Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the shooting at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night should inspire Congress to get to work and fund the Department of Homeland Security.
“The fact that DHS is not being funded after what we saw those men and women doing last night should be a wake-up call to Congress, and I hope that it is,” Blanche said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Funding for DHS lapsed on Feb. 14 after Senate Democrats demanded policy changes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol following the fatal shootings of two Americans by federal agents.
NBC moderator Kristen Welker asked Blanche how the armed suspect, who was later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, Calif., was able to breach the security checkpoint at the event.
“We believe he was staying at the hotel. So I know there’s been some reports about assembling the gun somewhere outside of his room or somewhere else in the hotel. We’re still investigating that. We don’t have all the answers on to how he got far. But the perimeter is the perimeter,” Blanche said.
