The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been rescheduled after the original event on April 25 was suspended after a gunman attempted to access the venue, resulting in an exchange of fire with Secret Service agents.
The new event will be held on July 24 with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures”, Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), wrote in a letter to members.
US President Donald Trump said he would attend the rescheduled dinner, which will be held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington DC.
The April shooting saw Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, among others, rushed off stage by Secret Service agents.
The suspect was subdued by agents on the scene, and one Secret Service agent was injured by shotgun fire, according to the Department of Justice.
Trump said the rescheduling of the event, which is meant to honour journalists and the freedom of the press, is a “sign of Strength and Fortitude”.
“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” the president wrote on social media.
The WHCA spent the last several weeks raising funds to make sure that its members who purchased tickets to the April event do not have to pay again for the July event, which will be a “more intimate gathering”, Jiang said.
The association is also offering financial support to scholarship winners who wish to travel back to Washington DC for the dinner, Jiang said.
Trump said he has accepted an invitation to speak at the rescheduled event, adding that he’s not sure if he will “give the same rather nasty statements” that he had planned to in April.
“But we will soon find out,” the president said.
The April event – attended by the president, vice-president, members of Congress and Trump’s cabinet, and hundreds of journalists – was already underway when a gunman stormed through a security checkpoint.
The suspect was later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who police said was armed with the shotgun, a handgun and knives.
At a press conference immediately after the shooting, Trump said he would work to get the event rescheduled in the following 30 days.
The Waldorf Astoria, where Trump says the July event will take place, was first converted from an old post office into a luxury hotel by the Trump Organization more than a decade ago. The Trump family leased the building in 2012 and opened the Trump International Hotel there in 2016, before selling the lease in 2022.
By BBC News
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
