The White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD) on Saturday, April 25, drew headlines not only for another assassination attempt on the U.S. president, but also for an attendee’s conduct during the commotion.
Some 2,600 journalists and guests were present at the Washington Hilton hotel when a 31-year-old man from Torrance, California, now identified as Cole Thomas Allen, opened fire at a security checkpoint.
Highlights
- Chaos erupted at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday following an assassination attempt on the U.S. president.
- A woman was filmed engaging in an unusual act amid the emergency.
- As her video went viral, netizens slammed her as “shameless.”
As Secret Service agents rushed the POTUS, the vice president, and other top-ranking officials on the scene, a woman was seen fixating on free liquor.
A woman was slammed for focusing on wine from the WHCD after a botched assassination attempt on the U.S. president
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The clip circulating on social media does not identify the woman but assumes she was a member of the press.
She can be seen grabbing two bottles of wine from a nearby table to take home as security scurried to rush attendees out safely amid the fiasco.
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“So there you have press members stealing wine bottles. This is who the press is! Repugnant!” one X user wrote in their criticism of the woman, while another added, “How shameless — after the sh**ting incident, journalists are stealing liquor bottles from the hall.”
A third called her “attack” on the wine, “no match” for the actual crime that went down.
“Trump running for his life, press corps running for the wine. Peak 2026 America,” commented a fourth.
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“She looks like she has seen far scarier things in life. Like that was a normal day,” observed another.
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Not all comments were against the woman, though, as one argued her action was appropriate, given that the event required payment to attend.
“Bro, they paid $350+ a plate, and the night got cancelled early, free wine tax refund is fair game,” the X user wrote.
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Others justified the wine grab by saying the traumatic nature of the evening called for drinks, and the bottles happened to be available there.
“If I were in that environment of a potential mass sh**ting, now locked down in the room while the premises are swept and secured, I would down some drinks to calm my nerves as well,” a comment read.
One dragged FBI director Kash Patel into the discourse, saying, “He’s gonna need it when he loses his job.”
Reports claim Patel faces removal from the Trump administration after weeks of damaging coverage about his drinking habits
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Politico on Saturday cited a senior White House official and reported that Kash Patel will be the next high-ranking Trump cabinet member to go after Kristi Noem (Department of Homeland Security secretary) and Pam Bondi (U.S. Attorney General).
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the steady stream of unfavorable headlines against Patel had become a major concern for the president, who views it as a distraction.
“It’s only a matter of time,” the official said.
The Atlantic, citing roughly two dozen current and former officials, reported that the FBI director’s colleagues were alarmed by his unexplained absences, alleging that his security detail had struggled to wake him due to intoxication.
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Patel, however, has rejected the claims.
He filed a $250 million defamation suit against the magazine, accusing it of publishing “false and fabricated allegations designed to destroy his reputation and drive him from office.”
The woman bagging wine was not the only viral clip to come out of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the aftermath of the violence
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A man was seen in CNN’s coverage calmly eating a salad that was served before Cole Thomas Allen breached the security checkpoint.
Media analyst Brian Stelter identified the man as Creative Artists Agency agent Michael Glantz. Social media went on to dub him “Super Agent.”
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Glantz spoke to TMZ on April 26 and said he felt safe in the room due to the large police presence.
“Not every day you see something like that go down,” he told the outlet.
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According to the entertainment website, Glantz represents CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who told USA Today he was “a few feet away from the g*nman” when the sh**ting occurred.
“It was scary, it was loud. The cops got on top of him, and then they got on top of me to protect me,” Blitzer said.
Allen faces two counts of discharging a firearm during a crime and one count of attack on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, according to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.
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He is set to be arraigned on Monday, April 27.
"In all fairness, they'll just end up dumped out or thrown out in recycling anyway," a netizen said about the woman grabbing wine
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