Jake Tapper tried the same move on Jeanine Pirro that left Trump furious on 60 Minutes one week ago.
He did not account for the fact that Pirro was in that hotel when the shots rang out.
What Tapper got back is the most devastating response he's ever received on live television.
What Jake Tapper Did With Cole Allen's Manifesto on CNN
Cole Allen traveled by train from Torrance, California to Washington, D.C., checked into the Washington Hilton, and on the night of April 25 charged a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and multiple knives.
He shot a Secret Service agent in the chest.
Allen wrote in a note to his family that he was targeting administration officials, prioritized "from highest-ranking to lowest."
Federal charges followed: attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, transporting firearms across state lines with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
He faces life in prison.
On Sunday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro – the prosecutor bringing those charges – sat down with Jake Tapper on State of the Union.
Pirro stated flatly that Allen was targeting Trump.
Tapper pushed back.
He told Pirro she couldn't be certain of the target because the only name in Allen's manifesto was Kash Patel – and Allen specifically said Patel was not a target.
Pirro started to respond.
Tapper then read the manifesto aloud on national television.
The passage called the unnamed target a "pedophile, rapist and traitor."
It was an easy chance for Tapper to get a cheap shot against Trump on live TV.
Pirro Shuts Down Tappers Trump Assassination Attempt Spin on State of the Union
Pirro's reaction was immediate.
"That's outrageous," she said. "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."
Tapper pressed further – asking whether the manifesto passage was even referring to Trump.
Pirro: "You're going to have to ask him that. I don't really care."
Not a syllable of ground surrendered.
Pirro had laid out the evidence earlier in the same interview: "It is definitively his bullet. He hit that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him, and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the President of the United States. This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president and anyone who was in the line of fire."
She also reminded Tapper of something he apparently forgot: "You and I were both in that combat zone. We know what it was like."
CNN and 60 Minutes Both Read the WHCD Shooter Manifesto on Air
One week earlier, Norah O'Donnell sat across from Trump on 60 Minutes and read the same manifesto language directly to the president's face.
Trump called her out on the spot – telling O'Donnell she should be ashamed of herself for reading it and calling the decision disgraceful.
Two major network anchors. One week. Same document. Same decision to amplify a would-be assassin's accusations as though they deserved a presidential rebuttal.
Allen's manifesto is a 1,052-word document he sent to family members roughly ten minutes before he opened fire on Secret Service agents.
It is evidence in a federal criminal case.
Fox News' Hugh Hewitt called reading it on air "a massive failure of editorial judgment" – another unforced error by a legacy media that cannot read the country.
The anchors who put those words on television knew exactly what they were doing: taking language written by a man charged with attempting to murder the president and pointing it at him like a weapon.
Pirro named it. Refused to play along. That's the clip CNN won't be airing again.
Sources:
- "Suspect in White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Charged with Attempt to Assassinate the President," U.S. Department of Justice, April 27, 2026.
- Peter D'Abrosca, Jake Gibson, et al., "Live Updates: Trump Assassination Attempt Suspect Cole Allen Faces Detention Hearing," Fox News, April 30, 2026.
- Lindsay Kornick, "Trump Calls '60 Minutes' Host 'Disgraceful' for Reading WHCD Suspect's Alleged Manifesto on Air," Fox News, April 26, 2026.
- Catherine Salgado, "Pirro: Cole Allen Had 'Every Intention to Kill' Secret Service and Trump," PJ Media, May 3, 2026.
- Hugh Hewitt, "Morning Glory: Trump Saw the Truth Legacy Media Missed," Fox News, April 27, 2026.
