Hours after a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, details are slowly emerging about who he is.
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Less than 24 hours after a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, details are slowly emerging about who he is. The alleged gunman has been identified as Cole Allen, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that Allen is believed to have been targeting administration officials.
The incident shocked Washington and led to the prompt evacuation of the president, much of his Cabinet and members of Congress from the event. They are all safe. But we’ll get to the many details we’ve learned about the suspect in a moment. But first, let’s discuss the latest in the shooting investigation with White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben and NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Danielle, let’s start with you. What has the White House been saying about this – about what happened last night?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, they’ve had quite a bit to say. For one, Trump has had a lot of praise for Secret Service and other law enforcement for stopping the shooter. This was also Trump’s first appearance at the dinner as president. And he said at a press conference late last night that he had planned to be rough on the press in his speech. He sort of said it like it was a joke, but it’s unclear how serious that might have been, really. He also pretty quickly called for the dinner to be postponed, posting on social media last night that the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days.
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, of course, that is not his call. This is a dinner put on by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which is an association of journalists independent of the White House. The president of that association, CBS’ Weijia Jiang, today in a statement said the association plans to meet to figure out what will happen with the dinner now. But besides all that, one thing that really stood out to me was that Trump pretty quickly made sense of this incident by saying that the gunman was coming for him, and by theorizing that assassins come for what he called impactful people.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But the people that do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, they are the ones that they go after. They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much ’cause they like it that way.
KURTZLEBEN: Now to be clear, we don’t yet know for sure what Allen’s motivations were, what his aims were last night. But after the 2024 attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the attempt that year at his golf course in Florida, Trump seems to see this as why people would want to commit violence against him.
SCHMITZ: So NPR’s Ryan Lucas is with me here in the studio. Ryan, what do we know about the investigation?
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Well, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows today – provided an update on the investigation. He didn’t identify the suspect, but we do know the individual is, as you have both said, Cole Allen. He is 31 years old. He’s from Torrance, California. Now, Allen has not been cooperating with investigators, but Blanche says authorities have been executing search warrants at locations associated with Allen. They’ve done the same on his electronic devices.
And Blanche says, based on preliminary information, investigators believe the suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then from there on to Washington, D.C. He had a room at the Hilton Hotel, where the Correspondents’ Dinner takes place. He had two guns and knives on him when he tried to storm the ballroom. Now, Blanche also said this on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
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TODD BLANCHE: We believe that he was targeting administration officials in this attack, attempted attack, but that’s, again, quite preliminary as law enforcement continues to go through all the evidence.
LUCAS: And that, of course, raises the all-important question of motive. Blanche says officials are still investigating. They’re trying to get an answer on that motive question. But again, this investigation is less than 24 hours old, and it often takes time to get those all-critical answers.
SCHMITZ: And, Danielle, let’s go to you. I mean, the White House is actually providing information about this investigation. What did it say?
KURTZLEBEN: That’s right. A White House official today told NPR that Allen’s brother, shortly before last night’s shooting, notified law enforcement about a piece of writing Allen had composed and sent to his family members. Now, we should say, NPR has not independently read or verified that writing. But the White House official also said that Allen’s sister had told law enforcement that Allen, at times, quote, “referenced a plan to do something to fix the issues with today’s world.” And again, that’s in the words of the White House official. But on top of all of that, pretty quickly last night, the president shared pictures of the alleged gunman on social media, and he did this around two hours after the incident. And he also shared what appeared to be security footage from inside the hotel of the gunman sprinting past a security checkpoint.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. And this has been on social media. And, Ryan, I want to go to you here. Is that unusual for these types of details to be coming from – directly from the president?
LUCAS: It is highly unusual for details from an ongoing criminal investigation to be coming out of the White House or the president.
SCHMITZ: Right.
LUCAS: Traditionally, investigators and prosecutors will provide occasional updates, but once there’s a suspect in custody, which was immediate in this instance, prosecutors will speak in court or in court filings, and that’s pretty much it. Now, yes, after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 campaign, the FBI did provide updates on what they were finding out in the course of their investigation, but they were able to do that there in large part because the gunman was dead, so there was no case to build for prosecution.
SCHMITZ: Got it. Danielle, what else struck you about Trump’s remarks since this incident happened?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, mainly that he pretty quickly started leveraging this incident to advance two of his priorities. Now, one is the White House ballroom that he’s been building. Last night, towards the start of his press conference, Trump said that this incident just shows that the White House needs a ballroom for events like the dinner because it would have tight security. Now, again, this is not the White House’s dinner.
SCHMITZ: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: But Trump really has been pushing the ballroom for the last 24 hours or so. And today on social media, he, again, argued that the ballroom is necessary for security, and he added that a lawsuit that has been aimed at halting construction should be dropped.
The other goal he’s been pushing is to get the Department of Homeland Security funded. That department is in the middle of a record-breaking partial shutdown. Now that happened, by the way, because after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens earlier this year, Democrats refused to fund the department unless major policy changes to immigration enforcement were made. Secret Service is part of DHS, so Trump argued to Fox News this morning that this incident shows that their department deserves funding immediately.
SCHMITZ: So, Ryan, let’s end with you. What’s next in the investigation?
LUCAS: Well, investigators will be trying to trace Allen’s actions, his footsteps in the weeks, the days, the hours leading up to what happened on Saturday night. Justice Department officials have said that Allen will face charges – assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and using firearm in a crime of violence are the initial ones. There will likely be more to come down the road. Allen is expected to be in court here in D.C. tomorrow morning, so we may learn more then.
SCHMITZ: That’s NPR’s Ryan Lucas and Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks to you both.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you.
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