Suspect in custody after shots fired at White House correspondents’ dinner, reports the BBC:
Gunshots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC on Saturday night. The suspect was arrested. An officer was shot at close range, but his bullet-proof vest saved him.
Here’s a recap of what happened:
The annual event was held at the Washington Hilton hotel, with Trump attending for the first time as president
First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and hundreds journalists, media personalities and government officials were also there
A suspected gunman ran into the hotel foyer, trying to get past security officers and metal detectors, at about 00:45 GMT
Loud bangs were heard, prompting security service personnel to immediately escort the president and other officials from the venue
Hundreds of guests stayed behind for about an hour before the ballroom was cleared
Trump shared images and a video of the suspect on social media
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, is reportedly the suspect
Allen is expected to be charged on Monday with several offences, including using a firearm during a crime of violence
Trump told reporters afterwards, “I can’t imagine many professions that are more dangerous” when reflecting on several shooting attempts over the past three years
Update: As usual, everyone is rushing to find out the suspect’s politics. So far he’s weakly linked to the Democrats – a $25 donation to Kamala Harris and the fact that he’s a teacher. I do not, in fact, blame the entire Left for one man trying to assassinate Donald Trump. But I come damn close to blaming the entire “liberal” media for the unseemly haste to look up the would-be killer’s political donations. The haste is actually quite rational given the propensity of both old and new media to highlight or hide a suspect’s background depending on political convenience. These media double standards go back a long time. Here’s a Samizdata post from 2011: Two contrasting articles by Michael Tomasky on spree killers. Here are two quotes from different articles by Mr Tomasky:
Quote No.1 from this article: In the US, where hate rules at the ballot box, this tragedy has been coming for a long time:
… You don’t have to believe that alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, is a card-carrying Tea Party member (he evidently is not) to see some kind of connection between that violent rhetoric and what happened in Arizona on Saturday.
Quote No.2 from this article: American, for better or worse:
We should assume until it’s proven otherwise that Hasan was an American and a loyal one, who just snapped, as Americans of all ethnicities and backgrounds and political persuasions do.
Should the media, and the education system, be allowed to carry on their campaign of hatred and lies against President Trump and others – YES they should. However, it is also Freedom of Speech to call-out the media (and the education system) on their endless lies and hate – to let the public know that what they are being taught is-not-true.
Otherwise there are not “only” attempts at murder. There are also juries who blatantly find people they know (they know) to be innocent “guilty” – because they have been filled with hatred of the person on trial, and juries that find people “innocent” when they know (they know) they are guilty – because the jury members have been taught that crimes are justified by “Social Justice” (the arch enemy of justice), that criminals are the “real victims” – “victims of exploitation and oppression” (Labour Theory of Value, Ricardo’s theory on land – and cruder stuff as well).
And there are electorates who vote for people who support censorship and even fantasize about murdering conservatives and their children.
Remember the election in Virginia in November 2025 occurred AFTER the murder of Mr Charles Kirk – the government officials and lobbyists who decided that election were endorsing the murder, they were electing, as Attorney General, someone who fantasized about murdering conservatives and their children (indeed that was about all he was – other than hate filled fantasies there was little else in his life) and as Governor and Deputy Governor people who supported censorship and the rigging of elections (just endorsed in a very odd referendum in Virginia) and who declared that the Republican candidate for Governor, a black woman, represented “racism and sexism”.
The “black face of white supremacy” and “female face of patriarchy” tap-dance.
“Paul no one could believe such madness” – sadly with enough indoctrination from the education system and the media, it seems that most (not all – but most) voters can be led to believe (at least believe enough to vote for it) anything – if that indoctrination goes unchallenged.
No surprise – the attempted murderer was a teacher (from California).
This is what they are teaching the children.
That dissent is “violence” (“it creates an unsafe environment”) and that violence is not violence – because it is “Social Justice”.
Did the shooter receive money from the SPLC?
I think that we need to know.
It’s also a matter of diet.
It’s one of those curiosities of history that it was at the Washington Hilton where, just over 45 years ago, John Hinckley, Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
The attempted assassin’s manifesto is here:
https://areaocho.com/more-info/
The comments are worth a look too.
The mind verily doth boggle when he accuses Trump of being a “pedophile, rapist, and traitor” when the well documented, photographed and video’d actions of Biden indicate that he is indeed of a “minor attracted” orientation (including showering with his daughter).
Add in Bill Clinton’s peccadilloes and connection with Epstein plus his many traitorous actions in the past (selling Russia Uranium etc.) and you have to come to the conclusion that the Democrats have more double standards that Starmer.
But I suppose that it will disappear from the news headlines faster than snow on a Florida pavement in July because … reasons.
The attempted assassin’s manifesto is here: https://areaocho.com/more-info/
Thanks for posting this. FWIW, assuming it is real, what I found troubling about it is how sane it is. To say Trump is a “pedophile, rapist and traitor” is not at all unusual on the left — you ask the vast majority of democrat voters and they’d probably agree with all of them. So, getting into the leftist mindset and accepting, ad arguendo, that these are true, his logic doesn’t seem unreasonable. It is not the babbling of a lunatic, it isn’t the ranting of a psychopath, or someone suffering an unmedicated mental disease, it isn’t argument based on assumptions vastly outside the Overton window or a crazy-hyper-left assumption, it is right in the heart of the sort of thing you’d hear from a large majority of democrats. It is, may I say so, perfunctory in our modern political dialog.
Which makes it rather more plain how their outrageous rhetoric lead by both the mainstream political left and the shameless media (who ironically were all gathered to witness the fruits of their labor), is so VERY dangerous and so very out of character with the modern tradition of American political dialog.
I’m also curious why Kash Patel apparently gets a pass. I’m sure his feelings are quite hurt that he wasn’t considered a target of this guy. 😉
Oh, also worth saying, this guy was teaching our kids, which is terrifying. Though in fairness, compared to some of the utter whackos we learned about during the trannys-are-mainstream-you-fucking-terf-pig-if-you-disagree-you-should-die phase of our country, he seems fairly mild in comparison.
It isn’t that he’s outside of the progressive norm.
It’s a measure of how far the progressive Overton Window has moved.
The progressive norm is crazy. It consists of knowingly trumpeting lies, with a grin. It’s BAMN writ large.
I doubt we get out of this peacefully.
On an unrelated note, I just bought a new gun. 😉
bobby b
Yes – the opinions of the attacker are the “mainstream” that the “fact checkers” and the other liars push, they are what the media pushes (the British media just as much, if not more, as the American media – the hatred for “Trump” in the British media is total) and the education system teaches – including what this “Teacher of the Month” taught himself.
How can a society survive this endless indoctrination?
As for you buying a new firearm – the Attorney General of Virginia (and your Attorney General in Minnesota is much the same) has an answer to that – disturbed that he might not be able to carry out his fantasies of murdering conservatives and murdering their children (fantasies that the voters of Virginia were well aware of when they elected him in November 2025 – indeed apart from hate-Trump and murder-fantasies there is nothing in the life of the Attorney General of Virginia), the answer of the Attorney General of Virginia and the Governor (a CIA person who used to work for an Islamic school – I wish I was making that up), the Deputy Governor (an Islamic lady), and the State Legislature of Virginia (a collection of vicious Collectivists) is – to gradually get rid of private firearm ownership.
Not at once – gradually with endless regulations.
It was done here – again not all at once, but by statute after statute “do you have a safety cabinet for that firearm? Is it the right one? Have you filled in all the forms this week?…….” coupled with endless indoctrination which now means that most British people sincerely do not know that their ancestors owned firearms – indeed the very thought that private people might be armed horrifies the British, only the state (and private criminals) must have weapons.
It will happen in America to – only the state, and private criminals, will have firearms.
“But the Constitution….” – Mexico also has the right to keep and bear arms in its Constitution (that of 1917) – it was “interpreted” away by judges.
A few more leftists on the Supreme Court (a move supported by “neo-conservative” Bill Kristol – whose “liberalism” turns out to mean the total extermination of liberty) and the Bill of Rights, Freedom of Speech and the rest, will be dead.
Knowingly?
With a grin?
PST,
That place is certainly getting zero stars on Trip Advisor!
Fraser,
Thanks for the link. I have read the “manifesto” which is more a sort of apologia. It is odd. One thing struck me…
Does that not strike folks as strange? What does being mixed-race have to do with this at all? Why does the shooter feel the need to raise this? If he’d been an American of, I dunno, Korean descent would that change the should/shouldn’t metric? What about a Jewish American, an American who hails from Argentina, or Anatolia? I could go on… I won’t.
Which takes us back to PST’s interesting fact. You do know why Hinckley shot Reagan? He was clearly a nutter. I think this guy is too but in a different way. That “manifesto” seems to blame Trump for everything. You misplaced your keys? Trump! Fell off a ladder? Slipped on an icy road? Watched something on Netflix and it was somewhat regretable? All Trump. Cole Allen is TDS made flesh. And that is deranged but unlike Hinckley (who was just mental) that is an inculcated derangement – that everything bad is because of “The Man” – not because people make mistakes or due to sequences of unfortunate events. The belief there has to an explanation, and more to the point, blame for everything is very leftie of the sixth-form debating society variety. It is the total denial of personal agency.
And also the belief they can put it right with a gun. I have seen that – mainly in Clint Eastwood movies.
@NickM
Does that not strike folks as strange? What does being mixed-race have to do with this at all?
No, it doesn’t strike me as strange at all. If you talk to many on the left almost everything is about race or gender or some other form of “intersectionality”. So this is totally standard rhetoric out of that playbook. Like I said above, the troubling thing is how very normal, how very unstrange it is.
Of course it is all completely barmy. But “normal” means the average point of a whole population, it is not measured by objective criteria. Which just shows how far into crazyville the average left person has gone. Not the radical left, the average left. I mean Luigi Mangione is a hero for a quite considerable number on the left. Me? I think he deserves a rope and six foot drop, but what else would you expect from a white, cis-gendered, hero-normative male member of the patriarchy like me?