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Journalists gathered in Washington as President Donald Trump prepared to speak Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner faced an abrupt reversal of the routine. Several reporters and editors described the gunman attempt as the kind of chaos that can quickly interrupt both safety and reporting—sending journalists scrambling for cover while trying to understand what was unfolding around them.
The Atlantic magazine journalists Missy Ryan, Matt Viser and Michael Scherer wrote that, in their account of the evening, “We were under the table before we knew what was happening.” They described the moment as a sudden shift from the dinner’s backdrop to a scene in which reporters were forced to react first and verify later.
As they emerged, mobile phones became the main tools for capturing what reporters were seeing and transmitting it to colleagues working off-site. Susan Zirinsky, who was attending, said in an interview that “For many people who have either been in a war zone or in the midst of a crisis, I don’t think there was any fear,” describing the impulse to keep searching and reporting. She said the problem was that it was “very frustrating not getting a signal out of the room,” adding that cellphone service at the Washington Hilton is notoriously spotty.
Zirinsky’s account matched what other reporters said about the tension between moving quickly and confirming details in a fast-developing incident. Alex Brandon, a photographer for The Associated Press who was attending as a guest and did not have his usual gear, described how the communications blackout affected his ability to file immediately. Brandon captured images after the shooting, including photos of suspect Cole Tomas Allen on the ground and in custody outside the ballroom.
Brandon said he stood up at his table after hearing the shooting and aimed his mobile phone camera at Trump as Secret Service agents surrounded him, then moved to leave the ballroom. He said he did not have cell service, rushed to find better reception outside, and then spotted a person lying on the ground who he sensed was the suspect. Brandon told the story as “muscle memory,” saying, “The whole thing was muscle memory.”
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer described an even closer encounter with the would-be attacker before he was in custody. Blitzer said on the network that a police officer threw him to the ground and later hustled him back into the men’s room for safekeeping. He said he was “a few feet away from him as he was shooting” and that the first thing he thought was, “Is he trying to shoot me?” He added: “I don’t think he was trying to shoot me but I was very close to him as the shots were fired and it was very, very scary but I’m OK now.”
Other journalists described the immediacy of coverage once it became clear that something serious had happened. Maura Judkis of The Washington Post wrote that, because it was “a room full of journalists,” “most of the crowd immediately began to cover the story.” She described a split across newsroom styles: she said print reporters interviewed eyewitnesses, television reporters shot selfie-style video, and non reporters reached for drinks “hoping to steady their nerves.” Judkis said she sent a Slack message to colleagues—“shots fired”—and later said she felt she should have made clear that those reports were unconfirmed, raising the question of whether there were shots or something else.
In parallel with those efforts, live broadcast reporting also struggled with uncertainty in the first wave of information. Kaitlan Collins, reporting on CNN, said at one point that the alleged shooter “is confirmed dead,” citing a security official working for the nation’s education secretary as her source. In the aftermath, the report was described as wrong, illustrating how quickly incorrect claims can spread when the facts are still moving.
Hours earlier, the dinner had carried its own tone of tension between Trump and the press. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on the red carpet, previewed the president’s speech on Fox News’ Jimmy Failla show and said, “It will be funny,” and “It will be entertaining.” She added, “There will be some shots fired in the room.” The speech never came, and Trump and the correspondents’ association expressed interest in rescheduling, though reporters noted that reorganizing logistics after the Saturday incident would be difficult.
After the episode ended and the event concluded early, Trump addressed the scene in remarks at the White House, saying he saw “a tremendous amount of love and coming together” after the shooting. He said the event had been dedicated to “the freedom of speech,” and that he saw “a room that was totally united — in one way, it was a very beautiful thing to see.” Trump also praised Weijia Jiang, president of the correspondents’ association, who was sitting next to him Saturday night, saying she had done a “fantastic job” and giving her the first question at the news conference.
In a Sunday night interview on “60 Minutes,” Trump told Norah O’Donnell that he hoped “we’re going to do it again,” and he suggested the correspondents hold it “within 30 days,” saying “they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine.”
Not all reactions among Trump supporters reflected a softer posture. Kari Lake, who oversees the U.S. Agency for Global Media and faces legal action related to her work there, posted on social media that she saw CNN’s Jake Tapper and said she had berated him when she noticed him leaving the dinner. Lake wrote, “These reporters have spent a decade spreading absolute lies about President Trump,” and “They share some of the blame for what happened tonight.”
But Zirinsky said she sensed a shift in Trump’s language toward the press after Saturday’s shooting. Zirinsky said that in Trump’s remarks she felt “a shared experience and the relationship,” telling how she sensed it while listening to him at the White House. She added, “I may have been the only one,” and said she was asking whether the episode marked “a change” in how the relationship was unfolding. CNN’s Brian Stelter, in a newsletter Sunday, wrote that “Thousands of media and political elites now have gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced” in everyday places such as schools, offices, malls and churches.
The combative tone with reporters still showed through in Trump’s interview on “60 Minutes.” After O’Donnell quoted a sentence from a message written by the alleged gunman, Trump responded, “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”