President Donald Trump said he ‘wanted to see what was happening’ as suspected gunman Cole Thomas Allen, 31, opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.
The president sat down with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell to discuss the frightening experience, when he revealed that he may have slowed down Secret Service agents’ response.
‘I was surrounded by great people and I probably made them act a little bit more sluggish,’ he recounted. ‘I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me see.”‘
When the agents then realized they had heard gunshots, they escorted the president and First Lady Melania Trump out of the ballroom at the Washington Hilton.
Chilling surveillance footage from the hotel showed Allen rushing a security checkpoint before he was tackled by a swarm of armed officers, who exchanged fire.
One Secret Service member was injured in the melee, but has since been released from the hospital. The attendees, including the highest-ranking government officials, were evacuated and unharmed.
Following Allen’s arrest, FBI agents descended on his home in Torrance, California, alongside police. Agents were also seen knocking on doors in the suburban neighborhood.
Authorities are now learning about Allen’s potential motive and how he may have planned the attack. The New York Post reported that the suspect had been collecting an impressive arsenal of deadly weapons, including a Maverick 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and an Armscor semi-automatic pistol.
Allen reportedly legally purchased the weapons from two California gun stores, Turner’s Outdoorsman, which is owned by Bryan Harris, and CAP Tactical Firearms, owned by Bill Mullan.
A manifesto has also been uncovered. He reportedly sent the writings to family members before the attack, and his brother reported it to Connecticut police, CBS News first reported.
Law enforcement officials said after the incident that Allen had a firearm and multiple knives on him during his arrest. He is expected to be arraigned on federal charges on Monday.
Follow DailyMail for the latest updates…
This live blog has now closed.
Trump reveals he told agents to ‘wait’ before he was led out of ballroom
President Donald Trump told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell that he may have slowed the Secret Service’s response after shots were fired on Saturday night.
In a clip of an interview that is set to air on ’60 Minutes’ tonight, Trump recounted how he ‘wanted to see what was happening.’
‘And I wasn’t going to make it that easy for them, I wanted to see what was going on,’ he said of the Secret Service.
But soon, he said, security ‘started to realize maybe it was a bad problem… different from [the] normal noise that you hear from a ballroom, which you hear all the time.
‘I was surrounded by great people and I probably made them act a little bit more sluggish,’ he continued. ‘I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me see.”‘
Trump said he then started walking with the agents out of the ballroom.
He said they were about halfway out when agents told him and First Lady Melania Trump to ‘Please go down to the floor, please go down to floor.’
‘So I dropped to the floor and the First Lady went down also,’ the president said.
PICTURED: FBI agents seen knocking on neighbors homes
WATCH: Gunshots heard at press dinner as Trump is evacuated from stage
Mentalist Oz Pearlman, the host of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, revealed what he had been showing First Lady Melania Trump on his notepad before gunfire erupted at the event.
Pearlman, 41, divulged the trick that he was performing, which had guessed 28-year-old White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s unborn child’s name, just moments before shots rang out on Saturday evening.
‘The night was going very, very well. I was warming up the crowd, the [Vice President] was loving my show, and I was speaking to the press secretary,’ Pearlman told USA Today.
Donald Trump told CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell she was a ‘disgrace’ for reading excerpts of Cole Thomas Allen’s manifesto that made wild accusations toward the President.
Allen, 31, sent the outrageous claims to his family ten minutes prior to attempting to attack the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which Trump was attending for the first time in over a decade.
In an interview with 60 Minutes Sunday, O’Donnell read some of the most inciting lines of Allen’s missive which Trump slammed.
Chilling warning signs of gunman who attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner were revealed on Sunday.
Cole Thomas Allen, 31, will be arraigned on Monday after he allegedly shot a Secret Service agent while trying to attack the annual gathering, with President Trump and several other administration members in attendance.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Daily Mail that interviews with Allen’s siblings revealed the family may have missed something.
Trump calls people who post conspiracy theories about shooting ‘sick’
In an extended interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, President Donald Trump called those who questioned the shooting ‘sick.’
‘I think they’re more sick than they are con people,’ he said. ‘But there are con people.’
Jimmy Kimmel was slammed for claiming Melania Trump looked like a ‘widow’ just days before shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Kimmel held a parody of the dinner an annual event honoring journalism and funding scholarships on Thursday when he called Melania an ‘expectant widow.’
‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,’ Kimmel said before turning his attention the First Lady’s birthday.
Trump denies political violence is worse than in the past
In his interview with ’60 Minutes’ on Sunday, President Donald Trump denied that political violence is worse than it has been in previous generations – though he lambasted Democrats for their rhetoric.
‘You go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years, it’s always been there, people are assassinated, people are injured, people are hurt,’ Trump told Norah O’Donnell.
But he later accused Democrats of using inflammatory language.
‘I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats much more so is very dangerous,’ Trump said. ‘I really think it’s very dangerous for the country.’
Trump commends law enforcement
President Donald Trump commended law enforcement for their quick response.
He said the alleged shooter was ‘almost like a blur’ as he raced through the hotel hallway on Saturday night, joking that the ‘NFL should sign him up.’
‘But it was amazing because as soon as they [law enforcement] saw that, you could see them draw their guns. They were so professional, aimed their guns, and then they took him down immediately,’ Trump told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview on ’60 Minutes.’
Trump calls for dinner to be rescheduled
President Donald Trump reiterated his calls for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to be rescheduled.
He said it would include ‘bigger security’ and ‘more perimeter security.’
‘I think it’s important that they do it again,’ Trump said of the dinner, adding that he does not want a ‘crazy person’ to succeed in cancelling it.
