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A lone gunman’s alleged attempt to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday is the latest sign of a “metastasizing” wave of political violence fueled by social media, retired NYPD inspector Paul Mauro warned Sunday.
“This reminds me a bit of what it was like at the height of the [post-9/11] ‘age of terrorism’, or ‘age of counterterrorism…'” Mauro told “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“As it began to metastasize [beyond Afghanistan]… it began to permeate the internet, and that’s the great common denominator here, is the rise of the internet, and the rise of social media specifically, has allowed this ideology to disseminate into corners where previously it would not have found so much support,” he added.
Mauro’s remarks came after authorities said 31-year-old suspect Cole Thomas Allen allegedly rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner armed with multiple weapons.
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Allen then allegedly opened fire on a Secret Service officer, who was taken to the hospital after he was shot in his ballistic vest.
Agents reportedly fired back at Allen, who was not struck. He was also taken to the hospital.
Senior federal law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation told Fox News that Allen told law enforcement after his arrest that he was targeting Trump administration officials.
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not specify which officials were Allen’s intended targets during a Sunday NBC News appearance.
Lawmakers and authorities have since condemned the suspect’s actions and have called for rhetoric to be toned down to prevent similar incidents.
“Almost any [person] these days can find some place, some niche on the internet that will support your position,” Mauro said.
“And I think once the search warrants are completed and the computers and phones are scrubbed, etc., we are almost certainly going to see that the accused here, Cole Allen, was probably imbibing that kind of ideology online, and he decided to act on it because people were telling him it’s the right thing to do.”
Similar warnings followed the 2024 assassination attempts against President Donald Trump and the Sept. 2025 assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus.
Trump and all other administration officials present at Saturday’s dinner were safely ushered out of the venue.
Fox News’ Peter D’Abrosca and Asra Q. Nomani contributed to this report.
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