Attorney Gimenez raises concerns about Secret Service failure at WHCA dinner
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It’s perfect: President Donald Trump was “one door away” from an accident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a GOP lawyer said, as he demanded answers from the Secret Service about what he described as a major security lapse.
House Homeland Security Committee member Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who previously investigated security failures at the Butler, Pa., rally where Trump was targeted, said the latest incident raises similar concerns about gaps in Secret Service protection.
Gimenez, who inspected the Butler site in person, told Fox News Digital that security at the Washington Hilton – where the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held and where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 – also showed a worrying vulnerability.
Gimenez said things have changed since then in some positive ways, as crowds can get as close to the president as John Hinckley Jr. he was able to when he tried to kill the president, it was reported that he wanted to please Jodie Foster.
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Unlike the first attempt to kill President Donald Trump, Republicans are in no rush to hold a public debate and launch an investigation into the latest attempt on his life at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner over the weekend. (REUTERS/Bo Erickson)
“Mr. Brady was seriously injured – but it was a long time ago and things tend to fade into history and memory. So I’m not sure. [of an apples-to-apples comparison],” he said, going back to examining any “bright holes” in the security situation at Trump’s event.
“If they were, why, and why weren’t they caught? And who is responsible for that? And does the Secret Service have the training necessary to respond and act [adjustments].”
He asked if the Secret Service had the training and advance planning necessary to prevent similar threats.
Gimenez rejected all suggestions that Hilton himself is guilty of breaking the law, saying that when the president is threatened, the burden falls on his credentials.
“It is not the job of the Hilton hotel to protect the president and everything falls to the Secret Service,” he said while stressing that the officers on duty are brave and all did their job on Saturday and stopped the suspect Cole Allen immediately without injury except for the agent who was hit by his vest.
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Armed Secret Service agents stand on stage during a shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 25, 2026. President Donald Trump and other government officials were evacuated after gunfire was reported. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“My question is how did the would-be murderer get so far in the world, where he was far from God knows what. Those are the questions that need to be answered.”
Gimenez said that at events like the WHCA dinner, “you have to answer what-ifs,” noting that the USSS may go through hours and days of “boredom” but needs to be ready for an immediate threat.
“That doesn’t mean you’re going to think about every situation, but you have to think hard and make it very difficult for any assassin to take one door away from the president.”
“Those are the concerns I have now — and those are the concerns I had at Butler.”
He said that in both of these incidents there are things that are wrong and wrong.
The efforts to stop Allen went well, but allowing someone like him to get to the area under the ball untouched, Gimenez said.
When asked about his special committee for Butler and whether a similar panel will be created now, Gimenez said he heard such rumors, while reiterating that members of his staff had no problem entering various pre-parties without going through magnetometers or additional security, indicating that there is still much to check.
He said he expected any panel to seek a separate briefing with USSS brass, and provide “situational awareness” of the agency’s status that evening.
“It’s really amazing that we don’t have a place like that in the White House for state dinners, and so on, for the most powerful country in the world, isn’t it?”
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In this regard, Gimenez said that Trump is “ahead of the game” in many areas and that his East Wing ballroom plans may directly mitigate the threats posed by using a public hotel in a multi-door business district.
At the same time, he said that the procedures must be checked to see if the USSS has crossed the pattern “of what worked in the past is enough for what works and what threats exist today.”
“We need to get to the bottom of it and see how the Secret Service adapts to a new threat environment, which is changing every day.”
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After former USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle left the agency following Butler’s failure, Gimenez said it will be important to look at what changes, if any, the new leadership has made in the two years since then, evaluating their merits.
In a ballroom interview, Gimenez said that anyone who examines the plans carefully and politically will find that this is exactly the type of solution needed to these threats.
“Putting on my doctor’s hat, I’m going to say that the validity of those charges is based on Trump Derangement Syndrome — So. [critics] we need help, OK… The White House, which is a place for many official functions, and especially state dinners, where we bring dignitaries and heads of state from all over the world, needs a ballroom.”
He said the “temporary tent” set up in the garden is an embarrassment to the First World. Fox News Digital has contacted the USSS for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Hannah Brennan contributed to this report.
