Shooting at Washington Correspondents’ dinner
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk. We're returning to that incident at the Hilton Hotel in Washington last night, the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Donald Trump attending for the first time as president, but of course didn't get to deliver his remarks. And there was much anticipation of what he might say because he sees the press generally, unless they're the friendly press like Fox, he sees them as the enemy. Niall Stanage is an associate editor at The Hill. He's covered US politics for decades and contributed to many media outlets. And he's also had to suffer the sharp end of White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt's tongue.
What incident occurred at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner?
He's on holiday in Ireland at the moment, but of course, like the rest of us, he's been monitoring events overnight in Washington. Niall, good morning and welcome. Morning, Pat. How are you doing? You might remind our listeners, first of all, how you raised the ire of Caroline Leavitt recently.
Oh, this was an instance in the White House press briefing room a couple of months ago where I asked a question about the behaviour of ICE, the Immigration Enforcement Authority, and raised the then-recent killing of Renee Goode. Caroline Levitt asked me my opinion of that.
How did Donald Trump's attendance impact the event?
I said that my opinion was essentially wrong, or that her, the killing, excuse me, of Renee Goode was wrong. And Caroline reacted, I would say, angrily to that. People can see it online if they wish to do so.
She called you a left-wing hack.
She did, yes.
All right. Now, what is your reaction to what happened last night? Because I want to tell you already, monitoring what's going online, there is huge skepticism about what happened last night, whether or not it was indeed an attempted lethal attack on President Trump.
Yeah, I mean, I know that there is quite a lot of speculation and some people of a more left wing persuasion or of the notion that this is some sort of false flag operation. I don't know that that is true, but I would say, Pat, having attended that dinner on at least a couple of previous occasions, this guy was stopped an appreciable distance from the actual ballroom where that is taking place. He was actually apprehended on a different floor of the hotel. So there was some distance still to go before he would have posed serious danger to the people in the room. I think what you're alluding to is the broader sort of false flag theory. I tend to be skeptical of those theories, but I think it speaks to the degree of skepticism that people have around events in the U.S.
Now, when we look at the attempt on Trump's life where he had his ear clipped and much blood was seen, he immediately rose from behind the days and raised his fist, which became an iconic pre-election image. His behavior on this occasion was markedly different. I mean, what happened when you look at the various videos that are now available, you see that the Secret Service rushed J.D. Vance off the stage first, while Trump remained immobile pretty much sitting at the dinner table. It was quite extraordinary.
Yes, that was an unusual situation. Now, I think that there is often a situation where it is chaos rather than conspiracy that is pertaining in these moments. But you're right. Vance was hustled off. Trump then was sort of moved along and appeared to fall on his way off the stage and was hoisted back to his feet. and moved off. I know there's also been a lot of online speculation because at the moment that one hears what we now know were gunshots ringing out, Melania Trump seems to pay quite close attention to that and Donald Trump less so. Now, you know, that could easily be because, frankly, his hearing isn't the best, as one notices when one is in close quarters with him. But it is, you know, part of this whole picture where people are curious as to what went on.
As I say, he sits there immobile, not seemingly aware of what was going on. And just before the whole incident unfolded, they had this mentalist performing and he was doing a close-up magic with Trump's party at the table. And there were kind of oohs and ahhs from others at the table at what he had done, like this close-up magic.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:42
2
What incident occurred at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner?
0:42–1:15
3
How did Donald Trump's attendance impact the event?
1:15–9:11
4
What was the immediate reaction to the shooting incident?
9:11–10:29
5
What are the theories surrounding the shooting's motives?
10:29–11:39