An 18-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting two U.S. Bank employees in Berea, Kentucky, before rifling through the teller drawers for cash and speeding off in his car.
Brailen Weaver of Covington, Kentucky, entered the bank at around 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, wearing a black mask and gloves, according to the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1033646042/BrailenWeaverAffidavit-Redacted?secret_password=6Pd48N8xJJIAk7EFw5t7#download&amp;from_embed">arrest affidavit</a>. Weaver shot and killed a male U.S. Bank employee right after walking into the branch and then gunned down a female teller before he searched through multiple drawers, the affidavit states.
The suspect fled the bank in a silver BMW sedan, which authorities tracked down after finding the same car listed for sale on Facebook by Weaver. Investigators then reviewed Weaver&#8217;s social media and found photos of him that matched the description of the suspect seen on the bank&#8217;s security cameras.
Weaver also posted a meme on Instagram just hours after he allegedly robbed the bank and killed two employees, according to the FBI. The meme depicts an alien holding a stash of $100 bills with the caption, &#8220;I pledge allegiance to da bag.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1088381" style="width: 483px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1088381" class="wp-image-1088381 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-473x576.jpg" alt="" width="473" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-473x576.jpg 473w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-246x300.jpg 246w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527.jpg 657w" sizes=" (max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px" />FBI</div>
On Thursday evening, authorities tracked Weaver to Somerset, Kentucky, which is about 40 miles southwest of Berea. A short time later, the FBI spotted Weaver&#8217;s vehicle on Interstate 75, and federal, state, and local law enforcement pursued the suspect in a high-speed chase.
The affidavit states that Weaver reached speeds of nearly 130 mph and dodged spike strips laid out in the road by law enforcement. The suspect eventually crashed as he was driving toward downtown Lexington, but escaped on foot. Authorities found a firearm in the suspect&#8217;s abandoned BMW. Weaver was finally arrested in downtown Lexington and faces federal charges of armed bank robbery and using/discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
&#8220;The perpetrator&#8217;s heinous actions were not only indefensible but cowardly,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wlwt.com/article/2-employees-killed-bank-robbery-berea-kentucky-suspect/71180865">said</a> Olivia Olson, the special agent in charge at the FBI&#8217;s Louisville field office. &#8220;While there is no longer imminent danger, we understand that the tragedy is far from over for the community. The only solace that we can offer is that this individual who valued a stolen dollar more than two human lives will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.&#8221;
The killings appear to be the first deadly shooting in a bank robbery in the United States since 2021, when a man <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndin/pr/gary-man-sentenced-2-consecutive-terms-life-prison">fatally shot</a> a security guard at a bank in Gary, Indiana, during an attempted robbery. In 2019, a 21-year-old man <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/former-prison-guard-trainee-is-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-5-women-at-a-florida-bank/">executed</a> five women at a SunTrust bank in Sebring, Florida. In that shooting, there was no indication that the gunman intended to rob the bank.
Bank robberies in the United States are becoming increasingly uncommon as banks improve security and hold less cash at any given time, reflecting society&#8217;s shift to digital payments.

Bank robbery

FBI Reveals Robber Posted Chilling Instagram Meme After Killing Two Bank Employees

Banks

Crime

Kentucky

Robbery

Shooting

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro released video on Thursday showing a would-be Trump assassin shooting a Secret Service agent during an attempted attack at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner.
Pirro shared roughly five minutes of security footage from the Washington Hilton in an X post late Thursday afternoon, adding in a caption, &#8220;Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire. The video also shows Allen casing the area in the Hilton Hotel the day before the attack. My office along with the @FBI will continue this extensive investigation to bring Cole Allen to justice.&#8221;
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&nbsp;
In the video, as Pirro noted, Allen was seen walking around the hotel a day prior to the event to get the lay of the land. In the final moments of the footage, he could be seen charging toward Secret Service agents at a security checkpoint, then firing his weapon at them. They all responded as he charged, turning and drawing on Allen as he passed by them.
Allen was apprehended with a shotgun, a handgun, and several knives — and in a manifesto delivered to family members by email just prior to the shooting, he declared his intention to kill President Donald Trump and as many members of the administration as possible. He noted that he was not intentionally targeting hotel staff or FBI Director Kash Patel, but acknowledged his willingness to kill everyone in the room if it came to that.
Allen&#8217;s attorney has since argued that his client is &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawyer-says-whcd-shooter-not-a-danger-because-he-had-the-wrong-gun">not a danger</a>&#8221; to anyone because the weapons he chose were not typical of the &#8220;modern-day mass shooting.&#8221;

Suspect in custody after shooting incident at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

WATCH: Brand New Video Shows Trump Would-Be Assassin Shooting Secret Service Agent

assassination attempt

Politics

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The suspected wannabe assassin who opened fire at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner last weekend is &#8220;not a danger to anybody,&#8221; his lawyer argued in court on Wednesday.
In a court filing, Cole Allen&#8217;s defense team argued that the gunman should be allowed to roam free as he awaits his trial, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/30/us-news/whcd-shooting-suspect-cole-allen-makes-absurd-argument-for-why-he-should-walk-free/">reported</a>. Allen&#8217;s lawyer also claimed that the suspect had no intention of carrying out a mass shooting since he was not carrying an automatic or semi-automatic weapon.
&#8220;Mr. Allen has no criminal history — not even prior arrests, which alone would rebut the presumption of detention,&#8221; his defense team wrote, adding, &#8220;The government’s rhetoric about a ‘mass shooting’ is also unsupported by its own proffered facts. Mr. Allen was not alleged to be holding an automatic or even semi-automatic weapon that are the hallmarks of the modern-day mass shooting.&#8221;
During a court hearing on Thursday, defense attorney Tezira Abe said Allen&#8217;s defense team was changing course and dropping its request to keep him out of detention &#8220;at this time.&#8221; Abe then asked the judge for Allen to be removed from his &#8220;safe cell,&#8221; where he&#8217;s remained isolated around the clock since being taken into custody. Allen, wearing an orange jump suit, was present for the hearing in the D.C. federal court on Thursday.
Allen ran through a security checkpoint inside the Washington Hilton last Saturday and fired one shot from his Mossberg 12-gauge pump-action shotgun before he fell to the ground and was detained by Secret Service and law enforcement agents, according to federal prosecutors. The gunman was also carrying a fully-loaded Rock Island Armory 1911 .38 caliber pistol and multiple knives.
Shotguns have been used in some of the darkest mass shootings in U.S. history, including by the gunmen at Columbine, the Aurora theater, and Washington Navy Yard.
In a manifesto that Allen sent to family members just before the attack, the gunman said he was targeting top Trump administration officials at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner and added that he would shoot any of the attendees or law enforcement officers who got in his way.
“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote in the manifesto.
Three law enforcement sources told NBC News on Wednesday that Allen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bullet-that-struck-secret-service-agents-vest-now-traced-to-would-be-assassin?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Bullet+That+Struck+Secret+Service+Agent%E2%80%99s+Vest+Now+Traced+To+Would-Be+Assassin">fired</a> the shot that struck a Secret Service agent after early reports suggested the agent might have been hit by friendly fire. The agent was protected by his bulletproof vest.
A Secret Service agent fired five times at Allen as he charged through the security checkpoint, but Allen was not hit, according to federal prosecutors. The gunman fell down and suffered a minor knee injury immediately after he breached the security checkpoint, the Justice Department stated.
Allen is charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Cole Allen/White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Lawyer Says WHCD Shooter ‘Not A Danger’ Because He Had The Wrong Gun

Courts

Donald Trump

shooter

U.S.

Good-faith skeptics and bad-faith conspiracy peddlers from TikTok live streams to Substack sleuths are flooding the online ether with lies and half-truths about the attempted assassination of President Trump and his senior team at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. Some, potentially motivated by TDS, insist it was a false flag operation staged by the government. Others claim there was no shooting at all and the only shots were due to friendly fire. Never mind that the Department of Justice has already charged the 31-year-old suspect (whom I won’t name) with, among other felonies, one count of &#8220;discharging a firearm during a crime of violence&#8221; — a charge that would make zero sense if he never pulled the trigger.
The central thesis for many who assert the government is lying to us about the events of April 22, including <a href="https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/is-the-justice-department-lying-about-saturday-s-shooting">Garrett Graff,</a> rests on the initial criminal complaint against the 31-year-old suspect. Skeptics and cynics point to the complaint’s use of passive voice, the absence of an explicit allegation or perceived audio evidence that the assailant fired the first round, the timeline, and the employment of TSA agents at magnetometers.
Graff specifically notes the absence of a charge for “assaulting a federal officer” under 18 U.S.C. § 111, which one would expect to see if someone shot a Secret Service officer. That’s a fair observation. Except, it ignores the fact that this is the initial charging document filed less than 48 hours after the incident and is designed to focus on what can be immediately proven from preliminary evidence and witness statements — how federal prosecutions are supposed to begin.
He goes on to suggest the single unaccounted shot could have been friendly fire from another federal agent. Citing the Wall Street Journal analysis showing six total shots fired on ballroom recordings, Graff argues none of them “sound to me like a shotgun” — implying the first shot wasn’t the gunman’s at all but came from a service pistol.
Well, hold on.
<div id="attachment_1084285" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1084285" class="size-large wp-image-1084285" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-864x576.jpeg" alt="Federal agents draw their guns out after an incident at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner April 25, 2026 in Washington, DC." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-864x576.jpeg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-1800x1200.jpeg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2273148555-1200x800.jpeg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Nathan Howard/Getty Images</div>
The publicly available audio does capture a distinct initial pop followed by five rapid return shots from the officer’s service weapon. A 12-gauge shotgun fired indoors is obviously loud, but so is a 9mm or .40-caliber service pistol fired in a hotel. The presence of six shots, not five, is precisely why the DOJ’s theory is that the gunman fired just once.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has already explained the government’s early working theory of what happened: a preliminary review found an empty spent shotgun shell still inside the chamber of the 12-gauge pump-action shotgun the assailant was carrying when he sprinted through the magnetometer. A spent shell in the chamber of a pump-action shotgun is strong circumstantial evidence that it was cycled and fired. Ballistics experts are still doing the detailed work, including gunshot residue testing, trajectory mapping, and audio forensics, to confirm exactly which weapon produced the first shot.
Graff also questions the timeline and the perpetrator’s actions captured on surveillance cameras. In the video, the attacker is seen sprinting past the magnetometer, shotgun in hand. He is off camera for just a few seconds, where he would have presumably readied his weapon before firing.
Graff argues that there simply would not be enough time for him to bring his shotgun to bear, and fire at close range — something he calls “challenging” for “someone even far more experienced with firearms than [defendant] appears to be.”
Yet, the entire sequence from breach to tackle was recounted by eyewitnesses, body-worn cameras (standard for Uniformed Division officers), and venue security. While the video doesn’t show the exact trigger pull, the audio, the spent casing, the officer’s vest impact, subsequent injury, and the shooter’s immediate arrest with a loaded shotgun and .38-caliber pistol help shape the story as more evidence comes to light.
Acting AG Blanche has been explicit, saying more forensic examination is underway. On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro reinforced that these are just the initial charges by saying, “More to come.”
The American public can expect the complaint to be superseded with additional details from the ballistics report and full video review. You can bank on one of the additional charges being §111, &#8220;assault against a federal officer.&#8221;
Perhaps his weakest point, Graff notes that TSA personnel were helping run some of the magnetometers — a fact he presents as evidence that the Secret Service was “overstretched.” Well, speaking as a former Homeland Security official, I know firsthand that supplemental screening by partner federal agencies is routine for mega-events like the Correspondents’ Dinner, which requires layered security. That is standard interagency support.
Those who say the DOJ may be “misleading the public” or exaggerating the threat to keep the events of April 25 “scary or threatening” are belied by the investigation’s transparency: releasing the complaint quickly, the president and DOJ officials&#8217; late-night press conference hours after the shooting, and the Acting AG’s daily interviews or press conferences every day since.
Six gunshots, an injured officer, a suspect tackled with two loaded firearms, the pre-attack email signed “‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen,” the manifesto found in his hotel room, and his cross-country train trip specifically for this event don’t simply vanish because the first complaint was conservatively worded or because ballistics work takes time.
Americans can and should be skeptical about what the U.S. government tells us — we’ve been lied to in the past — but the facts in this case simply don’t fit the fiction that TikTok investigators or Substack sleuths are serving up.
Skepticism is wise, sanity is essential.
* * *
Tricia McLaughlin served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Follow her on X: @TriciaOhio

Senior Justice Department Leaders Announce Charges Against Correspondents Dinner Gunman

‘False Flag’ Frenzy Erupts After Trump Attack But The Facts Won’t Cooperate

'False Flag' Frenzy Erupts After Trump Attack But The Facts Won’t Cooperate

DW Opinion

Substack

TikTok

The Left has created permission structures for violence.
The violence is not going to stop. It&#8217;s not going to stop because the Left has decided to mainstream it. You cannot hug Luigi Mangione and pretend you hate political violence. You cannot celebrate and hug Hasan Piker and claim to oppose political violence. You can&#8217;t spread wild, evidence-free conspiracy theories about the president of the United States, calling him a pedophile, the Antichrist, a child killer, Hitler, and then pretend that you&#8217;re shocked when someone picks up a gun and tries to kill him for the third time.
I&#8217;ve been talking about this for a long time. The permission structures for violence have been set up, bolstered, and put into place for years now. 
But permission structures for violence, ideologies, and ideas are not all created equal. 
It would&#8217;ve been shocking if this person had written a manifesto about being upset over the Trump tax cuts. People don&#8217;t get shot in the United States over differential tax rates.
We need to discuss which ideas and ideologies are the most likely to lead to violence, because they&#8217;re not all equivalent.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-ep-2414"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-981859 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a> 
Let&#8217;s talk about the common factors here. 
First, ideologies and ideas that lead to violence typically share an evidence-free conspiratorial view of the universe. Shadowy forces of powerful people are responsible for all of your failures and shortcomings, and arguments to the contrary are just facades for power.
According to this view, there&#8217;s a group of people who are victimizing you. They are shadowy, and they are nefarious, conspiratorial, and able to get away with truly horrific crimes. 
Second, ideologies and ideas that lead to violence share a belief that you and your group, the people that you care about, are being targeted for destruction by this shadowy cabal. 
And if that&#8217;s true, then third, violence is a form of self-defense.
To take a couple of examples, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, it was obvious almost immediately that the ideology that was driving the shooting was a left-wing, radical trans ideology. 
Why? Because there&#8217;s an ideology that says that if I argue a man is not a woman, that is a form of “trans genocide,” of “trans erasure.” If you believe a shadowy group of people is trying to destroy you and your family, you&#8217;re likely to justify violence in response. 
That is why somebody shot Charlie. They believed in that bag of nonsense. 
Another example: There&#8217;s an ideology that is quite prominent in the United States, which argues that President Trump is responsible for the collapse of America. The crux for these ideologues is not that they disagree with his policies, but because they believe he is actually involved in crimes such as pedophilia, starving children, blowing kids up, and that if you don&#8217;t stop him, no one will. 
That Trump tyrannically controls all aspects of media, that he tyrannically controls all aspects of government, and that the only answer is a form of violence. That’s the same sort of ideology that led to the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO. As Hasan Piker put it in an interview with the New York Times five days ago, the United Healthcare CEO was engaged in “social violence.” He was part of a predatory group of people who were literally killing people for profit. 
“You can understand why somebody might want to shoot the guy, I mean, it&#8217;s totally understandable,” these leftists might say.
That is a permission structure for violence. 
When it comes to President Trump, it is one thing to oppose his policies. I&#8217;ve opposed many of President Trump&#8217;s policies, but nobody is shooting the president over a set of policies.
It&#8217;s another thing to say that he is a pedophile, that he is the Antichrist, that he is a child murderer, that he is Hitler. These are not the same sorts of things. 
The sort of language that has been truly routine on the Left is a permission structure for violence.
For example, take Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who says that Republican policies do violence to the American people. It&#8217;s not just that the Republican policies are wrong; they&#8217;re malign. They&#8217;re designed to be malign. 
This approach to politics has harsh consequences. The permission structure for the violence of the congressional baseball shooting in 2017 was the Bernie Sanders line that people who disagreed with him about Obamacare or nationalized health care wanted 50,000 people to die, that they were killing grandma, and wanted grandma to die. 
That sort of approach to politics is dangerous. 
What politics should be about in the United States is ironing out our differences. We may not always agree with one another, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you wish for them to die. They simply disagree with you. 
An obvious case is the Left fully embracing Hasan Piker. Last week, he was given the royal treatment by The New York Times. He once lauded the “great video” by Taylor Lorenz that discussed the meme that someone had to “do it,” which was a tacit suggestion to kill Donald Trump.
When people are pushing such a meme, that is a potential for revolutionary activity. 
Piker has endorsed violence over and over and over again, and yet has been embraced by the Democratic mainstream. You have people who are supposed moderates, like Ezra Klein, pushing Hasan Piker as a legitimate voice inside the Democratic Party. 
You can&#8217;t do this and then pretend you hate political violence.
The permission structures for violence are also skewing young because everyone in the younger demographic is constantly online, where the incentive structure is to be passionate and crazy. The echo chamber that facilitates violent and charged language tends to draw higher numbers. Period. 
This is always true. Not every word is created equal. When people curse, it goes directly to your limbic system. The same thing is true if they use passionate language.
So if you&#8217;re 18 through 29 and you&#8217;re imbibing from that well over and over and over, and if mainstream political parties that are trying to channel that passion into votes start justifying that sort of stuff, you should not be surprised when political violence becomes more common. 
It&#8217;s not just true in the United States. It&#8217;s true everywhere. Every violent, radical revolution begins with young people. It always begins with young people who start acting and speaking violently. And then there is always a group of moderates who decide that they need to work with the young, violent people, to use their rage and channel it toward political change. 
And that&#8217;s how political violence becomes incredibly common. That&#8217;s how street battles happen.
We are playing with fire as a society if we continue to pretend that all ideologies and permission structures are created the same. 
They are not.
Conspiracism is bad. It is not just bad in terms of utilitarianism. It is wrong. It is evil. 
Conspiracism unbacked by evidence generates violence, mental illness, and stupidity.
It wrecks our politics.
But most importantly, it wrecks our civilization.

The Left’s Permission Structures For Violence

Hasan Piker

The Left

President Donald Trump on Monday called on ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, accusing the comedian of making a &#8220;despicable call to violence&#8221; after joking about first lady Melania Trump becoming a widow.
Trump took to Truth Social to respond to Kimmel&#8217;s White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner bit, which the late-night host used to mock the president, first lady, and administration officials. In his bit, which Kimmel delivered at his fake White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner two days before the real event, the comedian pretended to address Melania Trump in the audience, saying, &#8220;You have a glow like an expectant widow.&#8221;
Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116477838570626860">said</a> on Monday that Kimmel should be &#8220;immediately fired.&#8221;
&#8220;Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be. He then stated, &#8216;Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.'&#8221;
Trump argued the joke crossed a line, pointing to a security incident at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner that followed days later on Saturday.
&#8220;A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale.&#8221;
Two days after Kimmel joked about Melania Trump becoming a widow, a gunman charged past security at the White House Correspondents&#8217; dinner with intentions of targeting the president and top administration officials, authorities said. According to officials, the suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was neutralized by Secret Service agents before he was able to breach the ballroom. In his manifesto, Allen referred to Trump as a &#8220;pedophile, rapist, and traitor.&#8221;
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also condemned Kimmel during a White House briefing on Monday.
&#8220;Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?&#8221; Leavitt asked. &#8220;This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady, and his supporters is completely deranged and it&#8217;s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night.&#8221;  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 220px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/FaMBPwcUpjOnpuSYIjn3dnpPZIQ02ONEL?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=5868376a-c019-443f-9c82-120d06268798&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=Leavitt%20questions%20Kimmel%E2%80%99s%20sanity%20after%20Melania%20%E2%80%98widow%E2%80%99%20remark%20he%20called%20a%20%E2%80%98joke%E2%80%99&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2Fec236e11-f0ad-41ca-a8ea-4be2842c17e4.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Earlier in the day, the first lady <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-melania-trump-responds-to-kimmels-hateful-monologue-after-white-house-dinner-shooting?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=READ+IT%3A+Melania+Trump+Responds+To+Kimmel%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98Hateful%E2%80%99+Monologue+After+White+House+Dinner+Shooting">responded</a> to Kimmel&#8217;s monologue, saying his &#8220;hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.&#8221;
&#8220;People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,&#8221; Melania Trump added.
It&#8217;s not the first time that Kimmel has gotten into hot water with Trump over a comment he made regarding political violence. Kimmel was suspended last year after saying that the assassin who killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter. Kimmel was suspended by ABC for a week after the remark, and Trump was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-true-bunch-of-losers-trump-rips-into-abc-for-ending-jimmy-kimmel-suspension" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incensed</a> when the network allowed the late-night host to return.

Jimmy Kimmel/Melania Trump/Donald Trump

Trump Wants Kimmel Fired Over ‘Despicable’ Assassination Comment

Jimmy Kimmel

Melania Trump

Kash Patel

LIVE UPDATES: Daily Wire Asks Kash Patel About Active Threats To The Nation’s Capital

President Donald Trump remains confident in Secret Service leadership and believes agents did &#8220;an excellent job&#8221; protecting him, top administration officials, and White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner attendees from a gunman who opened fire on Saturday night, the White House said.
The White House released a statement on Monday morning praising the Secret Service for its quick action in stopping gunman Cole Tomas Allen before he made it into the ballroom where over 2,500 people had gathered for the high-profile event at the Washington Hilton. A White House official <a href="https://x.com/alaynatreene/status/2048741119270195482">said</a> that the president is &#8220;standing by the leadership of Secret Service, and President Trump has said he personally thinks they did an excellent job neutralizing the shooter and moving the President, First Lady, Vice President and cabinet to safety.&#8221;
The Secret Service has faced criticism from some people after Allen opened fire inside the hotel, throwing the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner into chaos and confusion. Video footage showed Allen running through a security checkpoint inside the hotel before he was quickly neutralized by agents. Allen shot one agent, who was protected by a bulletproof vest. No one else was injured.
In a 1,000-word manifesto, Allen criticized the Secret Service and claimed there was &#8220;no damn security&#8221; at the hotel before the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner. Allen checked into the Washington Hilton one day before he attempted to take out the president and top Trump administration officials.
Saturday night&#8217;s shooting has added to scrutiny of the Secret Service that has been brewing since Trump was shot at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally in July of 2024. The president has also been critical of his protection following the Butler assassination attempt, but on Saturday night, Trump said the Secret Service did exactly what it was supposed to do when Allen attempted to get into the ballroom.
&#8220;The room was very, very secure,&#8221; Trump said, adding, &#8220;The reaction time was great. Those guys had their guns drawn literally by the time he was there, they were shooting. I thought they were very impressive.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will meet with Secret Service and Homeland Security Department leadership this week to discuss the president&#8217;s protection, the White House said.
&#8220;The meeting will discuss the processes and procedures that worked to stop Saturday’s attempt, while exploring additional options to ensure all relevant components are doing everything possible to secure the many major events planned for President Trump in the months ahead as he gears up to celebrate America 250,&#8221; a Trump administration official added.
The gunman wrote in his manifesto that he was targeting Trump and high-ranking administration officials, but he added that he was also willing to kill anyone who was attending the dinner.
&#8220;I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,&#8221; Allen wrote.

Secret Service

Trump Shuts Down Doubts On Secret Service Leadership After Shooting

White House

Former President Barack Obama commented Sunday on the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and administration officials at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner and claimed that it was unclear why the gunman opened fire at the event.
Obama addressed the shooting in a social media post hours after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/manifesto-shows-shooter-was-willing-to-kill-everyone-at-correspondents-dinner?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Manifesto+Shows+Shooter+Was+Willing+To+Kill+Everyone+At+Correspondents%E2%80%99+Dinner">reports</a> shed light on the gunman&#8217;s plan and reason for targeting Trump at the dinner. When Obama condemned the attack, however, he claimed that &#8220;details about the motives&#8221; remained a mystery.
&#8220;Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night&#8217;s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,&#8221; Obama <a href="https://x.com/barackobama/status/2048511290021237017?s=46">wrote</a>. &#8220;It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.&#8221;
The shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California, laid out his plan and defended his violence in a 1,000-word document that he posted minutes before his attack. In the manifesto, Allen referred to Trump as a &#8220;pedophile, rapist, and traitor&#8221; and called himself the &#8220;Friendly Federal Assassin.&#8221; Allen wrote that his goal was to murder Trump administration officials at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner, targeting them from &#8220;highest-ranking to lowest,&#8221; excluding FBI Director Kash Patel for unknown reasons.
After the shooting, Republicans — including President Donald Trump — urged Democrats to tone down their political rhetoric and &#8220;resolve our differences.&#8221;
&#8220;I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats … is very dangerous,&#8221; Trump told CBS News during a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview on Sunday.
It appears that Allen bought into many leftist talking points regarding President Trump and his administration&#8217;s policies. Allen latched onto conspiracy theories about Trump&#8217;s involvement with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and condemned U.S. military strikes on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean, calling them &#8220;fisherman executed without trial.&#8221;
Allen, who described himself as a Christian, argued that his faith required him to turn to violence for the sake of people who are being &#8220;oppressed.&#8221; In his manifesto, Allen sought to reconcile his faith with his heinous plan.
&#8220;Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,&#8221; Allen wrote.
While the gunman claimed that he intended to &#8220;minimize casualties&#8221; of event attendees, he wrote that he was willing to open fire on anyone in the ballroom.
“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,&#8221; he wrote in the manifesto.
Allen was taken down by Secret Service agents at the Washington Hilton before he made it to the ballroom. One Secret Service agent was shot by the gunman, but his bulletproof vest stopped the bullet.

Barack Obama

Obama Claims Shooter’s Motive Is Unknown Despite Manifesto Raging Against Trump

General

The would-be shooter who attacked at Saturday&#8217;s White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner revealed that he was willing to kill everyone in the room.
“I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Cole Tomas Allen wrote in the 1,000-word document, arguing that the potential mass casualty event was justifiable &#8220;on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor&#8221; — a reference to President Donald Trump — and &#8220;are thus complicit.&#8221;
Around <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/26/us-news/gunman-tries-to-rush-past-security-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/">2,500</a> people were in attendance at the event, including the president, Vice President JD Vance, several Cabinet secretaries, and members of congressional leadership, as well as journalists, media personalities, and guests. In his manifesto, Allen wrote that he only considered members of the Trump administration — with the exception of FBI Director Kash Patel, for reasons unknown — fair targets.
Allen wrote that he would only shoot Secret Service, Capitol Police, and hotel security if they shot him first, and pledged not to engage with other workers or guests. However, Allen said he &#8220;would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets&#8221; because he was &#8220;no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.&#8221;
Allen explained that he chose &#8220;buckshot rather than slugs&#8221; in an effort to reduce collateral damage by mitigating &#8220;penetration through walls.&#8221;
In the manifesto, Allen describes himself as a Christian and notes that a possible objection to his actions is that “As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.&#8221; He then offers a rebuttal, noting, “Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”
Another possible objection he lists is &#8220;yield unto Caesar what is Caesar&#8217;s,&#8221; a reference to Jesus&#8217;s dictum that Christians must obey worldly authorities — and another seeming implication that Allen conceived of his attack in religious terms. Allen appeared to be a member of Christian groups and clubs during his time at Caltech. His father is an elder at the Grace United Reformed Church in California, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whcd-shooting-suspects-sister-worked-at-leftist-journalism-outlets?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=WHCD+Shooting+Suspect%E2%80%99s+Sister+Worked+At+Leftist+Journalism+Outlets">reported</a>.
Acknowledging that his manifesto might be his last words to family and friends, he writes, “I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again unless the Secret Service is *astoundingly* incompetent,” he says, before going on to criticize security.
“This level of incompetence is insane,&#8221; he writes. &#8220;I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat. The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.&#8221;
Allen sent the manifesto to his relatives 10 minutes before he attacked. He closed the missive with a reflection on the unpleasantness of presidential assassination.
&#8220;I want to throw up,&#8221; Allen writes. &#8220;I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.&#8221;
He signed the manifesto &#8220;Cole &#8216;coldForce&#8217; &#8216;Friendly Federal Assassin&#8217; Allen.&#8217;

Security Scare at The White House Correspondents’ Dinner with President Trump

Manifesto Shows Shooter Was Willing To Kill Everyone At Correspondents’ Dinner

The man who opened fire at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner Saturday has a journalist sister, The Daily Wire has learned.
Cole Thomas Allen, 31, charged a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel but was apprehended by authorities before breaching the ballroom. His sister, Avriana F. Allen, has worked at leftist news outlets, including the Texas Tribune, CalMatters, and the Pew Research Center.
At Northwestern University, she was involved with the <a href="https://studio.knightlab.com/people/avriana-allen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Knight Lab</a> and the publication North by Northwestern. A bio she published herself on GitHub, a coding platform, says, &#8220;I have a Bachelor of Science from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where I double-majored in journalism and statistics.&#8221;
It said worked as a web developer for CalMatters since 2021, &#8220;making it easier for millions of Californians to be informed about the policies and politics of their state.&#8221; She posted to LinkedIn that she was laid off for budgetary reasons. She recently began working at the<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/about/our-leadership-and-staff/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Pew Research Center</a> as a &#8220;Junior Tooling and Support Engineer.&#8221;
Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich <a href="https://x.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/2048409597749162144" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the Secret Service interviewed Avriana at her home in Rockville, Maryland, on Sunday, and she told agents that her brother often made &#8220;radical statements&#8221; and referenced a plan to do &#8220;something.&#8221; She said he was part of a No Kings rally and a group called the Wide Awakes.
Fox reported that Allen sent his family members what seems to be a manifesto, and that his brother reported it to the police. His brother, Gabriel, lives in New London, Connecticut.
Pew Research Center did not immediately return a request from The Daily Wire on whether Pew had journalists in attendance at the correspondents&#8217; dinner and whether there is any suspected connection between Cole&#8217;s attack and Avriana&#8217;s work.
According to public records reviewed by The Daily Wire, Cole Allen&#8217;s father is Thomas Allen, an elder at the Grace United Reformed Church in California. The church has deleted its leadership page from the internet.
According to the New York Post, Cole left a manifesto that said his aim was to kill Trump administration officials, laying out his reasoning in Christian terms.

Avriana Allen

WHCD Shooting Suspect’s Sister Worked At Leftist Journalism Outlets

Media

Newly-released footage showed the moments after United States Secret Service agents tackled and subdued the man who attempted to breach security and open fire on members of President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
The video showed agents first attempting to get through a door, and then, once the door was opened, several other agents could be seen walking around the suspect — who by then was lying facedown on the floor, his arms twisted and tied behind his back.
&#8220;Open the door! Open the door!&#8221; one agent can be heard shouting before the camera pans to show the suspect.  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/wqjSFXZZRch01Qso98DVPHbAkENWtWqHx?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=919ae34e-38d8-4f0c-b3de-a934bbbe26ca&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=WATCH%3A%20Secret%20Service%20tackles%20suspected%20gunman%20moments%20after%20shots%20fired&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2F81fc09f6-eb7c-4c52-915d-33c94c2da71e.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The suspect on the ground has since been identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, whose social media footprint includes anti-Trump and anti-Christian commentary and who has been linked to Bluesky posts calling for President Trump&#8217;s immediate removal from office.
He was apprehended on Saturday night after he attempted to charge through a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, where the event was being held, armed with a shotgun and a handgun in addition to several knives.
Allen was taken into custody, and although it is believed that he intended to shoot as many Trump administration officials as he could, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday morning that, thus far, the suspect has not been cooperating with law enforcement.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“From what we&#8217;ve learned in our preliminary investigation, he&#8217;s not actively cooperating,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tells <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a> about the alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter. <a href="https://t.co/uxx8EM1AxF">pic.twitter.com/uxx8EM1AxF</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/2048388680822218845?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Blanche also confirmed that at least one Secret Service agent had been shot as they apprehended Allen, but that he had been protected by the vest he was wearing at the time.
Allen is believed to have been staying at the Washington Hilton in the days leading up to the event, Blanche added. &#8220;We&#8217;re still understanding the security protocols that led to him being able to have firearms in that hotel.&#8221;

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