{"id":608571,"date":"2026-04-27T03:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T03:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608571\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T03:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T03:34:09","slug":"washington-in-shock-after-white-house-press-dinner-shooting-an-angry-polarized-nation-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608571\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington in shock after White House press dinner shooting: \u2018an angry, polarized nation\u2019 | White House correspondents’ dinner shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stunned Washington faced searching questions about political violence and gun control on Sunday after shots were fired<\/a> at a prestigious media gala attended by Donald Trump<\/a> and senior White House officials.<\/p>\n

A man targeted a Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel the previous night before being tackled and arrested. Trump and Melania Trump were rushed out of the annual White House Correspondents\u2019 Association (WHCA) dinner as guests dived for cover<\/a> under tables.<\/p>\n

The chaotic events raised fresh questions about the security of top officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel\u2019s expansive ballroom. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, told<\/a> NBC\u2019s Meet the Press programme: \u201cIt does appear that he did in fact, have set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brazen assault at the Hilton \u2013 the same hotel where then president Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 \u2013 also occurred against a backdrop of surging political violence<\/a> and an epidemic of gun violence in the US.<\/p>\n

Trump himself has often been criticised as an accelerant of vitriolic and incendiary discourse. Over the past 10 years he has called on a crowd to \u201cknock the crap out<\/a>\u201d of protesters, urged supporters to \u201cfight like hell<\/a>\u201d following his 2020 election defeat and mused that crime could be ended in \u201cone really violent day<\/a>\u201d if police were allowed to be \u201cextraordinarily rough<\/a>\u201d without fear of retribution.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the White House briefing room on Saturday, while still in black-tie attire, the president characterised the gunman as a \u201cvery sick person\u201d and a \u201clone wolf, whack job\u201d, adding: \u201cThese are crazy people, and they have to be dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed by a reporter on whether political violence has simply become the cost of doing business in modern America, the president said with an air of resignation: \u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

But such a notion prompted fresh soul searching among Washington\u2019s political class. Lanhee Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank in Stanford, California, told Meet the Press<\/a>: \u201cPolitical violence does seem to have become a part of doing business but it should not be normal. It should not be normalised and that is something we should not lose sight of. And ultimately, it is incumbent upon public leaders to set the right tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the president did that in his press conference last night. I think it\u2019s important for others to follow suit. But ultimately, we should not say that, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re used to this. It\u2019s America. It\u2019s happened before.\u2019 Somebody has to draw the line. And we\u2019ve seen this too many times now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past decade the US has been left reeling by a shooting<\/a> at a congressional baseball practice, a deadly<\/a> white supremacist march in Charlottesville, the January 6 insurrection<\/a> at the US Capitol, two assassination<\/a> attempts<\/a> against Trump, and the killings<\/a> of the former Minnesota house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>. Threats to members of Congress are at a record high with some hiring private security guards.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman who found himself shielding<\/a> Kerry Kennedy \u2013 a woman whose own father and uncle were victims of historic assassinations \u2013 decried the normalisation of violence, linking the latest incident to the broader epidemic of mass shootings in schools and communities.<\/p>\n

Journalists gather outside of the Washington Hilton hotel on 26 April, the day after a gunman tried to storm into the hotel\u2019s ballroom during the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner. Photograph: Jos\u00e9 Luis Maga\u00f1a\/AP<\/p>\n

Raskin told CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/a>: \u201cWe have not dealt with the problem and we\u2019re losing thousands of people a year to gun violence. There are 100 people shot every day. So, yesterday, while that nightmare was going on at the White House Correspondents\u2019 ball, dozens of people had been shot across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we just accept that as the normal course of business. So I think, before we get back to all the political divisions and fighting about stuff, maybe this could be a moment of unity for trying to focus on the things that the vast majority of the American people want, like a universal violent criminal background check.\u201d<\/p>\n

America has more guns, and more phones, than people. The Trump administration has faced<\/a> criticism for<\/a> dismantling<\/a> gun safety<\/a> and<\/a> mental health investments<\/a> that had bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

Thom Tillis, a Republican senator, told the Meet the Press: \u201cThe amplifier and the instigator of social media is able to really target vulnerable people. In many cases, we\u2019re seeing people who are committing these horrible acts have behavioural health and other challenges \u2013 stability issues in their lives. And now we have platforms that can focus on them as state actors, terrorist organisations fomenting hate in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspect, identified<\/a> by law enforcement as 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California, charged a security checkpoint located on the lobby level, one floor above the main ballroom, before being subdued. He was carrying a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. A uniformed Secret Service officer took a bullet to the chest, his life saved only by his ballistic vest.<\/p>\n

The suspect will be charged in federal court on Monday with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer. A focus of the investigation is likely to be how he was able to smuggle the shotgun into the hotel.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the British embassy in Washington, which is preparing for King Charles\u2019s visit<\/a> to Washington starting on Monday, said in a statement that discussions were taking place on whether the incident may affect planning for the visit.<\/p>\n

John Cohen, a former acting Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence, told ABC\u2019s This Week<\/a>: \u201cThis is the most volatile, complex and dangerous threat environment I\u2019ve experienced in the 42-plus years that I\u2019ve been involved in law enforcement and homeland security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re an angry, polarised nation. We have a growing number of people, particularly young males, who believe that violence is the only way to express their sense of grievance or their opposition to the current political conditions in this country. They are inspired and increasingly informed by content that they consume online that\u2019s placed there by terrorist groups, foreign intelligence services and others, specifically for the purposes of inspiring and inciting violence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stunned Washington faced searching questions about political violence and gun control on Sunday after shots were fired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-608571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}