On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
- CBS News White House correspondent and White House Correspondents Association President Weijia Jiang
- CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd and former deputy director of the Secret Service and now a CBS law enforcement analyst AT Smith
- Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland
- Sir Christian Turner. U.K ambassador to the U.S.
Click here to browse full transcripts from 2026 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation. I’m Margaret Brennan.
Washington is waking up to what still feels to those of us who are in attendance or even those watching on live television to be an unreal experience. But it’s an experience that’s becoming more and more common in these times of political turmoil.
Last night, at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, shots rang out as President Trump and his Cabinet, members of Congress and hundreds of journalists attended the annual event honoring the First Amendment, freedom of the press.
Secret Service agents quickly tackled the alleged shooter outside the ballroom following a brief exchange of gunfire. A Secret Service agent was hit during the attack but protected from serious injury by his bulletproof vest.
The president praised the quick actions of law enforcement that prevented the assailant from entering the ballroom, a breach which could have led to a more tragic outcome.
We have got a lot to get to, including an interview with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
But we begin with a report from senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe.
(Begin VT)
(MUSIC)
ED O’KEEFE (voice-over): Attending the dinner for the first time as commander in chief, President Trump took his place at the front of the room.
WEIJIA JIANG: And we’re going to get started now, so enjoy your dinner, and we will be back. Thank you.
ED O’KEEFE: Eleven minutes later, as guests settled into their meals, mentalist Oz Pearlman, the scheduled entertainer, was showing the president and first lady a trick.
Then:
(GUNSHOTS)
ED O’KEEFE: … in the back of the room, plates crashed, as attendees dove to the floor and under tables. Some could smell gunpowder.
In 10 seconds, the Secret Service surrounded and whisked out the first couple. They nearly lifted the vice president out of the room. Surveillance footage shows the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, raced by magnetometers just a staircase above the ballroom.
He was quickly tackled and apprehended. With the suspect detained, guests climbed up from under the tables and picked themselves off the floor. Secret Service began to secure the room and the kitchen and started sweeping out other senior officials, the Treasury secretary, the House speaker, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were assassinated.
ERIKA KIRK (Widow of Charlie Kirk): I just want to go home.
ED O’KEEFE: Also in attendance, Erika Kirk, whose husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last year.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is one of the biggest events of Washington’s social calendar, held at the Washington Hilton, one of the capital’s largest public spaces.
(GUNSHOTS)
ED O’KEEFE: It’s also where President Ronald Reagan was shot in March 1981 after speaking in the very same ballroom.
The president, who’d wanted to continue with the dinner, was held backstage by Secret Service for more than an hour. When he returned to the White House, he and Cabinet secretaries headed to the Briefing Room.
WEIJIA JIANG: In that moment, when you realize there was a threat and Service agents were telling us to get down, can you describe what was going through your mind, how you were feeling in that moment?
DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a little bit, and that never changes. The fact, we were sitting right next to each other, the first lady on my right, and I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray.
I thought it was a tray going down. I have heard that many times, and it was a pretty loud noise. And it was from quite far away, hadn’t breached the area at all. They really got him. But so it was quite far away, but it was a gun. And some people really understood that pretty quickly. Other people didn’t.
(End VT)
ED O’KEEFE: When asked about the uptick in political violence last night, President Trump said he tries not to dwell on it, but called his line of work – quote – “a dangerous profession.”
It was the third instance of a gunman in his vicinity in less than two years – Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ed O’Keefe, still in last night’s tuxedo because you, like so many people on this program and at this network, worked through the night, thank you.
ED O’KEEFE: That’s what we do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Nicole Sganga, our homeland security and justice correspondent, is here with more on the investigation.
Nicole, what do we know?
NICOLE SGANGA: Yes, Margaret, multiple sources tell CBS News that the gunman told law enforcement he was targeting Trump administration officials.
Sources now say that Allen’s brother had also alerted local police of alleged alarming writings that he shared with the family prior to the incident.
(Begin VT)
NICOLE SGANGA (voice-over): CCTV video reveals the moment the 31-year-old suspect sprinted past a security checkpoint, charging toward the ballroom where President Trump, Cabinet officials and roughly 2,500 guests were assembled.
JEANINE PIRRO (U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia): It is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.
NICOLE SGANGA: Cole Allen, a teacher from Southern California, opened fire at a Uniformed Division officer of the U.S. Secret Service, before agents tackled him to the ground, handcuffing him.
MAN #1: He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. As he ran through that checkpoint, members of law enforcement from the U.S. Secret Service intercepted that individual.
MAN #2: Where’s it coming from?
NICOLE SGANGA: Shouts of “Watch for crossfire” as Secret Service personnel and D.C. police rushed to the scene, agents from inside the ballroom and medics from outside the hotel.
Investigators are now combing through a hotel room at the Washington Hilton. Authorities have also begun searching his California residence.
MAN #3: The public should also rest assured that there will be no stone unturned during this investigation.
NICOLE SGANGA: According to his LinkedIn profile, the suspect worked for a tutoring and test prep company and was awarded teacher of the month back in 2024. He’d finished a master’s in computer science last year. He’s now facing two felony charges, including assault on a federal officer.
(End VT)
NICOLE SGANGA: White House officials tell our CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs that authorities have found anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on the suspect’s social media accounts.
We’re also told by law enforcement sources both of his firearms were purchased legally in California. As for the defendant, Margaret, he will appear in federal court tomorrow.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Welcome. Good morning. And I’m glad you are safe, sir.
It was a harrowing night.
TODD BLANCHE (Acting U.S. Attorney General): Good morning. You as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a harrowing night.
I want to get straight to what we know now in the light of day. The FBI, as I understand it, has gone to a home in Torrance, California, believed to belong to the alleged shooter, most likely into his D.C. hotel room as well. What have they discovered there? What do we know?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Yes, that’s right.
So, the FBI worked all night, working with local law enforcement, working with the Secret Service. They’ve executed various search warrants on locations, also on devices that were recovered from the suspect. This investigation is just over 12 hours old, so we still are actively looking at the – everything that happened.
But, as of now, we – we have – we have collected a fair amount of evidence, which we’re now going through.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Any indication at this point that he was part of a group? Was there any foreign nexus to the inspiration for the violence he attempted last night?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: We’re still looking into motivation, and that’s something that hopefully we’ll learn over the next couple of days.
We do believe, based upon just a very preliminary start to understanding what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration. We don’t – we don’t have specifics beyond that kind of general statement, from what we’ve learned so far. But we are – we’re actively talking to witnesses that knew him, and talking to other individuals and going through the material that we’ve collected.
So I expect that you will hear more – more about that in the coming days.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned a statement.
Is the shooter, alleged shooter, sharing details on what he was attempting to do? What makes you say it was a threat to administration officials writ large?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Just based on the evidence we’ve collected, not – not a statement from the suspect…
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: … just from – from what we’ve learned in our preliminary investigation.
I – he’s not actively cooperating. I expect that he will be formally charged tomorrow morning in federal court in Washington, D.C., and – and we’ll go from there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the Secret Service has said that the suspected gunman was staying in the hotel. He walked up to a security checkpoint with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives. How long had he been inside that hotel? And was there a security protocol for – for guests?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: That’s – we’re still – we’re still understanding the security protocols that led to him being – being able to have firearms in that hotel.
We do believe he was staying in the hotel in the days leading up to last night. We believe that he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
As far as what happened with him coming down and breaching the perimeter, as you’ve seen from some videos that have already been released, he was apprehended and subdued feet away from breaking the perimeter. So – so, we were all safe inside.
And – and that’s a testament to the Secret Service doing their job and to law enforcement doing exactly what we – we hope and expect them to do in a time – they train for this their entire careers. And many of them never actually see it happen in real time. And it happened last night, and they reacted exactly as they should have.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the alleged shooter, as we just said, had multiple weapons in his possession.
Here in the District of Columbia, open carry is not permitted. You just said he traveled from California across the country by train. At this point, are you thinking at the federal level of changing security protocols in any way to, for example, match on trains what you are expected to go through when you fly, where you do have to declare a weapon when you cross state lines?
How did he travel by train without any challenge and arrive here in the nation’s capital?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Look, this isn’t about, in my mind, changing the law or making the laws more restrictive around possession of firearms.
It appears he purchased these firearms the past couple years. We don’t know how those firearms ended up in his possession in D.C. We can – we can make some assumptions, based upon what I just said about how he got to D.C.
But I don’t – I don’t think the narrative here is about changing laws or changing – making – making our laws more restrictive. This is about law enforcement who are doing their jobs and a suspect who tried to do something and failed miserably.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
Well, I’m not talking about changing the law in terms of possession of a firearm. I’m asking about crossing state lines with that firearm and arriving in the capital. If you try to fly, you do have to have your firearms declared in some way. You don’t when you get on a train.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Well, look, you are talking about – I mean, if we’re asking the question, that’s talking about changing the laws.
And I don’t think that’s something that we should be focused on right now in any way, shape or form.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK, not a loophole in your…
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: There are lots of ways that – yes, so, I mean, look, the – we don’t – and we also don’t know. We don’t have all the answers this morning.
We’re still looking into – into what happened, how he got the guns, if he got them legally. But what we do know is that – is that he tried to use them. He did have two firearms and some knives on his person when he tried to use them. And – and he was stopped before he got anywhere near the president, before he got near any of us that were in the room at the time of that this occurred.
And – and that’s – that’s again – we can’t – we can’t overlook – and I’m not suggesting you are.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: But we can’t overlook the great work of the Secret Service last night.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, absolutely. We’re all thankful for that.
But we do see these kind of threats at the local and state level as well, for those who aren’t as heavily protected as all of us in that room were last night, which is why I ask you if you’re reviewing that.
U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the suspect will be charged with two counts, using a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Do you at this point anticipate further charges?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Yes, I – we’ll see about further charges.
So that’s one of the things that – that we need to go through the evidence. So there’s a lot of federal charges that could be in play beyond those two charges. But it depends on what – it depends on us understanding his motive, his intent, his premeditation, what led into him – him deciding that he was going to do what he did last night.
But just to be clear, those are very serious charges. He will have a – he will face a judge as early as tomorrow morning for those two charges, but the investigation is brand new. And so we will continue to investigate. And if there’s more charges, they’ll – they’ll be brought.
He’ll be charged via complaint, and that’ll be tomorrow morning, and then an indictment will come – will come thereafter, and there could be additional charges in that indictment. But – but we have to see as the evidence develops.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you must have attended past Correspondents’ Dinners. I mean, for – for over 50 years, they’ve been held at this hotel.
Last night, it was extraordinary, because we had the president, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the secretary of the treasury all in the same room. Those are five out of the top six leaders in that – that line of succession for this country should something have actually happened to the president himself.
Was there planning for that? I mean, when we have the State of the Union, there’s a designated survivor. Was there an increased concern about gathering all of our leadership in that room last night?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: We will not stop doing things like we did last night in this administration.
And this man, if his – one of his goals was to get us to be scared, he failed. And let me just – let me make clear that you’re right. All those folks were in the room and more, and yet we were all safe. Law enforcement did their jobs.
And so President Trump said last night – and he means it, and I very much agree with him – that this type of conduct will not deter him. It will not stop him from living. It will not stop him from doing his job.
And that not is not – not only him, but the vice president, the Cabinet, the law enforcement, you all, journalists. You’re not going to stop doing your jobs either because of this – of this lone man that did what he did.
And so this is a – this is something that we all are still reacting to, because it’s fresh, but I assure you that the types of things that you saw last night and the president being out there and available to the American public, that will not change because of what this guy tried to do last night.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there has been reporting over the past few months that, due to this increased threat environment, both on the domestic front, but also because of the war in Gaza, because of the war in Iran, that there is an intensity to this moment, and that there had been an effort to not allow the vice president and president to be together because of the risk.
Why was that different?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: The vice president and president are together almost every day. I mean, they’re – they’re together constantly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: In a public event. That – so that’s false reporting?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: And so, of course, security – that’s – well, I see them together all the time. They were certainly together last night.
And so, look, I’m not – I’m not minimizing the threats that President Trump and the vice president and that all the Cabinet face every day for the reasons that you just described, domestically, Iran internationally.
And that is why we have a robust law enforcement keeping us safe and – and doing their jobs. It allows the vice president and president to do the work they need to do. It allows the secretary of state to do the work that he needs to do.
And so, on the one hand, we take those threats very seriously, always have, and we always will. On the other hand, we do not – the way we respond to those threats is not to go into a bunker and hide. It’s to trust the law enforcement that are – that are keeping us safe.
And – and that’s what happened last night, and that’s what I think will – we will continue to see going forward.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, as I understand it, there was one injured Secret Service agent, but, as the president said, he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Can you tell us if he’s been released from the hospital? And, to be clear, there were – there was gunfire happening. We believe, from our reporting, that the shooter did get off some rounds. Was it the alleged shooter or alleged assailant here who shot the Secret Service agent?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: That – that’s what we – that’s what we understand as of now.
And the president spoke with him last night. He was in great spirits. He apparently didn’t really even want to go to the hospital, although he was – – he was certainly injured, and it was the right thing.
As far as whether he’s been released, I don’t want to get into his, you know, his medical situation. That’s not fair to him, but enough to say that we all heard his voice last night. The president gave him words of encouragement and appreciation and thanking him for the work that he’s doing for all of us.
And I will tell you, he was in very good spirits. And so that’s a tragedy avoided, and it is because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I have to let you go.
But, writ large, is there thought of increasing the country’s security posture after last night?
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: We have – every single day, we’re focused on our security, and so I promise you that the work that we were doing yesterday will continue today, and if there’s things that we need to adjust, I will.
But last night was – of all the bad things that happened last night, and there were a lot. It was a tragic evening. It was also a success story when it comes to the Secret Service and FBI and law enforcement, of which we’re – we’re very grateful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Todd Blanche, thank you for your insights. And we’ll be tracking the investigation as it develops.
Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by our senior White House correspondent, Weijia Jiang, who’s currently serving as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Weijia, thank you.
It’s been a very intense last few hours. You had just welcomed everyone. You had just started off the evening when this event unfolded. I have seen video now of you crawling off of the stage as the president was being whisked to safety.
What was going on back there? Why didn’t the president leave?
WEIJIA JIANG: Margaret, it all happened so fast.
And when we were still on stage, we were in the middle of a very light moment with the entertainer, who was doing a trick. And when I heard something in the audience, I thought it was a protester or something we’re very used to.
But then, when I saw SWAT team members come to the head table and rush us to the ground and say “Down, down, down,” we were crawling off the stage. And in the back, that is a holding area where people wait, including President Trump and distinguished guests, to go onto the stage.
And we were sitting there. And I saw more than a dozen SWAT officers. There were members of the Secret Service milling about. There were members of the president’s team, and, as you can imagine, a lot of conflicting information, because it had just unfolded.
I will say it was remarkable to see that in action and to understand it was their quick work that protected all of us that night, not just the president, not just the Cabinet, everybody in that hotel. And that is heartening.
But, obviously, it was a tough situation for everybody that was there, including you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You were very stoic, though. You had great grace under pressure. You had to go out. You had to talk to everyone.
And I know you shared that, because you were in this role of the presidency, this was a proud moment for you. Your 7-year-old daughter was there. Your parents were there. Your husband was there. This was a lot.
And I wonder what you think about this and why – why it was so important for all of us to be gathered. Do you – how are you making sense of that? Have you? I think we’re processing this still.
WEIJIA JIANG: I think we’re all processing it.
I have covered countless shootings and murders and terrible things in my career. And this is the first time that I have been on the other side of a potentially violent and deadly situation.
And no amount of reporting can prepare you for that. You’re right that my family was in the audience. And it was incredibly meaningful to have them there. And so that added an additional complicated layer, because I’m thinking about the safety of my members, the safety of all of our dinner guests, and obviously at the forefront the safety of the people who I can see who matter the most to me.
And we didn’t have information.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
WEIJIA JIANG: So, when I was in the back, I didn’t know if there was an active threat. I was watching the monitors and keeping my eyes right on their table, but, at the same time, trying to find more information, so I could share it with everyone in that room.
And President Trump called me to his holding room and briefed me before he sent out a post about the dinner being, in his words, postponed and that he was going to have a press conference. And he really wanted to talk it through and to explain that he himself realized how important that night was.
It’s something we do every night. And when I did address the room, I reminded everyone that the freedoms that we are celebrating tonight in the First Amendment are still incredibly fragile.
And I appreciate that the president acknowledged that. And he told me that we were not going to be deterred. He refused to stand down. And that’s why he was there, despite what had unfolded. And I don’t know what his team was telling him. They were relaying to me, the president keeps saying he’s not going anywhere.
So that’s why he stayed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, we kept hearing that with the, he wants to come back and can we leave?
Weijia, I want you to go home to your family.
(LAUGHTER)
WEIJIA JIANG: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you.
WEIJIA JIANG: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you very much for sharing with us.
WEIJIA JIANG: Thanks. Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Samantha Vinograd, she was a top homeland security official in the Biden administration and is now a national security contributor here at CBS, and A.T. Smith is a former deputy director of the Secret Service and now a CBS law enforcement analyst and joins us from Greenville, South Carolina.
Good to have you both here.
Sam, you were in the room with us sheltering with some of our colleagues. As I understand it, you were close to the perimeter and able to detect some of what was happening.
I was struck, the National Guard was there, Secret Service was there, private security was there, National Guard was there. The perimeter, the security went out pretty darn far. There were protests surrounding the building. There weren’t just protests about Trump, there were protests around Jeffrey Epstein, there were protests about the corporation that owns this news network, there were protests about the Iran War. How did you assess the security situation last night?
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: Well, Margaret, I think a lot of us are waking up this morning and asking the basic question of, is anywhere safe? And the reality is that, in this country, we are facing the most complex threat environment in our nation’s history, in particular from lone actors, individuals who radicalize to violence often online.
In this scenario, two things can be true. It can be true that law enforcement and intelligence professionals prepared exhaustively for last night. Weeks of planning, intelligence gathering, physical security barriers, officers on site. But it can also be true that in this moment, in this security environment, the paradigms of the past may not be sufficient to meet the moment.
And with that in mind, security professionals, as well as private citizens, need to rethink what it is going to take to actually secure these mass gatherings where there are so many protectees, and what it’s going to take to secure communities.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s frightening.
I mean, A.T., we were in a room with the most heavily guarded man in the world and yet this happened. the acting attorney general said the system worked. In your view, did the system work?
A.T. SMITH: The system did work in terms of what the Secret Service trains to do every day when it comes to covering and evacuating and protecting. You know, you saw the security plan there had the scenario where the president and the vice president exited different ways. They exited in different ways than the normal folks had come into the gathering.
Having said that, the Secret Service, as I’ve said many times, no one is more critical of themselves than the Secret Service. So, they’re going to have to look at this very diligently in terms of, this individual, how he was able to run that magnetometer, as he did, and get as close as he did with two firearms. That is not acceptable. And they will have to try to figure that part out and, you know, see what the intelligence and the investigation is going to bring in terms of what this individual’s history was and then, as you said earlier, Margaret, try to figure out exactly how he got those guns into the hotel. Did he avoid, as you said, you know, taking an airplane to get there and then by using a train and so forth was able to secrete them in some way and get them there.
So, it’s a – it’s a tough thing. The Secret Service was very successful in how they did that. And as Sam said, the perimeter around the hotel was exhaustive.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
A.T. SMITH: And any time you have a breach like this you’ve just got to address it and be your worst, you know, critic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, A.T., I was speaking with some of our producers before the program. Many of us have traveled with the president in the past, and past presidents, and other high-level officials. When the president goes overseas, or the vice president, they typically take over an entire hotel. Secret Service really locks the place down. That didn’t happen last night here on U.S. soil. Is that the kind of thing we’re going to start seeing, that it will be more sort of like an Israeli model?
A.T. SMITH: You may have to. Particularly, you know, it’s difficult because you have obviously a hotel that’s open to the public. They have other guests that are unassociated with the event last night. And they are going to have to take a hard look at how you maybe screen those guests coming in. It’s very hard to necessarily know everything about everybody that’s there. But probably one safety scenario will be what you just said, to more or less lock down the hotel.
We don’t normally do that in the United States. And usually the Secret Service is very successful in coordinating and sort of corralling that area, like the ballroom, that’s, you know, going to be used for the event and making it secure. But again, they’ll have to take a look at that. And I said also that, you know, this was not a national special security event, but the planning, preparation, and weeks of work really align it to that kind of a security plan.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
A.T. SMITH: So, I’m sure in terms of perimeters, that was all done.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sam, I think you make such a great point, which is essentially, you can’t protect against the unexpected, right? You can’t protect against everything.
We’ve talked about this, though. I mean, as parents, as human beings, and being in that room, so many of those lawmakers, so many of those journalists are dehumanized. They are attacked online. They are attacking each other. You have a high level of animosity in the public space.
People were united, and the president said, he wasn’t wrong in using that word, because they were all scared of what was going to happen next. I don’t know how we solve for that as a society because it seems to have really seeped in to our politics and to our conversations. I mean, it is just the new normal.
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: Every time an incident like this happens, the optimist in me thinks perhaps this will be a turning point. Perhaps this will be a turning point where each and every person in this country think about what they say and how they act. Words do matter, certainly.
At the same time, whenever an incident like this happens, and I say this, Margaret, as a mother and as a security professional, I hope that it is also a wake-up call –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: To law enforcement professionals to rethink whether additional steps are needed, like perhaps screening guests coming into a public venue at a mass gathering with a lot of protectees. But that it is also a wake-up call to every person in this country to understand that they have a role to play in our homeland security. While law enforcement looks at whether additional protocols are needed at various sites, every viewer, every person in this country needs to say something when they see something. An individual in their circle, at their workplace, in their family, is demonstrating signs that they could be going down a pathway to violence, they need to ask for help from a law enforcement professional or other trained official. And we need to really devote all the resources that we can to ensure that the integration between state and local and federal officials is not just where it was before, but tighter than ever so that we can try to prevent these incidents from happening in the future.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sam, I’m glad you’re safe.
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: You too, Margaret (ph).
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m glad you’re with us.
A.T., thank you very much for your insights.
We’ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back now with Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin.
Congressman, you were there last night.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Yes, indeed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: One of the guests in the ballroom.
Unfortunately, this is not your first encounter with political violence. For many people in that room. The president, Steve Scalise, who survived a shooting himself, Charlie Kirk’s widow was there. RFK Jr., as we mentioned. And you were at that Capitol on January the 6th sheltering in fear for your life at that period of time.
How did that influence what happened last night. What did you do?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: So, I just entered the room, and I was talking to some reporters who approached me from “The Boston Globe.” Their table was right near the perimeter as I was entering the ballroom.
Carrie Kennedy was their guest, and we were in conversation when there were three loud booms. I heard some screams, plates, glasses, silverware hitting the ground and then everybody was yelling, get down. Somebody kind of pushed me from the back and we all ended up on the floor.
When it was over, Carrie, who, of course, lost her father to an assassin gunman and her uncle, President Kennedy, she said, I can’t believe that schoolchildren are dealing with this all across America and don’t have the resources to process their trauma.
And so, that launched a conversation about gun violence and how, you know, somewhere between 275 and 300 people are shot every day in our country, and we lose more than a hundred of them every day.
So, even as this nightmare was unfolding at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, dozens and dozens of people had been shot and killed in our country. And so, I hope this isn’t just an inside the beltway story. I hope we talk about the conditions for schoolchildren and people all over the country who are dealing with this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. No. It’s a – it’s a good point. We had – we benefitted from all that security.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Those children across the country don’t have a sliver of it.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Well, that’s right. And, you know, I heard President Trump talk about this demonstrating the importance of the new ballroom.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. I got that.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: And he sent out some messages about the ballroom. And that might help people who are visiting the White House, but what about people who are in shopping malls and movie theaters and high schools and elementary schools across the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: So, I hope we can have a serious, bipartisan national conversation about what we can do to improve public safety for everybody.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, to that point, I mean we’re in the tenth week of a partial shutdown of homeland security, which, by the way, Secret Service falls under the umbrella of homeland security. So do many essential workers. This has been just tangled up in this policy standoff in Congress.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think things change after last night?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: I certainly hope so. I mean we – you know, of course we had a unanimous vote out of the Senate. All of the Republicans, all of the Democrats and then all of the Democrats in the House –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Vote to restore all of the funding except for ICE. And, of course, it was about ICE killing innocent people in Minneapolis.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Alex Pretti and Renee Good, that lead to this standoff over this. So, I hope we can improve public safety for everybody.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it was in the House and Republican leadership wasn’t willing to do that.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: No.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But do you think it changes now that Democrats and Republicans will say, let’s fund everything fully?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes. Again, we’ve got three-quarters of a Congress all together on moving forward, resolving the remaining issues and getting everything funded. Fortunately, you know, there’s no interruption in any of ICE’s funding because it was so super hyper funded originally.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: So, that’s why it’s kind of a made-up controversy because they have the money that they need, but we still have to deal with the underlying issues that led to this in the first place.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was the Democrats’ position to hold that up, but –
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: To hold up –
MARGARET BRENNAN: To make the argument over changes policy wise and ICE and CBP.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Well, right, after the killings in Minneapolis.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes. Absolutely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: The vast majority of the American people agree.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because you said it was made up. OK.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Well, no. No, what’s made up is the idea that ICE somehow isn’t getting its money.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Got it.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: It’s been getting –
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: I mean it’s got the money for a long time –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Because of the original, you know, big, beautiful bill.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The president, I want to make sure that I recognize what he said because we don’t hear him speak this way very often. He said, “I ask all Americans to recommit with their hearts to resolve our difference peacefully.” And he talked about being unified with members of the press.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes. Yes.
Well, that certainly –
MARGARET BRENNAN: I –
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: That’s a new message from him. That’s great. He had called the press, of course, the enemy of the people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: And he’s been engaged in a lot of lawsuits against your profession.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you – well – well, yes.
We are going into this politically charged midterm season. There’s going to be campaigning around the country with lawmakers out there.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean does something change? He said this. Does something change? Do Democratic – does Democratic language need to change as well?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Well, we have said all along that we need every politician in the country, every leader in the country, every citizen in the country denouncing political violence across the board regardless of where it’s coming from.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: So, you know, I find this a welcome change in rhetoric. But, you know, what happened last week? They brought a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Whose whole purpose is to – is to investigate violent, right-wing extremism in the country. And now they’re prosecuting them for having used undercover agents, which, of course, the FBI uses and the government uses all the time.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And there – there is, across party lines, some political violence, way too much of it right now. And, actually, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, on this program, said to me recently that she thought the threat or the concern about violence or threats to your family is what is hurting recruitment of people to run for office, particularly mothers, particularly women.
Are you seeing that? That people are afraid to even join public life because of this?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Sure. Anybody who’s thinking about running for office undoubtably thinks about that. Anybody who’s thinking about running for president undoubtedly thinks about that. And those people have the most protection with the Secret Service.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: And others people don’t have the same kind of protection.
So, look, we’ve got to rediscover the great American tradition of non- violence.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: And Dr. King and the civilizing movements that have always opposed violence versus the violent groups that have used violence historically –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Beginning with the Ku Klux Klan, in order to terrorize other people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Raskin, thank you for joining us. And we’re glad you were able to do so.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: You bet.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the British ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Sir Christian Turner.
Good to have you here.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER (U.K. Ambassador to the U.S.): Good to be here, Margaret. Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You, too, were in that ballroom last night. You’ve had a lot of security training for unstable countries where you have been posted as a professional diplomat over the course of your career. Did you ever imagine, in one of the most heavily guarded rooms in D.C., you would have to put that to use?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: Well, at the training I’ve had in some of those places I’ve been actually kicks in last night. You basically do what you’re told and let the professional security folk do what they do. And I think it was one of my big takeaways last night. I think it was a – I’m with the people who say it was a success story. The Secret Service absolutely did what they needed to. Not only that, but seeing actually all the journalists in the room and their training kicking in, in a weekend that is all about the freedom of the press. I’m full of admiration with the way people responded last night.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you – me, too. But you have a week ahead of you because King Charles and Queen Camila are expected to arrive tomorrow. This is going to be a big event regardless of what happened last night. But just to be clear, you haven’t changed your security assessment. You believe it is still safe for them to come and speak to Congress and be at the White House?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: So, we respond to that professional advice. I’m currently planning to be welcoming their majesties tomorrow. But, of course, our teams have been in tough way through the night and will be through the day to see whether the events of last night have any change in operational planning. And I’m very confident that their majesties will have the very best security throughout their visit.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, because there is another big ballroom gathering planned, right, for the king?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: It’s going to be an extraordinarily three or four days for us, Margaret. We’ve been planning this visit for years really. It’s the 250th between our two countries. I mean a somber background after last night for all of us. But I still hope we’ll be able to showcase this moment, to make it the celebration that it deserve to be.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, a celebration, but to be clear, it’s also a bit of repair work, right, to the special relationship? The president had been quite upset with your prime minister, Keir Starmer, who didn’t initially support the offense of operations by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. And the president was very clear he was not happy with him. He mocked him. He said he’s no Winston Churchill. He said it was too late for the U.K. to even offer help. And then there was other tension about the U.K. as a NATO ally. How much repair work is this visit actually about?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: Well, the extraordinary thing in the British constitution, of course, is the king is above politics. I have to remind people, he’s never given –
MARGARET BRENNAN: He is definitely (ph) a political asset. Let’s be clear.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: But he’s never given an interview, which I have to remind people, because, of course, he’s the head of state, but he’s not the head of government. So, actually, that’s why we can make this a moment to step up and step back.
And I think, I mean just to take it back to last night, I mean the other takeaway is that strong sentiment you were just discussing with your last guest, the president calling for us to resolve our differences peaceful. But there is – there’s no place for political violence in any of our democracies.
You know, these are – these are enduring messages. They’re baked into our political makeup, into your political makeup. That ability for us to look back.
We had a small difference of opinion in 1776. We’ve been through that. We’ve come a very long way. And that, in a way, for me, is what is so enduring about these relationships. It’s that we’ve had differences. Thatcher to Reagan, Roosevelt with Churchill, actually, over how to handle Stalin. These are moments in the relationship that actually it endured because it is so deep on security. Yes, NATO, on our investment. We are the largest investor in 21 states, $430 billion a trade.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: I mean the statistics come out, but it’s actually about the people that we want this to focus.
So, I am – I’m very confident that’s where we will want to focus our time this week. And I should add, the prime minister spoke to the president this morning after the incident. The king sent a personal message to the president and first lady. So, actually, in diplomacy, it’s as much personal as it is political.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, on the diplomatic front, the U.K. has been convening European countries to try to figure out what to do with the Strait of Hormuz after combat ends. You know, the Iran file quite well. You were previously a negotiator here. What’s your assessment on who is running Iran right now and whether we see an end to the conflict any time soon?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: So, it’s difficult in Tehran. There are clearly some divisions. You pointed to that initial disagreement before the war. But since then, Margaret, actually the U.K. has been doing a lot. We are using our bases for defensive strikes. We’ve flown something like 2,000 Sorties with aircraft in the Middle East, shooting down drones and missiles to protect our allies every night in breakless (ph) coordination with the U.S.
And, of course, our intelligence base, we don’t talk about it much, but it’s the absolute foundation of so much that is – that is going on.
We share the same intent, the same policy as the U.S. We want to constrain this regime and its threat. We want the Straits open again. So, this coalition you refer to that President Macron has worked with my prime minister, Keir Starmer, on, what we want that to do, something like 50 countries coming together to work out.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Hegseth called it silly. He said it was just a bunch of meetings.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: Well, it is – it is –
MARGARET BRENNAN: What are you going to plan to do?
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: It is planning once the Straits are open to ensure that the navigation we need has got the assurance of a whole package of boats, of drones, of intelligence to be able to make sure that shipping goes through, because that’s what American citizens need.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR CHRISTIAN TURNER: That’s what British citizens need. The people of Asia need. The global economy is suffering and we want to see that resolved.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It is indeed. Thank you, Ambassador. Good luck this week.
We’ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: A night to celebrate the First Amendment abruptly ended by a gunman permitted by the Second Amendment to own those weapons. Gun violence is not new in America, but the threat of violence is now a cost of public life. It permeates our politics. Last month, Supreme Court Justice Roberts publicly appealed for personal attacks on judges to stop. U.S. Marshals report there were 564 threats last year. And nearly 15,000 against lawmakers, staff and their families according to U.S. Capitol Police. Multiple Trump cabinet members now live on military bases for their own protection. No such fortress for the federal and state officials who face growing number of threats in communities across the country.
There’s a marked increase in harassment and threats of physical violence to journalists in the U.S. from the very public they are working to inform. As the nation wonders how to keep the next gunman out, let’s also reflect on how we let this hate in. How we stop it from corroding our democracy and grasp on to our civility before we lose it.
That’s it for us today. Stay tuned to CBS News 24/7 for all the latest on this story, and be sure to tune in to the “EVENING NEWS” tonight. Tony Dokoupil will anchor from the White House.
Due to breaking news today, we will air our interview with Chevron chairman and CEO Mike Wirth next Sunday.
Thank you to all my colleagues at CBS. I’m Margaret Brennan.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)