CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Asks Trump If His Team Was ‘Aware of Any Threats’ Before WHCA Dinner Shooting

 

CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins asked President Donald Trump if he or his team were “aware of any threats” before the shooting that took place during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening.

The annual confab of politicos and journalists erupted in chaos Saturday evening when a gunman fired several shots. Secret Service whisked the president and First Lady Melania Trump out of the room, and all Cabinet members were safely evacuated as well.

The gunman, identified by multiple outlets as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California, was apprehended and is in custody.

Trump held a press conference in the White House briefing room almost two hours after the shooting occurred, and took questions from the gathered reporters who had been in attendance at the dinner, still in their gowns and tuxes.

When the president called on Collins, she thanked him for the updated report about the shooter and then asked, “Were you aware of any threats, or is your team aware of any threats beforehand — and do you believe you were the target of this tonight?”

“I guess, I mean, these people are — they’re crazy,” Trump replied. “They’re crazy. And you know, you never know. It was very far away from me. He had to go through a lot. We had — we had resources all over. We had resources sitting at tables, literally, in disguise, sitting — maybe at your table, who knows. But we had we had people all over the room. So he had a long way to go. That was really a first line of defense. And they got him. And they really, you know, they acted incredibly. No, we have we’ve had no — there was no notification. We had no idea.”

Collins asked a follow-up question, if there were any known “political motivations” for the suspect.

“Well, you never know,” said Trump. “Now we’ll be able to tell you that, maybe by tomorrow or the next day. You know, he’s in custody and they’re asking him a lot of questions. I guess they’re going overtime and they’re they’re already at his apartment. He lives in California. And they’ll be there over there. So they’ll be able to tell you.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.