The Correspondents’ Dinner Was a Security Success*

Here’s what happened: On Saturday evening, a man carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and knives got close to the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where more than 2,000 guests, including the president of the United States, were enjoying the appetizer course at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” the would-be shooter purportedly wrote in a letter that was apparently written in the lead-up to his attack. He said his targets were Trump-administration officials, “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” Terrifying, for sure. But here’s what happened next: The assailant was intercepted by armed agents from the Secret Service before he came anywhere close to his intended victims. He was tackled, restrained, and arrested after sprinting past a security checkpoint, through which guests passed earlier in the evening. Shots were fired. The alleged assailant, later identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, hit a Secret Service agent, whose bulletproof vest and cellphone protected him. The agent is recovering. The suspect is in custody. No one died. And the president, his Cabinet, and all other dinner guests left the ballroom safely. There is much we still don’t know. But it appears that the security at the Correspondents’ Dinner worked as designed. The Secret Service is there to guard the president and senior officials, not the other guests—although they surely could and did do that.Two U.S. officials who were not involved in planning for the dinner credited the agents for never letting the gunman reach the ballroom. Even if he had made it, the entrances were in the back and sides of the room—a long way from the dais where the president and vice president were sitting. At the first sound of trouble, both men were rushed out as agents in heavy armor swarmed the stage. The only injuries were likely sustained by guests and banquet staff tumbli