Two reports from journalists at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where a far-left teacher from California attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump, show that the Secret Service blew it again in not ensuring tight security for a packed event at which the president would speak.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported on X that he easily entered the Washington Hilton Saturday night and could have hidden a bomb in his shoe. Hugh Dougherty, executive editor of The Daily Beast, said much the same thing. That lax security, apparently, allowed attempted assassination suspect Cole Allen to waltz into the Hilton with multiple weapons, register for a room, and await his chance to assassinate Trump and other top officials.
The Washington Post confirmed that the administration “provided a lower level of security” for the event.
This is the third time the Secret Service did not stop assassins from getting close to the president. The first time, July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks nearly murdered Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The second time, September 15, 2024, Ryan Wesley Routh attempted to assassinate Trump at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida.
No ID Needed
Authorities allege that 31-year-old Allen charged through security armed with knives, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in a failed attempt to reach the ballroom. Secret Service agents subdued and arrested him. Allen confessed in a manifesto that he was targeting administration officials, which would include the president.
On X yesterday, Melugin explained that “the first exterior security for me was on the street outside of the hotel. I flashed my ticket and was waved through in one second.”
Whoever provided that security did not check his name “against any list,” and Melugin did not show an ID. “I was not patted down and did not go through a metal detector,” he continued:
I probably could have shown a ticket from a prior year or a fake one as they barely looked at it. (I don’t know who that exterior security was, they were guys in suits).
From that point, I walked into the hotel with no further security check, and I walked down to the Fox pre-party where there were multiple ballrooms that were absolutely PACKED with attendees. Still did not go through any security at that point.
Hypothetically, If I had hidden an explosive in my shoe or my jacket, I would have had no problem getting into one of those ballrooms.
Only when Melugin and other worthies of the Fourth Estate entered the ballroom did they undergo the usual security measures: empty pockets, walk through magnetometer, stand for a patdown.
“But the security leading up to that point, in my opinion, appeared to be lacking severely,” Melugin wrote.
After Allen was subdued and the chaos had ended, myriad security officials blocked The Daily Beast’s Dougherty from returning to his room. “I knew then that I had been next door to the man who wanted to turn the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner into a mass shooting,” he wrote.
Learning from the officials that he was stymied because he was standing near an FBI crime scene, Dougherty “began to piece together the security fiasco that had taken place in the room next door,” he continued:
Quite simply, a man who wanted to kill people — many people, maybe me, maybe my colleagues — had checked into the Washington Hilton, just like I had. He had used his access to move from floor 10 to the ballroom lobby, just like I had. And he had left a room which police had closed off, but which for all they feared could now be filled with explosives.
Post Report
Top administration officials apparently didn’t think having myriad top officials, notably the president and vice president, at a public event was much of a security problem. The administration “provided a lower level of security for the White House correspondents’ dinner than it has for other gatherings of high-ranking officials, even though the president and many Cabinet members were in attendance,” officials told the Post.
“When so many officials gather in one place for official functions such as an inauguration or State of the Union address, the secretary of homeland security typically puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating all security through a formal designation known as a ‘National Special Security Event,’” the newspaper continued.
But that didn’t happen. Indeed, security was so lax that Allen laughed about it in writing. He “ridiculed what he called lax security at the hotel, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the writings,” the Post reported:
He said Iranian agents could easily have brought more dangerous weapons to the venue, according to the text.
The Secret Service, the newspaper continued, considered the ballroom and its immediate perimeter, but “the agency did not take responsibility for the entire Hilton Hotel.”
“Outside, D.C. police handled road closures and traffic,” the Post reported:
In between, there was no clear responsibility for the security of the thousands of guests and rest of the Hilton property, where authorities said the suspect had booked a room.
Allen checked in to the hotel day on Friday.
Third Near Miss
Whether the Secret Service will be overhauled over the latest failure to secure a property is unclear.
The latest embarrassment for the agency comes after myriad others:
- In January, viral video from O’Keefe Media Group showed an agent’s revealing details about Vice President J.D. Vance’s security and schedule;
- In September, an agent shot himself;
- The agency admitted it had not secured the perimeter around Trump International Golf Course when Ryan Wesley Routh attempted to murder the president;
- The agency did not secure the rooftop from which Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump, then-Director Kimberly Cheatle said, because it was too steep. That and other revelations were major embarrassments for the agency. Forced to quit her job, Cheatle’s top priority at the agency was promoting women.
Saturday’s attempted assassination is the second at the Washington Hilton. On March 30, 1981, John Warnock Hinckley attempted to murder President Ronald Reagan as he left the hotel after speaking at a union event. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity, released to his mother in 2016, and unconditionally released in 2022.
