Politics

Shots Fired

Plus: White House Correspondents' Association attacker was angry about strikes on Venezuelan boats and Iranian schools, another airline bailout could be coming, and more...

Eric Boehm | 4.27.2026 9:30 AM

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(Yuri Gripas - Pool via CNP/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

The man who attacked Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Association dinner was targeting "administration officials," including President Donald Trump, according to a note he left in a hotel room before the incident.

Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from Torrance, California, was tackled and taken into custody after he stormed a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, the hotel where the event was being held.

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The White House shared a security video of the incident shortly after it unfolded on Saturday night:

"A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service." - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/N3UTveVNFM

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 26, 2026

In a rambling manifesto that Allen allegedly sent to family and friends just before launching his attack, he said he was "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes." Elsewhere, the note pointed to "the fisherman executed without trial" and to school children who had been "blown up," apparent references to the Trump administration's military strikes in........

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