Alleged gunman set to appear in federal court on Monday

[0:00] And we'll begin with the suspect who attempted to storm the White House Correspondents' Dinner [0:04] over the weekend. He is now expected to be arraigned in federal court this morning. [0:09] Authorities say the man, whose name is Cole Allen, could face federal firearm and assault charges. [0:15] The Department of Justice may also file more charges ahead of the hearing. [0:19] FBI agents searched Allen's home in Torrance, California, just hours after the attack. [0:25] Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says the suspect was apparently targeting administration [0:29] officials, likely including President Trump. As MSNOW reporter Nick McCool explains, [0:35] investigators are looking into a letter allegedly written by Allen and sent to his family [0:40] just minutes before the attack. Less than 48 hours after this chaotic scene at the White House [0:50] Correspondents' Center, we're learning more about the suspect allegedly behind the attack. [0:55] He was probably a pretty sick guy. The suspect is Cole Allen of the Los Angeles area, [1:01] according to one former senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter. [1:05] A LinkedIn profile on the suspect's name says he went to Caltech and is a trained engineer, [1:10] working at a college prep organization that once posted they named him Teacher of the Month. [1:15] What we believe happened, at least as of now, is that the suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles [1:22] to Chicago and then Chicago to Washington, D.C., where he checked into to the hotel where the [1:28] where the the correspondence center was at in the in the last day or two. [1:33] Surveillance video showing the suspect running past authorities before being taken down. [1:37] They say he charged a security checkpoint, carrying a shotgun and a handgun as well as knives. [1:43] He has clear sense of what he wants to do and how he's going to carry it out. [1:47] The New York Post has published a note attributed to the suspect, calling himself a, quote, [1:51] friendly federal assassin and saying he was targeting members of the Trump administration. [1:56] James Allen Foxx is a criminologist at Northeastern University. [2:00] Perpetrators like this do not want to be seen as just some nut who [2:03] went off the deep end and killed for no reason at all. He has a reason. He wants us to know it. [2:10] After the attack, President Trump's sitting down for an interview with 60 Minutes. [2:13] How worried were you that there were going to be injuries? [2:19] I wasn't worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world. [2:26] An iconic D.C. event left forever changed in an era of political violence. [2:33] We're going to do it again. We're not going to let anybody take over our society. [2:37] The Secret Service said the one officer who was hit has already been released from the hospital, [2:41] saved by a ballistic vest. And all of this comes as King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to begin [2:47] their official state visit to the U.S. today. Back to you. [2:52] MSNOW's Nick McCool with that report. Let's bring in MSNOW national security and intelligence [2:57] analyst Christopher O'Leary. He's a former senior FBI official who served in the Bureau's [3:01] counterterrorism division and as the U.S. government's director of hostage recovery. [3:06] Chris, good to see you. Let's start with the questions about security at that site. [3:11] Now, we should stipulate something very clearly off the top. The gunman was stopped the full level [3:15] above where President Trump was. There was a lot of security between where he was eventually [3:20] apprehended and the dais with the dignitaries. He wasn't that close. But obviously, he posed a real [3:26] danger to other people in the area. The hotel is public. The hotel remains open for guests, [3:33] even as this dinner is held down in the massive ballroom in the basement. What are some things [3:38] that strike you about vulnerabilities? Yeah. So I think from the Secret Services [3:45] standpoint, their security plan worked. You know, their priority is the president, [3:50] the vice president and other protectees that they have responsibility for. And they were able to [3:56] successfully evacuate them. Now, they are the best in the world at this. But, you know, protecting [4:02] these high-threat principles is always a challenge. So they are going to be very self-critical. They'll [4:09] assess what went well, what went poorly, and they'll make adjustments. The broader question is the venue [4:16] security and the vulnerability of other people that were there. And certainly, this individual should [4:23] not have been able to run at a full sprint through the magnetometer area because action is faster than [4:31] reaction. And as you can see, even though the law enforcement officers and Secret Service Uniform [4:36] Division did react, the assailant was already past them. And then the one thing that comes to mind, [4:42] having spent a lot of time overseas, thank God this individual was not a suicide bomber because [4:48] we'd be talking about hundreds of casualties right now if he would have gone that route. So [4:54] certainly, things need to be changed. Harden this target. Maybe look at this if it repeats itself as [5:00] a national security event and bring additional resources and back the initial, you know, [5:08] outer cordon up outside of the hotel. But again, there's always going to be a vulnerable point, [5:15] you know, that first, you know, point of contact where a subject can get to. [5:19] Yeah, and president's public schedules are usually pretty guarded, [5:23] only released a short time in advance. But this is the rare public event where people knew exactly [5:28] when and where it's held, and that the president, you know, he announced weeks ago that he was going. [5:33] So this would be someone someone could plan to hit. And let me ask you that, Chris, on that idea that [5:38] unfortunately, we have seen a real rise in political violence. There have been a few number of [5:43] assassination attempts on President Trump. We have seen lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, [5:48] targeted by extremists on both sides of the political spectrum. Just as you think about this, [5:54] as public figures going forward, what other adjustments, sadly, may they all need to make? [5:59] Well, the biggest adjustment is leadership by example, turning the temperature down quite a bit, [6:07] because leaders do set an example, whether it's a good example or a bad example. [6:12] And if there's toxic leadership and hyperpolarization in the United States, [6:16] with social media and disinformation out there and conspiracy theories, [6:19] vulnerable people might think this is a rational act and might turn towards violence. I mean, [6:26] we've seen periods of it, not only in the United States, but I'll point back to the 1800s, [6:33] the real advent of assassination as a tool started in the 1800s by an Italian anarchist who tried to [6:40] assassinate Napoleon III. He failed, but it was called the Orsini affair. He had this rudimentary [6:46] hand grenade. But that was replicated time and time again. And leaders from France, Spain, Italy, [6:55] ultimately, President McKinley were assassinated by anarchists. And then Teddy Roosevelt, there was an [7:02] attempt on his life. And most notably, World War I started from Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian anarchist, [7:10] assassinating Archduke Ferdinand. So the idea that assassination was an effective tool [7:15] became something that became the norm. Then in the United States, you know, we had instability in [7:21] the United States and political grievances in the late 60s and through the 70s. And we had violence [7:27] across the United States. Bombings were routine in the United States. And certainly we had assassinations [7:33] between Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and George Wallace attempt, attempts against [7:40] President Ford. So the idea when you have a political grievance and you've tried everything [7:46] else, people turn towards political violence, more often not because they have a mental defect, [7:53] which a lot of people like to immediately go to. But from their perspective, they've tried other [7:59] things, whether it's using their vote, whether it's petitioning, whether it's protesting, and they feel [8:05] voiceless. And often these people turn towards political violence because they think it's a [8:10] rational act, not because they have a mental defect. Terrific insight there. MS Dow, National Security [8:16] and Intelligence Analyst, former senior FBI official Chris O'Leary. Chris, thank you again for joining us [8:21] this morning. So, David, what do we tell us what we know about this suspect? As we heard from Nick [8:25] McCool there a few minutes ago, you know, manifesto apparently was discovered, sent to family members [8:32] and like, in which he did lay out some of his reasoning for what he was about to do. Tell us [8:37] what we've learned. So it's, he went to Caltech. It's one of the toughest schools in the country to [8:41] get in, you know, brilliant. There's a lot of great reporting out there by our colleagues and others [8:46] about, you know, he was a good teacher. He was liked on campus and people expressing shock at this. [8:52] To his credit, there was, it's the family member, as Chris said, that he sent out this message [8:57] that went out. And his brother, who I think lives near here up in Connecticut, immediately sent it [9:02] to law enforcement officials. But his rationale was that he had to act to stop President Trump. [9:09] He called him a traitor and he calls him a pedophile. That term, as you saw yesterday in [9:14] the Noro O'Donnell interview, really infuriates the president. And to be fair, there is no credible [9:19] allegation of Donald Trump abusing children, but this kind of thing circulates online. So we'll learn [9:26] more. There's not much information about if he's spoken or said much to authorities. But it's just [9:32] another example of our polarization and rising political violence. Associations with Jeffrey [9:36] Epstein, I think the heart of that. Rev, you know firsthand about political violence. What worries [9:43] you about, unfortunately, a trend that only seems to be increasing? Yeah, I do know firsthand. I was [9:48] stabbed once leading a march. And I think the responsibility on all sides is to appeal to people [9:56] that you can disagree without being disagreeable and certainly not being deadly. And even if you [10:03] wanted strategically to make a point, you hurt your own cause. Because now, the example I could give [10:10] today, they're going in court to appeal in Virginia, a judge stopping the will of the voters that voted last [10:17] week, yes, on the redistricting. All we're talking about today is the, whatever his attempt to assassination [10:25] of some of the Trump people, you have taken the focus off of the things that we're aggrieved about, [10:30] assuming that's what he was aggrieved about. So it's not even tactically right, as much as it is [10:35] morally reprehensible. And when President Trump said the other night that people on all sides need [10:42] to agree to not deal with violence, and I agree with President Trump on that. At least he took that [10:48] position. I hope all of us will take that position that, wait a minute, we're talking about fighting [10:55] nonviolently or dealing with the issues, not dealing with this kind of inciting anyone to do [11:03] this. I don't know. I checked with some of the people in California National Action Network. I don't [11:07] know any of his activism. I don't think he was an activist. So I don't know his motive, but I know [11:13] the results are not helpful to those of us that are trying to deal with Trump's agenda that has [11:19] been, in my opinion, detrimental to most Americans. And Elise, there have been questions now for some [11:24] years whether this dinner needs to go away and questions about its appropriateness. But it is, [11:29] let's be clear, a high-profile event. And it adds to, even though this would-be assassin was [11:33] unsuccessful, and thankfully no one was really hurt, it adds to this feeling of sort of tumult and chaos [11:38] chaos in the country right now, political violence being part of it, where people just feel like [11:42] things aren't the way they're supposed to be. Well, absolutely. And you look at all of the high [11:48] profile events that have happened, and President Trump has been targeted. There was Butler, [11:54] there was the incident at the golf course, now this. And it does raise serious questions about [12:00] presidential security in this era of political violence when both sides have become so radicalized [12:08] that there are the fringe actors who are willing to turn to violence. And you can see that in [12:16] empirical studies. Robert Pape at University of Chicago was on our show last night and was talking [12:21] about the rise in political extremism in the country. And it is a devastating trend that we have to get [12:27] a handle on so that the fringe does not become more of a force. Completely right. Should be denounced by [12:33] all parties. All right.