Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that “the system worked” and kept President Donald Trump and other leaders safe from the shooting Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner that they were attending.
“The system worked; law enforcement and the Secret Service protected all of us. The man barely got past the perimeter. And so when you have a perimeter designed to keep people safe, like President Trump, and it works – that’s something that should be applauded,” Blanche told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on April 26, 2026.
ABC News
Blanche said the suspect, whom law enforcement has identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen from Torrance, Calif., was likely acting alone, although investigations are ongoing.
“We believe that he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then Chicago to Washington, D.C.,” Blanche said.
Asked how the suspect may have gotten a firearm into the hotel, Blanche replied, “It’s a good question. And listen, I’m not sure. It appears that he checked in on the 24th [of April] to the hotel, and we’re still looking at video surveillance and footage of where he walked and how he got in and how those firearms got in, but at the end of the day, I expect we’ll have a lot more about that in the coming days.”
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
