The suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday found security at the event so lacking that a whole section of a message he allegedly sent was dedicated to trashing it.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, who was arraigned in federal court on Monday, allegedly sent a note to family members 10 minutes before the shooting.
"Like, this level of incompetence is insane," reads the message about the event's security that was obtained by the New York Post. "And I very sincerely hope it's corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again."
After the more formal section of the message, in which Allen purportedly apologized "to everyone whose trust I abused" and laid out his motivation of "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes," there was a postscript just so the writer could "rant a bit" about the level of security at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the annual event took place.
"PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing?" the message said. "Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone." Allen allegedly noted that he "expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo." He said the reality was so bad, he almost felt like he was being punked.
"What I got (who knows, maybe they're pranking me!) is nothing," the note read. He said he saw: "No damn security. Not in transport. Not in the hotel. Not in the event."
The message went on to say that if he were an Iranian agent, he could have waltzed around with a "Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed s--t. Actually insane," noting that security seemed more concerned with a protest occurring outside the hotel.
Allen, who was believed to be a guest at the hotel, also allegedly wrote that when he walked into the hotel, he felt a "sense of arrogance" from the staff because he checked into the Hilton "with multiple weapons" in tow and "not a single person" considered "the possibility that I could be a threat."
The document was signed as being from "Cole 'coldForce' 'Friendly Federal Assassin' Allen."
Video from the incident shows President Donald Trump sitting at a table at the event when gunshots are heard. Moments later, Secret Service agents instructed Trump and others to get down, and then escorted the president, vice president and others offstage. Much of the audience, which included several members of the media, can be seen hovering under their tables.
Trump later posted security footage from the event in which a man can be seen running past law enforcement at a checkpoint and barreling in the direction of the ballroom before police take him down. One Secret Service officer was shot in the incident, Trump said, but was protected by the bulletproof vest he was wearing. The suspected shooter did not have injuries, but was taken to a local hospital for observation. Allen was charged with the attempted assassination of the president and two federal gun crimes on Monday.
