Collin Anderson writes for the Washington Free Beacon about the man arrested in the shooting at the White House correspondents dinner.
The suspected White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, signal boosted posts on the left-wing social media platform Bluesky arguing that President Donald Trump should be “immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes” and criticizing a “Freedom of the Press” pocket square that many journalists donned at last night’s dinner as “a white flag that no one can read unless you pull it out and wave it in defeat,” a Washington Free Beacon review found, suggesting he thought a stronger message of opposition to the president was called for.
“the president of the united states is personally looting the treasury to the tune of literally billions of dollars and that he is not being immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes against this country is a devastating indictment of every part of our political system,” read one of the posts, which Allen shared about a week before the dinner.
Allen shared another post from Gizmodo reporter Matt Novak criticizing a First Amendment pocket square that CNN anchor Jake Tapper promoted ahead of the dinner. Tapper said he would wear the accessory to remind Trump of the “importance of the 1st Amendment.” Novak responded, “Fittingly, a white flag that no one can read unless you pull it out and wave it in defeat.”
Allen’s Bluesky account was suspended and the posts removed early Sunday morning as the Free Beacon was reviewing the posts. He used the handle “coldforce,” a name that the 31-year-old teacher and video game developer from Southern California also used on other social media platforms, including YouTube and the streaming site Twitch, where Allen posted videos of the game Super Smash Bros. and stated his location as “SoCal.”
