Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the man who opened fire Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was likely targeting members of the Trump administration — the first official indication of a possible motive in an attack that shook Washington.
In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Mr. Blanche stressed that the investigation is in its early stages and that the suspect is refusing to cooperate.
“We do believe, based upon just a very preliminary start to understanding what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration,” Mr. Blanche said. “We don’t have specifics beyond that kind of general statement from what we’ve learned so far, but 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,” he said.
The suspect — identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California — is expected to be formally charged Monday morning in federal court in the District. He is facing at least two counts — using a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Mr. Blanche said more charges could follow as investigators piece together what happened.
“There’s a lot of federal charges that could be in play beyond those two charges, but it depends on us understanding his motive, his intent, his premeditation,” he said.
Mr. Blanche said Mr. Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington in the days leading up to the shooting. He was staying at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the White House correspondents’ dinner was held.
Mr. Blanche said the suspect was “apprehended and subdued feet away” from breaching the security perimeter — before he could reach the president or anyone inside the ballroom.
One Secret Service agent was shot during the confrontation. However, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and has since been released from the hospital.
Mr. Blanche said President Trump spoke with the agent Saturday night and found him to be “in very good spirits.”
“It is a tragedy avoided, and it is because he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Mr. Blanche said.
He sidestepped repeated questions about whether the attack appeared to show travelers can carry firearms across state lines by train without the declarations required for air travel.
“Look, this isn’t about, in my mind, changing the law or making the laws more restrictive around possession of firearms,” Mr. Blanche said. “This is about law enforcement who are doing their jobs and a suspect who tried to do something and failed miserably.”
He also said the Trump administration has no plans to scale back public appearances, dismissing the idea that having the president, the vice president, the speaker of the House and several Cabinet secretaries in the same room created an unacceptable security risk.
“If his goal was to get us to be scared, he failed,” Mr. Blanche said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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