00:00Accused White House press gala shooter Cole Allen has been officially charged with trying to
00:04assassinate President Trump on Saturday night. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced
00:09the charges. The first count is attempted assassination of the President of the United
00:13States. This count is punishable by up to life in prison. The second count is interstate
00:20transportation of a firearm to commit a felony. This is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
00:26And the third count is discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence which is punishable
00:32by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years, a maximum of life. Blanche was joined at
00:37the podium by U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel. Allen allegedly purchased
00:43his weapons in California, booked a room at the Washington Hilton for April 24th through the 26th,
00:47and then traveled via train from California to Chicago on the 21st. That interstate travel led
00:53to another charge, transportation of a firearm across state lines to commit a felony. Allen
00:58checked into the Hilton on the 24th and the attack took place the next day. During his court appearance
01:04yesterday, Allen walked in unshackled, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and looking somber. He was asked
01:09his name and said loudly, Cole Thomas Allen, adding his age and that he has a master's degree. Not sure
01:16how
01:17that's relevant, but okay. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantyne told the judge that Allen attempted
01:22to assassinate President Trump and added that he carried a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun along with a
01:28.38 caliber semi-automatic pistol and three knives across the country. Allen will remain behind bars
01:33until a bail hearing on Thursday. It's all but a certainty that he will not under any circumstances
01:39be released on bail. There's a wild new conspiracy theory percolating among the fact-averse radical
01:46left. You may have seen social media posts suggesting that the recent assassination attempt
01:51on the president's life was part of an elaborate scheme and, in short, was staged. In fact, that word
01:57right there, staged, hit Google Trends with more than 300,000 posts on X using the term in the hours
02:03after the incident. So what exactly are these off-the-wall claims? The Post's senior reporter,
02:10Chris Neesey, filled me in.
02:11Caitlin, the tinfoil hat crowd is out in full force again after Saturday's shooting,
02:16just as we saw after the previous two attempts on President Trump's life in the last two years.
02:21Call it paranoia, call it Trump derangement syndrome, whatever you call it, there are some
02:25truly deranged takes circulating on social media from angry Trump haters. Just searching for the word
02:31staged on X, like you mentioned, surfaces thousands upon thousands of posts by people saying the whole
02:36thing is a false flag operation, whether to distract from the Iran war or the Epstein files.
02:42A lot of people are saying it was a hoax to gin up support for the $400 million White House
02:46ballroom
02:47that Trump wants to build. Basically, they're combing over every little detail from that night as
02:51supposed evidence of it being staged, from Secret Service agents' reaction times to a man who was
02:58seen seated at the dais on stage filming the chaos with his iPhone instead of ducking for cover.
03:04No crumb is too small for these people to seize on and read meaning into.
03:08Another popular piece of evidence that lunatics are clinging to is a picture of members of President
03:13Trump's cabinet who were smiling in a briefing room before the press conference that was held in
03:17the shooting's immediate aftermath. Amazingly, CBS anchor Nora O'Donnell even asked President
03:23Trump about the rumors the attack was staged during his appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday, which
03:28intentionally or not lent credibility to the outrageous claims that it was a hoax.
03:32Trump, in characteristically Trumpy in fashion, said of those perpetuating that the assassination
03:38attempt was staged were sick people and joked that usually they wait about two or three months to
03:44start with the rumor mill.
03:45As expected, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed a new congressional map for his state
03:50that would, in theory, give Republicans four additional seats in the House of Representatives.
03:55Right now, a handful of states, both red and blue, are playing a sort of gerrymandering chess match ahead
04:02of the midterms, trying to ensure their governing party has the best chances for the most seats.
04:07The new Florida map would effectively cancel out the redistricting in Virginia that was voted in last
04:13week, which created a plus four map in favor of Democrats. The proposed Florida map would leave
04:18just Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach as its deep blue strongholds. DeSantis released
04:25a statement to explain his reasoning behind this, and it reads in part, quote, Florida got shortchanged
04:30in the 2020 census and we've been fighting for fair representation ever since. Our population has since
04:35grown dramatically and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. He called a
04:42special session of the state legislature set to start today to consider the proposed map. Moves like
04:47this are not straightforward, though. The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday challenging
04:52the map that voters approved just last week, so things there aren't even a done deal. Texas also
04:57redrew its map as part of this atypical mid-decade redistricting. The Supreme Court struck down a ruling
05:04by a federal judge blocking that map, clearing the way for the redrawn version expected to favor the GOP.
05:10For more on these stories and everything else you could possibly want to know, check out the New
05:15York Post in print or online. And don't forget, like and subscribe to the New York Post cast wherever
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