Good morning. This Sunday special edition is about the gunman who charged the White House Correspondents' Dinner; the news media's coverage; and what it means for all of us. |
An all-too-common American story |
Evan Vucci/Reuters
What happened last night might have seemed extraordinary because President Trump and so many people in the presidential line of succession were in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton.
But we need to say out loud that it was actually all too ordinary. In America this is all too common – a shots-fired moment, a chaotic lockdown, a spasm of violence interrupting a peaceful gathering.
Thousands of media and political elites have now gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls and churches.
And on most of those occasions, there were no Secret Service agents.
As I crouched underneath a table last night, I knew that waves of law enforcement officials were pouring into the room, leaping from chair to chair, securing the scene. A man near me seemed hurt, or at least dazed, and a police officer helped him limp away.
Everyone in the room gave thanks to the agents, bodyguards and officers who responded. But I couldn't help but think that most of the Americans who have found themselves in the middle of a shots-fired emergency feel much more exposed, much more vulnerable.
And I think we should keep acknowledging that during the follow-up news coverage of this incident.
As CNN's Victor Blackwell put it, when I joined him on air this morning, "The people in that room were confronted with what schoolchildren and moviegoers and congregants and people at grocery stores have been confronted with, and that is the threat of gun violence."
The shooting revealed how political violence has become a "feature of American life," The Guardian's Rachel Leingang wrote.
The president "is the highest-profile target of political violence," the NYT's Luke Broadwater wrote, "but the threats for years have affected officeholders at local, state and federal levels," and "the violence has taken the lives of members of both major political parties."
During our overnight coverage on CNN, Jim Sciutto pointed out that people watching in other countries are baffled by this American attribute.
"One thing we know," Sciutto said, "is that there will be a lot of discussion afterwards about security measures. (Discussion about) rhetoric, perhaps, as well. There won't be any substantive discussion about access to weapons, right? There just won't."
I told him that Americans skip that part of the conversation, and then the rest of the world looks at us and thinks we're crazy.
––––––
This morning, my 6-year-old son texted me, "Are you OK?" Yes, we're all OK. I FaceTimed him and said I'll be home soon. But I worry that one day I'll be texting that same question to him, because it seems that in America, everyone eventually winds up too close to a terrible convulsion of violence.
|
>> The suspect appeared to be targeting members of the Trump administration, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Dana Bash on air. "We're still looking to try to understand a motive," Blanche said. "From our preliminary investigation, it does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration."
>> "Violence is never the answer, whether it is targeted at the right, the left or the center," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on "Fox News Sunday."
>> "The lasting sense today is rare indeed — of D.C. pulling together in the face of adversity," Politico Playbook observed.
>> The Hilton is back to business as usual this morning, CNN's Alison Main reports. Check CNN's live story page for the latest updates all day...
|
'That's what reporters do'
|
This year's WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS News pointed out before the chaos began that strong journalism "benefits the entire country."
When she returned to the podium later, she pointed out that the journalists in the room immediately began to live-stream, broadcast and report on the lockdown.
During a CBS News special report, Jiang added, "What we do isn't about a big, fancy dinner party. In some ways, what happened tonight is actually a much better reflection of what it is we do. Because... I saw many reporters reporting live from in the room and tweeting from in the room and having no idea whether their lives were at stake, because they didn’t know if there was an ongoing threat. And that's what reporters do, and that was on full display."
Jiang has been widely praised for her handling of the situation last night.
|
Some of you have asked, so I'll briefly tell you about my experience.
I never even made it to my table last night. When the president was about to enter the ballroom, I stood in the back of the cavernous hall with the White House press pool because I wanted to hear how Trump was received by the room. There was polite, tempered applause when he was introduced; overall, more people were holding up their phones than clapping their hands.
I used the restroom, went back through the magnetometers, and got wanded by a Secret Service agent because my First Amendment pin set off a machine. In retrospect I wonder if the screening was too cursory. (Then again, the apparent attacker raced at full speed through a checkpoint and was subdued before reaching the ballroom.)
Two minutes before the commotion, I exchanged pleasantries with House Speaker Mike Johnson (second in the line of succession) and started to walk across the room, taking the long way so that I could greet people. I greeted CNN alum Christine Romans, now at NBC, and Jennifer Khoury, the head of comms at Comcast. We were like two sentences into our conversation. From there, I genuinely can't remember the next 10 seconds. We just all hit the floor.
|
'Sense of danger spread across the room like a wave' |
The NYT's Michael Grynbaum wrote that the "sense of danger spread across the room like a wave" as everyone instinctively ducked for cover.
Then a "nauseous silence descended, punctuated by small gasps and whimpers. The loudest sounds were those of the security officers racing — and in some cases leaping over chairs and guests — to evacuate senior administration officials from the tightly packed ballroom. No one had a hint as to what was going on."
ABC's Steven Portnoy, a past president of the WHCA, said on X that he saw "a dozen agents storm into the ballroom almost simultaneous to the sound of gunfire, charging from the back of the room straight for the head table. The sudden burst of activity is what led 2,600 attendees at the dinner to hit the deck and dive under their tables."
I instinctively called the CNN control room in Atlanta, knowing anchors John Berman and Sara Sidner were going to need info. Then I realized I should try to send in a live video signal instead of just phoning in. I logged into Cisco Webex, the way CNN guests do when they're on TV from home, and the control room put my cameraphone video on air almost instantly.
If you were watching live, you saw that C-SPAN's outstanding camera crews provided all the networks with wide-angle views of the ballroom. My phone showed the other view, at literal ground level, as people crouched under tables and behind chairs.
We all gradually stood up and tried to figure out what happened. It was Kaitlan Collins who was the first to relay information from a security official about a shooting outside the ballroom. And then it was Wolf Blitzer who called in with a stunning eyewitness account of the shooting.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson acknowledged the "difficult and uncertain circumstances" in a memo to staffers who attended the dinner and credited Blitzer with getting on air with the first-hand report.
Inside the ballroom, dozens of reporters were filming, streaming, and working the phones. I told Grynbaum that it wasn't until I stopped live-streaming half an hour later that the gravity of the moment really registered.
|
You know the old expression, "that aged well?" Well, the lead of my curtain-raiser story didn't age well:
"Oz Pearlman is hoping that his mentalist wizardry is the most memorable moment at tonight's White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But even Pearlman probably can't predict what President Trump is going to say on stage."
Karoline Leavitt told me right before the dinner that the president would be "highly entertaining" and would certainly take jabs at the press. When I asked Leavitt if his attendance, after years of boycotting, was a concession of sorts to the enduring power of the press corps, she dodged and talked about Trump's accessibility to the media.
Trump did show that accessibility immediately after the lockdown. It was a stroke of genius to have Jiang announce that the president was planning to hold a press briefing back at the White House "in thirty minutes." The tuxedos and satin gowns added to "a surreal White House briefing," as USA Today put it.
I was sitting next to SE Cupp in the CNN DC studio when Trump's briefing began. I told her I feared that Trump would blame the media for inciting violence, despite a lack of concrete info about the suspect's motives. I know many others had the same concern. But Trump spoke of unity instead. He chose to lower the temperature rather than inflame tensions.
The president "struck the exact right tone," Scott Jennings said on "State of the Union" this morning. "His rapport with Weijia Jiang... was excellent. I think, you know, they had all gone through something together, and the way he handled it was right on."
Will it last? We'll see.
|
That was Trump's instinct, and that's what he wrote on Truth Social right away. He wanted to resume the dinner in some way, but that proved to be impossible. The nearby hallway was a crime scene.
Jiang said from the stage that Trump "insists that we will reschedule this event in the next 30 days." It reminded me of what Pearlman told CNN's Michael Smerconish in an interview: Trump "is, at his core, an ultimate showman." His "strong suit is the media," Pearlman said. "Anyone who thinks otherwise is silly."
|
This is a small detail, but dinner was never actually served at "the dinner" last night. Waiters were starting to pick up salad plates when the ballroom was locked down.
Once the event was called off, and hundreds of journalists and politicos snaked out of the Hilton, organizers of the evening’s after parties had to decide whether to cancel, too.
The hosts decided instead to open their doors, earlier than expected, knowing the vibe would be different but the gathering places would be valuable for shaken attendees.
NBC, MS NOW and Time magazine all held parties nearby, and MS NOW explained it this way: "As our reporting teams are covering the unfolding breaking news, our doors are now open for those who are seeking a space to gather and have a bite to eat. While tonight’s event won’t be what we originally intended, we still think it is important to provide a space for friends and colleagues to be together."
This morning's usually jam-packed brunch events are also still taking place as scheduled. Politico reported that its event "is implementing an enhanced security posture."
CNN, which is holding a reception at the British ambassador's residence right now, wrote to guests overnight, "At its core, the weekend's events surrounding the annual White House Correspondents Dinner aim to recognize the importance and role of a free press and the First Amendment, and particularly the role of the journalists covering the White House and the President of the United States. That recognition takes on even greater significance given the events of this evening. With those ideals in mind, CNN's WHCD Weekend Finale Reception at the will be held as scheduled, and we look forward to gathering together."
|
|
|
There’s more to enjoy with CNN All Access |
Unlock deeper analysis and exclusive videos on the stories you care about. Subscribe here. |
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Robert Ilich and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here. We'll be back at our usual time on Monday with a back-to-normal edition. |
|
|
|
® © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
