AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The suspect who attempted to storm a press gala this weekend in Washington, D.C., has been charged with attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, among other federal weapons charges.

GEOFF BENNETT: If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

Meantime, officials today confirmed a Secret Service agent wearing a bulletproof vest was shot during the incident and is expected to make a full recovery.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, starts our coverage.

LIZ LANDERS: At a dinner celebrating the First Amendment and freedom of the press, at first muffled chaos, then Secret Service agents sprinting towards the main stage, the vice president quickly seized out of his seat and a frantic rush to encircle the president.

Agents swarmed the ballroom, climbing over chairs and tables in search of officials in the presidential line of succession, escorting them out first as over 2,000 journalists, high-profile guests and other government officials crouched under tables.

Just moments earlier in a hallway leading to the ballroom, a gunman stormed through the first layer of security.

A burst of gunfire followed.

The suspect, identified by officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was tackled to the ground.

He was armed with two firearms and knives.

Allen sprinted at least 60 feet before he was apprehended, reaching the top of a staircase that led to the ballroom.

At the bottom of the staircase, a set of doors opened to the room, with a clear vantage point of the president.

Allen was charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, as well as discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and transport of a firearm between states.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the incident an act of violence.

TODD BLANCHE, Acting U.S.

Attorney General: That horrible act was stopped because of the courage and professionalism of law enforcement, the officers who responded without hesitation and did their jobs as they were trained to do.

LIZ LANDERS: Officials say law enforcement fired five shots, while the suspect fired at least one shot.

One bullet hit a Secret Service agent, but did not pierce his bulletproof vest.

Shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got under way.

In a hastily organized briefing after the incident, President Trump suggested his politics have made him a repeated target.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's always shocking when something like this happens.

Happened to me a little bit, and that never changes.

LIZ LANDERS: Yet Saturday marked the third assassination attempt of President Trump in less than two years.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt today blaming the Democratic Party for threats to the president.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, White House Press Secretary: We disagree often, myself in this role and all of you in the news media, but those disagreements must remain peaceful.

Debating, peaceful protesting, and voting are how we need to settle disagreements, not bullets.

LIZ LANDERS: Though the president himself has threatened retribution against his enemies in the past.

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then to Washington, D.C., where he checked himself into the hotel where the gala was held.

DONALD TRUMP: It sounded to me -- I read the manifesto.

It's just -- he's radicalized.

He was a Christian believer, and then he became an anti-Christian.

And he had a lot of change.

He's been going through a lot, based on what he wrote.

LIZ LANDERS: On CBS's 60 Minutes, Trump lashed out when journalistic Norah O'Donnell read an excerpt of the suspect's reported writings.

NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS News Anchor: And he also wrote this: "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."

What's your reaction to that?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would, because you're horrible people.

Horrible people.

Yes, he did write that.

I'm not a rapist.

I didn't rape anybody.

I'm not a pedophile.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Oh, you think he was referring to you?

DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me.

Excuse me.

LIZ LANDERS: The president also brushed aside conspiracy theories about the incident being staged.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I hesitate to ask you about this, but as you know, there's conspiracy theories out there on the left and the right that the event was staged or that it didn't happen.

And these conspiracy theories that are gaining traction on the Internet.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, and October 7 didn't happen, and World War II didn't happen, and the Holocaust didn't happen, and many things didn't happen.

Yes.

No, I hear it.

I don't know.

I think they're more sick than they are con people, but there's a lot of con in it too.

LIZ LANDERS: And even used the attack to make multiple pitches for his White House ballroom project, both on "60 Minutes" and in that press conference right after the incident.

DONALD TRUMP: They have wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today's a little bit different, because today we need levels of security that probably nobody's ever seen before.

LIZ LANDERS: That security still praised by officials, despite reports it was lax.

TODD BLANCHE: We also should recognize what did not happen.

Law enforcement did not fail.

LIZ LANDERS: Yet questions remain, how to keep a president safe while he stays in the public eye.