Key takeaways:
- The White House Correspondents’ Association rescheduled its annual dinner for July 24 after the April 25 event was disrupted by a shooting.
- President Trump said he has accepted an invitation to speak and said the event will be held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C.
- Suspect Cole Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted assassination of the president, assault on a federal officer and firearms offenses.
The White House Correspondents’ Association will hold a second version of its annual dinner on July 24, three months after gunfire disrupted the spring gala attended by President Trump, senior administration officials and journalists.
Weijia Jiang, president of the association and a CBS News senior White House correspondent, announced the new date Tuesday in an email to members. She said the rescheduled dinner would be a “more intimate gathering” with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures.”
“This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program. It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence,” Jiang wrote. “As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.”
Trump said he has accepted an invitation to speak at the event next month. In a post on Truth Social, he called the dinner a “‘HOT’ ticket!” and praised the decision to reschedule it.
“In a sign of Strength and Fortitude, it was just announced that The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which violently ended rather abruptly on April 25th, will be rescheduled to July 24th,” Trump wrote. “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 said the event would take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., the hotel that was formerly the Trump International Hotel. The Guardian reported that it was not yet clear whether the dinner would be held at the Washington Hilton, where the initial event took place, because of security concerns about the building’s layout. Jiang told members that details about the location, tickets and programming “will follow soon.”
The April 25 dinner was cut short when authorities say an armed man charged a security checkpoint outside the event. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several Cabinet officials were evacuated, while journalists and media executives took cover under tables. CBS News reported that prosecutors said the checkpoint was one story above the ballroom at the Washington Hilton.
Soon after the shooting, Trump said the dinner would be rescheduled. The Guardian reported that he had called for the event to be held again within 30 days, a deadline that passed before Tuesday’s announcement.
Police identified the suspect as Cole Allen, 31, who they said traveled by train from California to Washington and was staying at the hotel where the dinner was to take place. CBS News reported that he was charged with attempting to assassinate the president, assaulting a federal law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon and two firearms offenses.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to all charges and will remain detained ahead of trial. Prosecutors said he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives when he tried to run through the checkpoint. Law enforcement officials said Allen shot a Secret Service officer, who was struck in his bulletproof vest but was not seriously injured.
Jiang said the association’s board decided to proceed with the new dinner “after thoughtful consideration and input from our members.”
“When gunfire interrupted this year’s event, it further clarified the WHCA’s mission to advocate for the freedoms that are protected in the First Amendment,” she wrote. “We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for.”
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