Witnesses inside the ballroom described a scene of chaos as the Secret Service rushed to get President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials to safety during the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Michael Duncan, a host of the “Ruthless” podcast, described the moment he saw law enforcement run toward the stage over the weekend.
“Secret Service came and stacked up, running towards the stage, guns drawn and everything,” Duncan said in the “Ruthless” episode posted Tuesday. “Get Trump out, get JD out, get the whole dais out.”
He said law enforcement officers rushed in, trying to escort the president and Vice President JD Vance, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Cabinet members, to safety. As the event unfolded, Duncan said he realized no one was coming to help him during the chaos.
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“As they started pulling out more people, I was like, ‘I guess I don’t have an escort. I guess I’m just here by my lonesome,’” the host said jokingly.
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Duncan’s “Ruthless” co-host Josh Holmes laughed and played off the joke, adding, “Hey, where’s my guy?” Duncan responded with, “I didn’t know I needed a guy. Everybody’s got a guy!”
Cole Allen, 31, is accused of opening fire at the Washington Hilton hotel over the weekend. He is facing three federal charges, including attempting to assassinate the president, transporting firearms across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
Trump was whisked away from the hotel after the shots rang out. It’s the same hotel where, more than 40 years ago, a gunman attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
This was the first time Trump attended the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner as president during either term. In televised comments from the White House briefing room after the shooting, Trump vowed that the event will be rescheduled.
“This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press, and in a certain way it did, because the fact that they just unified,” Trump said. “I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.”
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that she feels federal prosecutors have a “solid case” against the suspect, adding, “It’s very clear what his intent was… it was to kill the president.”
