Cole Allen, a mechanical engineer and teacher, stormed the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 26, 2026, injuring one Secret Service officer before being subdued. While President Trump rescheduled the event and blamed media rhetoric, callers debated whether Project 2025, election fraud theories, or "false flag" operations drove the violence. U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro announced federal charges for Allen, who traveled from Los Angeles, as international leaders condemned the attack and the broadcast concluded with a call for unity amidst deep political polarization. [Automatically generated summary]
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White House Shooting Timeline00:03:08
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Washington Journal starts now.
It's the Washington Journal for April 26th.
This was the scene at the White House correspondents dinner last night after a man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby of the Washington Hilton and opened fire that man currently in custody.
President Trump, Vice President Vance, and many members of the cabinet in attendance all quickly escorted safely away from the premises after the event occurred.
President Trump himself spoke to reporters shortly afterward, acknowledging how situations like this are part of the job and even calling for the dinner to be rescheduled.
For the next three hours, we'll take your calls on the shooting from last night's White House correspondents dinner, and you can comment on the following lines: 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
If you want to send us text on your thoughts from last night's event at the White House Correspondence Center, you can do that at 202-748-8003.
You can also post on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ.
Many reports this morning offering a timeline of events that took place from last night.
If you were watching C-SPAN, our cameras covering the event, and you saw it play out in real time.
Sky News saying while he was sitting on the stage, it's referring to the president in the hotel's ballroom ahead of his speech.
Gunshots were heard around 8:35 p.m.
Guests dropped to the floor and took cover under tables while armed officers rushed towards the president, escorting him and his wife Melania Trump and his cabinet from the room.
Here's how it played out last night.
Again, that taking place just after 8.30 last night.
Was It A Fake Attack00:15:33
You can still watch all of these events on our website and our app at this morning of the reporting on the suspect that's connected to it.
KABC out of Los Angeles has this gentleman's name, Cole Allen.
And according to a LinkedIn page connected to the suspect, he is a trained mechanical engineer who now works as a tutor.
His current employer, C2 Education, named Allen, quote, teacher of the month.
Just last year, according to his LinkedIn page, he describes himself on LinkedIn as a, quote, mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth.
Investigators in Washington, D.C. say the motive in the shooting remains unknown.
According to voter registration records, Allen is listed as, quote, no party preference.
Law enforcement telling ABC News they have Allen's phone and other devices and are waiting on a judge to sign off on a search warrant so they can go through devices.
Excuse me, sources also say that as of right now, it appears that Allen went from Los Angeles to Chicago before traveling to Washington, D.C. Here are some of the photos from last night of Alan on the ground.
This was posted on the President's Truth Social site, including some video that we'll show you throughout the course of the morning.
The President himself, shortly after being escorted out of the Washington Hilton, went before reporters to talk about the incident.
Here's what he had to say: that was very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement.
And 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, I saw a room that was just totally unified.
It was in one way very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.
A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons.
And he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service, and they acted very quickly and have just released for purposes of transparency and clarity.
I've ordered it to be put out.
You probably have it by now, put out on truth and put out on many of the platforms.
A tape showing the violence of this thug that attacked our Constitution and also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted on our country's behalf.
Really did a great job.
One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing obviously a very good bulletproof vest.
He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun.
And the vest did the job.
I just spoke to the officer and he's doing great.
He's in great shape.
He has very high spirits.
And we told him we love him and respect him.
And he's a very proud guy.
He's very proud of what he does, Secret Service agent.
And 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 much more secure.
It's got drone-proof, it's bulletproof glass.
We need the ballroom.
That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it.
They've wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today's a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody's ever seen before.
That briefing yesterday also featured the FBI, the Justice Department.
You can still see that on our website at C-SPAN 202-748-80001 for Republicans, Democrats 202-748-8000, Independents 202-748-8002.
The President spoke about that video that he posted on his Truth Social site reportedly of the shooter running past that level of the security dub as he was making his way.
This is, if you're watching Truth Social, at least if you saw the posting from last night, here he is running through the scene, the reaction from those offering protection there at the Washington Hilton.
Let's go to Robert in Minnesota, Independent Line, about the events of last night, this shooting at the White House correspondents dinner.
Robert, go ahead.
Yeah, so first of all, thank you for taking my call.
I was watching a program live on TV on C-SPAN last evening.
I saw everything.
And I have been at the Hilton for Reagan's inaugural ball, and George H.W. Bush's inaugural ball, so I'm quite aware of it.
What I'm surprised about is why that corridor in which the guy ran down was not secured better.
I mean, what if he would have been carrying a suicide vest?
How many guys, people would have been killed if he would have taken it off to get so far into that thing?
I mean, I'm curious why they didn't do a better job in closing down that area because it didn't look like there was more than just security personnel on the video that you were showing.
Robert there in Minnesota.
Lee is in North Carolina, Republican line.
Go ahead.
Well, how are y'all doing this morning?
I'm well.
Go ahead, please.
Okay, well, I was there with y'all last night, even though I was here at home.
I was so excited because it was a wonderful, beautiful place, beautiful place.
And everybody was so kind to each other.
They were talking to each other, and I was just enjoying my lean cuisine when everything happened.
And I started praying because that's what I do.
I'm an old lady.
And I pray for every person involved there.
I pray for the people.
I pray for their families.
I pray for anybody that was attached to that part of Washington.
And I pray for whoever was causing a disturbance because I don't get to just pray for the good guys.
I have to pray for them all.
So you guys were covered.
And I just want you to know the two people, you're the gentleman that was there last night, right?
Say that again one more time.
Were you the gentleman that was there last night?
Several of my C-SPAN colleagues, including myself, were at the dinner last night, yes.
Okay.
But I don't know if that's the one you're referring to.
The two people that sat with the main dude were excellent.
I mean, excellent.
You couldn't have had two better people to turn around and ask questions to.
Okay.
You're probably talking about my colleague Peter Slent, who was hosting last night's coverage.
My colleague Greta Brano, who stopped by after the event to give her perspectives of it, my colleague John McCartle, who was on scene also at the ballroom, giving his perspective as well.
There was a gentleman who had been with the president the first term, and there was a lady who wasn't in charge.
Anyway, they got along like good friends, and maybe at some other times they wouldn't, because when a crisis happens, everything slows down.
Okay.
Lee there in North Carolina.
Let's hear from Christopher in Oklahoma Democrats line.
Hello.
Hello, Petro.
Wish it was under different circumstances to be talking to you.
I was watching last night.
It's kind of traumatic.
What kind of blows my mind is this guy compared to, I guess, the other two attempts, this guy's highly educated.
Caltech, NASA fellow, multiple degrees, graduate degrees, and teacher of the month.
I don't know.
It's just kind of.
I don't know.
It just doesn't seem like a.
I don't know.
It's just traumatic.
I was watching It just seems like okay.
I hear you.
I hear you.
That's Christopher there in Oklahoma.
Let's hear from Al, Al in Florida, Independent Line.
You're next up.
First of all, thanks.
Good that everyone was okay.
But, you know, here's the part of this is the media's narrative talking points ruined their own party last night.
Well, the reference we've been hearing for 10 years is Donald Trump is Hitler.
Well, the next thought in some leftist crazy mind is you've got to remove Hitler.
So the media owns this once again.
You guys don't.
You have disdained for this president.
We see it on your faces.
It has penetrated our own family members I can't talk to, friends, the outrage that is created about this president.
Even locally in my town where I deal with politics, it's supposed to be a local workshop.
We see it filtering down that they're giving orders.
We must stop Hitler.
This, the media owns this, and it's ruined your own party.
We cannot have these events any longer with this president.
Okay.
Al there in Florida, again, we'll show you more of the pictures, the video from last night's event, C-SPAN cameras surrounding the location or the president's table was as these events played out.
And you can call and make your thoughts known on the aspects of the shooting last night, the events that followed afterward.
The numbers will be on your screen.
Let's hear from Dennis.
Dennis in Indiana, Republican line.
Hi.
Good morning.
All I can say is this is the third attempt on a man's life in two years.
It's time for the Federal Communications Commission to pull the broadcast license of CNN and an MSNBC.
And it's time for all of the top Democrats in Washington, Chuck Schumer, Jeffries, Schiff.
It's time for these people to resign in disgrace.
Why is that?
Because it's their rhetoric that causes us, all of them.
And it's time for it to stop.
How do you draw the line between the rhetoric and what events took place last night?
How do I draw the line?
They're always calling him Hitler.
They're calling us racist.
They call us fascist.
It's ridiculous.
It's time for it to stop before the people rise up and stop it.
Okay, we'll leave it there.
Dennis there in Indiana.
Speaking of legislators, several of them who were in attendance of last night's dinner making their thoughts known after the events.
This is Speaker Mike Johnson posting this just before 10 o'clock Eastern Time saying, Kelly and I were at the event tonight.
We're thankful no innocent people were harmed and everyone is now safe.
We're grateful as always for the law enforcement and first responders who acted so quickly bringing the situation under control.
Praying for our country tonight.
That's you and some other people there.
We'll show you more of what plays out and some of the legislator reaction.
Let's hear from Otis Otis in South Carolina.
Hi.
Good morning, Pedro.
How are you doing?
I'm well, thanks.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I was watching the event last night on C-SPAN, and I'm going to tell you, and I'm going to get some feathers rough, but I believe it was a fake attack.
I just do.
I can help it.
But I think it was a fake attack.
Why do you think that is?
Because he needs some sympathy now because of the Epstein affair.
He's got to draw it again.
And this time here, with this fake attack going on, he's going to get a lot of sympathy.
And he thrives off of that.
That's his whole object, is to get people.
Well, anyhow, his sympathy.
Okay.
Okay, Otis there in South Carolina, Robin, Robin on the events of last night, Tennessee, Democrats line.
Hey, I agree with Otis.
I agree with Otis.
I believe it was a false attack because now we're not talking about the war he's losing.
We're not talking about the terrible, the economy that he's crashed.
It's awful hard to believe.
Obama had more death threats than anybody.
But there were reports of the shooting last night.
There was a reaction from law enforcement last night.
Why, in light of all that, would you think it's a fake attack?
Because I know that he's a liar and a thief.
So when you lie, you'll steal.
And if you thief, you'll cheat.
So there's nothing legitimate about this meeting.
So like I said, now we're not talking about the war he's not winning.
Now we're not talking about the crashing economy.
Now we're not talking about the F-state files.
He's a pedophile.
I love that.
Okay, that's, again, I'll stop it there only because of the allegations.
Some of the other reactions from members of Congress last night.
This is the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
9.20 last night.
This was posted.
Thankful for the swift law enforcement action to protect everyone from gunfire at the White House Correspondence Dinner.
Praying for the safety of those who remain in harm's way.
The violence and chaos in America must end.
This is the statement from the Secret Service from yesterday saying, tonight, a coward attempt to create a national tragedy.
He underestimated the protective capabilities of the U.S. Secret Service and was stopped at first contact.
The strength of our layered security posture was evident with a myriad of countermeasures still ahead.
Grateful for the brave men and women of the Secret Service and our valued law enforcement partners.
Al is next.
Al on our independent line.
Hi.
Yes, sir.
First of all, this reporters dinner, it's not about them.
They twist things.
It's about the reporters.
Freedom of the press is so the press can report on things, so voters can make better decisions.
The press is part of the problem.
Other people have said the same thing this morning.
Think about it.
The Southern Poverty Law Center race hoax, the hoax of the call to Ukraine, the vaccine, Hunter's notebook.
It's all part of a grand propaganda effort.
And the media, to include C-SPAN, I'm afraid so now.
I couldn't say that 10 years ago.
But you look up now, C-SPAN and YouTube were side-by-side logos last night.
YouTube was one of the worst censors during the COVID breakup and did not.
Okay, well, how does all that connect to a shooting attempt last night?
Well, let me tell you.
I'd be happy to tell you.
Yeah, tell me.
Media Blame And Propaganda00:04:31
There are millions and millions of people who are victims of this nation-state-level propaganda, and the media is the mouthpiece for it.
And, you know, you can look at all the violence three times on the president, the Republicans at the baseball dime, but I will tell you this.
The worst thing personally is I will never forgive the media because what they've done to the relationship between myself and some of my family members, they are victims of that propaganda.
And they believe that things like Hunter Biden's notebook wasn't real.
Okay, well, then go back again to last night's shooting.
How does one directly relate to the other?
Do you not think that that person that rushed the metal detector with a gun, you don't think that he was a victim to all of this propaganda?
You think that was just organically in his head?
We don't know.
We don't know for sure.
Well, okay, perfect, perfect.
500 reporters in that room, and nobody knows the motive.
That's the perfect thing.
It's always the same thing.
We'll have something that is obvious to hundreds of millions of Americans.
And then the media will say, we don't know what the motive was.
We don't really know right now what happened.
And it's like the Hunter notebook thing.
Okay.
Okay.
You brought that up several times.
So we will go on again.
The last events of last night, the shooting at the White House correspondents dinner.
Make your thoughts towards that.
Joanna in California Democrats line.
You're next.
Hello.
Hello.
You know, I'm listening to all the other callers, and I watched about 10 minutes of what's going on.
I didn't watch what happened last night.
But I can tell you this, in my opinion, after just watching in five minutes.
First, I want to know, how did the guy even get in the building?
Don't they have like a pre-check?
I mean, they're pretty thorough, right?
Second of all, whose shots were those that were heard?
Was that from the sniper or was that from the actual guy that's running through the hallway where there's only one guy standing like Secret Service or security?
And second of all, I can't, third of all, I can't blame the media.
I can't.
The media is reporting whatever they're going to report.
There's a difference between media and entertainment.
Some of these news, whatever they want to call themselves, are entertainment channels more so than media channels.
And I think that the media needs to report what they know and so that we can make informed decisions.
But it's very true that our eyes don't really lie to us.
And I guess I need to know whose shot that was that was fired.
I need to know why that guy got in the building.
I thought we were a little more thorough than that.
That's all I got to say.
Joanna, let me thank you for the call.
And if I may briefly offer my own perspective, I know that walking through the series of steps you have to do to actually get to the ballroom, it starts on the main level of the hotel there, and you have to show a ticket, much like the one I have at my desk.
This is the ticket from last night, as far as the identification, which will get you past a series of people who are watching through it.
You'll go down a couple of escalators.
When you come to the main ballroom area, you go through a series of magnetometers, which I myself and my fellow colleagues did last night before entering the main ballroom there.
Clearly, more layers of security there available from Secret Service and others, as you see from the reaction of last night, how quickly they poured into the room after those initial events happened.
What sounded like a dropping of a tray, at least to me and those sitting at the table, quickly turned into people filing in from all directions to escort the president and his team out to secure the perimeter, so to speak.
People crossing Secret Service and others crossing across tables there in order to get to the dais.
At one point, looking at the dais and the table itself, seeing a series of rifles pointed out.
So those are the events last night.
That's the After Effect.
A lot of questions, as you probably have said in your own mind, Joanna.
A lot of questions still remain when it comes to the events.
Those will play out.
The Attorney General for the DC Attorney Jeanine Perrell saying that an arraignment will take place on Monday, making those comments last night.
You can still see that on C-SPAN 2 also as far as our website and other means.
Dean in Indiana Republican line.
Hello.
Convenient Events And Protocols00:15:53
Pedro, enough is enough.
The media shares a big portion of the blame in this.
You yourself have failed to call some of the most vile language that's ever been heard.
And we've got to stop it.
I mean, three attempts on this president, wins enough, enough.
And I'll tell you another thing that really bothers me.
You get a lot of phone calls from California at four in the morning.
That don't make a whole lot of sense.
But you have a button with a two-second delay.
And I recommend that the host is ceasefire, push it more often.
Okay, Felicia's next.
Tennessee Independent Line.
Hi.
Hello.
Hi, you're on.
Go ahead.
Hi, Pedro.
I'm listening to the people call in, and everyone's blaming the media because we have people that want to go and shoot people.
And they're talking about the rhetoric of the media.
The media reports what's happened.
When you guys are reading the papers, you're reading what's occurring.
The entertainment networks like Fox, God bless them, that have to pay money for lying like that $780 billion they had to pay, a million they had to pay for a lying about the election.
And the rhetoric, the rhetoric was started by the president.
No one deserves to be shot at.
But when you say vile stuff and people come back at you with vile stuff, I don't understand the filter people have on that if anyone says anything negative tooth or about the president, they're wrong.
But he can spew vile garbage about anyone in the lowest form, and he's protected.
I don't understand it.
And as far as the shooting last night, I caught a glimpse of it, and I was going to watch, and I said to myself, and he hadn't done this in all the years.
He's never attended to dinner.
So the fact that he was going to go, I was already suspicious.
And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I look back at when he was shot at before the ear thing.
The CIA is always so competent.
That one building that was in that one place had that one little young shooter and it wasn't covered.
That didn't make any sense to me.
Now you got this building with these dignitaries and journalists, and you got all this space.
Even though you've got checkpoints, it seems like it was just loosey-goosey to me, more so than what they've ever been.
And anytime he needs something to change the way people are feeling about him, anytime you pretend to be your own publicist, Donald Trump is a marketing genius.
When he came down the elevator, he had paid people to show up his initial time.
Okay, that's Felicia there in Tennessee.
The New York Times takes a look at the security aspect of the events of yesterday, saying that in this case, the gunman rushed toward the ballroom where the president was with hundreds of journalists.
And it's not yet known what the man's motive was, but the outburst of violence is sure to revive questions about the scourge of political violence afflicting the United States about whether there is enough security about Mr. Trump, one of the most targeted presidents in history.
It's a dangerous profession.
You heard the president say afterward, being referred to being a political leader.
He compared his line of work to being a race car driver or a bull rider and said the presidents were more likely to be shot at or killed.
Quote, nobody told me this was such a dangerous profession.
It also adds that there were no metal detectors set up at the hotel's entrances and a secure perimeter was only established closer to the ballroom deeper inside the Washington Hilton.
A security video posted by Mr. Trump showed the gunmen sprinting past the security checkpoint before being captured short of the ballroom.
We've been showing you that video that the president had posted on his truth social site of this shooter from yesterday.
You've seen it before, but in just a second, he'll run around that corner and run past the establishment there.
Shortly afterward, shots are exchanged or fired, and he stopped there.
When it comes to the reporting of the press, it was the head of the president of the White House Correspondents Association, Weeja Jang of CBS.
And this is the message that she had to the reporters in the room shortly after the events happened.
This is a room full of reporters.
I know you've already seen the president's tweet.
My apologies, his post on Truth Social.
And law enforcement has requested that we leave the premises consistent with protocol.
And he wanted to emphasize that nobody was hurt.
He and the First Lady, the cabinet, everybody's safe.
The president will be having a press briefing at the White House in 30 minutes.
That is not a joke.
And he insists that we will reschedule this event in the next 30 days.
And that he wanted to do it tonight.
He wanted to continue despite the news, but has to follow security protocol.
I said earlier tonight that journalism is a public service because when there is an emergency, we run to the crisis, not away from it.
And on a night when we are thinking about the freedoms in the First Amendment, we must also think about how fragile they are.
I saw all of you reporting, and that's what we do.
So thank God everybody is safe.
And thank you for coming together tonight.
We will do this again.
Thank you, Mija.
Thank you.
If you are just joining us, we are talking about those events that played out at the White House Correspondents dinner involving a shooter there.
Still yet a lot of questions to be answered as far as motives or anything else, but we will take your calls on it: 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Independents, 202-748-8002.
Monica in Wisconsin, Democrats line.
Hi.
Hi.
So I'm really confused about what happened last night.
It just feels so staged.
It seems like things happened a little too conveniently.
This guy got past them.
He ran in.
They said there's shots fired.
Who fired the shots?
Was it Secret Service?
Was it the guy?
Trump says that one of the Secret Service members was hit by a bullet, but the guy doesn't even appear to have a gun.
So exactly what the hell is going on?
Was this a distraction because the United States appears not to be doing very well in the Iran war?
Is he trying to distract us from the upsteam files once again?
Exactly what's going on.
America wants to know.
Linda in Louisiana, Republican line.
Hi.
Hello.
I was just calling.
I've been sitting here watching this all morning, watched it last night.
I am so tired of people just downing Trump.
He's probably one of the best presidents we've ever had.
And I am a 100% Trump fan.
And I don't feel like this was staged.
We don't even know that it was intentionally for Trump.
So that's all I had to say.
Thank you.
The Washington Times with a story from the Associated Press just adding to the things that have been put out so far, saying that the suspect identified as Cole Tom Thomas Thomas Allen, 31 of Torrance, California.
The president himself saying the suspect was armed with multiple weapons before being stopped by the Secret Service.
One officer was shot, but he was protected by a bulletproof vest.
You heard the president talk about that.
He's saying he was shot from a very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job.
According to President Trump last night, Jeffrey Carroll, the interim police chief, said that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives.
He said investigators had no reason to believe at this time that anyone else was involved.
He also added that he could not say at this point what the shooter's motivation was, and that it is too soon to know what the suspect had intended to who the suspect had intended to target in the shooting.
There's the photos that you've seen probably in the press coverage from last night and this morning from the President's Troop Social site.
As you look at those, we'll hear from a viewer in Florida.
This is Anne-Marie, Independent Line.
Good morning, Pedro.
I am here in Palm Beach, just a few miles from Ar-a-Lago, and it saddens me because they said no one was hurt.
That whole room was traumatized.
People were jumping under tables.
And journalists do the best they can with what they have.
And I think individuals need to look at this collectively and say, what a shame that you have a correspondence dinner.
They've had them every year from every president.
I can't quote his name.
And they go there for an evening of entertainment and this breaks out.
And all people can say is that it's probably fake.
The CIA or the Secret Service didn't do their job.
I think they did their job.
They did it very well.
Nobody can account for one individual getting in a room and shooting.
At least he got down.
And maybe he was after Donald.
I don't know.
But those people were completely traumatized.
Four shots rang out.
Everyone jumps under the table.
Wives were left by themselves.
People had to find a way out.
It's a very sad world.
And whether or not Donald Trump speaks the truth or not, the journalists do the best they can.
They find out otherwise through fake, you know, through truth, finding out whether or not he's telling the truth.
I mean, the man's made a lot of mistakes.
Maybe he's done some good.
I don't know.
I don't care.
I worry about my own children and what this country is about right now.
And it's a very sad day.
He's done a few things that most of us can say are not very nice on Holy Sunday, Easter Sunday, through two Obamas or two ever who he does.
He's a boarish individual.
This is who we chose, or the majority of people chose for president.
But no one has the right to go in there and traumatize over a thousand journalists who are just there to do their job.
And I'm very saddened by what I watched.
I watch it every year.
My brother's been to it a few years back.
But they do the best they can.
And Trump needs to take responsibility that wherever he goes, he is the president.
He said, you know, maybe because he makes headlines or whatever.
Make the truth.
Let the journalists be who they are and report honest facts.
We know very little bit, very little about the Iran war.
We don't know anything about Butler.
They're saying, you know, he died.
He was shot and that he was a lone actor.
But you hear from other people that, or the guy that just resigned, that the investigation hadn't even gone on yet.
Okay.
Okay.
We'll go on to this.
Is Cal in Oklahoma Democrats line?
You're next up.
Thank you, sir.
I think Ben Franklin was very instructive on this particular issue.
He said we have a republic if we can keep it.
And this is another example as to the question, can we keep it?
Your callers are reflective of the division in this country.
Many are saying it was completely staged.
Others say the opposite.
A democracy is a challenge, but it's lasted for 250 years.
I think the message for all of us is to perhaps listen to each other, have open minds to the views of others, and then I still trust the elements of government to eventually come to the right conclusion after we've explored every other option.
I thank you for what you do, and I thank the press for what they do.
And I'll be interested to see how things play out from here.
Thank you for taking my call.
Cowl in Oklahoma there as of last night.
The president making comments, several law enforcement officers, the D.C. mayor responding to it as well.
Still available on our website and our app if you want to check out the events yesterday, including the correspondence dinner itself, all available at the website and the app if you want to see the events from yesterday.
This is from Roy in Georgia, Republican Line.
You know, I find it amazing that Trump was well loved by the Democrats when he was supporting Hillary Clinton and J.C. Jackson when he ran for president.
But as soon as he turned to be a Republican, everybody goes after him.
And the media specifically, because they have misled the American people.
You know, even going back to George Floyd, a cop did a textbook maneuver on Floyd.
He's in jail, stabbed 18 times.
We had Joe Biden in office, and the man was suffering from dementia.
Okay, but how does that relate to the events of last night specifically, please?
Because what's going on is the media has turned on Trump, and everything that he does, they twist it.
They twist the January 6th event.
They twist the Charlotteville event.
And they turn people against the president.
They didn't do anything wrong, but they want to get rid of him so bad that they're agitating people to make them the New York Times and CNN is just creating stories that would turn people to violence.
And they're trying to stop Trump when they're trying to, actually, like Trump said, they're not after him.
They're after us.
They're trying to deceive us.
But he's in their way.
And they want to get him out of the way so they can open the borders.
They can go to a world economy.
And we are fuckers because we're allowing them to do this to us.
I mean, the New York Times, the reporters got awards for reporting fake news.
And I'll ask you this then, just like I've asked others, how do you know that that's the source of the events last night?
The source of the event last night.
Yeah, how do you know it's tied to the media directly?
Pedro, if you'll just listen to CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, and even those.
Yeah, but tell me exactly why you think that.
Spewing Hatred And Violence00:15:15
Tell me in your words.
Because they all spew hatred.
They all spew hatred.
Maxine Waters spew hatred.
Jeffrey spewing hatred.
And somebody thinks they're doing something patriotic by trying to get rid of Trump.
They can talk about the Epstein file.
Trump turned Epstein into the sheriff's department.
And all these lies that they're creating on this man trying to take down this country is unacceptable.
But the Republican Party, those in Congress, refuse to lock anybody up.
And that is the problem.
Okay.
Okay.
That's Roy there in Georgia.
Show you two more legislators, by the way.
Their reactions from last night.
Should say that these two legislators were guests of C-SPAN, sat at the table I sat yesterday.
Representative Mike Flood, Nebraska Republican, adding this to last night, saying, just left the White House correspondence dinner after shots were fired in the building.
Everyone near me hid under tables and now safe, including President Trump.
While details are still emerging, one thing is clear, political violence is rising in our country.
And he goes on from there.
That's Representative Mike Flood, a Republican of Nebraska.
And then Nanette Berrigan, Democrat of California, also our guest, adding this 937 last night, saying at the White House correspondence dinner as a guest of C-SPAN, it's absolute chaos.
Heard the shots, had to get under our table.
Grateful for the immediate response from the Secret Service and security as they work to apprehend the shooter and secure the area.
Again, those are the thoughts from those two legislators, many other legislators adding their thoughts this morning from those events of yesterday.
Let's go to Lloyd, Lloyd in New York, Independent Line.
Yeah, I just, I'm listening to this and people right off the bat with all these conspiracy theories.
It's unbelievable.
Don't they realize that the ballroom is so deep, there were so many people.
Had he been able to penetrate into the ballroom, the first people shot would have been the reporters and other people attending, not the president.
He would have never got that far.
Okay?
And it just amazes me how quickly people come up with conspiracy theories on either side.
Republicans, Democrats, and everything.
But it was the reporters would have been the first ones that would have been shot.
He had a shotgun.
That thing scatters.
They would have been the first ones killed.
Hopefully, it's enough is enough.
Just report the truth.
Stop editorializing everything.
And just come together.
You don't have to like everything he says.
I back him, but I don't like everything he says.
He makes me cringe sometimes at the things that he says.
Okay.
But it's just, I mean, come on.
Enough is enough with the fighting constantly with the reporters back or forth.
You got each station that they call themselves news, whether it's CNN or Fox, and they're not.
They're all opinionated.
Okay.
It's all political for the most part.
The news is, oh, there was flooding here.
There was a shooting there.
You watch Channel 7 locally.
They're the news.
The rest of it is all opinionated and divided.
And yet at this point, they would have been the first ones that would have been shot, I think.
Okay.
Lloyd Baer in New York giving us his thoughts.
His neighbor in New Jersey, Chris, joins us line for Democrats from Fairfield.
Hello.
Good morning, sir.
Happy Sunday morning to you.
Unfortunately, this is another event that's going to continue to happen.
I find it very ironic that people are gathering for a cause at the correspondent's dinner there in Washington, D.C., when, in my opinion, this is the reason why I have left the Democratic Party.
They are out of control.
I live here in New Jersey.
That's all you have to know.
I'm a stone's throw away from New York.
That's all you have to know.
The media, the media, not so much your stations, look around.
They create the narrative.
They create, there was a caller you just had a short while ago, on a Republican line, who echoes my sentiment.
I am worried for my children.
I am worried for my spouse.
I am worried for relatives who you cannot even speak without being canceled.
And you just have to look at, and I feel I've never, my parents were Democrats.
I tried.
I tried.
I tried, but they do not represent my values and opinions.
They don't.
They spew hatred.
We have a president who I don't agree with half the time.
But you cannot, cannot, as majority of the rhetoric is coming out of Democrats.
How do you tell people to put bullseye on people's heads?
As a Democrat yourself, what do you say to those within your own party?
That's why I'm gone.
That's why I'm gone.
See, people, unfortunately, they keep electing problems.
Look at all the problems that are happening in this country and look at the leaders in those states that represent all Democrats.
Okay, yeah.
Well, we'll go back to the events of our purpose for the program today.
Those shots fired at the White House Correspondent Center, your reaction to it.
202-748-8001 for Republicans.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
And you can text us to your thoughts at 202-748-8003 in Florida.
This is Mary in Lakeland, Republican line.
Hi.
Hi.
This has got to stop.
I mean, there's so much hate in this world, in this country.
Everybody is on everybody else.
This was going to be hopefully a beautiful event.
Everybody was seated next to each other, whether it be Democrat or Republican.
And it has to stop.
This person obviously came from California to Washington out of hate, out of hate, no matter who in that room he was going for.
And that person that called a while back from Wisconsin saying that it seemed staged.
He didn't have any weapons.
He had a handgun, a shotgun, and knives.
What world are these people living in?
Why is there so much hate in this world?
I have to say that I say prayers every day.
I have children and grandchildren.
I say prayers every day because there's too much evil, hate, and anger in this world.
The president is a man who is doing his job.
Whether people like it or not, I did not like President Biden.
I did not like what he did to this country, my orcas, by bringing in all these illegal immigrants.
Some obviously wanted to get away from where they come from.
But how many terrorists have come into this country?
And the media never talks about that.
How many innocent lives were taken from these illegal immigrants?
Okay, okay, we're going to leave it there only because we'll go to Lloyd Lloyd and Virginia Beach, Independent Line.
Hi.
Hey, good morning.
First, I want to focus on the event from last night.
Again, thanks to the security police officers, Secret Service for definitely doing their jobs.
There were no fatalities.
That's the most important thing.
And I'm going to be very brief.
I'm glad that no one got hurt.
Well, one guy did get injured, but just think about this.
You got a guy with an assault rifle, handgun, knives.
Who goes around walking with these things?
So there was something going on, whether they believe it's staged or what have you.
For me, it doesn't make a difference.
These things should not be happening.
That's violent.
That's violence.
You have an attempt to commit a violent act.
The next issue, which is pursuant to what happened, the callers that call, they have a comment.
The topic was the event.
And it lets me know that we're in trouble.
We're divided as a country because people say it's staged.
People start talking about policies, the politics.
So it's so much madness and hatred going on that people are just focused on these things.
And it just has an indication to me that we should sit back and rethink things and reflect and determine that it's too much division in the country, even with the parties, Republican, Democrat, Independent.
I used to be a Democrat.
I'm no longer a Democrat.
I'm an Independent because the policies are for the people.
We have division even in politics.
And if you don't start analyzing what's going on and take these events and prevent these events of hate, you're never going to advance as any country.
There's no football team, no sporting team that's going to advance and win a championship if they're not unified.
Okay.
That's Lloyd Barron, Virginia Beach.
Let's hear from a viewer in Long Beach, New York, Democrats line Peggy.
Hello.
Good morning.
Very sad what happened last night.
I'd like to say I think that violence begets violence.
And I think that Trump's language, he always goes to a violent response, whether it's about the war or anything else.
I do praise the law enforcement officers who responded last night, but I wonder why the law enforcement officers who responded on January 6th are not receiving the same praise and accolades.
In fact, the people who charge the Capitol are being considered for monetary reward and pardoned after they are responsible for the death of six officers in that case.
My last point is the people right away assume, you know, this is a lone wolf.
That was the original minutes after the attack.
We're in a war, and now we have to be worried about Iranian terrorists coming here because of the harm that we're doing around the world.
So I think that, you know, There are, yes, definitely two sides, but I think that, you know, violence is never the answer.
However, it seems to be the answer for Trump.
And I think that his rhetoric and his policies have a lot to do with the violence going on in the country.
Thank you.
California is next.
Republican line.
We'll hear from Janice.
Hello.
Hello.
I have three points I'd like to make.
And the first one is, well, I agree with the caller from Georgia, absolutely.
And the Democrats hyperbole and they're inciting violence and all of the propaganda from the mainstream media brings this on.
I also listened to these callers who didn't believe that Trump was actually shot in the ear.
It was fake blood.
It was staged in too.
Even though a man died and was murdered, Democrats want to believe everything is staged and Trump is behind it.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
I mean, what kind of mind thinks like that?
And at the end of the day, if the mainstream media would let up off of Trump, I mean, it's ongoing.
It just never stops 24-7, day in, day out.
Trump, It is so sickening.
When Biden was in office, you never heard much about him, especially considering the fact that he was absent and absent-minded.
They never reported on Biden.
They covered him.
They protected him.
But with Trump, all they do is incite hate.
I even heard a young lady who went there speaking about how they should punish MAGA.
And when the Democrats take over, they should not allow us to be online or internet service or Facebook, social media for four years.
I mean, this is the kind of nonsense coming from the Democrat Party that incites this.
Okay.
Okay.
Janice there in California, Sam in California as well from texting us saying, at least to him, he says the whole thing was staged to get the president's approval rating up, saying that he's tanking the economy.
He's going to lose power in November.
Another viewer, this is Guy in Oklahoma, saying, which the president made these comments yesterday when he was speaking to the press, just another reason we need the White House ballroom safe, secure, prestigious, free to the taxpayers and beautiful.
If you want to comment via text, you can do that at 202-748-8003.
As always, you can post on our social media sites.
That's facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on exits at C-SPANWJ.
Hannah in Maryland, Independent Line.
Hi.
Hi.
Rhetoric As The Cause00:15:37
I just want to point out that we really don't know anything yet.
We have to let the investigation be conducted.
We have to figure out what the motives were behind this individual that attacked.
It could be against the media.
I wouldn't blame him because the media has been, you know, portraying a certain narrative.
They're really more of a propaganda arm for the Democratic Party.
And I do want to say that I was a Democrat for 20 years.
I left the Democratic Party because I think they have just turned evil.
They have lost their minds.
They're evil.
They spew hatred.
A lot of your callers have called in and they've said this.
And it's amazing to me how detached from reality the Democrats are.
Like the callers that call in still believing that the January 6th thing was real and saying that Trump is spewing the hate.
Trump is the best president we have ever had and they don't deserve him.
I say let's split the country and let's see who fares better.
The conservatives or the liberals.
I think the conservatives will fare much better based on how the states perform under conservative governorship.
And that's all I have to say.
From Illinois, this is Lee, Democrats lying.
Good morning, Pedro.
I fly through O'Hare once a month.
If this guy came from California through O'Hare with these weapons, it will be documented.
If he did not, then where did he get his weapons from?
But I can't believe he was not flagged from California through O'Hare in Washington with these weapons and was not flagged.
Thank you very much.
From Mary.
Mary in Palm Beach, Florida, Republican line.
Hi.
Hi.
Good morning.
I just want to say that as a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, you have to see that this violence has got to stop.
Somebody has to do something.
The Secret Service did their job.
Okay.
Anything else to add?
I feel terrible for all the people that were there.
And I don't know.
People are saying it.
Fake everything already this morning.
Let it play out the way it's supposed to.
Nobody was injured other than probably emotionally, but this has gone too far.
There was a Secret Service agent injured, but had a protective vest on.
The president spoke about that yesterday, saying he was in good spirits.
That's correct.
That's wonderful.
But how this guy got through there, he didn't get in the ballroom.
That's wonderful news.
But enough of this violence.
And anyone, and I respect everybody has an opinion, but anybody who says it's a Democrat or it's only the Republicans or cut this country in half, let's reunite.
Let this all police stop.
Don't say the Democrats are crazy.
Donald Trump lies.
Who cares?
Let's get the country back to where it needs to be and not have to deal with this on a Saturday night that I sit down.
I've watched this for many, many years.
And these correspondents, they do the best they can.
That's Mary there in Florida.
As far as things to watch out for next, when it comes to the course of the investigation, this was reported by the Washington Post, and you could see her statements directly on our C-SPAN channels and our platform saying that U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Pirro, said the suspect will be charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence, along with one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
He'll be arraigned in court Monday.
Quote, this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could, Piro said, adding that she expected many more charges.
And that's in quotes as the investigation continues.
She was at the dinner, thanked law enforcement for their quick action, saying, quote, I, for the first time, was in a situation where there were shots fired, shots heard, and a whole room went silent.
When I lifted my head and looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there as we all had our heads down, all of them tonight acting so quickly, they prevented what could have been a horrific event where we were all sitting there in one room.
So look to play out for tomorrow, that the legal aspects, especially as the arraignment happens, stay close for coverage of those events on our various C-SPAN channels.
Rob in Nevada, hello.
Yes, sir.
My name is Rob.
Yeah, this whole thing is one of the big best.
I'm wondering, I'm just sitting back watching all the folly.
And I don't know who did what.
I just know.
I remember the guy in Nevada when he did the whole thing at the bad boy.
They actually do the guy.
And it makes me wonder how these weapons got there, just like his situation.
It was just, you'll hear a lot about the whole situation.
So I'd like to see how this all plays out.
Who did what?
I don't want to say our country is so close to having a civil war that we need to start realizing that if we're not careful, we're going to lose our country and we're going to have a martial law.
And it's going to be of our own making.
And so I think we need to really seriously, seriously stop the rhetoric, stop the folly.
It doesn't matter who did it, who got this.
It's going to happen.
We are so close.
Okay.
Okay.
We'll leave it there in Nevada.
Again, first hour down, we're going to spend the course of our program today talking about those events from the White House correspondents dinner, the shooting that you've probably seen reporting on by now.
Again, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
Text us at 202-748-8003.
Again, from if you were watching C-SPAN, our normal coverage, year in and year out of the dinner, takes place this year, significantly different, especially at around 8.35 yesterday evening.
Again, those events playing out at 8.35, what you didn't see at this time, or you probably saw it happen, is that the vice president there being quickly escorted off the stage, the president himself also being surrounded by Secret Service.
He also is.
as well as First Lady Melania Trump, all the other dignitaries from the dais there being escorted off stage as well.
This is video that has filed in from various sources.
Being there, a lot of people being reporters by nature pulled out their cameras and started recording events that took place with their various cell phones inside of the ballroom, outside of the ballroom as well.
And so all that now coming in and at least showing a little bit other dimensions of the events from yesterday.
As you're watching that, let's hear from William.
William in Triangle, Virginia, Democrats line.
Yes, I like to address the Republicans, Colin, and Argumentally blaming Democrats for what happened to Donald Trump last night and blaming MSNBC and CNN.
But Fox is the one that had to pay, what, $800 million a line, and they sell it for $800 million.
They went into judgment.
They probably would have paid over a billion dollars.
And that was for lying.
Okay.
And Trump belittles people every day.
Every day he belittles somebody, reporters, somebody.
You know, this guy has no feelings for nobody but himself.
So how does that all relate to yesterday's event?
Because they're blaming Democrats for it.
That's what I'm saying.
Let's wait and see what plays out.
How can they come on and start blaming Democrats?
They know nothing.
None of us know anything but what we saw on TV.
But they automatically bring the Democrats.
But this guy constantly lies every day.
Okay.
He lies every single day.
He tells a lie, proof of lies.
And his toll, his approval rating is at 30-some percent now.
So it's not only Democrats, it's Republicans and independents seeing that he lies.
Thank you very much.
Okay, Adrienne in Washington State, Republican line.
Go ahead.
Yeah, hi.
Thank you for taking my call.
Just a couple of things.
Number one, let's remind people what Maxine Waters said.
When you see a Trump supporter, you get up in their face.
Number two, she said, I will go and take Trump out tonight.
Schumer on the steps of the Supreme Court saying that he will release the rage regarding Kavanaugh.
But most importantly, what I want to say.
Well, how does that all relate to yesterday specifically?
Let's start with that.
It's just the rhetoric.
It's just the rhetoric that we're hearing.
But what I want to say is...
Are you saying the rhetoric is the cause of events last night?
I think the rhetoric has been the cause of this event.
The rhetoric has been the cause of, oh, one other thing, that they're taking families and children like the Gestapo.
The rhetoric has been the cause of the Butler event.
The rhetoric has been the cause of Charlie Kirk.
The rhetoric has been the cause of what happened in Florida.
It's just the rhetoric that has to stop.
But what I want to address is the hotel in itself.
There shouldn't have been access to the location.
They should have shut the hotel down, meaning no one can have acc.
No one should have been able to have access to where they were.
I don't know the layout of that hotel.
I've never been to that particular hotel.
But they should have suspended the elevators to whatever floor the ballroom was on, and they should have had Secret Service or LEOs on each floor of the hotel.
Well, let me tell you, I'll let you finish.
But as being there last night, there were all those layers there present even leading up to the events of yesterday.
Still questions about exactly how it played out, like you said.
But when it comes to those layers, they were there.
But Adrian, go ahead and finish your thought.
No, that was just what I wanted to say.
The rhetoric has got to stop.
And mainly the rhetoric is coming from the left and just the security aspect of the layout of the hotel and how this guy was able to breach and get that close.
Okay.
Adrienne there in Washington State giving us her thoughts from yesterday's events.
Let's hear from Denise.
Denise in Michigan, Independent Line.
Thank you first for taking my call.
I listened to Republicans, Independents, which I'm questioning because a lot of people come on as independents and claim they are and then go right to the throat of the Democrats and the Democrats.
This is an isolated case.
They have to investigate.
I hope they investigate thoroughly.
We have not heard much about the attempted murder of Donald Trump, not too much about Charlie Kirk.
It seems like a lot of things are being pushed under the rug that people can't hear.
But this is the problem we have.
We have people coming out and saying nasty things about the Democrats.
We have nasty things spewing about the Republicans.
We are Americans.
And this is hateful.
Our kids are watching this.
My grandkids are watching this.
When you go downtown and you see somebody wearing a Biden shirt, let's say, and somebody will say something, sleepy Joe, you know, and then we have someone with the Trump hats and they get in people's face because they think we're Democrat.
This is tearing families, friends, people, Americans in half.
This has got to stop.
And where it could stop is the person at this top, we're supposed to be admiring.
And he comes out with slop out of his mouth.
And we have it on the Democrat side.
But when you look at the sayings of Barack Hussein Obama, where he has to say that word, just emphasize it.
Let's come back, America, because our forefathers that fought wars would be embarrassed and rolling in their graves right now.
This is not cute.
This is not nice.
And you know what?
Today is Sunday, and I hope any of those people calling in today realize it's God's Day, like every day.
But the name calling, the nastiness has to stop.
Okay, Denise Fair in Michigan.
Let's hear from CJ in Virginia Democrats line.
Hello.
Hey, good morning, Pedro.
First, I saw the whole thing.
I saw all the C-SPAN coverage from 7 o'clock on, I guess.
And first of all, between John McCardle, I guess his last name is, and, you know, I think I saw you there in the background.
And afterwards, everything that Peter Zen, how will you pronounce his last name?
Peter Swann is the host of the coverage.
He was joined by Greg Abrana at one point.
My colleague John McCartell was there on site with myself, with me at the ballroom.
But go ahead.
Yeah, I was trying to get in last night to be a cub reporter for you guys because John's feed kept going out.
And I think it's just because he was in a particular corner.
And there was a couple of, you know, like CNN types that actually had a better vocal quality going on.
So I was trying to call you your station saying, you know, if you want, I'll put my channel on, you know.
But as you're watching or wherever you're watching, what did you think of the events last night?
Well, it's sad all around.
It was semi-predictable in the sense that John McCartle had a few so-called red carpet interviews with people like Robert F. Kennedy, Marco Rubio, and a few others.
And it really annoys me the way the Republicans just treat probably one of the nicest guys other than you, Pedro, that's ever on TV.
Constant Chaos And Experience00:04:09
And just to get back to the point, CJ, as far as the shooting itself, how does this all relate to that?
Well, because people go with what their experience is.
I'm 66 years old.
My very first thing that I remember was RFK's uncle being shot.
We didn't have a TV at the time.
We were too poor, but we had a rich aunt that gave us a TV to watch the Catholic Mass.
And of course, the first thing I saw was as a three-year-old was Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot on live TV.
And, you know, we're a big Kennedy family.
There's like nine Irish kids.
And, you know, so the Kennedys meant a lot to us.
What dispirits me is Who is in a better position than RFK Jr. to get a handle on our crazy gun situation?
Because it's affected him because I also saw his father being shot in LA five years later in 68.
And he also knows about substance abuse.
Yeah, got you see that.
RFK was in the room quickly escorted out, including his wife yesterday after those events took place.
Various aftermath videos that you're seeing there as it occurred.
Let's go to Hattie in Texas, Republican line.
Hi.
Hello.
You're on.
Go ahead.
Yes.
I think a lot of this stems from the constant chaos that is going on all over the world.
And it's increasing the nervousness and the uncertainness of people.
They feel like they don't have any power over what's going on in the world.
You know, there's the power of life and death in the tongue.
And we don't know how it affects people, what we say.
I'm saying people in general, whether you're Democrat, Republican, whatever, whatever, whatever.
The world is in a constant chaos.
And that's working on a lot of people's mentality.
Okay.
Hattie, that's Hattie in Texas, David in North Carolina, Independent Line.
Good morning, Pedre.
Yeah, my thoughts on this was we're looking at what I'm going to assume is an attack on the life of the president of the United States, American president.
And, you know, of course, we don't have all the details.
We will shortly.
We don't now.
But I hear, I'm a former Democrat.
I was a 30-year Democrat.
I look and I see the party that I used to be with, and I see how it's just gone to shambles.
It's just turned to just, they hate that Trump so bad that that's all they think about.
They cues these things.
They even say they're trying to say this is set up or fake.
Guy got shot.
He got shot.
Thank God he had a vest on.
And he lived to another date.
Need For Calming Words00:15:45
But I just can't understand the demo.
I left that party and I'm so thankful that I did because I opened my eyes.
And I'm not that way no more.
I would never support, even if I was a Democrat, I would have been left by all the stuff that we're seeing that's going on right now, the hatred that they have.
No unity in this nation.
We're all one people.
Why can't we act that way?
And you were there last night.
I mean, what was your thought on that?
How did that make you feel when you saw that?
What was going on?
How do you feel about that, Pedro?
Don't want to belabor it, but like everyone else, when I first saw, or at least heard the initial sounds of what happened, I didn't hear the shots themselves.
I thought the president even expressed that last night, you know, that a tray of plates had dropped.
And by the time I looked over, that's when I started seeing the first string of Secret Service agents and other people escorting people out.
The video you're seeing now is the, if the table we were sitting at is close to the front, table 44, not too far from that main dais right there.
If you look to your right, you saw people being escorted off the stage.
If you look to your left, if you look to your right, there were men literally hopping on tables in order not only to get to the front there, but also to secure other areas of the perimeter.
All that taking place in real time and within seconds.
And then if I remember, you'll see the people there with the rifles on the main stage.
I remember looking to the left and seeing at that point the rifles being pointed out in the direction as part of a protective measure of what was going on of the whole evening.
And at that point, I'm not going to lie, a little scared about what was going on, but after a while, it was not too long after that that security was pretty much doing its job in securing the perimeter.
A lot of those reporters, like I had mentioned before, started pulling out phones.
A lot of them, and I said to a colleague, I said, the journalists in the room came to a dinner, but they ended up going to work.
And you could literally see phones being pulled out, people calling in, people filing stories.
Our own John McAllister out there giving his perspective.
You heard Greta's perspective last night on this program, as well as Peter, who was anchoring our coverage.
So, again, don't want to belabor it, but those are just some of my impressions from yesterday.
Let's go to Sam.
Sam in California, Democrats line.
Hello.
Good morning.
Yeah, I guess a lot of these calls that I'm hearing, honestly, Republican, Independent, all of them, we need to bring down the rhetoric.
I agree with a lot of them.
I don't know what's going on, why everybody's so hateful towards each other.
I mean, being a Democrat, I'm automatically going to blame the guy at the top.
I mean, he does spew a lot of hatred constantly, talking about blowing up, dropping bombs, killing millions of people.
That's pretty hateful.
I mean, I don't know what anybody else thinks about that, but that to me sounds like a pretty hateful thing.
I don't want to put words in your mouth.
Do you think that's a cause then of what you saw last night?
You know, again, a lot of people have said the same thing already.
I'm just going to repeat what I've been hearing.
Yeah, possibly.
You know, it could be connected.
There's just so much anger.
There's just so much craziness going on in the world right now that people are losing their minds.
People are going broke.
You know, the prices are just going through the roof.
And I know we pay a lot of money out here for California, but hey, California's a beautiful place.
You know, I'd rather be poor in California than poor anywhere else.
You know, and, you know, I know it's not all Trump's fault that we're, you know, that I'm broke.
I'm not blaming him for my brokenness.
But as far as all these attempts on his life, man, they hated Biden, but nobody was going out trying to shoot the guy that I remember.
Obama, Bush?
You know, I mean, you know, how can you blame the, you know, what is, what am I as a Democrat doing to make somebody in California go all the way across the country to want to shoot somebody?
You know, I'm not doing anything.
I'm not saying anything.
I don't even talk to people.
That's how withdrawn I've become because of the rhetoric that goes on, the hatefulness.
And it's like, we need to just come together somehow.
There was a time in this country when we hated on each other, but man, we came together, you know, and it's like, why can't we just come together?
Rodney King, you know, can't we all just, can't we just get along?
You know, I mean, I don't know.
You know, I just I think we just need everybody just needs to calm down a little bit and just realize that if we can just get some at the top, maybe some sort of calming words from the people that are running this country to try to calm all of us down.
Maybe that would help.
You know, maybe it would help.
Sam there in California, giving us his thoughts.
Very early in the morning there.
Sam, thanks for calling and giving your perspective as all of you have given us your time and your calls to talk about the events of yesterday.
Two other people commenting on X internationally, Benjamin Yetanahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, posting this.
We were glad that both of them, along with the senior U.S. government officials, emerged unharmed.
There is no place for violence, not against political leaders, not against anyone.
This includes not only the United States, it includes first and foremost the state of Israel from within.
Nadira Modi, the Prime Minister of India, saying relieved to learn that President Trump, the first lady and vice president, are safe and unharmed following the recent security incident at a Washington, D.C. hotel.
I extend my best wishes for their continued safety and well-being.
Violence has no place in a democracy.
And must be, he goes on to all his thoughts there, but it's on X if you want to read more.
Let's go to Sal.
Sal joins us, Republican line from New Jersey.
Hey, good morning.
How are you doing?
I just woke up and I seen all this on.
I slept well last night for some reason.
And I'm not really amazed.
I figured they might try to shoot him again, President Trump.
And I think it's caused a lot of the news rhetoric because I watch a lot of channels on TV.
I've seen a program.
Al Sharpton was talking to Hakeem Jeffries.
And Al Sharpton had his derogatory remarks about President Trump.
And all the things in the past, Maxine Waters, Madonna, Robert De Niro, politician Schumer, all they do is they've been putting down this president since he's been elected the last term and this term.
And I never heard one positive thing said about the man on TV.
I hardly ever hear it.
So I think these people got Trump Durain syndrome and they're getting, their minds are off the wall and they're going out there trying to kill this guy and they think they're doing a good thing for the country.
That's what I think is going on.
And I don't know when it's going to stop.
I mean, the politicians, I think, starting with the politician, Democrat side and Republican side, I know they ain't talking that bad about President Trump, the Republican side, but the Democrats, you hear a lot of bad things talking about hatred.
He's Hitler.
He's a king.
My own mother, I can't talk to.
Okay.
Pedro.
Yeah, you're still there.
Go ahead and finish, Sal.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
I couldn't tell if I was still on.
I was just going to say, Pedro, my own mother hates him.
My own mother.
She despises President Trump.
Nobody could change her mind.
And she never says a good thing that he ever did.
It's amazing.
Our whole family's divided because of this.
It's really sad.
I hope somebody changes it and makes America unite and make everything peaceful again at one time.
Have a good day, Pedro.
Thank you.
Sal in New Jersey, the Washington Hilton is where the events of last night took place.
Fox News in posting a story about it also talks about the history connected to it, saying it was more than 40 years ago that the Hilton was the site of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
That was on March 30th of 1981.
A striking historical parallel, as President Trump was rushed from the same hotel Saturday night after gunfire erupted, it remains unclear if the president was targeted in the chaos on Saturday evening.
Back then, it was John Hinkley Jr. fired six shots at Reagan.
He delivered remarks after he delivered remarks to members of the AFL-CIO.
One of the bullets ricocheted off the presidential limousine, struck Reagan in the chest.
Secret Service agents pushed the president into the car, the then president of the car, and was quickly rushed to George Washington University Hospital.
He was famously known for being in good humor as he was about to undergo treatment.
Roland in Michigan, Independent Line on the events of last night at the correspondence dinner.
Go ahead.
Grand Rising, Pedro, how are you?
Fine, thank you.
Go ahead.
Hey, I have empathy for all the hundreds of people who had experienced that chaos, including yourself.
But I don't know if we'll ever get to the bottom of why this incident happened.
Could it be that it was a law enforcement training exercise?
I mean, how I mean, you could, how did anybody even enter the Hilton from the streets without being profiled or looked at?
And this gentleman who looks, is he an African-American?
Do you know, Pedro?
All we know is a name and pictures that we've seen on websites, various websites, including the President's Troop Social site.
Yeah, we'll never know what happened, why this incident happened.
But, you know, Donald Trump praising the Secret Service.
Didn't his people criticize the Secret Service when he was shot at at Butler and Butler?
And now he's praising them.
How did the Secret Service let somebody, you know, as a black man, I walk through places I'm always targeted.
It seems like the drones are pointed at me.
And how did this guy get into the ballroom with a shotgun?
It just, you know, a critical thinking person would have questions, numerous questions.
And I don't know if it wasn't a false flag.
You know, was it organized to keep the heat off of Trump for the Iran war and other stuff?
You know, the country is a mess as it is.
They need to stop.
If it was a false flag, they need to stop with all these games.
Okay.
Roland there in Michigan giving his thoughts, the BBC adding to others.
And we've been telling you similar information as the morning goes on.
The man's name in question, Cole Thomas Allen, 31-year-old suspect from Torrance in the Los Angeles region of California.
After he was detained by the agents at the Washington Hilton Hotel, he told law enforcement officials he wanted to shoot officials in the Trump administration, according to two sources telling CBS, citing the sources, CBS also said five to eight gunshots were fired during the incident.
CCTV footage posted by the president showing a person rushing past security officers who then turned and chased him.
It goes on to talk about the press conferences that took place after the events, including comments from the president himself, not shortly after he going back to the White House making these comments.
Madam Chairman.
I just want to say you did a fantastic job.
What a beautiful evening.
And we're going to reschedule.
And after that, it's very tough for her to ask a killer question, right?
But you have done a fantastic job.
Please.
Mr. President, I appreciate it.
As you mentioned, it all happened so quickly.
And I wonder, especially because unfortunately you have experience with these sorts of threats.
In that moment, when you realize there was a threat and service agents were telling us to get down, can you describe what was going through your mind, how you were feeling in that moment?
That's a very good question, actually.
It's always shocking when something like this happens.
Happened to me a little bit, and that never changes.
The fact, we were sitting right next to each other, the first lady on my right, and I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray.
I thought it was a tray going down.
I've heard that many times, and it was a pretty loud noise.
And it was from quite far away.
He hadn't breached the area at all.
They really got him.
So it was quite far away, but it was a gun.
And some people really understood that pretty quickly.
Other people didn't.
I was watching to see what was happening.
Probably should have gone down even faster.
Melania was very cognizant, I think, of what happened.
I think she knew immediately what happened.
She was saying, that's a bad noise.
And we were whisked away along with other people, but we were really whisked away.
And again, the performance of the Secret Service and the police, all of the law enforcement, I thought it was really good.
So it was very quick.
There was a lot of time to be thinking because it was a matter of seconds before we were out the door and gone into an area.
We very much, and you wanted to too, we very much wanted to continue it because I don't like to let these sick people, these thugs, these horrible, horrible people, change the fabric of our life, change the course of what we do.
So we were there, we held out right till the end, but they didn't want to take a chance, and I understand there was protocol.
But we're going to be doing one hopefully within the next 30 days or sooner.
And I am ready, willing, and able.
And I was all set to really rip it.
And I said to my people, this would be the most inappropriate speech ever made if I said one.
So I'll have to save it.
I don't know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight.
I think I'm going to be probably very nice.
I'll be very boring the next time, but we're going to have a great event.
It was yesterday in that press briefing included members of the Justice Department and the FBI, the News Nation reporting that it was the acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche saying the investigation was ongoing.
Charges were expected to be filed, including firearms, offenses, and other possible counts.
Law enforcement officials were working to obtain search warrants, according to Acting Director Blanche, and this saying that the U.S. Attorney Janine Pirow is saying that the suspect faces two counts of using a firearm during a violence and one count of assault on a federal officer.
FBI Examines Ballistics Evidence00:08:48
It says also at the time, when this was posted by the Associated Press, saying that FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators were examining ballistics evidence, including a long gun and shell casings, and conducting interviews.
All that you can see on our various platforms.
Let's go to Mary Vermont Democrats line.
Good morning.
Morning, Pedro.
First of all, I'm just so grateful that you and everybody else are safe.
No one was killed.
Thanks be to God for that.
I just have a couple of things, and I'll shoot them out at random as I've thought of them.
They said there was the largest crowd there in that particular room in years, many years, and maybe the largest crowd.
I don't understand that, and I don't know that it looked terribly safe since everyone was so crowded in there.
So, so many people.
And then, on top of that, there were all of our cabinet members.
Many important people, celebrities, et cetera, were also included.
And, you know, I think to myself, if anything were to happen, it could have taken out so many people.
And I think to myself, how can that be?
Was it really under code?
I'm sure the Hilton will have some things to say about that, too.
Speaking of which, they did apparently say that the suspect was a guest in the hotel.
We don't know what the end of that is all going to be.
There'll be further investigations, I know.
But I also wonder one thing.
Why in recent year or two have we had so many young men committing these kinds of crimes and attempted crimes?
I think there's something horrible going on in the country, and it is hate.
And I'm so sorry we break it down into Republican and Democrat.
We have to stop that.
And a lot of people have said that this morning.
We need peace.
And at the same time, we know that it's not happening in our country.
One final thing.
I mean, I don't understand why the president came out to speak afterwards.
I really just don't understand that.
Supposing there were other people shooting, other accomplices.
Just to clarify, when he made those comments that the video you're seeing, this was back at the White House.
Oh, that was at the White House.
Yes, you're so right.
You're so right.
Thank you for the correction.
Sure.
Go ahead.
Finish your thought.
Go ahead, Mary.
That's what I was thinking.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
But thanks, Pedro, for letting me speak.
Okay.
Yep.
Mary there in Vermont, Democrats line.
Let's go to Jamie.
Jamie in the Bronx, Republican line.
Yes.
Hi.
Good morning.
I just want to say that when I seen this happen, no, I wasn't surprised.
It did not surprise me at all.
I see that there's too much hatred in this world, just like everyone is saying.
I think that the Republicans and Democrats need to find a way to come together.
I think that they're acting like junior high school children.
There's too much social media AI silly videos going on.
There's too much criticizing.
There's too much rudeness.
And we're the United States of America.
I would think that we would be better than that.
And until that type of action that the Republicans and Democrats are doing stops, I don't see no change.
And there's a possibility that things can continue to happen like this.
It would be great to see them come together and actually do what they were elected for, which is to work for the people and stop fighting each other and come to some type of compromise.
Otherwise, it doesn't matter who's the president.
It could be now and it could be the future.
If no one's getting along, nothing's going to be done and nothing's going to change.
Thank you for taking my call and have a great day.
We've gone for about an hour and a half so far talking about the events of yesterday at the White House Correspondence Dinner.
We'll continue on till 10 o'clock.
And you can make your comments and your thoughts known.
202748-8001 for Republicans, 202748-8000 for Democrats.
Independents, 202748-8002.
You can text us too at 202-748-8003.
Don in Louisiana, Independent Line.
You're up next.
Hello.
Hi, Pedro.
This is my first time ever calling C-Span.
Just to let you a brief history, I fought in that Desert Storm Desert Shear Shield event.
Can you hear me?
Because I'm on a new phone and I don't know how to work it really.
You're coming through fine.
Yeah, go ahead, please.
So the last lady said something.
My thoughts have been changing, but I've been trying to write it down so I can stay on track.
But I think she hit the nail on the head that nobody's saying.
Morality and social media.
You know, when I was a kid, you always picked a president who had high morality.
Even if he didn't, he knew the stage that he was on.
He had to portray a certain amount of dignity, respect, and loyalty.
Now, our president uses social media to the point where it fuses hatred and violence.
When I went to Desert Storm Desert Shear, I didn't agree that there was weapons of mass destruction or whatever, but because of my commitment to the military, I had to go.
When I went over there, which is so ironic, we're back over there again.
Okay, that place has always been a hotbed bringing Netanyahu with his foolishness and stuff like that.
But you said, how do we get to this point?
Humility is not something that anybody wants to concede to anymore.
You know, the one lady spoke about, I think Miss Hattie spoke about the tongue.
It's a small but incredibly powerful force capable of either speaking life and blessing or inflicting death and destruction.
Now, when I think about what happened last night, this is a culmination of a lot of events that have been happening and festering for years.
You always, nobody takes, I tell my kids, I have four sons.
It doesn't stop me from being a mentor in the world to other people that's around me, other guys that might, you know, we don't have that no more.
It's bad.
It's to the point where everybody wants to blame instead of taking accountability for what's going on now.
It doesn't matter how you get to a place.
It's how you fix it and keep going.
But nobody won't do that.
So my point is, how we got here?
Social media is a, I hate to say like I'm going back to the Bible, but it's a, it's a, it's, everybody has an opinion, and everybody thinks that they have the power to just say what they want to say.
But it affects people in different ways.
Okay.
Uh, that's Don there in Louisiana.
Let's hear from Larry in New Hampshire, Democrats line.
Hello, Pedro.
Thank you for taking my call.
I, you know, we talk about the hatred and the division between, you know, the left and the right.
And it's true that, you know, both sides are saying stuff to each other.
But I think what the real issue is, and all these people calling like, oh, it's the media, the media.
Well, if the media is showing the truth, like things that are happening truthfully, and they think there's a problem, then maybe they should start questioning where they're getting their information from, which, you know, is from the top, you know, Donald Trump, and then everyone down the line that just seems to follow his cue, and it makes it so divisive.
Not only does he lie, he takes something that might be partially true, and he makes it like incredibly horrible so that it divides us.
I mean, and they blame the left, the left, the, you know, and I know there are extremes on both sides, but we have a leader that should be showing by example, and he's showing us and showing them how to stick with him to divide us.
And until we can figure that out, we're not, I don't think we're going anywhere.
Exactly.
How does that relate to last night then?
Well, I think, you know, we say, you know, well, how did this happen?
And everyone's like blaming the press, the press.
It's not the press.
I mean, the press is reporting what's going on.
Division On A Daily Basis00:15:58
I mean, these people that are saying that are listening to Donald Trump and believe most things that he says.
And if they don't, they believe the stuff that he says about the other side when he's lying about them.
So not only do they think that he's correct, but they also think that the other side is so bad.
And it's because he's amping them up with the rhetoric, which is mainly a lot of lies and really stretching of the truth to change what the narrative is.
He's always, and another thing, he has to come out here, and I'm not saying that he shouldn't come out afterwards, but he had to start talking about his ballroom because he always has a narrative.
He is very smart in terms of always catering it to something that's going to benefit him, either by directing attention away from something or showing how, you know, utilizing these things.
They think that we went Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
All the things.
These people believe him when he says that they were just going after him.
And they weren't just going after him.
They look at the evidence, look at the, you know, why he got indicted, but they don't look at that.
They just listen to him and think that the news is the problem.
Okay.
And the news.
Okay, Larry.
Let's go to Republican Lion from Virginia.
This is Chris.
Good morning, Pedro.
I've just got a few points I'd like to make.
First of all, Trump is very lucky because, in my humble opinion, the Secret Service fails.
This is the second time they failed.
The first time they failed was in Pencil and Butler.
They did a good job at the golf course catching the guy before any shots gone off.
But this was a failure, make no mistake about it.
Just from some of the video clips that I've seen, the one where the guy is darting past one of the so-called checkpoints, Secret Service checkpoints, where the Secret Service guy was staring at the ground on his phone, probably playing Piddlywinks or some game on his phone.
This guy was allowed to just rush it.
They didn't catch him from that point.
And that was one of the failures.
Second failure is: how did the guy get in with a gun?
I don't care if he was a guest.
I don't care if he was a staff that somehow managed to breach their security.
That's a failure.
And Trump is lucky to be alive.
So, that being said, somebody needs to be fired.
The agent in charge needs to be fired.
The supervisory agent needs to be fired.
The director needs to be fired.
And the political appointee most certainly needs to be fired.
This can't continue.
And I want to see heads on Trump's desk come Monday of careerists and the politico.
Chris in Alexandria, Virginia.
Another Chris joining us from Alabama Independent Line.
Hello.
Yeah, good morning, Pedro.
First time ever calling to a national news program.
You keep asking callers how the rhetoric in the news media that cover Trump has added to what has happened last night and other times.
I have a personal example.
My cousin's husband works in the welfare department, and I called him one night to help his mother-in-law because she needs financial help.
But he knows I am a Trump supporter.
So he DS'd me so bad because he gets all this information.
He's on MSNBC on the computer hearing all this stuff about Trump.
And I've known this man for over 30 years, gotten along with him.
But now all of a sudden, it's gotten into his psyche so bad that Donald Trump is horrible.
Anybody who supports Donald Trump is horrible.
And I was just calling to help his mother-in-law.
So how does that relate to last night?
Because the coverage of Donald Trump is infuriating people who hate Trump so bad that anybody who supports Donald Trump, they're evil too.
Even though I was trying to be good to help his mother-in-law, he thinks I'm bad for wanting to help his mother-in-law-in-law because I support Donald Trump.
Now, that is really bad when somebody gets like that because of their political views.
You should be able to divorce your political views versus your personal views, especially when you're family members.
Well, at this point, we don't know the motives of the shooter, so how do you know that what you're arguing there was the cause?
Well, you read it yourself that he wanted to kill Trump administration officials.
That was reported by the Metropolitan Police, I believe.
So anybody who's involved with the Trump administration, they want to kill.
They think they're Nazis.
They think they're fascists.
So anybody who supports Trump on the outside in the general public are also Nazis and fascists.
And my second point is leader Thun Monday morning should bring up DHS funding and dare the Democrats to filibuster the Secret Service not being...
Right.
But go ahead and finish your thought, Chris, please.
We'll finish it.
When I dare the Democrats to filibuster DHS funding, again, when the Secret Service, they are protected, thousands of journalists who could have been killed and they're there being not being paid.
So the leader Thun should bring up the bill tomorrow and have DHS funded and have those Secret Service people paid.
Okay.
Okay.
Let's go to Trina.
Trina in Connecticut, Democrats line.
Trina in Connecticut.
Hello.
One more time for Trina.
Okay.
Let's hear from Susan.
Susan in Georgia, Republican line.
You're next up.
Go ahead, please.
Yes, I was watching this and I said to my husband, first of all, I thought the Secret Service did a wonderful job.
I don't think this guy was just trying to get Trump.
It almost looked like he was going to do a school shooting.
If he got in there, he had a gun and he probably would have started spraying everybody.
But I don't know that.
But I'm going to say one thing.
If they have this again, they need to have it somewhere other than a hotel that has thousands of rooms and then has a big restaurant.
The Secret Servicemen, they'll have to go through every single room, check everybody who comes in that hotel.
I don't think they should have this again, but if they do, have it at a place where there's no other rooms.
This hotel was just a bad choice for Trump.
And I think Trump, I did not like the idea of him having a ballroom, but now I see he needs that ballroom.
That would be the most secure place for any president to be.
And that's what I have to say.
One of the largest ballrooms, if not the largest ballroom in the Washington, D.C. area at the Washington Hilton, where this event has taken place for many a year.
If you go back to our archival coverage of the White House correspondence dinner, you will see many presidents and many administrations of many political persuasions being part of this event, partly the Washington Hilton being chosen because of its sheer size.
And the video that you're seeing doesn't give you a full perspective when it comes to the size of the ballroom and the number of people in it.
But again, this is some of the scenes from yesterday.
Let's go to Robert.
Robert is next up.
He's in Virginia, Independent Line.
Good morning, Pedro.
Look, my problem is I think the problem is that the Republicans, they don't believe anything.
They believe everything, I mean, that Trump says.
And he spreads his rhetoric, and then they believe that, and they blame it on the news media when they're getting all that news from Fox, which lies.
And then if you want to really know what's happening, all you got to do is pull up Google Proverbs 6, chapter 6, verses 6, and then read from 12 to 19.
You know the reason we are having all this problem in the world.
Thank you very much.
Joseph, Joseph in Ohio.
Hello there, Democrats line.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for taking the call.
I think we need to get right to the point of this whole thing.
We can't come together.
People keep saying that we need to come together.
We can't come together as a country when our president is trying to divide us on a daily basis.
It just can't be done.
Sure, we have a lot of problems in society, social media, and all that.
But you know what?
We can fix it.
But we can't fix it when we have an administration that's trying to divide us on a daily basis.
And how does that relate to yesterday?
Yes.
Now, I want everyone to...
Well, no, no, explain how does that relate to yesterday?
Well, my point is, is everybody's talking about all these little problems that are contributing to this.
What I'm saying is what happened last night, it was exactly brought on by Trump.
And we need to start focusing on what this administration is using.
Trump's going to wake up this morning and he's going to savor this.
He's going to be like, now that something like this happened again, he's really going to put it to us.
This administration does not want peace.
They want things like this to divide us and break down the fabric of our country so they can take it over.
Project 2025 is staring us right in the face.
Well, let's go back to the idea that rhetoric was the cause of that.
Make that case.
Why do you think that is?
It was rhetoric that caused what events of yesterday.
Well, it depends on his rhetoric causes it because listen to what he says on a daily basis.
It's all, you know, it's he's trying.
He wants this.
He wants us divided.
He'll use this even to say this is why we have to have his people at election places when it happens this fall.
Well, can I ask also this then?
We have not heard an official cause of why the person did what he did, but why do you automatically go to rhetoric, though?
Well, why would the person want to go after Republicans and Donald Trump?
Why would they?
Because look what they're trying to do to our country.
They're lighting people's attitudes on fire.
And nobody's everybody's focal point on where it comes from is being spread around too much.
It's more concentrated on one person.
Look, I want to come together with Republicans, but we can't when their whole desire is to take away our democracy.
They're lighting people's attitudes up.
That's why this is going on this way.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, we'll go to our next caller.
This is in Tennessee, Republican line.
Caller, go ahead.
Thank you for taking my call.
Getting back to rhetoric.
I blame the Democrats every day.
Y'all show Hawking and Chuck standing there bashing Trump, talking about that our military can't win the war.
They're all against America.
You had Tim Wallace and some other Democrat went to another country talking bad about our president.
That's never happened.
The Democrats hate Trump so bad that they want America to fail.
He's trying to make peace in the country.
He's got a lot of stuff going on.
I mean, he's constantly working.
He's not going to be here no more than three years for president.
And he's just trying to get it to where the country is great.
But the Democrats don't want that.
And it's completely ridiculous.
Well, I'll ask you the same question.
And we don't know the motive of the person, and yet you went to rhetoric as well.
Why do you think that's the case automatically?
Well, I hear it every day on your show from the Democrats.
Like I said, they're bashing Trump.
They're bashing our service people that's trying to be in a war.
They said they done lost it.
I mean, it's completely ridiculous.
Even on your show, you still have people calling in almost on a daily basis, calling the president a pedophile.
Y'all should beat them out before they even get on the line like that.
And it's just the Democrats hate Trump, and you know that.
I mean, Pedro, you're not stupid.
You can see that the Democrats hate him so much that they would rather the country to go to hell instead of Trump actually getting things done that needs to be done.
Thank you, buddy.
Okay, George is next.
George is in Florida, Independent Line.
Good morning.
I have a different take on this situation.
I'm curious about one thing.
During the president's press conference, he made mention about the video of his shooting.
How did me or can you tell me how did the dissemination of the actual footage got on to his platform instead of from the U-John news outlets?
Because immediately, right after this press conference, you know, the actual shooting was.
Are you talking about the closed-circuit camera television video that was in black and white that was on the President's Troop Social Platform?
Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
That's a good question.
I don't know how exactly it ended up on the platform.
Yeah, He made mention, but before it was even released, and right after his first conference, then it was there.
You know, the guy was watching right after your coverage.
I was watching the DBC's TV.
Turning It Around On Us00:10:05
I don't pay attention much to the news organizations here.
Listen and watch BBC writers or Associated Press.
Gotcha.
Yep.
George there in Florida.
Let's hear from Los Angeles Democrats line.
Michelle, go ahead.
Good morning.
I just want to give my impressions.
First of all, I love the White House correspondence dinner.
I watch it every year.
So I was so saddened to see it halted by Cole Allen, who attacked.
But the images, two images came to my mind.
There was a black and white image of him on the ground with shirtless and in handcuffs.
And then for some reason, the image of January 6th and the rioters there came to my mind.
And I, you know, and then I said to myself, well, will Trump pardon Cole Allen as he pardoned the January 6th rioters who attacked police, who attacked the Capitol and politicians?
And I guess people are angry, both sides.
Democrats are angry because there's a difference in treatment on the people who Trump supports who break the law and the difference in the people that Trump dislikes and breaks the law.
So that causes anger with the Democrats.
I can't speak for the Republicans' anger, but we won't come together as long as we dislike one another for the disparities in treatments between horrible acts.
So those were my impressions.
Thank you.
Okay.
That's Michelle from Los Angeles, from Maine in Portland, Republican Line.
We'll hear from Roseanne.
Hello.
Hello, this is Roseanne.
I was one of you telling me, how can you think that Trump had anything to do with this?
He loves his wife.
He has the Roseanne?
Oh, we've lost Roseanne.
Let's go to Edward.
Edward, Independent Line.
Edward joins us from New Jersey.
Hello.
Good.
Yeah, I want to say, I mean, it's not normal to have a president that's telling lies about election theft, like using Hitler quotes about immigrants poisoning the blood of the people and eating cats and dogs, actively saying it's okay to lie just to get their way, alienating allies and invading Greenland and wanting to invade Canada, I guess, like unilaterally taking us to war and threatening genocide,
calling everybody that disagrees with any of that aliens of the people and enemies of the people and communists.
I mean, in fact, honestly, I believe that he did it on purpose just because I think he would have stunk up the room and he would have never even been able to hold the candle toward what Biden did or Obama did and just had a nice light evening and actually, yeah.
If that was the case, why would he offer to hold the event in 30 days again?
I mean, it's the same taco thing.
He does everything.
Everything is a two weeks thing later.
You know what I mean?
And then they'll just move on and like, you know, leave it out there.
And to your initial statements, why do you think that was the cause of yesterday?
Well, because, like I said, like everyone wants to, like, it's not normal.
It's not normal to have a president that actively tells lies every day.
Well, you said all that, but why do you think it's automatically a cause?
Well, because, like I said, it's just not, it's not normal times.
This is not, we can't, you know what I mean?
I walk through life every day, and I talk to people and I live my life, and I can't believe people aren't actively calling this stuff out all the time.
And it's like every day, there's a ridiculousness that happens with this, like, with this jerk.
And, you know, I think that's totally the cause.
And you can't, you know what I mean?
And they want to turn it around on us and say it's us.
The fact of the matter is it's these people and it's this administration.
Everything they're doing is abnormal, but yet they want to create it and blame everybody else that calls them out for their abnormalness.
Okay, Edward in New Jersey, giving us his thoughts.
Just about two hours.
We've been taking your calls on the events of last night at the Washington, the White House correspondents dinner, the shooting that took place, the events that unfolded afterward.
We'll continue on until 10 o'clock.
So if you want to get your thoughts in there, you can choose the phone line that best represents you.
Hold off on 30 days if you have called us in the last 30 days.
It's 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats.
And Independents, 202-748-8002.
You can post your thoughts at our ex-site at C-SPANWJ.
Facebook available too, at facebook.com slash C-SPAN.
We showed you, as we have many years in a row, the White House correspondents dinner, clearly last night's dinner different than anything we've ever covered before.
It was shortly afterward where the president was escorted off stage.
He went back to the White House and held a press briefing with members of the press about the events of yesterday.
Here's some of the back and forth exchange with reporters.
Thank you, President Trump.
There's a report in the New York Post that this assailant assembled his weapon somewhere on site at the hotel.
What do you think about that?
And I ask respectfully, why do you think this keeps happening to you?
Well, you know, I've studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most, you take a look at the people, Abraham Lincoln, I mean, you go through the people that have gone through this where they got them.
But the people that do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, they're the ones that they go after.
They don't go after the ones that don't do much because they like it that way.
And when you look at the people that have either, whether it was an attempt or a successful attempt, they're very impactful people.
Just take a look at the names here.
The big names.
And I hate to say I'm honored by that, but I've done a lot.
We've done a lot.
We've taken this country and we were a laughing stock for years.
And now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world.
We've changed this country.
And there are a lot of people that are not happy about that.
So I think that's the answer, Peter.
And after Butler, your team for a while rethought outdoor events.
Do you think that you now need to rethink outdoors?
Well, then you just don't do events.
No, I can't do that.
I have to.
You know, it is what it is.
We have to do it.
The room was very, very secure.
You know, he charged from 50 yards away.
So he was very far away from the room.
And what did you think when you saw the video of how fast he was running?
He was moving.
He was really moving.
And the reaction time was great.
Boy, those guys, they had their guns drawn literally by the time he was there.
They were shooting.
That's right.
I thought they were very impressive.
I thought they were very impressive.
And if I didn't, I'd let you know.
I'm not going to be, I would not stand for that.
No, I thought they were very impressive.
Thank you, President Trump, and thank you for updating us on the suspect earlier.
Were you aware of any threats?
Were your team aware of any threats beforehand?
And do you believe you were the target of this tonight?
I guess.
I mean, these people, they're crazy.
They're crazy.
And, you know, you never know.
He was very far away from me.
He had to go through a lot.
We had resources all over.
We had resources sitting at tables, literally in disguise, sitting maybe at your table.
Who knows?
But 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.
Go ahead.
Did you have any political motivations from this?
Well, you never know.
No, we'll be able to tell you that maybe by tomorrow or the next day, you know, he's in custody and they're asking him a lot of questions.
I guess they're going over Todd, and they're already at his apartment.
He lives in California.
Yes, sir.
And they're over there.
So they'll be able to tell you.
Thank you, Caitlin.
An arraignment scheduled for tomorrow, or Monday, yeah, tomorrow.
And so we'll see more as it plays out in the days ahead.
Let's hear from Bob in Cincinnati Democrats line.
Good morning, America, and God bless America.
Donald Trump has spilled so much hate in the year and a half that he's been in office, it's surprising that having no one already got to him.
Every country, he's always talking about regime changing, changing the head of the snake and cutting out the head of the snake.
Somebody almost got his head.
And eventually, somebody.
Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, Bob.
Let's pause a little bit.
Your thoughts specifically on last night, please.
I'm holding my thoughts.
It boils down to the same thing.
It leads to the same thing.
That's all Donald Trump talks about is they're going to change people's regime.
This head of state needs to be changed.
Regime Change And Hate00:02:58
Okay, okay.
We're going to go to Delhi, Delhi and Colorado Republican line.
Hello.
Good morning, Pedro, and thank you for taking my call.
You know, I just saw that all those frightened reporters, I mean, whether they were reporters, celebrities, wives and husbands, and girlfriends and boyfriends and spouses, fiancés, it doesn't matter.
We are all human beings.
We are all Americans.
You know what I saw in that room?
I didn't see a Republican.
I didn't see Republican, an Independent.
I didn't see a Democrat.
I didn't see people loving people.
People watching out and making sure that everybody was snuck down.
You know who I was most worried about?
I know that shooter intended great harm.
And with that shotgun, he was spreading bullets to everybody, whoever he got to.
I don't know that he was looking for one in particular person, just all of them.
I don't know what got into his head.
I don't know if it's rhetoric.
I don't know if it's his ideology.
I have no idea.
But I know one thing.
When I saw that room was beautiful, just the people were looking out for each other.
And one of the ones that I thought, you know, of course we need to look out for our president.
He is the president of our United States of America United.
And I, you know, the Secret Service did their job.
The police did their job.
The FBI did their job.
They all worked in fandom.
The only mistake that I thought that I saw there was that one Secret Service that was standing there close to that entrance where that shooter flew by.
He was looking down at the ground looking out.
And he cowered back.
He was the only one I saw coward back.
And if you look at the video, see what I mean.
He cowered back and he waited for the other Secret Services to get ahead of him.
And then he didn't even go with them.
He cut across again behind them.
So, you know, I think that guy needs to be retrained or be relocated because he shouldn't be there.
But I just praised all of you guys that you guys just came together.
And, you know, I apologize.
And I meant to tell you, I'm so sorry for your experience there because I know it must have been just so frightening because you don't know where the bullets comes from.
And then all the police are aiming guns and they are pointing it every which way.
Something Special At C-SPAN00:03:09
And they're looking for anybody else that might be involved.
And, you know, that was pretty scary just watching it from the hospital bed.
I appreciate the sentiment, but I only speak for myself saying, you know, those tense moments, it was not too long afterward, once things were established and secure, that many of those same people that you see there crouching down and protecting themselves, as they should, got up, started going to work, filing the stories, making telephone calls, trying to establish,
as they do day in and day out, as reporters, the coverage of Washington, including the White House.
Again, we're joining you at that sliver.
But by the end of the night, you know, people were ready to go and, you know, back to work.
There was thoughts that the dinner would be, you know, resume.
The comments, possibly that the president would make comments, that was decided against the president saying that the Secret Service convinced them otherwise.
Again, all the events of last night, again, up for your comments.
Let's hear from Mike.
Mike in California, Independent Line.
Hello.
Good morning.
I'm very happy to get on this morning.
I've been a serious C-SPAN viewer for 35 years, finishing off as a young man all of my middle-age years.
And now I even received Social Security benefits a long time.
But watching C-SPAN last night was unlike anything I ever experienced.
It was amazing seeing Peter and Greta and John and Jasmine as human beings, which is not normal.
What you need to know is I suspect there are thousands of us viewers like me who view your team as something very special.
And last night I saw them more than professional journalists, but people I cared about.
John and Greta picked you out at one point.
I figured, well, that's one person who won't be at work tomorrow morning.
But The program last night drove home that your team at C-SPAN is part of something special.
And I think you are all very fortunate to be part of it.
And I really appreciate you.
Mike, thank you for the very kind words.
And I'll reflect the sentiments of my colleagues who are here in studio out there at Washington Hilton, the photographers, the production team, a lot of people to bring you.
Again, clearly was a different White House correspondence that we ended up with that we thought going into, but all performing very admirably under the circumstances.
But again, thank you for the kind words.
Media Is The Problem00:14:32
Greg, Greg in Ohio, Democrats line.
Hello.
Good morning, America.
This is my dissertation on why we have the problem in America using the letter P.
It's his policies.
The very first day in office, he pardons all those people on January 6th, even though they whoop the cops.
He portrays himself as Jesus.
Then he says, I'm a doctor.
Then he passed tariffs that raises the prices.
Then is deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.
And now everybody's paying more money because of his policies.
It's his personality.
He says that DEI caused a plane crash.
Then...
Okay, for all that said, though, how does that relate to last night specifically?
This gives people a plethora of reasons to dislike him.
He constantly says things that offends people and his policies, whether it's Gaza, Ukraine, Iran.
And then he portrays the president, previous president, as an ape.
And this is why I blame his followers.
They get online.
Well, again, back to the events of yesterday.
We don't know a specific cause for the shooter yet.
Why do you relate the two specifically?
People to be upset.
And they get online and then they put some monkeys or apes online.
Ha ha, it's funny.
No, it's not funny.
It's not funny.
And then they pivot into Democrats and say, oh, it's our fault.
No, it stops, starts at the president, and you perpetuate his personality by parroting what he says online every single day.
And I'm going to end it at this, my famous Star Wars quote.
Who is worse?
The fool or the fools who follow him?
I blame the people who follow him.
That's why we have a problem in America.
Okay.
Okay.
That's Greg there.
Let's hear from John in Georgia, Republican line.
Hi.
Hi, good morning.
I've been listening this morning to your folks, and I can agree with some and disagree, but I agree with the person that called that it seemed like the security was lax at the entrance.
It seemed like the room got full and they got lazy.
It's not that one man.
It was, it looked like six or seven men that were in that area that were lax.
But anyway, getting back to maybe why this guy came in there, we have this thing called No King's Rally.
And I've watched it on C-SPAN and I've watched it on TV everywhere.
And I've seen it in my hometown, No Kings Rally.
And they are bitter.
They are hateful.
And they can spew hate.
And that's what they're doing.
I've seen tens of thousands in some of these major cities that are complaining about no kings.
Donald King is not, Donald Trump is not a king.
There's some organization that has drummed this up and they've spewed hate.
I've seen it.
I've seen it in my town about hate.
Don't wear a red hat during no kings.
Why do you pick that specific event and relate it to last night?
I'm not saying, I mean, I'm saying it could have came from California, the shooter came from Washington all the way across the state to Washington, D.C. to shoot that military person.
I mean, he's coming from the left coast.
It seems like they hate Trump.
And I just feel like maybe this guy was spun up and was after Trump.
He wasn't after the audience.
He could have been.
He could have done a lot of damage in that audience.
But I feel like his focus was to make, I don't know, he might have sacrificed himself, but he was going after Trump.
He was there because of Trump, I believe.
Okay, let's go to Karen in Illinois, Independent Line.
Karen, good morning.
Hi, how are you?
I've been listening very intently to everybody calling in, whether they agree or disagree.
The gentleman last night probably was pretty fed up, as are most Americans.
Something builds each day with this president.
And it's not, I know you keep asking, what does that have to do with last night?
It's just like when you raise your child.
You raise your child to do right.
And you teach them when they leave out the doors, they're out in, you know, public in a whatever you teach them to conduct themselves in a setting.
This president does not conduct himself in any setting anytime he gets the stage.
So as Americans under his watch, we don't feel real protected.
They're insulated.
They have security every time they turn and move.
So what happened last night was somebody that was very probably fed up just took it on themselves to do something about it.
But what bothers me is they're all insulated.
And I'm a little confused because the guy got through Rand and nobody shot.
Nobody fired at him.
We can look at all the previous things where somebody does something that didn't even have a weapon, but they end up dead.
And I don't want to go off script, but it's real weird to me that this man did not get one single shot taken by all of this security.
But the insulation part is what bothers me.
And until we, these people, everybody got up and started doing everything that they normally do after it all happened.
Well, when someone loses someone in this country, everybody gets up and keeps doing what they want to do, but they don't really know the void that's taking place.
The people are fed up, whether they're Republicans, Independents, or Democrats.
They're fed up with everything that's going on.
Every time you look up, we're shooting at somebody else's in their country.
We're taking people's lives in boats.
We're going in other countries, telling them what they should and shouldn't do.
And this country, I do not have any social media.
I don't care for it.
I still carry a flipbole, but I do read different things.
The problem, too, also is when you look in this country, every day in any area, rural, whatever area, there is some type of violence, something going on that's not being addressed.
But we're going to go in somebody else's country and tell them how they should run it.
Okay.
That's Karen.
Okay.
That's Karen there in Illinois, the president posting on Troop Social.
This is the first time since the events of yesterday.
This coming forward at about 8:46 this morning saying what happened last night is exactly the reason that our great military, Secret Service, law enforcement, and for different reasons, every president for the last 150 years have been demanding that a large, safe, and secure ballroom be built on the grounds of the White House.
This event would never have happened with the military top secret ballroom currently under construction at the White House.
It cannot be built fast enough.
While beautiful, it has every highest level security feature.
There is a plus.
There are no rooms sitting on top for unsecure people to pour in.
And it's inside the gates of the most secure building in the world, the White House.
No ridiculous bathroom lawsuit brought by a woman walking her dog who has absolutely no standing to bring such a suit must be dropped immediately.
Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
President Trump, again, he making the same similar cases during that back and forth that we were showing you throughout the course of the morning with reporters.
And if you're interested in seeing more of these comments from the president's press briefing, go to our website at c-span.org, our app, watch it on YouTube, and you can see all that there.
Let's go to Democrats Line, North Carolina.
Tina, hello.
Good morning.
The only thing I need to say, Trump should have went on his business trip to take care of the problem that we're having here in America.
He never should have been there anyway.
They already had a speaker, I'm quite sure.
And everywhere that he goes, it's chaos.
People don't dislike Trump.
They love Trump.
They dislike Trump ways.
Trump had bad ways, and that's what people don't like.
Well, Tina, just presidents have always, except for the president, the current president, have normally attended these kind of functions at the White House Correspondence Center.
He usually features the President of the United States as part of it, President Trump breaking that mold.
But go ahead and finish your thought.
Yes, but what I was saying, evidently, he had forgot about it for him to have even scheduled this appointment with, you know, about the United States.
USA is more important.
He could have forgot this one because he had forgotten it because he did that cancellation at the last minute.
Trump used to be a Democrat, y'all, if y'all don't know that.
But he changed his man and became Republican because he knew how he could get Republicans' money and his money.
He's in this all about money.
He's not in it for the people.
He was saying that he hate that he putting people out of work overseas.
What about the people he putting out of work in the United States?
The children is hungry.
He got to realize what he's doing in USA is wrong.
And until he gets United States right, it's not Trump they hate.
It's the things that Trump does that they don't like.
Okay, let's hear from Gary.
Gary is in Maryland, Republican line.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
You're on.
Go ahead.
Okay, what I'd like to say is I think everybody, Democrats and Republicans, need to pay attention to Donald Trump.
Pay attention to the exact words that he speaks.
The speech he gave after this happened.
We all need to listen to it.
Steve Doocy, I think it is, asked him, why is it happening to you?
Listen to this man.
He's not a liar.
Adrian, you had a guy on about an hour ago, and he was on for a few seconds, and all he said is, Trump lies, lies, lies.
And then what he does is lie some more.
And people hear that, and they believe it because it's on the airwaves.
We need to all listen to Donald Trump, his exact words, and pay attention to that and let that connect back to exactly the event that's happening, whether it's in Iran that he's speaking about or last night's dinner.
What exactly did he say last night should people pay attention to specifically?
He said he's doing things, doing things different.
He referred to Abraham Lincoln, and he said the guys that get assassinated or get that crosshair at their head, it's because they do things.
They change things in the world.
He is changing things, and it's changing the way all of us live.
It's changing how we think about so many different things.
And it goes from the top down, meaning he's reconstructing the way the world's global financial system is and how it's disseminated into macropower.
And it comes back to us.
It's a shift.
He's not racist at all.
He's doing this for freedom for the globe, for freedom for each country to be its own country and not to be interconnected by some odd banking system behind it all.
You've heard all of this before.
Okay, we'll go on to our next call.
Let's go to Joe in Kentucky, Independent Line.
Hi.
Hi, good morning.
I would just like to say that that last caller you had on, I agree with pretty much everything he says, especially what Donald Trump said about getting things done, and that's why he's got the crosshairs on him.
I mean, if you think about that, and I really didn't think about that until he said it, but if you think about that, when you talk about the Kennedys, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, all these people that were assassinated, it makes a lot of sense.
The only other thing I can say is who's to say this guy wasn't coming in here to shoot up the media?
The media is a lot of the problem in this country.
And that's because if you look at the web, the dark web, and people are narrowly focused on everything, I'm a news junkie.
I watch them all, and I compare the difference of who's saying what.
And I think the media, the way they spew, and I'm talking about the liberal media, conservative media at all, is the biggest, one of the biggest part of the problems in this country because that's what's getting out into the heads of people.
And if people don't broaden their horizons and look at all the different stuff that's being spewed out there, good or bad, evil, good, you know, they need to look at it all and then make a good choice of what they think is right and what's wrong.
That was Joe there.
Let's go to Jerry, Jerry in Michigan, Democrats line.
Root Causes Of Chaos00:05:00
Hello.
You're on.
Go ahead.
Hi, this is Jerry.
I was watching the news last night and watched what happened and everything.
And earlier, I'd went to the grocery store and I was waiting in line to pay.
And I looked over at these magazines like The Enquirer.
There's like two or three of them here.
And they all had on the front of them, there's a $50 million Bounty on the head of Trump.
And I haven't heard anything about that from anybody else.
Okay.
And you wonder why things happen like that.
Well, something must be causing these people to rot about that and everything.
I can't believe it's sitting there and wide open.
Or you can see it checking out.
Okay, Carol in Minnesota, Republican line.
Go ahead.
Carol in Minnesota.
Hello.
Oh, good morning, Pedro.
Good morning.
Yes.
All day yesterday, I watched all the old speeches from the other presidents.
And when this one happened last night, I just had a bad feeling about it.
There was just something in my gut that told me something's going to happen.
And I was just shocked when it did.
But with all the rhetoric and like your previous caller said, on the newsstand, you see Times, Newsweek, they're all criticizing President Trump all the time.
Never did they ever criticize Biden or Obama or Carter or any of the other presidents.
It's just gotten where the media, these podcasters, the actors and actresses that are leaving the country and then they come back, they're just spewing such hate that even a lot of my friends don't even know I'm a Republican.
They cannot stand the man.
I just sit there and don't say anything.
But it's just, it's a sad day.
And I am so glad I am 73 years old because I don't know how many more years I can take of all the hatred in this country.
Thank you for taking my call and you're looking really good today.
Carol in Minnesota, Republican line, talking about the events of yesterday, roughly at 8:30, just after 8:30 yesterday, 8:35, according to some reporting in the evening at the site of the Washington Hilton, the White House correspondence dinner.
The opening ceremony or opening ceremony had started.
Some announcements were made.
People were sitting, starting their meals, and this is what happened.
Again, events from yesterday.
We've been showing you the video for that.
That's the video with the sound of what happened in those initial moments.
We showed you a video of actually the Secret Service coming in, some through that main concourse right there.
Some, if you were to go to the left of your screen, actually going on top of tables in order to secure the perimeter and the dais there, very soon after, all of that, as you see there, several rifles pointed in the direction, trying again as part of the securing of that perimeter.
All those happening in moments at the White House Correspondents Association dinner.
As you look at that, we'll hear from Pat in Texas, Independent Line.
Pat in Texas, hello.
Targeting Administration Staff00:07:51
Go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Morning.
I'm calling to talk about where the root cause of all this might have been from.
I'm 95, seeing a lot of presidents.
Really, I've never heard a president speak as Trump speaks.
I am your retribution, quote, unquote.
Gathering other countries, setting up migration camps as staging for humanity, you know, the people that are immigrants to go to.
And getting dots commenting on people being shot in the streets by ICE.
All this accumulates in some people's minds.
And it's unfortunate, but we do have media.
I hope it never stops.
I don't hate Trump.
I hate what he's doing to our democracy and our republic.
It's unfortunate.
We need to change.
We need to change our thinking.
We need to change our president.
I don't think it's his cabinet anymore.
I think it's the liquor cabinet.
And unfortunately, he doesn't hire people to guide him in the right way.
Back to the cause.
Let's start at the root.
Okay, Diane is next.
Diane, North Carolina, Democrats line.
Hello.
Good morning.
Thank you for making my call.
First of all, kudos to the FBI Secret Service and all the local law enforcement agencies that we acted the way that they did.
They definitely did their job, and they made us all proud as Americans.
To my Republican brothers and sisters, please stop pointing the finger at Democrats.
We just want to get along.
It's not that we don't like Republicans.
We like our Republican presidents in the past, the Bushes, and it's just the policies, and it's just the person that's in the White House now.
So we need to tap down some of this hatred rhetoric.
If not, we're going to lose the wonderful country that we have.
So let's all try to get along together and just do better.
Peggy, Peggy is in Arizona, Republican line, on the events of last night at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Peggy, hello.
Hi.
I do agree with your previous caller.
It's not hatred to Democrats or Republicans.
But just like previous callers have said about the media, the media comes out and spews hatred.
But you also have politicians from both Democrat, Republican, whatever side you want to say, which I think is sad that we always say it's a side.
They represent constituents from their precincts or their states.
They represent us as a whole.
Why these are Congress and Senate and people cannot work together?
You even have elected politicians spewing hatred.
This, okay, I've never agreed with every president and what he's done, but the fact that people come out and just continually take this person, I don't even understand how, regardless of who you are, how you can hate an individual so much.
And I just think it's time that everybody from all areas reel back the rhetoric.
Because when you have sick individuals out there that feel the necessity to go out and take out another human being or human beings' lives, I think it's just sad.
So I do go back to it's all about rhetoric, and everybody in all areas needs to reel it back and remember us as a country and what we stand for and what we should be proud of.
Thank you.
Peggy Verin, Arizona, calling in.
This is from Reuters this morning saying that the president and officials in his administration were the likely targets of a suspect who fired on a security agent guarding the White House correspondence dinner.
That was the U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch saying on Sunday.
The story adding that the man fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint in the Washington Hilton before being tackled and arrested.
The president, the first lady, were rushed out of the dinner.
Quote, it does appear that he, that he, he did, in fact, set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president.
Blanche told NBC News's Meet the Press, adding that the suspect likely traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington.
He'll be charged in federal court Monday with the assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm, and attempting to kill a federal officer, Blanche said, adding that he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack.
That is being reported by Reuters.
Let's hear from Rick.
Rick in North Dakota on our Independent Line.
Hello.
Good morning, sir.
It's a heck of a deal, isn't it?
I mean, the world's gone crazy.
I was just, this whole, all the comments that I've heard this morning reminded me of a quote from Thomas Saul.
The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied.
They want a villain to hate and heroes to cheer, and they don't want explanations that fail to give that to them.
And that's, you know, all the, oh, we hate Trump or Trump's, you know, so good or so bad or all the, nobody really takes the time to dig into the things that are going on in the world and some of the motives for his policies.
And the other side of that, I think, you know, we've had political cartoons and throughout history, I mean, King Andrew, people referred to Andrew Jackson as King Andrew.
He was an assassination attempt was made on him when he was going to a congressman's funeral.
You know, the world is a complex place and there's a lot of hyperbole out there and the memes have taken the place of political cartoons.
People really, they need to sit back a little bit and think about things instead of, oh, I hate this guy because of this or, oh, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
That's about all I've got, Federal.
Thank you.
Rick in North Dakota.
One of the events that Washington was looking forward to as far as reporting and other things is the visit of King Charles this week to Washington, D.C.
This is being reported by The Guardian this morning that King Charles' security is being reviewed before his state visit to the U.S. this week after a gunman attempted to storm a dinner with the president.
Guests of the White House Correspondent Center said had hit under tables and that talks a little bit about that.
Buckingham Palace saying on Sunday that Charles was being, quote, kept fully informed of developments and was, quote, greatly relieved to hear that the president and first lady and all guests have been unharmed.
As you would expect, a number of discussions will be taking place throughout the day to discuss with U.S. colleagues and our respective teams to what degree the events of Saturday evening may or may not impact on the operational planning for this visit.
This says, and also quotes Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said the U.S. and U.K. were quote, working closely to ensure that security arrangements are put appropriately in place for the visit.
So look for more to play out this week when it comes to the visit of King Charles to Washington and other parts of the United States.
Let's go to Melanie.
Melanie in Georgia, Democrats line.
Hello.
Hello, and thank you for having me on.
Unstable People Everywhere00:06:41
So I just want to quickly say that there is something wrong in this country because we do not appreciate the opinion of others.
When did it become an issue to disagree with another party?
That's why we have two parties, because we have individuals who have different thoughts, different opinions, and different ideologies.
There used to be a time when those differences were able to be worked out through decency for one another, respect for one another, and compromise.
We were able to compromise with one another and get things done.
But with this president that we have in office, if you do not agree with everything that he says, our officials get fired, they get challenged, or he calls them very disparaging names.
So I think that we have to get back to a place that begins from the very top, where there is respect for your colleagues and there is respect for differences.
There's no reason why our president should call Democrats radical left lunatics.
He has not only adopted that term, but his subordinates have also adopted that term.
Mike Johnson and the like.
They all say that every single day they call Democrats radical left lunatics.
And honestly, I'm not for Democrats.
I'm not for Republicans and I'm not for independents.
I'm for doing what's right and doing what's respectful.
And that is having respect for one another and appreciating one another's differences.
And I think that that is what we have to get back to and learn to come together, appreciate those differences, and compromise.
But with this president, there's no compromise.
It's either you accept and adopt what I say, what I do, and what I believe, or if not, he goes on TV and other outlets and say that anyone who does not agree with him is anti-American.
And that is certainly not true.
I think those who...
Okay, Melanie there in Georgia giving her third thoughts.
Jim in Pennsylvania, Republican line.
Hi.
How's it going?
Just a couple of comments.
You know, what I like to see we get back to whoever's elected to the White House, Democrat, Republican, let them do their policies they ran on.
And right now, I was a Democrat all my life, but you know, I just became a Republican.
But the Democrats are fighting them every tooth and nail.
But two more points.
What I've been saying is that Democrat words, they're all based on clever deception.
But this, what happened last night, is a good reason why we need that ballroom at the White House.
Okay.
Charlie in Washington State, Independent line.
Hi.
Hi.
Can you hear me?
Yep, you're on.
Okay.
I'd like to say that I never voted for Trump, and I didn't vote for his last three opponents.
I wrote in because I think the quality of the candidates is too low in each of the last three presidential elections.
And I don't like Trump's penchant for making undisciplined comments.
That much said, I've been listening to the comments from Democrats today, this morning, and I'm just struck by how many of them are blaming Donald Trump for this.
That somehow, what, does he deserve to get shot?
Okay, I don't care who the president is.
You know, I'd rather not see that president assassinated.
I think the Democrats who are calling in, liberals who are calling in, ought to really stop, think, and look in the mirror and listen to themselves.
All right.
This is bad stuff, all right, that they seem to be celebrating or at least blaming Trump for somebody trying to kill him.
Something's wrong with that.
Tracy, up next in Pennsylvania, Democrats line.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
On that gentleman's what he said about the Democrats, you know, we want to kill Trump.
That is just crazy talk.
What I'd like to say about that is there are people that are unstable in this world, no matter if it's Democrat, Republican, or Independent.
There are crazy people.
And if they get upset enough or poking the bear enough, they're going to do crazy things, such as what this man did.
And the guys, the servicemen that are supposed to be taking care of Trump, which I don't want to see anybody shot at all.
It is wrong.
But those guys, they screwed up big time.
And how could he carry a shotgun in?
How did he do that?
That's what I'd like to know with knives and a handgun.
That's crazy.
People are so lucky, and so is the president.
But my other point is: watching the film, okay, when you're looking straight up at the podium, you know, something happened.
So Melania and President Trump were sitting there along with that other woman, and she's a reporter.
Then the guns go off.
Well, these two service guys run down and get Vance right off the stage in a second.
Well, they take forever to take President Trump and First Lady out of there.
Why?
What was that about?
Well, as someone who was there, I know that you've seen a video of the vice president being taken off, but it was a very quick manner where the president of the United States himself and the First Lady taken off.
So just take it for my point of view, and that's it.
But you can just take it for that.
Quick Evacuation Of Leaders00:04:33
But go ahead.
Okay.
But yeah, this craziness, I mean, the country really has to just put their arms down and listen to each other and not fight.
I mean, President Trump, he's not my favorite person.
But look, I mean, I just don't agree with the things he says.
I listen.
Believe me, I listen hard.
But he's like an attention getter, you know, like the two weeks we're going to have a spot ceasefire in two weeks.
I'm going to end this war in two weeks.
What's all that crazy talk?
Okay.
That's Tracy there in Pennsylvania shortly after the events of yesterday at the White House.
Once he and the team were there, the president made these comments regarding last night.
That was very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement.
And 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, I saw a room that was just totally unified.
It was in one way very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.
A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons.
And he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service, and they acted very quickly.
And I've just released for purposes of transparency, clarity.
I've ordered it to be put out.
You probably have it by now.
Put out on truth and put out on many of the platforms.
A tape showing the violence of this thug that attacked our Constitution and also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted on our country's behalf.
Really did a great job.
One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing obviously a very good bulletproof vest.
He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun.
And the vest did the job.
I just spoke to the officer and he's doing great.
He's in great shape.
He has very high spirits.
And we told him we love him and respect him.
And he's a very proud guy.
He's very proud of what he does, Secret Service agent.
And 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 much more secure.
That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it.
They've wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today's a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody's ever seen before.
The Los Angeles Times has an updated story on its website on the events of yesterday and particularly the suspect in question saying that it was Todd Blanche telling CNN that the suspect had fired two shots before being taken down by authorities.
He added the suspect barely got past the perimeter and was immediately subdued.
And yes, he got off a couple of shots.
That's Todd Blanche.
The story adding that the shotgun and handgun used were legally purchased in California, law enforcement source telling the Times.
Blanche said that the weapons were purchased, quote, within the last couple of years.
When it comes to more of the profile of Allen, saying it was in October of 2024 that he donated $25 to ACBLU a political action committee that raises funds for Democrats according to the FEC.
The money was earmarked for Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.
It was his only political donation listed on the FEC website in the past decade.
Election Fraud Connections00:10:40
Allen, who was registered to vote with no party preference, graduated from Caltech in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
While at Caltech, he was a member of the school's Christian Fellowship and Nerf Club, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He was featured in a Caltech graduation announcement posted by the university in 2017 on Facebook, which included a picture of him as an adult wearing a cardigan red tie and a photo of him holding as a photo of him as a beaming young child holding a stuffed bunny.
He also earned a master's degree in computer science at Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2025, according to the commencement program.
His LinkedIn profile shows him sitting in his cap and gown with the captain.
Pretty sure my master's in CS is done.
On his profile, he describes himself as a game developer, engineer, scientist, and teacher.
More there of the profile of Cole Tom and Tom Thomas Allen from the Los Angeles Times this morning.
Let's hear from Dennis, Dennis in Ohio, Republican line.
Yes, I'm calling about election fraud.
I think that a lot of this is related to election fraud.
And election fraud causes a certain amount of uncertainty in the country.
And it causes people to suspect each other.
And it doesn't make sense to people when the wrong person gets elected.
Like when Romney was running against Obama and McCain, also.
They were both should have been elected according to all the polls and they lost because of election fraud.
There are algorithms in the election code of all the states, not all the states, but of the predominantly critical states that control the number of voters, and they can be turned on and off.
If you go to GodsFivestones.com, it's a lot of fun.
Okay, okay, well, we'll leave it there.
Let's go to Robert, Robert of Florida, Independent Line.
Hello, you're next up.
Yeah, you know, I think part of the problem is people don't listen to understand.
They listen to respond, and they generally have a response pre-made in their head.
So if you listen to what somebody is saying and you try to understand it before you respond, I think we get along a whole lot better.
So that's just, it just is seemingly, to me, part of the problem anyway.
And how does that relate to yesterday specifically?
People, the talk before, whether it was false flags in Pennsylvania or whether this thing in Iran or whether it's just set to stir people up and people hear what they want to hear.
I don't know.
You can't blame the media because the media is just preacher to the preacher or preacher to the choir.
I'm sorry.
So whatever media listen to, you generally agree with.
So that's part of the problem.
Lewis is joining us from Florida, Democrats line.
You're next up.
Hello.
Hello.
Yes.
I was listening in there, and I think the problem is that we're Democrats, we're Republicans, we're independents, and whatever.
That should be until Election Day.
And once Election Day passed, then we should be servants of all the people, not just one party.
This is one country.
When Trump, when he goes to England or wherever he is, he shouldn't be just representing Republicans.
He should be representing America, all of the people.
And that's the only way we're going to come to unity.
The president has got to represent everybody, not just his party.
And if he, if once we can come together that everybody should be represented, then I think that those incidents like last night won't be necessary because all the people will be represented.
We don't have to agree with the president.
We can disagree without being disagreeable.
I don't agree with, I don't agree with everything none of them did.
I might not agree to everything I did in the last few years.
Neither do you agree with everything you did, but we still move on.
We put out a disagreement with society and we move on.
But unity is what we need.
That's it.
Ted joins us from New York, Independent Line.
Hi.
Hi, good morning.
I want to remind our viewers here and listeners that Donald Trump was elected President of the United States overwhelmingly.
The rhetoric here that I'm listening to the Democrats calling in, it seems obvious that their hatred has not been dispelled one iota from what happened last night.
And one caller actually said that he wants this.
And it's absolutely amazing that someone would say something so horrible that the man is sitting there with his wife at a dinner and he wants this.
I also want to say something about the, I forget the name of the Asian, the American Asian woman there, who's the head of the press corps there.
And when she got up and she spoke, she didn't say anything about the president or the shooting.
She basically was almost applauding her audience, which was her fellow constituents.
I thought that was very, very upsetting.
It was also very obvious that, you know, that she was very much on, and there's no doubt in this country that we have a very, very left-wing media.
And it's very distorted.
And I cannot believe that, I mean, listen, we all know about Donald Trump that he sometimes he goes off, but he's still the president of the United States.
And it's really frightening to me that, I mean, I am a real estate professional.
I'm in my 70s.
And I have been with customers who've actually said they want him dead.
The hatred towards this man is beyond anything.
I grew up, you know, the Kennedy assassinations, the King and all of that.
And what's going on today is so far gone.
And quite simply, I believe that the media are the ones who need to slow this down.
Okay, Ted, I'm going to leave you there only because I want to play the comments of Wei Zhajang, who's the president of the White House Correspondents Association, about the comments she made about the dinner, about the press, about the president, and here they are from yesterday.
This is a room full of reporters, so I know you've already seen the president's tweet.
My apologies, his post on Truth Social.
And law enforcement has requested that we leave the premises consistent with protocol.
And he wanted to emphasize that nobody was hurt.
He and the First Lady, the cabinet, everybody's safe.
The president will be having a press briefing at the White House in 30 minutes.
That is not a joke.
And he insists that we will reschedule this event in the next 30 days.
And that he wanted to do it tonight.
He wanted to continue despite the news, but has to follow a security protocol.
I said earlier tonight that journalism is a public service because when there is an emergency, we run to the crisis, not away from it.
And on a night when we are thinking about the freedoms in the First Amendment, we must also think about how fragile they are.
I saw all of you reporting, and that's what we do.
So thank God everybody is safe.
And thank you for coming together tonight.
We will do this again.
Thank you, Pija.
Thank you.
Andrew in Florida, Republican line, we have about a minute.
Go ahead.
Yes, sir.
Thanks for listening to me.
You know, I think last night was caused probably by two reasons.
One was rhetoric, and the other thing was people that are living on the edge mentally.
They listen to this stuff, and the media does not have any common sense.
They'll put out media that they like.
They won't do unbiased reporting.
And these people that are on the edge mentally listen to this stuff, and they go off and they do things like this.
And that's my opinion on it.
I don't think it was any big plot.
I don't think nothing like that.
I think we got a guy in office that I voted for.
I voted for him because he's not a politician.
We keep putting in career politicians, and he's rocking the boat with it going after the money that a lot of them are into.
And people don't realize that they're being lied to by their politicians.
That's my opinion.
That's Andrew there in Florida.
Let's see if we can squeeze in one more call.
Gary in Georgia, about 30 seconds.
Democrats line.
Go ahead.
Yes, this is for black people.
Trump staged this.
Where's the entry?
Show us the entry where he came.
This shooter came in.
And he was a black man and he had a gun and they didn't shoot him.
Come on, give me a break.
Look at Trump's ear.
Ain't nothing wrong with his ear.
Trump, that's all I got to say.
Gary in Georgia finishes off three hours of calls from last night's White House Correspondents Association dinner.
Again, if you want to see the events as they played out, a couple of platforms, you can do that.
Trump Staged This Claim00:00:46
You could do that at our website at c-span.org.
Our app is available to you at C-SPANNOW.
Another edition of Washington Journal comes your way.
We'll talk more about this at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning.
We'll see you then.
Ceasefire is next.
Welcome to Ceasefire, where we look to bridge the divide in American politics.
I'm Dasha Burns, Politico White House Bureau Chief, and joining me now on either side of the desk, two guests who have agreed to keep the conversation civil even when they disagree.
Maryland Democratic Congressman Steady Hoyer and Nevada Republican Congressman.