President (9:08)

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, 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.

News Reporter (10:07)

Okay, so that was the initial statement. It was really, you know, not much, not too many questions, but basically detailing what happened. Kash Patel also was in attendance. He was rushed out. You can read some of the details of how all that went down, which perhaps, you know, we'll definitely have a lot more to say, but tomorrow I'm just trying to do a general news roundup now. Now, in terms of the suspect, some of the things that we know now so far, I'm going to go ahead and share this from the Wall Street Journal. The suspect's name is Cole Allen, who is now in custody after an attack outside of the White House correspondence dinner. He is a graduate of Caltech University. He was a teacher of the month and he has been named as the Washington shooting suspect. 31 years old, he was from Torrance, California. So what we know, as you can all see here, is that he was armed with a shotgun, handgun and KN and was a guest at the Washington Hilton where the dinner was taking place. They have not yet shared a motive as they said that Trump has called the shooter, quote, a lone wolf and a whack job. Allen graduated from Caltech, one of the most academically rigorous schools in America, in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Appears to have been an intern or a fellow, I think, at JPL with NASA. So very, very bright individual. He was registered with no party preference. Donated 25 to Act Blue in 2024 with a memo quote earmarked for Har for President. He worked as a teacher at C2 Education, a private tutoring and test prep company where he was named the Teacher of the Month in December of 2024. And he also pursued a master's degree in computer science from Cal State University. Posted a photo of himself in a cap and gown Last year on LinkedIn writing pretty sure my master's in CS is done. Lives in Torrance, 15 miles from Los Angeles in a middle class neighborhood primarily composed of single level ranch homes. A blue scooter was parked on his lawn and a neighbor said he had seen Al riding it around the neighborhood. So obviously big questions here. How did he even get from Torrance, California to the White House Correspondent's Dinner? We do know a little bit about that from the initial statement here which was released by the deputy attorney or I guess the acting attorney general now, Todd Blanch. He said in an interview this morning that the suspect, Cole Allen, traveled from LA to DC via train and passed through Chicago on the way. And so obviously a very, very long way of getting across likely, you know, per transporting weapons, the handgun, the shotgun and the knives that he had in his in in his luggage which he used and checked in the hotel. But obviously premeditated attack if you're booking a hotel long and before. We don't really know a lot about him. And he is not really cooperating with authorities. They're telling people that he was targeting, quote, administration officials. So obviously, huge question marks surrounding still this entire incident. I think the big story outside of, you know, not just the official details. And let me just, of course, say I'm just choosing to do an ENT news roundup for many of you who still have bigger questions about the assassination, don't. Or, sorry, the assassination attempt we will. Or perhaps even just a shooting. I shouldn't even necessarily say that we don't know any of that yet. We will do more of a deep dive tomorrow. You know, the team and I were all researching all of this, but I'm just sticking with what we know and what the official story is now so far from the government. So I just want to make that very, very clear. Here is a weird and frankly bizarre comment from the. From the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanch, who said that the gunman was able to fire five to eight shots when he charged through a security checkpoint outside the dinner. And she asked, was this a massive security failure? And he says, to the contrary, it was a massive security success story. Let's take a listen.

Inner Balance Advertiser (13:52)

The gunman was able to fire at

News Reporter (13:54)

least five to eight shots when he charged through a security checkpoint outside the dinner. Was this a massive security failure?

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch (14:05)

Oh, to the contrary, it was a massive security success story. I mean, if you think about what happened as far as what we know right now, this. This suspect barely breached the perimeter. And so when you have a perimeter of a situation like we had last night, where you had over 2,000 people in a room, including the leaders of this country and many other dignitaries, you have a perimeter where. Where you have law enforcement willing to risk their lives to keep people who don't belong from getting in. This man, from what we know from video surveillance and from witnesses who were there, barely got past the perimeter. He was immediately subdued. And yes, he got off a couple shots. Our brave Secret service agent, who took one to the chest, although he was wearing a bulletproof vest. The president talked to him last night from the Oval Office. He was in great spirits. He was very appreciative. The president expressed his appreciation association.

News Reporter (15:01)

Okay, so you can see there that the deputy attorney general is calling this a massive, secure security success story. I can just say, as an independent person, I. I don't think that that is in any way true. So the Washington Hilton, As I said, I've been to that hotel many times. I used to live right next to it. And that Washington Hilton, apparently so there's the ballroom, which is inside of the hotel, but the rest of the hotel was not locked down, not just for guests. And obviously he was a guest at the hotel. And the security. No, there was no X ray luggage. I have attended events in as a reporter where I had a suitcase or something like that. Let's say I had to bring it to an event that had to be passed through an X ray machine. And I'm talking about hours before any sort of VIP were even going to get there. So that's what kind of makes this a little weird. Right. So there was no standard security protocol. So there's that number two is again, for anybody who's attended some of these events. It's. The entire building is usually locked down. You're not. You can't even go in and out. We also have a lot of testimony from guests who were shocked at the lack of security at the event. I'm not going to play all of this, but this was Simone Sander Sanders, who's recounting how poor the security was at the White House Correspondent Center. She says, I actually showed up to the Hilton Shortly after 8pm I took a scooter right up to the front of the driveway. Crazy. Again, there's usually barricades, multiple different checkpoints at this bit matters because, you know, because there's a lot of protesters outside a lot of those barricades before you actually enter into the driveway. This year, there were no protesters. I came to find out people were milling about in the lobby when I got off the scooter and into the front of the barricade. Usually you have to show ID and a ticket. The folks, the security at the gate who are not agents, they were identified as Secret Service. They were not identified as Secret Service agents. They did not ask me to show id. They did not ask me to show a ticket. They said, oh, you're good. I'm sure you're going to your room. She said she wasn't even saying there. As I entered into the driveway, I saw the vehicle. The beast was driving around in a circle of the Hilton driveway, people walking around near it, taking photos. Again, you're not like, I, I'm not just a layman. I cover the White House. I've been in the motorcade. I've attended dozens of these events. As a professional, I'm telling you, like, this is not normal. When I entered into the Hilton, I asked Secret Service agents, which I saw, they were identified as Secret Service agents, which way the ballroom was. They said they didn't Know, when I finally got to the elevator, no one asked me to show my id. No one asked me to show a ticket. I got all the way down to the red carpet area without ever showing a ticket to anyone in the Hilton. I'm saying it like this because this is unusual. So I went to the dnc, right, with the whole team, me and Ryan, we passed through probably four barricades before you're even allowed to get into the convention as a journalist, even with the press cornet credentials, hard press credentials which have your photo, your name, that means you've been pre cleared and all of that by Secret Service. The amount of rigmarole that you often have to go through if you're not traveling in the President's motorcade just to be able to get to this event. I mean, again, literally days of my life. The Beast. Yeah. The only time that you're generally like allowed around the Beast normally is if you're in the motorcade and then you can't get out of your vehicle and go like up to the President's. I mean, it look, you know, words barely begin to describe. And some members of Congress are also highlighting this. Here's Mike Lawler, the Congressman. He's saying while the security perimeter outside of the ballroom worked, the Secret Service and federal law enforcement acted swiftly to secure the ballroom and move the President and high level officials out of harm's way. The fact is, numerous glaring security issues. There was no photo id, no verified list of attendees, which is very common for a White House event. Not just common is, that's the standard. There were no magnetometers before the ballroom prior to the event. There were numerous receptions that someone could have easily gotten into with limited security. The building was still open to the general public. Without getting into details, I will just say there was not a good handle on how many members of this Congress were at the event and where they were in the room. There needs to be a complete, thorough after action report as to how the gunman got from his hotel room into a secure area with numerous guns. I will also note we'll go much more into detail this tomorrow. There is a reported, you know, shooting that happened a couple of weeks ago apparently near the White House, which no details that the Secret Service has been able to run down. The trail has gone completely cold. There have been numerous of these types of incidents. There's a report out there that Trump has apparently been subject to more assassination or like public assassination plots, I think, than any modern president. And to see the breakdown in the security perimeter, I Think it is very valid for all of us to ask a lot of questions about how all of this happens happen and the fact that the administration, frankly, I mean, look, I, I, I, I can only speculate but you know, them praising the Secret Service and of course we can praise the individual agents, but at an overall planning level, this is not normal. As I said here just about the Hilton Hotel, the Hilton Ballroom, about how the fact that public people were allowed in, the fact that there was apparently no scrutiny of guests, the fact, I mean I could go on forever like the, the, the beast detail there that was shared. There have been multiple guests now, not just that one person, I'm not cherry picking, who talked about the lack of security and how the fact going into the ballroom itself and not securing the entire hotel, the fact, you know, look, who, who is this guy? Caltech University, not currently cooperating, we know, took for a train from California to Washington D.C. booked a room sometime in April. That's you know, more sophisticated level of planning necessarily than some sort of opportune style moment. Maybe akin, I would say to the Vegas, the Vegas shooting that happened, I think that was in 2017, which remains, you know, totally basically unsolved in terms of like why that any of that even happened today. Still tons of questions around all of that. So everybody, you know, be, be very scrutinous I think of a lot of statements and it's not like, you know, you have good reason not to have total faith in Cash Patel, who is said to be leading the investigation. So yeah, we're going to spend a decent amount of time going through even more of what we know, don't know some of the statements made by the president, by the press secretary before any of this and all happened. But I did just to give a full rundown of everything that we know right now with also the appropriate level of skepticism, as we have seen. Look, it's a breaking situation. Things are always wrong. Don't forget that initially CNN said that the shooter was dead. Now they said he's not even hurt. You know, initially there was, oh, somebody might have been shot and yes, it was a Secret Service agent, but you know, he wasn't shot and hurt. So I guess it is technically true. But there's a lot of details like that that were very chaotic. Also the Secret Service, you know, in security details of all these cabinet officials running in and escorting these people out and then what happened, you know, in the hours after that and what exactly the detail and decision to cancel the event, what that all kind of broke down into. So there will be quite a bit, I think of talking about this now in the coming days. And last thing, just to give you a little bit of a preview of what the main takeaway from the president and some of his supporters are, here is Trump this morning. 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 years have been demanding a large, safe and secure ballroom be built on the grounds of the White House. This event would never have happened with a militarily top secret ballroom currently under construction of 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 unsecured people to pour in as inside the gates of the most secure building in the world, White House. The ridiculous ballroom lawsuit brought by a woman walking her dog. I don't know what this is about. Who has absolutely no standing must be dropped. 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. So that's been echoed by the president at the podium yesterday in his most recent truth social post and I believe even John Fetterman another saying now it's enough to drop the TDS to support the construction of the ballroom which appears to be I guess you know, outside of not just Secret Service take away what which is kind of what I think it should be and or questions you know about the official story is also about the ballroom. Right. So apparently, you know this is now the reason, the reason why it absolutely must and has to be built. We could talk about that at a later time. You know, don't usually want to immediately pile on with obviously which is not the most important story of this. So I hope this is helpful for kind of understanding everything that we from shooting what we know suspect Caltech grad Cole Allen currently in custody. The fact that the president, the initial statements and all that about how and what this all went down from law enforcement. Then we got to the ballroom which seems to be like a bigger thing and bigger, much bigger question to me. United States Secret Service. I don't know why I've been wasting all my time in all these lines if this continue to keep happening something like this. So that's just my own personal takeaway. It really is just, you know, can't understate enough. And I'm sure you've heard this from from every person who's quote in the know but you know, if you've ever had to been through so many dozens of these types of thing, it's crazy. It's that was my first takeaway. I could not believe the security failure just in terms of the perimeter and how it all went down. I've. I've never seen anything like it and I have been to multiple of these types of events over the years. So that's, that's what we got and we will see you all tomorrow as we said with some some bigger questions if we need to about some of the information that's coming out, the fallout and any potential investigation and new details. Thank you all very much. We'll see you later.

Podcast Host (24:34)

Cantu heard you loud and clear with their new Ultra Moisture collection. Powered by Patana Oil and Jamaican Black Castor Oil, this new lineup collection is clinically proven to deliver non stop moisture for up to five days. Five whole days. The shampoo gently cleanses without stripping and the leave in and stylers keep curls soft, defined and nourished long after wash day. Plus it's free of sulfates, parabens, silicones and mineral oils. If your curls have been craving real moisture, this is it. So if your hair's curls have been thirsty, go ahead and try the new Cantu Ultra Moisture Collection. Your curls will thank you. Available now at Walmart.

Inner Balance Advertiser (25:11)

If you're feeling off fatigue, mood changes, skin shifts, yet your labs say everything's normal.

Podcast Host (25:17)

Normal.

Inner Balance Advertiser (25:17)

You're not alone. Meet Oestra from Inner Balance, the first all in one prescription Strength Bioidentical hormone cream that's natural and effective and only takes one drop, 10 seconds a day. Oester replaces five to six products women typically use to treat symptoms and is third party tested to ensure the highest quality. Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again.

Reynolds Kitchens Advertiser (25:41)

That's innerbalance.com Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret Getting ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter beforehand so the paper grips and stays in place. Then lay down the Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper so drips and spills stay on the paper, not all over your kitchen counter. You can roll out dough, prep a party spread or cook alongside family. When you're done, cleanup is as simple as lifting the paper and revealing that clean counter underneath. Effortless. You can use it for cooking and baking, prep and even crafting, especially when you need extra working space. Because when the mess is already handled, you can focus on what matters the food, the people and the moment. It may look effortless, but now you know. It's Reynolds Kitchens countertop prepaid. Take a tip from me. Wet it, set it, prep it. Done. Make it easy. Make it with Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Available now in the Reynolds wrap aisle in Walmart and Target.

Podcast Host (26:53)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.