'Sad for our country': Nebraska Rep. Flood recounts chaos of shooting at dinner

Mike Flood was talking to his tablemates Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner when he said he heard what sounded like plates breaking.

“You know, you go to enough banquets, you feel terrible for the wait staff when something like that happens, and it was a lot of plates breaking,” Flood said during a Zoom meeting with members of the press. “And I, I kind of looked around behind me just to see where it was. I was convinced it was like, just an accident with a bunch of dinner plates.”

But he quickly learned it was not plates breaking.

“As I turned about back to the stage, I saw all the Secret Service agents rushing the vice president, the president, the first lady, and the president appeared to like have gone on the ground like he tripped or something, because then all of a sudden we saw these Secret Service agents, I assume, that were in full fatigues with really large assault rifles,” Flood said. "They had flashlights at the end of them that were pointing out towards the crowd. I was sitting next to the Secretary of the Army at the table next to me, and his detail came and whisked him away, and the Labor Secretary, who was sitting at my table. Well, they got him out of there so fast, I didn't even notice he was gone.”

NPR reported that Cole Allen, a 31-year old teacher and engineer from Torrance, California, was arrested after allegedly fired shots outside the dinner after attempting to breach security. One law enforcement officer was injured, reportedly shot in his bulletproof vest.

NPR also reported that sources said Allen had written a "manifesto" aimed at administration officials, and Allen's brother notified the New London, Connecticut, police of that writing just minutes before the incident at the dinner.

Flood wasn’t the only member of Nebraska’s Congressional delegation at the dinner. Sen. Deb Fischer said in a social media post Saturday night that she also was at the dinner, “and I’m grateful the President and all who attended are safe. Thank you to brave law enforcement and Secret Service for their quick response tonight. Praying for our country.”

The state’s other Congressional members also weighed in on social media, with responses ranging from praise to the Secret Service and law enforcement, to prayers, to a post from Sen. Pete Ricketts that said the shooting, “serves as an important reminder that our homeland must be defended and the effort to do so fully funded.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a post on X that Nebraska National Guard members were part of the security response to the shooting.

"We can take special pride knowing that several of our Nebraska National Guard troops — who are already deployed to Washington for the DC Safe and Beautiful mission — were onsite during the attack and helped Secret Service and law enforcement respond and secure the scene after shots rang out," Pillen said in the post, which included a video that showed some of the troops. "You can see them near the end of this video, running TOWARD danger to help neutralize a bad guy and protect others. I am beyond proud, and Nebraskans should be, too."

Flood, for his part, seemed to not want to chalk up the shooting to politics.

“I'm just sad for our country having experienced that last night, and I do hope they are able to get it rescheduled, because the actions of one guy who's obviously got some major issues, mental issues, should not derail the ability of our government to get together with the First Amendment free press and celebrate a night of 'we're all in this together,' and that's what was ruined last night,” Flood said. “And that's not right, and it's incumbent upon all of us, myself included, to treat people with respect, to be in charge of our own rhetoric in a way that finds solutions, bipartisan solutions, because last night was very bipartisan.”

President Donald Trump, who was attending the dinner for the first time during either of his presidencies, said he hopes to reschedule it within the next month.