Closing summary
We’re wrapping up this live coverage now. A full report on the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting is here, and below is a summary of the day’s main news. Thanks for reading.
The suspect in Sunday night’s shooting in Washington DC has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. Preliminary findings suggest the shooter targeted Donald Trump and officials in his administration, according to acting US attorney general Todd Blanche.
The suspect’s writings – reportedly found in his hotel room – are being examined as part of the investigation into the attack. An alleged manifesto was reported earlier in which the suspect called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and created a list of targets for the shooting, formatted from highest to lowest priority, with Trump administration officials at the top.
Trump said the manifesto showed the suspect “hates Christians” and had “a lot of hatred in his heart”. The president told Fox News the suspect was “a sick guy” and that his family previously expressed concerns about him to law enforcement officials.
The suspect was part of the Caltech Christian Fellowship during his final year at the California Institute of Technology, according to Allen’s LinkedIn page.
Trump said he wasn’t concerned about whether there would be injuries during the commotion at the dinner, telling 60 Minutes: “I wasn’t worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world.” The president also agreed Melania Trump was “very alarmed” as it occurred.
Barack Obama denounced the shooting, posting on X that it was “incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy”.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly cited the shooting as evidence for why a White House ballroom is necessary. In a letter shared by Blanche, the Department of Justice pressed the National Trust for Historic Preservation to end its lawsuit challenging the $400m construction project and insisted the ballroom was “essential for the safety and security of the president”.
The White House Correspondents’ Association president said: “Last night’s shooting at the Washington Hilton was a harrowing moment for everyone in attendance.” Weijia Jiang added: “We are proud of everyone in that room.”
Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles and Queen Camilla’s four-day state visit to the US would go ahead as planned. Earlier, the palace said a “number of discussions” were taking place to discuss how the shooting may or may not affect security planning, with the British monarch due to arrive in the US on Monday.
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Donald Trump’s interview with 60 Minutes became confrontational when reporter Norah O’Donnell read parts of the “manifesto” allegedly written by the suspected shooter that referred to a “rapist” and “pedophile” and asked Trump to react.
“I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people,” the president responded, continuing:
Yeah he did write that, I’m not a rapist … I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes, you’re a disgrace, but go ahead, let’s finish the interview.”
As our full report says, Trump continued to take jabs at O’Donnell for the rest of the interview. After she noted that the shooting suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, had reportedly attended a “No Kings” protest, Trump shot back:
The reason you have people like that, is you have people doing ‘No Kings’. I’m not a king. What I am – If I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.”
Despite Trump’s criticisms of the press, which he described as a “soft on crime”, he urged the White House Correspondents’ Association to reschedule the dinner event within the next 30 days.
“I don’t want to see it be cancelled. I think it’s really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this,” Trump said. He added:
It’s not that I want to go. I’m very busy. I don’t need that.”
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