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Secret Service prepares for second press dinner after attack

By 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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Millions of Americans with untreated high blood pressure should be taking medication

By CNN
Nearly 1 in 3 adults in the United States with untreated high blood pressure would benefit from treatment and are not getting it, according to a new study.That’s because nearly 10 million Americans now meet newly updated guidelines by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology that redefine an adult’s risk for cardiovascular disease.“We estimated that approximately 200,900 all-cause deaths and 162,600 cardiovascular deaths could be prevented over the next 10 years,” said lead study author Dr. Mustafa Al-Jarshawi, a cardiologist at Keele University in England.Ideally, doctors want blood pressure to fall below 120 mmHg systolic and 80 mmHg diastolic. If blood pressure is around 130/80, doctors have typically advised people to make changes to their lifestyle, such as increasing exercise.If doctors use the American Heart Association’s new PREVENT tool, which considers blood sugar, kidney function and a person’s decade-long risk for heart disease as well as blood pressure, some 81 million Americans would be eligible for blood pressure medications.“What this is saying is that people who have traditionally not been at very high risk are now eligible to be treated with medications more aggressively,” said cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.“Generally, I think when people have additional risk, blood pressure is really the silent killer,” said Freeman, who was not involved with the study.Expanding treatment could save livesThe study, published July 29 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2009 to 2018. Newer data is available, but the most up-to-date version of the survey hasn’t been around long enough for researchers to know participants’ cause and time of death.The study examines how death rates might be lower if the 2025 hypertension guidelines were implemented during those years, Al-Jarshawi said.Among 81 million adults with high blood pressure and no cardiovascular disease, nearly 23 million may be newly eligible under the new guidelines. Of those 23 million, 9.7 million were untreated.Becoming eligible to receive blood pressure medication was associated with a 23% lower risk of dying compared with no treatment. When it comes to the chances of dying from a heart-related issue, risk dropped by 50%. The study also found that adults with diabetes would benefit most from treatment. This is because diabetes and high blood pressure often occur together, significantly increasing cardiovascular risk, Al-Jarshawi said.Treatment is more than a medicationAny eligible person shouldn’t hesitate to start taking medication in addition to making lifestyle changes to reduce long-term risks, Al-Jarshawi said.Controlling high blood pressure is a long-term commitment to health, CNN contributor Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at George Washington University, told CNN in a previous article. She recommended looking into a key inventory of five daily habits: level of physical activity, diet, substance use including alcohol and marijuana, stress levels, and a healthy weight.“You don’t have to do everything perfectly to make a difference in your health,” Wen said. She suggests starting with small lifestyle changes. Many people can’t easily reduce stress in their lives, but maybe they can more easily start eating more fruits and vegetables.”The findings of the new study highlight the importance of controlling high blood pressure, Freeman said.“The western world is ailing from a variety of cardiometabolic, kidney diseases,” Freeman said. “High blood pressure amplifies a lot of risk, and we have to do whatever we can to get that risk down and being aggressive about blood pressure is very low-hanging fruit.”However, medication only works when it’s inside the person, and not sitting in the bottle unused, Freeman said. About half of adults in the US with high blood pressure don’t regularly take their prescribed medication, according to a July 2025 study published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.Freeman recommends trying to form a habit, such as keeping your pillbox next to an alarm or toothbrush. That way, when set an alarm for the morning or brush your teeth, you remember to also take the pills.“There’s a way to cue yourself and remind,” Freeman said. “For those people that forget, consider having a small supply in your purse or your wallet or your car, just so you can always remember to take it.”The study’s findings also highlight the need for physicians to be alert to early signs of disease and consider blood pressure treatment, even in younger people, according to Freeman.“We’re seeing a lot more young people now who have chronic disease and diabetes and other things that may be relatively mild, but still at risk, and we need to be even more aggressive,” Freeman said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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