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What happened at the White House Correspondents' Dinner?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. President Trump says he wanted to continue the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night after a gunman opened fire, but that it was the right thing to leave the Washington Hilton. NPR's Franco Ordonez reports now Trump is pointing to the shooting as a reason to finish the controversial White House ballroom under construction.
President Trump says a shooting would never have happened if it were held in the new ballroom he's having built at the White House. He called the Washington Hilton not a particularly secure site, as he explained on Fox News. Well, it's always tough when you have a thousand rooms. It's a large hotel right on top.
And so people come down in elevators and they're right over the top of where you're speaking, not very far away. And it's pretty tough. And, you know, as you know, we're building a big, beautiful, very, very secure ballroom in every way with A massive bulletproof glass that's almost four inches thick. The White House ballroom is facing legal hurdles.
Even if it is built, it's not clear if the dinner could be held there. The annual event is private. Franco Ordonez, NPR News.
The suspect is due to be arraigned tomorrow in federal court, initially facing weapons and assault charges. Officials say more charges may be added as the investigation continues. He's been identified as Cole Allen, a 31-year-old man from the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, California. Steve Futterman went there and spoke with people who knew him.
On the street where Cole Thomas Allen lived, law enforcement spent much of the night gathering evidence that might explain what led to last night's shooting. Allen, a graduate of Caltech, worked for a company that provides tutoring and preparation for college entrance examinations.
Among the evidence that law enforcement was looking for overnight were such things as computers, cell phones, and external digital storage devices.
Steve Futterman reporting. Congress has just one week in town before its next recess. The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since February 14th, which means lawmakers haven't appropriated money. to pay Secret Service agents. NPR's Eric McDaniel reports.
As though the longest agency shutdown in history weren't enough pressure, Saturday night's shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner has refocused lawmakers' attention on the lack of DHS funding.
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