So for the past week, a certain corner of the internet — the same corner that told you the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation — has been floating a cozy little theory about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. The theory? That the Secret Service officer who got shot wasn’t actually shot by the gunman. Nope. According to these people, it was “friendly fire.”
Yeah, about that. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro just released high-definition surveillance footage showing Cole Tomas Allen — shotgun in hand — blasting a Secret Service officer as he sprinted through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton. On camera. In high resolution. Oops!
Pirro didn’t mince words, either. “Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” she said. And then she added the part that made a whole lot of people on social media suddenly discover other things to talk about: “There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire.”
None. Zero. Zip.
Now, we need to talk about what this video actually shows, because it’s not some grainy, could-be-anything blob from a gas station security camera. This is crisp, clear, Department of Justice footage. You can see Allen — a 31-year-old “engineer” and former “Teacher of the Month” from Torrance, California — casing the Washington Hilton the day before the attack. Just strolling through the hallways like a tourist. Chatting with a woman in the hotel gym. Scouting his route.
Then on the night of April 25th, you see him make his move. He sprints past the magnetometer — the metal detector that’s supposed to stop exactly this kind of thing — carrying a shotgun and a collection of knives and daggers that would make a medieval blacksmith blush. He fires at the Secret Service checkpoint outside the ballroom where President Trump was attending the black-tie dinner.
The Secret Service officer Allen shot was wearing a ballistic vest, which almost certainly saved his life. He was transported to a hospital as a precaution and survived. Thank God for body armor and the men and women willing to stand between a president and a lunatic.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers at the checkpoint returned fire — five shots — as Allen charged through. And here’s where the “friendly fire” narrative was born. Because certain media outlets and certain blue-check Twitter accounts saw an opportunity to muddy the waters. If they could make this about a Secret Service screwup instead of an assassination attempt by an anti-Trump radical, well, that changes the whole story, doesn’t it?
Except now there’s video. And the video doesn’t lie.
Let’s review what we know about Cole Tomas Allen, shall we? He traveled cross-country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. He brought weapons — plural. He wrote a manifesto — because of course he did — in which he declared his intention to target members of the Trump administration at the dinner, “from highest-ranking to lowest.” He called himself a “friendly federal assassin.” He donated to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. He was honored as “Teacher of the Month” at whatever school was unfortunate enough to employ him.
Teacher of the Month. Let that marinate for a second. This guy was molding young minds in a California classroom by day and writing assassination manifestos by night. And we wonder why parents are pulling their kids out of public schools at record rates.
He’s now facing charges of attempting to assassinate the president, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime. If convicted, he’s looking at life in prison. Which, frankly, is the least this country can do.
But here’s what matters about this video release: Pirro didn’t have to do this. The DOJ could’ve sat on the footage, let it play out in court, and let the “friendly fire” narrative fester for months. Instead, she went on the record, posted the video, and burned the false narrative to the ground in broad daylight.
That’s what accountability looks like. That’s what a DOJ that actually works for the American people looks like. Compare that to the last administration, which spent four years hiding evidence, slow-walking investigations, and classifying anything that made Democrats look bad.
The “friendly fire” crowd wanted this to be a Secret Service incompetence story. They wanted to redirect the outrage away from the fact that a left-wing activist tried to murder the President and toward some bureaucratic failure. Classic move — same playbook they used after every inconvenient shooting for the last decade.
But the tape tells the truth. Cole Allen, shotgun in hand, fired at a Secret Service officer who was standing between him and the President. That officer took the hit, stayed in the fight, and Allen was stopped.
We should be thanking that officer. We should be demanding answers about how Allen got as close as he did. And we should be asking every single media outlet that floated the “friendly fire” theory to issue a correction.
We won’t hold our breath on that last one.