Trump says dinner shooter was ‘blur’: ‘NFL should sign him up’

President Trump said that the shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was a “blur” and cracked a joke that the NFL “should sign him up.”

“His speed was rather incredible. Actually, it was, it was like a blur,” the president remarked about the gunman in an interview with CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell on “60 Minutes.”

“How did he get that close, with the place swarming with security?” O’Donnell asked.

“I will say, look, I say it because I’m a big fan of the people of law enforcement. And, you know, some of these people, they may be crazy, but they’re not stupid, and they figure things out. He ran 45 yards, they say, and he just went to it, and then, boom, he popped through it,” Trump responded.

“I mean, he ran like — I think the NFL should sign him up — he was fast. When you look at it on tape, it’s almost like a blur,” the president added. 

The president was on Sunday’s “60 Minutes” episode to talk about the shooting Saturday at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. A heavily armed man ran through security at the Washington Hilton shortly after the dinner started, exchanging gunfire with law enforcement officials prior to being apprehended.

Several media reports have identified the suspected gunman as Cole Allen, from Torrance, Calif.

The suspected shooter was likely targeting Trump and other administration officials, the White House said.

“What was supposed to be a fun night at the @WHCA dinner with President Trump delivering jokes and celebrating free speech was hijacked by a depraved crazy person who sought to assassinate the President and kill as many top Trump administration officials as possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on the social platform X Sunday.

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