President Trump Addresses Media After WHCD Shooting White House

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way, it did, because the fact that they just unified.

I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see a man charge a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons. And he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service.

And they acted very quickly and have just released for purposes of transparency, clarity. I’ve ordered it to be put out. You probably have it by now, put out on truth and put out on many of the platforms.

The tape showing the violence of this that attacked our Constitution and also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted on our country’s behalf really did a great job. One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing a obviously a very good bulletproof vest. He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun.

And the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great. He’s in great shape.

He has very high spirits. And we told him we love him and respect him. And he’s a very proud guy.

He’s very proud of what he does, Secret Service agent. And we looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight, and I will say, you know, it’s not a particularly secure building. And I didn’t want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House.

It’s actually a larger room and it’s much more secure. It’s got it’s drone proof. It’s bulletproof glass.

We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service. That’s why the military are demanding it.

They’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons. But today is a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody has ever seen before. But everyone owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the courage of law enforcement, the law enforcement and working with the D.C. police. And we just spoke with the mayor. And when we’re finished, the police chief is going to take over and discuss it also from their viewpoint. But they also performed exactly as they were supposed to.

And you see the attacker in different positions, but you also see the attacker totally subdued and under control. So, as you know, this is not the first time in the past couple of years that our republic has been attacked by a would-be assassin who sought to kill in Butler, Pennsylvania, less than two years ago. You all know that story.

And in Palm Beach, Florida, a few months after that, we came close. We really had again. We had some great work done by law enforcement.

But in light of this evening’s events, I asked that all Americans recommit with their hearts and resolving our difference peacefully. We have to we have to resolve our differences. I will say you had Republicans, Democrats, Independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives.

Those words are interchangeable, perhaps, but maybe they’re not. But yet everybody in that room, big crowd, record setting crowd. There was a record setting group of people.

And there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched. I watched.

And I was very, very impressed by that. But we were First Lady and I were taken very well care of very quickly, very quickly rushed off the stage. Vice President J.D. Vance, who’s here, was likewise beautifully done. I was he was just saying how quickly everybody acted. Law Enforcement Secret Service, in particular, in this case. But law enforcement Marco had the same thing.

Pete [Hegseth] was there. Pete didn’t want any help. He didn’t want anybody to help.

He doesn’t want anybody to help him. But he did get some, didn’t you? And I think you also said that it was very impressive.

So with that, I’d like to ask Todd Blanche to come up, say a few words and tell you it’s already underway. The the man is has been captured. They’ve they’re going to his apartment.

I guess he lives in California and he’s a sick person, a very sick person. And we don’t want things like this to happen. I think it’s very important that I say, though, and I told the representatives of the evening, they did such a beautiful job with such a beautiful evening.

And again, they’re talking about free speech in our Constitution. That’s what it’s all about, not just White House correspondents. It’s really it was really based on free speech in our Constitution.

But I said very importantly that we’ll do it again within the next 30 days. It will make it bigger and better and even nicer. So I just want to thank everybody that was involved.

I also want to thank the press, the media. You’ve been very responsible in your coverage. I will say I’ve been seeing what’s been out.

You’ve been very responsible. So, Todd Blanche, I’d like to say a few words. I know we’re going to have cash and then you’re going to go on.

We can ask. I guess we could take a couple of questions. I want to thank the First Lady for that was a rather traumatic experience for her.

There was a lot of action taking place up there very quickly. But again, the response time was really incredible. And we’re going to reschedule.

We’re going to do it again. We’re not going to let anybody take over our society. We’re not going to cancel things out because we can’t do that.

We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay. But they it was protocol that said, please, sir, because they didn’t know a lot of there was a lot of action going on and they didn’t know.

So I want to thank everybody very much.