Not a ‘redo’: Secret Service prepares for second press dinner after attack

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — As the Secret Service prepares for a second take at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC, on Friday, Director Sean Curran defended how his agency handled security at the first version of the dinner.

“It did work,” Curran said at a press conference Wednesday. “The system worked.”

The dinner in April was shut down after a gunman opened fire as he rushed through a Secret Service screening checkpoint on the floor above where the dinner was being held. The man hit one officer before he was detained by several agents.

Curran noted that the man, who was staying as a guest at the hotel prior to the dinner, was stopped over 100 yards from the podium.

“That is the success. That is why we set up checkpoints,” Curran told reporters when asked about security preparations and reassurances for guests attending the rescheduled event Friday. “That is why we have our teams, our special teams, in place because we do plan for that, and that’s the reality.”

Curran noted that advance teams have already visited the new location for the dinner — the Waldorf Astoria, instead of the Washington Hilton — and established a security plan for the evening, something the Secret Service has done for thousands of trips and visits by their protectees this year alone.

While some criticism has been levied against the Secret Service over the dramatic shooting and arrest in April, Curran pushed back, noting that security checkpoints are put in place for this exact reason.

“That’s sometimes what people don’t understand. If we didn’t need the magnetometers, we wouldn’t set them up,” Curran said of the metal detectors that were being removed when the gunman rushed through. “We do expect bad people to show up. It’s just a reality of where we are.”

One law enforcement official told CNN that the access points are more limited at the dinner’s new location, which will help focus security. The location, the person added, is also in an area with a heavy police presence from both local and federal agencies, a factor that also helps in securing the area.

Secret Service officials were also clear that they do not see the second press dinner as a second go at security.

“We’re not looking at this as a redo of a dinner,” Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said Wednesday. “We’re looking at this as a presidential site with cabinet members and other protectees there, just like every site we do everywhere we go.”

The alleged gunman, Cole Allen, pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate the president. He remains behind bars and a trial in the case has yet to be set.

The officials were also clear that the threat from Iran — a government that has called for the death of the president and at times attempted to orchestrate attempts on Trump’s life — still exists and that threats against protectees continues to grow.

“What we’re seeing now is something we’ve never seen,” one Secret Service official said, adding that in their nearly 30 years with the agency, the level of threats is “the highest that I’ve ever seen.”

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