REFORM PERIMETERS

“One thing has definitely increased, and that is the number of threats just floating around the Internet, the number of threats that go after not just politicians, but, for example, judges and schools and hospitals and all manner of American public life have a much larger increase in just threats being thrown around. There's sort of a sea of hostility out there online, a sea of angry, threatening language that makes it harder and more time consuming to figure out who is really dangerous and who is just sort of a keyboard commando.”

“So in late April, he gets on a train from Los Angeles, and that goes to Chicago. Once he gets to Chicago, he buys a ticket to Washington, DC. He arrives in Washington, DC on Friday and checks into the hotel, the Washington Hilton. That's the same hotel where this big gala dinner is going to be held.”

“I think here, though, there is a big difference between, for example, the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024 and what happened here. Because I think there was a clear security failure in Butler where you had a rooftop with a sight line toward the candidate that was not protected, that was not guarded. Here, the situation, I think, is quite different in that this person tried to essentially bum rush a fancy black tie gala. He made it a matter of steps past the initial security screening, but he never even got onto the floor where the event was happening.”

“Some of what unfolds next is actually quite similar to other security scares. People hear what they think are gunshots. They're not sure what's happening. They're not sure where the danger is. But they're told to get down, essentially, like, just get down, you know, lower than your table, so if there is a gunman, he can't see you. And that's what a lot of people in the ballroom are doing in that moment. And, you know, it's basically ninety, one hundred and twenty seconds of of real terror, because no one really knows what the danger is or what direction it's coming from.”

“So as part of this larger debate about how to keep the president safe, how to keep senior officials safe, the president and his senior advisers are all arguing that this incident only shows how badly they need to finish construction of the White House Ballroom. This is a larger fight that, you know, has been going on for months about whether this is really necessary or proper and whether the president can do it on his own without congressional approval. A judge has said no, but that legal fight is still going on.”

“First, the suspect, Cole Allen, was formally charged in a criminal complaint. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president. That wasn't the only charge, but it's the most important charge by far because that charge carries a potential life sentence. The other two charges in the criminal complaint are transportation of a firearm over interstate commerce, and that's a reference to him allegedly bringing weapons across country, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.”

“Here, the situation, I think, is quite different in that this person tried to essentially bum rush a fancy black tie gala. He made it a matter of steps past the initial security screening, but he never even got onto the floor where the event was happening. He was taken down and tackled before he could even get to the stairs that led to that floor. So in talking to former secret service and talking to other security experts, a lot of folks have said to me, look. If the question is what do you do to prevent this, this is what the perimeter is for.”

“And so in late April, he gets on a train from Los Angeles, and that goes to Chicago. Once he gets to Chicago, he buys a ticket to Washington, DC. He arrives in Washington, DC on Friday and checks into the hotel, the Washington Hilton. That's the same hotel where this big gala dinner is going to be held.”

“Like many people, I read the letter that he wrote, and it is apologizing for what he's done. It's sort of a goodbye letter to people that he loves. It is imagining, at times, a q and a where he imagines criticism, and then he imagines what he would say in response to that criticism about his actions.”

“He's 31. He's from Torrance, California, and he's, by all accounts, a smart guy. He has a master's in computer science. He went to Caltech, which is not an easy school to get into. We know that he, you know, was raised in the Protestant church, and his father was a church elder. And in talking to people who know him and talked to some of his former students because he worked as a tutor for a good bit of time, they all describe him as nice, cheerful, a bit of a nerd, and all of them that have been interviewed by reporters expressed shock and surprise that the person they knew as this tutor and academic would do anything like this.”

“So as part of this larger debate about how to keep the president safe, how to keep senior officials safe, the president and his senior advisers are all arguing that this incident only shows how badly they need to finish construction of the White House Ballroom. This is a larger fight that, you know, has been going on for months about whether this is really necessary or proper and whether the president can do it on his own without congressional approval. A judge has said no, but that legal fight is still going on.”

“So on Monday, there were a few key developments. First, the suspect, Cole Allen, was formally charged in a criminal complaint. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president. That wasn't the only charge, but it's the most important charge by far because that charge carries a potential life sentence. The other two charges in the criminal complaint are transportation of a firearm over interstate commerce, and that's a reference to him allegedly bringing the weapons across country, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.”

“But I also think part of the challenge here for law enforcement is making the public feel like the president is safe, making the public feel the senior government officials are safe. And if a guy with a shotgun can just sort of storm a security checkpoint and cause a great deal of panic and fear, in that sense, it may be becoming harder and harder for law enforcement to prevent that kind of incident.”

“Like many people, I read the letter that he wrote, and it is apologizing for what he's done. It's sort of a goodbye letter to people that he loves. It is imagining, at times, a q and a where he imagines criticism, and then he imagines what he would say in response to that criticism about his actions. That's why this note to his family is so important because he makes pretty clear without ever really saying Trump's name in the writing that Trump is the one he is most angry at.”

“One thing has definitely increased, and that is the number of threats just floating around the Internet, the number of threats that go after not just politicians, but, for example, judges and schools and hospitals. And all manner of American public life have a much larger increase in just threats being thrown around. There's sort of a sea of hostility out there online, a sea of angry, threatening language that makes it harder and more time consuming to figure out who is really dangerous and who is just sort of a keyboard commando.”