Guests had just started eating dinner when the commotion began. The atmosphere in the room was tense as journalists waited to hear what happened and what to do next. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, who was attending the dinner said he never saw a shooter, but “I think a Secret Service agent threw me to the ground and on top of some other people and people were screaming and yelling”.
This year’s dinner was already tense given the presence of Trump and top members of his cabinet, including Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. Trump agreed to attend this year’s dinner after refusing to attend last year and during his first term. The correspondents’ dinner tradition began in 1921, though the tradition of a presidential guest started in 1924, when Calvin Coolidge attended. The Washington Hilton is the same hotel where Ronald Reagan was shot and gravely wounded by a would-be assassin in 1981.
