In the immediate aftermath of the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — an incident that forced the evacuation of President Donald Trump and underscored once again the real-world consequences of escalated political rhetoric — a Wisconsin brewery owner and former Democratic candidate sparked outrage by publicly rooting for the president’s assassination. Kirk Bangstad, owner of Minocqua Brewing Company and founder of the affiliated Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, sparked outrage after posting online that he was disappointed Trump survived a recent attempt on his life. “Well, we almost got #freebeerday,” Bangstad wrote. “Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know. Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens.” HOLY CR*P

The man who opened fire at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner Saturday has a journalist sister, The Daily Wire has learned. Cole Thomas Allen, 31, charged a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel but was apprehended by authorities before breacking the ballroom. His sister, Avriana F. Allen, has worked at leftist news outlets the Texas Tribune, CalMatters, and the Pew Research Center. At Northwestern University, she was involved with the Knight Lab and the publication North by Northwestern. A bio she published for herself on GitHub, a coding platform, says “I have a Bachelor of Science from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where I double-majored in journalism and statistics.” It says she worked as a web developer for CalMatters since 2021, “making it easier for millions of Californians to be informed about the policies and politics of their state.” She posted to LinkedIn that she was laid off for budgetary reasons. She recently began working at the Pew Research Center as “Junior Tooling and Support Engineer.” Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported that the Secret Service interviewed Avriana at her home in Rockville, Maryland, on Sunday, and she told agents that her brother often made “radical statements” and referenced a plan to do “something.” She said he was part of a No Kings rally and a group called the Wide Awakes. Fox reported that Allen sent his family members what seems to be a manifesto, and that his brother reported it to police. His brother, Gabriel, lives in New London, Connecticut. Pew Research Center did not immediately return a request from The Daily Wire on whether Pew had journalists in attendance at the correspondents’ dinner and whether there is any suspected connection between Cole’s attack and Avriana’s work. According to public records reviewed by The Daily Wire, Cole Allen’s father is Thomas Allen, an elder at the Grace United Reformed Church in California. The church has deleted its leadership page from the internet. According to the New York Post, Cole left a manifesto that said his aim was to kill Trump administration officials, laying out his reasoning in Christian terms.

Suspected White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, urged his Bluesky followers to purchase guns over fears the Trump administration might ban so-called transgender individuals from owning firearms. A Bluesky account suspected to be Allen’s posted a CNN article “Trump DOJ is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say,” with the caption “Best time to buy a gun was <greater than or equal to your state’s waiting period> days ago Second best time is today.” The September 2025 CNN article posted discussed a mass shooting that took place at a Minneapolis Catholic church, carried out by a “23-year-old transgender woman.” The article says the Department of Justice was “weighing proposals to limit transgender people’s right to possess firearms” and framed this potential move as “a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s fight against the rights of transgender Americans.” There have been several recent high-profile shootings in the past several years with ties to transgenderism, leading the Trump administration to examine the relationship between transgenderism and violence. Allen obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the prestigious California Institute of Technology in 2017, where he participated in the school’s Christian Fellowship Program, according to his LinkedIn profile and social media posts. December 2016 Facebook posts from Caltech Christian Fellowship show Allen smiling and attending an event held by the school’s Christian club. Evangelical Christians believe there are only two sexes and openly oppose transgenderism. Allen wrote an anti-Trump manifesto that mocked Christianity and was sent to a family member minutes before the shooting, according to reporting from The New York Post. Allen mocked the Christian idea of “turning the other cheek” in the manifesto writing, “Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial,” according to reporting from The New York Post. “Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” Allen wrote in a manifesto provided to U.S. officials according to reporting from The New York Post.

The would-be shooter who attacked at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner revealed that he was willing to kill everyone in the room. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Cole Tomas Allen wrote in the 1,000-word document, arguing that the potential mass casualty event was justifiable “on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor” — a reference to President Donald Trump — and “are thus complicit.” Around 2,500 people were in attendance at the event, including the president, Vice President JD Vance, several Cabinet secretaries and members of congressional leadership, as well as journalists, media personalities, and guests. In his manifesto, Allen wrote that he only considered members of the Trump administration — with the exception of FBI Director Kash Patel, for reasons unknown — fair targets. Allen wrote that he would only shoot Secret Service, Capitol Police, and hotel security if they shot him first, and pledged not to engage with other workers or guests. However, Allen said he “would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets” because he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” Allen explained that he chose “buckshot rather than slugs” in an effort to reduce collateral damage by mitigating “penetration through walls.” In the manifesto, Allen describes himself as a Christian, and notes that a possible objection to his actions is that “As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.” He then offers a rebuttal, noting “Turning the other check is for when you yourself are oppressed. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.” Another possible objection he lists is “yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” a reference to Jesus’s dictum that Christians must obey worldly authorities — and another seeming implication that Allen conceived of his attack in religious terms. Allen appeared to be a member of Christian groups and clubs during his time at Cal-Tech. His father is an elder at the Grace United Reformed Church in California, The Daily Wire reported. Acknowledging that his manifesto might be his last words to family and friends, he writes, “I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again unless the Secret Service is *astoundingly* incompetent,” he says, before going on criticize security. “This level of incompetence is insane,” he writes. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat. The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.” Allen sent the manifesto to relatives 10 minutes before he attacked. He closed the missive with a reflection on the unpleasantness of presidential assassination. “I want to throw up,” Allen writes. “I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.” He signed the manifesto “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen.’

Newly-released footage showed the moments after United States Secret Service agents tackled and subdued the man who attempted to breach security and open fire on members of President Donald Trump’s administration at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The video showed agents first attempting to get through a door, and then once the door was opened. a number of other agents could be seen walking around the suspect — who by then was lying facedown on the floor, his arms twisted and tied behind his back. “Open the door! Open the door!” one agent can be heard shouting before the camera pans to show the suspect.   The suspect on the ground has since been identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, whose social media footprint includes anti-Trump and anti Christian commentary and who has been linked to Bluesky posts calling for President Trump’s immediate removal from office. He was apprehended on Saturday night after he attempted to charge through a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, where the event was being held, armed with a shotgun and a handgun in addition to several knives. Allen was taken into custody, and although it is believed that he intended to shoot as many Trump administration officials as he could, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Sunday morning that thus far, the suspect has not been cooperating with law enforcement. “From what we’ve learned in our preliminary investigation, he’s not actively cooperating,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tells @margbrennan about the alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter. pic.twitter.com/uxx8EM1AxF — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 26, 2026 Blanche also confirmed that at least one Secret Service agent had been shot ad they apprehended Allen, but that he had been protected by the vest he was wearing at the time. Allen is believed to have been staying at the Washington Hilton in the days leading up to the event, Blanche added. “We’re still understanding the security protocols that led to him being able to have firearms in that hotel.”