Daily Beast executive editor Hugh Dougherty says he spent the weekend in a Washington hotel room directly beside President Donald Trumps alleged would-be assassin, all while his own bags went completely unchecked.
According to Mediaite, Dougherty disclosed that he was lodged in Room 10237 at the Hilton Washington, immediately adjacent to Cole Allen in 10235, during the White House Correspondents Association dinner, where President Trump was the guest of honor. In a first-person account headlined, I Slept Next Door to the Assassin in Hilton Room 10235. This Is a Security Fiasco, he wrote that he had been staying next door to the man who wanted to turn the White House Correspondents Association dinner into a mass shooting.
Dougherty described what he saw as a stunning lack of basic security precautions at a venue hosting the Commander-in-Chief. He said he was able to check in and move freely around the hotel without so much as a cursory inspection of his belongings, even as President Trump prepared to address the elite media gathering downstairs.
How on earth could someone with a disassembled long gun check into a room at a hotel where the president was going to speak? he questioned. I can answer that: Nobody even looked at my luggage on Friday afternoon. Worse, my colleague arrived on Saturday at 5 p.m. Nobody looked at his luggage either: No magnometers, no hand checks, no I.D. checks. Nothing.
The veteran editor went on to detail how he roamed the property without encountering meaningful screening or law enforcement scrutiny. I moved up and down from Floor 10 all day. Nobody ever stopped me and asked me anything. I have never shown my I.D., except to the clerk who checked me in; I have never been searched or frisked when I checked in, or moved in and out of the hotel. To get down from my room to the dinner, I simply flashed my ticket. It could have been a photocopy.
Dougherty said the only real security he encountered was the same checkpoint where Allen was later seen on video sprinting past agents. That detail underscores a troubling reality: the primary barrier between a would-be assassin and the President of the United States appears to have been a single chokepoint, not a layered system of protection.
The incident ended only after Allen was tackled and detained as he allegedly rushed toward the dinner, reportedly armed with guns and knives, while President Trump was seated inside. In the aftermath, social media erupted with questions about how such a glaring vulnerability could exist at an event long dominated by liberal media figures who routinely lecture the country on security and democracy.
A senior White House official, in a statement to Fox News on Sunday, stressed that the administration still backs the agents on the ground. President Trump and the White House are standing by the leadership of Secret Service, and President Trump has said he personally thinks they did an excellent job neutralizing the shooter and moving the President, First Lady, Vice President, and cabinet to safety.
At the same time, the White House signaled that complacency will not be tolerated as the Presidents schedule intensifies and the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. Nevertheless, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is convening a meeting early this week with the White House operations team, USSS, and DHS leadership to discuss protocol and practices for major events involving POTUS, the official continued. The meeting will discuss the processes and procedures that worked to stop Saturdays attempt, while exploring additional options to ensure all relevant components are doing everything possible to secure the many major events planned for President Trump in the months ahead as he gears up to celebrate America 250.
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