Here's what we covered today
• Suspect charged: Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, made his first court appearance Monday and was charged with attempting to assassinate the president. A CNN review of his social media shows a shift from video games to political rage.
• Reaction to rhetoric: At the daily press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to shift blame for a rise in political violence to Democrats, while omitting incendiary rhetoric coming from Republicans and from President Donald Trump. Her remarks drew a sharp rebuke from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
• Security under scrutiny: Separately, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said he “saw no indication” of a security lapse at the event after he and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley were briefed by Secret Service Director Sean Curran.
Officials lay out timeline of suspect's movements leading to press dinner
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Monday laid out a timeline of suspect Cole Tomas Allen’s movements leading up to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.
Here’s a timeline of his movements, according to officials:
April 6: Pirro said Allen made a reservation at the Washington Hilton, where the annual dinner is held, for April 24 through April 26.
April 21: Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, officials said.
April 23: Allen arrived in Chicago, Pirro said. Allen then traveled from Chicago to Washington, DC, according to Blanche.
April 24: Allen arrived in Washington, DC, at approximately 1 p.m. ET, Blanche said. Pirro added that at 3 p.m. ET, Allen checked into the Washington Hilton, where he stayed overnight.
April 25: At approximately 8:40 p.m. ET, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the terrace level of the Washington Hilton, which is a floor above the ballroom where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was taking place, Blanche said.
Allen then ran through the magnetometer “holding a long gun,” according to Blanche. He added that US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen ran through the magnetometer.
A Secret Service agent “fired five times at Allen, who was not shot but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested,” Blanche said.
Speaker Mike Johnson recounts his experience at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke today about his experience at Saturday’s shooting in Washington and why he feels the incident proves the need for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.
Unserved dinners were donated to local shelters, WHCA president says
The Washington Hilton donated about 2,600 unserved meals from Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner after it was cut short, according to the White House Correspondents Association President Weijia Jiang.
The hotel gave steak and lobster to two shelters for women and children, Jiang said in a post on X.
The food was freeze dried to give it a longer shelf life, she said.
Law enforcement fired 5 shots, Blanche says
When pressed on how many rounds were fired on Saturday night and whether the Secret Service agent who was hit in a protective vest was shot by the alleged attacker, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said it wasn’t clear.
“It appears, and I don’t want to overstate — because we are still looking at this — that there were five shots that law enforcement fired,” Blanche said.
It is unclear whether the officer who was shot was hit by the man who rushed through security, Cole Tomas Allen, who was allegedly armed with a shotgun and pistol. Allen, according to Blanche, fired his weapon during Saturday’s attack.
“All the evidence is being examined very carefully and expeditiously, and we’ll know more soon,” Blanche said. “We do believe that, as the complaint lays out, the defendant fired it out of his shotgun, and we know that that happened.”
Blanche added: “As far as getting into exacting ballistics, I’m not going to do that today, because it’s still being looked at and finalized.”
Blanche says political violence has to stop as he criticizes media after shooting
In the wake of what prosecutors say was an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the “political violence and rhetoric has got to stop,” going on to criticize the media.
When reporters are “being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof, it shouldn’t surprise us that this type of rhetoric takes place,” Blanche said at a news conference following the suspected shooter’s first court appearance this afternoon.
Acting attorney general details investigative steps since shooting
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday outlined the steps investigators have taken since the shooting this weekend, saying the probe is ongoing.
Prosecutors in Washington, DC, worked overnight Saturday and through Sunday as law enforcement interviewed “multiple” witnesses, he said at a news conference.
Blanche said law enforcement also conducted court-approved searches in California, Allen’s home state, and in Washington, DC.
FBI Director Kash Patel later said shell casings were sent to the FBI facility in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.
“We collected the shell casings on scene, including the firearms and the weapons that the judge talked about,” Patel said. “Those were also sent to our Quantico laboratories for immediate analysis.”
