John Hinckley Jr.
, the would-be assassin who nearly killed President Ronald Reagan in 1981, is now publicly criticizing security at the Washington Hilton after the weekend shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, held at the same hotel where he carried out his infamous attack.
Speaking to TMZ, Hinckley said the latest incident was spooky because it unfolded at the very venue where he tried to murder a sitting president more than four decades ago.
According to Gateway Pundit, Hinckley told the outlet that the Washington Hilton is not secure and urged the hotel to stop hosting major high-profile events because bad things keep happening there.
TMZ reports that Hinckley kicked off our convo by telling us he first learned about the WHCD shooting when a newsflash came up on his phone and he turned on the TV to watch some of the coverage. He said it was spooky to find out the WHCD shooting took place at the same hotel as mine did.
Hinckley is now calling on the hotel to stop holding events there because bad things keep happening and its just not a secure place to hold big events.
To underscore his point, Hinckley recounted how he was able to stage his 1981 ambush with relative ease, describing the security at the time as lax.
He explained that he slipped into a crowd of reporters waiting outside the hotel for Reagan to exit after delivering a speech, and that Secret Service agents never checked whether he was actually a journalist during their sweeps.
If they had, Hinckley said, he would have fled the scene because he was not a reporter, had no press credentials, and his plot would almost certainly have been exposed.
Instead, he opened fire in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster, altering American history and nearly costing the president his life.
President Reagan was struck in the chest by a ricocheting bullet, while three others were wounded in the attack.
The other victims included former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who suffered permanent brain damage and later died from complications in 2014; Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy; and D.C. Police Officer Thomas Delahanty.
Hinckley was tackled and arrested at the scene within moments, as agents and officers subdued him amid the chaos.
In 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a federal psychiatric facility, where he remained for more than 34 years.
A federal judge granted him conditional release in 2016, allowing him to live with his mother in Virginia under strict conditions, including regular therapy, no contact with Foster, no firearms, and close monitoring by mental health professionals.
Hinckley received full unconditional release in 2022, ending all court supervision after more than four decades, and he is now attempting to reinvent himself with a music career.
The fact that a man once deemed too dangerous to walk free is now warning about security failures at the same hotel only heightens concerns raised by conservative attendees about the state of protection for high-profile political events.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, multiple prominent guests at this years White House Correspondents Dinner publicly described what they saw as shockingly relaxed security protocols.
Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial candidate and outspoken Trump ally, said that upon entering the event, no one visibly inspected her ticket or asked for photo identification.
In a post shortly after the shooting, Lake wrote: I cant believe how lax the security was at the White House correspondents dinner tonight. Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that.
She continued, When you consider you are entering a roomful of fake news media 90% of whom hate the President you would think they would have better security. This is what happened when what sounded like gunfire erupted.
Lake added that On the way out, I called-out a bunch of the disgusting Media who have been pushing hatred toward President Trump for years. They are a big part of the discord in this country.
Her account was echoed by other conservative figures, who suggested that the same establishment media that routinely lectures Americans on threats to democracy could not be bothered to ensure basic safety at its own black-tie gala.
Other guests, including former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and conservative commentator Mads Campbell, reported minimal bag checks, no real screening at certain areas, and guests being rushed through entry points with little scrutiny.
Pai wrote, As I walked into the ballroom with a friend this evening, I mentioned how surprised I was at the lax security. I was admitted to the hotels circular driveway by showing my WHCD ticket, came into the hotel, showed my ticket again to go down an escalator, did so yet again for a second escalator, and then walked through a bare-bones metal detector where devices, wallets, etc. were placed on a side tableand not scanned. Then straight into the ballroom. Didnt seem optimal, to say the least.
Despite these glaring vulnerabilities, a heavily armed suspect was still able to get dangerously close to the event before being stopped.
Authorities say 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen of California approached a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a pump-action shotgun, a semi-automatic pistol, and multiple knives, having booked a room at the Hilton in advance as a registered guest.
Secret Service agents engaged Allen, exchanging gunfire before tackling and arresting him, while President Trump and other officials inside the ballroom were safely evacuated.
No guests were reported injured, though one Secret Service agent was shot and survived thanks to his bulletproof vest.
Allen is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Washington, D.C., as questions mount over how someone so heavily armed could get that close to a president and a room full of political and media elites.
For conservatives who have long warned about the double standards and misplaced priorities of the security state, the spectacle is hard to ignore: a hotel with a notorious history, a media establishment that downplays threats when it suits its narrative, and a former presidential assailant now sounding more alarmed about security than many of the so-called professionals in charge.
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