TOI correspondent from WashingtonUS President Donald Trump was hastily evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday evening after shots rang out outside the banquet hall shortly before his speech.
The US Secret Service said in a statement shortly after that it was investigating a shooting near the main magnetometer screening area at the hotel, the same hotel where John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It also added that one person was in custody. While some eyewitness reports said one suspect was shot during the melee, the Secret Service said that “the condition of those involved is not yet known, and law enforcement is actively evaluating the situation,” suggesting there may be others involved.FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES: Carrying ‘a rifle, a handgun and multiple knives’ – Trump calls shooting suspect a ‘lone wolf’ The Secret Service also said the president and first lady are safe, as are all other protectees, including Vice President J.D. Vance and several Cabinet members who were present at the event. The WHCA dinner is an annual dinner that Trump has avoided since he became president, ostensibly because he believes most of the media is hostile to him. But he made an exception this year: Instead of having a well-known comedian or late-night host who would normally toast the gathering, he had to deliver the keynote himself, with a “mental expert” providing the evening’s entertainment.
Read also: Who was the shooter at Trump’s dinner at the White House? The first picture appearsBut about a half-hour into the evening, as dinner was about to be served, several popping noises were heard outside the banquet hall as Trump and the First Lady were sitting on the stage. Secret Service agents stormed the hallways shouting, “Get down, get down,” while other agents crowded around the president and first lady and quickly escorted them out. A security guard attached to various members of the Council of Ministers also took care of them.About a half-hour after the incident, President Trump, while still at the hotel, said he wanted to stop the show, but that he would defer to the advice of law enforcement, and if they insisted on scaling back the event, he would like to do it again.
In fact, most of the guests stayed there amid expectations of Trump’s return after WHCA President and CBS White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang said the event would go ahead. Trump apparently wanted to return but security advised him not to, he noted in a social media post shortly afterward. “The Secret Service and DC Law Enforcement did an amazing job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter was apprehended, and I recommended that we let the show go on but that we would be fully directed by law enforcement. They will make a decision soon. Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned and we, obviously, will have to do it again,” he said in a post, after which the event concluded — without dinner.Read also: Trump wanted ‘the show to go on’ after White House Correspondents’ Dinner shootingTrump’s message was praised by many of his supporters, who portrayed the incident as a third assassination attempt on him and praised his courage in wanting to return to deliver his speech. Some supporters blamed the “radical left” for the alleged assassination attempt, even as initial details emerged sketchy.
