“That room was full of some of the most important political leaders in the country right now,” Navarro said. “They’ve lived it in their own flesh, the fear our schoolchildren go through.”

The View’s Ana Navarro hopes WHCD shooting wakes politicians up to gun control: ‘Now they know what it’s like’

"That room was full of some of the most important political leaders in the country right now," Navarro said. "They've lived it in their own flesh, the fear our schoolchildren go through."

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April 27, 2026 12:52 p.m. ET

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Ana Navarro on 'The View'; Donald Trump at 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Credit:

ABC; Kevin Mazur/Getty

- *The View *cohosts reacted to a suspected attack after gunfire broke out at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday.

- Ana Navarro said she hopes politicians experiencing the shooting in the room now understand what schoolchildren feel like during mass shootings.

- *The View* producer Brian Teta was also in the WHCD room when shots were fired.

*The View* cohost Ana Navarro hopes the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting gives American politicians who were in the room during the incident a new perspective on gun violence in the country.

The Republican panelist addressed the incident alongside her fellow panelists Monday at the Hot Topics table, where she observed that the "room was full of some of the most important political leaders in the country right now" who have the power to use the trauma from the incident to enact change.

"Now they know, they've lived it in their own flesh, the fear our schoolchildren go through," Navarro said. "Now they know what it's like to have to jump under a table the way that schoolchildren jump under a desk. We're a country that's vulnerable to this. We've now seen shootings in malls, in churches, in temples, in Walmarts, in baseball fields."**

Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin on 'The View'.

She then questioned why no significant gun reform has happened since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 26 people — including 20 children.

"Maybe now they've felt the fear themselves, they will do something," Navarro added.

Earlier in the episode, the *View* cohosts reflected on Saturday night's shooting, which saw a suspect, identified by authorities as Cole Tomas Allen, attempt to rush past security at the Hilton in Washington, D.C., where Donald Trump, JD Vance, and many politicians and members of the media gathered for the event.

"God bless law enforcement," former Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin said on *The View*. The talk show's producer, Brian Teta, and stage manager were also in the room when the incident occurred. She added that this "could've been a mass casualty event" had the Secret Service and others not acted as swiftly as they did to apprehend the suspect. There were no reported fatalities.

'View' cohost jokingly warned her audience about mentalist who was on stage with Trump during WHCD shooting

Kathy Griffin's mom called her out for being 'rude' to Barbara Walters on 'The View'

"We have a problem with political violence in this country," she continued, adding that citizens are "desensitized" to this kind of violence, and said "leaders need to come together, condemn it, and come up with actual solutions."

Navarro also said that she was particularly struck by the fact that "a good chunk of the country thinks this was staged" by the Trump administration — an idea she firmly pushed back on.

"I don't think that, but where are we in America? When Reagan was shot in 1981, nobody would've thought about that," Navarro observed. "So, I think people have to take stock of the level of influence that misinformation, that the lies have had on the American psyche, that the first conclusion so many people reached [is] because of the polarization and some of the things our elected officials have done, frankly."

Sunny Hostin, a staunch Trump critic, said, "thank God [the shooter] wasn't close to the president." She said she felt more people should be "outraged that someone allegedly tried to kill the president of the United States and members of his cabinet" in the incident.

"We must do something to protect our citizens and we must do something to protect our political, public servants," Hostin said from her seat. She called the moment an "inflection point for gun control" and a moment for "us all to come together as people."

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg appeared to be exasperated by the news as she made a quick observation before throwing the show to a commercial break: "We talk about this all the time. We talk about guns, we say all the stuff, and then it goes away. People forget."

Other attendees inside the Hilton ballroom where the dinner took place included actress and wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cheryl Hines, CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Wolf Blitzer, and celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman, who previously appeared on* The View* and enraged cohost Sara Haines after the star mind reader exposed her PIN live on the air.

Donald Trump on '60 Minutes'; White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect Cole Allen.

60 Minutes/YouTube; Donald Trump/Truth Social

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"Thank you all for checking on me. I am okay and thank God everyone is alright!" Pearlman wrote on Instagram after the event concluded. "Was in the middle of performing for the President and First Lady when I looked up to see a commotion. Thought it was a bomb about to go off or shots fired. We hit the deck fast and Secret Service acted decisively and professionally to protect us all."

Pearlman wrote that he remained on the ground for a few moments "a couple feet away" from the president, and that they "locked eyes with one another" in what he labeled "likely the scariest moment of my life."

*The View* airs weekdays on ABC.

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