Rush to judgment
As former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once infamously declared there are always “unknown unknowns.” But that hasn’t stopped rampant speculation about the facts surrounding the incident inside the White House Correspondents Association dinner last night.
On the surface it appears that a California man rushed past a checkpoint guarding the ballroom of the Washington Hilton where he was subdued and taken into custody. No one was injured and Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Where he immediately used the incident as justification for building a ballroom over the rubble of the now-demolished East Wing.
“I didn’t want to say this,” he said, “but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure. It’s got — it’s drone proof, it’s bulletproof glass.”
In fact, the hotel, known in D.C. as the “Hinckley Hilton” because it was the site of the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and press secretary James Brady, is one of the more secure venues, according to journalist Garrett Graff.
“I’ve seen a lot of arm-chair-quarterbacking about how the whole hotel should have been behind the security cordon or how shocked shocked shocked guests were that security seemed so lax at the entrances, etc., etc., but most of those critiques misunderstand two major things:
(1) You always have to have an outer security perimeter; and
(2) The goal of the Secret Service isn’t to prevent any incident at a high-profile event — it’s to prevent an incident that could harm the president.”
It certainly raises more than a few eyebrows when Trump — who was reported to declare “take the f-ing mags away” prior to riling up the crowd before they stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — insisted to reporters in the White House Briefing Room that:
“Nobody told me this was such a dangerous profession.”
All this coming from a regime dealing with an unpopular war of choice, skyrocketing prices and plummeting ratings that seems to have a history of creating diversions.
And one that has kept information about Trump’s health — particularly in the aftermath of the 2024 shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally — hidden from the public.
Which brings us to the assembled journalists gathered to celebrate the First Amendment by “honoring” a man who has been doing his level-best to tear down press freedoms.
There were some “profiles in courage,” like CNN media reporter Brian Stelter who held his iPhone up to record the chaos:
“It wasn’t until I stopped streaming half an hour later that the gravity of the moment really registered,” he said.”
Similar news instincts kicked in among assembled executives from CBS News, Fox and Politico.
But the real test will come in the hours and days after the scene. Recall the White House Correspondents Association stood by quietly as Trump and his press team stripped journalists of their traditional role of assigning briefing room and Air Force One seats because the Associated Press declined to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
With that briefing room now largely populated by “journalists” hand-picked by Team Trump, will there be an aggressive push to dig into what is being called a third assassination attempt?
Or will they respond like Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, who was sitting with CBS News journalists toward the front of the room. As the confusion unfolded, Blankfein turned to his seatmate and asked:
“Are you going to finish that salad?”
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Three times?
Good points Jerry. Also it’s outrageous a would-be assassin was able to bring a long gun within several yards of a well publicized presidential event is a total failure of Secret Service security, especially after events in Butler, PA.