NewsBeat
Everybody Loves Raymond star urges ‘friends on the left’ to tone down rhetoric after White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting
Patricia Heaton is calling on left-leaning people to abandon divisive rhetoric after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
President Donald Trump, Melania Trump and several members of Trump’s administration were rushed out of the annual event Saturday while attendees sheltered in place after gunfire erupted at the Washington Hilton. Suspect Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was taken into custody after allegedly shooting a Secret Service agent who was injured and later released from the hospital. No one else was hurt in the incident, according to police.
The security scare predictably sparked online debates about what led up to the attack, with MAGA warriors blaming anti-Trump media while critics speculated over unfounded conspiracy theories.
On Sunday, Heaton — known for her roles on sitcoms Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle — weighed in on the discourse by pleading for one side to cool down.
“I wasn’t happy when [Bill] Clinton, [Barack] Obama or [Joe] Biden won, but I didn’t call them fascist/dangerous/threat to democracy,” the 68-year-old actor said in an X post shared Sunday. “I didn’t hope someone would assassinate them. I went on with my life with gratitude. Friends on the left, please try this. Your life and our country will be better.”
Heaton has been vocal about her conservative views in the past, and was a registered Republican until 2021. She previously spoke out against heated political discourse and slammed violent rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September 2025. Representatives for Heaton did not immediately return The Independent’s request for further comment about her most recent remarks.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the shooter’s motive is still being investigated, but that early findings indicate that Trump administration officials were being targeted at the gala.
Heaton is not the only MAGA ally to turn attention on anti-Trump rhetoric after the shooting.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference Monday: “This crazed rhetoric about the president, day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things.”
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She added, “When you read the manifesto of this shooter, ask yourselves, how different is the rhetoric almost-assigned than what you read on social media and hear in various forums every single day? The answer, if you’re being honest with yourself, is that there is no difference at all. Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words we hear daily from so many.”
Allen, a computer programmer from Torrance, California, allegedly had a manifesto in which he referred to himself as a “friendly federal assassin.”
The document, reportedly sent to Allen’s family members before the alleged attack, read that “I’m no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
In his first court appearance Monday, Allen was hit with three charges, including trying to assassinate the president.
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