Fox News hosts grilled Kash Patel on Monday morning, pressing him for explanations regarding security lapses at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was attended by Donald Trump and key cabinet members. The incident involved the arrest of 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen on Saturday night in Washington. Authorities detained Allen after he attempted to disrupt the dinner while armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. The suspect engaged in a shootout with Secret Service agents at a checkpoint outside the ballroom where the President and First Lady were present. “They did a great job on the ground, but they remain reactive. The proactive approach is still under great scrutiny. The President of the United States is averaging an assassination attempt once a year,” stated Fox anchor Lawrence Jones to Patel.
Jones further questioned, “So who’s going to investigate the procedures? The Secret Service can’t investigate themselves. There are still people in leadership at the Secret Service who were responsible for Butler.” When pressed for answers, Patel acknowledged the incident as a “total failure” but avoided direct responses. He mentioned that the FBI director has been in communication with Secretary Markwayne Mullen, offering the FBI’s full support to enhance security coordination with the Secret Service for future presidential events. “I think we are going to do it entirely differently,” Patel added. “You heard the President say on Saturday night that we’re going to do this again in short order.”
Patel also indicated that discussions are already underway with the White House and federal law enforcement agencies to bolster security measures for upcoming dinners. “We need to change a few things, and we’re already talking about it, and that’s the good part. We’ll be better prepared for the next event,” he stated. The suspect, who had been working part-time for a tutoring company in Torrance, California, for the past six years, traveled by train across the country to Washington, D.C., carrying multiple weapons. When questioned by Fox about whether the suspect had been flagged to the FBI before the incident, Patel declined to provide specifics.
‘All those questions will be answered in the complaint, the criminal complaint that’s being presented,’ Patel said. ‘I just can’t get ahead of my partners at Department of Justice, and especially can’t get ahead of the federal magistrate that it’s being presented to but we have answered all those questions, and that’s that’s what we’ve been working towards.’ A manifesto details how suspected gunman was targeting the President and his senior cabinet officials. Allen is expected to be arraigned in DC on Monday for two counts of wielding a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
