DOJ charges suspect in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Ryan Lucas. I cover the Justice Department. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, Senior Political Editor, Encore. We are recording this at 2.27 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, April 27, 2026. Today on the show, what more do we know about the man who charged the security perimeter at the White House correspondent's dinner on Saturday night and opened fire? The Secret Service tackled him, but during the chaotic few minutes that followed, President Trump, the First Lady, and several cabinet members were rushed out of the building. The Justice Department has identified the gunman as 31-year-old Cole Allen from California.

And Ryan, Alan was in court today. What is he being charged with? That's right. I actually just left the courtroom where he made his initial appearance. He walked in. He was wearing blue prison garb, sat down at the defense table with two public defenders who have been appointed by the court to defend him. Now, the magistrate judge read out the counts against him. He said there are three total.

One of them is attempt to assassinate the president that carries a potential maximum sentence of life in prison. second count is transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce for a felony. That's up 10 years in prison. That's the potential sentence there if he's convicted. And then the third count was discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. So as of now, just to kind of summarize, he's been charged by criminal complaint, faces three counts. Those are the three counts against him. He is being held for now.

He will remain in custody. And a detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday. It's important to say that the complaint as of this moment is still sealed. So I have not seen it. The judge ordered it to be unsealed, but sometimes it takes a little bit of time. So what we know, not having seen that charging document yet, is largely based off what Justice Department officials have said, primarily acting attorney general Todd Blanche. He said, Alan traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago by train and then from Chicago to

Washington, D.C. by train. He stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Washington. That is the same hotel where the White House correspondence dinner takes place. So he had a room at the hotel on Saturday night, the night that the incident happened. He had a shotgun, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with him, as well as a handgun and three knives. That's according to the Justice Department. And that's most of the picture that we have received thus far from the government. They also said, it's important to add, that they believe, based on the preliminary information thus far, the evidence that they've collected in the investigation to this point, that his intention was to target administration officials.

That's what we know as of now. But again, there will likely be more information in the criminal complaint when we get a look at it. And I mean, what about him as a person? I mean, do we know anything about his biography where he grew up, you know, what he was like? We know that he grew up in Southern California. He's from Torrance, California. He has a mechanical engineering degree from Caltech. He has a master's in computer science from another state college.

He's been working as a teacher, basically tutoring kids for college entrance exams. According to people who our NPR colleagues have spoken with who worked with him, he was a very good teacher. And from what people who knew him have said about him, he seems to have been a very kind and quiet, amicable guy. Do we know anything more about the motive? or anything Alan has said or done that indicate why he did this. The full scope of why he may have done this, what the motive may have been, is something that Todd Blanche has said they are still digging in on. They're still trying to figure out.

And that, of course, is the question ultimately that we all want an answer to, why an individual would take it upon themselves, allegedly, to travel across the country with weapons to then attack an event where the president and much of the president's cabinet was in attendance. Ryan, thinking about this investigation, is there any indication at all that Alan was being assisted by anybody else or does it seem like he was on his own? Well, from what Todd Blanche has said at this point in time, investigators haven't uncovered any evidence that would suggest that Alan had any co-conspirators. In other words, everything points to him being a lone actor. And also, he's been asked about whether

there was any sort of foreign connection, and Todd Blanche has said there's no evidence of any sort of foreign connection or foreign nexus that they have found. He's been charged with three things at this point. Is that going to be it or is the assumption that there is going to be more charges as the investigation unfolds? So because this is just a criminal complaint, he has not been indicted yet. The government could certainly add more charges when it comes to the indictment, and they could always add more charges after that and what's known as a superseding indictment. Todd Blanche did say over the weekend that Alan would face initial charges on Monday. We have that. But he also did say that there is the possibility

that prosecutors would add more down the line. And Domenico, you were at the event on Saturday night. Can you tell us a little bit about the security that you saw as you were entering and anything else that caught your eye? Well, yeah, I mean, security is always tied at these events. I've been going to this for the better part of almost two decades at this point. You have to show credentials to get into pre-parties that you're invited to. You have to have a ticket to get into the ballroom. And before you get into the ballroom for the dinner, you have to go through magnetometers. Now, I'm sure there's going to be some discussion and it's already happening about the kind of security layers that are in place. Because as much as the president and press secretary have been

saying that, you know, it worked and that the president is secure and that nobody else was hurt, in all of this as far as the cabinet secretaries go or the president himself and others other guests in the room the fact that somebody could run through the magnetometer area into a very wide hallway and you know essentially fall to the floor really just steps away from the doors where everyone was and having open fire in that area that's supposed to be very secure it doesn't make a lot of the people in that room feel very secure in that moment And there certainly were a lot of people there, obviously tons of secret service, tons of other law enforcement. And, you know, for a couple of minutes, it was very chaotic. I mean, you had, you know, people searching for cabinet secretaries, trying to get them out of the room, you know, trying to spy them under tables, talking to each other, communicating as to whether or not they had eyes on either cabinet secretaries or the shooter himself.

It was definitely very chaotic for a couple of minutes. Things seemed to settle down. obviously the dinner wound up disbanding and the president wound up speaking later. But always security is very tight at these things, but there's going to be a reassessment for sure. All right. We're going to take a quick break and more in just a moment. This message comes from Better Health. Summer can feel like a sprint. Kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down. It's easy to slip into survival mode, just trying to get through it.

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MintMobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See MintMobile for details. Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Southern Environmental Law Center. No one voted for a dirty air. No one voted for polluted water. That's why SCLC is fighting back to defend the healthy environment everyone depends on, just as they've done for 40 years. Because clean air, clean water, and a healthy climate aren't political. They're fundamental. Learn more at selc.org. And we're back. And, Domenico, President Trump held a press conference late Saturday night after leaving the scene of the shooting. What can you tell us about his initial response? Well, his initial response certainly conciliatory. His tone did seem to change bringing up his ballroom and the need for a more secure environment.

And there's been a political push, really, on the right, almost immediately. Number one, calling for the need for the ballroom saying they didn't want to see the left talking about how the ballroom wasn't necessary when something like this happens. And then, of course, the familiar playbook that we've seen now repeatedly after any kind of violent situation where somebody on the right was either hurt or killed or targeted, where they blame Democrats and are saying that it's democratic rhetoric that is to blame. But, you know, I have to say, I mean, kind of political outrage and intellectual dishonesty that we're seeing and we can continue to see over, you know, such a long time now it feels like in our politics has become a kind of toxic fuel for this kind of environment. I mean, people are angry, but the president sets the tone. You know, he called for the destruction of an entire civilization. He celebrated the death of a former FBI director and Robert Mueller. I mean, he rationalized the death of Hollywood producer Rob Reiner making something political that really had nothing. to do with politics. And, you know, you see in a lot of these moments a kind of phony outrage to score political points. And, you know, isn't really what politics is supposed to be about. And that fuels a kind of cynicism and antipathy and a lack of trust in the politics that we continue to see grow. And until people all around look in the mirror and say, what can I do differently for this kind of

environment to bring the temperature down? It's hard to see how any of this ceases. I will also just add that factually there have been people on both sides of the aisle be the victims of political violence. And so to put blame on one side is just factually inaccurate. Yeah. And the way the president sort of looked at this is talking about how he is being uniquely targeted in some respects. This was the president talking to Fox News. Really, if you're a consequential president, you're in much more danger than if you're not a consequential president. And the fact is there are threats against every president. resident regardless of their party. But again, the environment right now is just hyper polarized and it

doesn't make for a really healthy environment to be able to have political discussions that might become really tense. It often winds up going very far because I think in some respects the fracture of our social media environment and there just becomes a lack of humanity that I think a lot of us are kind of exhausted from. I understand that the threat environment has increased for all lawmakers, but it does feel notable that President Trump, I mean, in the last couple of years, there have been three different assassination attempts on President Trump. And I guess I'm wondering what to make of that. I mean, is that going to end up being part of his legacy, being president during this period of heightened political violence?

In the attempts here that we've seen on the president are certainly high profile, but the rationale or the motivations either have not been clear or have not been consistent. So I think for there to be simple solutions or simple hot takes that come immediately after to say, oh, this is because of X, Y, Z, because it fits my personal political narrative. It hasn't borne out to be true with this president. Clearly, Trump is controversial as well as consequential president, and that can lead to a lot of anger and anxiety from a lot of people because of a lot of the policies that he's put in place and a lot of the ways that people feel about him and the things that have been said around that. In the case of the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania,

during the 2024 campaign, what the FBI said about the gunmen in that instance, Thomas Crooks, according to the FBI, had done research on events where President Biden might speak, as well as where Trump might speak. So the FBI had determined that in that instance, essentially Crooks was just looking for a target of opportunity. It turned out that the rally in Butler was near where he lived. And so that's how he ultimately settled on the shooting, targeting President Trump. So that instance seems not so much to even be driven by political animosity so much as potentially just a desire to kill somebody in some spectacular fashion. Domenico, on the point about the ballroom, this idea that President Trump immediately went to, this is basically why we need the ballroom.

Can you explain that a little bit? I think I was a little confused as I saw the headlines floating around on Sunday around that. It's the idea that if there was a presidential ballroom that the security would naturally be more heightened or what I don't, I'm not sure I understand the direct connection between two things. Well, the hotel, the Washington Hilton in D.C., this is where this is held every year. And there are a lot of people mulling around and not everybody has an invitation to the dinner. A lot of times it's onlookers. A lot of times it's people who are going to pre-parties. A lot of times it's people who are just hotel guests. Other times it's even people who are going in from the outside to go to the restaurant that's there.

It's not meant to celebrate the president. It's meant to celebrate the First Amendment, right? And so the idea that the White House, the president would be hosting an event that is a private event put on by the White House Correspondents Association. It's just it's it's it's as I understand it is not how this is actually supposed to work. Right. And it's the president. The president is invited to this event. It's not an event honoring the president. And I think that sometimes that gets a little confused because of the sort of chummy nature that you might see at these events that a lot of people frankly don't like. You know, this is an event that is supposed to be to honor the First Amendment, the work that journalists do, but also to bring together the president and the press. for something that's supposed to be civil to say, yes, we have disagreements from time to time, or not even disagreements, just tough questions that can be asked from reporters. That might make a president uncomfortable.

This is the person who's the most powerful person in the world, and the press is supposed to be the proxies for people to be able to have those hard questions asked. And it's supposed to be an ability for both sides to come together to say, okay, look, I see the work that you all do because it's important, have an independent free press in this country. It's a model for independent free press, journalism, and democracy worldwide that others should want to emulate. So as this investigation continues, what questions do you have that still haven't been answered? I mean, the big one that we always want answers to is the motive.

One wants to understand what prompted him to allegedly take the steps that he did and seemingly turn to violence. directed at the highest officers of the land. Do we know when he'll be in court again? Yes. He will be back in court on Thursday for a detention hearing. All right. Well, we can leave it there for today. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Ryan Lucas. I cover the Justice Department. And I'm Domenico Montanar, senior political editor and correspondent.

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