Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sharply criticized former President Barack Obama for saying the motive behind the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting was unclear, arguing the evidence already points to a politically motivated attempt on President Trump.

Todd Blanche went on offense in a Fox News interview, saying Obama’s framing ignored the charging documents and other evidence the Justice Department has gathered. Blanche argued that what the complaint lays out makes the suspect’s motive plain, and that treating it as an open question is misleading.

“Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting… it’s incumbent upon all of us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.”

That statement from the former president drew immediate pushback from Blanche and other officials who pointed to material already on the record. Blanche said it was disappointing for a former leader to sound so tentative when prosecutors had already filed charges and uncovered further evidence.

“That is so disappointing to say that, when we know from just the little bit of evidence that we’ve done, even just what’s charged in the complaint, not the rest of the evidence that we’ve uncovered since then… We know why President Trump was allegedly targeted by this individual.”

Blanche went further, accusing Obama of turning away from facts. “It’s pretty incredible that a leader, a former leader like President Obama would say that,” Blanche said, adding that Obama was “actually, literally just… covering his eyes to what we know is happening.”

“Let’s not pretend to be this clueless about motive. The attempted assassin put out an anti-Trump manifesto about wanting to kill Trump Admin officials, minutes before trying to storm a ballroom filled with the President, VP, Cabinet, and many others from his Admin.”

The manifesto referenced by Blanche and others is central to the dispute over motive. If the suspect published intentions before the attack, critics say, then describing motive as unclear looks less like cautious language and more like deliberate ambiguity.

The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, faces federal charges including attempting to assassinate the president and two additional counts related to transporting firearms across state lines with intent to commit a felony and using a firearm in a crime of violence. Prosecutors say Allen charged a security checkpoint outside the black-tie dinner armed with a pump-action shotgun, a .38 caliber semiautomatic pistol, and multiple knives.

A Secret Service agent was shot in the vest during the confrontation but was not seriously injured, and law enforcement has rejected online claims that the agent was hit by friendly fire. FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters, “The criminal complaint will show you what he did, how he got there, when he got there, when he arrived, how he got down to the area in question, how he was able to get through security undetected.”

Allen remains detained and has not entered a plea. He agreed to remain in custody ahead of his May 11 trial date, and if convicted on the attempted assassination charge alone, he faces up to life in prison.

Details that have surfaced since the arrest raise questions about how he reached the security perimeter. Investigators say Allen traveled by train from California, checked into a Washington hotel days before the dinner, and managed to get close to the ballroom with multiple weapons undetected, prompting scrutiny of security and planning.

Family members reportedly alerted police in Connecticut before the dinner, and the president called Allen “a very sick person” while promising to reschedule the event within 30 days. Those developments feed the argument from Blanche and others that motive was documented and visible even in the earliest filings and statements.

Blanche made his case bluntly on television, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “it does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president.” He added simply: “He failed. Law enforcement did their jobs.”

The clash between a former president’s careful wording and an acting attorney general’s blunt declaration speaks to how political leaders shape public understanding of violent events. For Blanche and allied officials, the choice to label the attack as politically motivated is not rhetorical hair-splitting but a clear reading of the complaint, the manifesto reports, and the facts investigators have disclosed.