Wolf Blitzer is recounting his “frightening experience” when shots were fired during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night.
The longtime CNN anchor spoke to USA Today after the incident, saying he was near the gunman, who had charged through a security checkpoint and into the Washington Hilton ballroom with multiple weapons.
“I feel fine. I’m just scared. It was scary,” he recalled. “I was a few feet away from the gunman as he was firing. It was loud. It was scary. The cops got on top of him and then they got on top of me to protect me. And then they took me away into a secure room, the men’s room. It was just a frightening experience.”
Blitzer also went live on CNN after everything went down to detail his experience. He said he was walking back to the ballroom at the time, and then “heard three, maybe six gunshots” and that it was “enormously loud.”
The journalist added that “when the cop pushed me down, I said to myself, ‘I wonder if I was the target or whatever,’ and thank God I wasn’t ’cause I was not shot. I was just thrown to the ground and protected.”
Following the shooting, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was later identified as the suspect and quickly taken into custody. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in a press briefing that the suspect will be charged with using a firearm and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, and that there will likely be “many more charges” to come.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who were sitting onstage at the time of the incident, were also rushed out of the ballroom. He later shared details surrounding the shooting at a press conference at the White House, revealing that an officer was shot but saved by a bulletproof vest.
Trump added that he plans to reschedule the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“We’re gonna do it again, we’re not gonna let anybody take over our society; we’re not gonna cancel things because we can’t do that,” the president added. “We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay, but it was protocol.”
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