Lucy Hough

We speak to our reporter who was there.

From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth.

Well, dialing in is David Smith, our Washington Bureau Chief.

David, thanks for joining us.

You were at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday in Washington.

Let's start by, can you just describe how it all unfolded and what it was like for you being in that room?

Yes.

And this kind of extraordinary scene of security agents, secret service agents coming in to get the president and his wife, J.D.

Vance, the vice president and his wife out and another senior White House officials who were present and who are reportedly the intended targets of this suspected attack.

What was it like to experience that rapid security response?

So the suspect is Cole Thomas Allen.

What do we know about him?

Because we do know reportedly that he'd been staying in the hotel where this dinner took place for some days prior to the attack, and that he'd also written a manifesto that he'd sent to his family about 10 minutes before carrying out this attempted attack.

Goodness.

And it raises up serious issues and questions of security, doesn't it?

Because as per footage that's been released by Trump on Truth Social, his social media platform, Alan was able to bypass a Secret Service agent, you know, heavily armed with a rifle, but also carrying multiple knives.

So that is quite a serious security failure, isn't it?

So this is the third assassination attempt of the President Donald Trump, isn't it, after two attempts during his 2024 election campaign.

Trump held a press conference right after the incident.

He's then done a series of media interviews.