Momentum builds to reschedule White House Correspondents’ Dinner after shooting

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on April 25, in Washington, D.C. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

In the immediate aftermath of last week’s shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, there was widespread skepticism about rescheduling it anytime soon.

But attitudes have shifted in recent days, and the consensus is now that the dinner — which doubles as an awards ceremony and fundraiser — should be hosted again on principle, several White House correspondents told CNN.

The White House Correspondents’ Association board is “working through options” for a “rescheduled event,” this year’s president of the association, Weijia Jiang of CBS News, told members on Friday.

“As of today, we have not made any decisions,” she wrote in a memo obtained by CNN. “However, I am committed to ensuring our scholars and award winners receive the recognition that is rightfully theirs, and that an attack on free speech does not cancel our annual celebration of free speech and the other freedoms protected by the First Amendment.”

Numerous journalism organizations have reached out to Jiang to offer assistance.

The April 25 shooting incident forced organizers to postpone the annual dinner, a black-tie affair attended by nearly 3,000 journalists, politicians, corporate executives and others.

The next day, journalists privately expressed doubts about whether a redo could or should happen.

But U.S. President Donald Trump initially said, “We’ll do it again within the next 30 days.”

He added, on last Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” “It’s not that I wanna go… I’m very busy. I don’t need that. I think it’s very important that they do it again.”

People involved in the planning discussions said the 30-day timetable is not considered realistic. But the WHCA board is planning a follow-up event within the next 60 days.

The case for and against a redo

The obstacles to a redo are considerable, starting with the obvious security concerns.

Any new event will likely be somewhat smaller. Some of the attendees at last Saturday’s dinner have ruled out attending another, in part due to the trauma of the first.

But others have argued the opposite. Fox News anchor John Roberts, himself a former White House correspondent, said earlier this week that for journalists “who don’t want to go to a dinner because they’re left a little traumatized by what happened on Saturday, it’s like, get some steel in your spine! Because journalists around the world die in the pursuit of press freedom.”

A source familiar with the planning pointed to this year’s celebrations around the U.S. semiquincentennial and argued that it is especially important now to show resilience.

Jiang’s term as WHCA president ends on July 15. Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News is next in line for the position.

In Friday’s memo, Jiang said to her fellow correspondents, “Your resilience and resolve to inform the public under awful conditions continues to inspire me. And even though the night unfolded differently than planned, it ended the way it was supposed to: with nearly 3,000 dinner guests going home to their loved ones. We are grateful to the law enforcement officers that made that happen.”

How the night unraveled

The annual dinner garnered extra attention this year because Trump attended for the first time as president, ending a years-long boycott that reflected his often hostile relationship with the press corps.

Jiang hoped the event “would restore some normalcy between the Trump administration and the press.”

“Maybe I was naïve, but I wanted it to be a room we don’t see enough of in Washington: a bipartisan one. And it was,” she wrote in an essay afterward.

But the evening was derailed when a gunman sprinted toward a security checkpoint outside the Washington Hilton ballroom, where the dinner was just underway.

Officers opened fire and the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, “fell to the ground,” prosecutors said.

Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump. Prosecutors have said he was carrying two guns and multiple knives.

When the incident occurred out in the hallway, chaos unfolded inside the ballroom. Trump and several U.S. officials in the line of succession were whisked from the room by Secret Service while most attendees sought cover under tables and behind chairs.

In some parts of the cavernous ballroom, the commotion felt like an active-shooter emergency, with loud noises and people yelling, “Get down!”

After two to three minutes, attendees stood up and began to figure out what had happened — though the notion of a thwarted mass shooting took some time to sink in.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday on Fox that the security perimeter outside the ballroom worked as intended.

While “the first layer was breached,” the suspect “never penetrated the second one,” he said, defending the performance of the Secret Service and other agencies.

When asked about a rescheduled dinner, Mullin said, “Will it happen at that venue? Probably not, but the president gets to make the decision.”

In the event of a redo, the president decides whether to attend, but the event itself is organized by the correspondents’ association.

By Brian Stelter, CNN