DC shooting suspect armed with knives, shotgun and handgun, authorities report

[0:00] this. Let's go now to Mark Meredith in Washington as leaders from both sides of the aisle condemn [0:05] political violence in the wake of this attack. Hey, Mark. Charlie, Rachel and Griff, good morning, [0:12] friends. Moments ago, we heard from the acting attorney general who said that they believe, [0:16] the federal government believes that President Trump and administration officials were the target [0:19] of last night's attack right here at the Washington Hilton. What struck me this morning [0:24] is that so much of what was set up last night for the correspondence dinner is still intact, [0:28] pretty much frozen in time. But so much of the questions today are going to be on the 31-year-old [0:32] suspect in this case. As you mentioned, a lot of focus on how this was carried out when the [0:37] suspect arrived. We also believe he was a guest here of the Washington Hilton. President Trump [0:42] had quite a bit to say about the incident as he spoke from the White House briefing room before [0:46] midnight. In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts [0:52] in resolving our difference peacefully. We have to resolve our differences. I will say, [0:59] you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives. [1:06] You had everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd. And there was a tremendous [1:10] amount of love and coming together. Overnight, media capturing investigators in Torrance, [1:18] California, searching through the suspect's home, identified as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen. [1:23] D.C. police say the man was armed with knives, a shotgun, and a handgun, as I mentioned, [1:27] also believed to be a guest of the hotel where the event was taking place. [1:30] Investigators do believe he acted alone, but they are still pouring through what they found [1:34] on the suspect. We heard overnight from many people across the Washington establishment, [1:38] including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who said he was thankful for the swift law [1:42] enforcement action to protect everyone from gunfire, praying for the safety of those who may remain [1:47] in harm's way. The violence and chaos in America must end. The president's cabinet secretaries, [1:52] who were also in attendance, speaking out. We heard from the agriculture secretary, [1:56] Brooke Rollins, who said, in the face of such hatred and violence, we are reminded how much [2:01] is truly at stake. Our colleague, Peter Ducey, asked the president about what has now become [2:05] the second or third attempt, I should say, on his life in just recent years. [2:11] Respectfully, why do you think this keeps happening to you? [2:16] Well, you know, I've studied assassinations. The people that make the biggest impact, [2:23] they're the ones that they go after. When you look at the people that have either, whether it was [2:29] an attempt or a successful attempt, they're very impactful people. I hate to say I'm honored by [2:34] that, but I've done a lot. We've done a lot. We were a laughingstock for years and now we're the [2:41] hottest country anywhere in the world. We've changed this country. And there are a lot of people [2:46] that are not happy about that. There's gonna be a lot of questions about a potential motive in this [2:51] case. We're gonna have to wait until the arraignment on Monday and federal court still [2:55] trying to understand the charges that this suspect is going to face, but we'll likely know a lot more [2:59] about what they'll be charged with when he does show up for court on Monday. As the president said [3:04] last night, he is safe. His team was also very thankful. The question, of course, will be, [3:08] what will this event look like going forward? As you guys mentioned, the security apparatus [3:11] getting a lot of review this morning, but the president also going to great lengths to say he trusted [3:16] the secret service and he believes that they were very brave in protecting him and as well as the few [3:20] thousand folks who were in attendance last night. Griff, Rachel and Charlie, back to you guys. [3:25] Thanks, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Well, senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich was on the stage [3:31] with the president that does when shots rang and she will actually be the president of the White House [3:36] Press Correspondents Association next year. So what challenges will that bring? Jackie joins us now. [3:43] Jackie, you are stepping into a role with a lot of questions to be answered and you have the [3:50] president saying he wants to reconvene this dinner in 30 days. I'm not sure how we're going to pull [3:57] that off. I mean, this takes a year to plan and my colleague on the board, Weijia Jiang of CBS, [4:02] who's the president of the association this year, my heart goes out to her because she put a lot of [4:07] time and effort into leading the planning for this year's event, which was her job. I don't know how [4:16] we'll be able to pull off the president's wish to redo this within 30 days. I'm sure every effort [4:21] will be made to try to make that happen. For next year, you know, I spoke to the president last [4:27] night because you heard him mention in his remarks in the press briefing room about the need for the [4:32] ballroom. And I said, when Fox, you know, is the host, well, when Fox helps put on the dinner next [4:38] year, when I'm the president of the association and we helped to host that night, you know, [4:43] the ballroom is not going to be ready, I don't think, is it? And he said, no, it should be ready [4:47] the year after. So we've got at least one more year after this rescheduled event from last night [4:52] to figure out how do we do this again? You know, this is not the first time there have been [4:58] challenges at that hotel purely because it is a hotel. A couple of years ago, I was on the board [5:04] of the association. This is my fourth or fifth year on the board. And Joe Biden was president. [5:08] And there was a Gaza protester similarly that was a hotel guest that planned to come in and disrupt [5:14] the evening. Likewise, that person never made it into the ballroom. It was not quite as much of a [5:19] scene. But you do have challenges when you have hotel guests that are staying in the same building [5:24] as a big event like that that draws 3,000 people. There are thousands of rooms in that hotel. I don't [5:30] know what decisions can be made that would, you know, better protect against threats like that. [5:36] But I do have to say the security protocol worked as it was supposed to. The threat never got close [5:42] to the room. We were, you know, multiple levels of security inside. And all the chaos and mayhem [5:50] really stemmed from the law enforcement response. We weren't sure at the moment, you know, [5:54] if the threat was contained. And it took them some time, understandably, to ensure that there [6:00] were not other threats in the room. This wasn't some sort of a coordinated event. [6:03] And so, being up there on the stage and just seeing the throng of law enforcement coming toward [6:10] us, not knowing at the moment what it was, and then having Secret Service agents come out from [6:15] behind us on the stage and swoop the vice president off the stage from next to me, I was laying there [6:21] for a few minutes, not really knowing what was going on. And the scariest part for me was hearing [6:25] the agents with their guns drawn, standing over me, talking to each other and saying, [6:28] do you see it? Are you tracking it? And having the other one answer no. [6:33] And in that moment, we didn't know if it was because there was no threat or they just couldn't [6:36] get their eyes on it. And that's when I got the nod from the agent that I could crawl in my dress [6:42] behind the stage, the backstage area, where we waited for more updates. [6:46] Jackie, a lot of people saying they were surprised at how long the president was on the stage. [6:52] I mean, we saw J.D. Vance sort of quickly removed. But a lot of people looked up and said, [6:58] why is he still there? Did you have that impression? I mean, you were probably one of the people [7:01] closest to him. I didn't have that impression. It's a matter of seconds between when agents swooped [7:09] in from—they came into the stage from the side of it where the vice president and I were sitting. [7:15] And you saw an agent pull the vice president off, and more agents make their way over to the president. [7:21] I believe there were also presidents coming into—or, excuse me, agents coming in toward the [7:26] president from the side of the stage that he was on, the area where they pulled him out. [7:30] And remember, the first lady is also over there. The press secretary was also on that side. [7:35] And she's, you know, about to give birth to her second child. She's very pregnant right now. [7:40] And getting them off the stage as well was the job for the agents on that side of the table. [7:46] It was a matter of seconds between when the agents took the vice president off and when [7:51] when President Trump was escorted. And it was really too quick to feel like there was any [7:56] anything to note, any sort of difference between how they treated the president and the vice president. [8:00] I just saw them all swoop onto the stage. I wasn't implied that there was a difference between J.D., [8:04] the vice president and the president, but just that there were people who were already on the [8:08] ground in the in the in the venue and then looking up and seeing that the president was still seated [8:15] was was jarring. Well, I think that's because they came into the room from the back. I mean, [8:20] we were we were along one side of the room on the stage and all of us, including the president, [8:25] the vice president, we're watching a throng of agents barreling towards us and starting to climb [8:30] over tables. And that's when simultaneously agents started to descend onto the stage from behind us. [8:35] It all happened very quickly. But also, as you know, when you're in it, it feels like it's slow motion. [8:40] So so as wild and surreal as it was for us, we were kind of we were at a lower vantage point. [8:48] So we really couldn't even see what was going on. I would think it would have been even more surreal for [8:53] you because you're up on a dais. You're elevated. You can see all of it unfolding and you're like [8:58] what and all these people rushing towards you with guns. What in the world is going on? [9:02] Two quick questions. What is were you able? I mean, that's what. So the president is like [9:07] on the image on the screen right there. You're the president is what two seats passed that that [9:13] that shot you took there when you were sitting there. We all seem to have heard something. [9:20] Were you able to make out? Did you did it internalize in your brain that that was shots [9:26] fired? First question. Second thing is, were you close enough to hear the president, the first lady, [9:33] the mentalist owes? We're all in a conversation when this unfolded. Were you close enough to pick up [9:41] what that conversation was about when all of this unfolded? [9:46] I believe I know what that conversation was about, even though I was not close enough to hear it, [9:52] because the vice president was seated to my right and the mentalist was seated to my left. [9:57] And minutes before all this happened, owes was talking to me and to the vice president about [10:02] wanting to perform a magic trick on President Trump. And he asked me and the vice president for the name [10:11] of a person dead or alive who we would like to interview and said, after he got our answers, [10:15] and we wrote it down on a piece of paper and hit it, the vice president tore it in two pieces and hit [10:20] it in his pockets as owes instructed him to do. I took mine and put it in my purse as I was instructed [10:24] to do. And then owes went down the stage to get the responses from the president and the first lady. [10:31] And I believe that's what he was asking them in that moment when all of this then happened. [10:36] We couldn't tell from the stage immediately what it was. I did hear some clanging. I thought it was [10:41] plates or maybe a table collapsing. It was only when we saw the agents rushing toward us and starting [10:49] to come up over tables and then the agents come out from behind us on the stage with their guns drawn [10:53] that it became very clear this was a security situation. And the president and vice president [10:59] were taken off. And I was still laying there on the stage because we're elevated from the rest of [11:02] the crowd. And I was regretting that I didn't grab my phone to come to bring it down with me so I [11:07] could text people and let them know I was all right. I know my mom was watching, you know, on TV from [11:12] home. My fiance was right there at one of our Fox tables in the crowd. And I wanted to let them know I [11:18] was all right. And I was thinking to myself, am I flat enough? Because if there is a threat in the [11:23] crowd, you know, we're elevated from the rest of the room and we weren't sure at that moment if [11:29] someone was going to pop up and hearing the agents talking to each other and saying, do you see it? [11:34] Are you tracking anything? And the answer was no. It was unclear for a moment if there was still a [11:39] threat in the room. It became quickly that it was clear that there was not. A surreal and frightening [11:44] situation. Jackie Heinrich, senior White House correspondent. Thank you for sharing your insights. [11:55] And catch full shows streaming now on Fox One.