AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A gunman opened fire in a Washington hotel last night, causing President Trump to be rushed from the ballroom there. The suspect was identified this morning as Cole Allen by two sources familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump was attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner - an annual event in Washington that draws journalists and top officials from all branches of the government. Trump, the first lady and members of the Cabinet are all safe. NPR White House correspondents Franco Ordoñez and Deepa Shivaram were there and join us now. And, Franco, let's start with you. What's the latest?
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Yeah. I mean, we're digging into all of this moment by moment, but I can tell you that the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, he was on CBS' "Face The Nation" this morning, and he said that investigators are actually still looking into a motive, but based on preliminary information at least, the suspect appeared to be targeting members of the administration. He didn't provide more specifics beyond that. He did say, though, that the suspect is not cooperating with investigators and that he's going to be charged tomorrow in federal court. Blanche said that they believe the suspect was actually staying in the hotel and had traveled by train from LA to Chicago and then from Chicago to D.C.
RASCOE: And staying with you, Franco, you were there last night. What did you see?
ORDOÑEZ: It was very chaotic. The dinner had really just started. They had just presented the colors. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was just played. We just heard this bang, bang, bang. The person next to me turned to me and said, what was that? And then, you know, there were some screams. And then, frankly, tables and chairs just started crashing as people just jumped to the floor. I mean, we're talking a huge ballroom - I can just paint a picture a little bit - more than 2,000 people by some estimates - journalists, politicians, members of Cabinets, their staff, even some celebrities - all of a sudden, this swarm of agents kind of jumping over all of these people in tactical gear, guns drawn, climbing over tables. It was very emotional and absolutely very confusing.
RASCOE: And let's bring you in here, Deepa. You were part of the pool of reporters who were following the president last night there, you know, in the motorcade with the president. They're not, like, you know, just hanging out.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: (Laughing).
RASCOE: You're working. What did you see?
SHIVARAM: Yes, we are working. So this pool of reporters, it's about a dozen of us who travel everywhere with the president. Funnily enough, we actually weren't in the ballroom when this happened. The dinner was starting, and so they let us out into the hallway, which actually was a little bit closer to where the shooting took place. So when Franco's saying that bang, bang, bang went off, I think in the ballroom might've been a little bit more muffled or unclear. Out in the hallway, it was very distinct, very sharp gunshot sounds. And about four minutes after that happened, an agent came by and said that a shooter had been taken into custody. So it all happened very quickly. We're talking less than 10 minutes overall of some of this chaos...
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, yeah.
SHIVARAM: ...Of people hiding in stairwells and running through the hallway and screaming. It really was, like, a very compact amount of time, though I think it felt a lot longer, probably...
(LAUGHTER)
SHIVARAM: ...For all of us who were experiencing it live.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SHIVARAM: And what happened was a little bit of chaos ensued after that because their guests are streaming out. But the president - he revealed later in a briefing with reporters - wanted to stay. He wanted the dinner to keep going. And so there was several minutes that went by where we thought maybe we were going to be staying at the event. But eventually, the press pool who are traveling with the president were loaded back into the motorcade, and we took that very speedy four- or five-minute drive back to the White House, where the president briefed reporters.
RASCOE: And what stood out to you about those remarks?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, I mean, he was very calm in his demeanor. He came out, briefed the press with several members of the administration standing next to him. FBI Director Kash Patel was there, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, even the first lady, who's rarely made appearances like this in the briefing room. And he was very calm in speaking about his experience of the night. As we know, this is a president who's experienced these kinds of, like, gunshot attacks and situations before, which he talked about.
And he said at first, he thought it was a tray falling when he heard it in the ballroom. But he seemed sincere in saying that he wanted the event to continue and he wanted it to happen in the next 30 days. He also basically made a pitch for his own ballroom that he is building on the White House that's been held up in a court case right now. But he's been very insistent that there should be a secure site at the White House like that. He posted on social media about it today, though I will be clear - it's probably highly unlikely that the future Correspondents' Dinner is held at the White House ballroom.
RASCOE: Yeah, it is a private event. Franco, what about you? What stood out to you about those remarks?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, I found it interesting 'cause Trump, like he often does, he provided some of the most vivid details of what happened. He does that a lot. I mean, he said the shooter tried to race through security holding multiple guns before being stopped by agents. The president later authorized video of this actually happening, and you can see the man racing in and the agents lifting their guns. You know, our colleague Ryan Lucas actually also confirmed that the suspect arrested has been identified as Cole Allen. Law enforcement, again, said they believe that they thought he was a guest at the hotel. Now, Trump would not say himself directly that he thought it was politically motivated, but he did leave that open possibility. He did say, though, he thought it was a lone wolf or someone who acted on his own.
RASCOE: You attended the dinner last night as a guest and a member of the White House Correspondents' Association, Franco. Like, what was it like walking into that hotel? What did it - you know, what did it feel like?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, there's still so many questions about the perimeter and breaching this perimeter, but there is so much security involved. You have to go through multiple checkpoints. There are so many agents. There are so many from all different law enforcement arms that it's very hard to imagine how this could happen. But as president said and as Deepa was saying, the president said this was not a secure event and felt like something needed to change. And the president, at least, is saying this is a reason for a ballroom to have an event like this. But as you said, Ayesha, this is a private event.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Franco Ordoñez and Deepa Shivaram. Thank you so much.
SHIVARAM: Thanks.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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