FBI Director Kash Patel said law enforcement and security are “going to be ready” for a second White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, after a Saturday night shooting led to the disruption of the original event.
After a gunman rushed through security before being apprehended by law enforcement at Saturday evening’s event, President Donald Trump announced he wants to put on another event in the next month to make up for the dinner being cut short. Patel said the security detail covering the event will be “completely different” next time.
“I think we are going to do it entirely differently,” Patel said on Fox & Friends. “You heard the president say on Saturday night that we’re going to do this again in short order, maybe in 30 days or so, and we’re going to be ready for that. The security posture, I imagine, is going to be completely different.”
Though the suspected gunman, a 31-year-old teacher from California named Cole Allen, was apprehended by law enforcement before making it into the event room, he did breach the security screening checkpoint within the hotel and came close to the entrance of the dinner. A Secret Service agent was shot by the gunman in his bulletproof vest, marking the only injury reported from the scene at the Washington Hilton hotel.
The incident has raised serious concerns about how a man armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives was able to come so close to entering such a high-profile dinner.
“It’s true the Secret Service protective model worked, but it only worked because of luck,” former Secret Service agent Bill Gage told MS Now. “It was just luck he didn’t get into the room and have a chance to open fire.”
The outlet noted in its piece about the security pitfalls of the event that the staff at the final security checkpoint allowed the gunman to breach and run through the front of the checkpoint. That final checkpoint, with a weapons magnetometer screener, was only one flight of stairs away from the main entrance to the event room.
Further, guests at the Washington Hilton were able to roam free in the hotel lobby without a credential or identification check, making the magnetometer checkpoint the only thing standing in the way between guests and the nearby event space.
Allen was a guest staying at the hotel at the time of the shooting. He apparently ran down 10 flights of an interior stairwell to circumvent major areas of the hotel with security details, according to CBS News.
“I’ll be working with the White House, with the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police Department,” Patel said in the Fox News interview Monday morning. “The FBI will be fully resourced for that event to assist in the security, and we will provide our input.”
He said the agencies are already communicating on how to make changes for the possible next WHCA event. Trump wants the association to put on another dinner within the next 30 days. When asked for comment, the White House declined to reveal a date or time for the event.
Patel said the security detail will be “better postured” for the rescheduled event. He also said many more details of the investigation will be released in the criminal complaint against the shooting suspect, who is set to be arraigned on Monday.
“Quite an evening in D.C.,” Trump wrote Saturday evening on Truth Social. “Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely.”
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The security breach marks the third apparent assassination attempt against Trump’s life, following the incidents in which a gunman shot at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and when attempted assassin Ryan Routh was found while waiting for Trump on a Florida golf course with a rifle.
The Washington Hilton was also the location where John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.