“It’s always shocking when something like this happens,” Donald Trump said tonight about the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. “It was either a tray or a bullet,” he said he heard before agents hustled him to safety.
“When you are impactful they go after you, when you are not impactful they leave you alone,” POTUS said of the violence Saturday and previous assassination attempts against him over the years. “It’s a dangerous profession.”
“I like not to think about it,” Trump added. “I’m not a basket case.” To that, as he indicated online earlier, Trump told the assembled well heeled media that he “fought like hell to stay” at the WHCD, but Secret Service insisted he had to get back to the White House.
At the same time, with all that went down, Trump did seem more on edge than usual tonight and more circumspect at the same time. Yet, as he often does, Trump Saturday went through a litany of his and his administration’s initiatives and policies over the past year as well as the need for his pet project of a giant White House ballroom
Praising law enforcement, Trump had released a photo of the man he later tonight called a “lone wolf” and “nutjob” before taking the podium in the Briefing Room Saturday.
A 30-year-old man from California who was carrying a shotgun is in custody law enforcement say. Ex-Fox News host and current US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said tonight that “the defendant has been charged with two counts.” Those felony charges involve “using a firearm during a crime of violence” and an “assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.” Police are saying they believe the man was staying as a guest at the Washington Hilton, which is what allowed him to get in the heavily guarded hotel.
The administration also put out video out the man sprinting through the checkpoint. The individual had a a shotgun, a handgun and several knives on his person.
Flanked by tuxedo wearing VP JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche back at the White House, Trump started his remarks Saturday with an understatement of “that was very unexpected.”
“He had a long way to go,” Trump added of the suspected shooter actually getting to him personally. “He wasn’t anywhere near to breach the doors of the ballroom.”
Attending the WHCD for the first time as POTUS, the incident in what Trump called a “very secure room” occurred just minutes after the Republican and the First Lady arrived in the Washington Hilton ballroom. Trump, Melania Trump, Vance and others were whisked off the stage as guest dropped to hide under tables in the chaos.
Still how the suspect got so close to the ballroom that had the President, VP, Speaker of the House and many other top members of the line of succession in it remains a question. Individuals at the WHCD tell Deadline that security around the hotel was intense. Yet, it seems that at least one individual sought to get through a metal detectors with a gun on his person.
CNN’s Wolf Blizter happened to be outside the ballroom and witnessed shots being fired. Though the iconic anchor was quickly moved to a Men’s Room by Secret Service, one protective vest wearing member of the agency was shot.
Trump Saturday at the White House spoke of the injured agent.
“One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing a obviously a very good bulletproof vest,” Trump said. “He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great. He’s great shape. He is in very high spirits, and we told him we love him and respect him.”
In terms of respect for the media, the very heart of the WHCD, Trump was generous to WHCA president Weijia Jiang from the White House podium.
However,Trump also joked that he would have to give a “boring” WHCD speech now once the event is rescheduled in the next month.
Long antagonistic to the press, Trump has been directly attacking outlets and individual journalists legally and through the power of his office over the past year in a manner that had many questioning up until today why he was invited to the WHCD this year. In that vein, many anticipated a very caustic approach from Trump — and they were right Trump admitted in tonight’s post-shooting presser. “I said to my people, this would be the most inappropriate speech ever made if I said so I have to save it,” POTUS noted. ” I don’t know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight.”
Trump Saturday at the White House spoke of the injured agent.
“One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing a obviously a very good bulletproof vest,” Trump said. “He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job. I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great. He’s great shape. He is in very high spirits, and we told him we love him and respect him.”
