The armed suspect who charged a security checkpoint at the White House House Correspondents’ Association Dinner planned to target Trump administration officials, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday, as a shaken press corps and hundreds of other attendees continued to recount the dramatic moments after shots were fired in the Washington Hilton ballroom.
NBC News and other outlets said that the suspect, who had a room at the hotel, also left writings in which he described his plans. The suspect, identified by the AP as Cole Allen of Torrance, CA, is in custody and is expected to face a series of federal charges on Monday.
“We’re still looking to try to understand a motive,” Blanche told CNN on Sunday. “From our preliminary investigation, it does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration. I don’t want to go beyond that because we don’t have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target.”
Nearly 3,000 had gathered for the event on Saturday evening for what is Washington’s social event of the year, drawing politicians, news anchors and executives and rank-and-file correspondents to a night known for its humor and revelry. Instead, about 35 minutes into the event, attendees heard four or five shots fired, sending those in tuxes and gowns to the floor and the Secret Service to the stage as they whisked away President Donald Trump and other administration figures.
Blanche said that they expect the suspect to be “charged tomorrow morning with two counts, assault of a federal officer, and using a firearm during a crime of violence, which is underlying assaults.”
After about an hour following the sounds of gunfire, White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang announced that the dinner would be suspended and rescheduled at another date.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl said that the president called him on Sunday morning.
“He relayed a lot about what he said last night about unity in the room and his absolute insistence that this dinner, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, be rescheduled and rescheduled soon,” Karl said in a video on X.
In a message to WHCA members, Jiang, White House correspondent for CBS News, said that the board “will be meeting to assess what happened and determine how to proceed.”
She said, “Last night’s shooting at the Washington Hilton was a harrowing moment for everyone in attendance.
“We express our deepest gratitude to the U.S. Secret Service and all law enforcement personnel who ensured the safety of everyone in the ballroom and beyond. Their actions protected thousands of guests, and we wish a full and speedy recovery to the officer who was injured in the line of duty. We are grateful everyone in attendance was unharmed, including the President, the First Lady, and the Vice President.”
“Our dinner exists to celebrate the First Amendment and the hard daily work of the journalists who defend it. Last night, those journalists showed exactly the kind of calm and courage that work demands, jumping into reporting immediately after the incident unfolded. We are proud of everyone in that room.”
Appearing on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Jiang told moderator Margaret Brennan that “we’re all still processing it.”
Jiang said, “It all happened so fast, and when we were still on stage, we were in the middle of a very light moment with the entertainer who was doing a trick. And when I heard something in the audience, I thought it was a protester or something we’re very used to. But then when I saw SWAT team members come to the head table and rush us to the ground and say, down, down, down, we were crawling off the stage.
“And in the back, that is a holding area where people wait, including President Trump and distinguished guests, to go onto the stage. And we were sitting there, and I saw more than a dozen SWAT officers. There were members of the Secret Service milling about. There were members of the president’s team. And as you can imagine, a lot of conflicting information, because it had just unfolded. I will say it was remarkable to see that in action and to understand it was their quick work that protected all of us that night, not just the president, not just the cabinet, everybody in that hotel.”
Jiang had a number of members of her family in sitting in the ballroom audience.
“This is the first time that I’ve been on the other side of a potentially violent and deadly situation, and no amount of reporting can prepare you for that,” she said. “You’re right that my family was in the audience, and it was incredibly meaningful to have them there. And so that added an additional complicated layer, because I’m thinking about the safety of my members, the safety of all of our dinner guests and obviously at the forefront, the safety of the people who I can see, who matter the most to me. And we didn’t have information. So when I was in the back, I didn’t know if there was an active threat. I was watching the monitors and keeping my eyes right on their table. But at the same time trying to find more information so I could share it with everyone in that room.”