White House Correspondents' Dinner future to be discussed after event disruption

[The Financial News] The White House Correspondents' Association said it will first decide in a meeting whether to resume its annual dinner, which was disrupted by a shooting incident. Donald John Trump, who attended the event for the first time since taking office in both terms, urged that it be restarted as soon as possible.
Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) and a senior White House correspondent for CBS, wrote on social media platform X on the 26th (local time) that "the shooting last night at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., was an extremely harrowing and shocking moment for everyone present." She added, "The WHCA board will meet to review the situation closely and discuss how to proceed with future events," and said, "We will share more information as soon as it becomes available."
The WHCA held its annual dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the 25th. That day, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was caught trying to pass through security with a shotgun, a handgun and a knife, and then fired at security personnel after being stopped.
The WHCA dinner is a signature Washington, D.C. event attended by journalists from major U.S. media outlets and senior government officials. It was first held in 1921, and female reporters were first invited in 1962. The dinner is usually held on the last Saturday in April at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
The event was intended to honor The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and to raise scholarships for aspiring journalists. But critics say it has drifted from that original purpose, as attention has shifted to whether celebrities from entertainment as well as politics and government will attend, while a series of separate parties are also held in Washington, D.C. before and after the dinner.
Trump, who has publicly attacked media outlets that criticize him as "Fake News," declined invitations to the WHCA dinner throughout his first term from 2017 to 2021. After returning to office for a second term, he attended the dinner for the first time this year but was evacuated in an emergency after the shooting, before delivering the "presidential speech" that is considered the centerpiece of the event. The WHCA then suspended the event and dispersed attendees.
On the day of the incident, Trump said on social media that he had "spoken with the people in charge of the dinner event" and that it would be rescheduled "within 30 days." In an interview with Fox News on the 26th, he also said he hoped the dinner would be held "within a short time, whether that's in 30 days, sooner than that, or later than that." He emphasized, "We can't let criminals and really bad people change the course of events in our country." In the interview, Trump said he had been prepared to give a speech that was "completely different" from the one he had originally planned for the dinner on the 25th. "It would have been a speech of love," he said. "But I didn't get the chance to do that. Maybe it was better not to."
pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter