Trump admits he slowed Secret Service evacuation after dinner shooting

President Donald Trump acknowledged after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night that the Secret Service may have complicated the evacuation process.

In a preview “60 Minutes” interview On Sunday night’s broadcast, Trump told CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell what was going on in his mind during the rapid process in which he walked past Secret Service agents after the shooting and took himself and other administration officials out of the incident.

O’Donnell stated that it took an agent 10 seconds to reach him and another 20 seconds to be removed from the building. Trump admitted that some of the hesitation stemmed from a desire to know what was happening.

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“What happened was, I was a little bit like that,” Trump said. “I wanted to see what was going on, and I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And by then we started to realize that this was a bad problem, a different kind of problem, a bad problem, and different than the normal ballroom noise you hear all the time. I was surrounded by wonderful people. And I probably got them to go a little slower. And they said, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let’s see. Wait a minute.’

Trump said he and First Lady Melania Trump were eventually told to come downstairs and “pretty much immediately” began crawling out of the room.

“I stood up and then I turned in the opposite direction and started walking pretty tall, bent over a little bit because I, you know, I don’t want to stand too upright, but I was walking out, I was about halfway there. And they said, ‘Please get down. Please get down.’ So I fell to the ground. The First Lady did the same,” Trump said.

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US President Donald Trump spoke to the “60 Minutes” program about the Secret Service evacuating him and other officials from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.

The event ended abruptly, with Trump, his wife and several administration officials quickly evacuated from the dinner. At a press conference shortly after the shooting, Trump confirmed that the gunman was in custody and requested that the White House Correspondents’ Association reschedule the dinner within the next 30 days.

Cole Allen, A 31-year-old computer scientist from Torrance, California, was identified as the suspect accused of opening fire at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

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At a news conference Saturday night, authorities said Allen was armed with multiple weapons as he ran to the Secret Service checkpoint. He then allegedly opened fire on a Secret Service officer who was hospitalized after being shot in his ballistic vest. The police officer was later released from the hospital on Sunday.

President Donald Trump praised the Secret Service’s actions during the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News confirmed with law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation that the suspect targeted Trump administration officials.

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Fox News’ Max Bacall contributed to this report.