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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Authorities Review Writings of Suspected D.C. Gunman; Trump Commends Law Enforcement's Quick Response to Suspect; Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Suspect To Be Arraigned Today. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 27, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Breaking News."

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I am Brian Abel in Washington. It is 4:00 in the morning here in the nation's capital. And in the hours ahead, the man accused of charging through security and opening fire at the White House Correspondents' Center is set to appear in court for his arraignment, 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, a part-time teacher from California, is facing federal firearm and assault charges. He's seen here after being taken down by the Secret Service Saturday night.

We've learned the suspect purchased two firearms legally in recent years, and before the attack, he allegedly sent a note to family members expressing political anger and plans to target members of the administration. He wrote, quote, "I don't expect forgiveness."

The president, vice president, and other top officials rushed to safety at the gala, but the incident has raised security concerns. President Trump was asked about that in an interview with CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS ANCHOR: Other thing in the manifesto that I think is worth looking at in terms of determining his motive is he had been staying at the hotel since Friday. He checked in, he said he had cased the place, and he wrote, "What the hell is the Secret Service doing?" And he wrote this, quote, "I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got is nothing." He wrote, "Like, this level of incompetence is insane."

Sir, you have already had two attempted assaults.

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, he was pretty incompetent, too, because he got caught. And he got caught pretty easily. So, I'd say he was pretty incompetent, too. You know, I could take any event having to do with security or anything else, I can always find fault. Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Now, we spoke with civil rights attorney and legal commentator Areva Martin. Take a listen to her assessment of the case so far and the additional charges she says the suspect could face moving forward.

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY & LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think the current case, the firearm charge and the assault against the federal officer, very strong charges. But where this case is really going is going to be charges against him for attempted assassination of a United States president. Those are very serious charges under federal statutes and carry with them, if convicted, the death penalty.

So, I have no doubt, based on the manifesto, based on the language contained in that manifesto that seemed to suggest that this was very much premeditated on the part of Mr. Allen, that those are the charges that we should expect to see in the coming days, if not weeks.

ABEL: And one day after the attack in Washington, FBI agents spent Sunday going door to door in the suspect's neighborhood in Southern California.

CNN's Kyung Lah is there and has more details from the city of Torrance.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As authorities are trying to figure out the timeline of how 31-year-old Cole Allen made it from Torrance to Washington, D.C., we're seeing here on the ground agents go door to door. There were a couple of agents talking to neighbors throughout the day at different points of the day. And we overheard them say that they were looking for ring cameras, ring camera.

That would suggest that they are trying to put together a timeline of his activity and his behavior in the days leading up to this attempted shooting.

Let's tell you a little bit about 31-year-old Cole Allen. He is someone who in his early years appeared to be on his way, went to a very challenging and elite academy, Cal Tech, very difficult to get into. He got a degree in engineering, then got his master's degree at another university. And from there, he was "Teacher of the Month" in December, 2024 at his part-time job at a tutoring academy.

But authorities say what was happening during this time is something was occurring with weapons. On October, 2023, he purchased a handgun. And then two years later, he purchased this shotgun. This shotgun and the handgun would travel with him by rail from Torrance, California to Washington, D.C. We understand that those weapons were stored here in the parents'

home, but the parents did not have any idea that this was happening or that the weapons were here. These are weapons that were purchased legally.

[04:05:01]

He is facing some serious charges when he will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Eastern on Monday, using a firearm during a crime of violence, as well as assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. As far as his mindset, the manifesto certainly is giving a window into political anger, specifically at the Trump administration. His sister talking to her authorities, her local law enforcement, said that he had increasingly become involved in left-wing activity, left-wing groups here in Los Angeles, and that he did use those weapons at a local firing range.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Torrance, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: And joining me now is Charles Ramsey, retired Police Chief and CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst.

Chief, thank you for your time at this hour. So, we heard the president there at the very beginning of this hour talking about the competence or lack thereof of the suspect, but that suspect's observations of Secret Service saying that he expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo, and what he got was nothing.

What do you make of those and how they went about their duty securing the event before the shooting, Secret Service?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, as far as the protective detail of Secret Service goes, they did their jobs well. Their job is to take care of the president, the vice president, get them out of harm's way very quickly.

The breakdown, in my opinion, is the fact that this individual was able to one, get on the floor just above the ballroom where the security checks take place and was able to sprint right past the security guards.

So, the question is how he was able to do that. He had a rifle, a long gun at the time, as well as another firearm and apparently had knives as well. So, he was well armed and could have done an awful lot of harm had he been able to get through.

So, there's always an after-action report that's done on these things and you have to take a serious look at just exactly how this was able to happen.

ABEL: Chief, I want to hone in on the protective aspect that you just talked about there. I was having a conversation yesterday with a former police officer who was making note of the timing of when the president was swept off stage. One, after the vice president, and two, after that tactical team arrived on the dais.

And from this former officer's prior training, there's -- he said usually a breakdown in a protocol if the principal, in this case the president, isn't moved before that tactical team shows up. However, the president also said in his interview with 60 Minutes that he wasn't making it easy for those Secret Service agents. What insight can you give us into those moments?

RAMSEY: Well, one, I wouldn't make too much of the fact that the vice president was taken off first. They have two separate details. His protective detail, their job is to grab him and get him out of harm's way.

The president has his own protective detail. Of course, once they got to him, they were able to get him down and get him out of there very quickly. I really didn't have a problem with that part of it personally.

You know, nothing's ever fast enough, I guess, in the minds of some folks, but, you know, they're doing the best they can in terms of getting him out of harm's way as quickly as possible. But the fact that one went before the other one, they were on opposite ends of the dais, and the vice president does have a separate detail.

ABEL: OK. You know, I was in the room as well, Chief, and what was interesting to me is where I was at, I couldn't hear those gunshots outside, but I heard the first, you know, breaking of glass is what it sounded like. And then as we're looking around, not knowing what's happening, we saw these Secret Service agents come in and look like they were training on one specific area down in the lower portion of this ballroom where, you know, different tables were.

Now, in retrospect, it seems like it was, you know, in order to get to their principals, the VIPs, the cabinet secretaries. But in those moments, it felt like chaos. Like we didn't know if the threat was there in the room. Having set up these kinds of events, is that something that is normal protocol to see that kind of rush into one place without any, I guess, sort of information giving into what's happening at that moment?

RAMSEY: There's no time to be giving out information. You've got to move and you've got to move quick. And you don't have time for some kind of announcement. If you've got an active shooter, this person's not going to stop and wait for you to finish with some kind of announcement. So, yeah, it's going to be chaotic. There's no question about that.

But those agents are trained, they're focused, they're going to take care of the people that they need to take care of. And not everyone has Secret Service protection. I mean, you had the U.S. Capitol Police there. You had CEOs that may have had their own private security. I mean, you had a lot of law enforcement there at that particular event. I mean, I've been there myself. I was the chief in D.C. for nine years. So, part of the planning, MPD has the outside Secret Service basically inside. So, you have a lot of moving parts, put it that way.

[04:10:16]

But you have to do an after-action report because the bottom line is, how did this person get that close? And even though he would have had to go down one flight, that's still too close. How do you get those kinds of weapons into the secure zone? That's the question. And something's got to be done to prevent it in the future.

ABEL: And that's kind of what I was going to ask you next is this is the third time now that we know of, at least, of Secret Service agents facing a potential assassin while protecting Donald Trump. And after Butler, there was serious reviews of protocol. So, is there any sense that you got from the information that you've seen of how that suspect was able to get as close as he did, close enough to disrupt the event, close enough to force agents to remove VIPs from the room?

RAMSEY: Well, I don't have the actual reports, obviously. So, I'm going based on what I've heard in the media that perhaps he was able to use a stairwell to get to that particular level or whatever. But then that raises the question of why wasn't the stairwell protected?

But again, I'm not, you know, knocking the protective detail of the Secret Service. They did their jobs. But the -- but security is more than just one aspect of it. It's the entire picture. And you had a problem with a gunman being able to get past security. So, how do you stop that?

You know, no one should be able to get to a full sprint and go right by security before you have a chance to even react. You're going to have to put some kind of barrier up, maybe some kind of serpentine type bike rack thing for people to go through. Will it take a little longer to get into an event? Yeah. But that's the world we live in now. That's the environment that we're in. They have this every year, but the environment has changed. This isn't like it was when I was there in D.C.

ABEL: And I imagine that this event will change after Saturday night as well, moving forward. Chief Charles Ramsey, appreciate your expertise. Thank you.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

ABEL: We will have more on the security incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner after a quick break, including how U.S. lawmakers are responding to increasing political violence nationwide.

And the Department of Homeland Security's funding fight continues, how the shooting may impact those negotiations, after the break.

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[04:16:58]

ABEL: In the coming hours, the suspected gunman from Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner will appear in court in Washington, D.C. Authorities have identified the individual as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen. You see him here. He's accused of charging through a security checkpoint before firing shots just outside the event ballroom where President Trump, top cabinet officials, and members of the media were all gathered.

Allen currently faces two charges, assault on a federal officer using a deadly weapon, and using a firearm during a crime of violence. More charges, however, could be added as law enforcement officials continue to analyze evidence.

And President Trump had harsh criticism for CBS journalist Norah O'Donnell during an interview on "60 Minutes" on Sunday. She read an excerpt from the suspect's reported writings which didn't mention the president by name, but it still prompted this response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL: I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction to that?

TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. I'm not a pedophile.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Do you think he was referring to you?

TRUMP: Excuse me, excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, these are the gunman's words.

TRUMP: Excuse me, excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on "60 Minutes." You're a disgrace, but go ahead. Let's finish the interview.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Norah O'Donnell is not a disgrace for the record. The president's remarks were a shift from his tone toward the media on Saturday. In his "60 Minutes" interview, President Trump also said he does not believe political violence in the U.S. is worse now than in the past, but accused Democrats of, quote, "dangerous rhetoric." The incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner is drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Here in America, we can have strong disagreements, but it's important for us to agree to strongly disagree without being disagreeable with each other. And it is certainly the case that violence is never the answer, whether it's targeted at the right, the left, or the center. We have issues that we have to work out amongst each other. That's embedded in the First Amendment that was being celebrated last night. But what is also embedded in the First Amendment is the right to peacefully protest and to petition the government peacefully. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Now, while some politicians are condemning political violence in America, others are voicing concerns over the security breach near a room filled with top-ranking government officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, (R-TX): The thing that really, takeaway I got was that the line of secession. You had the president and the vice president at the head table, both of them together, and the Speaker of the House. Had an explosive device gone off, you would have knocked out the president, vice president, speaker, the three in line of secession.

[04:20:07]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: So are you saying they shouldn't be in public together?

MCCAUL: Well, I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together, like, at something like that, you know. Chuck Grassley would be the president, had they all been taken out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: My colleague Elex Michaelson spoke earlier with Barbara F. Walter. She's a professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Take a listen to what she believes is fanning the flames of political violence in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA F. WALTER, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO: The combination of this real hatred, political hatred, plus guns, plus easy access to really pretty hateful material online is going to lead to more political violence and not less. So, the single easiest, and this really would be easy, the single easiest thing we could do in this country to tamp down the hate and to reduce violence and to sort of like help society come together is to regulate social media, regulate those algorithms. We regulate every other industry that has shown to have negative societal effects, whether that's food or every other type of media or transportation, you name it.

We regulate it. And yet social media and these big tech companies, the five biggest of which are all American companies, we give them an entirely free pass. And we give them a free pass because after Citizens United, which allowed big money to flow into politics, it gave corporations and it gave billionaires unbelievable power. And they now have the money to essentially block any regulation. And we citizens in society pay the cost of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ABEL: President Trump says the shooting at the dinner proves the need for the new ballroom he's trying to build at the White House. The administration is asking the National Trust for Historic Preservation to drop their lawsuit against the project by Monday. They say the new ballroom will be highly secure and the legal fight against it puts the lives of the president, his family, and staff at grave risk.

But a source tells CNN the preservation group will not back down. Trump repeated his case for the ballroom just hours after the shooting at the Washington Hilton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight and I will say, you know, it's not a particularly secure building. And I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we're planning at the White House. It's actually a larger room and it's a much more secure. It's got -- it's drone proof, it's bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: The Secret Service agents who stopped the gunman are working for a Homeland Security Department in the grips of a shutdown. But as Congress reconvenes today, there are serious doubts about whether it will finally pass a funding bill. CNN's Annie Grayer explains where things stand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: There are a lot of conversations happening behind the scenes because there are moderates on both sides of the aisle who really do want to see a bipartisan deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, particularly after Saturday night's shooting. But the same sticking points that have plagued this entire funding battle remain. And it's over how ICE and Border Patrol operates.

Democrats do not want to fund DHS without reforms to ICE and Border Patrol and Republicans want to make sure that ICE and Border Patrol get all of their funding. So, right now, House and Senate Republicans are embarking on this process to try and fund ICE and Border Patrol first and then address the rest of the agency. The problem though is that the agency is running out of money.

Secretary Mullin is making the case for Congress to act now. And with Saturday night's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, there's going to be increased pressure on lawmakers to act. But this week in the House particularly, it is a very jam-packed schedule with the King of England coming to visit Congress on Tuesday.

The House also has to consider must pass national security legislation and there's potentially a war powers vote on the U.S. war with Iran. So, already a jam-packed week in the House and the fallout from Saturday night's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner only is going to complicate things further.

Annie Grayer reporting from CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: A royal visit to Washington will go on as scheduled despite the shooting in Washington on Saturday. What's planned for the Britain monarch's four-day trip to the U.S.? That's just ahead.

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[04:29:21]

ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. The suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting incident is expected in court today. Authorities have identified him as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen. He's facing firearm and assault charges so far. The acting U.S. Attorney General says the suspect, quote, "got off a couple of shots and hit a Secret Service agent wearing a bulletproof vest before he was apprehended." Authorities say the suspect's writings indicate that he was targeting Trump administration officials.

This is the moment gunfire rang out and people in the room realized something was wrong just before U.S. President Donald Trump was rushed away by Secret Service agents.