As a major event in the political journalistic calendar, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner counts among its guests multiple CNN anchors and reporters.
They and other eyewitnesses have recalled how they scrambled for safety as chaos unfolded during the attack on the gala Saturday night.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recounted a police officer instantly threw him to the ground after he saw the assailant “clearly on the ground shooting” in a hall just a few feet away from him.
“And then they grabbed me, the police officers, and they take me back into the men’s room, where it was safe, and there were about 15 other men who are stuck in there, and they won’t let them out,” he said.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, who was inside the ballroom, said he witnessed Secret Service agents running down an aisle, though he did not hearing the bangs.
“People were jumping under tables and people were very upset and worried,” he said.
Another man told CNN’s Brianna Keilar, who was also at the event, that glass started to shatter and rain down from above as multiple gunshots rang out, when he was heading upstairs after leaving the ballroom.
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, also an attendee, described the tense atmosphere when the whole ballroom “went silent.”
“When I lifted my head and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there, as we all had our heads down, thousands of them,” she said.
A video captured President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump conversing with American mentalist Oz Pearlman moments before the shooting.
As Pearlman spoke with the Trumps, everyone suddenly reacted to a loud noise and looks of shock were visible on Melania and Pearlman’s faces, before security rushed the president off the stage, the clip showed.
The attack was a “traumatic experience” for his wife, Trump later said at a press conference.