Inside the Chaos at the Correspondents’ Dinner, and How the U.S. Mint Is Buying Drug Cartel Gold

0:00This podcast is supported by USA for UNHCR, a dire new report from the UN Refugee agency. As the numbers of people fleeing war escalate, funding shortages have left them without the basics to survive. The impact is devastating. Families who've lost everything now struggle in overcrowded camps without food, water or shelter. Your gift can rush clean water, hygiene kits and shelter materials within 72 hours of an emergency. Donate at unrefugees.org slash headlines. From The New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, April 27th. Here's what we're covering.

0:44Suddenly, we heard all this yelling, all this commotion. We were crouched low. And then cabinet members just started emerging from around the corner and they were with their guards. You know, first came RFK Jr. and Cheryl Hines. Then came Janine Pirro. My colleague Sean McCreesh was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night at a hotel in D.C. when an armed man, tried to storm through security. It happened right as the dinner was getting started. Shots were fired, and Sean was out in the hallway as members of the administration were evacuated from the ballroom. They were walking, you know, very in a panicked way, stricken faces being ushered into hallways and elevators.

1:24There were teary reporters. It was just total pandemonium. We had no idea what was happening. People were shouting, wondering, where's the president? Where's the president? Inside the ballroom, President Trump was pulled offstage by his security detail and guests hid under their tables. When it became clear the suspect had been apprehended, Trump insisted the night should go on. He was due to give a speech. But security officials ultimately decided they needed to get the president away from the scene. We pulled out behind him. We drove to the White House. We were the first reporters there. And everybody was just rushing to get to the White House because the president had called a press conference.

2:00And what happened next was a pretty surreal scene. There were reporters and and evening gowns and tuxedos, and then suddenly the president emerged. He held forth for a while and gave a sort of very extraordinary press conference. Well, thank you very much. That was very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement. Speaking to reporters, the president announced that the suspect had rushed a checkpoint with multiple weapons and that a Secret Service officer had been shot but was protected by a bulletproof vest. In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our difference peacefully.

2:44Trump called for an end to political violence, though he also said the night was an example of why his ballroom renovation is necessary, saying it would be much more secure. The president then took a few questions from the press. I ask respectfully, why do you think this keeps happening to you? Including about how this was the third time a gunman has gotten perilously close to him following previous assassination attempts. We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We've changed this country. And there are a lot of people that are not happy about that. So I think that's the answer, Peter.

3:20The investigation into the suspect is still ongoing, but here's what we know so far. Two law enforcement officials identified the man to the Times as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, California, a suburb of L.A. He studied mechanical engineering at Caltech and was involved in a Christian fellowship on campus. According to his LinkedIn account, he spent several years working as an engineer, a self-employed video game developer, and as a college test prep tutor. A few days before the attack, he took the train from California out to D.C. and checked into the hotel where the annual dinner is held.

3:56According to writings, authorities say he left behind. He expressed outrage at policies put in place by the White House. He also seemed to call the president a traitor, though he didn't name him explicitly, and alluded to allegations of sexual misconduct. Allen is expected to be charged with multiple crimes in a court appearance set for today.

4:20In the Middle East, peace talks between the U.S. and Iran hit more hurdles this weekend. Top Iranian officials have said they will not negotiate directly while President Trump keeps up a blockade on Iranian ports and ships. And President Trump canceled plans to send his special envoy, Steve Whitcoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner to talks in Pakistan right before they were supposed to leave. In a statement, Trump said the U.S. was, quote, not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing. He suggested that Iran has not offered to make enough concessions and complained that the officials scheduled to meet with the U.S.

4:57representatives were not high enough in rank. The two sides now seem to be caught in limbo. The ceasefire has left them in a state of no war but also no peace. In terms of how long that can last, analysts say it's a question of how much pain each side can take. Iranian officials seem certain they can withstand the economic upheaval longer than President Trump, and Trump seems to be equally confident. He's brushed off the effect of higher energy prices on Americans and said in his statement, quote,

5:35The United States Mint sells more than a billion dollars of investment-grade gold coins every year. Maybe you've seen one. Some are stamped with an eagle or Lady Liberty. Under federal law, the mint is required to make sure that gold is 100 % American. But a new investigation from the Times has found that's not the case. And the mint has become part of a system that's laundering foreign gold, much of which is illegally mined. To figure out where the mint's gold actually comes from, we use public records and interviews to untangle the supply chain. And one of the many places we found the gold coming from is an illegal mine here in northern Colombia that's run by a drug cartel.

6:18Justin Sheck is an investigative reporter at The Times. The mine we visited is called La Mendinga. It's illegal in multiple ways. It's on government land where it's illegal to mine. The miners there are using heavy equipment, which is prohibited, and they're using mercury, which is illegal to use in Colombia because it's toxic. The mercury is used to separate the gold from the ore and has polluted the entire area. Justin says that once the gold is extracted, it begins its journey to the U.S. mint. In Colombia, it's passed off as legal, even if some of the local buyers know it's not. And once it reaches the U.S., it's melted down along with other gold and poured into new bars that are, according to the industry's logic, technically American.

7:03La Mendinga is just one of many similar criminally run mines in Colombia that's pumping gold into the legitimate supply chain. But we found all sorts of other, maybe not illegal, but certainly not American sources of gold that are getting to the mint. And they include pawn shops in Mexico, a mine in Honduras where the mining company dug up an indigenous graveyard to get to the gold. And even gold that comes from Congo, which is getting into the mint supply chain, which is very far from American. When the Times first approached the Mint to ask questions about its supply chain, a spokesman claimed its gold came entirely from the U.S.

7:41But after my colleagues shared their findings, the Mint said American gold was its, quote, primary source and that it was taking better steps to track its origins. In a statement, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, who oversees the Mint, said he's launching an investigation into the government's procurement practices.

8:06And finally. History in the making. Under two hours. Nobody's ever done this. They said it couldn't be done. In London yesterday, a runner shattered the world record for fastest marathon time ever in an official race. Absolutely incredible. I've never seen anything like that. Sebastian Sawe of Kenya crossed the finish line after just one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. beating the previous record by more than a minute. Amazingly, the runner-up, who was making his marathon debut, also came in under two hours, a milestone that had never been reached in a competition like this. Some of it might have been the weather, mid-50s to 60s, not much wind, great conditions for a race, but marathon times have also been improving for a few years now, in part because of the runner's shoes.

8:59About a decade ago, the so-called super shoe era began, when runners started wearing shoes with ultralight, chunky foam soles embedded with carbon plates. The soles protect runners' joints and muscles and help them lose less energy with each stride. The rise of that design kicked off what's become a streak of record-breaking runs. Of course, you can't forget that breakfast is important, too. Saway said that before he broke the two-hour mark, he had two slices of bread and tea.

9:33Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.

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