Bette Midler released a music video Friday for her reworked version of Woody Guthrie’s 1940s protest song “All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” targeting the Trump administration and urging voter turnout in the midterm elections. The video’s release came one day before Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which has since drawn scrutiny partly because of the suspect’s reported ties to anti-Trump protest movements.
Ms. Midler co-wrote the 2026 revamp with producer Eric Kornfeld, updating the lyrics to address Trump administration policies and the need for voter turnout in the midterm elections. The new lyrics were written with permission from the Guthrie family.
“You know I’ve been around a long time, but I have never lived through what we are living through now,” Ms. Midler wrote alongside the video’s release. “The great Woody Guthrie wrote this song many years ago. I changed some of the words to fit our times, and I hope you’ll sing it when you are marching.”
The video features Midler’s “Beaches” co-star Barbara Hershey, alongside “Cheers” actor David Hyde Pierce, singer Jenifer Lewis and Broadway star Shoshana Bean. The video was co-directed by Toni Basil and Seanne Farmer, according to Rolling Stone.
Ms. Midler, who traces the roots of her career to a folk group she was part of in college, said the new song is a direct tribute to the tradition of American protest music from the political activism of the 1950s and ’60s — a cultural moment she views as necessary to revive given what she described as widespread political fatigue.
“Everybody [back then] had a guitar and everybody had a song,” she told Rolling Stone. “I think that we could all use a little bit of that meaning in our lives right now.”
On Saturday, a shooting at the WHCA dinner at the Washington Hilton threw the broader political climate into fresh turmoil. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, the suspected gunman, left behind what officials are calling a written manifesto stating he clearly wanted to target officials in the Trump administration, a senior U.S. official told CBS News. The president and first lady Melania Trump were safely evacuated, and none of the attendees were seriously injured, authorities said. A Secret Service officer was struck by at least one round, believed to have been fired by Allen, but was protected by a bulletproof vest and is expected to be OK.
Allen is charged with one count of attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Allen’s sister told investigators, according to NBC News, that he regularly went to a shooting range to train with his firearms, was part of a group called “The Wide Awakes” and had attended a “No Kings” anti-Trump protest in California at some point. Newsweek, which ran a separate report on the group, noted that the “Wide Awakes” name has been used by multiple distinct movements over the years, and that organizers of a 2020 art-based civic project by that name said Allen had no affiliation with them.
The incident was the third apparent attempt on Mr. Trump’s life since 2024, following the July 2024 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the September 2024 attempt at Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In the aftermath, the White House drew a direct line between political rhetoric and the violence.
“The deranged lies and smears against the president, his family, and his supporters have led crazy people to believe crazy things, and inspired them to commit violence,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “It has to stop.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded by calling Ms. Leavitt a “stone-cold liar.”
Ms. Midler’s video drew renewed attention in conservative media after the shooting because of footage it includes from “No Kings” protests. Breitbart News juxtaposed the song’s release with Allen’s reported rally attendance, though the video was released before the shooting and there is no indication of any connection between Ms. Midler and Allen.
Among those at the WHCA dinner was Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at Utah Valley University in September 2025. Ms. Kirk was seen being escorted from the event following Saturday’s shooting.
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