Jeanine Pirro and Jake Tapper clashed on CNN after Tapper asked Pirro to identify where Cole Tomas Allen’s alleged manifesto explicitly names President Trump as a target. Pirro insisted Allen “clearly” intended to strike Trump but did not cite a passage on-air; the document reportedly names only Kash Patel and twice references an unnamed “pedophile, rapist, and traitor.” Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president, and Trump subsequently characterized himself as the intended victim.
Jeanine Pirro Pushes Back at Jake Tapper Over 'Pedophile' Reference in Shooter's Manifesto
Jake Tapper apologized for his language as he read aloud from suspect Cole Tomas Allen's alleged manifesto. / CNN
DC attorney and former judge Jeanine Pirro clashed with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday over whether the alleged shooter’s manifesto explicitly names President Donald Trump as a target. The exchange came during an appearance on State of the Union following the shooting linked to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Tapper asked Pirro to point to where Cole Tomas Allen’s alleged manifesto explicitly identifies Trump as the intended victim. Pirro insisted the 31-year-old “clearly” intended to strike at the president, but she bristled when Tapper noted that the only person named in the document was Kash Patel — who the suspect reportedly indicated he wanted to spare.
Pirro told Tapper that it was 'outrageous' for him to have read incendiary language from the text, and said that Allen was just a 'hater.' / CNN
Tapper read a passage from the alleged manifesto, prefacing it with an apology for the language: “He does say, and I want to apologize for using this language, but he does say, quote, 'I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,' unquote.”
Pirro, 74, reacted angrily to that characterization: “First of all, that’s outrageous. I mean, there’s a lot of other things you could have referred to. This guy is a hater. He hates Trump so much he wants to kill him.” When Tapper pressed, “But is he talking about Trump in that?” Pirro snapped, “You’re going to have to ask him that. I don’t really care.”
Pirro later dismissed commentary from Tucker Carlson and others, saying she didn’t “care” what critics were saying and adding, “We cannot blame the victim.” However, she did not provide a documentary citation on-air to show where the manifesto explicitly names Trump as the target. According to reporting on the alleged manifesto, Allen described his “targets” as “administration officials,” prioritized “from highest-ranking to lowest,” and twice invoked an unnamed “pedophile, rapist, and traitor” as a motivation without identifying that person.
Trump himself was quick to assume that he was the main target of the gunman, reasoning that 'the most impactful' presidents are the ones most at risk of assassination. / Al Drago / Getty Images
Cole Tomas Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president. After the shooting, President Trump quickly framed himself as the intended victim. When Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked why people kept trying to kill him, Trump said, “I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most...Abraham Lincoln...they’re the ones that they go after,” adding, “Just take a look at the names—they’re the big names—and I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”
The exchange between Pirro and Tapper highlights unresolved questions about how investigators and commentators are interpreting the alleged manifesto and underlines the sensitivity of assigning motive before all the evidence is publicly documented.
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