MAGA warrior Kari Lake and plenty of other attendees Saturday night criticized the lack of robust security at the Washington Hilton after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with President Donald Trump in attendance.
But Lake, the senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media, was not alone in questioning how a gunman could have made it so close to Trump, first lady Melania, Vice President JD Vance and nearly the entire line of succession to the U.S. presidency.
“I can’t believe how lax the security was at the White House correspondents dinner tonight,” Lake posted on X. “Upon entering, nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification.”
The tickets for the dinner, which is hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association, did not have specific names. In addition, attendees only had to go through one round of magnetometers for the actual ballroom where the dinner took place, but not for the hotel building as a whole.
Authorities named the suspected shooter as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old resident of Torrance, California. He is in custody after being tackled to the ground while allegedly firing one of his weapons.
By contrast, to attend many of the pre-parties and after parties around DC ahead of and during the big weekend, attendees often have to be on a list, have their name checked or present a photo identification.
Similarly, Mads Campbell, CEO of Leda Health, said there was "no bag check. no real screening. no line. just thousands of people packed together, being pushed through the doors as fast as possible."
She wrote: “It started the second we got there. every event we’ve ever been to, especially at this level, there are layers of security. bags checked, IDs checked, actual process.” She said that she left early because “my best friend literally turns to me and says, ‘I think something is going to happen.’ And then it did”
Caty Payette, a communications director for Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), echoed the sentiment.
“I was there this evening and there was no security to be admitted to the lobby of the hotel,” she said on X. “Guests had to simply flash a ticket to a pre-event party or the dinner itself to be let into the premises, which in hindsight was alarming.”
But reporter Carolina Lumetta had a different perspective.
“I was there. I had to show my ticket in the hotel lobby,” she said. “Then I went downstairs a flight of stairs and went through a security mag and had my purse searched. Then we went down one more flight of stairs (where the gunman was apprehended), and entered the ballroom.”
CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer, who was feet away from the shooter when he opened fire in the lobby, said that there had been additional security and noted how security threw him down and tackled him as the shooting began.
The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s remarks — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately reenter. Security outside was also extremely tight.
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and “we didn’t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.” Lawler said he gets “death threats often” and said, “I think we live in a climate where everybody recognizes it's a problem, but I don’t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.”
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was tackled to the ground and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
Inside the ballroom, guests scurried for cover at the sound of shots while Secret Service agents, including the heavily-armed counterassault team, swarmed the stage after the incident.
Vice President JD Vance was removed from the room first, while agents initially covered Trump in place before escorting him and first lady Melania Trump from the room. Trump briefly stumbled on the way offstage, before being assisted by his security detail.
He was held for some time in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as the president and organizers initially sought to resume the event — hotel staff refolded napkins and refilled water glasses, and aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president — before Trump was returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service.
The shooting raises serious security concerns. Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the correspondents’ dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.
In 1981, a John Hinckley Jr. opened fire and almost killed President Ronald Reagan at the same hotel.
In addition, during the 2024 campaign, the president had two separate attempts on his life.
After the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024, where a gunman shot Trump, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle reasigned. Secret Service has long been plagued by scandal, such as in 2012, when Secret Service agents hired sex workers in Colombia.
In 2014, the agency received additional scrutiny when a man jumped the fence of the White House. Shortly thereafter, two drunk Secret Service agents would be investigated for drunkenly driving a government car into a White House barricade.
— with wires
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