Vance Was In Area Mins Before Secret Service Shot Man Near WH
The White House was put on lockdown after a shooting happened close to the Washington Monument. A person who looked suspicious was found on Monday evening, and after shooting at Secret Service agents, the suspect was neutralized
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According to Deputy Director Mathew C. Quinn, the incident happened just a few minutes after Vice President JD Vance had left the area.
At the time, the Secret Service said: “U.S. Secret Service personnel are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 15th Street and Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C.”
“The incident resulted from a confrontation between an armed individual and Secret Service Police,” another statement from the Secret Service said.
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A young person was hit in the incident and was taken to the hospital, and is not suffering life-threatening injuries.
The incident happened on the National Mall, which is about a mile from the White House. Even though it was far away, the White House was momentarily evacuated before the “all clear” was announced.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, DC, announced in a statement that they are looking into the matter.
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“MPD is on scene of this investigation at 15th Street and Independence Ave, SW. The scene is secure.
“Avoid the area as roads will be closed for several hours. Additional updates to come as information is confirmed,” the department said.
The incident comes just over a week after an alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with Trump in attendance.
Allen made his initial appearance in federal court late last week, where he was formally advised of the charges filed by prosecutors. Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is accused of entering the Washington Hilton while armed with multiple weapons and attempting to reach the ballroom where President Trump was attending the dinner alongside Cabinet officials and journalists Saturday night.
“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine told the court. “We are asking the court to preventatively detain Mr. Allen.”
“Cole Allen’s journey of accountability in the criminal justice system starts today,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a press conference Monday afternoon, adding, “There will be additional charges as this investigation continues to unfold.”
“But make no mistake, this was an attempted assassination of the President of the United States, with the defendant making clear what his intent was,” Pirro continued. “And that intent was to bring down as many of the high ranking Cabinet officials as he could. This is the kind of situation that we cannot tolerate.”
Allen booked a three-night stay at the Washington Hilton from Friday through Sunday, according to a newly unsealed probable cause affidavit.
The affidavit states that Allen traveled by train from the Los Angeles area to Chicago last Tuesday, arriving there on Thursday. He then boarded another train that reached Washington on Friday at approximately 1 p.m.
Roughly two hours later, around 3 p.m., he checked into a “specific hotel room” at the Hilton and remained there overnight, according to court documents reviewed by NBC News.
When he was arrested, the newly unsealed probable cause affidavit revealed that he was in possession of a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol.
According to firearm transaction records reviewed by law enforcement, he purchased the shotgun from a dealer in California around August 17, 2025. He acquired the pistol from a dealer in a different city in California on October 6, 2023, NBC News noted.
Shortly before the alleged attack, authorities said Allen sent a written manifesto to members of his family describing an intent to target President Donald Trump and other Cabinet officials.
In his manifesto, Allen sharply criticized Trump, falsely accusing him of being a “rapist” and “pedophile,” while also announcing he wanted to target several members of the president’s administration.
He also apologized to his parents, friends, and students for his actions but indicated he felt he had some moral obligation to act.
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
