The U.S. President was swept off stage as chaos erupted at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner
Trump and Melania looked shocked as they were swept off stage
President Donald Trump was rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after shots were fired on Saturday evening.
The event erupted into chaos, and security swept the entire top table, including Trump, Melania, and heavily pregnant Karoline Leavitt off the main stage. The rest of the room was put on lockdown, with guests crouching down under their tables for safety. Guests were not allowed to leave the room.
In live footage of the incident, shouting could be heard in the background, with someone yelling “USA” and “God bless America” repeatedly.
Approximately an hour after the shots rang out, Chief of Communications for the Secret Service Anthony Guglielmi issued a statement, saying, “The president and the first lady are safe along all protectees. One individual is in custody. The condition of those involved is not yet known, and law enforcement is actively assessing the situation.”
President of the WHCA and Senior White House Correspondent for CBS News, Weijia Jiang, made a brief announcement saying that security had ordered them to evacuate the premises. She said that the event would be rescheduled within the next 30 days.
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Mirror US reporter Jack Hobbs reported live from the event, saying that there was an immediate response of extreme panic in the room, as well as some confusion.
“Everyone immediately hid under the table,” he said. “There was panic and confusion as Secret Service ran to the president and evacuated him.”
This evening marked the first time the president has attended the WHCA event.
Journalist Wolf Blitzer told reporters that he was just “feet away” from a shooter, “as he was shooting,” in the lobby during the event. He said he and others were then rushed into a nearby bathroom.
A contentious relationship
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.
On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
“The White House Correspondents’ dinner reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy,” said the WHCA president, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter. “As we mark America’s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”
Many reporters who attend, however, consider it a valuable opportunity get story ideas and establish personal connections with those in government, one that may pay dividends with returned telephone calls in the future.
Some news organizations invite sources as guests
Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner. It will be noticed Saturday whether administration officials who have also expressed hostility to the press will attend, and with whom they will be sitting.
The AP has invited Taylor Budowich, a former White House deputy chief of staff who left last fall for the private sector. The invitation is notable because Budowich, in his role crafting White House communications policy, was a named defendant last year when the AP sued the administration after it reduced its access to the president because the news outlet did not follow Trump’s lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
“We maintain professional relationships with people across the political spectrum because we are nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public’s interest,” AP spokesman Patrick Maks said.
The White House correspondents will also hand out awards for exemplary reporting. That includes some stories that displeased Trump, such as one from the Journal about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story led to a presidential lawsuit.
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