Bill Kristol (3:39)

Yeah. Well, first of all, obviously I join you in gratitude that no one was hurt and admiration for the law enforcement officials and yeah, it's a terrible, it's a terrible thing to. Even the attempt is terrible. We're grateful it didn't result in casualties, obviously. You know, I've been at many of these, though it's been a while since I stopped going a while ago. So I've been to that hotel a zillion times as we all have a big hotel right in D.C. where President Reagan was shot in 1981 coming out of an event. Actually, I would say this, it is a hotel, so it's a little hard. I mean, they're pretty good. They do secure the ballroom in a very serious way and that's what stopped anything from happening. So that was good. Pretty hard. They do. I can't remember. They check your tickets even coming in the door. I don't really recall that because they were okay. But they are hotel guests.

Sam Stein (4:25)

I mean, he was and he was a guest.

Bill Kristol (4:27)

Yeah, at its function, at its functioning hotel. And I don't even. The restaurant upstairs, for all I know, is open. I don't know. You know, it's, it's, it's. They don't close down the whole hotel. One of the nice things about Washington, I would say this could change, obviously, or has changed a bit over the years. It'll change more is we have the President, we have, as you say at this dinner, a ton of dictators. But there are many, there are other such dinners with huge numbers of important people, you know, other clubs, great iron and they just the embassy events. And one of the nice things about Washington is it's pretty good at Maintaining normal functioning. So you could be going out to dinner somewhere and you know, 50 yards away there's a very important event. And the Secret Service has gotten pretty good at protecting their. The people they're supposed to protect and not shutting down huge chunks of the city. And that's certainly. They've tried to keep that even for this dinner, which is probably one of the biggest such things that they have to deal with. And so I don't know. I don't know. We'll see what happens. There'll be after action reports. I totally agree with you. No one should jump to conclusions. I don't know that they actually shot the guy. Seems like he's not hurt. And so they only stopped him though, which is good. And then stopping him without shooting him, I suppose is better. So I mean, one shouldn't complain about that or that's not a failure. But anyway, it's.

Sam Stein (5:38)

Can I make a point on what you just said about sort of the ways in which professional Washington and you know, normal Washington kind of co mingle with respect to this dinner? And I tried to outline it last night, but I think one thing I left out about it is again, I'm gonna do this without visuals, so bear with me. But the. The hotel is on a cross street of Connecticut Avenue and T. Okay. And it's right in the corner. And the main entrance is on Connecticut Avenue. There's a big roundabout, you can drive in and you can get dropped off. But there is the other entrance on T Street which is on the side, which happens to be a floor below. Put aside T Street for a second. On the Connecticut Avenue entrance, you can walk in on the front door and you're in the lobby of the hotel. And back in the Obama era when there was always like a lot of Hollywood people who were coming to this dinner, a lot of people who were staying at the hotel would be waiting right in the lobby. Not like held back by much, if anything, maybe some rope. And they would just be clamoring to take pictures or shake hands or anything like that. And the reason I bring this up is this guy, Cole Allen, the suspect, booked a hotel, according to the police, in April and had a room there and there. As far as I can tell. Again, I wasn't there last night. But there's nothing that could have stopped him from just waiting in the lobby. Basically, as people walked in through that main entrance on Connecticut Avenue to get to where the pre parties which are on that floor and on the T Street floor, there is a real intermingling of just average Joe citizen who happens to be at the hotel or who booked the hotel because they wanted to get a fresh look at these people. And you know, Washington dignitaries who enter in through those entrances. Now the I don't know who I was in ghetto in there last night. I don't know who entered through what entrance. Obviously the vice president, the president. They don't go in that way. They have better protocols. But it's not uncommon for cabinet officials to be going through either the T Street or the Connecticut Avenue entrance where on the T Street side at least there is usually a sort of a. What do they call those things where they have photo shoots, red carpet type. Yeah, I mean I've been there plenty of times where there's been cabinet officials mingling about. So it's maybe they have to rethink this whole thing. I don't know.

Bill Kristol (8:16)

No, I don't think so. I mean you would, you don't want to live in a country where cabinet officials like, you know, are under presidential level protection. No, I mean I worked for in the White House and I worked for the vice president. We went into a million back entrances and didn't have generally would not enter an event like this through the public interest. But when I worked for cabinet secretary, of course we did. And I don't need to minimize threats. And of course if there are particular threats, people should take precautions if there's anything.

Sam Stein (8:40)

Well, I would just say Todd Blanche was on on the shows this morning just to add a note. We got very little so far, but he did say that this guy, Cole Allen, the alleged shooter, was looking to target members of the administration. He didn't say the president specifically said members of the administration.

Bill Kristol (8:58)

So just that no look at if they have and maybe they should rethink or maybe it's at least for a while rethink or certainly when they're all together in one place, it's one thing. But you know, you and I have been at a million events where cabinet secretaries, important ones speak and there' no, I mean they have their own security detail and there's a little bit of they alert the Washington metfar police. There's some, sometimes there's not usually a magnetometer, but there's usually some, you know, some security. But I mean these people are out and about speaking as they should be in a democracy, not just in Washington incidentally, and all around the country. So I think some of it's just unborn. Well, yeah, we'll learn much more how we I guess what, what firearms he Had. Was it a shotgun?

Sam Stein (9:36)

We think there's mixed reports about this. I saw a shotgun. I saw our old pal Mark Caputo was. It was a rifle. I'll pull up the tweet while you talk.

Bill Kristol (9:45)

It doesn't sound like there was a shotgun shot, but who? I don't know. I wasn't there. As I say, I stopped going to these dinners quite a while ago. So anyway, but no point speculating. I mean, that part. Law enforcement will do its job. And they got him. Obviously. It's good that they have him. It's good that they have him uninjured. They can interrogate him and in an appropriate way. And obviously we'll all learn much more about him, I suppose, over the next day or so.

Sam Stein (10:11)

So let's talk a tiny bit about. So just getting Caputo. According to his reporting, the accused assassin had a shotgun, not a rifle, as others had reported. In terms of this guy, I mean, again, without getting too much into it, this guy appears to be 30, 31 years old and he was from California. He. It looks like he was relatively academically accomplished. I don't know if you saw some of his background. Yeah, working in education, you know, not,

Bill Kristol (10:50)

you know, I think the education thing is a little fat. I mean, so he went to Caltech and He obviously went to Caltech, some scientific knowledge and so to speak, and seem to have developed some game that he was very successful. The, the, the original reports, which I've got to say, some people made a big deal of online Teacher of the Year, made it sound like he was a public school teacher somewhere who'd been honored. He seems to be teaching in some. And I don't mean to minimize this. That's fine. But in, in some tutoring. Yeah, like a SAT prep kind of thing. Whatever. Perfectly adequate way to make a living and all that. But it's not quite that he's, you know, not vetted as a teacher and not. Anyway, so the teacher, he's a teacher of years from this, from this company, you know, so who knows whether he was happy. Well, he wasn't unhappy. Frustrated.

Sam Stein (11:35)

We don't know. I mean, he's a Caltech grad. Yeah, he's a Caltech grad who ended up in some sort of Kaplan like service. So infer what you want.

Bill Kristol (11:42)

Right.

Sam Stein (11:42)

He then took a train all the way across the country, according to blanche, from LA through Chicago to D.C. that's one way to travel. It does suggest, I don't know, you can make. Actually, I'm not.

Bill Kristol (11:55)

Who knows? Who knows? I took that train once. Some people like trains, you know.

Sam Stein (12:00)

I don't know.

Bill Kristol (12:01)

It's a long way. Yeah, no, I think it's a lot quite.

Sam Stein (12:03)

It's quite a long way.

Bill Kristol (12:04)

He certainly wanted to come. I mean, certainly. It wasn't the last thought he had.

Sam Stein (12:08)

It was obviously premeditated. I mean, he booked the hotel room. Right. Like when we were initially getting this stuff last night, you know, it was obviously a rush to figure out what. Who was, who was responsible for it and what the motivation was. And, you know, my initial instinct was, you know, someone had, you know, managed to sneak in somehow with a gun, obviously, and then. But I had presumed that it was someone who was, you know, just like in and about a crazy man around town. And then it became clear from the Washington Police Department that he had booked the hotel room. And that obviously suggests strongly some planning went into this, that they went about and got a room, which I'm a little bit surprised that they were able to do in April for this. And obviously then he went all the way across country, took the training, took the plane, which. Did he bring his gun with him on the train? I don't know. Those are some questions.

Bill Kristol (13:02)

Well, maybe that's why he took the train. Right? Yeah. I mean, check you. I don't think usually at the.

Sam Stein (13:06)

I don't think so.

Bill Kristol (13:07)

Not usually, no. Not when I've been on the various trains.

Sam Stein (13:10)

I think you're allowed to bring guns on Amtrak now too, right?

Bill Kristol (13:12)

So, yeah, you're actually allowed to anyway. They don't look, you know, in your luggage. I don't think the other thing I would say is I think, I don't know, people said last night. I don't blame anyone for saying anything, you know, the president was good, it was fine. His press conference, pretty responsible, but it's a lone wolf. We don't know. Actually, this is what the FBI is looking into and local police. We don't know. I mean, I don't mean to be in any way a conspiracy monger. I hope that he was a lone wolf. I suspect he was, but we don't know if he had friends. They'll certainly be interrogating all of his friends in social circles. Was anyone else know about this? Did anyone have a hint of this? Did anyone, you know, help encourage him to do it? So that'll be a big focus today. It feels like a lone wolf, but that doesn't mean that he, you know, one of the first things you have looked at in all these cases in any normal. So not just what the President's there is, you know, did other people.

Sam Stein (14:01)

Well, your questions, did anyone know about that? Even if he wasn't acting with the help of anyone else, like it takes some sort of planning preparation to get a shotgun, go across the country, book your hotel room. I mean if he had any sort of social friends or you know, family members and he explains them, hey, I'm going to D.C. in April to do this. Like did they say, well why are you doing that? And did anyone have any indication?

Bill Kristol (14:28)

So they'll look into that today.

SpinQuest Advertiser (14:30)

You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spinquest.com the time flies by. That two hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots, live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for 10 bucks. Play spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again.

Sam Stein (14:54)

Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

Bill Kristol (15:01)

Support is available 247 with Verbo Care. We're here day or night, ready whenever you need help. Because a great trip starts with the right support. Let's spend one more minute on the President's main point that he reiterated this morning in a truth social post but he made it last night as well was this makes the case for the ballroom. The secure ballroom on the White House grounds that will seat 2000 people will be totally secure and all that. I have a thought or two about that. But do you want to say a word?

Sam Stein (15:37)

Yeah. This was like within 20 to 30 minutes of news of this breaking. You just started seeing a deluge of tweets from Maga console. You know this is the ball they should. They gotta approve the ballroom. It has to be the ballroom. I can't believe they aren't doing the ballroom. And like I first of all, there's no real, there's no indication this dinner would be in the ballroom.

Bill Kristol (16:04)

That's the key point. If I could just say. Can I interrupt? I'm so struck by this. Having been at this dinner and having been at many honestly events over the decades, I guess, yeah, it's not a White House event, it's a correspondence event. Now the President is a guest. Now having said that, when the President is a guest at an event, if he came to your house for dinner or if he came to a 2,000 person dinner, there'll be different protocols. The Social Security will come and check it out ahead of time. I've been at Such things, you know, I mean, it's obviously treated differently from a, you know, come over to my house for dinner, Sam kind of thing. Having said that, the president's assumption and all the pro ballroom people's assumption is that every. Seems to be every major event that the president involved in will be held at the White House ballroom. So think about that for a minute. That's a White House event. The White House controls it. And I think we are. The ballroom would put us on a slippery slope to having the president only hosting events, if I can put it this way. Not being a guest at events that seem pedantic maybe a little bit, but it sort of changes the character of things. Right. When the President right now or the Vice President goes to an event that's around the country or in D.C. it's hosted by someone, he's the guest as better security. But he's speaking. Well, there we go. Look at that excuse. He's speaking to.

Sam Stein (17:13)

He's a fan. He's a fan of the ballroom.

Bill Kristol (17:16)

Yeah. He's annoyed.

Sam Stein (17:17)

He's a big ballroom guy.

Bill Kristol (17:18)

Oh, God. Yeah, I know. Hey, bud. Anyway, not to be too. To overdo the ballroom stuff. Yeah. What are you locking that kid in there, Sam? Geez. You know, cute. That was good. That was a good Breaking the Celebrity. No, but not to overthink this. I just want to make the point that I think you don't want to go down a path, or at least we want us to have a discussion before going down the path that the President, United States is going to basically only do big events that he hosts. Yeah.

Sam Stein (17:47)

I don't think it's a pedantic point at all. First of all, Trump didn't go to this event for many years. He refused to go to the event. Like, in. In the future, what would happen if the event had to be at the ballroom? And he's like, I don't want to go. I mean, are they going to not do the event? Secondly, I think it's more than symbolic that the. This is the White House Correspondence association, it's their event. They choose where it is, and he is a guest. And that is the point of the relationship, is that even though it's a celebration of the press and it is meant to sort of, you know, roast and toast, I guess the people in the industry, it fundamentally is about a relationship that is, they are there to scrutinize you and you're not hosting them. That is the balance of the relationship. The ballroom thing is just. I'm with you. I'm struck by how much it kind of shifts the balance of power. I think you raise a very good point. Would he be able to control the guest list and decide who came and who didn't? And then on top of that, you know, obviously, this is, like, his biggest passion project right now, and he seems to be totally enamored with building this ballroom. And I didn't find it, like, particularly. It wasn't all that offensive. But there was something uncomfortable with how quickly every Mag account and he himself shifted to, well, now we have to build my big sort of crowning ballroom. And this is obviously what has to happen. Now there is a sort of. I'm trying to choose my words carefully here, because it's not the same as people who are rushing to, like, cast motivations on the shooter. But there was an opportunism to what

Bill Kristol (19:36)

they were doing, and it does bring home the premise. At least his premise. Maybe the ball would be rented out and they wouldn't control the guest. They can't do that. It's at the White House. So they would have to control the guest list. Now, look, the Secret Service, even if it's at the Hilton, takes a look at the guest list, it might say, hey, this guy is stuck on here and he's a criminal. I mean, seriously, that happens. Or, this guy's too much of a risk. You shouldn't. We don't want him at this dinner. That's very different still from, I've been to White House events with the President. I've been to events outside the White House. It's a totally different feel. What is? I mean, as it should be. The President is the host of a White House event. He, in theory, he or his staff arrange the speakers. They arrange.

Sam Stein (20:14)

Yeah. If it's a state dinner he hosts.

Bill Kristol (20:16)

Yeah. Or even an informal dinner or the governors or an ra. It is striking when you think about it. How many of the events now are at Mar A lot. The events that used to be random places that the House Republicans would have a retreat in, I don't know, Williamsburg or something, and the President would helicopter in and give some remarks.

Sam Stein (20:33)

Now it's a G20 at his.

Bill Kristol (20:36)

But now it's in Mar A lago now the G20. And so I think there's a kind of imperial character to the ballroom that goes way beyond what might otherwise be a normal. Let's have more entertaining space at the White House for the normal dinners that a president is entitled to have at the White House. I think, in a way, this immediate reaction to say this should have been in the ballroom does show how the kind of imperial underside, if I could put it that way, to the, you know, to the pressure to the attempt to build this ballroom.

Sam Stein (21:04)

So should we put up his post this morning? Because he did reference it in the post.

Bill Kristol (21:08)

Yeah. So this is. This is not last night. His immediate. This is this morning, like at 8:45am Just before we came on here. And people can read it. We don't need to read the whole thing, but on the grounds of the White House. I mean, he want. If it's on the grounds of the White House, it cannot be the same kind of event. I'll just put it this way, as if. As if dignitaries are going to events elsewhere, and there can be lots of security at the events elsewhere, but it's just not the same as a White House event. And I think that distinction is important to make. And what Trump seems to be indicating is that, you know, sort of every event in D.C. at which he would be. Every large event, at least in which he'd be a participant, would be on the grounds of the White House. I don't think that's a good thing.

Sam Stein (21:49)

No. And also the other way to look at it, and we could take the thing off. There's some, you know, presidents do have. They do benefit from getting out of the White House. They do. Whether it's, you know, on the campaign trail, talking to voters, but even that's sort of shielded and guarded, but actually like going out having a dinner, you know, trying to be among other people that maybe aren't, like their best friends or sycophants or cabinet members. And Trump has been, I think, one of the least not accessible, but he's gone out about as little as the President has in Washington, D.C. i think there's been maybe one case this entire term where he's eaten somewhere other than the White House or a property he owns, and that was Joe's Crab or whatever it is, and a code pink protester showed up, and that was that. He wasn't gonna do that again. So, you know, the. The idea, the fact that he actually went to this White House correspondence center was a remarkable thing because he never. He doesn't do it, and then this happens, and now he's just gonna, you know, hunker down a little bit more, I suppose, and everything has to be in the White House now. And look, I. We're still trying to figure out what. What transpired here. How did this breach happen?

Bill Kristol (23:07)

What.

Sam Stein (23:08)

How endangered was the president, was Cole Allen or whoever the alleged shooter, Cole Allen. Was he actually targeting the President? But it would be unfortunate if the reaction to this is that we just don't do events outside the White House. That would be an unfortunate side effect, in my opinion.

Bill Kristol (23:25)

No, I very much agree with that. Should we leave it there? And I'm gonna.

Sam Stein (23:30)

Should I get my kid. Should I get my kid back? Get his last thoughts on this.

Bill Kristol (23:34)

I myself would welcome him, but I don't know, maybe we should. Maybe we should leave him alone. Is he getting ready for some Sunday sports activity or.

Sam Stein (23:41)

Yeah, Is he getting ready? Yeah, man. I'm coaching that team, too. We're gonna go kick some butt.

Bill Kristol (23:46)

Kindergarten, T. The kids are always more reasonable than the coaches and the kids are more relaxed. The coaches. I feel like I'm a major.

Sam Stein (23:54)

You're not preparing.

Bill Kristol (23:55)

I'm a major. You could do. You took 20 minutes off to do this. You're not prepared.

Sam Stein (23:59)

I prepped last night. I looked through the analytics. We're going real small ball today. And I bought a good amount of gummy bears so that they can be motivated properly.

Bill Kristol (24:09)

Sam, thanks for taking the time to do this. I'll be back actually at noon. I'll give a little update if we know anything new, frankly on this. But mostly it's a normal, so to speak, bull work on Sunday with Tom Jo, talk about other issues. But Sam, thanks for taking the time and thank you all for joining us this morning.

SpinQuest Advertiser (24:25)

You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on spinquest.com, the time flies by. That two hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots live blackjack, live preps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for 10 bucks. Play spinquest.com and you'll never be bored again.

Sam Stein (24:49)

Spin Quest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

Bill Kristol (24:55)

From Geico Subconscious News, I'm Tammy. Racing thoughts broadcasting from your brain. You think you live in a pretty safe place, but you just heard about a break in four miles away, which isn't close, but it isn't far either. You know our palpitations is on the scene.

Sam Stein (25:06)

I sure am, Tammy. And I don't even know why I drove out here because as you know, you got customized renters insurance through Geico, so your stuff is covered.

Bill Kristol (25:14)

Oh, well, that's great. Any sign of crime there, Art?

Sam Stein (25:17)

Just some light littering, Tammy. But like they say, a little litter can lead to a lot wise words.

Bill Kristol (25:22)

It feels good to worry less. It feels good to geico.