House

House Republican calls for Congress to take ‘better steps’ to address security after WHCA gala shooting

Comments:

by Max Rego - 04/26/26 5:20 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Max Rego - 04/26/26 5:20 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that Congress should take “better steps” to address lawmaker security in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.

“I do,” Hamadeh told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” when the latter asked whether the legislative branch “should be doing something different” regarding security. Hamadeh attended the event at the Washington Hilton.

“Honestly, it was very lucky that I was able to even communicate with my protective detail, because he was not in the ballroom,” the Arizona Republican added.

Hamadeh said that he was only able to communicate with his protective detail because he had logged on to the Wi-Fi at the hotel roughly a minute before the shooting occurred.

The Republican lawmaker noted that he met with his security “towards the exit of the ballroom,” after which they evacuated the hotel “quickly and safely” with GOP Reps. Marlin Stutzman (Ind.) and Andy Ogles (Tenn.).

The shooting occurred at roughly 8:30 p.m. EDT, as a man charged a security checkpoint outside of the ballroom where the annual dinner was taking place.

The suspected gunman, identified by multiple outlets as 31-year-old Cole Allen, exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers and hit one Secret Service officer in his bulletproof vest. Interim Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffery Carroll told reporters Saturday that the officer was transported to a local hospital and was in “good spirits.”

After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot last September, the House doubled the per-member personal security allowance from $5,000 to $10,000 monthly.

Last year, the U.S. Capitol Police investigated nearly 15,000 “concerning” statements, behaviors and communications directed against members of Congress, their families, staff and the Capitol complex.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), who was on his way into the ballroom when the shooting took place, also said Sunday that the incident should serve as a case study for Congress.

“I’m not a security expert, but I will say we should look at this event and study what we could do better to make sure that someone can’t even try to get close to the ballroom like what happened because of so many important people there,” Subramanyam told Stirewalt.

Add as preferred source on Google