House

Crow seeking ‘answers’ from Secret Service, Trump administration on implementation of security recommendations

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by Max Rego - 04/27/26 9:14 PM ET

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by Max Rego - 04/27/26 9:14 PM ET

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Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) on Monday asked the Trump administration and Secret Service for “answers” regarding security protocols in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington.

Crow, the ranking member on a bipartisan House task force that investigated the two assassination attempts against President Trump in 2024, told host Kasie Hunt on CNN’s “The Arena” that he wants “some answers out of [the] Secret Service and the administration as to how many” of that panel’s recommendations “have actually been implemented, or have they just been sitting on a shelf over the last year, collecting dust.”

In the task force’s final report, issued in December 2024, it listed more than 30 recommendations for the Secret Service — including advising the agency to consolidate all operations plans, consider coverage inside and outside of a secure perimeter and weigh additional staffing to prepare for “chaotic and emergency situations.”

The report also stated that Congress should consider legislation reviewing the Secret Service’s budget, staffing and retention, and reduce the number of protectees, which has “greatly expanded,” among other recommendations.

Crow doubled down on the need for those reforms Monday, arguing the Secret Service needs “vastly more resources.”

A spokesperson for the Washington Hilton, where the WHCA dinner was held on Saturday, told The Hill Monday that the hotel “was operating under stringent security protocols” as directed by the Secret Service. The agency led security for the event, along with the Metropolitan Police Department and hotel security, the spokesperson noted.

On Saturday, a man charged through a security checkpoint one floor above the ballroom where Trump, administration officials, members of Congress and journalists gathered for the annual gala. The president shared a video to his Truth Social platform of the man running past law enforcement officers, who then drew their weapons in his direction.

The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate Trump, transporting a firearm or ammunition in interstate commerce with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

After the shooting, the president praised the Secret Service and law enforcement, writing on Truth Social that they “acted quickly and bravely.”

On Sunday morning, Trump said the incident reiterates the need for a ballroom at the White House. But Crow pushed back on that argument.

“The lesson learned from this cannot be, ‘We have to stop being accessible, we have to stop going out in public, we have to stop being available to the American people that we represent, that we have to put ourselves behind higher fences and behind ballrooms,’” he told Hunt.

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