It started out like any White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. I have been to many — perhaps too many — but this one was regrettably historic.
I said hello to a lot of old friends while seeing many healthy-sized egos who regularly attend. For the most part, it was business as usual. Yet, there was a different mood than most years. President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at the dinner for the first time. There was concern in the air and seemingly more protesters than usual.
This was the hottest ticket in town. And there was the usual banter: Who would Trump go after in the media? How long would he speak? An hour? Two hours? Will he poke fun at people in his administration?
Also, many were looking forward to Oz Pearlman’s performance. He is the so-called Mentalist who was featured recently on CBS’s 60 Minutes. The mood was festive.
Entering the massive ballroom, I chatted briefly with former New York Yankee and congressional candidate Mark Teixeira and planned to give a little crap to David Rubinstein, a huge figure in politics and the majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles lost Saturday to the Boston Red Sox 17-1 and he was 5 feet away from me. But that conversation never happened.
Guests settled into their seats as Trump and first lady Melania Trump were introduced. A stirring rendition of the national anthem was sung. We started to eat our salads.
After exchanging pleasantries with guests at our Washington Examiner table, I checked the score of the pivotal Game 4 of the New York Knicks-Atlanta Hawks series. Thankfully, the Knicks were up big. Phew, I thought.
And then all hell broke loose.
Some people at our table, which was visible to C-SPAN’s cameras, heard multiple shots. I didn’t. Trump later said he thought trays had been dropped. But when I saw a tsunami of security officials storming the dinner, I hit the ground like everyone else.
I thought this is it. This is a mass shooting.
It is hard to describe the incredible security response. I have never seen anything like it. It’s also amazing how quickly your mind can race in mere seconds. At first I thought the shooter was in the room as security officials were jumping from table to table with guns drawn. Trump was whisked out of sight as were members of his Cabinet.
Worried family members were texting me and I said all was fine, but the room was incredibly rattled. I was rattled.
Two people then told me “shooter is dead” and I misheard — “[Sen. Chuck] Schumer [D-NY] is dead?!!!” I responded. No. The Senate minority leader was fine. And the shooter isn’t, in fact, dead but arrested.
COWARDS WISH DEATH ON ‘ALL TYRANTS’ AFTER WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING
This experience highlights many things. The first is that journalists who cover war are the bravest in our profession. They encounter these types of scary incidents on a daily basis. Two, politics has become more violent and violence is never the answer. Three, there are security questions that the White House Correspondents’ Association must and will address in the coming weeks.
The good news is that a potential mass casualty event was avoided Saturday night and we should all be thankful for law enforcement for that. But we need to learn from what happened — in many ways.