Capitol Report Full Broadcast (April 27)

Good evening. Tonight on Capitol Report, the White House calling out rhetoric that inspires political violence. Following Saturday's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the President's message to Americans. Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily. The armed man, arrested by Secret Service, charged with attempting to assassinate the President. The potential sentencing he's facing. And that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking Cabinet officials as he could. Officials praise the actions of Secret Service and say it's time to reassess some security protocol at big events, the potential changes and solutions on the table. The ballroom will be a solution for this, because it'll be on the most secure compound in the world. This is Capitol Report, live from our global headquarters in our nation's capital. Here's Steve Lance. I'm Jack Bradley, in for Steve Lance tonight. The White House is condemning political violence and the heated rhetoric it says inspires it. This, as a California man, has been formally charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington. Joining us now is our White House Correspondent, Mari Otu, on the North Lawn. Mari, good evening. You were at the dinner and the press conference on Saturday night. What's the latest from the White House tonight? Hey, Jack. Good evening to you. That's right. And so, Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt was actually supposed to be on maternity leave starting this week, and she's currently 39 weeks pregnant. But today, she called a briefing in the wake of Saturday night's turn of events. And the White House today is declaring that that White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting is the, quote, third major assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in two years. And she's also saying that that's something no other president in history has faced before. And, Jack, a main focus of today's briefing was on the causes of political violence, with the press secretary today notably saying that the accused shooter's manifesto is ultimately indistinguishable from daily violent rhetoric that surrounds this president every day. Take a look. This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters, by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media. This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment. The White House condemning elected officials and some media for what it calls the systemic demonization of President Trump, saying it leads to political violence, the likes of which was seen on Saturday night. Press Secretary Leavitt listing instances of Democratic politicians making their pitch to American voters by comparing President Trump Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily. The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend. This comes as President Trump is calling on ABC and Disney to fire Jimmy Kimmel after the host referred to the first lady as a, quote, expectant widow two days before the White House Correspondents Dinner. Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. Jimmy Kimmel disgustingly called First Lady Melania Trump an expectant widow. Who in their right minds says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband? And having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but that. President Trump saying, quote, I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel's despicable call to violence and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said. But this is something far beyond the pale. And the first lady weighing in, saying Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn't comedy. His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. Meanwhile, President Trump's message for Americans is one of unity and moving forward. But in light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts and resolving our difference peacefully. The president's calm in the face of chaos, while yet another individual was trying to take his life, was really remarkable to witness. And it's something I will never forget. And Jack, as we heard from President Trump on Saturday, he initially wanted the show to go on. And when law enforcement ultimately said that wasn't happening, he then said that he's spoken to the organizers of the White House Correspondents Dinner, and he wants to reschedule it in 30 days. And today, when asked by reporters about the venue and if it would be potentially happening at the White House, Press Secretary Levitt said, unfortunately, there's not a big enough room here at the White House to hold a party of that size, adding that President Trump's ballroom project is thus actually critical for our national security to have that larger, more secure complex to host dignitaries. And this is coming as the president today is hosting King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Today's the first day of their state visit here in celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. Back to you. Mari, thank you for those updates. And in a Washington, D.C. courtroom today, the suspect accused of firing shots at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday made his first federal court appearance. NTD's Arlene Richards joins us now in studio with the details. Arlene, thanks for joining us here. Tell us what happened inside the courtroom. Well, Jack, the Cole Allen didn't plead to federal charges today, which included the assassination or the attempted assassination of President Trump using a firearm during a crime of violence and transporting a firearm across interstate commerce with the intent to commit a felony. Now, the assassination charge was added during the proceeding and was not part of the initial charges discussed over the weekend. Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanch spoke about the charges at a press conference just after the hearing. Let's listen to that. I want to make this clear. This man was a floor above the ballroom with hundreds of federal agents between him and the president of the United States. We will apply the law fairly and we will ensure that accountability is swift and certain. But we also should recognize what did not happen. Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they are trained to do. This was not an accident. It was a result, as we know now, of preparation. Now, Blanch says the incident was planned based on information they obtained about Allen's hotel reservations at the Hilton where the dinner was held and the fact that he drove from California to Chicago on April 21st and then to Washington, D.C. on the 24th. Now, today, Cole Allen appeared in D.C. federal court wearing a blue jumpsuit, and he was represented by a public defender. He appeared calm and polite, and he requested that the court appoint him an attorney. Prosecutors at the hearing asked that Allen remain in detention until the trial because he used a 38 caliber semi-automatic pistol and also was in possession of a shotgun and three knives. Now, the U.S. attorney for D.C., Janine Pirro, spoke more about the charges at the press conference. Let's listen. Those charges are only three charges that are in the complaint that has been presented in federal district court about an hour ago. There will be additional charges as this investigation continues to unfold. But make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the president of the United States with the defendant making clear what his intent was, and that intent was to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could. Now, Pirro made reference to a manifesto in which she says Allen stated he was targeting high-ranking officials in the Trump administration. She said the manifesto stated he would not hesitate to get involved in any kind of encounter with anyone who blocks me from the president. Now, Allen's public defender today indicated that the defense would seek to contest any further detention, noting that Allen had no prior arrest record. So, the judge has scheduled a detention hearing, Jack, for this Thursday and then a preliminary hearing for May 11th. All right, we'll see what happens there. Thank you so much, Arlene. All right, thank you. Now, Cole Thomas Allen, the suspect in the White House correspondence dinner shooting, is facing charges of three crimes. Joining me now to discuss the legal implications of the charges is Niyama Rahmani, president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers. Niyama, thank you so much for joining us here. Now, Cole Thomas Allen charged with three crimes after he was apprehended by Secret Service. Here's Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The first count is attempted assassination of the president of the United States. This count is punishable by up to life in prison. The second count is interstate transportation of a firearm to commit a felony. This is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. And the third count is discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, which is punishable by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum of life, and the 10 years is consecutive to any other sentence imposed. Now, Niyama, is there anything surprising in these charges? And how significant is it that they're attempting to assassinate the president was added onto it? Well, there's certainly nothing surprising. It's a very strong case, as was just mentioned by Arlene. Look, you have a manifesto, you have eyewitnesses, you have video. So you don't really need a whole lot. Now, with respect to the assassination charge, obviously, that requires the specific intent to want to kill the president. So maybe just potentially there's a defense here that, you know, Paul Allen wanted to kill someone else, the vice president, a cabinet member, law enforcement, Secret Service. But I mean, I can't see the defense winning the entire case, they might win one count, for instance, they might win that there's not enough intent to specifically kill the president. But there's certainly enough intent to kill someone and any of those charges. And by the way, these are just placeholder charges to hold Allen in custody while they go to the grand jury in the coming days and weeks to get an indictment. I would expect to see additional charges related to cabinet members related to the Secret Service personnel who was shot and ultimately is going to do decades if not spend the rest of his life in federal prison one way or another. Yeah, not only that, but just having a weapon, you can't even have a weapon here in Washington, D.C. Officials repeated today that this was premeditated. Here's Gene Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C. Now, as indicated, these are the weapons that the defendant had on his person. You can see that's a 12-gauge pub action Mossberg shotgun, the 38 semi-automatic. He had at least three knives and all kinds of paraphernalia. So any suggestion that he wasn't there to do harm is absurd. Now, between the weapons and the statement that he sent to his family members, will it be relatively easy to prove his intent? Very easy. And you're talking about someone who traveled across the country on Amtrak, who had weapons, who made admissions to his family members just minutes before the shooting and apparently talked to law enforcement before he stopped cooperating. So you have really an avalanche of evidence. It's going to be a very difficult case to defend to say that he didn't intend to do this or it wasn't him or he was acting in self-defense or that this was a rush to judgment and there's reasonable doubt. Those are the typical types of defenses you see lawyers raise in attempted murder cases, and none of them apply. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the defense either pleads guilty and argues some sort of mitigation. I think that's probably the most prudent course of action to try to get their client something less than life. Or you might see some sort of hail Mary defense at trial because I really don't see how you can possibly defend this case straight up on the merit. Now, the next case for this, the next date for this case is on Thursday, where both sides will debate whether Allen needs to be held in custody during the trial. What do you expect the outcome to be there? Well, that's going to be a mere formality. There's no doubt in my mind that Allen will be detained pending trial. Bond's only appropriate when someone is neither risk of flight nor a danger to the community. And here, here's someone who's a significant danger. If you're willing to blow through a group of law enforcement officials, essentially some sort of checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, if you're willing to shoot multiple times directly at a law enforcement officer, a Secret Service agent here who, but for a bulletproof vest would be dead right now, that individual is a danger to the community. I can't see any federal judge in any courtroom in this country releasing him on bond. Now, Nemo, the administration officials are pointing to a deeper cause of political violence. Here's a clip from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levin. This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media. This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment. Now, President Trump has called Jimmy Kimmel's comments a call to an action for violence. I'm not sure if they're going to pursue any legal aspects there, but can we see any legal action against public figures in the media or politics for violent metaphors and rhetoric going forward? That's a difficult question. Obviously, we have seen an increase in political violence, and there's absolutely no justification to use violence for any political means, and it's becoming an increasing problem in the United States. Now, if you're talking about members of Congress, if you're talking about reporters at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, if you're talking about late night TV hosts, obviously, we have a First Amendment, and you have to balance the First Amendment rights of those individuals against the need to make sure that any speech rights, any rhetoric doesn't reach the point of violence. I certainly don't think folks should be targeted for their speech on both sides. Obviously, we're in a polarized country right now, and that's certainly not an excuse to fan those flames, but I think people like Alan should absolutely be prosecuted. Anyone who aids, abets him, co-conspirators, accessories, accomplices, absolutely. But if we're going to be a country that prosecutes people for their speech, I don't think that's what the founders intended, and really what the First Amendment protects against. Sure. Well, Neema Rahmani, really appreciate your sharing your time and expertise with us today. Thank you. And you're looking at a live shot of the U.S. Capitol. House Speaker Mike Johnson says Americans are being radicalized online and is urging leaders to be more mindful of their rhetoric. We'll hear from Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick when we come back. Whispered across generations, a hidden secret unveils the essence of longevity and vitality, a timeless legend regarding energy and wonder. 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If you need to do something to feel okay to drive, you're not okay to drive. Don't drive buzzed. Welcome back. I'm Jack Bradley. Violent rhetoric is back in the spotlight after a third assassination attempt on President Trump. House Speaker Mike Johnson says vulnerable people are being radicalized online and that leaders need to be more careful with their language. The White House is now comparing statements from some lawmakers to passages found in the alleged shooter's manifesto. NTD correspondent Jason Blair has more. House Speaker Mike Johnson denouncing violent rhetoric against President Trump following a third attempt on the president's life. Some of the most prominent figures in the House and the Senate on the Democrat side effectively, you know, calling for war. I mean, they use those kinds of metaphors and it incites violence. Johnson says a person's choice of words can influence vulnerable people. There are crazy people in society and they get radicalized online and so we've got to recognize that. It's time to turn down the rhetoric. We've been saying this over and over and not use that kind of language. The White House offering some examples with quotes from U.S. lawmakers. Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many. Senator Ed Markey calling President Trump a dictator saying that this administration's actions are authoritarianism on steroids. Senator Elizabeth Warren, President Trump is making the country look like a, quote, fascist state. Rep Hakeem Jeffries just this April, this month, said we are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere all the time. President Trump has unleashed untrained and masked ICE agents to brutalize and kill American citizens. Donald Trump will be your tin pot dictator if you let him. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt also says that deranged lies and smears against the president, his family, his supporters have led crazy people to believe crazy things and they are inspired to commit violence. It has to stop. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, Entity News. The Department of Homeland Security funding is getting more attention from Republicans after the third assassination attempt on President Trump on Saturday. Democrats aim to keep the department partially unfunded over opposition to ICE agents enforcing immigration law. Joining me now to discuss these developments is Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick. Congressman Rich McCormick, thanks so much for coming on today. It's my pleasure to be on with you today. Now, during the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner earlier this weekend, Secret Service agents jumped into action. One was shot and saved by his bulletproof vest. Another protecting the president with his body at the time, not knowing where the shooting was coming from. The White House is now calling on Congress to end the shutdown in their department as they're set to miss a paycheck. Take a look. Enough is enough. There should be no further debate about this. Democrats need to do what President Trump has been calling on them to do for 73 days in a row and fund the Department of Homeland Security, period. This is a national emergency and every member of Congress needs to put their country over party and get the Department of Homeland Security funded. Now, Congressman, Democrats are keeping the DHS unfunded, admittedly, in part for political wins in the midterms, showing that they oppose ICE operations. Do you think that this assassination attempt will change things? You know, I hope so. I hope the American people are paying attention to everything they're trying to defund, whether it be DHS, Secret Service, ICE. It all comes back to opening the borders again. The same thing they lost the last election on was basically opening the borders. It's one of the biggest things they lost on. It's an 80% issue. People don't want to open Southern border. They don't want to flood the nation with 14 congressional seats worth of people. They don't want to shift the demographics towards people who can be only on welfare, who require a substantial number of your tax dollars when we're in 30% deficit spending per year. That's what they lost on last time. I hope people are realizing that it's not about the sensationalism, about the mistakes or anything else. This is about a fight for the future of our country, what the Democrats have shifted from, not the Obama era. This is not the party of Obama or Clinton. This is a new Biden administration, Harris administration type fight where they want to open up your border, shift the demographics, ruin the census, take over this nation with the same way that Europe is trying to lose their countries, lose their future, lose their economy, lose their productivity over the same fight. It's a very broad picture, but maybe voters right now are focused on the minutia of it all. But I want to get into what Senate Republicans and House Republicans are hoping to do right now. Senate Republicans have just voted on a separate bill last week to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection. It's going to the House now. Do you think that there's going to be any changes to this or have any hangups getting through? I hope it'll just pass. If we make some changes, there's always ways we can just amend it, but the more amendments you do, the less likely it is to pass. We want to pass. We want to fund the government. We want to get back to regular order. We passed 12 appropriations bills this year. I always tell people it's a minor miracle that with such a narrow majority, we've been able to pass 12 appropriations bill after the big, beautiful bill. I never thought it was possible. I am proud of this Republican Party being able to unite such a slim majority like it's never united before. We had a hard time passing these sort of things when we had a 40 vote majority. Kudos to the Republican Party for actually coming together at a time we need us to. Right now, many Republicans are pointing to the extreme rhetoric in the media and in particular from Democratic figures saying that this creates an environment that justifies violence back on the shooting. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt once again. When you read the manifesto of this shooter, ask yourselves, how different is the rhetoric from this almost assassin than what you read on social media and hear in various forums every single day? The answer, if you're being honest with yourself, is that there is no difference at all. Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily. Congressman McCormick, as a political figure yourself, you know that words carry weight with the American public. Now, for Trump's critics who are in a similar position or in the media, do you think they need to be more careful with their speech? I've been saying this for a long time. I remember when Maxine Waters was saying you should follow people into elevators, you should harass them, get on their case, seek them out of their homes, harass their families. I mean, it's been mainstream for the left for a long time where they use their comedians. Comedians with a severed head of President Trump dripping with blood, that's supposed to be funny somehow. When you have a comedian recently forebodingly saying, hey, Melania has the glow of a future widow. When you have comedians joking about him being a fascist, when they're dehumanizing the whole Republican Party, ironically, they don't even know what fascism means. If you look at fascism, far closer to socialism than it is ever to the contrary, which is capitalism. That's the irony, is these people want to make us into Nazis. Now, based on the preliminary evidence of what we know so far about this shooting over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson says Secret Service acted well, but they need to take a look at security measures. House Oversight, which you are on, is going to be holding a review of Secret Service soon. What do you hope comes out of that? Well, whenever we have a mishap in aviation, I was a Marine Corps aviator for a long time, we don't point fingers. We learn. There's always going to be something to do better. We realize that security is going to be stepped up no matter where we're at. I mean, we realize that the President goes to an enormous number of activities. He goes to MMA fights, WWE fights. He goes to boxing matches. He goes all over the place. He goes to Army-Navy games. The more security we have, the less liberties we have. And this is going to be that hard push-pull thing. Of course, we're going to make it difficult for bad guys to get to us, whether it be in the airports or anywhere else. But realize that we'll come with a cost. Now, I think you can always do things better, but we don't want to be finger-pointed. We realize that every time something bad happens, we learn, we get better at it. But this is always going to be a challenge because technologies are going to advance. People are going to think outside the box, and that's how we become better. But there's never going to be a time where there's not some sort of vulnerability out there. Congressman McCormick, you're working to pass the Clear Labels Act. This is a bipartisan, bicameral, nonpartisan, both Senate and House legislation that would require prescription drug labels to disclose where the drugs are made. Now, we actually have HHS Secretary Kennedy on the Hill last week discussing how drugs in China are not only less effective, and they're tested on minority groups against their will. Take a look. And they're also breaking all kinds of ethical rules. There are Shanghai minority groups in China to participate in trials that they don't want to participate in. We're now doing inspections over there to catch that. Congressman, why is it important for Americans to know if their drugs are made in China? And realize it's not just where the drugs are made, but also where the ingredients come from. China's been real good at basically cornering the market in all kinds of things that we produce, whether it be electronics or drugs. The fact that we don't have the same inspection quality standards. Here in America, you can show up on my doorstep as a drug manufacturer, come in for full access and full disclosure. Whereas if you go to China, I have to give you heads up by months in advance. And quite frankly, we don't test the quality of drugs coming in here from outside. So we don't know the efficacy. And I know from practical experience, I've prescribed drugs that were made overseas in China that just didn't work as well. Now, I can't tell you why, because I didn't get to test them. I'm not allowed. But I can tell you that there is a huge difference in some drugs, maybe not all, but in some drugs that are produced in China. We should have transparency to where those drugs are. And the same rules should apply over there as apply here on inspections, on quality, on cleanliness and efficacy. Congressman Rich McCormick, thank you so much for your analysis today. Always a pleasure. Good day and Semper Fidelis. Chinese oil refiner targeted for allegedly bankrolling Iran. Find out more tonight on China In Focus with Tiffany Meyer at 8 p.m. Eastern. And you're looking at a live shot of the Capitol. When we come back, we'll hear from law enforcement experts to assess the security protocols at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Hi, I'm Jane Seymour, and I spent years on TV playing a doctor. But I learned about the My father nearly died before having a quadruple bypass and valve replacement that saved him. And my mom, who was my inspiration, suffered a stroke that took away her speech, her ability to move and ultimately her life. To see someone so vibrant, so positive, who'd survived so much in life, be debilitated by a stroke. It was devastating and also a wake up call. And that's why I'm so passionate about supporting the American Heart Association. They're doing more every day to stop needless deaths. But they simply can't do their life saving work without you. So please call now or go to helpheart.org. 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Become a monthly donor and for a limited time only, your first month's gift will be next. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. They're just young people, hungry, homeless, and vulnerable. Covenant House is helping young adults facing homelessness. We're providing safe shelter to thousands, but the need is overwhelming. Please call or go online now. With your gift of $19 a month, we'll send you this blanket as a reminder of the comfort your gift provides a young person tonight. You'll provide safe shelter, hot meals, and medical care. Call the number on your screen or go online to Welcome back. I'm Jack Bradley. To break down the latest on the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend, we welcome on our panel Sergeant Betsy Brantner-Smith, spokesman for the National Police Association, and Matthew Silverman, national president for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. Hey, thank you both for joining us. Now this shooting took place at the Washington Hilton, where the suspect Cole Thomas Allen was staying as a guest of the hotel. Matthew, what's your sense of the security of the overall building, not just the venue? Of course. First of all, I want to say thank you very much for having me on this show. It's great to be here. It's always a troubling time, and any place is going to be hard to protect. Any place is going to be hard to have security when we are in charge of those particular buildings. So when we're doing a Correspondents Dinner like this at a Hilton or anywhere across the country, our Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies need to work very closely with the security at these facilities. We don't know them like we do the White House or the Capitol building or the Pentagon. So it definitely makes it troubling for us to go in there and do what we need to do to protect the ones that we're protecting. And Betsy, President Trump has said that law enforcement acted in the way they were supposed to, but considering this venue, were there any noticeable lapses in security that may have been avoided or even unavoidable? Well, I've been to this hotel. I've been to this venue. I'm sure Matthew has too. It's a really, really difficult venue to secure. And I think that we have to look at the fact that no one was hurt except an agent who risked his life. The rest of the agents were able to stop this would-be shooter. But I do think we have got to look at the Trump presidency in relation to the Secret Service and to security and say that this is a president like no other. And the hatred for Donald Trump and the number of assassination attempts against Donald Trump allows us to have to change security protocol when it comes to the Secret Service and when it comes to protecting Donald Trump and the administration. I think it's time to go look at protocols, look at leadership and say, you know what, we need to make some changes because you just can't have this many assassination attempts and continue to get law enforcement officers hurt protecting these dignitaries, including, of course, the president. That's absolutely right. But the event here will be postponed. But as for where it will take place and what security measures will be implemented, here's FBI Director Cash Patel. And I think we are going to do it entirely differently. You heard the president say on Saturday night that we're going to do this again in short order, maybe in 30 days or so. And we're going to be ready for that. The security posture, I imagine, is going to be completely different. Betsy, what changes do you expect to see? Well, I think we will see tighter security. I think we will see probably not the same venue, or if it's the same venue, a lot less egress. I think that you will also see more attention paid to who is staying in that hotel. Very often with events like this, we take a look at who is staying in that hotel. If we'd have looked at, you know, who had checked in the last few days, maybe looked at their backgrounds, which, of course, is time consuming. We want to make sure people have their freedoms to move around. But we have protect the leadership of this country. So I think you will obviously see differences in security protocol, starting with probably the venue. Matthew, do you think that Homeland Security, looking back, should have labeled this a national special security event? I don't think this raises to the extent of a national security event. Although we did have a lot of very high dignitaries that were there, I don't think it encompasses what that would be. And if we start doing that with this one, it's going to have to be every single one that we do, which is going to be way, way too taxing on our law enforcement officers and our other security professionals that are out there every single day. One of the biggest things that we need to look at is our law enforcement officers across this country, especially our federal agents, with all of the tasks that we are doing, we are being depleted because of all the tasks that President Trump is mandating that we do. And do we believe in them? Of course, we believe in them. It is extremely important to get the borders under control, which they are. It is extremely important to get the illegal immigrants, especially the ones that are criminals, out of this country. But that all weighs on these law enforcement officers. They are working night and day. They are working hundreds of hours of overtime. And in many cases, they're not getting paid for the overtime that they're working. We need to make sure that if we don't have enough law enforcement officers to help, to protect, to keep us safe, that we start hiring new law enforcement officers. We start giving incentives to keep law enforcement officers and retain them longer. And we give them the equipment and we give them everything that they need to make sure that we are doing the job to the highest level possible, especially when we're doing something like this with the president, the vice president and other cabinet level members. Now, the Justice Department and Republicans in Congress are now calling on the legal opposition to drop their case against President Trump's $400 million privately funded ballroom at the White House. Take a look. The ballroom will be a solution for this because it'll be on the most secure compound in the world. It won't have hotel rooms above it. And it'll have seven inch thick glass, for example, on the windows. So it'll be a very safe environment to do events like this. Matthew, how secure would a White House ballroom be for occasions like this? This is the exact reason I feel that President Trump wanted to build this ballroom. We have too much politics playing into this, how much money this is going to cost. The bottom line is, this is where we need to have venues like this. We need to have them at the most secure facility in the world. And that is the White House, the White House, the Capitol complex, places like that, where we know the security, we know what needs to be done, but there's nothing else in this country that is going to be as secure as the White House ballroom once that's done. If we are serious about keeping our people safe and secure, this is what needs to happen. This is where it needs to be. Betsy, what specific measures would the ballroom address in a security situation like this? Well, you've got everything from bullet resistant glass to complete control of who comes in and who goes out. And it's on the campus of the White House, which is already one of the most secure buildings in this nation. And you've got uniformed Secret Service, you've got so many other federal agents already there. You also would have the president, the vice president, spouses, all that being able to walk right from the interior of the White House to the ballroom. Nobody would have to be outside. I mean, this is a really best case scenario. It will not be ready for the Trump administration, presumably, to take advantage of it. But think about this for every other administration, regardless of political party, to be able to keep our leadership safe. It'd be wonderful. And Matthew, we have President Trump complimenting repeatedly the cooperation between Secret Service and local law enforcement. What does that look like behind the scenes? Just like President Trump is saying, behind the scenes, our law enforcement officers are working hand in hand with each other. The biggest issue that we're having right now is the political play into it. When we have state senators and U.S. senators and congresspeople that don't want law enforcement to work, or their own law enforcement, meaning state and local law enforcement, to work with our federal agencies, that's what happened with 9-11. The information was not being shared. We can't get to that point. We need to make sure that we are sharing that stuff. So when you're in Washington, D.C., United States Park Police, Metropolitan Police, Capitol Police, the U.S. Marshals, any other agency like Homeland Security that has people at these events are all sharing intelligence. They're all working hand in hand with each other. And just one other point to say from what we talked about with this ballroom, we have a place in the ballroom, if it's at the White House, where we can evac these members of Congress or other dignitaries. When we're in a location like a Hilton, where are we evacing people to and what would have happened if somebody was waiting outside of those places? So inside a secure ballroom, inside the White House complex, we have measures that we can't touch anywhere else in this country. And just like Betsy said, this whole thing is giving Trump a bad look on doing this ballroom because of the amount of money being spent. This isn't for him. This is for everybody after him. And we all need to look at that. We all need to think about that. Yeah. By the way, this $400 million ballroom will be privately funded. But Betsy, anything to add on how critical the communication between local and federal law enforcement is in situations like this? Well, Matthew made such a good point that we're seeing politicians trying to drive a wedge between local, state and federal law enforcement because of their ridiculous hatred of ICE. And we are seeing operations around this country interrupted because protesters run up to police officers that they think are ICE agents when they're actually deputy sheriffs or local cops. They're inserting themselves very dangerously into these situations. And let me just say that for the last 40 plus years that I've been involved in law enforcement, I have worked closely with our federal partners and every single cop in this country wants to continue that relationship. And it's got to stop being politicized. Law enforcement needs to work together, state, local and federal. All right. Thank you both, Betsy Brantner-Smith and Matthew Silverman. Thank you so much for sharing your time and expertise with us today. And now you're looking at a live shot of the U.S. Capitol. Questions are mounting over how the dinner was secured by federal agencies already operating without full funding. Pressure is now building in Congress to keep DHS agencies funded before emergency money runs out. 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President Trump today meeting with his national security team to discuss Iran. This after what's left of the Islamic regime sent a new peace proposal over the weekend. NTD's international correspondent Arian Pasdar has the latest on Iran. I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt on Monday giving an update on the Iran war. The U.S. canceled the last peace talks in Pakistan, deciding not to send a delegation. On Saturday, President Trump said the Iranian side quickly changed its stance after that. They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better. According to reports, the Iranian side offered a mutual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but therefore the discussion about Iran's nuclear activity will be left for later. Leavitt on Monday responding to a question on whether President Trump considers accepting that deal, despite previously saying Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. The president's red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday telling Fox News that the main problem in discussing peace with Iranians is that not even the Iranians themselves really know who's in charge at the moment. Our negotiators aren't just negotiating with Iranians. Those Iranians then have to negotiate with other Iranians in order to figure out what they can agree to, what they can offer, what they're willing to do, even who they're willing to meet with. He added that another factor is that within the Iranian leadership, many Shia clerics have a, quote, apocalyptic vision of the future, suggesting it's difficult to reason with them. So for now, the American naval blockade on Iranian ports continues. The U.S. Central Command on Sunday saying so far American forces have directed 38 ships to turn around or return to port. At the same time, Iran continues aligning itself more closely with the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with the regime's foreign minister in Russia on Monday. I would like you to convey my most sincere words of gratitude and to confirm that Russia, same as Iran, intends to continue our strategic relations. Russia is currently building two nuclear power units in Iran while the Iranian regime previously supplied Russia with Shahid drones often used against Ukraine. Ariel Pastar, NTD News. In the aftermath of Saturday night's shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, new focus is turning to the agencies that secured the events, the Secret Service and TSA, both under the Department of Homeland Security, now operating more than 70 days without full funding as emergency money runs low and lawmakers remain at odds over a path forward. NTD's Chris Bobb has more. Saturday night's events were a grim reminder of the need for law enforcement. Some of the law enforcement officers who responded are working for a department that is currently completely unfunded. I very much hope that after this weekend's events we can all agree the law enforcement agencies of the Department of Homeland Security and the entire department need to be funded as quickly as humanly possible. That urgency comes after a gunman stormed the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents Dinner, an event secured by multiple DHS agencies including the TSA and Secret Service. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, has gone on for more than 72 days, leaving multiple agencies without a stable source of funding. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is calling for a briefing from the Secret Service following the incident, posting on X, quote, following last night's assassination attempt against President Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the House Oversight Committee has requested a briefing from U.S. Secret Service. DHS, including Secret Service, has been unfunded for more than 70 days now. It's time to stop the games and fund DHS. House Speaker Mike Johnson commenting on what comes next in the House in an interview on Fox. I can tell you the House is doing our job and our Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has already announced that we're going to have a review and a hearing with Secret Service. We're doing it as quickly as we can. I expect it'll be within the next couple of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doubling down on Democrats' refusal to pass a DHS funding bill that includes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, posting on X, quote, daily reminder that the Senate passed a bipartisan, unanimous bill to fund all of DHS except ICE. Mike Johnson blocked it. He could pass it today if he wanted. Mike Johnson speaking to the urgency to fund DHS later on the Hill. We have to move DHS funding because it's urgent. As the Secretary of Homeland has said, we're out of money. He's out of money at the end of this week. And so Democrats have been playing games with this. It's very dangerous, as demonstrated Saturday night. We've got to get the job done. DHS has been operating on roughly $10 billion in emergency funding to keep operations running, but that money is quickly running out. DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen warning payroll costs alone exceed $1.6 billion every two weeks, putting the department on track to run out of funds by early May. Lawmakers are facing growing pressure to reach a deal as the agencies responsible for protecting the country continue operating in a heightened threat environment. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Bobb, NTD News. And the third assassination attempt against President Trump renews demand for a secure White House ballroom. NTD's Sam Wong was out on the National Mall in D.C. to hear from the people. So the president had another closed call on Saturday. What was your initial reaction upon hearing about what happened? I couldn't believe it. Actually, I was taking a quick little nap, and then I opened my eyes, and I'm like, what's going on? So I just think it's the left, all the attacks, they just keep trying and trying, and it's not happening. We were staying in a hotel right down the street from the Hilton. Totally in shock. Cannot believe that somebody has... They're that stupid to even try to attempt to get even close to him. It's really frustrating. There's such violence in our country. I mean, he's the president of the United States, and towards each other, we shouldn't be violent. It's just disappointing that our country's culture has got to this, that we revert to violence when we have differences. I don't know that any of us know. There's obviously a lot of rhetoric being thrown around by both parties and both sides of the political scheme, but it does seem a little bit more one-sided than both. That has to be contributing somewhat. They just seem to keep coming after him, regardless of how much good he keeps doing for us. He's still going to push forward, regardless of anything that happens, and not let it affect his day-to-day, which shows just how strong of a person he is for our country, I think. The president was talking about building a White House ballroom within the perimeter of the White House. Do you think after what happened on Saturday, do you think this is very much called for? Yes, absolutely. I think it would be a wonderful addition to the White House, and it would be more secure. I'm shocked that this is even in question. We're the greatest nation on this planet, and we should have our own ballroom. I think it's, I thought it was an awesome idea. More than likely, it would have prevented what happened. If there was ever a time that we need security for the president and all the people, and even the media, to protect the media from incidents like this, for sure. I mean, that ballroom is supposed to have a secured bunker below it. There shouldn't be any hesitation now to get that ballroom completed. They'll complete it, for sure. If the ballroom is there, we can definitely maximize security and keep our president safe, whether that is Republican, Democrat, individual party. It doesn't matter who it is. The president's the president. We need to keep them safe. Now, in light of the hostile rhetoric in the spotlight after the attack at the White House press gala, we leave you with inspiration for becoming a better neighbor. Cultivating a friendly community in your neighborhood starts with the golden rule, of course, treating your neighbors as you'd like to be treated. Now, the first step could be a smile and a friendly wave to neighbors as they walk or drive by. Finding things in common helps start conversations, and sharing your neighbor's joys, accomplishments, and sorrows creates genuine goodwill. Lending a helping hand without offering any unsolicited advice are also habits of being a good neighbor. Now, be sure to make some connection with your community starting from today, and that's all we have for you tonight on the Capitol Report. For around the clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live, or you can download our NTD app. From the nation's capital, I'm Jack Bradley. Have a nice evening, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow.