DOJ charges suspect in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting
4/27/202616 min
The Justice Department has charged 31-year-old Cole Allen with trying to assassinate President Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday. We discuss what we know about Allen and how Trump responded to Saturday’s shooting.
This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Miles Parks· Host0:16
[upbeat music] Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.
Ryan Lucas· Co-host0:25
I'm Ryan Lucas. I cover the Justice Department.
Domenico Montanaro· Co-host0:27
And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
Miles Parks· Host0:30
We are recording this at 2:27 PM Eastern Time on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Today on the show, what more do we know about the man who charged the security perimeter at the White House Correspondents' 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, Allen was in court today. What is he being charged with?
Ryan Lucas· Co-host1:03
That's right. I had actually just left, uh, the courtroom where he made his initial appearance. He walked in, he was wearing blue prison garb, uh, sat down at the defense table with, uh, two public defenders who had been appointed by the court to defend him. Now, the magistrate judge, uh, read out the counts against him. He said there are three total. One of them is attempt to assassinate the president. Uh, that carries a potential, uh, maximum sentence of life in prison. Second count is, uh, transportation