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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Donald Trump's dislike of the press... has repeatedly seen him refuse to attend the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C., until this year. He'd taken his seat not long before a 31-year-old tried to burst into the function room armed with guns and knives. Today, we speak to Missy Ryan, staff writer at The Atlantic, who was in the room
about the security failings and Trump's response. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Missy, let's set the scene first of all. You arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. It's a ritzy affair, right? Everyone's dressed in black tie, looking their best. And Trump and most of his administration is there. So just paint a picture for me.
So the Washington Hilton is this huge, sprawling hotel. And every April, hundreds and hundreds of journalists and government officials, politicians, business executives, some celebrities descend upon the Hilton for the White House Correspondents Association dinner. It was the first time that the president attended this event. He's boycotted it for his whole first term.
And, you know, he has had a famously adversarial relationship with the press. And so it was kind of a surprise that he was going to be there. So we all go down to the ballroom. There is security, security screening, these mag gates that were two levels down from the lobby. So you had to go quite far in down into the hotel in order to show your ticket or show your ticket again.
I think you had to do it once up above and then get screened for any sort of threat. It was about 15 minutes into the dinner after President Trump had showed up where all of a sudden we hear screaming. People were shouting to get down. I heard a big crash. Everybody was diving under the tables and there was
Secret Service or police climbing over people, trying to get to the stage area, to the dais where President Trump, his wife, Vice President Vance, and a number of other people were seated.
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Chapter 2: Why did Donald Trump attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year?
We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay. But they, it was protocol.
They said, please, sir, because they didn't know a lot of... And Donald Trump was actually asked about that evacuation on 60 Minutes on CBS. He sort of said that he delayed his exit in a way.
It was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening. And I wasn't making it that easy for him. I wanted to... see what was going on. And by that time, we started to... He did that before.
During the first assassination attempt, it seemed like he delayed his removal from the stage.
Yeah, I mean, I think Donald Trump, if nothing else, can sense a political window opening. And, you know, this certainly seemed to be something that he was comfortable talking about after the fact, comfortable sort of anchoring the news cycle. He praised the Secret Service and the security officials.
Beautifully done. He was just saying how quickly everybody acted, law enforcement, Secret Service in particular in this case, but law enforcement, Marco had the same thing.
But there are ways in which it is beneficial for the president. You know, he looks presidential. He looks like he is brave and courageous. And those things could be good for President Trump. So, you know, it was, I think, a sign of really, for me, the normalization of political violence in this country. You know, the third assassination attempt on President Trump.
And, you know, it's not just him. You know, there are other politicians who have said, been threatened or had threats carried out. There are judges who are under assault. You know, there's just a kind of sad fact of American life now that these things are becoming increasingly common.
Yeah. And of course, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year, his wife was actually in the room, wasn't she? She was. I mean, what a terrifying moment for everyone in the room, including yourself.
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Chapter 3: What happened during the chaos at the dinner?
That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it.
But Missy, what do you think? Did the protocols work or is there a fundamental problem with how this all unfolded?
Well, you know, we actually had a spirited debate among my colleagues earlier today about that. You know, I think that you can look at it different ways that either the Secret Service failed because that person got so deep within the building and was able to make it so close to, you know, as we were talking about earlier, this like extremely unusual collection of senior officials missing.
But on the other hand, you know, they were never supposed to control the entire hotel. They were like regular guests of the hotel. You know, my colleagues and I had a drink at the lobby bar just before the event started. And there's, you know, regular guests at the hotel and, you know, people who are visiting. And so they did protect the president and they, you know, got people out.
And so from that perspective, they were successful. I mean, you can't shut off the whole country. And, you know, that's the challenge that you have at political events. We saw this in Butler, you know, did they create a big enough security zone? In that case, they didn't. But thankfully, the results in this case weren't as bad.
All right. And just then, Missy, your reflections. What an evening. As a reporter, as a guest, what do you take away from this whole event? I assume you wouldn't want to relive it.
No, I mean, it was unnerving for lots of people. I think that for me, it's just kind of a sad statement on where the country is that this is happening at an event that's in some ways, you know, it's a fraud event in some ways, but it's also about... our system. And in theory, it's about the role that a free media plays in a democracy.
And to have that the site of violence is just another really, I think, sad commentary.
Missy Ryan is a staff writer at The Atlantic magazine. This episode was produced by Sydney Peed. Audio production by Cinnamon Nippard. Our supervising producer is David Cody. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
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