White House Response To Shooting, Shooter Investigation, King Charles State Visit

"Really, if you're a consequential president, you're in much more dangerous than if you're not a consequential president." Security tackled, a gunman MPR's Tamara Keith was there and follows up.

"I'm Steven Skip with Amartinas, and this is up first from NPR News."

The suspect in Saturday's attack appears in federal court today. Authorities say he had a shotgun, a handgun, and knives. His own family warned police just minutes before the attack. So what more is known about the suspect? And this week in shooting may have altered the agenda of the British royal visit to Washington today.

But there's still plenty of pageantry and politics and discuss tensions over the wars in Iran. You crane have created a riff between the two allies. President Trump says though this visit can men that stay with us.

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We're following up this morning on an incident at the White House Correspondent Center. This happened on Saturday, a gunman tried to rush past security on the way into the ball room where the President, Vice President, Cabinet members and lawmakers were about to have dinner with the media. Shots were fired. The president shared his initial thoughts after the gunshots on CBS's 60 minutes on Sunday with Nora O'Donnell.

"How worried were you that there were going to be injuries?" "I wasn't worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world." MPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith joins us. Tam, you are in the ball room at the Washington Hilton. Walk us through what happened.

There was a muffled noise that sounded like a rapid burst of gunfire.

“Then Secret Service agents came running into the room from all angles.”

The President and Vice President were pulled from the stage. Everyone took cover. This is a room with 2,600 people. It was tense and scary as security details climbed over tables and chairs searching for people who were in the presidential line of succession. What we know now is that the gunman was actually 1 floor above the ball room.

He ran through a security checkpoint headed for the stairs that lead down to the ball room. But he was tackled before he got there. The acting attorney general Todd Blanche characterized the incident this way Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. This was extraordinarily dangerous and put a lot of lives at risk. And there's no doubt that that's something that we're going to have to learn from over the next couple of weeks.

The system worked. We were safe. Tam, you're a former president of the correspondent's association. That means that you have planned one of these dinners.

“Tell us about the security situation. How's that set up?”

This dinner has long been held at the Washington Hilton, which has a special entrance for the President and a secure holding room behind the stage. Some of these unique security features were added after President Reagan was shot outside of the hotel in 1981. When the president attends the WHCA dinner, the secret service actually takes over the security. Everyone going into the ball room has to show a ticket and go through airport security style screening.

But this is still a busy hotel with regular guests and there are always risks when the president is out in public.

Yeah, and President Trump has been targeted by potential assassins before. How is he reacting to all this? There's been this mix of trying to deliver a unifying message even praising the press, which is off-brand. And he then put a very Trumpian spin on the fact that he's been targeted repeatedly. This is from a phone interview Sunday morning with Fox News. Really if you're a consequential president, you're in much more danger than if you're not a consequential president.

He also used the moment to make multiple pitches for his White House ball room project. And by Sunday evening, he was back to attacking the press and blaming the rhetoric of Democrats for political violence. So then let's get into the politics of this because I'm wondering what this might mean politically. Yeah, this all came at the end of a bad week for the president politically with his approval ratings at their lowest ever and the Iran war dragging on in a sort of suspended animation. So this does at least temporarily move the focus away from all that.

But this incident also feeds the unease I hear from voters about how chaotic and divided the country feels now. That's NPR's Tamarkey, Tim things lot. You're welcome. The suspect in the White House correspondence dinner shooting is expected in court today.

MPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas has been covering this so Ryan what do we know about the investigation?

“Well, like this this incident happened late Saturday night.”

So it is still very early in this investigation, but law enforcement here in Washington DC and in Southern California have been hard at work trying to collect evidence put the pieces together. Much of what we know at this point comes from acting attorney general Todd Blanch who made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows. Blanch didn't identify the suspect, but as you said NPR has confirmed the individual in custody is 31 year old Cole Allen from Torrance, California. Now Allen has not been cooperating with investigators.

That's according to Blanch. But Blanch says authorities have been interviewing witnesses people who know the suspect and investigators also have executed search warrants at locations associated with them and they've done the same thing on his electronic devices.

And have they found anything so far?

Blanch says preliminary information indicates that Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from there on to Washington DC, he had a room at the Hilton Hotel where the correspondence dinner was taking place. He also had a shotgun handgun and knives on him when he tried to storm the ballroom. Blanch also said this on NBC is meet the press. We believe that he was targeting administration officials in this attack attempted attack. But that's again quite preliminary as long enforcement continues to go through all the evidence.

“And that of course raises the all-important question of motive.”

Blanch says officials are still investigating digging in on that to try to get an answer to the motive question. But again, we're just 36 hours or so into this investigation so it is early. Yeah, but one thing that seems a little unusual, the president and the White House have been providing information on this investigation. So what do they said? Right, a White House official told MPR that Allen's brother got in touch with law enforcement not long before the incident on Saturday just minutes before it happened.

In fact, allegedly told them about a piece of writing that Allen had written and sent to family members. The official also said that Allen's sister had told law enforcement that Allen referenced a plan to quote unquote do something to fix the issues with today's world. Again, that's according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity. And then you also have the president sharing photos of the suspect on social media not long after this all happened on Saturday night. This is all highly unusual. I have to say traditionally, particularly once there's a suspect in custody, which was immediate.

In this instance, prosecutors will speak in court and court filings and that's pretty much it. Yes, after the assassination attempt on President Trump and Butler Pennsylvania during the 2024 campaign, if you think back to that, the FBI did give updates on what they were finding out in their investigation. But they were able to do that in large part because the gunmen there was dead, so they were not trying to build a case to prosecute in court. And here, of course, prosecutors will do that with a suspected gunmen here.

All right. Now, what happens on now? Well, investigators are continuing to interview witnesses and people who knew Allen, they'll be building a profile. They'll be trying to trace his actions, his footsteps, sort of speaking the weeks days and, of course, hours leading up to what happened on Saturday night. So far officials say they believe Allen acted alone. They don't see any sort of foreign involvement foreign nexus here. Now, Justice Department officials have said that Allen will face charges as of now. Those will be the initial ones are expected to be assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and using a firearm in a crime of violence.

They also expect to add more down the line. Allen, as we said at the top, is expected to appear in federal court and DC today, so we may learn more then. All right. Justice correspondent, Ryan Lucas, Ryan Thanks. Thank you. Pomp, pageantry, and maybe some politics as King Charles III in Queen Camilla began a state visit to Washington today.

This royal visit marks 250 years since the United States declared independence from Charles's ancestor King George back in 1776 as seen in Hamilton. The US and UK are now close allies, but there's discord over Iran and Ukraine, and the king might get drawn in.

“MPR's Lauren Frayer joins us now from London. Lauren, the royals are in Washington. What's the scene back in London?”

Well, post show most Brits do not support this trip. I've just come this morning from Buckingham Palace where there was a small protest outside the palace gates. People in King Charles and Donald Trump masks and they held up a giant cardboard fake missile with the words complicit. Written on it. I spoke to one of the protesters Tom Walker from a group called the Stop Trump Coalition.

They were behind that baby Trump blimp that flew over London during a Trump visit in his first presidential term.

Walker says he doesn't want the king's visit to be seen as a show of support for Trump and his war in Iran. I just think it's an absolutely national embarrassment really to be a puzzle of Donald Trump to send the king. It's really part of the same failed strategy of trying to appease Donald Trump.

Even after President Trump actually insulted him personally.

What has the president said?

“He's repeatedly said Starmar is quote no Winston Churchill a reference to that World War II era leader who cooperated so closely with the United States.”

Starmar denied the U.S. full access to British military bases for offensive attacks on Iran and that angered Trump. Starmars also argued for more aid to Ukraine than Trump has been willing to give. You know, the UK is one of America's closest allies, but these things have really dragged the relationship to a real low. But Trump loves the royals. The BBC asked Trump whether this royal visit can heal transatlantic relations. He said absolutely, and while the king is supposed to be a political, there's a feeling here that he could be Britain's secret weapon to charm Trump and try to ease these tensions.

Considering what just happened in DC, any security concerns for the royals.

Yeah, so the king reached out privately to Trump in the first lady after Saturday's shooting expressed sympathy and gratitude that more people weren't hurt.

The palace's discussions took place all day Sunday to try to figure out how this shooting may impact operational planning and then confirm to visit is a go with possibly minor adjustments to the agenda.

“I know T is on the agenda. What about anything else?”

He is on the agenda this afternoon at the White House tomorrow at 21 guns salute the king will address a joint session of Congress. Only the second British monarch ever to do that. His mom did it as well. Then a state banquet on Wednesday. The king heads to New York will visit the 9/11 memorial meet business leaders. Thursday back to DC, a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. What is not on the agenda is a trip as far as we know to California to meet his son Prince Harry or despite what one member of Congress has asked for a meeting with any of Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

You'll remember the king's own brother settled a lawsuit with an Epstein victim denies wrongdoing but was stripped of his title prince and his under investigation.

“We'll see if protesters turn up on your side of the pond over that.”

All right, that's MPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Lauren, thanks. You're welcome.

And that's a first from Monday, April 27th, Amir Martinez.

And I'm Steve Nescape. Today's up first was edited by Megan Pratt's Christian Def Calamar. Tina Criam, Ahmed Elbar DC and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Paige Waterhouse and Nia Dumas and our director is Christopher Thomas who puts up with our delays as we're producing this program. We get engineering support for Misha Hindus and our technical director is Stacy Abbott, Jones again tomorrow. [Music]