Newhouse dean, students recap White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassination attempt
Newhouse dean, students recap White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassination attempt
Several people affiliated with Newhouse and Syracuse University were at the gala Saturday night when a gunman broke security barriers.
A night dedicated to celebrating journalistic excellence and the media’s continued collaboration with the federal government was abruptly interrupted Saturday after an alleged gunman tried to break security perimeters and assassinate President Donald Trump.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual event honoring members of the White House press corps, takes place every year at the end of April. The White House Correspondents’ Association represents nearly 1,000 journalists who cover the White House. More than 2,000 reporters were at the dinner.
Through a partnership with the association and the Newhouse School, Syracuse University awards a scholarship to a journalism student pursuing government or political reporting and sends them to the dinner. This is the third year of the collaboration.
This year’s scholarship winner, broadcast and digital journalism and policy studies junior Ben Bascuk, was sitting near President Donald Trump’s table when he heard what sounded like gunshots.
It wasn’t until he heard Secret Service instructing the room to “get down,” followed by intense commotion behind him, that he processed what was happening.
“The most shocking moment of the night was to hear that and watching everybody duck under their tables, hearing silverware rattling and the wine getting spilled over,” Bascuk said. “Everybody was in their tuxes and gowns lying on the floor. It’s was scary thing to see.”
Bascuk and other guests at the dinner immediately jumped into action. Many of the attendees, journalists themselves, started recording and getting any footage they could of the alleged shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif.
He was indicted Monday on charges of attempting to assassinate the president, as well as two weapons charges.
Among those attendees was Newhouse School Dean Mark Lodato, as a guest of White House Correspondents’ Association president and host of the evening, Weija Jiang, Class of 2006.
Lodato said one of his first concerns was fellow Newhouse faculty, staff and students who were in attendance.
“The safety and well-being of our students is always our first priority,” Lodato said. “I was really proud of the way that the whole Syracuse University team checked in on Ben and the other students who made sure we were OK.”
After the shooting, there was about an hour of uncertainty as attendees weren’t sure whether the evening was going to continue, Lodato said. Though the shooting was during an event for political journalists, Lodato said the consensus in the room was that it felt more like an attack on the President, rather than on the press.
This year, President Trump attended the dinner for the first time as president, after previously boycotting it because he believed the media was against him. He attended as a reality TV star in 2011 and 2015.
Besides President Trump, other senior officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, were in attendance.
The alleged shooter’s manifesto contained written statements directed at Trump administration officials that were angry in nature. According to the New York Times, the manifesto doesn’t directly mention President Trump by name, but Trump said later in a press briefing he believed he and his administration were the target.
Though it was a heavy experience, Bascuk said being with other members of the media helped him process the gravity of the event.
“Journalists are some of the most caring, loving people you’ll ever meet, so to be in a room with all of them was extremely comforting,” Bascuk said. “My colleagues, my friends and other scholars were all texting each other the night of and the day following. It shows how much people care.”
Flex lead producer Cecilia Catalini contributed to this report.
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