US President Donald Trump was evacuated this Saturday from the traditional White House correspondents’ dinner after an armed man, who was intercepted and detained, tried to enter the event. The hundreds of attendees at the event, which included government senior staff, had to be evacuated.
Onda Cero’s correspondent in the United States, Agustín Alcalá, has narrated in Julia in the wave How those first moments were experienced after the start of the shooting in which the Secret Service acted very quickly to remove not only Donald Trump, but also the senior staff of the US Government.
Third attack against Trump in two years
Agustín explains that this is the third attempted attack against the American president, the most memorable being the one that almost cost him his life in Pennsylvania, when a sniper wounded him in the ear.
The shooting occurred during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the most important event of the year in Washington, just before the president began to give a speech that, in his own words, “was going to be the most inappropriate of the event.”
However, despite everything seen in the images and the initial moments of confusion, “Trump has not been in danger”, but he has “been scared to death”: “I think the person who was most scared was Melania Trump, who had to hide under the stage table while her husband’s bodyguards took her out of the place.”
The three levels of protection that Trump has
It was 8:36 p.m. inside the Hilton Hotel in Washington when Trump was speaking with the president of the White House Journalists Association and a CBS correspondent, and the first course of dinner had already been served. At that moment, half a dozen shots were heard and chaos began.
However, the president has never been in danger thanks to his strong security. Agustín explains that Trump has three levels of protection. The first is his personal escort, whose only mission is to cross in front of the bullets if there is a shooting or to immediately remove him from the scene.
The second level – which are the images that have gone around the world – are the agents of the Anti-Assault Unit, those four agents with helmets and black uniforms, with bulletproof vests, with automatic rifles and who are trained to shoot in case there is a shooter. They are the ones who, during moments of tension, have begun to point their rifles at the thousand guests in the room in case the shooter was among them.
“Total chaos”
One of the most surprising scenes has been the number of bodyguards and members of the guests’ protection. It must be taken into account that not only the president and his wife were present, but also the vice president, members of the Cabinet, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Justice, the Secretary of Health, the President of Congress, that is, all the members of the Administration were present and also some who are part of the line of succession. “Everyone with their pistols and revolvers in their hands left the room and that moment of total chaos occurred.”
The shooter, seeing that the security was very strong, quickly ran towards a security table at the entrance and which was protected by members of the third level of security, which are the members of the Secret Service in uniform: “They were all in suits and they shot to stop him.”
Same place where Ronald Reagan was also shot
The attack occurred in the basement of the Hilton Hotel, famous because in 1981, John Hinckley Jr. successfully attacked Ronald Reagan, wounding him very close to the heart, for which he had to be admitted to the hospital.
However, in this case, after the arrest of the shooter, the president said that he intended to continue with the dinner and his subsequent message, but the Secret Service decided that it was not convenient, so they took him away and, subsequently, he did appear before the press at the White House.
