The most shocking thing about the attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton was how not shocking it was. Even before an armed man attempted to breach the secured area outside the hotel’s ballroom, the event’s guest list was a grim self-portrait of political violence in America. President Donald Trump, who survived two attempts on his life during the 2024 campaign, was evacuated by Secret Service agents. Erika Kirk, whose husband Charlie Kirk was killed just months ago at a campus event in Utah, was rushed out in tears. Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was shot by a left-wing gunman at a Congressional baseball practice. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, whose network was targeted in 2018 by a serial bomber who went after Trump critics, was near the gunman when the shooting began and provided some of the first eyewitness reporting. That’s only the recent history. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were each assassinated in the 1960s, was also in the room. And this year’s dinner was held at the same hotel where Ronald Regan was shot in 1981. Locals still often refer to it as “The Hinckley Hilton,” a reference to Reagan’s attacker. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt this time, but the incident has again rattled the American political scene, where people know from experience just how much worse it could have been. Read more about what happened at the link in our bio. 📸: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images and Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images #whitehousecorrespondentsdinner #uspolitica #donaldtrump #erikakirk