going to want to examine. Okay, so we had a runner and we stopped him. Is there anything we could have done differently?
Because they changed the plan a little bit every year, and they may just have to change it a little more, but I mean, there's another argument, which is the plan worked. He didn't get anywhere near the president. He didn't get anywhere near getting into the ballroom before being stopped. He was a level above it and outside the doors. And there was more protection. Downrange from where he was. If he got past what we saw in the video, which he didn't.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Smart point. John Miller. Appreciate having you. Thanks so much.
Well, joining us now is one of the closest eyewitnesses to this whole event, my colleague, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who was in that part of the lobby as the gunman rushed security.
Wolf Blitzer joining us on the phone right now, Wolf, first, I want to say I'm glad you're safe because you were closer to this than any of us. Tell our viewers what you saw.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM (via telephone): You know, it was just a coincidence. I was inside with, you know, a thousand more than maybe 2,000 other people, a lot of journalists, a lot of Washington figures, a lot of members of Congress, Senate, the House, and of course, the president and the top members of his cabinet. They were all there.
[00:35:00]
And after the first course, I got up from our table, our CNN table, which is near the front, and walked out the back door, I was going to go to the men's room, which he had to go up one level upstairs and go to the men's room. And I went to the men's room.
And as I was walking out of the men's room to go down the stairs to go back to the ballroom, all of a sudden, I hear gunshots going up and I knew they were gunshots. I covered wars, and I heard the gunshots. And all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, I see the gunman. I maybe three or four feet away shooting. And it looked like he was just firing randomly at the top, firing, you know, bullets, and he had a big gun. I don't know what kind of gun it was, but it was a big gun.
And within a few seconds, all of a sudden, the police officer comes running up to me and pushes me down to protect me, because he didn't know who this guy was shooting at. And here I was standing there, not very far away, maybe, you know, three or four or five feet or whatever. And I'm down on the ground. He throws me down on the ground. He lies on top of me.
And then the next thing I knew, the gunshots ended. I didn't know exactly what happened, but, I assumed it was over by then. The cop then picks me up and takes me and a few others who were nearby, into that men's room, which was a few feet away. And he says, you're going to be in here. It'll be safe.
Nobody can come in here. And they were clearly worried that maybe there were other gunmen there who could do something, and that just they wanted to protect us, you know, just the observers. I mean, we were all journalists who were just walking around, coincidentally.
It was very, very scary. It was very frightening. But thank God I'm okay. And thank God for the police officers who really took care of me and protected the -- and made sure I'd be okay. And I'm grateful to them for what they did at the time when they threw me to the ground and lied on top of me.
I didn't know what they were doing. Uh, one of my shoes came off and it took me a while to find that shoe later, but that's another matter. And fortunately, fortunately, I was okay.
And I'm home and I can absorb it. And it was just a very, very scary situation. Very frightening.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. No question. I'm glad you're home safe with Lynn.
Did you -- and listen, in those moments, split seconds, was it clear to you that the officers fired back at the gunman?
BLITZER: No, it was when I was there. The only thing I heard was the shots coming from the gunman, and it looked like he was just randomly pulling the trigger and shooting. And I didn't know if he was shooting at some specific target, if he was shooting at me. I had no idea.
So even before the police officers threw me to the ground, I was ready to just lie down and, and make sure that none of the bullets, if they were stray bullets, would hit me. But, before I could just, you know, jump to the ground and lie down, the police officer jumped on top of me and pushed me to the ground, and he was lying on top of me.
If there were stray bullets, he would have gotten shot, not me. So I was just grateful for him, potentially for saving my life. I mean, it was just bullets were flying. I don't know how many times he shot, but I think I heard at least half a dozen boom, boom, boom, big gun, you know, very loud gunshots.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Well, I'm thinking, Wolf, you know, all the wars you've covered, war zones you've been in, and here you are at home in a hotel you know well, where maybe you come closer to gunfire than you have, right? I mean, its.
BLITZER: I was -- I was three feet away from this guy when he was shooting. And I covered, you know, wars in the Middle East and, and elsewhere. And, you know, I've seen the guns -- gunshots, but this was, I was so much closer to a gunman who had a lot of bullets and he was just shooting. I don't know if he was targeting something or what his goal was. And I didn't know if he was alone or if there were others with him. But it was just a very, very scary situation.
SCIUTTO: Well, my friend, I'm glad you're safe.
BLITZER: I will just point out, this -- I had probably been over my years at CNN, 30 of these White House Correspondents Association dinners, and this one, the security going in, and I think you agree, was really intense. You couldn't get a car near there. You had a park or have dropped off. If you had a driver bringing you three or four blocks away and walk there.
It was very, it was very, very secure, very intense. All the security which raised as even as I was walking in, I say to myself, you know, I've been to these dinners many times, even when there were presidents there, I haven't seen security like this.
I was wondering, is there some indication that something could happen that that's why they're doing all this advanced security?
[00:40:00]
And, I have no idea if they had any knowledge that there was something going on, but I'm sure they suspected it, given all the publicity that was around it, the fact that president was going to be there, and the fact that there would be hundreds of journalists who were there. So it was just it was just a scary situation.
SCIUTTO: No question. Well, my friend, I'm glad you're safe. Thank you for sharing. Sharing your eyewitness account.
BLITZER: Yeah, it was a scary eyewitness situation, but I'm glad its over.
SCIUTTO: Indeed. All right. Wolf Blitzer there.
As we've been reporting, President Trump has been praising the Secret Service for its response after the shooting.
When we come back, we're going to take a look at how security responded. The security set up in advance of this with our senior national security analyst.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
More on the breaking news were covering this hour. A 31-year old man is in custody after a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner here in Washington, attended by President Trump, Trump and members of his cabinet, as well as the first lady, were rushed out of the ballroom as shots rang out just outside the doors of the ballroom. Myself, many of my colleagues were present as this happened. This during the annual dinner for the White House Correspondents Association here in Washington, attended by many hundreds of people, including members of government, members of the cabinet and, of course, the president, the first lady.
[00:45:04]
This footage shows the moment that the suspect you'll see coming from the left side of the screen here, attempted to run through security. This is a checkpoint in the lobby just outside the ballroom. The Secret Service then took him down and arrested him. He's been apprehended. One officer was shot and wounded. The president said he spoke with him. He's expected to recover.
Joining us now, Richard Kolko, retired FBI supervisory special agent.
Richard, a few things struck me witnessing this tonight. One, listen, the Secret Service got the president out of there safely. That's their job. They also managed to apprehend the gunman. That's their job as well. There was a disjointedness, though, if I could say so.
And I'm not taking issue with any of the agents who put their lives on the line as they stood there in the midst of, you know, not knowing where the threat was coming from, necessarily, it did take some time to evacuate the other members of the cabinet. There was not a great sharing of information in the wake of this, for those of us present in the room.
Tell us your view of the security response to this.
RICHARD KOLKO, FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT (RET.): Well, I've been watching those videos all evening. I wasn't there. I have been at the dinner a few times in the past. The Secret Service's priority is the president of the United States. The other members are second degree. They took care of what their main focus is, and they seem to do that very efficiently and effectively and got the president out of the -- out of harm's way as quick as possible. And of course, all the other cabinet members, they have their own security teams as well.
So, there's a lot of communication. I've heard some of your other guests talk about all the planning that goes into putting this event together every single year. When you think every cabinet member has got their own security detail, they all have to work in conjunction with the Secret Service to protect their person as well. So it's a complex environment, but well practiced and well rehearsed and, and actually work tonight.
SCIUTTO: Tell me about your view of the security cordon, because again, there was nothing unusual about this. I've been to more dinners than I can, I can count. It's always at the Washington Hilton. There is always a security cordon to enter the room with magnetometers, et cetera.
But to get into the building, there are others in the building. There are guests in the hotel. Getting into the building itself is not that difficult, frankly. I believe there were even some protesters who managed to get in earlier tonight. Is that enough security for events like this, attended by the president and other senior members of the government going forward?
KOLKO: Well, you're talking about that inner perimeter. You're talking about inside the walls of the hotel. As John Miller said, this starts way outside. There's counter-surveillance vehicles going around. There's license plate readers, they're looking for suspicious cars, license plates that don't match suspicious people.
And even before that, they're looking online for any internet threats. And it gets closer and closer. Then they get to the building. They've got law enforcement that's standing there looking for any unusual people that are coming in.
And then you finally get to the metal detectors. Then you finally get into the ballroom. Then you finally get to the president. Each one of those has a perimeter. Each one of those has a protocol and a policy and a procedure to protect the president.
And it worked. It certainly wasn't expecting this to happen. But there's so much that has to go on. They will certainly review this. I'm fascinated. You know, investigatively we're going to do that timeline.
You know, when did this person make their reservations to come to Washington, D.C.? When did they make the reservations at the hotel? Did they drive across the country? Was there somebody else in the car with them? When did they purchase the weapons?
There's so many questions. You know, you could sit here and take a notebook out, and I'm sure you could come up with 200 questions that you want answers to right away. And the FBI is writing down those questions and digging into those as we speak.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, there will certainly be an after action review to make judgments going forward.
Richard Kolko, retired FBI special supervisor agent, thanks so much for joining.
KOLKO: Absolutely.
SCIUTTO: When we do return, were going to have the latest on our breaking news. The suspected gunman who charged a checkpoint at the White House Correspondents' Dinner earlier this evening is now facing charges, as well as questions about his target or targets and his motive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:52:29]
SCIUTTO: Still on our breaking news, the suspected gunman who charged a checkpoint at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. You see him there now in custody. This photo of the suspect posted to President Trump's Truth Social account late Saturday evening. Officials are now investigating his targets and his motive. Washington, D.C. police say 31 year old -- the 31 year old man, Cole Thomas Allen, ran at a security checkpoint outside the main ballroom, then exchanged gunfire with law enforcement.
The U.S. president, vice president, cabinet members, as well as hundreds of journalists, members of government, lawmakers inside the room. President Trump and first lady rushed to safety. A Secret Service agent was injured, shot by the gunman, and is now being treated in the hospital.
Joining me now, CNN media analyst Sara Fischer, also in the room, as this unfolded.
We were talking in the break about the presidents message afterwards, but also the shared experience, because the fact is, we don't know who the gunman's targets were. It could have been the president. Also could have been you and me.
SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Absolutely right.
SCIUTTO: Or other members of government in the room. And your point was that unites the folks in the room.
FISCHER: Yeah. It can't be a position where its us versus them, or were all in this position together, trying to take safety and also trying to protect everybody around us. There are some remarkable video that came out of the various journalists who were sitting with executives on that stage, and they're all trying to help leap over each other Weijia Jiang, who is the head of the White House Correspondents Dinner Association. She is also trying to help as they're escorting the president out.
So everyone is in this together for protection, and it's hard to have this message come out of, it's us against the press when we're literally all in the same position, trying to make sure we're all safe.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Both in the line of fire, right? All those groups in the line of fire.
Tell me about this dinner going forward, because you initially, our understanding from our White House troops was that the president wanted to come back and continue the dinner tonight. One, and now he's saying in 30 days, we're going to do it all over again. Is that really going to happen?
FISCHER: I'm skeptical for a lot of reasons. First of all, I've been to many of these dinners. You've been to many of these dinners. The tables are so jam packed. I always wondered why it wasn't a fire hazard. But in this case, Jim, and we had a cabinet official sitting with "Axios". It was so jam packed it was hard for some of us to get cover under the tables.
[00:55:03] It was also somewhat hard for the Secret Service to pull those officials out. They were trying their best.
SCIUTTO: It's really hard to move around. There are no clear pathways among. Yeah.
FISCHER: Correct. So I think this is a wake up call that the Hilton might be not capable of hosting that many people. The other thing that's interesting is that it's not just government officials and reporters. There are major CEOs and business moguls, diplomats who come in for this dinner.
They have their own security teams and protocols. I doubt theyre going to want to participate in something like this again, especially not in 30 days from now when we don't have a clear understanding of what the security is going to look like. This is a time -- timeless tradition.
Having the White House Correspondents' Dinner, bringing the press and the administration together, it's a shame because it's the first time the president was willing to come out. People were very optimistic. This would be sort of a milestone in building the relationship and bringing it together.
And so the question becomes, if it can't look the same way it has for decades, then what's it going to look like moving forward? I assume its going to look smaller, perhaps less corporate, and there's a lot of corporate dollars, by the way, Jim, that come in to sponsoring tables and parties. And I do think that there's going to be special security protocols, especially for those government officials.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, it will be interesting what the presidents input is too, right? Because after Butler, Pennsylvania, because there were a lot of folks who said in the wake of Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on the president that he couldn't have his outdoor rallies, which he loves.
FISCHER: Yes. I was just thinking as I was sitting there, because we had to stay there for a while after they had announced that there was something going on, you know, could you put up bulletproof glass? Could you create a scenario where members of Congress, officials, even people on the stage, could be blocked off?
And the answer is yes, but man, would that dampen the mood. So I don't quite know what shape this is going to take. What I do know is that the presidents remarks after gave me a lot of hope that both the press corps and the White House and officials can come together and recognize that something needs to be done about not just security, but gun violence or repairing the polarization in society. And I'm hopeful that that can be the positive, you know, through line throughout this whole thing.
SCIUTTO: It's a hope, right?
Sara Fischer, good to have you on. Glad you're safe.
FISCHER: Thanks, Jim. SCIUTTO: Especially given you're a new mom.
Thanks so much to all of you for watching. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Our breaking news coverage continues right after a short break.
