Is political violence America's new normal?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
White House correspondents' dinner shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president. The White House says Saturday’s attack is the third 'assassination attempt' on Donald Trump in the last two years. But what do we know about Allen? And what does this all tell us about the rise of political violence in America?
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Guests:
- David Charter, assistant editor, US, The Times and The Sunday Times.
- Nick Bryant, journalist and author of Forever War America's Unending Conflict With Itself and the Substack History Never Ended.
Host: Manveen Rana
Producers: Julia Webster and Olivia Case
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Read more: Cole Tomas Allen: who is the alleged gunman at correspondents’ dinner?
Further listening: Can King Charles fix the special relationship?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.1 | I'm Manvian Rana. |
| 0:11.8 | The White House Correspondence Dinner is back in the news, but this isn't the first time |
| 0:16.8 | it's caused a ripple through American political history. |
| 0:21.0 | Let me take you back to 2011. |
| 0:23.7 | All right, everybody. Please have a seat. |
| 0:29.7 | Barack Obama was the president and guest of honor, |
| 0:33.1 | and among the tables of black tie-clad correspondence |
| 0:36.1 | was an American business tycoon turned political conspiracy theorist, one Donald Trump. |
| 0:43.4 | No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. |
| 0:50.9 | And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. |
| 0:57.0 | Like, did we fake the moon landing? |
| 1:03.5 | What really happened in Roswell? |
| 1:07.1 | And where are Biggie and Tupac? |
| 1:12.0 | President Obama wasn't the only one making Donald Trump the butt of his jokes. |
| 1:17.1 | This was the comedian and talk show host, Seth Myers, speaking on the night. |
| 1:22.0 | Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, |
| 1:25.1 | which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke. |
| 1:30.5 | And the barbs just kept on coming. |
| 1:33.8 | Donald Trump said recently he has a great relationship with the blacks, |
| 1:37.3 | though unless the blacks are a family of white people, I bet he's mistaken. |
| 1:43.6 | For many, that night was part of the origin story behind Donald Trump's determined push for |
... |
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